Ebola - Will Spread Beyond.

 The deadly Ebola virus has been devastating parts of Africa since the first outbreak in the Democratic Republic of the Congo in 1976. In the latest outbreak, the World Health Organization has reported 1,201 cases and 672 deaths since March of this year, in Guinea, Sierra Leone, and Liberia.

How contagious is Ebola?

This is not a highly transmissible disease, where the number of people who can be infected by a single individual is high. You have to come into very close contact with blood, organs, or bodily fluids of infected animals, including people.

What does the Ebola virus do to the body?

It's a hemorrhagic fever virus. It causes an intensive inflammatory response. You wind up going into shock. You can't maintain your blood pressure. Ultimately, all your organs fail.

How long does it take to get sick once you're infected?

You may not show signs of disease for up to three weeks, but most people begin to show signs roughly a week after infection. Death comes within a few days to another week.

Is it possible to treat Ebola, to survive infection?

It's typically a lethal infection [with up to a 90 percent fatality rate]. People can recover, but it's not common. There are no treatments. The only thing we can do is try to maintain people's blood volumes by giving them fluids.

Are treatments under development?

There are people who are trying to develop antibodies from people who've recovered from infection and have antibodies that will neutralize the virus. And others [are] trying to work on drugs that may interfere with ability of the virus to reproduce itself.

Do we need to be concerned about Ebola spreading to India ?

I do think (although I am no expert and I didn't come across anyone important with an opinion on this on the web) it is possible that somebody could be infected in one of these countries and fly to India. Given our health care system, and vast population and state of living it's likely that we would have widespread disease. We would be on top of it, and we would not be able to contain it. Our health care system is in poor shape and our government does not give a shit. In my opinion the government should spread awareness before it's too late.

Source:Content from:  Yahoo News. Wikipedia. BBC. Image: National Geographic

-Vividha Goyal