Why Ebola Experts Are Keeping A Close Eye On The Democratic Republic Of The Congo

Sep. 5, 2012, 6:23 PM

The World Health Organization announced on Monday that it believes the most recent outbreak of the Ebola virus in Uganda has subsided. The virus began to spread in early July.

Ebola is a rare virus that causes hemorrhagic fevers. While the exact origins of the virus are unknown, it spreads through direct contact with the blood or secretions of an infected person — and kills anywhere from 50-90 percent of its victims. One of its most gruesome symptoms is the bleeding from body orifices before dying. It's scary stuff.
Dr. Pierre Rollin, an epidemiologist at the Center for Disease Control (CDC), recently returned from Uganda to help quarantine the latest outbreak of the disease in Uganda. He told Business Insider that the outbreak could have been much worse: "[Compared to the outbreak in 2007], this one was detected much earlier, and we [have acquired] a lab in Entebbe that can receive specimen."
Without the presence of the new lab in Entebbe, a major town in Uganda, the virus could have spread much faster. "The fact that there is lab in Uganda that is able to receive every sample that is collected for suspicion of hemorrhagic


Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/why-ebola-experts-are-keeping-a-close-eye-on-the-democratic-republic-of-the-congo-2012-9#ixzz25hPPOACx
Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/why-ebola-experts-are-keeping-a-close-eye-on-the-democratic-republic-of-the-congo-2012-9#ixzz25hPGvL5Y