How scared should we be of Ebola?
That’s a loaded question if I ever heard one.
The truth is, it depends where you live.
People in Sierra Leone should probably be more afraid of Ebola than people in
Seattle. The problem is, when the media gets ahold of something like a virus
with no known cure that only rears its retroactive head once every 20 years,
things can go a little…dare I say…wonky?
Personally, I’m not afraid of Ebola.
Certainly it would be awful should I contract the disease but what am I going
to do about it? There’s no definitive cure for the malady and the only options
are certain death and miraculous recovery, the latter of which is rare as a
politician with a soul.
But should you be afraid of it?
Once again…depends.
Today at To Infinity and…In Theory we’re
going to talk about a topic that’s been flooding the news. Ebola. We’ll discuss
the history of its origin, the virus itself, what several arguably insanely brilliant Zairian doctors did
to help move along research during its last epidemic, some possible methods
scientists are looking into as cures, and finally, the question everyone has
been worried sick over…
Should we fear Ebola?
Let’s head on over to the unluckiest
continent on planet Earth, and see if we can’t demystify some of the facts
about this nasty bugger. We’ll answer the big question first. Where did this
disease come from? And why don’t we know very much about it?
Welcome to Zaire
The first recorded case of Ebola was out of
Zaire, Africa in 1976. By the time aid workers arrived there though, the virus
had already run its course. There was nothing to really study, most of the
victims had already died or managed to pull through. All that was left was the
disposal of contaminated corpses. The only reason the first outbreak was
quelled was because the village elders of the areas wised up and disbanded
funeral rights in favor of mass burials. In their culture a funeral involved
the people handling the corpse, which as we now know, is a method for the
disease to find new hosts. The Zairians were unwittingly spreading it the whole
time.
When the morning bell tolled 280 had been
reported dead, 318 infected in Zaire. The bordering country of Sudan also felt
the sting of the disease in 1976 as well. 284 people were affected by the syndrome
and 151 were reported dead in the aftermath of that incident. But it was all
over…well…not exactly.
Throughout the coming years there would be
reported cases of Ebola circulating worldwide, from the Philippines, to Italy,
and even here in the U.S. However, the mortality rate of these reports remained
at 0% with less than a trillionth of the populous even experiencing symptoms in
each of the aforementioned regions. In other words, less than ten total
worldwide in between African outbreaks. And most of these cases involved
primates. But then in 1994 and 1995 all hell broke loose once more.
Between the fall of ‘94 and the fall of ‘96,
Gabon which borders the Congo was struck. Initially the symptoms were thought
to be that of Yellow Fever, a disease which is a common ailment in the area. People
began returning home from gold-mining camps sick as the dickens and there was
nothing doctors could seem to do to treat them. By the seeming end of the
outbreak only 31 were dead and 52 had been afflicted. Thankfully this outbreak
had been smaller than Zaire’s…
But Zaire wasn’t done yet…
Remember I mentioned this is the twenty year
sickness? It’s not a literal term, more of a moniker doled out by the News of
the time, but it’s fitting, because almost twenty years after the first
outbreak of Zaire in 1976, in 1995 it happened again. A hospital in Kikwit
performed a medical procedure on a patient carrying Ebola Hemorrhagic Fever.
They didn’t know unfortunately, and spread it throughout the hospital. The next
Zairian apocalypse began.
This time the CDC (Center for Disease
Control) and the WHO (World Health Organization) were on top of things. They
immediately dispatched doctors from all corners of the world including
Switzerland, France, and the United States. This time they were in the thick of
the pandemic. That’s good for everyone. Right?
Eh…depends…
It’s all a matter of perspective really. If
you watch the documentary Nova made in the ‘90’s called “Plague Fighters” it might change the way you see things. During the
course of the outbreak the foreign pathogen experts encountered…dare I say,
cultural barriers?
Africa wasn’t exactly known for its high
level of education at that point in its history. Almost the entirety of the
population was illiterate which made spreading information about controlling
contamination factors exceedingly difficult. There was no radio, television, or
internet. The only way to spread it was word of mouth or through posters such
as these ones below:
But most couldn’t read it. And when people
were told to report their sick and dying to foreigners and men in suits and
masks they were terrified. Think about it. How would you feel if someone who
didn’t even speak your language came to your house and said your grandma had to
go with them because she was sick? I’m sure you’d feel more than reluctant to
relinquish her to them wouldn’t you? I would. And that’s what was happening.
