Some Bad News from the Phillipines...

[maineSS]

Here's something to watch- Ebola reston virus was found in two large pig farms in the Phillipines. In late 2008- early 2009, large numbers of pigs started dying. Samples taken showed the presence of a common swine virus harmless to people AND Ebola Reston.

Ebola Reston has a 90% plus fatality rate in monkeys and can be transmitted thru the air. It is almost identical to Ebola Zaire- you can't tell the difference between the two when you look at photos. Research has shown these two strains are so similar that it's difficult to say how they differ- except in one tiny area.

Pigs are closer to people than monkeys in a genetic sense- we use them as a source for heart valves, skin for burn treatment, and drug development. They are also four-footed genetic mixing bowls for viruses- some of the worst pandemics have passed thru pigs before attacking humans.

It was recently found that Ebola Zaire is a shape-shifter, like AIDS. It can recombine it's genetic material and form slightly different strains- there are now two known types. This has never been observed before in RNA type viruses- it was a great shock to the researchers who discovered it. It makes vaccine development a lot more difficult, especially if the virus can recombine quickly, like AIDS. Another little-known fact about the Ebola and like filoviruses is that surviving an attack DOESN'T confer immunity- you can get it as often as you're exposed.

The samples isolated in the Phillipine pig samples were two different strains of Ebola Reston, which shows the pig-mixing process has begun. WHO and the Phillipine government have been stressing that Reston has never harmed humans- wonder what their next news will be?

[Doc Dave]

The whole topic of microbiology and threats to human and animal health is very scary, especially with the way people travel today. For example they are seeing more tuberculosis now here due to infected people coming from the third world countries on airplanes to the U.S.
That Ebola situation is certianly a potential threat to us.
The ability of many viruses to mutate is amazing, especially with the influenza ones. For example the current "swine flu" simply passed through swine and underwent changes it appears. Some types of companion animals have caught this virus, H1N1, from their owners. Another example is the current dog flu H3N8. It is actually a mutation of the horse flu.
The government is working very hard on this...the CDC does a lot of research to try and stay one step ahead of the viruses, but it is still a scary thing as things are constantly changing. A worldwide epidemic, or pandemic, would be catastrophic to say the least.
One other worry is that terrorists are aware of this as a tool, including the thought of them starting an animal pandemic to damage us financially. For example, if terrorists released a mutant chicken influenza in North America, the damage to our economy would be huge due to the current position of the poultry industry here, hundreds of millions of dollars. There are professionals in the agriculture departments in Washington working on this concern at this time as part of Homeland Security.

[BrightRanch]

Another couple points.
For those among us that aren't Physicians or Micro virologists
The Number of treatable Viral infections is precisely Zero.
There have been some advances in recent years in the field due to the AIDs epidemic.
But they are years away from any effective medication.
And on a more ominous note EBOLA Zaire only has a 20% survival rate.
Which means that four out of five people infected aren't going to make it.
On the plus side EBOLA ZAIRE has never been proven to be Airborne and that limits the danger somewhat.
But if it were to mutate and a terrorist organization got ahold of it and released it in a major US city it would be a catastrophe of unimaginable proportions.

[maineSS]

Ebola Reston is named for Reston, VA- a town right outside Washington, D.C., where it first surfaced in a monkey quarantine facility in 1989.

The U.S. Army and the CDC got involved when the monkey importer (Hazelton Research Labs) sent tissue samples to Fort Detrick for viral identification, and they came up positive for what seemed to be Ebola Zaire and Simian Hemorragic Fever (SHF- harmless to humans).

An Army team sealed the monkey house, euthanized all the monkeys, and sterilized it with formaldehyde gas. About a month later, Ebola showed up again. This time, the facility was simply sealed off for observation. Since the disease showed up in a random fashion in various rooms, the virologists concluded it was moving thru the air conditioning ducts. When one monkey got sick in a particular room, 85-90% sickened and died shortly thereafter. Eventually ALL the monkeys died.

Four people turned up with positive Ebola antibodies. One was a Hazelton lab worker who cut himself while dissecting an infected monkey liver. The Army wanted to quarantine the worker at Fort Detrick, but were overruled by the CDC. The head of the CDC at the time believed on the basis of his experience with Ebola in Africa that it could only be spread by contact with infected body fluids. So the worker went out to bars and mingled with people while infected with a previously unknown Ebola strain- one that was virtually identical to Ebola Zaire, and could readily spread thru the air. The other three positives had no cuts, needle sticks, or fluid contact. They were never quarantined, either.

It was finally determined that the virus was a new variant that could spread via airborne transmission. The number of Ebola virus particles needed to infect a monkey is quite small, about 500, which can easily come from a single infected cell. One of the Fort Detrick researchers has a photomicrograph of monkey lung tissue that shows lung cells popping Ebola particles directly into the airspace of the lung.

The last major airborne pandemic was the 1918 Influenza outbreak, which killed an estimated 50-100 million worldwide. In one year, it spread to to Arctic Eskimo villages, to Tierra Del Fuego, the Pacific Islands, Europe, and Asia. It killed 10-20% of those infected, and is the greatest natural disaster to ever hit the human race. An airborne Ebola pandemic would spread Ebola virus everywhere, and since having the disease doesn't confer immunity, the human race could follow the Reston monkeys into extinction- just another set of footprints in the rock. Hopefully, someone is getting serious about producing an antidote- the sand is slipping thru the hourglass quite rapidly now. Maybe there is something to all this 2012 stuff.