More than 130 people are believed to have died following an outbreak of Ebola in Africa. Authorities in the Democratic Republic of the Congo have said almost 600 cases, and 139 deaths, are believed to be linked to the virus.
Cases have also been reported in neighbouring Uganda, and the World Health Organisation (WHO) has declared it a “public health emergency of international concern”. But the organisation has said the risk of the disease spreading globally is low.
Now one A&E doctor has explained why the virus should be taken seriously. Dr Ahmed, who has more than 560,000 followers on TikTok, where he describes himself as the “healthcare Gordon Ramsay”, laid out the potential seriousness of the outbreak.
Opening the clip, he said the virus was “not a laughing matter”. “The WHO has declared this a cause for international concern, but not – not – a pandemic-level concern,” he said.
“The Ebola virus spreads from faeces, vomiting, bodily fluid, semen, sweating, all that kind of stuff, through bodily contact and surface contact with stuff that is contaminated with those fluids. Once it’s inside your body it causes viral haemorrhagic fever.
“First it attacks a part of the immunity that would normally attack the virus itself, completely kills it. Now that it has suppressed it, it causes an extreme overreaction of your immunity inside your body, basically causing viral sepsis, which then results in DIC, Disseminated Intravascular Coagulation.”
He described DIC as: “Little clots, going everywhere in your body, causing loads of mini strokes and depleting your clotting factors, your platelets and everything else. You can no longer form clots, you start bleeding from everywhere – gums, eyes, nose, bum, pee, everything. And finally, this extreme and very painful bleeding episode causes death. And DIC has a very low, less than 10 per cent survival rate.”
Concluding, he said: “Just like hantavirus, there is no vaccine, there’s no real treatment other than wipes and prayers, that’s it, which is what all of us should be doing for the people of Congo and Uganda where this outbreak is mainly focussed.”
The UK’s Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office is to provide £20 million towards international efforts to contain the virus through support for frontline health workers, improved infection control and disease surveillance. Foreign secretary Yvette Cooper said: “It is vital we act now to save lives – outbreaks like Ebola do not stop at borders, and neither can we.”
Ms Cooper is expected to chair a meeting alongside new Health Secretary James Murray on Thursday to co-ordinate the UK’s response, including work to protect British nationals overseas. She added: “This outbreak is a stark reminder that global health threats require a global response. The UK is working hand-in-hand with partners – boosting much-needed funding but also sharing our technical expertise to contain the outbreak, protect our security and support those most at risk.”
The UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) has activated its “returning workers scheme” to monitor those travelling from the UK to the area for work, and is assessing routes that travellers use to enter the UK to ensure information on Ebola symptoms is available to those who need it.
Dr Mike Reynolds, incident director at the UKHSA, said the current outbreak was “serious” but posed a “low” risk to the UK population. He said: “UKHSA continues to monitor and assess the situation closely and the NHS has safe procedures in place for any such cases and specialist centres where they can be looked after.”
Ebola is a rare, highly contagious, and often fatal disease, generally transmitted via bodily fluids.
Symptoms include:
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- a high temperature
- extreme tiredness
- vomiting
- diarrhoea
- muscle pain
- bleeding
Outbreaks of the disease occur periodically in Africa, with the most severe taking place in West Africa between 2014 and 2016, leading to more than 11,000 deaths. That outbreak also saw three British nationals – two nurses and an aid worker – contract the disease. All three survived, and there have been no cases of human-to-human transmission in the UK.