Ebola Virus Disease (EVD) or simply Ebola is an infectious and fatal disease. It is caused by four or five viruses of the Ebola virus family. There is no treatment for the disease. Very few recover.
Ebola outbreaks occur primarily in remote villages in Central and West Africa.
The virus is transmitted from wild animals to humans through contact with their blood and other bodily fluids. Wild animals that could be infected include monkeys, chimpanzees, antelopes, porcupines and fruit bats. The fruit bat is believed to be a natural host of the Ebola virus. It may harbour the virus without being affected by it. Once the virus has jumped to a human and he starts showing symptoms of the disease the virus can spread from him to others. The virus cannot be transmitted through air, water or food.
The latest outbreak was in the Democratic Republic of Congo. It was declared a public health emergency of international concern by the WHO in July. Across the world, airports and other entry points have stepped up vigilance to ensure that the disease is not spread by travellers arriving from affected areas.
Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) declared their tenth outbreak of Ebola in 40 years on 1 August 2018. The outbreak is centred in the northeast of the country, in North Kivu and Ituri provinces.
With the number of cases having surpassed 3,000, it is now by far the country’s largest-ever Ebola outbreak. It is also the second-biggest Ebola epidemic ever recorded, behind the West Africa outbreak of 2014-2016.
The national laboratory (Institut National de Recherche Biomedicate (INRB) in Kinshasa) confirmed on 7 August 2018 that the current outbreak is of the Zaire Ebola virus, the most deadly strain and the same one that affected West Africa during the 2014-2016 outbreak. Zaire Ebola was also the virus found in the outbreak in Equateur province, in western DRC earlier in 2018, although a different strain than the one affecting the current outbreak.
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