Reopening the Book on Infectious Diseases?

“It is time to close the book on infectious diseases, and declare the war against pestilence won,” Surgeon General William Stewart is rumored to have said when testifying before Congress in 1969 (though whether he actually said this is debatable).In the 1960s and 1970s, most of society believed that diseases were a thing of the past. Polio had been eradicated by vaccines and penicillin made bacteria relatively harmless. With many of the known diseases conquered, society had good reason to feel safe.

That security was short-lived. In 1976, Ebola was discovered after it appears to have mutated from bats. In the early 1980s, HIV/AIDS appeared, morphing from two similar diseases found in chimpanzees. Before these diseases were fully understood, fear was the new prevailing attitude returning society to the pre-60s outlooks. "'Emergence' is in fact regression, a return to the standard that prevailed universally in the previous century," Nobel Laureate and Columbia biologist Joshua Lederberg wrote in a special infectious disease issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association.

Now, not only do we have new diseases to handle, the old ones are making a comeback. The World Health Organization (WHO) has identified six diseases whose worldwide re-emergence should be monitored: diphtheria, cholera, dengue fever, yellow fever, and bubonic plague (That’s right, guys. The Black Death of the Dark Ages is on the list of re-emerging diseases).

Though the list might be helpful to focus health officials, it also limits what diseases they are watching and health officials are aware of it. "Scarlet fever was a problem for my mother's generation," says Stephen Morse of the epidemiology division in Columbia's School of Public Health. "It essentially disappeared, and for no good reason. We don't understand why [diseases] flare from time to time, and until we do I'm uncomfortable ignoring them.”

The Council of Foreign Relations recently released a map that shows the recent resurgence of measles (maroon), mumps (olive green), rubella (blue), polio (gold), whooping cough(light green), and others (yellow). The circles are localized outbreaks, while the size of the circle indicates the number of people infected.

If you look, measles have re-emerged in Europe and whooping cough in the United States. The Wakefield study in 1998, which I wrote about here, made many parents worry that the measles, mumps, and rubella vaccine was dangerous. Though this was later proven false and Wakefield found to have a conflict of interest, fears still resonate and immunization rates reflect this.

“Viruses and bacteria have taken full advantage of the immunization gaps. In 2011, France reported a massive measles outbreak with nearly 15,000 cases. Only the Democratic Republic of Congo, India, Indonesia, Nigeria and Somalia suffered larger measles outbreaks that year. In 2012, the U.K. reported more than 2,000 measles cases, the largest number since 1994. Here in the U.S., the prevalence of whooping cough shot up in 2012 to nearly 50,000 cases. Last year cases declined to about 24,000 — which is still more than tenfold the number reported back in the early '80s when the bacteria infected less than 2,000 people,” according to a newscast from the national public radio (NPR).

In addition, though you may not think much about it, the flu could be problematic in the future. Though relatively harmless now, influenza could evolve into an epidemic or pandemic level. The antigens it displays to our immune system change every year regardless, which is why nurses are required to renew their flu vaccine annually. The flu already kills 36,000 people a year in America alone. I, for one, am not tempted to wait and see what strain evolves into something worse.

While the WHO and other organizations such as the Center for Disease Control (CDC) and the department of Pandemic and Epidemic Diseases (PED) have been taking measures to counteract these issues, some factors remain out of their hands. The decision to vaccinate children is left to the parents. After the Wakefield scare, many parents decided to forgo vaccines instead of risk any side effects that vaccines were rumored to have. "In England, they did the experiment: They simply stopped vaccinating for pertussis. And they wound up with a lot of sick kids. In this country, we are now seeing the waning of immunity," says Dr. Glenda Garvey, Columbia clinical professor of medicine and interim chief of infectious disease at Columbia-Presbyterian Medical Center.

According to Steve Mirsky,

“The diphtheria situation in the former Soviet Union involves a more serious disease combined with a crumbling public health infrastructure; organized vaccination efforts are in shambles.”

But wait, it gets worse. According to IFLScience,

“Gary Baum of The Hollywood Reporter has investigated childhood illness and vaccination rates around Los Angeles County. He discovered that some schools in the most affluent L.A neighborhoods have vaccination rates lower than Southern Sudan. Let that sink in for a minute; one of the poorest regions in the world that is unable to supply clean drinking water for half of its inhabitants has a greater vaccination rate than schools that educate the offspring of Hollywood’s elite.”

