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  • This episode of DNews was proudly made possible by the all-new 2015 Subaru Legacy. It's not

  • just a sedan, it's a Subaru.

  • Ebola is a horrific infection that causes a horrible messy death, but technically

  • it's not the infection that kills you. It's you that kills you.

  • Hey DNewsers, Trace here. Ebola is ravaging West Africa, with over 1,400 dead and almost

  • 3,000 infected.[a][b] The outbreak is real, and horrible. And though it is a terrible

  • infection, it's not the virus, it's your immune system that's doing the killing due to a cytokine[c]

  • storm. But before we get ahead of ourselves, lemme explain how we got here.

  • Ebola or EVD was first identified in 1972[d]. Two simultaneous outbreaks occurred in the

  • Sudan and the Democratic Republic of Congo. Those two were likely infected by fruit bats,

  • and the virus was named for the Ebola river, which runs by the town in DRC where the virus

  • was found. Today, the outbreak is happening in West Africa, 2,500 miles from the DRC,

  • probably taken there by fruit bats. [e]

  • When a REGULAR virus infects you, cytokines are created in response to send signals to

  • the immune system. A cytokine is a protein produced by your body to send signals between

  • cells. There are many different kinds of cytokines and they're used by a bunch of your systems

  • -- including the immune system. The system then sends out dendritic cells, which eat

  • the infection, learn about it and then tell the immune system to produce antibodies, which

  • stop the brothers of that virus from further infecting the body. When ebola infects your

  • body, it attacks those immune systems that launch the dendritic cells first. Without

  • that dendritic instruction, the antibodies don't have any blueprints to use to combat

  • the virus. Thus, ebola replicates unabashedly, exploding cells and running wild, and eventually

  • immune system throws everything it has to try and stop it. That's the cytokine storm!

  • The cytokine storm is like your body's version of DefCon 1… all your body's defenses come

  • shooting into your bloodstream. There are antibodies and white blood cells flying everywhere

  • trying to destroy the infestation, but like Total Thermonuclear War from WarGames: it

  • does harm the enemy virus, but neither side wins.

  • Virologist Gaya Amarasinghe explained the whole thing to NPR and to put it simply, due

  • to the cytokine storm, the walls of your blood vessels become more permeable; thus blood

  • and plasma leaks into surrounding tissue, and sometimes out of the eyes, ears, and nose[f],

  • taking ebola with it. In response to it's own onslaught, your body releases nitric oxide

  • t[g]o try and regulate your blood pressure, but that nitric oxide damages the blood vessels

  • even more, thinning your blood and dropping your pressure further. This causes something

  • like septic shock, -- or shock due to low blood pressure.

  • So YES, ebola was killing your cells anyway and nothing was going to reign it in. But

  • the virologist put it this way, "The immune system is doing way more damage than good."

  • As you probably know, ebola is spread by infected bodily fluids. That includes blood, plasma,

  • stool, and urinebut also spit that might fly during conversation, sweat, and fluids

  • that leaks out of the body after death. The World Health Organization[h] says it's almost

  • always Human-to-Human (though it CAN be from infected meat) and it takes between 48 hours

  • and three weeks before a newly-infected person shows symptoms. They also say there are no

  • vaccines and no proven treatments. Though, it's important to note that infection isn't

  • a death sentence, because 47 percent of ebola carriers survive!

  • How does this make you feel about your immune system? Also, do you like WarGames? Because

  • that movie was awesome. We've got a comment section, so USE IT! For

  • more information on ebola cures, check out Carin's video, and come say hello to me on

  • Twitter, I'm Trace Dominguez. Thanks for watching DNews. And if you enjoyed it, please subscribe.

This episode of DNews was proudly made possible by the all-new 2015 Subaru Legacy. It's not

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