Purdue researchers unlock secrets of Ebola

Sanders, and his lab team have studied Ebola and other viruses.

The researchers are working to, among other things, determine how the viruses structurally and biochemically enter human cells, and fend off attacks by the immune system.

Symptoms of Ebola infection include sudden fever, intense weakness and muscle pain followed by vomiting, diarrhea, impaired kidney and liver function, and internal and external bleeding, according to the World Health Organization.

The bleeding, known as Ebola hemorrhagic fever, is part of the body’s attempts fight off the virus, Sanders said.

“It isn’t the virus that damages the tissue,” he said, “it is the immunity system that causes the damage. It is an aberrant response to the virus.”