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With Karl Johnson, co-discoverer of the Ebola virus . This name comes from the Ebola River (in the Democratic Republic of Congo, formerly Zaire) where it was first identified in an epidemic in 1976.
This is the virus that causes Ebola haemorrhagic fever, an infectious disease highly contagious and very severe and affects all kinds of primates (including humans) and other mammals.
different strains have been identified (Ebola-Zaire, Ebola-Sudan, and Ebola Tai Forest) that have caused epidemics with a mortality rate between 50% and 90% in the Republic of Congo, Ivory Coast, Gabon and Uganda.
The virus is transmitted by direct contact with infected body fluids such as blood, saliva, sweat, urine or vomit. The incubation period ranges from 2 to 21 days, but more often is 5 to 12 days. The reservoir of Ebola virus appears to be a type of fruit bat.
Symptoms: In the beginning is characterized by sudden high fever, prostration, myalgia, arthralgia, abdominal pain and headache. In the period of one week, a rash, often hemorrhagic, appears throughout the body. Hemorrhaging generally occurs from the gastrointestinal tract, causing the infected blood from both the mouth and rectum. The mortality rate is high, reaching 90% and patients usually die from blood loss.
work Author: Tortajada Cabral, Rafael.