How the Ebola epidemic was defeated in West Africa. Is an Ebola virus disease pandemic possible? Porton Down laboratory incident

It’s clear that everything “flows and changes,” but sometimes events burst into our lives with lightning speed and also disappear with lightning speed. This is how it was with Ebola fever - the whole world was “fevering” for some time and there was silence... Today we will look at some versions - what it really was - a sudden and fleeting epidemic, or another deception pursuing other goals...

The Ebola virus was first discovered in 1976 in the area of the river of the same name in Africa. The fever has several strains, and some of them have a mortality rate of up to 90%. Ebola first made itself known with outbreaks in Nzara, Sudan, Yambuku and the Democratic Republic of Congo, as well as in a village near the Ebola River, from which it got its name.

The outbreak that occurred in 2014 is considered the largest and most complex to date. Starting in Guinea and spreading between countries across land borders from Sierra Leone to Liberia, and by air (only 1 passenger) to Nigeria and by land transport(1 passenger) to Senegal, killing 5 times more people than all previous outbreaks combined.

The Filoviridae family of viruses includes 3 genera: Lloviu, Marburg and Ebola. There are 5 species: Zaire, Bundibugio, Sudan, Reston and Thai Forest. The first three of these - the Bundibugyo, Zaire and Sudan Ebola viruses - are associated with large outbreaks in Africa. The virus that caused an outbreak in West Africa in 2014 is of the Zaire species. CEO WHO declared an outbreak emergency of international importance. Several countries were most severely affected - Guinea, Sierra Leone and Liberia.

By September 2014, Ebola had killed more than 3,200 people. And the attention of the whole world was focused on the exotic disease. All the world's media tirelessly trumpeted the horror that was happening and the threat of global infection. Many companies operating in Africa quickly curtailed their activities, fearing the threat of infection.

According to the American magazine Time, the title of “Person of the Year” -2014 was awarded to people caring for terminally ill patients. dangerous virus Ebola

Let us note that the coverage of the Ebola epidemic has reached the point where the messages turn into hysteria and do not convey the desire to educate the population about prevention or warning about the danger, but look like intimidation that goes beyond all conceivable norms and is indifferent to human values.

Let us note the fact that just as, for example, a plane crash attracts close attention as a tragedy, while much more people die in road accidents. larger number people, and Ebola caused mass panic, while regular flu Tens of thousands die every year and this number cannot be compared with Ebola. However, we sometimes hear much less about the flu than about fever...

The threat of Ebola spreading beyond West Africa has forced many countries around the world to join forces and present a united front against the disease. The International Monetary Fund and the World Bank have pledged about $300 million to the worst-hit countries, with the U.S. contributing $175 million, and Washington has sent 3,000 troops to the region.

And the first strange moment in the fight against Ebola was the direct participation of the military. Not virologists and epidemiologists, but the military.
This headline, the first sign in a series of mistrust, appeared on Newsday: Military Plan to Fight People Traffickers and Ebola. News of the day: Military plan to fight human traffickers and Ebola (BBC NEWS).
Virology experts believe that the decision to send US troops to fight Ebola is at least strange, because it is not at all clear how exactly the military can fight the terrible disease.
According to Mikhail Shchelkanov, professor at the Research Institute of Virology named after. Ivanovsky (MP interview) - American troops, as they did in Afghanistan, can help organize checkpoints on the roads, but it is unlikely that the health of the African population is the true purpose of their arrival. The professor does not rule out that the US military will try to use epidemiological rhetoric as a pretext for sending in troops instead of the idea of democracy, which has exhausted itself. This is similar to reconnaissance in force.

