BIOTERRORISM

Ebola was discovered in 1976 in Zaire and Sudan. The virus called Ebola takes its name from the Ebola River, which flows into Zaire, where the virus was isolated for the first time. Peter Pilot MD, was the first to identify ebola virus, from an epidemic in Yambuku, in a village along the banks of the river ebola, in the northern Congo, then Zaire. There are 4 variants of the virus whose differences are due to the type of host they infect: Ebola Zaire, Ebola Sudan, Ebola Tai, that cause disease in humans and primates, and Ebola Reston, which causes the disease only in primates. During the past 30 years have been recorded periodic epidemics of Ebola in central Africa particularly in Gabon, Uganda, Democratic Republic of Congo, Congo-Brazzaville, Sudan and Angola. Probably the virus, present in the bats, was manifested later in the great apes and finally in humans. It is transmitted among humans through contact with bodily fluids (blood, vomit, diarrhea ...), which may occur during the care of the sick.