Ebola in Africa

Ebola disease is a devastating illness, with at least 6 random outbreaks in the past decade in Africa, killing not only people but also a large number of gorillas, which threatens the species into extinction. The mystery surrounding Ebola has grown because the disease often fails to appear for years, sometimes even decades, and then suddenly breaks out in seemingly aimless areas(“Ebola threatens Apes in Africa” http://www.terradaily.com/reports/Ebola_Threatens_Apes_In_Africa.html). Ebola disease is caused by the Ebola virus infection and is transmitted by direct contact with the blood, secretions, organs or other body fluids of infected persons. This can spread quite quickly and is highly fatal, and kills up to ninety percent of its victims (“Ebola Breaks Out in Uganda” http://abcnews.go.com/International/story?id=82378&page=1). The Ebola virus first broke out in Zaire (now the Republic of the Congo) and Sudan, almost simultaneously, in 1976. Mortality rates were eighty-right percent in Zaire and sixty-six percent in Sudan, with over five hundred cases(“Ebola: Clinical Features and Public Health Issues” http://www.psmid.org.ph/vol25/vol25num1topic10.pdf). Ebola is one of the most gruesome and deadly viruses in its effects on its victims. It may even be the most feared disease in the planet, which excessive bleeding and liquefying flesh. It is spread from people who have close contact with the ill person (such as families, communities, hospitals), handling dead ill bodies and even through bodily fluids. Lack of sanitary condition, including clean needles, syringes, water, and ways to sanitize an area after it comes in contact with the fluids are the top ways in which the disease is spread(“TED Case Studies: Ebola, Trade and Environment” http://www1.american.edu/ted/ebola.htm). In particular, family members and health care workers have caught it, through the reuse of hypodermic needles when treating ill patients. When a person becomes infected with Ebola, they do