The second strange moment was the meeting of American President Obama with the leaders of African countries in which the most active phase Ebola epidemic.
Obama Hosts West African Leaders (Obama Hosts West African Leaders). The president met with the leaders of the Ebola-affected nations of Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea (New York Times).
Regardless of Washington’s real plans, doubts about the purity of the intentions of the US Armed Forces in Liberia began to appear in Western media. The British The Guardian, having published an article about conspiracy theories around international crises, which are becoming increasingly popular in in social networks all over the world, received an active response, because the degree of distrust in the official versions of the leaders of countries, in particular the United States, is off the charts.

The first compelling reasons for mistrust of US actions in Africa are emerging. Back in March 2014, when there was no talk about Ebola at all, The New York Times published an article about the expansion of humanitarian missions organized by the US military in Africa.
Judging by these data, for several years now the US Africa Command has had another, more important military goal: countering terrorist organizations collaborating with Al-Qaida, including the radical group Boko Haram, which is building up its forces in the region. The article talks about how the Pentagon is trying to juggle two opposing missions: containing the terrorist threat of Islamists, while at the same time trying not to send large numbers of troops to the region.

According to many experts and journalists, the United States uses any occasion to recall the presence of its armed forces in West Africa. Here, before Ebola, there were already 3,600 military personnel present, performing both various humanitarian missions and helping the armed forces of some countries (for example, two American snipers helped the army in Burundi).
There was also an opinion that the military was needed to protect oil fields being developed, in particular in Liberia - American companies Chevron, Exxon, Anadarko operate here, and since Liberia is one of the poorest countries in the world, the development of its subsoil is associated with high risks.
There have been reports in the press that Americans are being attracted to Liberia by large reserves of oil and gas. Where there is gas and oil, as well as air defense, American troops are trying to get there. Wherever they go, they never come out.

Let us note one more side of this problem - there are companies that benefited from the Ebola epidemic, American medical corporations - Tekmira, Sarepta Therapeutics, BioCryst Pharmaceuticals, which were involved in creating a cure for Ebola. Note that with the onset of mass hysteria, Tekmira shares rose in price by $6 per day - from September 30 to October 1 - from $23 to $29. The sudden rally was explained by the fact that Tekmira had previously collaborated with the Pentagon, and the drug it developed against Ebola turned out to be effective.

We also note that there is still no vaccine for this fever, nor effective treatment. The US Department of Defense, which had funded vaccine development until 2012, suddenly suspended funding, explaining that the disease was unlikely to reappear. At the same time, the drug was almost ready. A completely logical question arises: why is the US military interested in the Ebola virus and why do they stop the development of a vaccine against it (despite the fact that the drug was almost ready) and why then do private companies deal with this issue during the next outbreak?

By the way, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) owns one interesting patent that covers a strain of the Ebola virus known as EboBun. The patent was received in 2010, and its number is CA2741523A1. The patent applicant is none other than the government of the United States of America (represented by a representative from the CDC). The description contains the following phrase - an isolated strain of the human Ebola virus. Another point is that the first people infected in Africa were quickly transported to the United States. Experts suggest that Ebola is a man-made disease, a biological weapon created by human hands.

Returning to the issue of a patent, we note that a patent, as is known, is the sole right to use a brand, brand, or, as in our case, a disease. It turns out that the United States alone owns the Ebola virus. They did not patent cancer, diabetes, influenza, ARVI and other diseases, but for some reason Ebola was awarded a separate right to be property. With this patent, American authorities have the sole authority to develop Ebola vaccines. Thus, the patent declares the United States to be the sole developer and owner of the disease, and if suddenly an Ebola outbreak occurs somewhere else, no one except the United States will be able to create a vaccine - Europeans cannot tightly close their borders to people arriving from Africa. Therefore, almost every European hospital will be forced, just in case, to purchase these drugs at exorbitant branded prices - and replace them after the expiration date.

