Posted on 03/28/2014 6:34:35 PM PDT by Kartographer
Fears are growing that the most lethal form of the Ebola virus can mutate into an airborne pathogen, making the spread of the terrifying disease more difficult to check. It was previously thought the untreatable virus, which causes massive internal bleeding and multiple organ failure, could only be transmitted through contact with infected blood. But now Canadian researchers have carried out experiments showing how monkeys can catch the deadly disease from infected pigs without coming into direct contact.k
(Excerpt) Read more at dailymail.co.uk ...
That made me laugh, but you do know that your referenced comment and most others are humorous (but cautionary) in nature.
We have a truly fun, insightful group of people here. It’s the family you choose, rather than the family you are stuck with.
The veterinarians and techs that were dispatched to Reston from Ft. Detrick had some stories about that event. What amazed me is that the entire episode happened within an eighth of a mile from several fast food establishments, McDonalds. They used unmarked white vans to get there at night and were finished by daylight.
I know...but that WAS the first thing I thought of when I read this: “Great. Now I have another thing to worry about...”
I know there is nothing in the least funny about Ebola, but...hey, gotta find a way to stay sane!
Early explorers didn’t live long enough to document diseases like this.
Prior to the advent of modern vaccines and antibiotics, the life expectancy of a European in Subsaharan Africa was under a year.
That’s why slaves sold out of western African into the New World slave trade were captured and sold by other Africans.
Why would The Won want to keep the country calm if this ever does break-out in the US?
He, and the barbarians on the other end of his BlackBerry, want to see most of us dead and the rest in chains.
If an airborne-spread high-mortality disease of any sort broke-out in this country he, Michelle and VJ would be dancing a jig on the Resolute desk.
Yeah, but leaders have a bad habit of ending up dead at the hands of a mob when the citizenry get out of control over any kind of issue.
If, by “keep the country calm” you mean “suppress the insurrection”, you may have a point.
The father of Glenn Close was instrumental in stopping the 1976 outbreak. He was the physician to the President of Zaire.
http://mentalfloss.com/article/28269/how-glenn-close%E2%80%99s-dad-stopped-ebola-virus
The mortality for Ebola is ...well, it depends. It depends on which specific Ebola virus we are talking about. There are five different strains, with mortality ranging from 83-90% for the Zaire Ebola strain, through to 68% for the Sudan strain, to just 34% for the Uganda strain. It will be interesting to see the final mortality for this West African strain, and whether it is a new one. Considering the only prior West African strain is a Cote'D'Ivoire strain, which killed a bunch of chimpanzees and only infected one person, who survived, the fact that this W.African strain has killed many people indicates that it is probably a new strain. This would make the known Ebola strains to be 6 (Zaire, Uganda, Sudan, Cote D'Ivoire and Reston ...with Reston coming out of the Philippies originally and not Africa. This new one, let's call it W.Africa, would be six).
There is also the Marburg virus, which is similar to Ebola and can also be nasty, with mortality ranging from the low 20% to 100%. I guess it depends on your luck that day. What is interesting about Marburg is that this is the virus that the Soviets had spent a LOT of money weaponizing.
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