BIO Deadly Diseases Final

Ebola Characteristics

• ssRNA

• filovirus

• envelope with viral spikes

• long and filamentous

• infects many cell types

Ebola symptom

hemorrhagic fever

Early Ebola outbreaks

• 1967: in Germany from monkeys from Uganda

• 1976: DRC = 318 cases & Sudan = 284 cases

• 1989: Reston, Virginia from monkey quarantine location

Recent Major Ebola Outbreak

2014: “West African Outbreak” Liberia, Guinea, and Sierra Leone (28,616 cases and 11,308 deaths)

Key Filovirus Strains

• Marburg Virus

• Ebola virus

• Sudan Virus

• Reston Virus (not harmful to humans)

Primary Ebola reservoir

• unknown, bats are most likely candidate

• theory of bats → monkeys → humans eating “bush” meat

first human case in an outbreak

index case

How Ebola is spread

blood → blood

Ebola Vaccines

live recombinant virus expressing an Ebola surface protein

ring vaccination strategy

vaccinating those around the first index outbreak