However, this patenting looks strange from all sides. After all, Ebola is not a flu that spreads all over the world every autumn and from which hundreds of thousands die - Ebola outbreaks are not so serious and there is no economic effect due to the narrowness of the sales market. However, experts believe that the patent was taken only so that in the event of a new mass hysteria on the occasion of another swine or bird flu, the symptoms of which are very similar to the onset of Ebola, a ready-made vaccine could be immediately provided. And the governments of countries where an unknown disease appears will buy up huge quantities of the vaccine. By the way, experts are inclined to believe that often outbreaks of such strange diseases are nothing more than a leak from laboratories that create them as bacteriological weapons.
Regarding Ebola, there is another version - given the nature of its spread - targeted, this is a weapon capable of destroying certain targets - cities and villages, without much spread outside. Weapon mass destruction, point-directional, tested in Africa.

Interestingly, the US authorities admitted that they had a vaccine called “ZMapp” against Ebola only when two US doctors fell ill. It also turned out that the United States has a very effective high-tech TKM-Ebola vaccine, developed by the biological laboratories of the Canadian company Tekmira. Tekmira signed a contract ($140 million) with the US Department of Defense in 2010 to introduce therapeutic RNA interference using its proprietary liquid nanoparticle (LNP) technology to treat Ebola. However, virologists and epidemiologists around the world, including American ones, claim that to create a vaccine, the blood of a recovered person is sufficient, without any nanoparticles or anything else. But the company began its work, conducted experiments on animals, and the next stage required experiments on humans. And now there's an outbreak in Africa. What a luck.
And another one interesting version- the latest Ebola outbreak began (according to unverified data) in a secret Guinean laboratory in which microbiologists, biochemists, immunologists from the USA worked...
And suddenly, almost instantly, Ebola disappeared and today we can only listen to many questions about it, but at the same time receive few answers, put forward dozens of versions, each more interesting than the other, and also have our own opinion on what is happening...

An acute viral highly contagious (highly contagious) disease characterized by severe course, high mortality and development hemorrhagic syndrome(tendency to skin hemorrhage and bleeding of mucous membranes).

The case fatality rate of fever reaches 90%. Outbreaks of Ebola fever occur mainly in remote villages in Central and West Africa, near tropical rainforests.

The Ebola virus is transmitted to humans from wild animals and spreads among humans from person to person. The natural host of the Ebola virus is considered to be fruit bats of the family Pteropodidae.

The Ebola virus first appeared in 1976 simultaneously in two areas - Nzara in Sudan and Yambuku in Congo (Zaire). In the latter case, the village was located next to the Ebola River, where the disease got its name. Then 284 people fell ill in Sudan, 151 people died, 318 people fell ill in Congo, 280 people died.

The Ebola virus belongs to the Filoviridae family, which also includes the Marburg virus and the Lloviu cuevavirus. There are five subtypes of Ebola virus - Bundibugyo (BDBV), Zaire (EBOV), Reston (RESTV), Sudan (SUDV), Thai Forest (TAFV). Unlike Reston and Tai Forest species, Bundibugyo, Zaire, and Sudan species have been associated with large Ebola outbreaks in Africa. A species of Reston virus, found in the Philippines and China, can infect humans, but no cases of illness or death have been reported in humans.

Rodents that live near human habitation are considered to be the reservoir of the virus in nature. A sick person poses a danger to others. The Ebola virus spreads through person-to-person transmission through close contact through breaks in the skin or mucous membrane. Cases of secondary and tertiary spread of infection were noted, mainly among hospital staff. Health care workers are often infected with the Ebola virus while interacting with sick and suspected cases of the disease. The virus is isolated from patients for about three weeks. Infection can be transmitted through insufficiently sterilized needles and other instruments.

Funeral rites, in which people attending a funeral have direct contact with the body of the deceased, may also play a role in transmission of the virus. The disease can also spread through contact with objects that have been contaminated by an infected person.

The virus is transmitted to people through close contact with the blood and secretions of infected animals. In Africa, there have been documented cases of human infection resulting from the handling of infected chimpanzees, gorillas, bats, monkeys, antelopes and other animals found dead or sick in rainforests.

