Friday, October 3, 2014

Ebola in West Africa: Germany appoints special envoy to fight Ebola

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Ebola in USGermany has appointed a special envoy to coordinate the aid efforts taken by the government to fight Ebola in Africa.


Walter Lindner, former regional adviser for African affairs, has been named as the new envoy and is entrusted with the task of coordinating aid efforts by the German government to fight Ebola, Xinhua reported citing a statement issued Thursday. Germany has stepped up its support for the battle against the deadly virus and is currently preparing for a series of concrete assistance measures, said the statement.




The government will help the German Red Cross to build a mobile hospital with over 200 beds and two basic health centres in African countries affected by Ebola.


Early symptoms of Ebola


Fever: Increase in body temperature is the first defence mechanism that the body uses to kill any foreign particle invading the body. When Ebola infects the body, it causes a release of various compounds like cytokines and histamines that pass on the signals of increasing body temperature. In fact, Ebola virus disease is also called the Ebola haemorrhagic fever, where the temperature can go above 38.6°C or 101.5°F.


Headache: It is the most common symptom of Ebola infection after fever, present in almost 96 percent of the cases. Nausea and headache along with fever present a typical case of common cold and flu. At this stage, the symptoms can be confused with other common infections.


Stomach pain: A few viral particles invade the liver and starts destroying the hepatocytes. New virions start damaging the intestinal cells causing abdominal pain.


Drop in blood pressure: The cytokines and histamines released by the immune cells, soon after the entry of the virus in the body, increases the permeability of the cells lining the blood vessels. This causes leakage of water from the blood into the surrounding tissues and a sudden drop in blood pressure.


With inputs from IANS


Image source: Getty images


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Ebola in West Africa: Germany appoints special envoy to fight Ebola

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