Ebola: beyond the hype

by Tara Smith     Department: Health & Life Sciences

As my readers from Aetiology know, Ebola is a pathogen I find absolutely fascinating. The name conjures mental images of death and sickness unlike any other. Much like "Black plague" or "AIDS," "Ebola" is a disease which has transcended medicine to become a part of our popular culture. And like AIDS, it has done this in a remarkably short period of time.

Despite more than 30 years of study, we still know amazingly little about this virus. However, with all
the media attention Ebola receives, one may think it has been a major cause of mortality in humans, as previous famous "plagues" have been. This would be a mistake. In almost 30 years, Ebola has caused barely 2000 total human infections, resulting in over a thousand deaths. Compare this to a virus such as influenza, which is responsible for approximately 36,000 deaths in a typical year in the United States alone, and one wonders why Ebola has received the reputation it has as a terrible killer.

Scientists and journalists often are accused of "hyping" diseases or research findings--making them seem more important than what they are. When it comes to the public perception of the disease, accusation of "hype" regarding Ebola is probably justified. Recent studies have shown that bats may be a reservoir for Ebola, and while it can be transmitted from person to person via close contact with infected body fluids, virulent Ebola viruses aren't spread through the air. Additionally, while one strain of Ebola has been found in the United States, it seems unlikely that Ebola will be a pandemic threat any time in the forseeable future.

Still, it's undeniable that Ebola is a scary and highly deadly virus, even if it's caused a relatively small number of infections and deaths--and that the individuals who staff these Ebola outbreaks have to be a mix of cowboy, engineer, diplomat, and medic I have an interview with two such individuals--Zoe Young, a water and sanitation expert, and Armand Sprecher, a physician--who were in the Democratic Republic of Congo during the Ebola outbreak there this fall. Both work for Médecins Sans Frontières ("Doctors without Borders"), an international medical group that provides medical and humanitarian aid to developing countries in desperate need of services--and they literally risk life and limb to do so.

We're learning more about Ebola every month, and perhaps one day we'll be able to further our knowledge *and* prevent these outbreaks. In the meantime, the work of those like Zoe and Armand is invaluable on so many levels.

Tags: Ebola, emerging diseases, hemorrhagic fever