No visible changes develop at the site of infection. Incubation period(interval between infection and onset of symptoms) varies from two days to 21 days.

Ebola virus disease is accompanied by sudden appearance fever, severe weakness, muscle pain, headache and sore throat. This is followed by vomiting, diarrhea, rash, kidney and liver dysfunction and, in some cases, both internal and external bleeding. Death usually occurs in the second week of illness due to bleeding and shock.
Laboratory tests reveal low levels white blood cells and platelets along with increased content liver enzymes.

When examining the population in endemic areas (infected areas), 7% were found to have antibodies to the Ebola virus, which allows us to assume the possibility of a mild and even asymptomatic infection that remains undetected.
Final diagnosis viral infections Ebola can only be diagnosed in a laboratory based on a series of various tests.

Severely ill patients require intensive medical care. They often suffer from dehydration and need intravenous administration fluids or oral rehydration with solutions containing electrolytes.
There is currently no treatment to cure this disease. Patients are treated with supportive care, especially fluid replacement therapy, carefully administered under the supervision of trained health care providers, which increases the chances of survival. Treatment options such as kidney dialysis, blood transfusions, and plasma replacement therapy also contribute to survival from Ebola virus disease.

The virus that caused an outbreak in West Africa in 2014 is of the Zaire species. The current outbreak in West Africa (the first cases were reported in March 2014) is the largest and most complex Ebola outbreak since the virus was discovered in 1976. Starting in Guinea, it spread across land borders to Sierra Leone and Liberia, by air (1 passenger) to Nigeria and by land (1 passenger) to Senegal.

According to WHO, 28.6 thousand people became infected with the disease caused by the Ebola virus.

Liberian authorities officially declared the country free of fever in September 2015, but three new cases of the virus were recorded in November. The end of the epidemic was announced in Sierra Leone on November 7, in Guinea. The World Health Organization announced the end of the spread of Ebola in West Africa, but on January 15, WHO confirmed new case infection deadly virus.

March 17, 2016 WHO and the government of Sierra Leone Ebola outbreak. On June 1, according to WHO, an outbreak of Ebola fever occurred.

On June 9, 2016, according to WHO, the Ebola outbreak ended for the fourth time in Liberia, marking 42 days (two incubation periods for Ebola) from the date of registration last case recovery. turned out to be a woman who arrived in Liberia from Guinea.

Over the past two years, biologists in different countries have developed several experimental vaccines against Ebola. Vaccines are also being tested by the British pharmaceutical company GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) with National Institute US health.

In 2015 at clinical trials high efficiency The VSV-EBOV vaccine from the American pharmaceutical company MSD has been shown to prevent infection with the Ebola virus. Since that time, it has been widely used in Sierra Leone to contain the virus outbreak. In early April 2016, WHO announced that in connection with the outbreak in Guinea, doctors have resorted to a blanket vaccination strategy, where vaccination is carried out around the source of the disease in order to create protection and prevent further spread.

According to Russian Health Minister Veronika Skvortsova, in December 2015, two vaccines against hemorrhagic fever Ebola, both of them were produced in Federal Center Epidemiology and Microbiology named after N.F. Gamaleya, tested at the preclinical stage in institutions of the Ministry of Defense, and clinical researches were held jointly with the Ministry of Health and the Ministry of Defense. According to Skvortsova, the first vaccine is unique and has no analogues in the world; for the first time, based on the most modern biomedical technologies, two viral vectors with different vaccine structures were included. All vaccinated people achieved 100% neutralization of the virus at a very low concentration of the vaccine. suitable for people with immunodeficiency, it provides activation cellular immunity more than 35 times. According to the head of Rospotrebnadzor Anna Popova, after the completion of the second stage of testing of the Ebola vaccine, the drug will be received.

The material was prepared based on information from RIA Novosti and open sources

Ebola epidemic in West Africa is practically defeated. On November 7, the World Health Organization (WHO) declared Sierra Leone free of the disease, one of the three countries where the epidemic mainly raged. This means that for 42 days, twice the maximum incubation period, not a single new case of the disease was recorded in the country.

