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October 5, 2014

What's the riddle behind Ebola?

a_ebola_usa.jpg

The main one is: Where does it live when it's not killing humans?
In other words, what is its reservoir host? What kind of creature living in the African forest harbors this virus in a chronic, inconspicuous, but permanent way? Viruses have to live somewhere. They can only replicate in living creatures. So, when the Ebola virus disappears between outbreaks, it has to be living in some reservoir host, presumably some species of animal. But after 38 years since the first outbreak, scientists have yet to identify for certain what the reservoir host of Ebola is. It is suspected that at least one of its reservoir hosts is a fruit bat. Antibodies to Ebola have been found, but no one has ever isolated live Ebola virus from a fruit bat or from any other creature. So we still don't know where this thing lives.
Every Newly Emerging Disease Like Ebola Begins With a Mystery

Posted by gerardvanderleun at October 5, 2014 5:18 PM. This is an entry on the sideblog of American Digest: Check it out.

Your Say

The virus probably resides in jungle coons. Some of them grow pretty big. I'd look for it around woodpiles also.

Posted by: chasmatic [TypeKey Profile Page] at October 5, 2014 5:40 PM

Chas... not helpful.

We had best hope that any possible animal hosts do not reside in North or South America, really, really hope.
Maybe it's an ant.
Maybe it's a flea, tee hee hee.
An Aardvark would be awkward.
Maybe it's you, maybe it's me!

Posted by: Onthenorthriver [TypeKey Profile Page] at October 5, 2014 9:43 PM

They'll find that someone was eatin' somethin' that shouldn'a ever been eaten or pokin' somethin' that shouldn'a ever been poked.

JWM

Posted by: John M [TypeKey Profile Page] at October 5, 2014 10:01 PM

northriver: sorry, a little dark humor slipped in.
This from an article: "Ebola may be present in more animals than previously thought, according to researchers studying the deadly virus, which has already been detected in chimpanzees, gorillas, fruit bats, monkeys, antelopes, porcupines, rodents, dogs, pigs and humans."

reference: http://news.discovery.com/animals/ebolas-deadly-jump-from-animal-to-animal-140730.htm

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/17848072

Here in the USA I reckon human to human will be the likely method of transmission. Calculate the typical ten percent error rate and away we go.

Posted by: chasmatic [TypeKey Profile Page] at October 5, 2014 11:19 PM

Ebola was first detected in 1974(?)along with another SIMIAN VIRUS. The discoverers feared it more than the 'monkey virus' SV40 that contaminated our polio vaccines. Google SV40 or SV40 Cancer Foundation and be astounded.

Posted by: JoeDaddy [TypeKey Profile Page] at October 6, 2014 3:20 AM

Typhoid Mary. Andromeda Strain.
I wonder what the odds are that SOME fellow travelers incubate and nurture the virus, without
harm to the host, until it "unexpectedly" mutates, or jumps, to folks of "bubble boy" status due to gub'mint efforts of "purity", or "ease",...you know....for your safety!
SEE: Thalidomide, and otherwise unoccupied FDA/CDC/OSHA

Posted by: CaptDMO [TypeKey Profile Page] at October 6, 2014 8:46 AM

Viruses have to live somewhere.

Most viruses have no DNA and are not "alive" in the normal sense of the word. They can arguably lie dormant for centuries until taken into a host, whereupon its RNA becomes recombinant.

Viral symptoms can be treated, but apparently no virus has ever been "cured", not even common colds.

Posted by: Anon43 [TypeKey Profile Page] at October 6, 2014 12:44 PM

@Anon — gosh, that means we get to send it into outer space and there's always the archaeological digs some poor sods will be doing in five hunnert years. Open the sarcophagus and whoosh, deep breath now laddie.

On a serious note, we here in the southwest have something that never goes away, just sleeps:
Valley fever is a fungal infection caused by coccidioides (kok-sid-e-OY-deze) organisms. It can cause fever, chest pain and coughing, among other signs and symptoms.

Two species of coccidioides fungi cause valley fever. These fungi are commonly found in the soil in specific areas and can be stirred into the air by anything that disrupts the soil, such as farming, construction and wind. The fungi can then be breathed into the lungs and cause valley fever, also known as acute coccidioidomycosis (kok-sid-e-oy-doh-my-KOH-sis).

Not lethal but persistent. If we can't deal with a simple fungus imagine this Ebola thing. We're doomed. Doomed I tell ya.

Posted by: chasmatic [TypeKey Profile Page] at October 6, 2014 1:06 PM

All I know is we're not being told the whole story here. This stuff is supposedly less easily transmitted than AIDS but its spreading much faster and easier. You can't tell me people are wallowing around in filth and body fluids en masse in Liberia. There's some aspect to this we are not being told - or even worse, they don't know yet.

Posted by: Christopher Taylor [TypeKey Profile Page] at October 6, 2014 2:32 PM

@Chris — you betcha, premeditated. Think: Trojan Horse. All these crises are not converging in a huge Oh what a coincidence kinda way.
Look to see which political factions are suffering least from the plague. You will see Russia and the Muslims. I bet their policy is the chasmatic strategy.

The strategy for handling Ebola can be very simple.
I propose draconian and insensitive remedies: identify, isolate, kill, burn. Simplistic but imminently feasible given the primitive conditions, the remote areas, the low genetic makeup.
Hold on, not racist - just the facts.
The logistics support this strategy. Isolated and easily cordoned off, far enough from civilization that travel can be monitored and interrupted.
I bet there are some killings, out in the boonies where the sun don't shine, but not enough.
The rationale is, collateral damage minimal and benefits for the greater good. I guess my Kraut mindset shows, uh? Highly unlikely this will happen — no press and no money changing hands, greasing wheels and whatnot.
This plays better: Uncle Sam the Samaritan Man. We have landed a couple thousand troops and wheelbarrows full of equipment and bales of money in, where, Liberia?
Just think, donuts and coffee from the Red Cross and ten percent error rate. Photo ops abound: a suited up doctor (or maintenance man, who knows?) patting a victim on the back there, there. A pristine treatment room, all shiny glass and steel, for looks, not for blood and mucus and excrement all over the place, with a smell that would knock a buzzard off a gut wagon.
We're doomed, doomed I tell ya.

Posted by: chasmatic [TypeKey Profile Page] at October 7, 2014 6:24 AM

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