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scientist ask in fighting the first outbreak of Ebola in 1976 are pointing to a all important difference between that outbreak and the current one in West Africa : the behavior changes among the touched community .
Ina novel studypublished today ( Oct. 6 ) , researchers revisited datum from the Ebola eruption in the Democratic Republic of Congo in 1976 ( then get it on as Zaire ) to inquire why that outbreak was cursorily contained , whereas the current outbreak rapidly spiraled out of control .
This aerial photograph shows the small village of Yambuku in Zaire, where in 1976, the first signs of the Ebola virus appeared in a patient treated at a mission hospital run by Flemish nuns.
The 1976 outbreak was confined to one small town and affected 318 people , leave in 280 deaths . Sincethe current outbreakbegan in former 2014 , more than 7,400 the great unwashed have been infect and about 3,400 mass have died of Ebola , accord to the World Health Organization .
In 1976 , the outbreak was retrace back to pollute needles at a infirmary , where only five panpipe were used each day to treat all the affected role . The closure of the infirmary helped ; however , the research worker retrieve evidence that the rate of new example decreased well even before that infirmary closed . [ Ebola Virus : 5 Things You Should Know ]
The declination of the outbreak most likely resulted from changes in the community ’s doings , such as alteringtraditional burial practicesso that people could avoid catch the virus from dead patient , the investigator said .
" Ebola is not something you’re able to just contain with infirmary - based measures alone , " Dr. Peter Piot , music director and prof of global wellness at the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine ( LSHTM ) , said in a statement . Piot had traveled to what was then call Zaire to enquire the first eruption of Ebola , an entirely obscure computer virus at the time .
" Getting the content out into the community and getting the great unwashed to deepen their demeanour is decisive if we are to bring the current outbreak under control . Measures such asisolating patients , contact tracing and survey - up surveillance , and residential area education are all part of the response , " Piot said .
In the new report , the investigator used data on the original 1976 affected role , along with Piot ’s handwritten bill , to canvas how the computer virus transmission system blossom forth during that first outbreak . Using a numerical poser , the researchers showed the rate of transmission at the start of that outbreak was high enough for it to have become an epidemic as large as the current outbreak in Liberia , Sierra Leone and Guinea , the investigator enjoin .
But it did n’t , and that ’s because people deepen their behavior to reducethe transmission of the computer virus .
" Crucially , we can see that this behavior change happened quickly — within a few weeks , " Colorado - author Anton Camacho , also of the LSHTM .
Such a change in people ’s conduct has not been determine in the current outbreak , the researchers said .
" As well as a huge external reaction , in - country exploit are need to treat the fear and mistrust of health workers and governments , " Piot tell . " We are a longsighted way off catching up with the current eruption , and even further from being in controller of it . "
