Quote :

The Ebola outbreak in West Africa is by a long way the worst ever. It has infected at least 8,000, killed more than 3,000 and has led to the breakdown of the healthcare systems of entire states in the worst affected countries: Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone.

Scientists believe that the first case in the current outbreak was a two-year-old child in southern Guinea, in December last year. But the history of the Ebola virus goes back further.

It was first identified in Zaire (modern day Democratic Republic of the Congo) in 1976. The first victim was a schoolmaster in the village of Yambuku in the north of the country. The disease got its name from the nearby Ebola River, a tributary of the Congo River. That first outbreak infected at least 318 people and killed 88 per cent of the people affected.

Another simultaneous outbreak, in Sudan, infected nearly 300 people, with a mortality rate of around 50 per cent.

Since then there have been several outbreaks, but none anywhere near as devastating as the current one.

It is believed that the virus originates in fruit bats. It circulates in populations of wild animals including gorillas, fruit bats, monkeys, antelopes and even porcupines.

While it is not known how the first ever victim – or the little girl who was the first victim of the current outbreak – were infected, there are many potential ways Ebola could pass from animals to humans.

It is transmitted through contact with bodily fluids. Eating fruit collected from the forest floor, that an infected fruit bat had bitten, could spread it. So could contact with the blood of an infected animal that had been butchered for bush meat.

Monkeys, apes and antelopes are commonly eaten in the areas where the outbreak began. If someone were handling the raw meat and had an open cut on their hand, that could transmit the virus.

Once the virus is in human circulation, it becomes far harder to contain. Health care workers have been at particular risk because they have come into direct, close contact with victims.

Traditional burial ceremonies among many of the communities affected involve direct contact with the body of the dead, and this is believed to have been a major factor in the early spread of the virus, before public safety messages began to get through to people.

The virus can also be transmitted through sex. The WHO says that even men who have recovered from the virus can still transmit it through their semen for up to seven weeks after recovery.

[You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]

The ebola virus is transmitted through contact with bodily fluids: salva, sweat, urine, etc. and they are only contagious when the symptoms appear---or so the CDC says, but who can trust any part of the government?

Pretty scarey this virus. They wanna come up with something and very fast. You dread the news saying someone came into the uk with the disease. I feel for those who are at high risk in getting it :-(

That is some scary shit

I don't tend to get worked up or hyped up about a lot BUT this honestly scares the crap out of me. I could see this spreading very fast and very ugly, like the movie contagion. I know the cdc "says" that they are taking preventative measures etc but honestly I do not trust them

Some scary shit, man.

This, along with ISIS... I won't even get into what my thoughts are on all the craziness

This is scary! The government says it's under control, ect. However how well can we trust that. I dont. I tend to not get hyped but I see that this has the potential to get bad.

Its scarey shit! I just won't be kissing people.