Ebola Virus
 recommended in high-risk patients (e.g., people with broken
Prevention and Control
While in an area affected by Ebola, it is important to avoid the
following:
 Contact with blood and body fluids (urine, feces, saliva,
sweat, vomit, breast milk, semen, and vaginal fluids)
 Items that may have come in contact with an infected
person’s blood or body fluids (clothes, bedding, needles,
and medical equipment)
 Funeral or burial rituals that require handling the body of
someone who died from EVD
 Contact with bats and nonhuman primates or blood, fluids
and raw meat prepared from these animals (bushmeat) or
meat from an unknown source
 Contact with semen from a man who had EVD until you
know the virus is gone from the semen
 Returning travelers should follow local policies for
surveillance and monitor their health for 21 days and seek
medical attention if symptoms develop, especially fever
Healthcare workers who may be exposed to infected patients
should follow these steps:
 Wear protective clothing
 Practice proper infection control and sterilization
measures (CDC)
 Isolate suspected patients from each other if possible
 Avoid direct contact with bodies of people who have died
from confirmed or suspected infection
 Notify health officials if you have direct contact with the
body fluids of an infected patient
Five Moments for hand hygiene
1. Before patient contact
 To protect the patient against harmful germs
carried on your hands
2. Before aseptic task
 To protect the patient against harmful germs,
including the patient’s own germs, entering his
or her body
3. After body fluid exposure risk
 To protect yourself and the health-care
environment from harmful patient germs
4. After patient contact
 To protect yourself and the health-care
environment from harmful patient germs
5. After contact with patient surroundings
 To protect yourself and the health-care
environment from harmful patient germs
Post-exposure Prophylaxis
skin or mucous membrane contact with an infected patient
(alive or deceased) or their body fluids, a penetrating sharps
injury, or contact with contaminated gloves or clothing)
 may also be considered in patients with intact skin-only
contact with an infected patient (alive or deceased) or their
body fluids.
 passive immunotherapy with monoclonal antibodies
(ZMapp, MIL77),
 antiviral agents (favipiravir, remdesivir, BCX4430)
 vaccination (rVSV-ZEBOV)
Ebola Vaccine
 rVSV-ZEBOV
 highly protective against the virus in a trial
conducted by the World Health Organization
(WHO) and other international partners in
Guinea in 2015.
 FDA licensure for the vaccine is expected in
2019.
 In the meantime, 300,000 doses have been
committed for an emergency use stockpile
under the appropriate regulatory mechanism
(Investigational New Drug application [IND] or
Emergency Use Authorization [EUA]) in the
event an outbreak occurs before FDA approval
is received.
 Scientists continue to study the safety of this
vaccine in populations such as children and
people with HIV
 recombinant adenovirus type-5 Ebola vaccine
 evaluated in a phase 2 trial in Sierra Leone in
2015.
 An immune response was stimulated by this
vaccine within 28 days of vaccination, the
response decreased over six months after
injection.
 Research on this vaccine is ongoing
Effects of Human Activities and Climate Change on the
Reemergence of Ebola Virus
1. Seasonal triggers of Ebola outbreaks
 Seasonal factors may influences forage and wildlife
distributions, potentially increasing their contact with
Ebola reservoirs
 Hydrologic changes could influence forest fruit
production and other resources.
Foraging behavior in frugivorous species (e.g., fruit
bats, duikers, and nonhuman primates) can be strongly
influenced by seasonally driven temporal and spatial
clustering of scarce fruit resources potentially
 concentrating reservoir and susceptible host species in
these areas of increased foraging opportunity
 This will increase contact between wildlife species
and EBOV transmission potential.
 Fighting and breeding among bat species during
these periods is thought to potentially influence viral load
and EBOV transmission within and between bat species.

2. Forest - Agricultural Mosaics

 opportunity for direct exposure to infected bats,
potentially creating transmission pathways
 Little collared fruit bat
 Straw-coloured bats
 Hammer-headed fruit
 Exposure to bat-contaminated fruit or other bat
excretions within the home environment rather than
bushmeat consumption

3. Social COnditions
 Increases in human density can have a critical
influence on contact networks and human-to-human
transmission potential and environmental degradation.
Increasing need for natural resources can potentially
increase contact rates with wildlife

4. Human Mobility
 Infected individuals moved rapidly from the originally
infected village into other locations causing human
introduction of EBOV into major urban centers

5. Bushmeat Consumption
 Primary mechanism of EBOV spillover from wildlife
reservoirs to humans
 Important commercial commodity, trafficked illegally
both domestically and internationally, potentially
providing a mechanism for pathogen spread
 While the Ebola virus is susceptible to a variety of
disinfectants and can be inactivated by cooking (60°C for
60 minutes) or boiling for five minutes [85], the virus can
survive over three weeks at low temperatures in the
absence of disinfection or inactivation

6. Burial Practices
 Traditional burial practices, involving washing and
touching of the deceased
 Caregiving, primarily by women, has also been
associated with outbreaks, presumably explaining the
relatively high rate of infection in women
 When a traditional healer fell ill with Ebola in Uganda,
many individuals from the community came to care for
her, and when she died, they took part in her burial.