Can I get Ebola fever through bananas and other imported products?

It's quite difficult for a modern person to live. After all, at every corner of him waiting for danger. This transport, various kinds of radiation, and, of course, a wide variety of viruses and infections. In this article I want to answer the question that most people in the world are most interested in: "Can I get Ebola fever through bananas or other foods?"

Terminology

First of all, it is necessary to tell about how correctly in medical practice the disease "Ebola fever" is called. So, to this disease there is a special prefix "hemorrhagic". This means that the virus is associated with blood. On the body of the patient can appear bruising, and hemorrhages to other organs are also possible. It is important to say that at the moment this is still a rare disease, however, very dangerous. And although scientists around the world are looking for an effective medicine, the death rate from the virus is very high. Mortality is approximately 50-90%. Surprisingly, except for humans and primates, the Ebola virus also affects pigs.

A bit of history

Many people are also interested in the question of where the Ebola fever came from. The virus was discovered back in 1976. For the first time, physicians identified him in Zaire near the Ebola River. Hence the name of the disease. Then in Zaire, more than 300 people became ill with a fever, only 40 survived. And in Sudan, more than 280 people were infected, 151 of them died.

Virus properties

Having understood where the Ebola fever came from, and in what year it happened, I want to give more precise information about this disease. So, Ebola is the common name of the viruses of the Ebolavirus family. They take them to the filoviruses, which cause hemorrhagic fever. It is also worth mentioning that the morphological properties of the Ebola virus coincide with the Marburg virus, but they differ in the antigenic ratio.

Kinds

Ebola fever has five different subspecies, four of which affect a person.

1. The Zairian virus. The name was given due to the fact that it was first recorded in Zaire. Here the highest percentage of lethality is about 90% (during the time when the virus raged on the planet, the percentage of deaths increased from 83 to 90%). The first patient - a 44-year-old school teacher lived in a small town of Yambuku. The symptomatology of the disease was very similar to malaria. The cause of the disease doctors called multiple use of unsterilized needles for injections.
2. The Sudanese virus. The first outbreak of the virus was recorded in a small working town of Nzara, in Sudan. The carrier of the infection was never detected, although the scientists examined all animals and insects in the district. The mortality from this subspecies of the virus is approximately 51-63%.
3. The Reston virus. Today, doctors do not have a common point of view about this subspecies. Some scientists classify it as an Ebola virus, while others claim that it is a new Asian virus. Feature: it affects only primates, people can not get it. The outbreak of the virus was first recorded in 1989, when green macaques were brought to Germany in the research laboratory. After that, sick animals were found in Texas (USA), Italy and the Philippines.
4. The Cote d'Ivoire virus. It was first discovered in 1994, when two dead chimpanzees were found in the forest of Cote d'Ivoire. Autopsy revealed that primates in some organs had blood (as in people who contracted the Zairian virus subtype). One of the women who performed the autopsy, in a few weeks, found that she herself was infected with a dangerous virus. However, everything ended well, the doctor recovered after completing the course of treatment.
5. Bundibugyo virus. In the fall of 2007, the Ugandan authorities announced that the outbreak of Ebola fever was taking place in the city of Bundibugyo. After research, scientists came to the conclusion that this is a new subtype of the virus that affects a person. A year later, the focus of the infection was eliminated. For all time, almost 150 people became ill with a fever, and 37 deaths.

The mechanism of infection

Very important for many people is information about how the Ebola fever spreads. First and foremost, it should be said that the virus is already quite a number of years - almost 40, but scientists do not yet have complete information about it. So, the mechanism of its transmission can be very different. Doctors believe that it can be transmitted by aerosol, by contact with the patient's blood, while using common objects of use with the infected person, with joint nutrition. The greatest risk is to the medical personnel who work with the infected. The most dangerous is contact with the patient's blood. It should also be said that the disease is highly contagious, so you can get infected even when you touch the skin or mucous membranes of the patient. In the risk zone there are also scientists who catch infected monkeys and work with them during the quarantine period. However, studies have shown that people who were in the same room with the patients, but did not closely contact them, remained healthy. So you can make a simple conclusion that the virus is not transmitted by airborne droplets.

About Products

Proceeding from the above, one can answer the question of many people interested in whether it is possible to catch Ebola fever through bananas? The answer is completely negative. Any food products, including bananas, are not carriers of the infection. The only way to get infected through food in this case: if it was first tested by an infected person, and then a healthy person.

Susceptibility

Having figured out how to get infected with Ebola's fever, it's also worth mentioning that people's susceptibility to the virus is very high. This means that the infection in contact with infected body fluids of the patient is almost 100%. However, cases of recurrent disease were not detected. Proceeding from this, it is possible to draw a simple conclusion that the organism is able to develop immunity to this disease.

Where and when?

Be sure to consider those countries where the Ebola fever is fixed. So, first of all, the most dangerous in this case is the African continent. Most of the foci of infection were found in the central and western tropical forests of Africa. These are mainly countries such as Sudan, Zaire, Ethiopia, Nigeria, Liberia, Senegal, Gabon, Cameroon, Kenya, Cameroon, Central African Republic. The season of the year is spring and summer. The workers of the cotton factory infected the virus in the Sudan, spreading the infection among their families. In Zaire, infection was nosocomial. In this case, several infected with an unknown virus were taken to a medical facility, where not only the medical staff, who worked with blood and other patient fluids, but not other hospitalized people, became infected. Secondary foci were families of those patients who cared for the carriers of the virus. In 1994, in Zaire, the outbreak of fever was due to the fact that the inhabitants of the country were eating the brain of virus-infected monkeys. Other countries where Ebola fever is recorded: Germany, the United States, Italy. There were conducted experiments and studies of the virus, the infection was intra-laboratory (outside the research centers in this case, the virus "did not get out"). However, in recent years in different countries of the world one can find isolated cases of virus infections. It is carried by people who have recently visited countries in Africa.

