Title: Chapter 1: What is Ebola and what does it do to the body? | Mercy Corps
Headings: Chapter 1: What is Ebola and what does it do to the body?
Chapter 1: What is Ebola and what does it do to the body?
What exactly is Ebola?
What happens to your body when you get Ebola?
What causes an Ebola outbreak to start?
What causes Ebola to spread?
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How can you protect yourself against Ebola?
Is there a vaccine to prevent Ebola?
What are the long-term health effects of Ebola?
Can Ebola be treated?
Can you survive Ebola without treatment?
How much does it cost to treat Ebola?

Content: Factors such as quality medical care and quick intervention greatly affect a person's chance of survival. What causes an Ebola outbreak to start? Scientists believe an Ebola outbreak begins when a human comes into contact with an infected animal. This might be an infected fruit bat or a non-human primate. Even though animals are thought to start Ebola outbreaks, scientists are still not sure exactly how the virus is transmitted by an animal. They suspect the disease spreads from animal to person by eating something that had contacted infected bodily fluid from an animal, or by getting blood in the eyes from butchering an infected animal for meat. In a review published in 2015, during the largest Ebola outbreak in Africa, researchers evaluated the connection between Ebola virus transmission and food. They found that there is a far greater relationship between food and Ebola than they had expected. Meat from wildlife such as rodents, bats, shrews and nonhuman primates have been found to be infected with the Ebola virus. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) have noted that eating and handling infected meat has led to transmission.