                The lowered rates of vaccines increase the risk of epidemics which could lead to pandemics. A pandemic covers a much wider geographical area, often worldwide. A pandemic also infects many more people than an epidemic. An epidemic is specific to one city, region or country, while a pandemic goes much further than national borders.  In order to avoid any disease reaching these levels, it is essential that health organizations work together.

"First, you need surveillance," says Bob Howard of the CDC's National Center for Infectious Diseases. "You also have to have science that is up-to-date and capable of dealing with what you discover in the field. Once you do, you want to have appropriate prevention and control in place, and that includes communication to let people know what the threats are and how to control or prevent the spread of that disease threat. Finally, there's got to be that strong public health infrastructure in place. If you don't have a system in place, the three previous things will not work." Basically, in the words of Mad-Eye Moody, “Constant vigilance!”

  

Sources:
http://www.npr.org/blogs/health/2014/01/25/265750719/how-vaccine-fears-fueled-the-resurgence-of-preventable-diseases
http://www.columbia.edu/cu/21stC/issue-2.3/mirsky.html
http://cid.oxfordjournals.org/content/47/2/294.1.full
http://www.avert.org/origin-hiv-aids.htm
http://www.postandcourier.com/article/20141019/PC05/141019524/1177/understanding-risk-stop-worrying-about-ebola-and-go-get-a-flu-shot
http://www.iflscience.com/health-and-medicine/vaccination-rates-plummet-elite-los-angeles-schools

Walking and Chewing Gum

More than four thousand, eight hundred people have died from Ebola in West Africa as of October 19^th. The outbreak of Ebola in West Africa is the deadliest in history. But Ebola may not be the worst problem for West Africa. Childhood vaccination rates have dropped significantly, HIV/AIDS facilities have been shut down, health education programs have been suspended, health care workers are in short supply, and there is an overall lack of trust in health officials. Liberia especially has been hit hard. Liberia has the highest mortality rate for Ebola and if the situation worsens, Ebola won’t compare to the mortality rate of the preventable childhood diseases that could surge.

Before Ebola, 97 percent of babies were getting vaccinated in Liberia, from the National Public Radio (NPR). Even with these many babies being vaccinated, 7 percent of children still died before reaching the age of 5. With Ebola, many mothers no longer trust health officials going so far as to claim that “the hospital [is] giving the people Ebola.” Now, only 27 percent of babies are being vaccinated. “That almost certainly means more children will die,” says Adolphus Clarke, who helps manage the immunization program.

The loss of trust in health officials is not the only reason these numbers are declining. Many children have become orphans after Ebola or another untreated disease took their parents.

“According to the United Nations Children’s Fund, around 3,700 children in Liberia, Guinea and Sierra Leone have lost at least one of their parents to the virus, which means Ebola orphan rates are climbing with the death rate. ‘Children are dying from measles and other vaccine-preventable diseases and pregnant women have fewer places to deliver their babies safely,’ the United Nations children’s agency UNICEF announced last month, noting that as many as 8.5 million people under the age of 20 live in Sierra Leone, Liberia and Guinea. Of these, 2.5 million are under the age of five and most susceptible to childhood diseases,” according to the Daily Beast.

In addition, health facilities are being closed. The closing of these clinics is not out of any malice, but the reality that the doctors and nurses there are at risk.

“It has been a very tough decision to make as we know that thousands of women and children rely on our services in the district and beyond,” Brice de le Vingne, Doctors Without Borders Director of operations said in a statement. “But the safety of our staff must remain our top priority and if we cannot guarantee flawless infection control in the hospital, we are putting our staff and patients at risk.”

Ebola requires a lot of health care workers to give the infected person any chance of survival. Removing so many of the hospitals and clinics for the safety of the staff expands the shortage of health care workers. In this reality, many patients could go untreated or be treated by a relative, serving as a way for Ebola to spread.

The scarcity of nurses doesn’t just effect the Ebola patients though. Other, more contagious diseases are more likely to spread. With childhood vaccines at only 27 percent, how many children will be able to fight of measles which spreads at a one to eighteen ratio? That means that for every one person who has the measles, on average, they will spread it to eighteen other people. Ebola only has a one to two ratio. Mumps is a one to ten ratio.