Liberia was declared completely healthy back in September, Guinea cannot yet be considered to have completely defeated Ebola, but it is clearly a matter of time. There have been no cases of the disease in Guinea for a week.

Just in June world leaders called the Ebola epidemic one of the world's top three threats. And now the doctors actually say that she is defeated. This does not mean that there is no danger at all; For example, in Brazil, a tourist who flew in from Guinea with a suspected fever has just been quarantined. But cases of the disease are already rare.

The epidemic broke out in three West African countries - Liberia, Guinea and Sierra Leone - a year ago. Outbreaks have also been observed in Nigeria and Congo. The first cases of the disease were recorded in December 2013. In March, WHO announced state of emergency, and by the end of summer 2014 total confirmed cases amounted to about 3 thousand. It seems like a little, but the mortality rate was about 1.5 thousand cases, that is, 50%. At further dissemination the virus was very serious danger. Exactly a year ago, there were already more than 14 thousand cases, of which more than 5 thousand died. Children under 5 years old did not survive at all. In total, more than 11 thousand of the 28 thousand sick people died during the epidemic.

The statistics are starting to improve at the beginning of 2015, and in mid-summer the number of cases began to be calculated in just a few, not tens or hundreds per week.

Source: DP data

Have a world beyond Africa had little chance of accepting the epidemic. The Ebola virus is not very durable and is not transmitted by airborne droplets. From the very beginning, experts said that the whole point is that in African villages people have no idea about sanitation, believe in witches, perform exotic rituals and are hostile to doctors. It is enough not to kiss the dead and wash your hands with soap to minimize the risk, but for Africans this was a problem.

WHO deployed to Conakry operational headquarters and began sending teams of volunteers to the villages. Their task was to establish contact with local elders in order to explain the rules of conduct and isolate the sick. Anyone suspected of having a fever was immediately taken to the hospital by special teams in protective suits. Local governments banned the sale and consumption of bat meat, which were recognized as carriers of the virus, and also strengthened screening rules at airports - now a person with signs of illness could not be allowed out of the country at all.

By the beginning of December In 2014, volunteers managed to ensure that 70% of the dead were buried in compliance with safety rules, and the same number, 70% of the sick, were able to be isolated. And by the end of the month, all three countries managed to double the number of special burial teams - from 34 to 64 in Guinea, from 56 to 89 in Liberia and from 50 to 101 in Sierra Leone. Also, in all three countries, they sharply increased the number of beds for patients by 2-3 times and ensured that more than 90% of infection cases were tracked. Then, at the end of 2014, WHO had six different rapid tests for diagnosing fever, developed in different countries. By January, reviewing patient tests began to take less than one day.

For the year, from July 2014 by July 2015, WHO trained 7 thousand volunteer specialists from 120 countries. A total of 58 foreign medical teams were deployed - the WHO has an entire global system that allows it to mobilize up to several hundred such teams in the event of disasters. They received training directly on site. In countries affected by the epidemic, 38 mobile laboratories were deployed, 950 epidemiologists, together with volunteers, traced the contacts of infected people. In Europe, North America, Russia and China were developing at least 15 vaccines against Ebola. In the end, a Canadian design was selected for the job. True, it was not particularly possible to cope with the high mortality rate - by January of this year it was still 57-60%. The epidemic was defeated not by curing it, but by reducing its spread. Just systematic and well-organized work.

allocated for the fight money from many countries. It was reported that Russia, for example, allocated a total of about $60 million to fight Ebola and $11.7 million to a three-year cooperation program with Guinea in the field of medicine. In addition, Rusal opened a Center for Combating infectious diseases. The United States reported allocating $2.3 billion (not only for the fight against the fever itself, but also for humanitarian aid and further medical support), and for some reason also sent 3 thousand soldiers to West Africa. Even in the States, not everyone understood why the military was needed there (including the military themselves) and why so much money was allocated. The army built a couple of hospitals there, but some American media suspected that it was primarily about strengthening military influence in Africa.

