• Ebola virus disease (EVD), formerly known as Ebola haemorrhagic fever
• natural hosts - thought to be fruit bats.
• rare but severe, often fatal.
• Average case fatality rate is around 50%. Has varied from 25% to 90% in past outbreaks.
• spreads through human-to-human transmission via direct contact (through broken skin or mucous membranes) with:
  • Blood or body fluids from living or dead
  • Objects that have been contaminated with body fluids
  • ceremonial burials also a source

• incubation period: 2-21/7.
• not contagious unless symptomatic.

Symptoms can be sudden and include:

• Fever, Fatigue, Muscle pain
• Headache, Sore throat
• Vomiting, Diarrhoea
• Rash
• Symptoms of impaired kidney and liver function
  • internal and external bleeding

• Ix: low WCC & platelet counts and elevated LFTs.
• Specific labs:
  • antibody-capture enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA)
  • antigen-capture detection tests
  • serum neutralization test
  • reverse transcriptase polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) assay
  • electron microscopy
  • virus isolation by cell culture.

• supportive primarily - trials with blood products, immunotherapies, antivirals
  • monoclonal antibodies (Inmazeb and Ebanga) have been approved
• Ervebo vaccine is effective

WHO Ebola