• Question: what is ebola?

    Asked by Mickey Mouse to Connor, Jillian, Lidunka, Sarah, Steven on 15 Jun 2015.
    • Photo: Lidunka Vocadlo

      Lidunka Vocadlo answered on 15 Jun 2015:

      @Mickey Mouse Ebola is a virus – an infectious agent that multiplies in another living organism (humans). It is a very serious illness with no known cure, although there has been some success in patient recovery, notably at the Royal Free Hospital in London. Symptoms include fever, headache, muscle weakness, sore throat – a bit like the symptoms of flu. But then it gets much worse with stomach pain, diarrhoea and organ failure. If left without treatment, death follows.

    • Photo: Jillian Scudder

      Jillian Scudder answered on 15 Jun 2015:

      Ebola is a disease that kills you largely through dehydration – if you can survive the fevers and the dehydration, you can usually make it through, but you need to be medically hydrated or the dehydration will start to shut down your internal organs and you will almost certainly die.

      That said, it is not very contagious. It’s only transmission is through fluids – blood or something along those lines – getting into your own system. Measles is -far- more contagious than Ebola.

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