Ebola virus disease (commonly known as "Ebola") was first described in 1976 in two simultaneous outbreaks in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and what is now South Sudan. The 2013–2016 outbreak, caused by Ebola virus (EBOV), was the first anywhere in the world to reach epidemic proportions.
Based on the current number of reported cases, the World Health Organization has declared this outbreak, as horrible as it is, as a “public health emergency of international concern.” But not a pandemic. The WHO says the Ebola outbreak poses no “significant” risk to the U.S. public. But, how can we be sure?
On March 23, 2014, the World Health Organization (WHO) reported cases of Ebola Virus Disease (EVD) in the forested rural region of southeastern Guinea. The identification of these early cases marked the beginning of the West Africa Ebola epidemic, the largest in history.
On 11 January 2023, Uganda declared that the Ebola disease outbreak caused by the Sudan ebolavirus was over. The declaration was made after 42 days passed without any case reported, since the last case was released from care.
The first human EVD case in the West Africa outbreak (2014 to 2016) was likely infected via exposure to bats. In addition to bats, EVD has also been documented in people who handled infected chimpanzees, gorillas and forest antelopes, both dead and alive, in Cote d'Ivoire, the Republic of the Congo and Gabon.
An epidemic is a disease outbreak that is rapidly spreading in a limited region. A pandemic is an epidemic that is actively spreading to multiple regions across the globe.
Typically, a pandemic is bigger than an epidemic and includes spread over several countries or continents. Usually, for this to occur, the disease is spread easily from person-to-person.
“Uganda put a swift end to the Ebola outbreak by ramping up key control measures such as surveillance, contact tracing and infection, prevention and control.
Distrust of the government and misperceptions patients had about the origins of the virus resulted in countless attacks on aid workers. A common theme in outbreaks and epidemics worldwide is that when cultural beliefs and practices collide with control efforts, the results can be unpleasant and counterproductive.
ERVEBO® (Ebola Zaire Vaccine, Live also known as V920, rVSVΔG-ZEBOV-GP or rVSV-ZEBOV) is approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for the prevention of disease caused by Ebola virus (EBOV; species Zaire ebolavirus) in individuals 18 years of age and older as a single dose administration.
There's no cure for Ebola, though researchers are working on it. There are two drug treatments which have been approved for treating Ebola. Inmazeb is a mixture of three monoclonal antibodies (atoltivimab, maftivimab, and odesivimab-ebgn). Ansuvimab-zykl (Ebanga) is a monoclonal antibody given as an injection.
2016 — Ebola epidemic officially ends
The outbreak officially ends in Sierra Leone. May: The epidemic totals 28,616 cases, 11,310 deaths. June: The outbreaks officially end in Guinea and Liberia.
The coexistence of both outbreaks increased the burden on the country's health system mainly because Ebola response programs were redirected to the COVID-19 national response. Strategies adopted and lessons learned from previous Ebola outbreaks were crucial to developing the COVID-19 national response.
On September 20, 2022, the Ministry of Health confirmed an outbreak of Ebola (Sudan virus) in Mubende District, in western Uganda. This announcement came after a patient with a suspected viral hemorrhagic fever (VHF) was identified and isolated at Mubende Regional Referral Hospital.
Ebola virus disease (EVD), formerly known as Ebola hemorrhagic fever, is a rare but severe, often fatal illness in humans. The virus is transmitted to people from wild animals and spreads in the human population through human-to-human transmission. The average EVD case fatality rate is around 50%.
The mortality rate in COVID‐19 (5.6%, P < . 001) was lower than SARS (13%, P < . 001) and MERS (35%, P < . 001) between all confirmed patients.
Cardiovascular disease is the top cause of death globally. In the map we see death rates from cardiovascular diseases across the world.
After nearly half a century without any treatments, the world now has two approved treatments for Ebola virus disease—mAb114 and REGN-EB3.
Ebola is not airborne. Airborne transmission means germs hang in the air after a person talks, coughs or sneezes. The germs in the air can cause disease long after the infected person has left a room, so direct contact is not needed for someone else to get sick.
Since EVD was first characterized in 1976, there have been 38 country-specific outbreaks, including the outbreak in the DRC. The total estimated EVD deaths from 1976 to 2020 is 15,266. The median number of deaths for all 38 outbreaks is 29 with a range of 0 to 4,809 (Table 1).
The number of people affected was exponentially growing and the World Health Organization (WHO) upgraded COVID-19 to a pandemic in March 2020. Pandemics are known to cause large-scale social disruption, economic loss, and general hardship, and COVID-19 has been no exception.
Abstract. The novel human coronavirus disease COVID-19 has become the fifth documented pandemic since the 1918 flu pandemic. COVID-19 was first reported in Wuhan, China, and subsequently spread worldwide.
Today, the COVID-19 pandemic is frequently compared with the influenza pandemic of 1918-1919. The destruction caused by that pandemic a century ago may sound familiar.