ation amongst the population.- Quarantining of Ebola patients (this is permitted but not required).- Supervising international travel.- Improving communications for epidemiological education and notification, and coordination of health organizations.- Encouraging hospital personnel to use the patient isolation method called the ‘barrier technique’, which includes: 1) doctors and nurses wearing protective clothing like masks and gloves, 2) restricting the patients’ visitors, 3) sterilization of reusable material, 4) disposing and incineration of disposable material right after their first and only use, and 5) all hard surfaces being cleaned with sanitizing solution.Little is known about this deadly virus, and there has been very slow but gradual advances in the studies of Ebola. A science milestone was created in 1976 when Dr. Frederick A. Murphy, the director for the National Center for Infectious Diseases (now of the University of California), made the first electron micrograph of the virus that killed hundreds in Zaire and Sudan at that time. The image was a magnification of 160 000 times of a most elegantly coiled organism (Fig.1.2). But looks can deceive – and even kill. The now-famous photograph made an appearance in the 1995 film Outbreak, and is currently splashed all over the website pages of many Ebola fans. But there’s a lot more to discovery and investigation than merely capturing the virus on film. The image has only set the ball rolling for even more intensive research about the Ebola – there is still a lot more we have yet to know about it. For example, we are still unsure about its natural reservoir, where it lies dormant. Studies are currently taking place in Cote d’Ivoire (Ivory Coast), Gabon and Zaire relating to this matter. So far, only monkeys have been identified as vectors as well as hosts of the Ebola virus. The Center of Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), World Health...
