4 October 2014 14:06 clock

delivery of Ebola patients on 08.27.2014 (archive picture)

posting of Ebola patients on 08.27.2014 (Archive) | © George Wendt / dpa

The first treated in Germany Ebola patient has left the hospital healthy. “He’s fine, and he is no longer infectious for many days. We are very pleased for him that he can now return to his homeland,” it said in a statement of the University Hospital Eppendorf (UKE). The dismissal took place therefore on Friday.

A native of Senegal man was infected, according to the World Health Organization during use in a laboratory in Sierra Leone. He was taken to UKE with a Spezialjet for treatment on 27 August.

The University Hospital is able to provide one of nine German specialty treatment centers, patients with highly infectious diseases such as Ebola. They have specially trained personnel and isolation. There are decontamination locks, permanent vacuum and special air filters ensure that no pathogens escape.

Origin of Ebola?

His name carries the Ebola virus after a River foothills of the Congo . 1976, the director of a mission school in the jungle village Yambuku in Zaire had bought (now the Democratic Republic of Congo) with a colleague on a trip on the banks of the Ebola River a freshly killed monkeys .

bushmeat was then, as now on the menu of the locals. A few days later, both men were dead. During the weeks it ill in Yambuku 318 people, 280 died. In the same year the same disease occurred in neighboring Sudan :., Where the Ebola virus killed 151 of 284 patients in whom the infection was detected

The fact that earlier in the former Zaire existed , showed in 1977 that time the pathogen was detected in the dead body of a doctor who was five years ago died from a mysterious fever disease after he autopsied the body of a young man and on this finger had been injured. As it turned out later, they were both in 1972 infected with Ebola.

Until now, the pathogen only in the Ivory Coast, Gabon, Republic of Congo, the Democratic Republic of Congo, South Africa, Sudan and Uganda emerged. The current outbreak now to the West African countries of Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone. He is so far the worst in history.

infected monkeys and bats

Today we know that the 1976 isolated virus Gorillas, chimpanzees, antelopes and people affects. Since the excitation is transferred from the animal world, count the Ebola disease to the zoonoses .

Bats carry the viruses in it, be it but not sick. Certain bat species are considered the natural reservoir of the Ebola virus. The final proof is still pending. The origin of all known outbreaks among humans was either an infected monkey or a bat.

Ebola forms with the Marburg virus, the family of filoviruses . Depending on the origin, differentiation is five species of Ebola viruses: Zaire, Sudan, Bundibugyo, Côte d’Ivoire-(Ivory Coast) and occurring in the Philippines Reston strain . Only the Reston variant of the Ebola virus is harmless to humans.

transmission and disease progression

The Ebola Virus is transmitted body fluids such as blood, saliva, urine, sweat and tears but also liquid . Experts call this smear infections. However, can be spread from human to human, the virus only once infected show symptoms first. Until this happens, it can up to three weeks take.

is similar to the first phase of the Ebola outbreak of influenza. The sufferers have high fever, complain of muscle pain, diarrhea and vomiting . Only later did it often leads to internal bleeding and eventually organ failure, which can lead to death. Depending on Ebola type die 60 to 90 percent of the patients.

A second Ebola patient is in the night of Friday the University Hospital Frankfurt am Main has been added. According to Hesse’s Minister of Social Affairs Stefan Grüttner (CDU) is an employee of an Italian aid organization, who comes from Uganda and also infected as a doctor in Sierra Leone in the care of patients with Ebola virus.