Summary on Ebola Virus Infection | Study

Running head: SUMMARY ON EBOLA VIRUS INFECTION
Summary on Ebola virus infection
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

SUMMARY ON EBOLA VIRUS INFECTION1
Title: Ebola Virus Infection: Overview and Update on Prevention and
Treatment
Authors name and affiliation:
M. J. Martı ́nez J. C. Hurtado Department of Clinical Microbiology, Hospital Clinic,
Universitat de Barcelona, Barcelona, Spain
M. J. Martı ́nez ISGlobal Barcelona Institute for Global Health, Barcelona, Spain
A. M. Salim P. E. Kilgore (&) Department of Pharmacy Practice, Eugene Applebaum
College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences, Wayne State University, Detroit, MI, USA e-mail:
[e-mail]
P. E. Kilgore Department of Family Medicine and Public Health Sciences, Wayne State
University, Detroit, MI, USA
Summary:
Martínez et al. studied on the outbreak of Ebola virus infection specially in West
Africa and provided an update regarding epidemic and recent progress of the disease, its
treatment options and prevention. The authors conducted a comprehensive literature study
through various search engines by using appropriate keywords and finding out cases within a
particular period. They have also discussed about new therapies and vaccines created for
Ebola virus disease (EVD) and which are still under evaluation for human use. To control the
spread of infection new drugs and vaccines can be supplied to various countries affected by
EVD and focussing on the establishment of public health infrastructure will prove beneficial.
Therefore new tools for controlling Ebola in outbreak prone countries should be made
available in future.

SUMMARY ON EBOLA VIRUS INFECTION2
The authors introduced review with the incidence of EVD outbreak, virology of the
diseasd causing organism and epidemiology of the disease. EBV outbreak was first observed
in Ebola river which is situated in democratic republic of Congo. However it could not be
confined to a single country with the help of health agencies therefore occurred in several
West African countries due to factors related to practices of funeral and burial of decedents.
Upon searching of various peer-reviewd articles from reliable sources such as PubMed,
CINAHL and Medline, around 156 studies were recognized under inclusion criteria. The
inclusion criteria were literature that were published in English language, had full-text,
published within 1993-2015, focussed on Ebola virus epidemiology, its virology, diagnosis
and management. The rest of the articles not meeting the inclusion criteria were excluded.
Virology revealed that Ebolavirus(EBOV) fall under the filovirus family that were
identified for causing serious diseases in human and it’specific characters include envelop,
non-segmented, linear and negative single strand of RNA. There are five viruses under genus
Ebolavirus each representing a virus species that causes outbreaks at different locations. The
recent virus that causes outbreak in West Africa is the Zaire ebolavirus that has close to 97%
similarity with EBOV strain and comprises of 7 genes in their genome, each encoding for
viral structural protein- nucleoprotein (NP), glycoprotein (GP), L protein, virion protein (VP)
24. However these viruses can have mutation in their genome as a result of which they evade
the efficiency of diagnostic tests and treatments.
Ebola virus has caused outbreaks in six African countries where control was made
effective by isolation and contact tracing although EVD was identified every year from 2000
where the morbidity and fatality rates varied ranging from 24-81% with increasing rate in
Zaire and Sudan. In 2015, WHO declared that EVD burden was high in Guinea and Sierra
Leone. However evidences were found on transmission of the virus through different bat
species who carried antibodies against the virus were examined. Clinical syndrome were