The Ebola and Marburg viruses are extremely lethal viruses that have
placed repugnant thoughts on the minds of many people that have any background
knowledge on this field of viral infections. Where does it come from? Where
does it hide? What could it do to me? As these questions burn holes in the
minds of many people, something should be done to learn more about these
horrendous viruses. People sometimes become scared stiff from the thought of
the bone-chilling effects from these viruses, and had good reason to. "Ebola,
the slate wiper, did things to people that you did not want to think about. The
organism was too frightening to handle even for those who were comfortable and
adept in space suits." (paperback pg.63-64 - Project Ebola).
A large, shy man by the name of Gene Johnson was the first pioneer to
venture out to find the roots of the Ebola and Marburg viruses. Gene spent
many years in Central Africa looking for these viruses. After digging up
virtually every piece of land in Central Africa, Gene Johnson wound up without
a single case or report of a virus. A man by the name of Charles Monet and a
young boy referred to in this book as Peter Cardinal both contracted the same
level 4 hot virus. There is only one connection between Charles and Peter.
"The paths of Charles Monet and Peter Cardinal had crossed at only one place on
earth, and that was inside Kitum Cave." (pg. 140 - Cardinal). Kitum Cave is
where the virus is expected to be living or where the history of the Ebola
virus lays. So Kitum Cave is where the search for the deadly virus begins.
Led by Gene Johnson, the team members on the Kitum Cave expedition set up many
differing animals inside the cave with the hope that one of the animals would
contract the virus. Even though the expedition's results came out negative,
Kitum Cave is still the only logical place where the virus thrives.
There have been a handful of outbreaks as the cause of a shipment of
monkeys to a civilized community. For example, this occurred from a monkey
shipment to an old city in central Germany. Killing 7 out of the 31 people it
infected, this virus would later be named after the city it erupted in, Marburg.
The monkeys posed as the host in this terrifying disaster. The possibility
that humans are the natural host is very, very unlikely. "...its original host
was probably not monkeys, humans, or guinea pigs but some other animal or insect
In The Hot Zone by Richard Preston, the account of the evolution of Ebola—where it originated and how it spread throughout Africa and other parts of the world before finally making its way to the United States—the point of view was not biased or fallacious, though it may have been slightly exaggerated. However, despite this, it was also the perfect choice of point of view to tell the story in.
The novel, “The Hot Zone”, by Richard Preston, is an extraordinary tale about a virus called the Ebola virus. The author interviews a number of different people that all had encounters with the virus and records their stories. He is very interested by what they tell him and throughout the novel he is always seeking to find more information about it. There were many different encounters in this book but in my summary I am going to explain the ones that interested me the most.
He was a disease expert at Fort Detrick 6. Gene Johnson: He was in charge of the Reston operation. He also was the discoverer of Ebola Sudan. 7.
The viruses are spread in many different ways in the novel, but all are due to human mistakes. One of the most common forms of errors found in the medical field is the recycling of soiled equipment. The repeated use of dirty medical equipment is found commonly in the poor regions of the world where resources are limited and fundings are bound. This is an example of the errors the human race performs that lead to disaster.
Zaire, Ebola, Sudan, and now, Reston. These are all level four hot viruses. That means there are no vaccines and there are no cures for these killers. In 1976 Ebola climbed out of its primordial hiding place in the jungles. of Africa, and in two outbreaks in Zaire and Sudan wiped out six hundred people.
Kolata, Gina. “Experts Unlock Clues to Spread of 1918 Virus.” New York Times. 6 Oct. 2005. 23 July. 2008
First Canadian astronaut into space was Marc Garneau during 1984 with about 10 experiments in hand
Ebola, a virus which acquires its name from the Ebola River (located in Zaire, Africa), first emerged in September 1976, when it erupted simultaneously in 55 villages near the headwaters of the river. It seemed to come out of nowhere, and resulted in the deaths of nine out of every ten victims. Although it originated over 20 years ago, it still remains as a fear among African citizens, where the virus has reappeared occasionally in parts of the continent. In fact, and outbreak of the Ebola virus has been reported in Kampala, Uganda just recently, and is still a problem to this very day. Ebola causes severe viral hemorrhagic fevers in humans and monkeys, and has a 90 % fatality rate. Though there is no cure for the disease, researchers have found limited medical possibilities to help prevent one from catching this horrible virus.
