Back in the 90’s, Ebola was all the rage. With books like “The Hot Zone” and movies like “Outbreak”, Ebola was the fashionable new apocalyptic plague. You can even buy a plush, stuffed Ebola microbe toy. And Ebola is the base of the infection “Rage” in the zombie films “28 Days Later” and “28 Weeks Later”.

I may make light of it, but Ebola is a horrible way to go. Bird Flu is more in fashion now than Ebola, but Ebola’s a definite killer. If you contract Ebola, you will most likely die. And you won’t just pass away in your sleep. You’ll have a severe painful fever, your organs will fail and you will bleed internally and externally. It’s a horrible, painful death. The only good thing about Ebola is that it’s a “hot” disease, it runs its in a matter of days and an outbreak may be contained simply by killing its carriers before they can spread it too far. This is little consolation to the carriers.

Unfortunately, a new outbreak of Ebola has been reported in the Congo where recently 120 of 300 ill people have died. Five cases are confirmed to be Ebola, and the World Health Organization is investigating. Complicating things is the fact that Ebola is transmitted by bodily fluids, and can be contracted by handling the corpses of people who’ve died from it.

Via: Ebola outbreak confirmed in Congo - health - 11 September 2007 - New Scientist
[tags]ebola, hot zone, outbreak, congo, africa, hemorrhagic fever[/tags]

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