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Epidemics before 2014

DR Congo Red Cross doctors transport Ebola victims in the city of Kikwit, 1995
© AP Photo/Jean-Marc Bouju

The virus was first registered in 1976 in Zaire (since 1997 Democratic Republic of the Congo) in the village of Yambuku. The first case was a 44-year-old school teacher. The symptoms of the disease resembled those of malaria. The spread of the virus is believed to have initially been facilitated by the repeated use of injection needles without sterilization.

At the same time, an outbreak of the disease occurred in Sudan. Despite the relative proximity of the territories, these outbreaks differed in mortality rates. In Sudan, out of 284 infected people, 151 people died (53%), in Zaire 318 people became ill and 280 people died (88%).

According to statistics World Organization health, there have been several serious outbreaks of Ebola over the past 20 years. In 1995, an epidemic in the Democratic Republic of Congo killed 254 people out of 315 cases. In 2007, out of 264 infected people in the country, 187 died. In Uganda in 2000, out of 425 people who became ill, 224 died. In 2003, 143 people were infected in the Republic of Congo, of whom 128 died.

In total, according to WHO, since 1976, 5,826 people have died from Ebola hemorrhagic fever in African countries.

2014 epidemic

The largest outbreak in 40 years

Doctors bury Ebola victims who died in Monrovia
© TASS/EPA/AHMED JALLANZO

This is the largest, most severe and most complex outbreak in nearly four decades of the disease. The epidemic is growing faster than we can control it- Margaret Chen, WHO Director-General

The next Ebola outbreak, later recognized as the largest, began at the end of 2013. The main difference from previous epidemics was that the virus moved to densely populated cities. Previously, it was found only in sparsely populated regions of the African jungle.

First death with symptoms of infection was recorded on December 6, 2013 in Guinea (West Africa) in the village of Meliandou (Guekedou prefecture, Nzerekore region). Three days later, the first cases of fever were reported in the capital of Guinea, Conakry.

"Patient Zero"

Children's Fund The UN (UNICEF) has identified the so-called “patient zero” - the person with whom the Ebola epidemic began. He turned out to be a two-year-old boy from Guinea who died on December 6, 2013. Following him, his 4-year-old sister and mother died within a month. Four months later, the death toll in the village reached 14 people.

On March 25, 2014, the Guinean authorities, based on the results of research from the laboratory of the French Pasteur Institute in Lyon, confirmed that the disease turned out to be Ebola fever.

On March 31, 2014, according to the WHO Regional Office for Africa, the first two cases of the disease in Liberia were laboratory confirmed in Lofa district on the border with Guinea. One of the patients, a 35-year-old woman, died. At the same time, two deaths were recorded in Sierra Leone.

Within six months, the virus had spread from southeastern Guinea to most of Liberia and Sierra Leone.

In July 2014, the Ebola virus entered Nigeria. The carrier of the virus turned out to be a Nigerian civil servant who returned home from a business trip to Liberia. On July 26, he died in a Lagos hospital. Nigerian doctors managed to contain the spread of the virus by establishing a quarantine for all Nigerian residents who had contact with the deceased. However, 20 people were infected, eight of them died.

The death toll from the epidemic exceeded 11 thousand people

According to WHO, as a result of the epidemic in 2014-2016, the number of people infected exceeded 28.6 thousand, and the number of deaths exceeded 11.3 thousand. Most of the victims occurred in three countries: Guinea, Sierra Leone and Liberia.

On August 24, 2014, the Ebola virus was detected in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. According to doctors, the Congolese outbreak of the virus is in no way connected with the outbreak of the disease in West Africa. On November 15, the country declared itself free of the virus. During the three-month outbreak, 49 people died.