Why did I decide to choose to study Kongolese Art? Why didn't I just decide to study something safe, like British watercolours? If I had, I would have never had to spend the past three days in isolation in a hospital in Germany to ensure that I wasn't harbouring the Marburg virus.
During one of his earlier apprenticeships, Jenner noticed milkmaids with a disease called cowpox. Cowpox is a close relative to smallpox and is only mild in humans. Pustules appear on the hands and a basic cold is also brought on. At Jenner’s young age he was able to link these two viruses together and come up with a theory for immunization. In 1796, while still attending medical school, Jenner decided to test this theory between smallpox and cowpox. He used a dairymaid, who was a patient of his named Sarah Nelms, who had contracted cowpox and had ripe pustules on her hands. Jenner realized this was his opportunity to test someone who had not contracted smallpox yet. He picked an eight-year old boy named James Phipps to use as his test subject. He scraped open a spot of James' arm and rubbed in a dissected piece of Sarah Nelms pustule into the open wound. A couple days later James became ill with cowpox but was well again within a week. This test proved that cowpox could be spread between humans as well as cows. Jenner's next test would be if the cowpox virus gave James immunity against smallpox. On July 1st of 1796, Edward Jenner obtained an infected smallpox pustule and scratched the virus filled pus into James' arm. This technique of placing a virus into a patient is called variolation. James Phipps did not develop smallpox within the
As a researcher, his main goal was to find a cure for cancer. The first discovery was made in 1952, in the developing field of virology. Virology is the study of viruses and how they behave. To develop the vaccines for the viruses, researchers infected the HeLa cells with many types of infections, such as measles, mumps, and the infamous poliomyelitis virus, also known as Polio. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), whose mission is to save lives and protect people’s health, Polio is a "crippling and potentially deadly infectious disease caused by a virus that spreads from person to person, invading the brain and spinal cord and causing paralysis" (Freeman).
Ebola Zaire was identified in 1976 in Northern Zaire and was the first documented appearance of the virus.
In 1976 the first two Ebola outbreaks were recorded. In Zaire and western Sudan five hundred and fifty people reported the horrible disease. Of the five hundred and fifty reported three hundred and forty innocent people died. Again in 1995 Ebola reportedly broke out in Zaire, this time infecting over two hundred and killing one hundred and sixty. (Bib4, Musilam, 1)
Marburg virus belongs to the genus Marburgvirus in the family Filoviridae, and causes a grave hemorrhagic fever, known as Marburg hemorrhagic fever (MHF), in twain humans and nonhuman primates. Basic Safety measures for medical personnel and others who are taking care of presumed individuals who may be contaminated with Marburg disease. Marburg Virus, Akin to the more widely known Ebola hemorrhagic fever, MHF is portrayed by systemic viral replication, lowering the body’s normal immune response to invasion by foreign substances and abnormal inflammatory responses. Ebola and Marburg Virus are very similar in many ways Marburg virus was introduced first in the 1960’s. These pathological features of the disease subsidize to a numerous of systemic dysfunctions including
According to the World Health Organization (2014) “Ebola first took place in 1976 in 2 simultaneous outbreaks, one in Nzara, Sudan.., in Yambuku, Democratic Republic of Congo. [and the] latter occurred in a village near the Ebola River, from which the disease takes its name”. The disease has also started spreading through countries such as Guinea, Sierra Leone, and Liberia (which are West African countries). The United States of America had their first case of Ebola on September 30, 2014, when a man traveling back from Liberia was diagnosed with the disease in Dallas, Texas (CDC 2014). The man did not show symptoms until he reached the United States.