Symptomatics

The incubation period of the Ebola fever is 4-16 days. In the early days, the virus manifests itself acutely, the symptoms manifest themselves brightly. At the very beginning the person begins to feel a strong headache, the temperature rises sharply - to 38-39 ° C, nausea, general malaise can also be observed. Many sufferers also experience symptoms similar to angina: it can be inflammation of the tonsils, a feeling of the so-called "ball in the throat", difficulty swallowing. When the virus is gaining strength, the patient has severe abdominal pain, vomiting, hemorrhagic diarrhea. Also, skin and internal bleeding, bloody vomiting are possible. In many infected, the work of the nervous system is disrupted. They become nervous, aggressive. Often this condition persists and for a time after full recovery. Approximately on the 5th day of development of fever in patients appears exanthema - skin rashes. We study further what is Ebola fever: symptoms, how the disease is transmitted and some other aspects. There are two possible outcomes of the disease:

1. The lethal outcome occurs approximately at the 2 nd week of the disease. This happens as a consequence of bleeding, intoxication, shock conditions.
2. The process of recovery of the patient begins after for several weeks the patient will "hold" the acute phase of the disease. The period of full recovery can be delayed up to three months. In this case, the patient may develop anorexia. Quite often, even after full recovery, a person has mental disorders.

Complications

Having understood what is Ebola fever (symptoms, how the disease is transmitted), one can draw a simple conclusion that it is extremely difficult to be cured. The prognosis for the sick is extremely unfavorable. After all, the death rate from the virus is high and ranges from 50 to 90% of cases.

Diagnostics

Differential diagnosis of Ebola fever is complex. After all, the disease has a fleeting nature and develops rapidly. In the area of suspicion, most often people who have been on the African continent for a certain time. In the risk zone are also specialists who worked with contaminated fluids. To determine the presence of the virus, you can only one blood test. However, in such cases, studies should be conducted at the maximum level of biological protection. Modern scientists have learned to recognize fever, applying non-penetrating methods of diagnosis (using urine and samples of saliva patients).

Methods of treatment

At home, it's impossible to cope with the virus. This requires special equipment and medicines. Since the course of the disease is most often accompanied by dehydration of the body, it is important for the patient to maintain the water-salt balance at the required level. In this case, intravenous infusions of solutions that contain electrolytes may be needed. As for the vaccine against the virus, it is not yet available. However, scientists around the world are working on its invention. And recent developments suggest that an effective medicine will soon be found. But it takes many more years to fully implement it and distribute it.

About doctors

Today, almost from any source, you can find out how Ebola fever manifests itself. Photos and video materials, articles and scientific works on this topic - all this is available to every inhabitant of the planet. After all, scientists are sure that the more information a person has, the more he is protected. So, once again I want to answer the question about whether it is possible to catch Ebola fever through bananas and other products? No. The possibility of infection is very, very low. But if a person has traveled abroad in countries where there have been foci of infection and observes at least one of the above symptoms, then immediately it is necessary to seek medical help. It is very important to go to the infectiologist immediately. And the very first thing that a sick doctor should notify: whence he recently arrived.

What to do?

Every doctor knows what Ebola fever is, where it can come from and what to do first. So, with the first symptoms of the patient hospitalized. However, a normal hospital will not be enough here. Infected must be placed in the box, separately from all patients (as in the case of malaria or smallpox). Only a narrow circle of people will work with the patient. The patient can not be discharged until the 21st day after the onset of the illness (often the process of full recovery is delayed up to three months). Important precautions will be:

1. All household items, the patient's clothing will be marked. No one, except for the infected, dares to take advantage of all this.
2. For the treatment and conduct of all medical manipulations, only one-time instruments will be used. After that, they must either be burned, or autoclaved (sterilized, and then disposed of).
3. Special treatment is required and all body fluids of the patient (which are taken for the study).
4. Personnel who work with an infected person must necessarily be in a special anti-plague suit of the first type.
5. In the box, where the patient is lying, clean air is obligatory.
6. During the blood test, specialists should be very careful.

Suspicions

Understanding whether it is possible to get Ebola fever through bananas or food, and having mastered the main ways of transmission of the virus, it is also worthwhile to talk about how specialists will treat people who have been in contact with the patient. All those who have been in close proximity to the infected are also placed in a special box and observed for three weeks. At the same time, all household items are also strictly individual, labeled. In all cases of suspicion of the disease, the patient will be administered a specific immunoglobulin, which consists of the serum of hyperimmunized horses. The period of validity of this remedy is about a week - ten days.

Prevention

What in this case can be preventive measures? The best way to avoid the disease is not to appear in places where foci of infection have previously been observed. However, if a person goes to Africa, it should be remembered that you need to contact as little as possible with the fluids of the body of local residents, to avoid all sorts of contacts with primates. Caution should also be observed in the tropical forests of Africa and in caves. In this case, all household items should be individual, better - disposable. All these precautions concern ordinary people. Specialists who work directly with patients should follow the job description and safety measures designed specifically for such cases.

Latest information

It is worth mentioning that cases of Ebola fever are still observed today. In the risk zone are mainly West African countries. Recently, patients with this virus have been identified in North America - the US and Canada, as well as in some European countries. Experts confidently say that Ebola fever is the most serious contemporary threat to all mankind. Only during the period from February to August this year, the virus infected more than 1,700 people, 932 of them died.