Villagers who couldn’t read the signs didn’t understand the seriousness of the situation
and by the time they did it was far too late.
With a mortality rate of 79%, in the wake of
this tragedy 315 were infected from onset and 250 were dead. Scientists spent
their time there trying to figure out the source of the outbreak. They finally
traced it back to patient zero, Gaspard Menga. Everyday Gaspard would travel
from his home Kikwit into the Foret Pont Mwembe. It was roughly an 18 mile
journey for the man.
He would burn wood to charcoal and sell it
for fuel. But in 1995 that was over when Gaspard fell ill and died. By the time
they traced the disease back to him scientists from the WHO and the CDC Atlanta
had a new goal. Find out where Ebola was hiding at when it wasn’t virulently decimating
human populations.
It couldn’t be insects. Insects were
literally everywhere in the region and if they were the carrier the disease
would be much further reaching. Since most large game in the area had been
hunted into extinction all that remained behind were small monkeys, rats, bats,
and snakes that composed the diet of the indigenous people. None of these were
found to be the source either. Scientists were baffled.
From 1976 until now they’re still uncertain
of what the Ebola Virus progenitor is, but they have decided the most likely
cause is bats. See bats are kind of sloppy, and their food chain has a
trickle-down effect. They’ll drop partially eaten fruits and pulp which makes
its way into plants that feed off the soil or into animals through direct
contact. The disease is then thought to manifest within a new organism and
mutate into a strain which can affect humans. This new strain is then passed
off onto us through contact with the infected organism through consumption or
through contact with their bodily fluids in some way.
See, trickle-down effect.
So why bats? Because they’re known to already
carry a kissing cousin of the Ebola virus known as Marburg’s.
“What the H-E
double hockey sticks is that?!?!”
Calm yourself.
It’s time to explain the virus.
“This Isn’t Even My
Final Form”
The Ebola virus is a Filovirus, and luckily
(so far at least) it seems it’s one of two in the family with a taste for human
blood. The other members include Marburg’s virus, the recently (still being
bickered over…) discovered Cuevavirus, and the Reston virus. Marburg has had
about as rich of a history as Ebola has, however its infection rate has been
much, much lower. Let’s talk about the taxonomy of that one virus first.
Marburg’s Virus is named after the place that
suffered the initial outbreak. In 1967, German Scientists in a facility in
Marburg were playing with infected monkeys. Somehow while handling the tissue
the disease jumped hosts, infecting 31 people in total, seven of which died.
Marburg’s virus, like Ebola, is a hemorrhagic
fever. It’s less virulent in us however, but to primates, it spells disaster.
The other deadly murderer of monkeys is the Reston virus. In the 1980s a
facility in Virginia, United States suffered an outbreak amongst its primate
specimens. To avoid possible pandemic all the test subjects were euthanized in
their cages and Hazmat teams disposed of the corpses.
So what do these viruses do? I won’t bore you
with the tedious details surrounding their pathophysiology but I will give you
the criteria to be included in the family of Filoviruses. First and foremost
the disease has to ultimately gestate into a hemorrhagic fever. Secondly it
needs to be able to infect pigs and bats within nature and exclusively
replicate itself within the cytoplasm of a host cell.
Shape, size, and weight are factored in as
well. But another key component of classification is the ability of the virus
to adapt itself through serial passage from host to host. That is how diseases
like Lloviu Virus (Cuevavirus) passes down from bats and manifests itself as
Marburg’s or Reston’s within primates. That is how it is believed certain
strains have adapted themselves to pass onto us in the form of Ebola.
Viruses don’t care about your political
agenda.
They don’t care about your sexual preference,
age, height, weight, gender, religious beliefs, or what your dreams and
aspirations are. Viruses only care about one thing, replication and survival.
That is why Ebola is classified as a Level-4 biohazard by the CDC and WHO and
calls for Level-5 containment protocols. That is the highest either scale goes.
So now we know its history and what it is,
only a few more questions remain. Next we’re going to talk about the current
outbreak and how it’s being handled, signs and symptoms of the disease, and
what parts of the world are currently being affected.
932 Souls and
Counting
As you can see from that graph, since 1976
there hasn’t been an outbreak with a more significant death toll than the one
we’re currently facing. As of the time of this writing on August 7th,
2014, the current death toll throughout the five or so nations afflicted has
almost risen to 1,000 and the disease is still raging. Having just spread into
the neighboring country of Nigeria, a closely knitted community of 21 million
or so odd people, the crisis level has risen to response level 1 of all disease
control agencies worldwide.
