Transmission, Human Population, and Pathogenicity: the Ebola Case in Point
- Authors: Rafael Delgado1, Fernando Simón2
- Editors: Fernando Baquero3, Emilio Bouza4, J.A. Gutiérrez-Fuentes5, Teresa M. Coque6
-
VIEW AFFILIATIONS HIDE AFFILIATIONSAffiliations: 1: Department of Microbiology and Instituto de Investigación i+12, Hospital Universitario 12 de Octubre, Madrid, Spain; 2: Center for Health Alerts and Emergencies Coordination, Ministry of Health and CIBERESP, Madrid, Spain; 3: Hospital Ramón y Cajal (IRYCIS), Madrid, Spain; 4: Hospital Ramón y Cajal (IRYCIS), Madrid, Spain; 5: Complutensis University, Madrid, Spain; 6: Hospital Ramón y Cajal (IRYCIS), Madrid, Spain
-
Received 18 August 2016 Accepted 10 March 2017 Published 22 March 2018
- Correspondence: Rafael Delgado, [email protected]

-
Abstract:
The 2013–2016 Ebola outbreak in West Africa has been the largest ever of a known disease in a new context that produced an unprecedented impact and is changing the international approach to responding to public health emergencies. The unprecedented scale of the outbreak, the use of advanced technology for detecting and characterizing the infectious agent, along with the opportunity to treat patients in modern facilities have greatly increased our knowledge of the disease and its transmission. Also, for the first time, an important international effort has been deployed to control the spread of the epidemic by providing care to patients and by adopting basic measures of public health control. Apart from supportive treatment and intensive therapy with fluids and electrolytes, no new compounds have been proved to be clinically effective to treat Ebola virus disease; however, a specific vaccine has shown significant protection in clinical trials in Guinea, opening an expectation for controlling future outbreaks.
-
Keywords: filovirus; transmission; Ebola virus; R0; Ebola virus disease; hemorrhagic fever; vaccines; reproductive number
-
Citation: Delgado R, Simón F. 2018. Transmission, Human Population, and Pathogenicity: the Ebola Case in Point. Microbiol Spectrum 6(2):MTBP-0003-2016. doi:10.1128/microbiolspec.MTBP-0003-2016.




Transmission, Human Population, and Pathogenicity: the Ebola Case in Point, Page 1 of 2
< Previous page | Next page > /docserver/preview/fulltext/microbiolspec/6/2/MTBP-0003-2016-1.gif /docserver/preview/fulltext/microbiolspec/6/2/MTBP-0003-2016-2.gif

References

Article metrics loading...
Abstract:
The 2013–2016 Ebola outbreak in West Africa has been the largest ever of a known disease in a new context that produced an unprecedented impact and is changing the international approach to responding to public health emergencies. The unprecedented scale of the outbreak, the use of advanced technology for detecting and characterizing the infectious agent, along with the opportunity to treat patients in modern facilities have greatly increased our knowledge of the disease and its transmission. Also, for the first time, an important international effort has been deployed to control the spread of the epidemic by providing care to patients and by adopting basic measures of public health control. Apart from supportive treatment and intensive therapy with fluids and electrolytes, no new compounds have been proved to be clinically effective to treat Ebola virus disease; however, a specific vaccine has shown significant protection in clinical trials in Guinea, opening an expectation for controlling future outbreaks.

Full text loading...
Tables

Click to view
TABLE 1
Cases and deaths among health care professionals, Ebola outbreak in West Africa, 2014–2016
Supplemental Material
No supplementary material available for this content.