** WARNING ** Long read. TL;DR in second paragraph That, is a representation of an Ebola virus cell. It's is composed of RNA or DNA strands and a few proteins. If you don't want to read this rather lengthy representation of Ebola, here is the TL;DR version: Ebola turns the immune system against itself, until it reaches it's last resort, where it basically makes the immune system deplete your body of the resources needed to function. It's DNA is basically what Ebola actually is (that's what DNA is for anything, really). It's basically that cells guide to itself. The proteins are in place to simply feed it until it can connect itself to Dendritic Cells. Dendritic cells are basically the bodies self defense mechanism (immune system) scouts. It gains information about a virus, and carries it to virgin B cells, and the B cells take the information and create anti-bodies, which are used to destroy a virus. When an Ebola cell enters the body, it targets these Dendritic cells, destroys what they are, and makes them production cells for more of the Ebola virus. Ebola cells latch on to the Dendritic cell, and send it's RNA into the dendritic cell. It then replaces the information the dendritic cells information with it's own, turning it into an "Ebola producer". Essentially, these Dendritic cells are turned into Ebola producing zombies. Now, that was only part of it. Because it looks like a dendritic cell, the body doesn't do anything because it doesn't notice anything is happening. Now, there are cells that are designed to notice this sort of thing, let's call them Natural Killer Cells. They basically keep cells from getting out of hand. The Natural Killer Cells attempt to destroy these Ebola zombies, but the Ebola zombies latch onto them and essentially tell the Natural Killer Cells, to kill themselves. How ironic? After this, Ebola spreads like wild fire. The zombie cells are producing Ebola virus cells in billions, and causing havoc throughout the body. The Ebola cells, if they don't kill these Natural Killer Cells, infect them. They also infect the bodies guards too (Macrophages and Monocytes). These infected guards tell the cells that actually make blood, to release fluid into the body. In this case, it isn't a good thing (but it usually is ). Now, when this happens, the blood making cells are tricked into fighting the zombie guards (ebola infect macrophages and monocytes), which they really shouldn't do. It isn't their job to fight virus', and this eventually just leads into more havoc. Basically, your body starts internally bleeding and slows the rate of production of blood cells. At this point, Ebola starts to target the liver, causing it to fail, and it also causes more internal bleeding. Basically, your body has nukes going of inside of it literally everywhere. Once this has happened, your body has decided to use it's last line of defense: a Cytokine Storm. A Cytokine Storm is basically an SOS signal, and tells the body to release everything it has. It uses up the body's resources (water, energy, protein, etc.) as a last effort to destroy the virus. If you've reached this point, the chances of you living are very slim. Your body ends up using all it's resources, and you've most likely reached a fatal point where the body cannot replenish it's resources fast enough. This will ultimately lead to death. Should you be worried about Ebola? No The media makes it out to be something much larger than it is. Yes, 6/10 people with Ebola die. Sinece June 2013, 5000 people have died from Ebola (estimate). But the common Flu kills 500,000 people a year. Ebola isn't something you should worry about. Ebola can only be spread if your body intakes (mouth, nose, etc.) a fluid from someone infected with the virus. Just don't eat their poop! There you have it; Ebola explained.
Ebola is just a fancy name for the Solanum Virus. Allow me to elaborate. Solanum is a virus, derived from Plants. If the host eats these plants,he becomes infected with the solanum virus, which is spread through Bodily Fluid Contact. (E.g. Bite, Kiss, sexual Contact) The host then feels the urge to feed and sustain his body, and reproduce, through bite.
I see you've read the Zombie Survival Guide. Back on topic, Ebola is portrayed as dangerous but as you said, it isn't as dangerous as one would think. The vaccine being created is to stop people dieing but its mainly political. What about it evolving? Or genetic engineering by terrorists. The chances of these happening are very slim though but surely we can't rule out possibilities.
See, that's the type of Terrorism I worry about. Weaponized Ebola, Chemical Attacks, etc. And they are leaning toward those more and more. Imagine Weaponized Anthrax released on a muggy New York Subway.
I recently was given a civil war 3 scenario in my history class. We have to create a government based on this scenario, but that doesn't matter. In the end of the scenario, America is divided into 5 parts, all fighting each other. Chine ends up giving a weapon used Ebola bomb to Hawaii to deploy against the western side of America.