Written By: Shraddha Rupavate | Published : October 21, 2014 5:51 PM IST
Relatives and friends of Thomas Eric Duncan, who died on October 8 at the Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital in Dallas, Texas were Monday declared free of symptoms as the 21-day quarantine imposed by public health authorities ended. Apart from Duncan's family members, his girlfriend Louise Troh and the couple's son were also quarantined.
Duncan became symptomatic soon after he arrived in the US last month to marry his girlfriend Troh. While being treated at the Dallas Hospital, Nurses Nina Pham and Amber Joy Vinson contracted the virus, following which 75 additional health care workers were kept under observation and were barred from travelling.
Fever: Increase in body temperature is the first defence mechanism that the body uses to kill any foreign particle invading the body. When Ebola infects the body, it causes a release of various compounds like cytokines and histamines that pass on the signals of increasing body temperature. In fact, Ebola virus disease is also called the Ebola haemorrhagic fever, where the temperature can go above 38.6 C or 101.5 F.
Headache: It is the most common symptom of Ebola infection after fever, present in almost 96 percent of the cases. Nausea and headache along with fever present a typical case of common cold and flu. At this stage, the symptoms can be confused with other common infections.
Stomach pain: A few viral particles invade the liver and starts destroying the hepatocytes. New virions start damaging the intestinal cells causing abdominal pain.
With inputs from IANS
Photo source: getty images
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