Ebola outbreak: What does the Ebola virus do to the body?

The World Health Organisation (WHO) issued the stark warning on Wednesday after the first Ebola case was detected in Goma, a city of more than a million people. The outbreak in DR Congo has already killed more than 1,600 people since August 2018, and about 12 new cases are being reported daily. An epidemic in West Africa between 2014 and 2016 killed more than 11,000 people.

What does the Ebola virus do to the body?

According to Science Magazine: “Zaire ebolavirus and the family of filoviruses to which it belongs owe their virulence to mechanisms that first disarm the immune response and then dismantle the vascular system.”

The virus starts by targeting immune cells that are the body’s first line of defence against invasion.

Usually, these cells would give a signal to the white blood cells to destroy the infected immune cells and stop the disease spreading.

But with the immune cells defective, the white blood cells don’t respond to the infection and it is able to spread rapidly through the body.

As the virus travels in the blood to new sites, other immune cells called eat it up.

Once infected, they release proteins that trigger small clots throughout the blood vessels and reduces blood supply to the organs.

The immune cells also damage the lining of blood vessels, causing them to leak, which leads to the internal and external haemorrhaging.

This is one of the main symptoms of Ebola – bleeding from the eyes, nose, or other orifices – though not all patients have this.

Ebola goes on to trigger a system-wide inflammation and fever and damages many types of tissues in the body.

The consequences are especially profound in the liver, where cells are obliterated by the virus.

Damaged cells in the gastrointestinal tract also lead to vomiting diarrhoea that often puts patients at risk of dehydration.

And in the adrenal glands in the kidney, the virus cripples the cells that make steroids to regulate blood pressure and causes circulatory failure that can starve organs of oxygen.

Symptoms usually begin as a sudden fever, intense weakness, muscle pain and a sore throat, before progressing to vomiting, diarrhoea and both internal and external bleeding.

Ultimately, patients die from shock, dehydration and multiple organ failure.

Ebola doesn’t have to be a death sentence – with proper care, the body can fight the infection.

But difficulty tracking the spread of the virus in Africa coupled with a distrust of medical services and conflict in the region means that many don’t receive the care they need.

There is a vaccine, which is 99 percent effective which around 161,000 people have been given.

However, only those who come into direct contact with an Ebola patient, and people who come into contact with them are vaccinated.

Ebola is spread when people have direct contact through broken skin, or the mouth and nose, with the blood, vomit, faeces or bodily fluids of someone infected with the virus.

source: express.co.uk