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Journal of Zhejiang University SCIENCE B

ISSN 1673-1581(Print), 1862-1783(Online), Monthly

Forty years of the war against Ebola

Abstract: Humans have been fighting against the Ebola virus disease (EVD) since its first outbreak in 1976 in southern Sudan and Yambuku in Zaire which lies on the Ebola River. According to the data from the World Health Organization (WHO, 2014b), the first outbreak claimed 431 lives in 1976, and the disease awoke transiently in Sudan three years later and then disappeared for 15 years afterwards. Following that, large outbreaks appeared in 1995 in Zaire with 250 deaths of people, 2001–2002 in Uganda with 224 deaths, 2002–2003 in Congo with 128 deaths, and 2007 in Congo with 187 deaths. In 2014, the most severe and complicated outbreak swept through the West African countries having already taken 1069 lives, with the situation seeming to be out of control. To date, there have been 15 outbreaks in Africa, which have caused 4362 infected cases and claimed 2659 lives. The pandemics of Ebola show obvious independence from any season. Humans are generally susceptible to the Ebola virus without gender or age variation. The natural reservoir of the Ebola virus still remains unclear. During the past 40 years or so, the EVD disappeared after an outbreak in one region and erupted in another region without any warning. The difficulty in understanding the spreading pattern of Ebola was compared to that of the wave-particle duality of light.

Key words: Ebola virus, Outbreak, ZMapp

Chinese Summary  <1023> 埃博拉之役四十年

本文概要:埃博拉病毒疫情自1976年在苏丹南部和旧扎伊尔的埃博拉河地区初次爆发,三年后在苏丹同一地区小规模复发一次后则沉寂了15年。1994年在加蓬地区再次突然复苏,至今在非洲多国已反复爆发15次,造成了4362人感染,2659人死亡。2014年,西非几内亚、利比里亚、尼日利亚和塞拉利昂爆发了历史上最严重和情况最复杂的疫情,局面失控。埃博拉病毒流行无明显的季节性,人群普遍易感且无性别差异,其天然宿主仍不确定。近四十年,疫情在一个地区消散后不知何时会在另一个地区突然暴发,被形容为像光的波粒二象性一般难以理解。由于埃博拉病毒对人体多器官普遍攻击而防范困难,加之开发病毒防治药物项目资金匮乏,人类至今没有找到能有效对抗埃博拉疫情的预防及治疗措施。


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pilaipan@Mahidol University<pilaipan.put@mahidol.ac.th>

2014-09-10 12:08:18

pdf file format might be better.

Venkat Rao@Director<venkat.rao@parsons.com>

2014-09-10 02:07:20

Thanks R94 5H3V PQP34RW

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DOI:

10.1631/jzus.B1400222

CLC number:

R183.7

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On-line Access:

2014-06-03

Received:

2014-08-12

Revision Accepted:

2014-08-14

Crosschecked:

2014-08-16

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