Ebola: A disease with no cure
May 27, 2011
The competence of the ministry of health has once again been put to test following a recent outbreak of the deadly Ebola scourge. The first confirmed death case this year was registered last week of a 12-year old girl in Luweero district. Since then, health officials have been carrying out vital in
By Joseph Kizza
The competence of the ministry of health has once again been put to test following a recent outbreak of the deadly Ebola scourge. The first confirmed death case this year was registered last week of a 12-year old girl in Luweero district. Since then, health officials have been carrying out vital investigative procedures in the district to curb the virus from spreading.
Different species
Ebola virus has, since its discovery, been categorized into five species, depending on which area it has struck. The species are; Zaire ebola-virus, Sudan ebola-virus, Reston ebola-virus, Cote d’Ivoire ebola-virus and Bundibugyo ebola-virus.
The virus was first detected in 1976 in Yambuku, a small village in Mongala province in northern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), formerly Zaire. Here, the lethal virus attacked Mabalo Loleka, a schoolteacher, becoming the first case ever recorded.
From DRC, the virus invisibly ‘sneaked’ into the neighboring Sudan in the same year—only this time in a different species form. A worker in a cotton factory in Nzara, a county in Sudan, was the first to test death at the hands of Ebola’s fatality in the region.
In 1989, the Reston Ebola subtype was detected in Reston, Virginia, USA. It was not a human case this time. According to a World Health Organization (WHO) assessment, the virus was quarantined in laboratory monkeys between 1989 and 1996, a period which documented the death of several monkeys reportedly imported from the Philippines to the USA and to Italy.
The Cote d’Iviore ebola species claimed only one human life but several chimpanzees were confirmed dead in the Western African coastal country, also known as Ivory Coast. The outbreak is reported to have occurred in November 1994.
Back in Congo
Cutting across borders, the virus found its way back into its origin—DR Congo—in 1995. Only that it claimed more lives in Kwikit (250) than it had in Yambuku (151), 19 years before then.
Gabon did not escape the Ebola virus, with the first case reported in 1994, leaving trail of nine deaths in its paths. The virus later dominated the region with sequential outbreaks in February and July of 1996.
Having had a fair share of its dominance in sub-Saharan Africa, Ebola went to slumber and was unheard of four years after the 1996 Gabon outbreak.
Uganda is hit, loses two senior medics
At the dawn of October 2000, the Ugandan community was awakened by frightening news of an outbreak of a virus—clearly unheard of by most Ugandans then—in Gulu. However, it did not take long for the name ‘Ebola’ to become a household name, considering the attention its prevalence won in the media. Even with the 21 million population then, the overall reported death toll of 162 as of December 2000 by the WHO was too much to contain.
Dr. Matthew Lukwiya, who succumbed to the deadly bug at Lacor hospital that fateful year, became the first medical doctor to die of Ebola in Uganda. When the virus of subtype Bundibugyo ebola-virus struck again in 2007 in Bundibugyo district, Uganda lost yet another medical doctor from the disease. Dr. Jonah Kule was his name. He was the medical superintendent of Kikyo health centre.
Whenever it strikes, the spread of Ebola in Uganda has raised concerns and fears amongst its populace. The awareness policy about the disease, highly publicized by the health ministry through different media platforms, has since the 2000 first outbreak been synonymous with any high-level terrorist alert.
Transmission
A highly contagious disease, Ebola is transmitted by direct contact with the blood, stool, secretions, organs or other body fluids of infected persons. World Health Organization (WHO) warns that any direct contact with the body of a deceased person especially during burial ceremonies can accelerate the transmission of the virus.
Dr. Luwikya and Dr. Lule were reported to have got into direct contact with patients of the virus, which could explain the cause of their demise.
A WHO report also indicated that handling of Ebola-infected or dead chimpanzees, gorillas and forest antelopes to a large extent accounted for the infection of humans in Cote d’Ivoire and DRC and Gabon.
Precautionary measures
For reported Ebola cases, the isolation strategy is key in containing the virus within a limited area. In medical facilities, suspected persons should be isolated from other patients and highly protective medical attention provided. It is important to trace and follow up any persons the suspected individuals might have come into direct contact with to prevent unknown consequential deaths.
A well informed community, especially one affected by the scourge, can help to curb the spread of the virus. The health authorities in the area should, in whatever manner, provide to the community information about the nature of the disease and about life-saving preventive measures.
