5 things to know about Ebola

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1. What Ebola is

One of a group of viruses that cause lethal internal hemorrhaging, Ebola is itself a family of five strains of germs. It usually begins with a fever, headache, weakness and nausea, which are common symptoms of a lot of sicknesses. But it progresses within just a few days to attacking internal organs and breaking down the walls of its victims’ blood vessels.

2. Why it’s so deadly

Viruses penetrate and take over cells in the body and force them to make copies of the virus. Ebola’s trick is that it’s very good at “hiding” from most people’s immune systems by leaving few indications outside a cell that it’s taken over. The body’s immune response doesn’t kick up quickly enough to react. First identified in 1976 in Sudan and in a Congolese village by the Ebola River, the virus is believed to circulate in fruitbats in central and West Africa between outbreaks. There have been about 20 outbreaks in 38 years. The current one in Liberia, Sierra Leone, Guinea and Nigeria is the worst yet, with 1,700 suspected cases and 930 deaths as of Wednesday.

3. Good news: It’s hard to catch

You’re very, very unlikely to contract Ebola from, say, being on a plane with someone who has it. Unlike, say, influenza, Ebola doesn’t pass easily through the air. It’s primarily transmitted by direct contact with the bodily fluids of someone who’s clearly ill or has died. That puts health workers and family members of victims at the most risk.

4. And it’s fragile

Ebola is destroyed by standard hygiene practices such as handwashing. These can be hard to follow in rural African clinics but they’re easier to enforce here.

5. Bad news: treatments are few

Doctors try to keep a patient hydrated and nourished and to control his or her fever, hoping his or her immune system can catch up. There is an experimental treatment based on antibodies generated from mice and replicated in tobacco plants. It’s being tried right now on two American aid workers who were flown to Atlanta after catching Ebola in Africa. The early results seem promising but the treatment is a long way from mass distribution.

