When they find one in the shape of three 6's, .... never mind, they won't tell us.
Posted on 08/28/2014 3:27:01 PM PDT by BenLurkin
An international team of team of scientists has sequenced the RNA of 99 Ebola virus samples collected during the early weeks of the outbreak in Sierra Leone. The feat, described Thursday in the journal Science, gives researchers a powerful new tool in their effort to contain the deadly virus.
...
Scientists are already scouring that sequence for clues to help them design effective drugs and vaccines. It could take years to find them all, said Sabeti, who studies infectious diseases at Harvard and at the Broad Institute in Cambridge, Mass.
For now, evidence embedded in the RNA reveals that the Ebola virus responsible for killing at least 1,552 people so far originated with a single transmission from an animal to a human in Guinea. It also shows that this lineage, which first emerged in humans in 2013, diverged from other variants of Ebola in 2004.
Sabeti and her team began sequencing Ebola samples in June, just days after the virus was first detected in Sierra Leone on May 25. The results have been available to scientists on the National Center for Biotechnology Information’s website since mid-June, almost as soon as the sequencing machines spit them out. “We want to enable everyone in the scientific community to look at the genetic sequences at once and crowd-source a solution,” she said.
The urgency for better treatments is real for Sabeti and her colleagues. Five of the study co-authors in Sierra Leone have died of Ebola since contributing to the research.
(Excerpt) Read more at latimes.com ...
Just damn. BTT
This new strain of Ebola is apparently a rapidly evolving one. They managed to witness that mutating in real time.
Wall off the infected area now. Anyone foolish enough to go in stays in quarantine before leaving.
From wiki:
Like all filoviruses, ebolavirions are filamentous particles that may appear in the shape of a shepherd’s crook or in the shape of a “U” or a “6”, and they may be coiled, toroid, or branched.[38] In general, ebolavirions are 80 nm in width, but vary somewhat in length. In general, the median particle length of ebolaviruses ranges from 974 to 1,086 nm (in contrast to marburgvirions, whose median particle length was measured at 795–828 nm), but particles as long as 14,000 nm have been detected in tissue culture.
Is it not likely to become “airborn” due to it’s size?
Where is Mother Abigail when you need her?
There are a lot of brave people involved in this.
When they find one in the shape of three 6's, .... never mind, they won't tell us.
Who better would know how to avoid infection than those studying the virus' spread? That should tell you that they really don't understand how it is spread.
It could be much more interesting than we’d like, if it began traveling like the flu and unlocked victim’s immune systems for some kind of MRSA-like staph infection.
The top researchers are suiting up, taking all the right precautions and they're still dying like flies. Things are not going as the experts expect. The disease spreads despite all of their efforts to stay safe.
But they tell us we have nothing to worry about. I'm wearing shorts and a t-shirt, so I guess I have nothing to fear. [/s]
A link to this thread has been posted on the Ebola Surveillance Thread
Thanks for the ping!
You’re Welcome, Alamo-Girl!
Bring Out Your Dead
Post to me or FReep mail to be on/off the Bring Out Your Dead ping list.
The purpose of the “Bring Out Your Dead” ping list (formerly the “Ebola” ping list) is very early warning of emerging pandemics, as such it has a high false positive rate.
So far the false positive rate is 100%.
At some point we may well have a high mortality pandemic, and likely as not the “Bring Out Your Dead” threads will miss the beginning entirely.
*sigh* Such is life, and death...
Thank you for the flag.
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