It is clear that this is no longer an outbreak of Ebola, it's a breakout of Ebola. We are now living in a post-containment world. Fortunately, this virus has vulnerabilities, and we can quickly improve our immune defense. When the protective suits and procedures fail to keep Ebola at arm's length, it becomes a fight between the organism and the defense. As there is no vaccine and there are no Ebola-specific drugs, it's time to help Americans understand what can be done.
We have two types of immune defense: adaptive defense, which allows us to utilize preformed antibodies and anti-viral killer cells, and innate defense, which allows us to fight a microorganism we have never encountered. Both defenses are highly dependent upon the availability of vitamin D3. Once summer ends, the levels of D3 begin the seasonal decline and we experience a dramatic increase in viral diseases.
As many patients have learned, measuring and increasing the blood levels of vitamin D3 (25-OH vitamin D) can significantly reduce the incidence and severity of the cold and flu viruses. Unlike those seasonal viruses, we have had no prior Ebola infections, and the ongoing research into Ebola vaccines appears to be a future possibility, but not a current reality. Ebola is one of the enveloped viruses, which are highly vulnerable to cathelicidin. Vitamin D3 up regulates the production of cathelicidin and is central to any strategy seeking to upgrade viral immune system defense.
The formal name for Ebola is Ebola hemorrhagic fever. With fever being the early symptom, the hemorrhage is the late-stage sign that the patient ca