And it isn’t just the Congo for the first
time being affected by this disease. United Kingdom and United States aid
workers have been stricken with it, the head doctor of Ebola pathology in
Sierra Leone died of the disease, and a man named Patrick Sawyer, a U.S.
citizen, died under quarantine in Nigeria. Patients have been flown back to
facilities in the United States for experimental treatment. The entire world is
in a panic over this.
Which brings us to the initial question of
the article.
Should you be scared of Ebola?
My answer, even after all of this, is still,
depends.
Do you have an inordinately high fever? Does
every muscle and joint in your body feel like its torn or ripped out of socket?
Do you have a severe headache with extreme sensitivities to light and sound?
Chills? Weakness? Nausea?
If so…ask yourself this question…
Have you come into contact recently with
anyone who works with the WHO, CDC, or been on a business trip to Africa in the
last six months? If so, get your *** down to the CDC, if not, then kindly get
off of WebMD, take two Excedrin and a nap, you’re probably hung-over.
The disease can rear its head anywhere from 2
to 21 days after infection. Usually in the course of a few weeks you’re either
dead or getting better. The later symptoms of the disorder include vomiting,
bloody stools, red sclera (The white area of the eye), chest pain and horrible
coughing fits, stomach pain, extreme emaciation from vomiting and inability to
ingest foods, internal bleeding, external bleeding from orifices (i.e. eyes,
ears, nose, anus) and eventually death.
Let’s be real here for a second, you don’t
even see side effects like that on American pharmaceuticals. Those are some
horrible consequences and a truly horrific way for somebody to die. That’s why
the fact that there is no known cure makes for such a panicky matter.
After the second major outbreak in Zaire
occurred a man named Dr. William Close wrote a book entitled “Ebola”. When interviewed for the Nova documentary
mentioned before he is quoted as saying, “We can no longer live in our
isolationist state of thinking anymore. We are a small community of nations and
when one coughs nobody sleeps.”
His words couldn’t ring more true, especially
pertaining to this current crisis.
Agencies are banding together though in the
name of humanity to try and find a cure for this disease. Scientists are racing
round the clock to save as many lives as they can while aid workers do their
best to quarantine areas of outbreaks and try to keep casualties minimized.
So what are some of these “cures” they’re
working on? Let’s talk about those last here today.
Tobacco’s Got Yo’
Back
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That’s right folks, you read that correctly.
Tobacco it seems is the answer to the problem. Well…maybe not just tobacco, but a protein found within
the cells of genetically modified tobacco plants. I know what you’re saying, “Uh
oh, there’s the G M Oh no you didn’t word again.” Sorry to say this folks, but
get used to GMOs, they’re here to stay.
That debate is for another day, but what isn’t
up for debate are the beneficial effects this protein has been found to have on
primate “participants” in the initial trials. The treatment is called ZMapp,
and it’s what was given to two U.S. aid workers who contracted Ebola while
working in Liberia. As of two days ago, reports were circulating the internet
about their improvement, but so far, not many publications are willing to cite
ZMapp as the cure.
So what is it?
The tobacco plants are what are known as
bioreactor plants. They’re encoded with a specific gene that enables the
production of antibodies against a certain pathogen. Once exposed to the
disease, the plants produce the antibodies in large quantities to fend it off,
once this has happened the scientists harvest the proteins responsible for
warding off the illness and culture it into a serum that can then be used to inoculate
people against it or even cure those who are afflicted.
We’ve done things like this for a long time.
Remember Alexander Fleming? (No not the guy who wrote James Bond, that’s Sir
Ian Fleming, but nice try…) Alexander Fleming discovered penicillin. How did he
do it you ask? Accidentally, but he was using bacteria to culture proteins that
could be distilled into an antivirus. What about the production of synthetic
insulin? We encode E. Coli bacterium with the insulin producing gene and
harvest them.
Further trials will be needed, and I’m sure
given the virulence of this pathogen the CDC and WHO may be willing to move
ahead with human trials using volunteers. I know for a fact that, while I’m not
worried about contracting Ebola considering where I live in the world, if I did get it, I would sign up for that
trial in a heartbeat.
Wouldn’t you?
-
Ryan
Sanders
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