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CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 · Avicenna J Med 2017; 07(03): 96-102
DOI: 10.4103/ajm.AJM_150_16
REVIEW ARTICLE

Ebola virus disease: Essential clinical knowledge

Mahmoud Tawfik Khalafallah
Department of Ophthalmology, Faculty of Medicine, Menoufia University, Menoufia
,
Omar Ali Aboshady
Dalaton Primary Health Centre, Ministry of Health; Egypt
Clinical Pharmacology, Faculty of Medicine, Menoufia University, Menoufia
Student Research Unit, Faculty of Medicine, Menoufia University, Menoufia
,
Shaban Ahmed Moawed
Student Research Unit, Faculty of Medicine, Menoufia University, Menoufia
,
Menna Said Ramadan
Student Research Unit, Faculty of Medicine, Menoufia University, Menoufia
› Author Affiliations Financial support and sponsorship Nil.
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Abstract

Since its initial outbreak in 1976, Ebola virus disease (EVD) has affected thousands of people, causing severe illness with high mortality rates. In the absence of a vaccine or effective specific treatment, as well as the lack of early diagnostic and detective methods, the EVD outbreak has generated a significant worldwide health concern. Insufficient health-care system resources, deficient infection control measures, and the shortage of appropriate personal protective equipment acted as amplifiers of the outbreak extension, especially in poorly resourced and unprepared communities. Operating on the frontlines, health-care workers must be familiar, not only with the identification of the disease, but also with the ability to protect themselves and initiate the appropriate response. This review seeks to provide essential information required to identify and manage the disease, with an emphasis on pathogenesis, transmission, diagnosis, treatment, and prevention. We conducted a literature search in MEDLINE/PubMed and Google Scholar using the following keywords: “Ebola, Ebola virus disease, Hemorrhagic Fever, Outbreak.” We included all types of publications. To augment our study, we searched the reference lists of identified reviews.

Keywords

Ebola (MeSH) - Ebola vaccines (MeSH) - Ebola virus (MeSH) - hemorrhagic fever


Publication History

Article published online:
09 August 2021

© 2017. Syrian American Medical Society. This is an open access article published by Thieme under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonDerivative-NonCommercial-License, permitting copying and reproduction so long as the original work is given appropriate credit. Contents may not be used for commercial purposes, or adapted, remixed, transformed or built upon. (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).

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