Ebola’s Dangerous Cousins: Beware the Neglected Filoviruses

American Council on Science and Health ^ | 15 Aug, 2016 | Alex Berezow

[MtnClimber]

Military conventional wisdom, in addition to ACSH President (and former Army officer) Hank Campbell, likes to remind us, “Governments are always fighting the last war.” They have a good point. Fifteen years after 9/11, we still ban non-ticketed passengers from entering airport terminals. Ten years after a failed attack in 2006, we cannot bring more than 3.4 oz of liquids onto an airplane, a policy that has resulted in TSA confiscating gigantic piles of 4-oz cups of applesauce. We continue to remove our shoes 15 years after the Shoe Bomber, but thankfully the Underwear Bomber didn’t provoke a similar “remove your skivvies” policy.

Similar to military strategy and national security, our public health system tends to fixate on the “last war.” Our approach, particularly when it comes to infectious disease, is too often reactionary rather than proactive. Thus, instead of focusing most of our efforts on what could be coming next, we are dumping limited resources on battles already fought.

....

The biomedical community has a rather myopic focus on just three of eight filoviruses: Ebola, Sudan, and Marburg. But, as the authors of a new paper in FEMS Microbiology Reviews argue, this could literally be a fatal mistake. Of the remaining five “neglected” filoviruses, three occasionally cause human disease and two are harmless to humans. However, there is no reason to assume that these five viruses will remain relatively docile. Viruses can and do mutate, after all. The Reston virus, a species of Ebola that does not cause illness in humans*, was featured in the real-life thriller The Hot Zone. (See chart. The viruses currently not known to cause human disease are highlighted in yellow.)

[MtnClimber]

The more turmoil in society the more the leftist totalitarians can justify more control over society. Even ebola was not too much risk. They were actively trying to cause an epidemic here.

[Pelham]

Remember ‘Mother Abigail’ who once posted here?

A retired CDC scientist who specialized in these scary as hell viruses. She was convinced that it’s only a matter of time until one mutates and hits us with a near-extinction event.

“I looked, and there before me was a pale horse! Its rider was named Death, and Hades was following close behind him. They were given power over a fourth of the earth to kill by sword, famine and plague, and by the wild beasts of the earth.”

Cheers!