Abstract

A OVERVIEW ON: COMPARITIVE STUDY OF EBOLA VIRUS & H1N1 (SWINE FLUE) VIRUS

Akash A. Jain*, Lalit S. Jain, Roshan R. Jain, Shubham I. Patil, Sapana M. Ragade, Dr. Shashikant D. Barhate

Abstract

Ebola virus is transmitted to people as a result of direct contact with body fluids containing virus of an infected patient. The incubation period usually lasts 5 to 7 d and approximately 95% of the patients appear signs within 21 d after exposure. Typical features include fever, profound weakness, diarrhea, abdominal pain, cramping, nausea and vomiting for 3-5 days and maybe persisting for up to a week. Laboratory complications including elevated aminotransferase levels, marked lymphocytopenia and thrombocytopenia may have occurred. Hemorrhagic fever occurs in less than half of patients and it takes place most commonly in the gastrointestinal tract. The symptoms progress over the time and patients suffer from dehydration, stupor, confusion, hypotension, multi-organ failure, leading to fulminant shock and eventually death. The most general assays used for antibody detection are direct IgG and IgM ELISAs and IgM capture ELISA. An IgM or rising IgG titer (four-fold) contributes to strong presumptive diagnosis. Duration of viral shedding following infection is an important determinant of disease transmission, informing both control policies and disease modelling. We undertook a systematic literature review of the duration of influenza A(H1N1)pdm09 virus shedding to examine the effects of age, severity of illness and receipt of antiviral treatment. Studies were identified by searching the PubMed database using the keywords „H1N1‟, „pandemic‟, „pandemics‟, „shed‟ and „shedding‟. Any study of humans with an outcome measure of viral shedding was eligible for inclusion in the review. Comparisons by age, degree of severity and antiviral treatment were made with forest plots. The search returned 214 articles of which 22 were eligible for the review. Significant statistical heterogeneity between studies precluded meta-analysis. The mean duration of viral shedding generally increased with severity of clinical presentation, but we found no evidence of longer shedding duration of influenza A(H1N1)pdm09 among children compared with adults.

Keywords: H1N1 virus, Ebola virus, Swine flue, Treatment, Prevention.