On August 29, 2014, the first case of Ebola virus disease was recorded in Senegal in a student from Guinea who arrived in this country before the border was closed. He was immediately hospitalized, and on September 10, Senegalese doctors announced the patient’s recovery.

On October 24, 2014, his death became known two year old girl from Mali who was diagnosed with Ebola virus disease. On November 12, the country's authorities confirmed a second case. It's about about a nurse who cared for a patient who arrived in Bamako from Guinea.

On November 7, 2015, it became known that transmission of the virus had completely stopped in Sierra Leone. On December 29, 2015, the Guinean authorities announced victory over the virus. On January 14, 2016, WHO announced the end of the latest Ebola outbreak in Liberia. According to WHO rules, to declare the end of the Ebola outbreak in a country, 42 days must pass from the moment the last infection with the virus is detected - a period twice as long as the three-week incubation period of Ebola.

Appearance in Europe and the USA

How the virus escaped West Africa

On August 12, 2014, missionary Miguel Pajares died in Spain, who became infected in Liberia and was taken home for treatment. On September 22, priest Manuel Garcia Viejo was brought to Spain from Sierra Leone, infected with a virus Ebola. He also died on September 25. On October 6, the first infection in Spain became known. Ebola virus disease was diagnosed in nurse Maria Teresa Romero Ramos, who provided care to Viejo. It was assumed that during contact with the patient her protective suit was damaged. The last test performed showed that the nurse was cured.

Plush Ebola

Became very popular in the USA Plush Toys in the form of the Ebola virus, manufactured by Giant Microbes (translated into Russian as “Giant Microbes”). The company produces copies of the causative agents of plague, influenza, HIV and other diseases enlarged millions of times. Small Ebola costs $10, large - $30. The Ebola toy is bought by large pharmaceutical companies, as well as the WHO and the Red Cross, which use it for demonstration purposes.

On September 28, 2014, the first case of Ebola fever was diagnosed in the United States. Liberian citizen Thomas Duncan, who arrived in the United States on September 19, turned out to be ill. He died on October 8 at Texas Presbyterian Hospital in Dallas. Days later, two hospital nurses who cared for Duncan were confirmed to have the Ebola virus. Both women were able to make a full recovery. The fourth person diagnosed with the disease in the United States was American doctor Craig Spencer, who arrived from Guinea. On November 11, he was discharged from a hospital in New York. November 17 at medical center In the city of Omaha (Nebraska), surgeon Martin Salia died, who became infected in Sierra Leone and was taken to the United States for treatment.

On October 14, 2014, a UN employee died from Ebola disease in Leipzig, Germany. On October 9, he was evacuated from Liberia and admitted to hospital, but treatment did not help.

Great Britain, France, Norway and Switzerland also treated several patients infected in West Africa. So far, no cases of infection or deaths have been recorded in these countries.

After the first deaths appeared in Europe and the United States, Western countries increased financial assistance humanitarian organizations and countries most affected by the virus to combat the epidemic.

In Russia, during the 2014 epidemic, not a single case of Ebola was recorded.

Deputy Mayor of Moscow: “Many more people die from the flu than from Ebola”

According to the Deputy Mayor of Moscow for Issues social development Leonid Pechatnikov, no cases of Ebola fever have been identified in Moscow. “First of all, people don’t migrate to us large quantities people from Africa. Secondly, we check all students coming to Moscow from African countries at the airport,” Pechatnikov said.

Pechatnikov called on Muscovites not to panic about the Ebola virus. The official noted that the Ebola virus is not as contagious as the influenza virus. "Many people in the world die from the flu more people than from Ebola," he added.

But the most famous was the epidemic that began in the summer of 2014. Then, in a short period of time, more than 900 people died from the virus out of 1,700 cases. But after a few months, everyone forgot about the disease, and now many are wondering where Ebola went.

