Clin Exp Vaccine Res.  2015 Jan;4(1):17-22. 10.7774/cevr.2015.4.1.17.

Ebola outbreak in Western Africa 2014: what is going on with Ebola virus?

• Na W
• Park N
• Yeom M
• Song D

• KMID: 2049104
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.7774/cevr.2015.4.1.17

Abstract

The 2014 outbreak of Ebola virus disease (EVD) in West Africa, caused by Ebola virus (Zaire Ebola virus species), is the largest outbreak of EVD in history. It cause hemorrhagic fever in human and nonhuman primates with high mortality rate up to 90% and can be transmitted by direct contact with blood, body fluids, skin of EVD patients or persons who have died of EVD. As of December 17, 2014, 450 healthcare personnel are known to have been infected with Ebola, of whom 244 died. For development of Ebola vaccine and treatment are highly difficult due to its dangerous and accessibility that requires biosafety level 4 (BSL-4) to conduct experiment. Also there is no specific vaccine and treatment for Ebola virus; however, many candidate vaccines and antiviral-drugs such as ZMapp and TKM-Ebola are being developed for Ebola virus disease. In this review, we focus on the epidemiology of 2014 outbreak of Ebola virus and candidate agent for preventing and curing from Ebola virus.

Keyword

Ebolavirus; Vaccines; Epidemiology; Therapy

MeSH Terms

Africa, Western*
Body Fluids
Delivery of Health Care
Ebolavirus*
Epidemiology
Fever
Hemorrhagic Fever, Ebola
Humans
Mortality
Primates
Skin
Vaccines
Vaccines

Figure

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  Fig. 1 Biosafety level 4 (BSL-4) facilities in the world. There are totally 54 BSL-4 facilities in the world: 15 in USA; 2 in Canada; 1 in Gabon; 1 in Republic of South Africa; 7 in England; 2 in Switzerland; 1 in Netherlands; 1 in Sweden; 1 in France; 1 in Belarus; 1 in Russia; 2 in Romania; 1 in Czech; 2 in Italy; 4 in Germany; 4 in Australia; 1 in Korea; 2 in Japan; 1 in China; 3 in India; 1 in Taiwan. a)Under construction.

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