Ebola: A Deadly Virus
Uploaded by ectboy on Aug 24, 1999
Life is a biological internet in which viruses travel like messages, moving at high speed from node to node and from city to city. They are diverse and wild spread in every plane on the surface of the earth. Ironically, such invisible creatures have a substantially enormous effects on human life and health. In most cases, Viruses are harmful and sometimes deadly. One of these deadly viruses is the Ebola virus, a highly contagious, deadly and mysterious microbe, known to be the most lethal virus known to human kind that have caused many devastation.
The mere essence of their existence is not to cause harm, they are living organisms who want to reproduce and spread with the help of a host. The Ebola virus, like most viruses, consists of a shell of proteins surrounding genetic material, like RNA and DNA. Once inside the cell, the virus gets hold to the host cell and the virus may enter the cell as it injects its genetic material into the host cell. The virus then uses the host cell's machinery to replicate themselves and make new copies of itself. Each new copy of the virus directs the host cell to make it a protein shell. The new viruses leave the host cell to other cells and repeat the same process over and over again. Although man is not Ebola's natural host, the virus infects people, and the adventure is suicidal as the infected victims struggle with the symptoms
The infected victim staggers, disoriented and exhausted, and collapses in a fever, which is known as the Haemorrhagic fever. The fever is characterized by weakness, muscle pain, headache and sore throat. The victim's eyes turn bright red, and starts vomiting blood. The tongue peels, and the heart muscle becomes soft. Scientists believe that when the victim get in contact with the virus, the virus first triggers a combination of blood clots and hemorrhages. The patient's bloodstream throws clots, and the clots lodge everywhere, especially in the spleen, liver, and brain, then it settle in the victim throat. Bleeding involves the nose, abdomen, and pericardium. Capillary leakage appears to lead to loss of interavascular volume leading the patient to fall in a shock and acute respiratory disorder leaving the patient desperately trying to gasp their breath.
The virus kills its victims so quickly, before it even can infect others. The incubation period for the Ebola virus ranges from...