scholarly journals Ebola Hemorrhagic Fever: Recent Update On Disease Status, Current Therapies And Advances In Treatment

2017 ◽  
Vol 5 (2) ◽  
pp. 217-234
Author(s):  
Jaskaran Singh ◽  
Thapa Komal ◽  
Sandeep Arora ◽  
Amarjot Kaur ◽  
Thakur Gurjeet Singh

Swiftly growing viruses are a major intimidation to human health. Such viruses are extremely pathogenic like Ebola virus, influenza virus, HIV virus, Zika virus etc . Ebola virus, a type of Filovirus, is an extremely infectious, single-stranded ribonucleic acid virus that infects both humans and apes, prompting acute fever with hemorrhagic syndrome. The high infectivity, severity and mortality of Ebola has plagued the world for the past fifty years with its first outbreak in 1976 in Marburg, Germany, and Frankfurt along with Belgrade and Serbia. The world has perceived about 28,000 cases and over 11,000 losses. The high lethality of Ebola makes it a candidate for use in bioterrorism thereby arising more concern. New guidelines have been framed for providing best possible care to the patients suffering from Ebola virus i.e Grading of Recommendation Assessment, Development And Evaluation (GRADE) methodology to develop evidence-based strategy for the treatment in future outbreak of Ebola virus. No drugs have been approved, while many potent drugs like rVSV-EBOV, Favipiravir, ZMapp are on clinical test for human safety. In this review we will discover and discuss perspective aspects that lead to the evolution of different Ebola variants as well as advances in various drugs and vaccines for treatment of the disease.

Geoheritage ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Roger Crofts ◽  
Dan Tormey ◽  
John E. Gordon

AbstractThis paper introduces newly published guidelines on geoheritage conservation in protected and conserved areas within the “IUCN WCPA Best Practice Guidelines” series. It explains the need for the guidelines and outlines the ethical basis of geoheritage values and geoconservation principles as the fundamental framework within which to advance geoheritage conservation. Best practice in establishing and managing protected and conserved areas for geoconservation is described with examples from around the world. Particular emphasis is given to the methodology and practice for dealing with the many threats to geoheritage, highlighting in particular how to improve practice for areas with caves and karst, glacial and periglacial, and volcanic features and processes, and for palaeontology and mineral sites. Guidance to improve education and communication to the public through modern and conventional means is also highlighted as a key stage in delivering effective geoconservation. A request is made to geoconservation experts to continue to share best practice examples of developing methodologies and best practice in management to guide non-experts in their work. Finally, a number of suggestions are made on how geoconservation can be further promoted.


2016 ◽  
Vol 32 (2) ◽  
pp. 130-139 ◽  
Author(s):  
Frederick A. Zeiler ◽  
Eva Akoth ◽  
Lawrence M. Gillman ◽  
Michael West

Background: The goal of our study was to perform a systematic review of the literature to determine the effect that burst suppression has on intracranial pressure (ICP) control. Methods: All articles from MEDLINE, BIOSIS, EMBASE, Global Health, Scopus, Cochrane Library, the International Clinical Trials Registry Platform (inception to January 2015), reference lists of relevant articles, and gray literature were searched. The strength of evidence was adjudicated using both the Oxford and the Grading of Recommendation Assessment Development and Education (GRADE) methodology. Results: Seven articles were considered for review. A total of 108 patients were studied, all receiving burst suppression therapy. Two studies failed to document a decrease in ICP with burst suppression therapy. There were reports of severe hypotension and increased infection rates with barbiturate-based therapy. Etomidate-based suppressive therapy was linked to severe renal dysfunction. Conclusions: There currently exists both Oxford level 2b and GRADE C evidence to support that achieving burst suppression reduces ICP, and also has no effect on ICP, in severe traumatic brain injury. The literature suggests burst suppression therapy may be useful for ICP reduction in certain cases, although these situations are currently unclear. In addition, the impact on patient functional outcome is unclear. Further prospective study is warranted.


2017 ◽  
Vol 114 (38) ◽  
pp. E7987-E7996 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jinwoo Lee ◽  
David A. Nyenhuis ◽  
Elizabeth A. Nelson ◽  
David S. Cafiso ◽  
Judith M. White ◽  
...  