No cure
It is important to remember that just like HIV/AIDS, the medical world has not found a cure for the Ebola virus yet. As such, prevention is not a choice against cure in this case—rather, it is a necessity for survival.
The competence of the ministry of health has once again been put to test following a recent outbreak of the deadly Ebola scourge. The first confirmed death case this year was registered last week of a 12-year old girl in Luweero district. Since then, health officials have been carrying out vital investigative procedures in the district to curb the virus from spreading.
Different species
Ebola virus has, since its discovery, been categorized into five species, depending on which area it has struck. The species are; Zaire ebola-virus, Sudan ebola-virus, Reston ebola-virus, Cote d’Ivoire ebola-virus and Bundibugyo ebola-virus.
The virus was first detected in 1976 in Yambuku, a small village in Mongala province in northern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), formerly Zaire. Here, the lethal virus attacked Mabalo Loleka, a schoolteacher, becoming the first case ever recorded.
From DRC, the virus invisibly ‘sneaked’ into the neighboring Sudan in the same year—only this time in a different species form. A worker in a cotton factory in Nzara, a county in Sudan, was the first to test death at the hands of Ebola’s fatality in the region.
In 1989, the Reston Ebola subtype was detected in Reston, Virginia, USA. It was not a human case this time. According to a World Health Organization (WHO) assessment, the virus was quarantined in laboratory monkeys between 1989 and 1996, a period which documented the death of several monkeys reportedly imported from the Philippines to the USA and to Italy.
The Cote d’Iviore ebola species claimed only one human life but several chimpanzees were confirmed dead in the Western African coastal country, also known as Ivory Coast. The outbreak is reported to have occurred in November 1994.
Back in Congo
Cutting across borders, the virus found its way back into its origin—DR Congo—in 1995. Only that it claimed more lives in Kwikit (250) than it had in Yambuku (151), 19 years before then.
Gabon did not escape the Ebola virus, with the first case reported in 1994, leaving trail of nine deaths in its paths. The virus later dominated the region with sequential outbreaks in February and July of 1996.
Having had a fair share of its dominance in sub-Saharan Africa, Ebola went to slumber and was unheard of four years after the 1996 Gabon outbreak.
Uganda is hit, loses two senior medics
At the dawn of October 2000, the Ugandan community was awakened by frightening news of an outbreak of a virus—clearly unheard of by most Ugandans then—in Gulu. However, it did not take long for the name ‘Ebola’ to become a household name, considering the attention its prevalence won in the media. Even with the 21 million population then, the overall reported death toll of 162 as of December 2000 by the WHO was too much to contain.
Dr. Matthew Lukwiya, who succumbed to the deadly bug at Lacor hospital that fateful year, became the first medical doctor to die of Ebola in Uganda. When the virus of subtype Bundibugyo ebola-virus struck again in 2007 in Bundibugyo district, Uganda lost yet another medical doctor from the disease. Dr. Jonah Kule was his name. He was the medical superintendent of Kikyo health centre.
Whenever it strikes, the spread of Ebola in Uganda has raised concerns and fears amongst its populace. The awareness policy about the disease, highly publicized by the health ministry through different media platforms, has since the 2000 first outbreak been synonymous with any high-level terrorist alert.
Transmission
A highly contagious disease, Ebola is transmitted by direct contact with the blood, stool, secretions, organs or other body fluids of infected persons. World Health Organization (WHO) warns that any direct contact with the body of a deceased person especially during burial ceremonies can accelerate the transmission of the virus.
Dr. Luwikya and Dr. Lule were reported to have got into direct contact with patients of the virus, which could explain the cause of their demise.
A WHO report also indicated that handling of Ebola-infected or dead chimpanzees, gorillas and forest antelopes to a large extent accounted for the infection of humans in Cote d’Ivoire and DRC and Gabon.
Precautionary measures
For reported Ebola cases, the isolation strategy is key in containing the virus within a limited area. In medical facilities, suspected persons should be isolated from other patients and highly protective medical attention provided. It is important to trace and follow up any persons the suspected individuals might have come into direct contact with to prevent unknown consequential deaths.
A well informed community, especially one affected by the scourge, can help to curb the spread of the virus. The health authorities in the area should, in whatever manner, provide to the community information about the nature of the disease and about life-saving preventive measures.
No cure
It is important to remember that just like HIV/AIDS, the medical world has not found a cure for the Ebola virus yet. As such, prevention is not a choice against cure in this case—rather, it is a necessity for survival.