这是像其他任何河流一样的河流的空中照片 - 除了这条纯洁的水道将其名称贴在目前通过西非传播的致命埃博拉病毒疾病（EVD）。

新闻机构报道说，自爆发开始以来，有1400多人死亡，这使其成为历史上最严重的已知疾病爆发，并让您了解疾病的传播和杀戮速度的速度，死亡人数的数量自从几周前我首次考虑写这篇博客文章以来，已经翻了一番。

EVD有史以来的第一个案件是在1976年在苏丹（现为南苏丹）和刚果民主共和国埃博拉河沿岸的一个小村庄中记录的。五种伊波拉病毒存在:Bundibugyo ebolavirus,Zaire Ebolavirus,Taï森林埃博拉病毒和Sudan ebolavirusare associated with EVD in Africa, but the fifth species雷斯顿埃博氏病毒has not caused EVD in humans thus far.

Fruit bats are the natural hosts of the virus and it is transmitted to humans either directly from bats or indirectly via other intermediary wild animals (such as monkeys). Fruit bats are a delicacy in rural parts of West Africa and one of the steps taken to curb the current outbreak is banning the consumption of fruit bats – unfortunately it has beenreported最近，几内亚的许多人都没有解决该禁令。传播是通过与感染动物的体液接触。然后，该病毒可以从人类到人（再次通过体液，例如血液，精液和粘液），从而导致暴发。人们认为，目前的爆发是从蹒跚学步的几内亚与一只水果蝙蝠的机会开始的。

在人类中，最初感染后的症状可能需要两天到二十天。症状的特征是发烧，肌肉疼痛，无力，喉咙痛和头痛的突然发作。然后是呕吐，腹泻，皮疹以及肝脏和肾功能受损。在某些情况下，所有这些症状都会因内部和外部出血而进一步加剧，这就是为什么EVD被称为埃博拉血出血热的原因。根据世界卫生组织（WHO）的说法，可以死亡率高达90％在EVD爆发期间，尽管当前暴发的死亡率被认为约为55％。

The first cases of the current outbreak occurred in February 2014 in Guinea, and since then the outbreak has spread to Liberia, Sierra Leone, and Nigeria, which is one of the most densely populated countries in Africa. New cases of EVD have been confirmed in a remote location of the Democratic Republic of Congo recently, but these might be unrelated to the outbreak in West Africa. For more details on how the outbreak developed, please visit the Medicin Sans Frontieres (MSF)timeline.

There is currently no vaccine or approved cure for EVD and treatment involves intensive supportive care. However, in a few cases involving care workers who have contracted the disease, an experimental drug ZMapp has been administered with some positive results. The drug was given to two US doctors who recovered fully from EVD. British nurse, Will Pooley is currently receiving treatment in a London hospital but the outcome of his treatment is not yet known. On the other hand, one of three Liberian doctors that had been receiving treatment with Zmapp has died, despite initially responding well to the drug. The use of the drug poses important ethical questions: is it ethical to use a drug that has not been fully approved? And equally, as there is a limited supply, who gets the treatment and who does not?

The WHO published aroadmapto scale up the international response to the outbreak on 28th August 2014. Despite the efforts of all parties working to control the outbreak and treat infected patients, MSF say that it could take6 months to control the outbreak. The outbreak is putting a great burden on the region’s health care system and containment efforts are hampered by lack of information and suspicion of health workers, making people reluctant to seek medical assistance. In addition to the health burden, there is also concern for the social and economic impact that the outbreak has already had (there has been civil unrest in Liberia) and will continue to have on affected countries.

关于the blog author:

Srimathy Sriskantharajah博士（@srimsris）是期刊开发经理Parasites & Vectors和Malaria Journal并由开放访问出版商BioMed Central使用。她在环境科学和微生物学方面具有学术背景。