yego.me
💡 Stop wasting time. Read Youtube instead of watch. Download Chrome Extension

Ebola 101 | National Geographic


2m read
·Nov 11, 2024

Blood clots begin to form, internal organs begin to fail, and in a matter of days, the body hemorrhages and dies. Terrors all caused by a nightmare come to life.

Ebola is a rare but extremely dangerous disease. It's classified as one of the most lethal diseases on the planet with a fatality rate of up to 90%.

Ebola is caused by six species of virus, with four known to cause sickness in humans, and each is named after the locations of their outbreaks. The first known species was Zaire ebolavirus, discovered in 1976 near Zaire's Ebola River, a river fated to become the namesake of all Ebola viruses.

Like all viruses, Ebola viruses infect and feed off of their hosts starting on a microscopic level. The viruses, which are string-like structures, contain genetic information in the form of ribonucleic acid, or RNA.

Encasing the RNA are layers of proteins. The proteins on the outermost layer are highly versatile, capable of changing shape and binding to different types of cells within a host. When binding occurs, the Ebola virus fuses with a host cell, allowing the virus' RNA to infiltrate the cell and to replicate the virus from within.

This infection quickly spreads to countless cells throughout the body, resulting in some of the most terrifying symptoms known to man. Within eight to 10 days, those infected by the Ebola virus may experience symptoms drastically ranging in severity from fevers to diarrhea and vomiting to internal and external bleeding, often from the eyes.

While outbreaks have been caused by multiple species of Ebola virus, the strain with the highest fatality rate was the first to be discovered, Zaire ebolavirus. In 2014, it caused the most severe outbreak in history, sweeping through western Africa and resulting in over 11,000 deaths, more than all earlier Ebola outbreaks put together.

At this point, no cure for Ebola exists. Plus, the communities most likely to be affected do not have sufficient access to healthcare. In the meantime, international efforts are being made to develop and test vaccines that could potentially stop the disease once and for all.

(somber music)

More Articles

View All
Modern Women Are Not What You Think - This Will Shock You
Speaker: What’s happened is the rise of social media and the rise of online dating and the rise of feminism has taught women that they are not to blame for any poor choices. Every poor choice is glamorized. So if you want to be a sex worker, it’s great. …
Learn to Sell, Learn to Build
Talking about combining skills, you said that you should learn to sell, learn to build. If you can do both, you will be unstoppable. You know, this is a very broad category now, but it’s two broad categories. One is building the product, which is hard, a…
Abiotic factors and an organism's range | High school biology | Khan Academy
So, let’s talk a little bit about abiotic factors for an organism’s range. Before we even get into it, let’s just think about what these words mean. In other videos, we’ve talked about how abiotic means non-living, while biotic would refer to living. So, …
how to ACTUALLY stop wasting time on social media
Another day went by, and you spent your whole day scrolling on social media while laying on your bed. You might look back and think, “What did I do today?” Most of us have projects and some activities that we would like to do someday, but for some reason,…
Derivatives of tan(x) and cot(x) | Derivative rules | AP Calculus AB | Khan Academy
We already know the derivatives of sine and cosine. We know that the derivative with respect to x of sine of x is equal to cosine of x. We know that the derivative with respect to x of cosine of x is equal to negative sine of x. So, what we want to do in…
Porcupine Proofing a Cabin | Life Below Zero
You guys ready? Yeah, there you go, a little buddy, dump him out. [Music] It’s so cute! Just stay calm, let him go, let him go. He wants to go to the wello line. Run, run to the forest! Porcupine chase was a lot of fun. A lot more fun having the kids with…