 Measles and mumps have a childhood vaccine that helps the immune system recognize the pathogens and fight them off. These diseases are preventable! Yet already there are signs of a measles outbreak. UNICEF's Sheldon Yett says, "We've already had cases of measles in Lofa country which was the original epicenter of the disease in Liberia," he says. "So that's already happening."

HIV/AIDS patients are going to be hit hard also. Even in 2012, with all the health systems, 1.2 million Africans died of HIV/AIDS according to the World Bank. Without enough care, more HIV/AIDS patients are going to die. If health care organizations pack their bags and leave, they are basically sentencing these people to their deaths. Abandoning hospitals may not be the best way for health care workers to regain the trust of West Africans though. If Africans are terrified that you infected them with vaccines, the best way to convince them otherwise is to stay and treat them. If doctors stick with the people through troubled times such as these then they might find more acceptance than initially.

Many doctors and organizations are aware of this and are searching for ways to keep doing their jobs.

"If we do not go out to them then we will be having a disaster,” Sonpon Blamo Sieh, head of Liberia's National AIDS Control Program, told The Daily Beast. “We made some gains and 70 percent of our patients who need treatment were getting it. But if we lose that edge, we risk losing the battle completely.”

The organizations are donating to help find a cure for Ebola. “The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, for example, have committed $50 million for research and prevention for Ebola, which has sidetracked much of their work to prevent malaria and polio in West Africa,” according to the Daily Beast.

“Ebola is shutting down the healthcare system,” Bill Gates, former CEO of Microsoft and current head of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation told The Guardian on the sidelines of the Sibos Banking conference in Boston last month. “More kids are dying of malaria in these three countries now than they were before Ebola came along. So it would be worth stopping the Ebola epidemic if the only benefit was that it put the health system back in place.”

In summary, “We, as a global health community, have to be able to walk and chew gum at the same time, ensuring that preventing a death from Ebola doesn’t mean a child dies instead from a vaccine-preventable disease like pneumonia or diarrhea.” (Erin Hohlfelder)

Sources:
http://www.npr.org/blogs/goatsandsoda/2014/10/23/358117900/ebola-is-keeping-kids-from-getting-vaccinated-in-liberia?ft=3&f=1001
http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2014/10/23/what-s-worse-than-ebola-in-west-africa-almost-everything.html
http://www.cnn.com/2014/04/11/health/ebola-fast-facts/

Post Hoc Ergo Propter Hoc

As of 2008, 39% of parents refused to vaccinate their child compared to 22% in 2003. 25% of this group were worried the vaccines might cause autism. Unfortunately, statistics show a steady rise in this trend. If enough people refuse vaccines, then the disease could become prevalent again and society at risk of epidemics as these diseases reemerge.


The belief that vaccines may cause autism has been around for a little under two decades. In 1998, The Lancet published a study by British doctor, Andrew Wakefield. The study, titled "Ileal-lymphoid-nodular hyperplasia, non-specific colitis, and pervasive developmental disorder in children", at first seems as indigestible as most other scientific journal articles. However, when you read into the abstract and manage to get past the bland, technical language, you might notice that he says, "Onset of behavioural symptoms was associated, by the parents, with measles, mumps, and rubella vaccination in eight of the 12 children..." In one sentence, Wakefield claims that the onset of autism begins after the children received the measles, mumps, and rubella (MMR) vaccine.


As you might imagine, this discovery added fuel to the anti-vaccination fire. If eight out of 12 children developed autism, generalizing those statistics would mean 66.7% of children would develop autism from one vaccine. HOLY CRAP?!... Right? If the Wakefield study were correct, then holy crap would definitely be an acceptable response to the findings. However, the Wakefield study has some very blatant errors that must be addressed.


First, let's look at the study itself. If you've learned a little about the scientific process, there are a few things that really stand out in the abstract. For instance, the quote "eight of the 12 children..." jumps out at me. Why are only 12 children involved in the study? If a scientist wants evidence that can be generalized across the population, he would choose a large and varied sample size from multiple populations. Then, even within the same sentence, he says, "behavioural symptoms was associated, by the parents, with" the MMR vaccine. The basis for his scientific analysis was that the parents believed they saw symptoms of autism after the vaccine? But maybe it was just an error or a call for more research?


