Diagnostics, treatment, and prevention of hemorrhagic fever caused by the Ebola and Marburg

Ebola virus haemorrhagic fever is an acute infectious highly contagious diseases with high morbidity and mortality rate. Rapid development of clinical symptoms, severity of the disease and the mortality rate of up to 90 % require taking urgent medical measures already during the initial identification of the patient, of the quarantine measures and the development of preventive measures aimed at limiting spreading of the disease. Infectious agent is a virus of Ebolavirus of the Filoviridae family. First cases of the disease were revealed in 1976 in the west of Equatorial Province of Sudan with further in other countries of Africa. Bats and primates are natural reservoirs of the Ebola virus. The virus is transmitted from person to person from the first day of the onset of clinical symptoms. The patient remains contagious for several weeks after the onset of the disease. The virus has wide diversity of ways of transmission – through blood, nasopharyngeal mucus, urine, vomit, mucus of the genital tract of the patient. The incubation period is 3 to 21 days. The onset of the disease is acute: fever, chills, headache, muscle pain, maculopapular rash; in severe forms – the development of multiple organ failure. The death is caused with bleeding and / or shock. Diagnostics is based upon the analysis of epidemiological, clinical, and laboratory data. The combination of the analyses that determine the antigen or RNA and IgM or IgG antibodies is usually used. Polymerase chain reaction in real time or ELISA may be used to determint the antigen in blood, serum or homogenates of organs (presence of IgM antibodies indicates recent infection). No specific therapy has been developed as of the present moment. Therapeutic events boil down to pathogenetic and symptomatic treatment. No specific vaccine has been developed yet. The most important method of Ebola disease control is conducting control activities within the epidemic focus and beyond its borders to limit the spread of infection.