The Ebola Virus :: Ebola Hemorrhagic Fever

The Ebola VirusINTRODUCTION     The most deadly killers on this country ar too small to see with thenaked eye. These microscopic predators atomic number 18 computer computer computer computer viruses. In my report, I willanswer many basic questions concerning iodin of the fastest killing viruses, theEbola virus. Questions such as "How does it infect its victims?", "How areEbola victims hardened?", "How are Ebola outbreaks controlled?" and many othersrelated to this deadly virus.GENERAL INFORMATION     The Ebola virus is a member of the ostracise stranded RNA viruses knownas filoviruses. There are four different strains of the Ebola virus - Zaire(EBOZ), Sudan (EBOS), Siamese (EBOT) and Reston (EBOR). They are very similarexcept for small serological differences and divisor sequence differences. TheReston Strain is the only one which does not affect humans. The Ebola viruswas named after the Ebola river in Zaire , Africa after its first outbreak in1976. twist     When magnified by an electron microscope, the ebola virus resembles longfilaments and are ropy in exploit. It usually is found in the form of a "U-shape". There are many 7nm spikes which are 10nm apart from each other visibleon the surface of the virus. The average length and diameter of the virus is920nm and 80nm. The virons are highly variable in length (polymorphic), someattaining lengths as long as 14000nm. The Ebola virus consists of a helicalnucleocapsid, which is a protein come up and the nucleic acid it encloses, and ahost cell membrane, which is a lipoprotein unit that surrounds the virus andderived form the host cells membrane. The virus is composed of 7 polypeptides,a nucleoprotein, a glycoprotein, a polymerase and 4 other undesignated proteins.These proteins are synthesized by mRNA that are transcribed by the RNA of thevirus. The genome consists of a single strand of negative RNA, which is noninfectious itself. The order of it is as follows 3 untranslated region,nucleoprotein, viral structured protein, VP35, VP40 glycoprotein, VP30, VP24,polymerase(L), 5 untranslated region. HOW IT INFECTS     Once the virus enters the body, it travels through the blood stream andis replicated in many organs. The mechanism employ to penetrate the membranes ofcells and enter the cell is still unknown. Once the virus is within a cell, theRNA is transcribed and replicated. The RNA is transcribed, producing mRNA whichare utilize to produce the virus proteins. The RNA is replicated in the cytoplasmand is mediated by the entailment of an antisense positive RNA strand whichserves as a template for producing superfluous Ebola genomes. As the infectionprogresses, the cytoplasm develops "prominent inclusion bodies" which means that