Ebolavirus (EBOV), an enveloped filamentous RNA virus causing severe hemorrhagic fever, enters cells by macropinocytosis and membrane fusion in a late endosomal compartment. Fusion is mediated by the EBOV envelope glycoprotein GP, which consists of subunits GP1 and GP2. GP1 binds to cellular receptors, including Niemann-Pick C1 (NPC1) protein, and GP2 is responsible for low pH-induced membrane fusion. Proteolytic cleavage and NPC1 binding at endosomal pH lead to conformational rearrangements of GP2 that include exposing the hydrophobic fusion loop (FL) for insertion into the cellular target membrane and forming a six-helix bundle structure. Although major portions of the GP2 structure have been solved in pre- and postfusion states and although current models place the transmembrane (TM) and FL domains of GP2 in close proximity at critical steps of membrane fusion, their structures in membrane environments, and especially interactions between them, have not yet been characterized. Here, we present the structure of the membrane proximal external region (MPER) connected to the TM domain: i.e., the missing parts of the EBOV GP2 structure. The structure, solved by solution NMR and EPR spectroscopy in membrane-mimetic environments, consists of a helix-turn-helix architecture that is independent of pH. Moreover, the MPER region is shown to interact in the membrane interface with the previously determined structure of the EBOV FL through several critical aromatic residues. Mutation of aromatic and neighboring residues in both binding partners decreases fusion and viral entry, highlighting the functional importance of the MPER/TM–FL interaction in EBOV entry and fusion.


2018 ◽  
Vol 93 (5) ◽  
Author(s):  
Hualei Wang ◽  
Gary Wong ◽  
Wenjun Zhu ◽  
Shihua He ◽  
Yongkun Zhao ◽  
...  

ABSTRACT Ebola virus (EBOV) infections result in aggressive hemorrhagic fever in humans, with fatality rates reaching 90% and with no licensed specific therapeutics to treat ill patients. Advances over the past 5 years have firmly established monoclonal antibody (MAb)-based products as the most promising therapeutics for treating EBOV infections, but production is costly and quantities are limited; therefore, MAbs are not the best candidates for mass use in the case of an epidemic. To address this need, we generated EBOV-specific polyclonal F(ab′)2 fragments from horses hyperimmunized with an EBOV vaccine. The F(ab′)2 was found to potently neutralize West African and Central African EBOV in vitro. Treatment of nonhuman primates (NHPs) with seven doses of 100 mg/kg F(ab′)2 beginning 3 or 5 days postinfection (dpi) resulted in a 100% survival rate. Notably, NHPs for which treatment was initiated at 5 dpi were already highly viremic, with observable signs of EBOV disease, which demonstrated that F(ab′)2 was still effective as a therapeutic agent even in symptomatic subjects. These results show that F(ab′)2 should be advanced for clinical testing in preparation for future EBOV outbreaks and epidemics. IMPORTANCE EBOV is one of the deadliest viruses to humans. It has been over 40 years since EBOV was first reported, but no cure is available. Research breakthroughs over the past 5 years have shown that MAbs constitute an effective therapy for EBOV infections. However, MAbs are expensive and difficult to produce in large amounts and therefore may only play a limited role during an epidemic. A cheaper alternative is required, especially since EBOV is endemic in several third world countries with limited medical resources. Here, we used a standard protocol to produce large amounts of antiserum F(ab′)2 fragments from horses vaccinated with an EBOV vaccine, and we tested the protectiveness in monkeys. We showed that F(ab′)2 was effective in 100% of monkeys even after the animals were visibly ill with EBOV disease. Thus, F(ab′)2 could be a very good option for large-scale treatments of patients and should be advanced to clinical testing.


2018 ◽  
Vol 10 (471) ◽  
pp. eaat0944 ◽  
Author(s):  
David Sebba ◽  
Alexander G. Lastovich ◽  
Melody Kuroda ◽  
Eric Fallows ◽  
Joshua Johnson ◽  
...  

Hemorrhagic fever outbreaks such as Ebola are difficult to detect and control because of the lack of low-cost, easily deployable diagnostics and because initial clinical symptoms mimic other endemic diseases such as malaria. Current molecular diagnostic methods such as polymerase chain reaction require trained personnel and laboratory infrastructure, hindering diagnostics at the point of need. Although rapid tests such as lateral flow can be broadly deployed, they are typically not well-suited for differentiating among multiple diseases presenting with similar symptoms. Early detection and control of Ebola outbreaks require simple, easy-to-use assays that can detect and differentiate infection with Ebola virus from other more common febrile diseases. Here, we developed and tested an immunoassay technology that uses surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) tags to simultaneously detect antigens from Ebola, Lassa, and malaria within a single blood sample. Results are provided in <30 min for individual or batched samples. Using 190 clinical samples collected from the 2014 West African Ebola outbreak, along with 163 malaria positives and 233 negative controls, we demonstrated Ebola detection with 90.0% sensitivity and 97.9% specificity and malaria detection with 100.0% sensitivity and 99.6% specificity. These results, along with corresponding live virus and nonhuman primate testing of an Ebola, Lassa, and malaria 3-plex assay, indicate the potential of the SERS technology as an important tool for outbreak detection and clinical triage in low-resource settings.


Author(s):  
T. A. Savitskaya ◽  
V. A. Trifonov ◽  
G. Sh. Isaeva ◽  
I. D. Reshetnikova ◽  
N. D. Pakskina ◽  
...  