Unfortunately, "Wakefield was being paid as an expert by lawyers who were suing over alleged vaccine injury. In fact some of the children in the study were the children of parents who were suing. This is a massive conflict of interest." This means that those errors weren't errors at all, but various forms of bias, making this whole debate totally irrelevant. The Lancet fully retracted the study after years of fighting to get it removed. Nonetheless, parents still refuse to get their children vaccinated based off of Wakefield's study.


The MMR vaccine is given to children twice. The first dose is given at 12-15 months of age and the second dose is given between four to six years old. According to the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, most children display early signs of autism from 12-18 months. The overlap of time frames appears to be the root of the problem according to an interesting theory published by Livescience. The human population seems to be falling prey to a fallacy of logic that the Romans expressed with "post hoc ergo propter hoc" which means "after this, therefore because of it." Modern day psychology and statistics students put it differently, "Correlation is not necessarily causation."


This is meant to teach students to think past what may just be coincidence and try to find all possible reasons for the result (in this case autism). But, not everyone is a psychology student, so most people only see the correlated event (vaccinating against MMR) as the entire reason for the development of autism.


Since it is necessary to maintain herd immunity in the population, scientists and health officials are hard at work trying to regain public confidence. Many studies have been published that examine whether Wakefield could have been correct (none have found evidence for the autism theory) but there are still parents who believe vaccines cause autism. Feeling frustrated, scientists conducted a study meant to find out how people are responding to the methods they use to refute the anti-vaccination movement.


This study (published March 3rd, 2014) looked at 1,759 parents that believed the MMR vaccine causes autism. The researchers then tried to convince groups of parents to change their beliefs using four different methods: information on lack of evidence for the autism theory given by a health authority; information on measles, mumps, and rubella also given by a health official; pictures of infants who had measles, mumps, or rubella; or a story of an infant who almost died from measles. The study came up with some counter-intuitive results.


At the beginning of the study, 70% of parents were likely to vaccinate a future child against measles, mumps, and rubella. After the study, the group that had been given information refuting the vaccine-autism link were only 45% likely to vaccinate future children, although they no longer believed that autism was linked to vaccines. The participants were actually LESS likely to want to risk the vaccine even though they now knew that the autism debate was incorrect. This is a major problem because that is how scientists have been trying to dispel the misinformation for the past two decades.


A scientist's entire profession revolves around knowledge and how to look at it logically and refute what might be incorrect, but the scientific community doesn't seem to think the same way as most people. Using their normal methods, scientists seem mostly to be making people more stubborn and set in their ways. To convince people to vaccinate, they need to find new ways to appeal to people. No doubt there is more than one answer for how to increase vaccination rates. Even in just the comments of the study, there were ideas ranging from bringing back fear of the diseases to publicizing the personal and social side effects of the illnesses. It seems to me that a mixture of these ideas would have a greater effect. But first, we need to know what direction to head in.


So, in the words of Maester Aemon in A Dance with Dragons, “Knowledge is a Weapon, Jon. Arm yourself well before you ride forth to Battle.”


Sources:
http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/antivaccination-parents-dig-in-heels-even-after-receiving-medical-info/
http://www.livescience.com/2845-autism-vaccines-bad-logic-trumps-science.html
http://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(97)11096-0/abstract
http://www.sciencebasedmedicine.org/lancet-retracts-wakefield-article/
http://www.webmd.com/children/vaccines/news/20100505/more-parents-refuse-delay-childs-vaccination
http://www.cdc.gov/vaccines/hcp/vis/vis-statements/mmr.html
http://www.nichd.nih.gov/health/topics/autism/conditioninfo/Pages/symptoms-appear.aspx

ELIMINATE

                Every nine minutes a newborn dies of tetanus. Neonatal tetanus is an extremely painful disease that causes the child to have extremely painful spasms. The spasms may be heart-wrenching, but the worst part of the disease is that the child has an extreme sensitivity to noise, light, and touch, making exposure painful. This means that mothers cannot hold their child to comfort the baby for fear of increasing the agonizing pain.

                Maternal and neonatal tetanus are forms of generalized tetanus. Generalized tetanus results in autonomic over activity, leading to a slew of increasingly painful symptoms that can lead to death. Even the babies that do not die are still subject to severe and unnecessary pain.  Maternal neonatal tetanus reaches newborns (and in some cases, mothers) through the umbilical cord or other wounds during birth. Unhygienic birthing practices have the most effect. Clostridium tetani (the bacterium that causes MNT) can be found anywhere in soil and dust. So when a woman goes into childbirth on a dirt floor in a country with little medical assistance, it’s more likely that she or the child could be exposed to tetanus. Neonatal tetanus has a 10-60% mortality rate especially without proper medical attention.

