Ebola virus (EBOV) is the sole member of the Zaire ebolavirus species, and the most dangerous of the five known viruses within the genus Ebolavirus. Four of the five known ebolaviruses cause a severe and often fatal hemorrhagic fever in humans and other primates, known as Ebola virus disease. The virus and its species were both originally named for Zaire (now the Democratic Republic of Congo), the country where it was first described & was at first suspected to be a new “strain” of the closely related Marburg virus; the virus was renamed to “Ebola virus” in 2010 to avoid confusion. Its natural reservoir is believed to be bats, particularly fruit bats, and it is primarily transmitted between humans and from animals to humans, through body fluids.
Ebola virus disease (EVD) or Ebola hemorrhagic fever (EHF) is a disease of humans and other primates caused by an ebolavirus. Symptoms start two days to three weeks after contracting the virus, with a fever, sore throat, muscle pain and headaches. Typically, vomiting, diarrhoea and rash follow, along with decreased functioning of the liver and kidneys. Around this time, affected people may begin to bleed both within the body and externally. No specific treatment for the disease is yet available. Efforts to help those who are infected are supportive and include giving either oral rehydration therapy (slightly sweet and salty water to drink) or intravenous fluids. The disease has a high risk of death, killing between 50% and 90% of those infected with the virus.
The disease typically occurs in outbreaks in tropical regions of sub-Saharan Africa. From 1976 (when it was first identified) through 2013, the World Health Organization reported a total of 1,716 cases. The largest outbreak to date is the ongoing 2014 West Africa Ebola outbreak, which is affecting Guinea, Sierra Leone, Liberia and Nigeria. As of mid-August 2014, 2,127 suspected cases resulting in the deaths of 1,145 have been reported.
Scientific Name & Family fo Ebola Virus
Group: Group V ((-)ssRNA)
Order: Mononegavirales
Family: Filoviridae
Genus: Ebolavirus
Species: Ebola virus
So, when you are going towards South Africa be careful from Ebola Virus.
