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the Ebola virus will likely go down in
history as one of the greatest scourge
'iz of the 2010s the epidemic that
ravaged West Africa between 2013 and
2016 was the worst incidents of an Ebola
pandemic in history so far but the
danger of Ebola is both not over in the
world and also a little overhyped the
virus that causes the disease was only
discovered in 1976 during two
simultaneous outbreaks in what is now
South Sudan and what was then Sai air
it's believed that fruit bats are the
primary carrier of the disease in nature
and it was through direct contact with
them that the disease first spread to
humans once infected signs and symptoms
will usually begin within a few days
that can seem like the symptoms of
malaria a high fever sore throat and
headaches usually followed by vomiting
diarrhea and a rash in many cases but
not all internal and external bleeding
that occurs within five to seven days of
the symptoms first appearing blood
begins to pour out of every opening in
the body which may lead to coughing or
vomiting blood internal bleeding can
cause reddish purple spots to appear on
the skin while bleeding into the whites
of the eyes may also occur this causes
you to suffer from severe dehydration
oxygen loss to important organs since
you don't have enough blood to carry it
and severely low blood pressure
depending on the strain 25 percent to 90
percent of people infected with the
Ebola virus will die within six to 16
days with an average of around 50
percent meaning that most likely if you
get infected your odds are like flipping
a coin to see whether you live or die
while all of that sounds absolutely
horrific and it is the reason why a bola
isn't quite apocalyptic end-of-the-world
scale bad like a lot of the media
suggested back in 2014 is because Ebola
just isn't really very good at spreading
between people the only proven ways to
become infected are by being in direct
physical contact with an already
infected person or animals body fluids
like blood sweat or saliva or by being
in contact with an object that has
had infected fluids touching it like
needles clothes or doorknobs there are
also two other ways of an unknown
likelihood that Ebola can spread since
the virus can remain inside of a man's
semen over a year after recovery it
could be spread sexually and the virus
has also been observed to be able to
spread through the air between pigs and
people although it has never been
observed to spread through the air from
person-to-person so as long as you're
not touching an infected person or
animals body fluids you're most likely
gonna be fine the most common places
that Ebola spreads between people is
inside of families hospitals or at
funerals morning the infected dead the
Ebola virus was first detected in
sub-saharan Africa in 1976 and Africa
remains by far the continent that is the
most severely affected by it
outbreaks across the region took place
sporadically in the decades since but
the epidemic in West Africa between 2013
and 2016 was the worst beginning in
Guinea the epidemic rapidly spread to
neighboring Liberia and Sierra Leone
with minor outbreaks in a few other
countries as of May 2016 the World
Health Organization reported a total of
twenty eight thousand six hundred and
sixteen people were infected in the
pandemic with eleven thousand three
hundred and ten fatalities or roughly
40% for the seventeen thousand or so
survivors of the disease though the
suffering has never ended post Ebola
syndrome is often severe enough to
require serious medical attention like
muscle pain and hearing or vision
problems and the suffering for the
countries affected in general is
certainly far from being over as well
the economies of almost every country in
West Africa took a hit because of a
decrease in trade border closures flight
cancellations and a huge drop in both
foreign investment and tourism one of
the most significant indicators of this
is by looking at the GDP growth rate of
Liberia from 2005 up until the pandemic
began which saw high double-digit growth
for several years and then a sudden
dropped as 0.7% in 2014 no growth in
2015 and negative growth in 2016 it's
been widely speculated that the economic
consequences for the region will claim
more lives than the actual disease
itself cause
and while the w-h-o declared an end to
the emergency in 2016 the second worst
outbreak of ebola in history is still
ongoing and largely unheard of in the
far eastern provinces of the Democratic
Republic of the Congo life here was
already harsh before Ebola the area has
been subject to an ongoing military
conflict known as the kyboot conflict
with over 70 different armed groups
actively operating attacks on civilians
have been common there are thousands of
refugees and over a million uprooted
people since the area is so nearby to
both Uganda and Rwanda it means that
cross-border travel for trade is also
common and now that an Ebola outbreak
has started here just a few months ago
it could create the perfect storm for a
potential disaster I traveled to nearby
Rwanda last month to get a glimpse of
this situation in a glimpse of possible
solutions so far 319 people have been
confirmed to have come down with Ebola
in the area which includes 49 health
care workers the biggest problems with
containing the outbreak here is the
active and ongoing military conflict
because health care workers going in to
help essentially have to risk their
lives twice the w-h-o recommends that
they have armed guards to protect
against the conflict and then they risk
contracting Ebola itself when helping
innocent people understandably this has
caused a shortage of health care workers
in a country in a region that already
had a low supply of them to begin with
while I was in nearby Rwanda I spoke
with a company called zip line that is
pioneering the use of drones to deliver
crucial medical supplies while Ebola
hasn't crossed over yet from the DRC
into Rwanda ziplines rapid services
could help to halt the disease's advance
if it ever happens the drones the
zipline flies currently only fly over
Rwanda and currently only deliver blood
to people that need it and like I
mentioned previously in this video most
of the people who die from Ebola die
because of low blood pressure or fluid
loss since most infected people who died
died within six to 16 days of their
first symptoms a matter of days can make
the difference between life and death
and the geography of the area doesn't
help its mountainous hilly and the roads
are mostly dirt to say nothing of the
conflict destroying certain parts of the
roads in the DRC transporting critical
in time-sensitive supplies is hard by
ground but relatively easy by air
zip lines drones can carry blood to
infected patients up to 80 kilometers
away in under an hour from their base
inside of Rwanda and they're working on
carrying vaccines to one of the most
exciting developments in the fight
against Ebola has been the RV svz ba
vaccine which is still in the
experimental phase and has not been
fully approved but it appears to be at
least somewhat effective it's already
been used on the ground in the DRC and
over three hundred thousand emergency
doses have been created in a stockpile
just in case it gets more out of hand
zipline is going to begin using their
drones to deliver vaccines like this to
hospitals and clinics in February but
it's ultimately the health care workers
on the ground that will be administering
these vaccines and performing blood
transfusions the drones in the air can
support their efforts logistically and
hopefully save more lives in the process
if you'd like to learn more about how
Ebola specifically targets your body
cells what your body and cells actually
do or are or any number of other
scientific or mathematical principles
the best way to learn and understand is
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