It's supposed to be ... once the disease 'takes hold' .. something that happens pretty quickly ... like a couple of days, or something.
I've stayed away from these threads because there were just too many and my interest has been in a different arena ... but I'm curious ...
Is my understanding of EBOLA correct and is it THIS ebola that we're hearing about ... or are we being fed a line about a different disease and it's being called ebola ??
Key facts
Ebola virus disease (EVD), formerly known as Ebola haemorrhagic fever, is a severe, often fatal illness in humans.
The virus is transmitted to people from wild animals and spreads in the human population through human-to-human transmission
. The average EVD case fatality rate is around 50%. Case fatality rates have varied from 25% to 90% in past outbreaks.
The first EVD outbreaks occurred in remote villages in Central Africa, near tropical rainforests, but the most recent outbreak in west Africa has involved major urban as well as rural areas.
Community engagement is key to successfully controlling outbreaks. Good outbreak control relies on applying a package of interventions, namely case management, surveillance and contact tracing, a good laboratory service, safe burials and social mobilisation.
Early supportive care with rehydration, symptomatic treatment improves survival.
There is as yet no licensed treatment proven to neutralise the virus but a range of blood, immunological and drug therapies are under development.
There are currently no licensed Ebola vaccines but 2 potential candidates are undergoing evaluation.
Symptoms of Ebola virus disease
The incubation period, that is, the time interval from infection with the virus to onset of symptoms is 2 to 21 days.
Humans are not infectious until they develop symptoms.
First symptoms are the sudden onset of fever fatigue, muscle pain, headache and sore throat.
This is followed by vomiting, diarrhoea, rash, symptoms of impaired kidney and liver function, and in some cases, both internal and external bleeding (e.g. oozing from the gums, blood in the stools). Laboratory findings include low white blood cell and platelet counts and elevated liver enzymes.
Best answer for you: Read the first chapter of The Hot Zone.
Go here: http://tinyurl.com/l49n89g (It is an Amazon link)
Click on the book cover where it says “Look inside” to open and read. After opening, go down about 3/4 of the page where it starts: “The headache begins, typically, on the seventh day after exposure...”
It gets pretty ugly, and my guess is that it is pretty accurate.