Viruses, Infections & Disease, features and articles | Educational Science

Nov 10, 2015

How Ebola Spread: Map Could Aid Outbreak Responses

A new map reveals the path that the Ebola virus took during the outbreak in Sierra Leone, giving a detailed picture of how and where the disease spread, a new study said. The researchers made the map using a new statistical model, and they say it could be used in...

Nov 25, 2015

Another American Ebola Survivor Had Eye Problems

Ebola survivor Dr. Ian Crozier wasn't the only American to experience eye problems following the disease — a new report describes eye problems in another American doctor who lived through the disease. Dr. Richard Sacra, who works for the Christian mission organization SIM USA, contracted Ebola last year while caring...

Nov 25, 2015

Liberia Suffers New Ebola Death, Despite Being 'Ebola-Free'

The death of a 15-year-old boy from Ebola in Liberia — a country that has been declared free of the disease twice — raises the question of why cases are still popping up in the country, experts say. The teenager, who died Tuesday (Nov. 24), tested positive for the disease...

Dec 16, 2015

US Ebola Survivors Suffering Health Problems, Report Finds

The small number of people in the U.S. who contracted Ebola have all experienced complications from the disease after they recovered, including hair loss, joint pain and eye problems, according to a new report. Researchers surveyed the eight people who were treated for Ebola in the United States during 2014,...

Jan 6, 2016

Ebola Fight: Survivors' Blood Doesn’t Help, But Malaria Drug Might

Since the latest Ebola outbreak began, researchers have renewed their search for an effective way to fight the deadly virus. Now, a new study finds that giving Ebola patients a drug that is currently used to treat malaria may lower their risk of dying from the virus by almost one-third....

Jan 13, 2016

Scientists Make Gains on 'Universal' Ebola Medicine

Scientists have created a single treatment that may fight the two deadliest strains of the Ebola virus. The treatment is 100 percent effective in protecting laboratory mice against these strains. The current Ebola medicine now being tested in humans, called ZMapp, is only aimed at the Zaire Ebola strain, which...

Jan 14, 2016

Ebola Outbreak Declared Over in West Africa

West Africa is now free of Ebola, marking an end to the devastating epidemic that plagued the region for two years. The three hardest-hit countries — Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone — have not had any new Ebola cases for at least 42 days, according to a statement from the...

Jan 15, 2016

West Africa Is Not 'Ebola Free' After All, New Case Shows

The Ebola outbreak in West Africa is not over — just one day after the region was declared Ebola-free, a new case of the virus was confirmed in Sierra Leone. The new case involved a 22-year-old woman, who was found dead in northern Sierra Leone and tested positive for the...

Feb 22, 2016

Scientists Isolate Antibodies That Fight Ebola

An Ebola survivor's blood and a new technique for isolating immune cells may have opened up new ways to combat the deadly virus. In a new study, researchers took antibodies from an Ebola patient who showed a particularly strong immune response against the virus, isolated the groups of antibodies that...

Feb 24, 2016

Ebola May Leave Survivors with Lasting Problems in Brain, Nerves

Although experts recently declared the world's largest Ebola outbreak over, many people who were infected with the virus are still experiencing neurologic problems, according to a new study. Researchers found that, among a group of 82 Ebola survivors in Liberia, nearly all had some neurologic problems at six months or...

Mar 15, 2016

Experimental Drug Mixture Protects Monkeys from Ebola Virus

An experimental drug mixture can successfully fight the Ebola virus in monkeys, fully protecting them from lethal infections, according to a new study. The finding may pave the way for a therapy that is broadly protective against Ebola viruses in Africa, researchers say. Unlike a vaccine, the new drug mixture...

Sep 6, 2016

Strange Stroke Stories: Ebola, Hickeys and Other Weird Causes

In August, a 17-year-old Mexican boy reportedly died of a stroke that resulted from a hickey, according to Hoy Estado de México, a local Mexican news source. As strange as it sounds, his case was not the first of its kind: A 44-year-old Māoriwoman in New Zealand also had stroke...

Oct 12, 2016

Promising Ebola Drug ZMapp: The Real Lessons of an Inconclusive Study

In the midst of the 2014 Ebola outbreak, a drug called ZMapp was one of the most promising treatments for the disease. But now researchers have published a study of the medication in people, and the results are somewhat anticlimactic. Rather than providing an answer to whether ZMapp can really...

Nov 16, 2016

People with Ebola May Not Show Symptoms

People who have Ebola may not always have symptoms, a new survey confirms. Researchers who conducted the survey in a known Ebola hotspot in West Africa found 14 people who tested positive for Ebola antibodies, but who reported that they never had any significant symptoms. Two of these people said...

May 18, 2017

Ebola Survivor's Blood Could Lead to Future Vaccine

The West African Ebola outbreak, which peaked between August and September 2014, killed 11,310 people, according to the World Health Organization. But some people survived, and from one comes hope. Researchers report today (May 18) in the journal Cell that the blood from one of the survivors contains remarkable antibodies...