No single person "beat" Ebola; rather, it was overcome through the heroic efforts of healthcare workers like Dr. Ameyo Adadevoh, who contained outbreaks in Nigeria, the development of vaccines and treatments, effective public health responses, and the resilience of survivors who helped fight the disease, with significant international support and community action making the difference. Key factors included early quarantine, robust surveillance, community engagement, new drugs, and vaccination, as seen in Nigeria and the DRC.
Ameyo Stella Adadevoh, the doctor who stopped Ebola in Nigeria. In 2014, when the deadly Ebola virus threatened Nigeria, her courage and quick action saved millions from possible infection.
Of the 1555 people admitted to Ebola treatment centres, 1000 of them, or nearly two thirds, have survived. The stories of every one of the 1000 survivors are worth recounting.
Immediate identification and monitoring of all the contacts of infected people successfully prevented a broader outbreak. During the West Africa Ebola epidemic, an infected person traveling from Monrovia, Liberia brought the Ebola virus into Lagos, Nigeria. Unprotected responders were subsequently infected.
He died on Dec. 6, 2013, at age 2, and the domino effect of his illness has spiraled into the outbreak currently ravaging three nations in West Africa. His name was Emile Ouamouno. Emile's 3-year-old sister, his mother and his grandmother all died by January, leaving his father behind.
The current outbreak constitutes the 16th Ebola disease occurrence in the DRC since 1976. The last outbreak was reported from North Kivu in 2022. This outbreak occurred in difficult, hard to reach areas with limited existing infrastructure.
So this is the achievement of my life,” Dr Jean-Jacques Muyembe told the BBC. The new Ebola treatment can cure symptoms in just an hour. Four drugs were recently trialled on patients in the Democratic Republic of Congo, where Ebola has killed nearly 1,900 people over the past year.
What makes the Ebola infection so deadly? The Ebola virus invades antigen presenting cells (APCs) quietly and turns their alarm system off essentially, so that the immune system remains inactivated toward the virus. The virus then grows uncontrollably and invades many organs.
The main cutaneous finding of Ebola is a nonspecific maculopapular rash that appears between day four and six of disease. Patients have "ghost-like" features, and the rash initially presents on the upper arms, flexor forearms, and upper legs, sometimes in a centripetal fashion.
Research suggests that fruit bats are most likely the original hosts of the Ebola virus. Other animals that have been infected include chimpanzees, gorillas, monkeys, forest antelope and porcupines.
Infectious Disease and Justice
In the United States, the Ebola-caused death of Thomas Eric Duncan, a Liberian who was visiting family in Dallas, and the infection of two of his nurses, sparked a massive wave of public anxiety and political overreaction.
There is no evidence that mosquitoes or other insects can spread the viruses that cause Ebola disease. Ebola spreads between animals and then spills over to people.
Symptoms of Ebola include: fever, headache, joint and muscle pain, diarrhea, vomiting, stomach pain, lack of appetite and abnormal bleeding. These symptoms are not specific to Ebola and are often seen with other illnesses.
Ameyo Stella Adadevoh, OON (27 October 1956 – 19 August 2014) was a Nigerian physician. She is credited with having curbed a wider spread of the Western African Ebola virus epidemic in Nigeria by placing the patient zero, Patrick Sawyer, in quarantine despite pressure from the Liberian government.
93 Days is based on the true story of men and women who risked their lives and made sacrifices to save us all from the consequences of an outbreak of the deadly Ebola virus in Nigeria. Genres. Documentary, Drama.
Kent Brantly and Nancy Writebol, two American healthcare workers who had been treating Ebola patients in Liberia, were transported to Emory University Hospital in Atlanta in early August, 2014.
Rabies virus has a characteristic bullet-shaped virion structure. Rabies virus infection in mammals is nearly 100% fatal if left untreated.
Ebola virus is classified as a filovirus and looks worm-like on electron microscopy. The virus's natural hosts are probably various species of fruit bats [20]. It was first described in 1976 in both South Sudan and the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
They are life-threatening illnesses, characterized by fever, bleeding, and possible multi-organ failure. Most outbreaks of Ebola and Marburg have started in sub-Saharan Central and West Africa, but they can spread to other countries through travel.
In contrast to humans, rodents are protected from disease on infection with ebolaviruses, although adapted versions of some of the viruses are lethal in mice, hamsters and guinea pigs.
The virus is transmitted to people from wild animals and spreads in the human population through human-to-human transmission. The average EVD case fatality rate is around 50%. Case fatality rates have varied from 25% to 90% in past outbreaks.
Ebola is transmitted through inhalation of aerosol particles or hand to eye contact, while SARS-CoV-2 is transmitted by aerosol particles (Brunton et al., 2019; Kondratowicz et al., 2011; Gale, 2021; Popovic and Minceva, 2021a).
Ebola was first discovered in 1976 near the Ebola River in what is now the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Since then, outbreaks have appeared sporadically in Africa. The natural reservoir host of Ebola virus remains unknown.
“We have taken serious note of the criticisms that the initial WHO response was slow and insufficient, we were not aggressive in alerting the world … we did not work effectively in coordination with other partners, there were shortcomings in risk communications and there was confusion of roles and responsibilities”.
Ebola [ebʹo-lə]
Johnson suggested naming the virus after a nearby river, and the rest of the commission agreed (Figure 1).. The Belgian name for the river, l'Ebola, is actually a corruption of the indigenous Ngbandi name Legbala, meaning “white water” or “pure water” (J.G. Breman, L.E.