In 1988, 787,000 newborns per year died of neonatal tetanus. This sparked outrage in health organizations worldwide and began the ELIMINATE project which aims to eliminate (˂1 cases per 1000 live births) maternal/ neonatal tetanus worldwide. As of 2010, only 58,000 deaths due to maternal/ neonatal tetanus were reported, but UNICEF (United Nations Children’s Fund) and Kiwanis International are intent on finishing the job. They find it unacceptable that this tragedy is occurring in 24 third world countries and, what’s worse, the disease is easily treatable with only three shots. This series of shots costs only $1.80 and will vaccinate a mother and her future children from being affected by maternal/ neonatal tetanus.

Kiwanis has enlisted all of the younger volunteer branches also (which is where I first heard about this project). Even with UNICEF and Kiwanis working together, they still require funds for the actual outreach. Donating will allow volunteers and medical professionals to vaccinate women of child-bearing age, educate local midwives, and provide medical supplies in high risk areas. Since the goal has been set at 2015, ELIMINATE needs as much help as it can get to be successful on time. With this in mind, I’ve added a link below that you can donate towards the fund.

https://www.unicefusa.org/donate/donate-end-preventable-deaths-children?pcode=WB_XXXCUW15YCGEN&df_id=17020&17020_donation=form1&gclid=CJ65h6bpoMECFWcF7AodJkEAsA

Sources:
http://www.unicefusa.org/mission/survival/immunization/tetanus
http://web.uconn.edu/mcbstaff/graf/Student%20presentations/C%20tetani/Ctetani.html
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3594855/

Ebola in Current Events

Unless you live under a rock, or perhaps in a college dorm, you’ll have heard that Monday, September 30th, the CDC confirmed that there is now a case of Ebola in the United States.

Thomas Duncan left Liberia and came to Dallas, Texas. On the 24^th, Duncan began feeling symptoms of Ebola. Duncan went to Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital on September 26th, where he was misdiagnosed and sent back home (NBC News/ Nature World News). Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital has not lived up to safety standards in the past. Many patients the hospital discharges come back within 30 days. Nonetheless, Duncan is now under care of the hospital, which reports him to be in a “serious, but stable condition.”

There are two other cases of patients with “Ebola-like symptoms.” One is in Washington DC at Howard University Hospital. This patient is said to have recently traveled to Nigeria. The hospital is moving forward with “an abundance of caution” including isolating the patient. The second case is in Rockville, Maryland at Shady Groves Hospital. The patient is also in isolation. So far there are less details about this case since it is fairly new.

Back in West Africa, health officials are being attacked while trying to properly bury infected bodies. The people who live in affected countries seem to have a number of ideas ranging from denial of Ebola to belief that health officials are actually causing Ebola. Sadly, this puts many volunteers and health officials at even more risk than just being exposed to the disease itself.

There is an experimental treatment and vaccine in trial right now. Canada’s Public Health Agency has promised to help vaccinate West Africans in the coming weeks. There are now between 800 and 1000 vaccines that are almost ready for distribution. The World Health Organization is organizing how best to transport and distribute the vaccines. However, there is a dispute over intellectual property. The Public Health Agency has to deal with NewLink Genetics, the company that owns commercialization rights of the vaccine. They are both under pressure because the number of Ebola victims doubles every 3 weeks.

With the fear of Ebola running high right now, many people have taken a slightly satirical spin on things.

So, unless your only food source is fruit bats, those of you living under a rock are probably safe.

Sources:
http://www.natureworldnews.com/articles/9287/20141001/cdc-confirms-ebola.htm
http://www.nbcwashington.com/news/local/Patient-With-Ebola-Like-Symptoms-Being-Treated-at-Howard-University-Hospital-278025181.html
http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2014/10/03/howard-university-ebola-symptoms-patient-admitted-nigeria/16645717/
http://www.cbc.ca/news/health/ebola-vaccine-for-west-africa-still-in-canada-6-weeks-after-it-was-promised-1.2776627

What Makes Ebola So Hard to Control?

