Ebola

         How Ebola Got Its Name?

The Ebola virus that's causing the devastating outbreak in West Africa didn't even have a name just 38 years ago when it first surfaced and caused a mysterious illness among villagers in Zaire, now the Democratic Republic of Congo.

The international team of scientists who were tasked with investigating that 1976 Ebola outbreak  were shocked at the sight of the virus and the disease it caused, Dr. Peter Piot, co-discoverer of the virus, recalls in his memoir "No Time to Lose: A Life in Pursuit of Deadly Viruses." (W. W. Norton & Company, 2012)

The scientists had looked at blood samples sent from Africa under the microscope in a Belgian laboratory, and the virus looked like a worm or a long string, unlike almost all viruses known. And once the team got on the ground in Zaire, they saw how rapidly the virus spread and how quickly it killed its victims. They knew they had to figure out how this mysterious new virus was being transmitted, what it did inside the body, and how it could be stopped.

               Ebola Outbreak

The Ebola outbreak that began in West Africa in early 2014 is the worst outbreak of this virus in history. The Ebola virus has a high mortality rate: in the three countries most affected by the outbreak — Guinea, Sierra Leone and Liberia — about 70 percent of the infected people have died. 

                              

      Can You Get Ebola from Sex?

Unlike people with the flu or HIV, those who are infected with Ebola aren't contagious until they start showing symptoms. By that point, having sex would be the last thing on a patient's mind, Schaffner said. In another departure from other viral diseases, Ebola can't spread through airborne droplets from a sneeze or cough