Ebola Virus

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Many lethal viruses exist in the world today, however; some of the most extremely severe and harmful includes ebolaviruses and marburgviruses (Martines et al., 2014). The family Filoviridae includes Ebola virus, discovered in 1976 and Marburg virus, discovered in 1967 (Martines et al., 2014). Ebolaviruses and marburgviruses can be noted as negative- sense pathogens which are enveloped, single stranded in nature, and require ribonucleic acid as a means for their genetic makeup (Martines et al., 2014). Classified by the severity, unpredictability and exceedingly contagious traits, Ebola virus and Marburg virus are recognized as a Biosafety Level 4 pathogen, meaning very strict precautions should be taken when dealing with these types of viruses (Martines et al., 2014). Historically, Ebola virus was typically found in exceptionally isolated regions of Central Africa, but has since gradually expanded to countries in the western parts of Africa (Martines et al., 2014). Filovirus, signifying the lengthened filamentous structure of these viruses, are spread through direct contact of living or deceased organisms (Nkoghe et al., 2012). In the case of humans, contact is primarily …show more content…
Areas including, cuts and scrapes of the skin, unintentional injections, or areas exposed to the external environment are prone to filovirus entry by virus attachment to cells, endocytosis, and glycoprotein fusion inside the host cell (Martines et al., 2014). The current model for how Ebola and Marburg virus enter host cell explains that through cell receptors, with macrophages and dendritic cells being a main target for early infection, filovirus cellular proteins penetrate tissue obstructions and allow broad tropism for infection causing the infection to have the ability to survive in a variety of circumstantial environments (Martines et al., 2014).