Posted on 05/25/2004 5:42:06 PM PDT by genefromjersey
Some of you may have read posts here about a Russian scientist,working in the notorious Vector lab, who accidentally injected herself while trying to inject guinea pigs with Ebola virus.
I'm trying to imagine why the Vector lab-recipient of considerable US financial assistance (given to help Russia clean up its horrendous biowarfare program ) is still fooling around with Ebola.
Humanitarian reasons ? I'm having trouble picturing cash-starved Russia suddenly getting dewey-eyed over the plight of Suffering Africa,and working night and day on a cure for Ebola.
Given the fact (so far) Human Ebola is known to infect only humans,why was the dedicated researcher injecting it into guinea pigs ? Was she testing a new strain ? If so, why ?
For that matter,where did Human Ebola come from ? How does a disease-which has no known "reservoir" except humans stay live ?
My science is pretty weak,and comes from long ago and far away - but I do know how to read.
There seem to be 4 strains of Ebola. One,Ebola-Reston,is found only in primates.( It is the disease referred to in "Outbreak",and got its name from lab monkeys in Reston, Va. that came down with it: scaring hell out of the medical research establishment.)
There are 3 strains of Ebola, that are found( so far) only in humans. They are : Ebola-Sudan,which is genetically closest to Ebola-Reston.It is also somewhat less lethal than its "competitors" : Ebola-Zaire, and Ebola-Ivory Coast.
Human Ebola was first recognized in 1976: a time when there was still significant Soviet presence in Zaire (now known as the Democratic Republic of the Congo. The Vector lab, in Novosibirsk,Siberia was then about 2 years old,heavily funded,and working on increasingly nasty projects:many of which involved genetic manipulation.
Did the Human Ebola strains perhaps originate here ? Might they have been genetic manipulations of the "primates only" Reston strain ? Was that first emergence a deliberate "field test" ?
I've noticed Ebola outbreaks seem related to large-scale conflicts. (The Congo has a quite varied population,and more than a few old tribal enmities.)This leads me to ask myself the big question : Is the "mysterious reservoir" of Ebola actually some tightly sealed,closely guarded test tubes ?
A+Bert's Underwear?
,,, good points. I've wondered whether SARS and the Avian/bird flu were hybrids released for "let's see" experiments too.
Also a few years ago I read a book by Ken Ableck (sp) who worked for the biological weapons program in the former soviet union and subsequently defected to the U.S.
Both books are frightening
I think a lot of germs like Ebola are manmade experiments that got away from clandestine government operations. Having them in Africa was perfect. Make up some story about some pervert having sex with monkeys, or africans eating bushmeat, or hiking in some exotic cave somewhere and there's the excuse. SARS will one day be outed for a biological weapon experiment gone bad.
Cy, that's sort of what I suspect.SARS,for example, is related to the common cold virus.
When my sister was over in Japan, there was a lot of talk of things like avian bird flu,etc. being altered for 'other purposes'.
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