Ebola is in the family Filoviridae (family in regards to taxonomy, which helps distinguish species). There are two types of filoviruses: the Marburg virus and the Ebola virus. Within the Ebola virus, there are 5 known strains, each named after the place it emerged: Tai Forest (formerly known as Ivory Coast), Sudan, Zaire, Reston, and Bundibugyo. The only known filovirus that does not cause hemorrhagic fever in humans is the Ebola-Reston strain, which can still be fatal to monkeys.

Filoviruses may appear in several shapes which means they are pleomorphic. Some are long, sometimes branched filaments. Others are shorter and can be shaped like a “6,” a “U,” or a circle. They may measure up to 14,000 nanometers in length with a uniform diameter of 80 nanometers. They all are enveloped in a lipid (fatty) membrane and contain single-stranded, negative sense RNA (ribonucleic acid).

The RNA is where the virus stores all its genetic information. This is where any virus can get a little hard to deal with. In humans and most other living things, DNA (deoxyribonucleic acid) stores all the genetic code and RNA is used to help make proteins for the cell. When DNA replicates (copies itself before the cell divides), there are a number of polymers double checking on the newly made DNA to be sure the copy is correct.

 

RNA doesn’t have an error-correction polymerase. This means it cannot be sure what’s copied is the same. As mistakes accumulate, the virus evolves further and further from the original virus. But Ebola isn’t just RNA. It’s negative-stranded RNA. To replicate, negative strands must first make a positive opposite copy and then make the end product. Neither of these processes has any polymers to correct errors. The possibility for error has now doubled.

The speed of evolution also depends on how quickly it is transmitted between victims. A Broad Institute/Harvard University has reported there is a two-fold increase in the number of changes in genome sequences compared to previous outbreaks. This is probably due to the many transmissions from person-to-person. Hopefully, the data that is being analyzed will help us understand how to better manage any future outbreaks.

Sources:
http://theconversation.com/genetic-evolution-how-the-ebola-virus-changes-and-adapts-31525
http://pathmicro.med.sc.edu/mhunt/rna-ho.htm
https://web.stanford.edu/group/virus/filo/history.html

What Happens to Your Body When You Contract Ebola

Given current events, I find it appropriate to take a small tangent away from the usual vaccine topic to research a very serious public health threat: Ebola.

After initial infection, Ebola can take up to 21 days to show any symptoms. Anyone in close contact with an infected person is at risk. When they begin, Ebola symptoms start out much like any other disease symptoms: sore throat, head ache, lack of appetite, slightly feverish (Derek Gatherer). These symptoms occur because the Ebola virus has started to attack your immune system by killing T-lymphocyte cells, much like HIV does.

Within the next few days, the symptoms worsen. The victim’s body will ache all over. They will experience chronic abdominal pain.  The fever will intensify. The victim will experience vomiting and diarrhea. The next week is literally the decision between life and death. The victim could get better. The symptoms could reduce. It’s when the symptoms don’t resolve that the virus gets truly terrifying.

 “After anything between a couple of days and a week of misery, you will have reached the crisis point – now the symptoms will either gradually recede or you will progress to the horrors of ‘cytokine storm’, a convulsion of your ravaged immune system that will plunge you into the terminal phase of Ebola virus disease known as haemorrhagic fever.

Cytokine storm releases a torrent of inflammatory molecules into your circulatory system. Your own immune system, now completely out of control, attacks every organ in your body. Tiny blood vessels burst everywhere and you begin slowly to bleed to death. The whites of your eyes turn red, your vomit and diarrhea are now charged with blood and large blood blisters develop under your skin. You are now at the peak of infectiousness as Ebola virus particles, ready to find their next victim, pour out of your body along with your blood.” (Lancaster University’s The Conversation).

Determining which patients will enter hemorrhagic fevers is currently being studied. If there is a less virulent strain that promotes immunity to that keep certain patients from entering cytokine storm, maybe it could be used to produce a vaccine to help safeguard those at high risk. At this point however, there are only experimental vaccines and treatments.

With all that in mind, I would like to ask you to donate to UNICEF. UNICEF has workers throughout West Africa trying to prevent the virus from spreading by distributing hygiene supplies and instructing families on how they can protect themselves. Please help contain the spread of disease by donating at the link listed below.

https://www.unicefusa.org/donate/stop-spread-ebola-west-africa-your-gift-matched/18771?gclid=CMOO9t-KkcECFSkA7AodyB0Aag

Sources for this Article:
http://theconversation.com/what-happens-to-your-body-when-you-get-ebola-28116