title: Ebola virus disease: societal challenges and new treatments.
abstract: Ebola virus disease (EVD) is a zoonotic disease that causes severe haemorrhagic fever, with high fatality rates of up to 90% in humans. Today, there is no effective treatment available. Person-to-person transmission occurs through exposure to blood or body fluids, which can threaten other household members and first-line healthcare workers. The first cases of EVD in Guinea were identified on 22 March 2014. It was initially believed that this like previous outbreaks would be self-limiting. However, lack of public health infrastructure, delays in virus detection and late implementation of control interventions contributed to widespread transmission of EVD in a region inexperienced in dealing with the disease. Socio-cultural and economic factors probably also played a key role in the spread of the disease, resulting in the current large-scale outbreak. Some promising candidate treatments for this disease are now being developed.
authors.affiliation: Department of Clinical Microbiology, Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm, Sweden.|National Veterinary Institute, Uppsala, Sweden.
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Mirazimi
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D000998:Antiviral Agents / Q000627:therapeutic use; D001803:Blood Transfusion; D004196:Disease Outbreaks; D016563:Filoviridae; D019142:Hemorrhagic Fever, Ebola / Q000517:prevention & control / Q000628:therapy / Q000635:transmission*; D006801:Humans; D012959:Socioeconomic Factors; D014765:Viral Vaccines
chemical_list: D000998:Antiviral Agents; D014765:Viral Vaccines
keywords: ebola virus; outbreak; societal challenges; treatment; vaccine