VIRAL SPREAD

Deadly Eye-Bleeding Virus May Have Spread to Another Continent

Health authorities are working frantically to contain the alarming spread of the horrifying Ebola virus.

Health authorities may have just recorded Europe’s first cases of the current Ebola virus outbreak, in two humanitarian workers who returned to Italy from Uganda. The cases have not yet been confirmed, but the individuals appear to have developed symptoms, including high fever and nausea, that are consistent with the disease. Ebola can also cause horror-film symptoms such as bleeding from the eyes. There have been around 1,000 suspected cases and more than 230 reported deaths in Uganda and neighboring Democratic Republic of Congo. The strain responsible for the current outbreak is the Bundibugyo variant. It carries an estimated fatality rate of 25 percent to 40 percent, which is lower than other major strains, such as the Zaire and Sudan variants, which have mortality rates of up to 90 percent. But unlike the Zaire and Sudan strains, there is currently no approved vaccine or specific treatment for the Bundibugyo variant, which has spread rapidly across affected regions in Africa. The World Health Organization has declared the outbreak a “public health emergency of international concern.”