Ebola virus

Examples of Ebola virus in the following topics:

• Classic Viral Hemorrhagic Fevers

  • Some of the VHF agents cause relatively mild illnesses, such as the Scandinavian nephropathia epidemica, while others, such as the African Ebola virus, can cause severe, life-threatening disease.
  • The family Bunyaviridae include the members of the Hantavirus genus that cause hemorrhagic fever with renal syndrome (HFRS), the Crimean-Congo hemorrhagic fever (CCHF) virus from the Nairovirus genus, Garissa virus from the Orthobunyavirus and the Rift Valley fever (RVF) virus from the Phlebovirus genus.
  • The family Filoviridae include Ebola virus and Marburg virus.
  • Ebola has five viral subtypes including Zaire, Sudan, Bundibugyo, Tai Forest (formerly Ivory Coast), and Reston.
  • The family Flaviviridae include dengue, yellow fever , and two viruses in the tick-borne encephalitis group that cause VHF: Omsk hemorrhagic fever virus and Kyasanur Forest disease virus.

• Safety in the Microbiology Laboratory

  • Bacteria and viruses that can cause severe to fatal disease in humans, but for which vaccines or other treatments exist, such as anthrax, West Nile virus, Venezuelan equine encephalitis, SARS virus, tuberculosis, typhus, Rift Valley fever, Rocky Mountain spotted fever, yellow fever, and malaria.
  • Viruses and bacteria that cause severe to fatal disease in humans, and for which vaccines or other treatments are not available, such as Bolivian and Argentine hemorrhagic fevers, Dengue hemorrhagic fever, Marburg virus, Ebola virus, hantaviruses, Lassa fever virus, Crimean-Congo hemorrhagic fever, and other hemorrhagic diseases.
  • Variola virus (smallpox) is an agent that is worked with at BSL-4 despite the existence of a vaccine.
  • A researcher in a protective suit working with the Ebola virus.

• Protease Inhibitors

  • The design of protease inhibitors, that could be used to battle HIV, started soon after the discovery of the virus.
  • The experimental protease inhibitor drugs Zmapp and Brincidofovir are currently being tested to treat the ebola virus disease.

• Emerging Viral Hemorrhagic Fevers

  • An emergent virus is a virus that has adapted and emerged as a new disease/pathogenic strain, with attributes facilitating pathogenicity in a field not normally associated with that virus.
  • The virus thus has the advantage of possibly having several natural reservoirs to propagate in.
  • As human development increases, and we move into areas not previously inhabited a reservoir of a virus can be uncovered and infections of humans ensues.
  • Some of the VHF agents cause relatively mild illnesses, such as the Scandinavian nephropathia epidemica, while others, such as the African Ebola virus, can cause severe, life-threatening disease.
  • The lone survivor and a nurse caring for him (with no symptoms), both health care workers, were found to have high levels of antibodies to BASV, indicating that they both had been infected by the virus.

• Negative-Strand RNA Viruses of Animals

  • The emergence of the SARS virus or Ebola Zaire virus in the human population, coming from an animal source, highlights the importance of animals in bearing infectious agents.
  • The RNA found in a negative-sense virus is not infectious by itself, as it needs to be transcribed into positive-sense RNA.
  • This virus family includes pathogens—the rabies virus, vesicular stomatitis virus, potato yellow dwarf virus, etc.
  • Paramyxoviruses cause a range of diseases in animal species: canine distemper virus (dogs), phocine distemper virus (seals), cetacean morbillivirus (dolphins and porpoises), Newcastle disease virus (birds), and rinderpest virus (cattle).

• Vaccines and Anti-Viral Drugs for Treatment

  • The concept behind this is that by giving the vaccine, immunity is boosted without adding more disease-causing virus.
  • This approach is also being used for the treatment of Ebola virus, one of the fastest and most deadly viruses on earth.
  • For most viruses, these drugs can inhibit the virus by blocking the actions of one or more of its proteins.
  • Thus, Tamiflu inhibits the spread of virus from infected to uninfected cells.
  • By attacking the virus at different stages of its replicative cycle, it is much more difficult for the virus to develop resistance to multiple drugs at the same time.

• Special Culture Techniques

  • Biosafety Level 4: This level is reserved for work with dangerous and exotic agents that pose a high individual risk of aerosol-transmitted laboratory infections, agents that cause severe to fatal disease in humans for which vaccines or other treatments are not available, such as Bolivian and Argentine hemorrhagic fevers, Marburg virus, and the Ebola virus.

• Active and Passive Humoral Immunity

  • Passive transfer is used to help treat those with immunodeficiency and for several types of severe acute infections that have no vaccine, such as the Ebola virus.

• Finding Patient Zero and Tracking Diseases

  • This epidemiological study showed how Patient Zero had infected multiple partners with HIV, and they in turn transmitted it to others and rapidly spread the virus to locations all over the world.
  • Visitors from other villages came to pay their respects and tragically carried the virus back with them.

• Host Range

  • A virus' host range is the range of cell types and host species a virus is able to infect.
  • The defenses mounted by the host may act directly on the virus or indirectly on virus replication by altering or killing the infected cell.
  • The host range of the virus will depend upon the presence of the receptors described above.
  • If a host lacks the receptor for a virus, or if the host cell lacks some component necessary for the replication of a virus, the host will inherently be resistant to that virus.
  • For example, mice lack the receptors for polio viruses and thus are resistant to polio virus.