• Question: If you had ebola what would you try do to stop it

    Asked by anon-186396 to Verity, Trystan, Raquel, Danny, Catherine, Andy on 7 Nov 2018. This question was also asked by anon-186394.
    • Photo: Raquel Medialdea Carrera

      Raquel Medialdea Carrera answered on 7 Nov 2018:

      That’s an interesting question!
      Currently, there is no treatment for Ebola Virus. Researchers are trying to develop one and test it, however, it hasn’t been made commercially available yet. Therefore, when you have Ebola Virus, you cannot fight it, you can only rest well, eat and drink loads and wait for your immune system to try fighting the Ebola Virus.
      It is the same when you have the flu : you cannot take any medicine to stop the flu virus and all you can do is resting.
      The difference is that Ebola Virus is a very dangerous disease, and up to 9 of 10 persons that get infected, may die.

    • Photo: Catherine Smith

      Catherine Smith answered on 8 Nov 2018:

      I would most likely go to the “High Level Isolation Unit” at the Royal Free hospital in London. It;s a specialised unit is set up for the treatment of highly infectious diseases like Ebola.There is a sort of tent around the bed with controlled ventilation so that staff treating the patient aren’t exposed to the infection. Not a fun place to be but minimises the risk of anyone else getting the infection!

    • Photo: Danny Ward

      Danny Ward answered on 8 Nov 2018:

      If anyone is infected with Ebola, they are most often put in to an isolation or quarantine unit to stop the diseas spreading. I guess first thing I would do would get lots of books, movies or games to keep me busy while I’m in there if I can 😅. Scientists are working on antiviral drugs which are designed to stop viruses like Ebola. We don’t have a fully working one yet but we have some really strong developments so far that scientists are working on. If these were successfully approved and made it to market, I would start that treatment. Until that point though, it would be lots of bedrest to try to let my immune system fight the infection as much as it can. The best option of course is to not get infected in the first place so if I could wind the clock back in this situation a little earlier, I would make sure I took the Ebola vaccine developed after the last big outbreak a few years ago to help prevent me developing the disease.

    • Photo: Verity Hill

      Verity Hill answered on 8 Nov 2018:

      If you were in the UK, you would be taken to the hospital that Catherine is talking about!
      If you were in for example, Sierra Leone (where the outbreak was that I work on), you would try and wait for a safe ambulance to take you do an Ebola Treatment Centre, which is a specialised treatment unit that has zones for confirmed ebola patients. Once there, medical staff in protective equipment would give you fluids and antibiotics (to stop other infections).
      At some point hopefully an epidemiologist (like Raquel!) would come and ask you who you think you got it from, and who you might have given it to, so that those people can be found and isolated so that they don’t infect anyone else! This is called contact tracing and it is very important for Ebola.

    • Photo: Trystan Leng

      Trystan Leng answered on 8 Nov 2018:

      Ebola isn’t really my research area – so I’m sure everyone else has already answered this better than I could! I would seek treatment and hope to be put in quarantine so that Ebola wouldn’t spread to other people. There I would rest, receive fluids, oxygen to help my body’s immune response, and I would receive treatment for any secondary infections I can have that can be treated.

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