Outbreaks of Ebola virus can cause substantial morbidity and mortality in affected regions. The largest outbreak of Ebola to date is currently underway in West Africa, with 3944 cases reported as of 5th September 2014. To develop a better understanding of Ebola transmission dynamics, we revisited data from the first …
Outbreaks of Ebola virus can cause substantial morbidity and mortality in affected regions. The largest outbreak of Ebola to date is currently underway in West Africa, with 3944 cases reported as of 5th September 2014. To develop a better understanding of Ebola transmission dynamics, we revisited data from the first …
n October 1976, the government of Zaire (now the Democratic Republic of Congo [DRC]) asked what was then the U.S. Center for Disease Control, where we worked, to join an international group of scientists in elucidating and controlling an outbreak of an unusually lethal hemorrhagic fever. Just before we arrived …
Ebolavirus (EBOV) causes severe hemorrhagic fever with a mortality rate of up to 90%. EBOV is a member of the order Mononegavirales and, like other viruses in this taxonomic group, contains a negative-sense single-stranded (ss) RNA. The EBOV ssRNA encodes seven distinct proteins. One of them, the nucleoprotein (NP), is …
An outbreak of Ebola virus disease (EVD) in West Africa, with onset in early February 2014, is evolving in Guinea and Liberia. This is the first such outbreak in the area. The first cases were reported from the forested region of south-eastern Guinea. As of 7 April 2014, the Ministry …
Monkeypox is an enzootic disease (prevalent in animals of a particular area) that circulates in monkeys in the rainforests of central and western Africa. It was previously believed that the virus is not easily transmitted to humans. However, 71 cases of monkeypox were recorded from February to August 1996, including …
A cholera epidemic is threatening the refugees fleeing from strife-torn eastern Zaire. The first cholera cases were confirmed last month in capital Goma. Around 36 patients with cholera-like symptoms had been admitted to a hospital, of whom two cases were confirmed and 12 had been administered drugs so their tests …
In April, this year, a group of researchers set out for the Itombwe forest in eastern Zaire, an area known for its rare and fragile biodiversity. The team, whose trip was funded by New York's Bronx zoo-based Wildlife Conservation Society, was treated to a brief encounter with the Congo bay …
If the rate at which poaching is going on in the country continues, the white rhinoceros (Ceratotherium simium cottoni) may soon disappear from the face of the earth. Poachers recently killed a pregnant female white rhino in the Garamba park in northeastern Zaire. With her death, the number of surviving …
Using S-I-R and S-E-I-R models, it was possible to simulate two Ebola outbreaks: the 1976 outbreak in Yambuku, Zaire and the 1995 outbreak in Kikwit, Zaire. The dynamics of these models are determined by the per-capita death rate of infected individuals and the per-capita effective contact rate of an individual …