The paper presents analysis of epidemiological situation on hemorrhagic fever with renal syndrome around the world and in the Russian Federation over the period of 2009–2018. 5855 cases of hemorrhagic fever with renal syndrome were registered in Russia in 2018 (3.99 per one hundred thousand of the population). Downward trend is observed as compared to 2017 (by 29.6 %). Cases of cluster infection were not reported. It is established that the highest level of morbidity, exceeding the average level across Russia 3.9 times, was noted in the Volga Federal District, where 77.5% of the total cases occurred. The territory of the Russian Federation was differentiated by the HFRS incidence rates. The areas with high levels of morbidity included the entities of the Russian Federation with intensive index range between 9.08 and 41.39 per one hundred thousand of the population, among them Republics of Bashkortostan, Mari El, Tatarstan, and Mordovia, Udmurt and Chuvashi Republics, Kirov, Nizhny Novgorod, Penza, Samara, Ulyanovsk, Kostroma, Yaroslavl, and Jewish Autonomous Regions. The forecast for preservation of tense epidemiological situation on HFRS incidence in the territory of the Volga Federal District was substantiated.


Author(s):  
M. Xu ◽  
C. X. Cao ◽  
H. F. Guo

Ebola hemorrhagic fever (EHF) is an acute hemorrhagic diseases caused by the Ebola virus, which is highly contagious. This paper aimed to explore the possible gathering area of EHF cases in West Africa in 2014, and identify endemic areas and their tendency by means of time-space analysis. We mapped distribution of EHF incidences and explored statistically significant space, time and space-time disease clusters. We utilized hotspot analysis to find the spatial clustering pattern on the basis of the actual outbreak cases. spatial-temporal cluster analysis is used to analyze the spatial or temporal distribution of agglomeration disease, examine whether its distribution is statistically significant. Local clusters were investigated using Kulldorff’s scan statistic approach. The result reveals that the epidemic mainly gathered in the western part of Africa near north Atlantic with obvious regional distribution. For the current epidemic, we have found areas in high incidence of EVD by means of spatial cluster analysis.


2018 ◽  
Vol 3 (4) ◽  
pp. 18-23
Author(s):  
V. Balamuralidhara ◽  
Vaishnav A.M. ◽  
Bachu V. ◽  
Pramod Kumar T.M.

The Emergency Use Authorisation (EUA) authority plays a vital role in US FDA. They provide the authority/permission to use the unregistered products/registered product with unregistered route to treat the life threatening damages to the patients in world in some emergency conditions. The aim of this work is to give an overview on EUA in life threatening conditions and there challenges in getting the permissions under regulations with example of E-bola virus. The e-bola is a virus. It is a hemorrhagic fever deadly disease caused by one of the E-bola viral strain, which is wide spread in West Africa. The -Secretary of the Department of homeland security (DHS), determined, pursuant to section 319F-2 of the Public Health Service Act, that the Ebola virus presents a material threat against the United States population sufficient to affect national security. Issuance of EUA by the FDA Commissioner requires several steps under section 564 of the FD&C Act. The FDA Commissioner, can only issue the EUA, if criteria for issuance under the statute are met. This study’s highlights the importance of the EUA in emergency when there is no medicine for disease/virus in the world. For example the FDA has issued a EUA to use the ReEBOV which is the Rapid Antigen Test device designed by Lusys lab co. Pvt. Ltd. for detecting the Zaire Ebola virus.


2019 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  

Rapid trends in globalization, increase in population, and genetic diversity of viruses collectively provide grounds for emergence and reemergence of viral outbreaks that are threats to overall continuum of human development. In addition to human factors, environmental factors such as water, soil, mosquito vectors and animals are also contributing to the outbreaks of viral diseases. In the past two decades, we have witnessed some of the deadly viral epidemics of the 21st century such as the Ebola virus epidemic in West Africa [1], Yellow Fever outbreak in Angola [2], the 2009 flu pandemic [3]. Dengue Fever [4], and Zika outbreak especially in Brazil [5], just a few to mention. From such outbreaks occurring unpredictably around the world, infectious diseases epidemiologists and global health experts acknowledge viruses have now evolved to rapidly cross international borders. In countries where resources of rapid viral detection and prevention programs are indeed limited, these outbreaks have produced devastating consequences not only overwhelming the local health departments’ capacity to confront the epidemics, but also, they have had serious and measurable devastating effects on economy and human productivity [6].


Author(s):  
Rafael Barberá González ◽  
Victoria Cuesta

This work analyzes the impact of the outbreak of hemorrhagic fever caused by the Ebola virus in Spain in the field of communication. The communication of such a crisis entails an interaction of information between individuals and institutions. Accuracy in the messages that are disseminated is key to the good resolution of the crisis. In this case of the Ebola crisis the impact in the Spanish media was very remarkable not only of the evolution of the crisis but also of the public information that were being made known by the authorities. The errors committed in this public communication, especially in the first institutional appearance, will be analyzed and possible solutions will be provided for future crises. In addition, the information behavior that was given in social networks by the authorities will be analyzed. To perform this work, bibliographical sources, data analysis and the media have been used.


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