Ebola and Marburg virus are filament-like group of viruses which has a diameter of 80nm with a variable length. These viruses have several shapes which can be a ‘U’, ringed shaped, curled or straight shape and have an end that is surrounded by particles while the other is distended. They are from the same family which is known as the filoviridae. Their genetic makeup is made up of single stranded RNA which is about 19kbp in size. This is covered by 50nm necleocapsid which is surrounded by a membrane.
They possess a transmembrane glycoprotein which helps to distinguish them. This family of viruses cause bleeding and coagulation abnormality in those affected individual. Filoviridae act by causing the body’s defence mechanism to act against itself thereby leading to what is known as an autoimmune attack. The resultant effect of this is that there is an increase in the population of the virus within the host and the host immune or body defence system will not be able to clear the virus from the system.
Filoviruses has been attributed to the production of some substances which are called the viral glycoprotein. These substances that are produced by the virus have been found to confer protective effects on the virus making it difficult for the defence system to detect the virus and act against them. Ebola virus was first recognized in 1976 in some part of Africa where there was an outbreak of condition termed as viral hemorrhagic fever. There are different strains of this virus; these are the Zaire strain, Sudan strain and Ivory Coast strain.
The virus is usually contacted via various means such as person-person contact, through the uses of needles, direct contamination with infected animals such as chimpanzees or gorillas and contact with dead bodies during burial. The virus normally causes various changes when an individual contact the infection. These changes include liver damage, damage to body defence systems, spleen and lymph nodes damage, heart problems and blood vessel infection and injury.
The blood vessel is usually one of the major targets of the virus and they usually damage the lining of the blood vessel in order to perforate it. Some of the symptoms of this infection that is usually seen immediately after the contact with the virus include; fever, headache, body and muscle pains, abdominal pains, nausea and vomiting, diarrhea, cough, eye problems and chest pain. The later symptoms of the infection include what is termed as the maculopapular rash (occurs after 5 days of illness), jaundice (yellowness of the eye sclera, skin and urine) and severe bleeding.