Emerging Viruses: Comparing the Infectiousness and Mortality Rate in Ebola and Influenza

Inverted Geese: Lydia Grasso, Jon Benny, Juan Pablo, Nikhil Illa, Abbigale Murphy, Jacqueline Baba

What is Ebola?•The name “Ebola” comes from the Ebola river that runs through tropical African countries. •It is a flivoviors virus which is categorized as belonging to the virus family Filoviridae

Purpose•We are seeking to understand the impact of infectiousness and total population deaths, with deaths per infected individual. •Using the examples of Ebola and Influenza (common flu) and the comparison of their infectiousness and lethality.•Since Ebola has a high mortality rate but low infection rate and Influenza has a high infection rate and low mortality rate, the comparison of these two viruses will help further explain the impact of infectiousness and help us to assess the likelihood of contracting Ebola ourselves.

What is Influenza?•Influenza is most commonly known as the flu. •It’s a viral infection of the nose, throat, and lungs.

How does it spread?•The Ebola virions enter the host cells through endocytosis and replication occurs in the cytoplasm.•Upon infection, the virus targets the host blood coagulative and immune defense system and leads to severe immunosuppression.

How deadly is Ebola?•It’s insanely effective once it is transmitted and usually kills within 5-10 days.•The CDC reports that there have been about 1500 deaths related to Ebola since 1976•The average death rate upon infection is 70%.

Why is the infectivity low and the mortality rate high?•The virus is transmitted primarily fluid to fluid but can also be passed body to body.•Because it isn’t airborne, big outbreaks are shown quickly and declines quickly due to the effectiveness of the virus at causing death.•Therefore the virus can be contained quickly and the infectivity is low.•The virus breaks down the clotting factor in the blood. This causes the blood to thin out exponentially leading to blood loss from all body orifices.•Many tribes in Africa (where the virus originated) have rituals that involve touching the dead.This led to a large spread of infections from deaths that were contributed to Ebola.

How does it spread?•The virus infects a host by using the host’s cell surface proteins to inject its genetic material to be replicated throughout the cell and eventually spreading throughout the organism.•It is transmitted through the air (i.e. coughs, sneezes, etc.) •It can be contracted through contact with contaminated surfaces

How deadly is Influenza?•Seasonal flu deaths range year to year, it has been estimated that the flu-associated deaths from 1976-2007 range from a low of 3,000 to a high of 49,000.•90% of influenza-associated deaths occur among adults 65 years or older.•The ratio of infected individuals to mortality rate is 0.45%.

Why is the infectivity high and the mortality low?

•Influenza is an airborne virus therefore can be spread quickly and easily to a large group before being controlled.•People are often un-hygienic. The disease spreads when people don’t wash their hands, cover their mouth when they sneeze or cough, etc.

Comparing the Two Viruses Where and when the virus can be traced back to:

• Influenza can be traced back for hundred of thousands of years

• Ebola has only been traced back as far as the mid-70’s and has only really spread in third world countries in Africa.

Since influenza virus was discovered hundreds of years ago there’s been plenty of time to create a vaccine, in which a new one is released each year to fight a particular strain of influenza.Whereas there is really no vaccine to fight or cure any strain of Ebola

AcknowledgmentsWe would like to thank those who helped this exchange happen. Special thanks to Sanofi/Genzyme, Dean Andrew Grosovsky, professor Hager, and Julie from the university of Glasgow.

•Influenza is a very evolved virus. It infects within 48 hours and leaves symptoms that last for a while without automatically killing them. •The vaccine allows the death toll to be lowered dramatically.

The Ebola Virus The Influenza Virus