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Ebola is a horrific infection that causes a horrible messy death, but technically…
it's not the infection that kills you.
It's you that kills you.
Hey DNewsers, Trace here.
Ebola is ravaging West Africa, with over 1,400 dead and almost 3,000 infected.[a][b] The
outbreak is real, and horrible.
And though it is a terrible infection, it's not the virus, it's your immune system that's
doing the killing due to a cytokine[c] storm.
But before we get ahead of ourselves, lemme explain how we got here.
Ebola or EVD was first identified in 1972[d].
Two simultaneous outbreaks occurred in the Sudan and the Democratic Republic of Congo.
Those two were likely infected by fruit bats, and the virus was named for the Ebola river,
which runs by the town in DRC where the virus was found.
Today, the outbreak is happening in West Africa, 2,500 miles from the DRC, probably taken there
by fruit bats.
[e]
When a REGULAR virus infects you, cytokines are created in response to send signals to
the immune system.
A cytokine is a protein produced by your body to send signals between cells.
There are many different kinds of cytokines and they're used by a bunch of your systems
-- including the immune system.
The system then sends out dendritic cells, which eat the infection, learn about it and
then tell the immune system to produce antibodies, which stop the brothers of that virus from
further infecting the body.
When ebola infects your body, it attacks those immune systems that launch the dendritic cells
first.
Without that dendritic instruction, the antibodies don't have any blueprints to use to combat
the virus.
Thus, ebola replicates unabashedly, exploding cells and running wild, and eventually immune
system throws everything it has to try and stop it.
That's the cytokine storm!
The cytokine storm is like your body's version of DefCon 1… all your body's defenses come
shooting into your bloodstream.
There are antibodies and white blood cells flying everywhere trying to destroy the infestation,
but like Total Thermonuclear War from WarGames: it does harm the enemy virus, but neither
side wins.
Virologist Gaya Amarasinghe explained the whole thing to NPR and to put it simply, due
to the cytokine storm, the walls of your blood vessels become more permeable; thus blood
and plasma leaks into surrounding tissue, and sometimes out of the eyes, ears, and nose[f],
taking ebola with it.
In response to it's own onslaught, your body releases nitric oxide t[g]o try and regulate
your blood pressure, but that nitric oxide damages the blood vessels even more, thinning
your blood and dropping your pressure further.
This causes something like septic shock, -- or shock due to low blood pressure.
So YES, ebola was killing your cells anyway and nothing was going to reign it in.
But the virologist put it this way, "The immune system is doing way more damage than good."
As you probably know, ebola is spread by infected bodily fluids.
That includes blood, plasma, stool, and urine… but also spit that might fly during conversation,
sweat, and fluids that leaks out of the body after death.
The World Health Organization[h] says it's almost always Human-to-Human (though it CAN
be from infected meat) and it takes between 48 hours and three weeks before a newly-infected
person shows symptoms.
They also say there are no vaccines and no proven treatments.
Though, it's important to note that infection isn't a death sentence, because 47 percent
of ebola carriers survive!
How does this make you feel about your immune system?
Also, do you like WarGames?
Because that movie was awesome.
We've got a comment section, so USE IT!
For more information on ebola cures, check out Carin's video, and come say hello to me
on Twitter, I'm Trace Dominguez.
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