Characteristics of the disease

The 2014 epidemic outbreak began in the summer in Central Africa. The Congo region was the hardest hit. The virus is transmitted only through direct contact healthy person with blood or other biological fluids of the patient. Airborne this disease is not transmitted.

Cases of Ebola were recorded, as a rule, in In 2014, the epidemic was in Guinea, Liberia, Nigeria, Sierra Leone, DRC, Senegal, Mali. But cases of the disease have been reported in residents of Spain, Great Britain, and the United States. True, the virus did not spread in these countries. The virus was brought to Spain and the United States by travelers from Africa.

Distribution routes

It is worth noting that you can become infected even through contact with a deceased or embalmed person, or by touching contaminated equipment. For example, the virus has spread so widely in the country because hospital workers there do not use special protective clothing. They are not particularly popular with universal necessary measures precautions, because of this, the spread of viruses is more active. To make matters worse, needles are often reused in those countries.

If all safety measures are followed, you can be sure that the Ebola virus will not spread throughout the world. This is also confirmed by the fact that people who fell ill in African countries upon arriving home did not become a source of mass infection.

Pathogenesis

The virus can spread just as actively outside hospitals as it does inside them. You can become infected through mucous membranes and microtraumas of the skin. The incubation period can last from 2 to 21 days.

This infection is characterized by the appearance of signs of general intoxication and impaired blood clotting. Those who are sick suddenly develop a fever, pain in the throat, muscles and head. They also complain about general weakness. In many cases, the disease is accompanied by vomiting, rashes, diarrhea, and problems with the liver and kidneys. Sometimes external or internal bleeding. Analyzes show whites too blood cells, at the same time the concentration of liver enzymes increases.

The development of bleeding indicates a possible unfavorable prognosis. If the patient does not recover within 7-16 days, then the probability fatal outcome increases noticeably. Most often, death occurs from bleeding in the second week of the disease.

Stopping the epidemic

In 2014, everyone was talking about the possible spread of the virus. But the talk quickly died down, and people began to wonder where Ebola had gone. Many assume that these were just rumors. But this is not true, the virus really exists.

Is there a problem?

Of course, everyone remembers the 2014 epidemic. But over time, interest in this topic subsided, and by the beginning of 2015 everyone was wondering where Ebola had gone. In fact, African countries have never been able to get rid of this disease.

Between April 2014 and December 2015, the Zaire ebolavirus infected more than 27 thousand people. Of these, more than 11 thousand died. The mortality rate was 41%. But don’t think that 2016 started without incident. In January, more than 100 people were reported infected with the Ebola virus in the West African country of Sierra Leone.

To prevent the spread of the disease in the summer of 2015, the government introduced a 21-day period, which was supposed to last from 18 pm to 6 am. This rule affected some areas located in the northern part of the country. In addition, residents were prohibited from traveling to the northern regions of Cambia and Porta Loko.

A survey of people in areas of mass infection showed that 7% of the population had antibodies in their blood. This suggests that some had an asymptomatic or mild form of the disease.

Vaccination

You can prevent the development of the disease and keep people safe with the help of preventive measures. This is why the Ebola vaccine is so important. Its creation was financed mainly by the United States. In this country there were fears that this virus could be used as

Developments are not finished yet. The American vaccine was successfully tested on animals. Moreover, two US companies have already begun conducting human studies. In 2014, scientists managed to figure out the mechanism by which the Ebola virus disrupts the immune system. And in the summer of 2015, WHO already reported that trials of the vaccine’s effectiveness were successful. It was tested on 4 thousand volunteers from Guinea.

They are also developing a vaccine in Russia. The created drug has shown excellent effectiveness, so scientists hope that it will be used on an equal basis with Western analogues. It is planned that the Russian vaccine will be delivered to Guinea in the spring of 2016. According to plans, it should be produced in quantities of about 10 thousand copies per month. If vaccination is made mandatory, then everyone will understand where Ebola has gone.