An infectious disease doctor explains why Covid-19 is deadlier than Ebola

Ebola is a virus that causes problems with how your blood clots. It is known as a haemorrhagic fever virus, because the clotting problems lead to internal bleeding, as blood leaks from small blood vessels in your body. The virus also causes inflammation and tissue damage.

The Democratic Republic of Congo species of Ebola kills somewhere between 40% to 90% of its victims, and usually upwards of 60% of infected people die, explains Dr. Mark Kortepeter, a physician and biodefense expert who formerly worked at the U.S. Army “hot zone” research lab.

The SARS-CoV-2 virus that causes Covid-19 illness, he adds, has proven to be deadlier than Ebola as the number of deaths from Covid-19 in Africa—more than 11,950—exceeded the total number of people who died during the largest-ever Ebola outbreak in West Africa, according to the World Health Organisation.

This danger in favour of Covid-19 is due to the fact that viruses do not like to kill their hosts. They have a much wider impact if their hosts do not die because this allows the virus to spread far and wide.

“When someone becomes ill with Ebola virus, they become bedridden very quickly. It’s really hard to be out in the community spreading disease if you are vomiting or having massive diarrhoea,” Dr. Kortepeter said.

“The people who are at greatest risk for Ebola infection are those who have very close contact taking care of the sick, bedridden victims—whether they are in the home or the hospital. Add to that, Ebola virus doesn’t spread until the victim has symptoms. This makes determining who is infected with Ebola and deciding who to isolate and quarantine much simpler than with Covid-19,” he adds.

“Some infected people can spread Covid-19 without symptoms or before they have symptoms. Such individuals won’t be bedridden at the time they are contagious. Instead, they can hang out at a beach party or in a bar and be spreading the virus without even knowing they have been infected. The more contagious a human host is, and the more social interactions they have in the community, the more opportunities there are for a virus to spread during those interactions, and the more it will spread,” Dr. Kortepeter shares.

Bottomline

Covid-19 has a lower fatality rate, on average, in a single patient, but can actually kill more people based on more people getting infected translating in more deaths.

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