Epidemic

Origins

The Ebola virus disease (previously called Ebola haemorrhagic fever) is a serious disease which is often fatal, with a mortality rate that can reach 90%. As the name indicates, it is caused by the Ebola virus, which belongs to the filovirus family.

It appeared for the first time in 1976 with two simultaneous outbreaks, one in Yambuku, a village close to the Ebola river in the Democratic Republic of Congo, and the other in an isolated area in Sudan.

The origin of the virus is unknown, but currently available data seems to indicate that some fruit bats (Pteropodidae) may be possible hosts.

The virus is transmitted to humans from wild animals and then spreads throughout populations by human-to-human transmission.

The current epidemic (since 2013)

In December 2013, an exceptionally serious epidemic started in Guinea then spread to Sierra Leone, Liberia, Nigeria and Senegal.

Situation in the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg

No case of a person infected by the Ebola virus has yet been detected in the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg.

The risk of the virus spreading in Luxembourg is minute.

The possibility that an imported case, namely someone contaminated in a West African country where the epidemic is raging, could transmit the virus to the population, is even lower, given

• the small number of people passing through or returning from these countries;
• the information and care given to travellers coming from these countries;
• the procedures put in place to detect such cases and to apply the necessary measures to care for, diagnose and isolate patients.