Diseases, Conditions, Syndromes

What is Disease X? How scientists are preparing for the next pandemic

The term "Disease X" was coined years ago as a way of getting scientists to work on medical countermeasures for unknown infectious threats—novel coronaviruses like the one that causes COVID-19, for example—instead of ...

Medical research

Scientists discover new method Ebola virus uses to infect cells

Understanding how viruses travel once inside the human body is critical to develop effective drugs and therapies that can stop viruses in their tracks. Scientists at Texas Biomedical Research Institute (Texas Biomed) recently ...

Diseases, Conditions, Syndromes

A new look inside Ebola's 'viral factories'

New research in the journal Nature Communications gives scientists an important window into how Ebola virus replicates inside host cells. The study, led by scientists at La Jolla Institute for Immunology (LJI), reveals the ...

Diseases, Conditions, Syndromes

Tanzania says five dead in Marburg virus outbreak

A mysterious disease that killed five people in Tanzania has been identified as Marburg hemorrhagic fever, a cousin of Ebola, the health ministry said on Tuesday.

Diseases, Conditions, Syndromes

WHO to hold emergency meeting on E.Guinea Marburg outbreak

The UN health agency said it would hold an emergency meeting Tuesday after at least nine people in Equatorial Guinea died from Marburg haemorrhagic fever, a cousin of the Ebola virus.

page 1 from 40

Ebola

Ivory Coast ebolavirus Reston ebolavirus Sudan ebolavirus

Ebola is the common term for a group of viruses belonging to genus Ebolavirus (EBOV), which is a part of the family Filoviridae, and for the disease that they cause, Ebola hemorrhagic fever. The virus is named after the Ebola River, where the first recognized outbreak of Ebola hemorrhagic fever occurred. The viruses are characterized by long filaments, and have a shape similar to that of the Marburg virus, also in the family Filoviridae, and possessing similar disease symptoms.

There are a number of species within the ebolavirus genus, which in turn have a number of specific strains or serotypes. The Zaïre virus is the type species, which is also the first discovered and the most lethal. Ebola is transmitted primarily through bodily fluids and to a limited extent through skin and mucous membrane contact. The virus interferes with the endothelial cells lining the interior surface of blood vessels and platelet cells. As the blood vessel walls become damaged and the platelets are unable to coagulate, patients succumb to hypovolemic shock.

Ebola first emerged in 1976 in Zaire. It remained largely obscure until 1989 with a widely publicized outbreak in Reston, Virginia.

This text uses material from Wikipedia, licensed under CC BY-SA