EBOLA VIRUS: ENVIRONMENTAL ASPECT3
Ebola Virus: Impact on Environment
Amongst the viral diseases that wreak havoc on the human body, Ebola virus a pretty
rare but deadly virus that causes massive outbreaks when an infection starts. The outbreaks
are usually limited to the African countries. It was discovered in the Democratic Republic of
Congo, near the Ebola river when two outbreaks of haemorrhagic fever occurred in the 70s
(Cdc.gov, 2020). Despite the breakthroughs in the modern medicinal field, Ebola Virus
Disease (EVD) has a 50% mortality rate and it has been recorded to be as high as 90% in
cases of outbreaks (Who.int, 2020). This review article aims to shed a light on the various
aspects of the Ebola virus, focusing on its spread and persistence in the environment.
Methods and Discussion
Methods
Papers were searched on PubMed and Google Scholar over two days. It was done by
using the keywords ‘Ebola’ AND ‘Environment’. Around ten papers were selected for the
review. A majority of the papers were published in 2014 or recently, except one paper by
Bausch et al. which is from 2007. The papers were recent and covered relevant information
on the transmission and persistence of the virus in the environment. The key points, strengths
and weaknesses of each of the papers are enlisted below.
1. Bausch et al., 2007
This paper aimed to determine which bodily fluid was mostly responsible for
spreading the virus. The strength of this paper is that samples were collected from laboratory-
confirmed patients only rather than suspected cases and reduced background information.
Hence the data can be considered credible. However, it needs to be noted that the RT-PCR
assay used for virus detection in the said study is not validated for the detection in
environmental samples and so their sensitivity and specificity cannot be ascertained. The

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ENVIRONMENTAL ASPECT EBOLA VIRUS

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