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Ebola: no antidote, no cure, all emphasis on isolating the infected

Published 14 September 2007

 

Audio interview with Dr. Armand Sprecher on Ebola in DRC.

Dr. Armand Sprecher, what is Ebola?

Ebola was discovered in 1976, in Zaire [now DRC] and Sudan. It is a viral disease. There have been periodic epidemics of Ebola and its cousin Marburg in central Africa over the past 30 years. MSF has a history in responding to these outbreaks in Gabon, Uganda, DRC, Republic of Congo, Sudan and Angola.


Photo : Peter Kimarx, CDC. The isolation ward set up by MSF for the current Ebola outbreak in West Kasai province, Democratic Republic of the Congo.

What are the origins of the disease?

It most probably lives in bats, which are the reservoir. Then it moves to great apes and then into humans. It is then transmitted between people through contact with body fluids (blood, vomit, diarrhoea), which importantly occurs in the care of the sick. This means that in an Ebola outbreak the virus tends to spread also to health staff and family members of the patients.

What are the symptoms?

The disease is flu-like. It starts with fever, headache, muscle pains, and then people develop vomiting and diarrhoea. And later, in the course of the disease, they can start bleeding (in vomit, diarrhoea, from the nose, and at the gums). Up to 90 per cent of the people who have the disease will die, depending on the strain of the virus.

How important are these haemorrhagic fevers in terms of public health?

In the history of Ebola and Marburg there have been about 2,000 known deaths, which by comparison with malaria is less than the number of people that will die in one day. So this disease is maybe limited in terms of a country’s public health but is extremely significant because of the extreme risk it can represent in an affected population.


Photo : Peter Kimarx, CDC. The isolation ward set up by MSF for the current Ebola outbreak in West Kasai province, Democratic Republic of the Congo.

Is there any treatment for Ebola?

There is no antidote and no treatment for this disease, so the care that we provide is supportive and palliative. Most of our efforts are aimed at controlling the outbreak, which is accomplished by detection of the sick and isolating them from the rest of the population. This is what we are doing now in West Kasai province.