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Ebola

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Ebola
Kelly Minefield
SCI/163
December 7, 2015
Bryn Van Patten

Ebola The Ebola epidemic is the largest in history affecting multiple countries in West Africa. Two imported cases including one death and two locally acquired cases in healthcare workers have been reported in the United States. The risk of an Ebola outbreak affecting a large number of people in the U.S is very low. It is important to be educated about Ebola and other epidemics so that we can take every step to lessen the chances of an outbreak. Infectious Agents Ebola is an elongated filamentous virus, which can vary between 800 - 1000 nm in length, and can reach up to 14000 nm long ("Pathogen Safety Data Sheet - Infectious Substances", 2014).. The pleomorphic viral fragment may take on several distinct shapes, and are contained within a lipid membrane. Each virion contains a single-strand of non-segmented, negative-sense viral genomic RNA ("Pathogen Safety Data Sheet - Infectious Substances", 2014).. Ebola virions enter host cells through endocytosis and replication occurs in the cytoplasm. When infected, the virus affects the host blood coagulative and immune defence system and leads to severe immunosuppression ("Pathogen Safety Data Sheet - Infectious Substances", 2014).. Early signs that you are infected are flu-like. Transmission Ebola is not spread through the air, by water, or in general, by food. Because the natural host of Ebola viruses has not been identified, the way that the virus first shows up in a human at the start of an outbreak is unknown ("Transmission", 2015). It appears that the first person becomes infected through contact with an infected animal, primarily apes and monkeys. A spillover even

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