摘要
The Ebola virus is a zoonotic pathogen causing hemorrhagic fever disease with a high mortality rate.The distribution of this pathogen has been limited to woodlands from Central and West Africa and the forest-savannah ecotone in East Africa.The likely reservoir species are frugivorous bats living in these areas.This pathogen is becoming an increasing threat to human populations since its distribution range is expanding faster than expected.The current Ebola outbreaks in Western Africa and in the Democratic Republic of Congo have rapidly spread infecting high numbers of individuals in five African countries.The disease has reached the United States and Spain.This expansion is due partly to increasing global connectivity.This situation represents a new challenge to control the spread of the disease.Experimental drugs have been used to treat a few infected people with promising results.This gives hope for an effective treatment against Ebola hemorrhagic fever in the near future,though thousands of people remain at risk of infection.The present review aims to give an update of the knowledge on the disease,including features of the Ebola virus,the history of disease outbreaks in Africa and the tools that are being developed in order to control this re-emergent disease.
