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Written By: Editorial Team | Published : October 9, 2014 8:38 PM IST
According to a recent media report citing a federal MP, aid workers are creating the risk of Ebola virus disease in Australia. A nurse who has recently returned from Sierra Leone, one of the worse Ebola-hit region of West Africa, where she was working in a hospital treating Ebola victims, is being assessed in Cairns Hospital, Sydney.
'Cairns woman suspected of having been infected with the deadly Ebola virus has put the nation at risk because of her humanitarian ambitions,' federal MP Bob Katter said. He has slammed quarantine authorities after it emerged that the 57-year-old nurse, who had worked for the Red Cross in Sierra Leone, was being tested for Ebola. Registered nurse Sue-Ellen Kovack returned to Australia at the weekend after a month working in Sierra Leone, one of the countries hardest hit by the epidemic which has so far claimed almost 3,900 lives across five west African countries. Kovack returned Tuesday to Australia, where she remained in quarantine as per protocol.
On Thursday, she was admitted to hospital with a 'low-grade fever' with results of tests expected to be known by Thursday night or early Friday. But Katter said it was "unbelievable and incomprehensive" how a person could get into Australia from an Ebola-infected country. 'There cannot be any compromise with this,' Katter said. Australian Medical Association head Brian Owler has lashed out at Katter's 'hysterical' response. He has called for calm until the results are known, and for Australia to dedicate more resources to stopping the crisis overseas.
Here s are some interesting facts about the Ebola virus that make it so deadly
It can kill within seven days: Unlike other viruses (like HIV) that can remain dormant in a person for years without causing the disease, Ebola violently multiplies until the viral particles are amplified to about 100 million viral particles in a droplet of blood. Further, without resting in a dormant stage the virus kills the host to find a new one. The fatality rate of the disease is 60 percent.India.com
There is no vaccine or treatment available: What makes this virus deadly is the fact that researchers have not been able to find an effective treatment or preventive technique to combat the virus and the spread of the disease. The experimental drug Zmapp has shown promising results but the safety and efficacy of the drug are to be evaluated. So, as of now, neither do we have an effective form of therapy nor do we have a vaccine to prevent the disease.
Attacks every part of the human body: Ebola only needs a host cell that can help it produce multiple copies of itself. What worsens the condition is the fact that the virus does not need a specific type of cell to multiply (unlike other deadly diseases). According to studies, except for skeletal muscles and bones, the virus is known to infect every part of the human body. Connective tissues, the ones that hold your internal organs in place, are primary targets of the virus. Read more about 10 reasons that make the Ebola virus deadly for humans.
With inputs from IANS
Photo source: Getty Images
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