The Ebola virus is a deadly virus in the filovirus family. The filovirus family consists of Ebola Zaire, the most virulent of the Ebola viruses, Ebola Sudan, Ebola Reston, and Marburg. The Ebola Zaire virus has a 90% kill rate but has not been proved to be airborne. Ebola Zaire broke out in 1976 and killed around 500 people according to most sources. Ebola Sudan is less virulent but still kills almost 70% of all it’s victims over 50% more then yellow fever which is considered to be very deadly. Ebola Reston never infected any human beings only monkeys.
It broke out in a monkey house in Reston, Virginia. Marburg is the least virulent in the filorvirus family killing a mere 50% of it’s victims. It first broke out in ’50 in Marburg, Germany. Ebola Reston is the only strain of Ebola that has been proven to transmit through the air and it’s been the only Ebola not fatal to humans only monkeys. All the other known strains of Ebola are transmitted by direct contact. The first outbreak of Ebola was in 1976 in Zaire Africa. The next was in Sudan Africa in 1979. Refer to chart for more outbreaks.
There is no vaccine for Ebola yet but there was a treatment for it that was discovered during this recent outbreak. They gave some Ebola infected patients a total blood transfusion from people that survived Ebola. The patients that got the transfusion lived because once someone catches Ebola they supposedly can’t catch it again. Because there is no vaccine or cure Ebola is a level four virus meaning that it must be worked on in an air tight room and anyone working on it must be in a space suit. This ’95 outbreak along with the book by Richard Preston, The Hot Zone, made the Ebola virus a very popular target for movies and TV.
There has been no cure or vaccine found for Ebola mainly because it’s a lot like the flu and aids for every time it breaks out it’s mutated again so a vaccine might only be good for one outbreak. Ebola’s cause has not been found, neither has the host animal, but there are a couple of things that can infect you. A major cause in the small villages of Africa is eating infected monkey meat. Another is the unsanitary conditions of the hospitals in Africa. That’s why if Ebola ever did make it to the states it probably wouldn’t be a very big outbreak because our sanitation is better.
There have been other smaller outbreaks than the ones mentioned above such as an outbreak in Gabon where 5 people contracted it from eating the infected meat of a monkey. There was also an outbreak in monkey’s in a monkey house in Texas, no humans were infected. This was in 1996.
There are a couple major agencies that handle any outbreaks or treatment they include: The CDC, Center for Disease Control and Prevention located in Atlanta, WHO, World Health Organization, and USAMRIID, United States Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Disease. They are trying to find a vaccine for Ebola as are they containing outbreaks.