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It starts with chills, aches and pains, feeling more tired than usual. Over the course of a week, these symptoms intensify: Red eyes, unexplained hemorrhaging and bleeding.
Ebola virus disease, though typically rare, has devastated communities in sub-Saharan Africa during outbreaks. As recently as February 2021, the Democratic Republic of Congo announced its 12th Ebola outbreak. The North Kivu province is bracing itself for another emergency situation like the outbreak that ran from 2018 to 2020; 3,470 cases were reported and 2,287 lost their lives.
The disease, first discovered in the 1970s, is caused by Zaire ebolavirus, a subset of Ebola viruses known to affect humans. It’s transmitted through direct contact with the blood, body fluids and tissues of infected people and animals. The virus is also known to persist in certain body fluids even after recovery from the illness.
Once inside the body, the virus ravages the immune system and destroys organs. Infection causes a sharp dip in the cells involved in blood clotting; as a result, infected individuals expereince severe, uncontrollable hemorrhaging. At this stage, the chance of survival is around 20 percent.
