Taming Ebola

A man with a fever and muscle aches boards a flight from the Democratic Republic of Congo to New York City. During the flight, he vomits blood, potentially spreading his illness to flight crew members helping care for him and to passengers sitting next to him, some of whom will be connecting to other flights in New York.

If the man was suffering from the flu, some of his fellow travelers would probably come down with the disease over the next few days. But the man doesn’t have the flu. Days after the flight physicians figure out he is actually suffering from Ebola.

Health authorities must now race against the clock to track down all the potentially exposed crew members and passengers as well as any other people they in turn may have exposed. In a matter of days, the deadly disease could be spread to other states and even to other countries.

While the scenario above is fiction, infectious disease experts worry about it becoming a reality—especially in light of real-life cases where the disease has been spread to other countries. In 1996, for example, a man in Gabon contracted Ebola and later traveled to South Africa, where a nurse who cared for him became infected and died.

Spurred by concerns about such cases and the possibility that the Ebola and Marburg viruses could be used in a bioterrorism attack, researchers have been working on vaccines and other treatments that could protect people from becoming infected or enable them to recover if they do contract one of these deadly viruses.

Mystifying and deadly

Marburg and Ebola have been mysterious since they first surfaced 30 years ago. Endemic to Africa, they have caused sporadic outbreaks that kill up to 80 percent to 90 percent of those infected, only to disappear without leaving a trace.

Health officials and scientists have long been concerned about these viruses both because of their deadliness and the danger they pose to the rest of the world. An infected person could quickly spread the germs to other countries via jet travel.

Ebola causes fever and joint aches, followed by diarrhea and vomiting. Some patients also develop a skin rash and may bleed from their mouth, eyes, ears and rectum. Victims can die in seven days or less.

Marburg causes symptoms similar to those of Ebola. In 2005, the largest ever outbreak infected 252 people in Angola, killing 227.