Fever, vomiting and severe diarrhoea are among the symptoms of the highly infectious and extremely lethal Ebola virus, which has claimed thousands of lives in a series of outbreaks in Africa since 1976.
With the Democratic Republic of Congo’s (DRC) latest outbreak spreading to Uganda, these are some facts about the virus.
Super lethal
The average fatality rate from Ebola is around 50percent, varying from 25 to 90 percent, the World Health Organization (WHO) says.
The virus is highly contagious, making it difficult to contain especially in urban environments.
It is transmitted to people from wild animals and spreads among humans though close contact with the blood, body fluids, secretions or organs of an infected person.
Ebola is believed to reside in bats, which do not themselves fall ill but can pass it on.
Chimpanzees, gorillas, monkeys, forest antelope and porcupines can also become infected, and humans who kill and eat these animals can catch the virus through them.
Fever, bleeding
People who are infected do not become contagious until symptoms appear, which is after an incubation period of between two and 21 days.
High fever, weakness, intense muscle and joint pain, headaches and a sore throat are often followed by vomiting and diarrhoea, skin eruptions, kidney and liver failure, internal and external bleeding.
After-effects have often been observed in survivors, including arthritis, problems with vision, eye inflammation and hearing difficulties.
Treatment and vaccine
At present there is no licenced drug to prevent or treat Ebola although a range of experimental drugs are in development.
After the DRC’s 10th outbreak started in August, health authorities there began issuing the rVSV-Zebov vaccine on a large scale for the first time.
Developed by Merck laboratories, the vaccine is unlicensed but has been widely shown to be safe and effective, and the WHO has called for its deployment to be expanded.
