Lassa Fever Chapter Summary

The Hot Zone, written by Richard Preston is the true and dramatic story of the outbreaks of the frightening, unknown and incurable filoviruses; Marburg, Ebola Zaire, Ebola Sudan and Ebola Reston. This book covers the first documented outbreak of the virus and continues to cover more outbreaks over the course of 23 years. These sisters viruses are highly infective and destroyed entire communities throughout Africa with the deaths of 50- 90% of their victims. The effects are similar and horrifying with the viruses penetrating every tissue and organ in the body of a person, primate or other animal. This book takes place in the late 1980s and is based on an outbreak of Ebola in a monkey house in the quaint town of Reston, Virginia. Richard Preston incorporates tales of several outbreaks that occurred in Africa years before to describe the potential destruction that the filoviruses could

It is vital to understand deadly viruses and their history in order to prevent future outbreaks. Ebola leaves very few clues after annihilating its victims, so it is incredibly important to analyze those clues. Ebola’s close relationship to monkeys contains key knowledge that could hold the secret to its success. Paying close attention to how Ebola is spreading and mutating could lead researchers to the answer for preventing the contraction of it. Discovering where and how the virus first emerged could lead to Ebola’s end.

Ebola is described by the author in deep detail telling the progression of which it goes through. It starts with a headache and backache and ends with all of your internal organs failing “bleeding out” like Charles Monet. There are four filoviruses: Ebola virus (EBOV), Sudan virus (SUDV), Marburg virus (MARV), and Ravn virus (RAVV). They are all Level 4 biohazard, which means they are extremely dangerous to humans especially because they are so infectious, have a high death rate, and there are no medicines, treatments, or cures.

In the book hot zone it talks about true events surrounding an outbreak of the Ebola virus at a monkey facility in Reston, Virginia in the late 1980s. Preston provides information about other viruses spread out through africa around the 1970s and 80s.Preston does not overstate the danger of Ebola and other filoviruses, he argues that the greater threat lies in emerging viruses like the AIDS virus, whose effect on the human race cannot yet be measured.

Starting with one of the four filoviruses mentioned in the book, Preston provided us with the story of Charles Monet, an amateur French naturalist who died a gruesome death after contracting Marburg virus following a trip to Mount Elgon. Marburg is brought up in the story several times as a close relative of Ebola, having similar symptoms and equal danger. Throughout the next several chapters, different strains of Ebola are reviewed; the Sudan

Ebola Zaire, arguably the deadliest known virus strain on earth, held a mortality rate up to ninety percent in the past, and is the hottest type of Ebola Viral Diseases. In addition, there are four other types of Ebola species: Ebola Sudan, Ebola Ivory Coast, Bundibugyo ebolavirus, and Ebola Reston. Notably, the earliest of Ebola outbreaks being from Ebola Sudan and Ebola Zaire, both erupted during 1976 in Africa. Previously known as the Ebola haemorrhagic fever, these virus are known to cause tremors and convulsions in its host, resulting in the splattering of blood which is used as its strategy for transmission. Other ways of contracting Ebola is through contact with patient’s bodily fluids and aerosolized secretions in the air. Furthermore, the novel The Hot Zone written by Richard Preston, along with online sources from Gale’s database also indicates that virus outbreaks are partly aided through factors such as close

Foreign nations set on colonizing new locations, tended to bring new strains of disease into circulation for pre-existing society’s. Likewise, “the term virgin soil epidemic describes the initial outbreak of a disease

It is one of three members of the ‘Filoviridae’ family and comprises of 5 distinct species, three of which are fatal to humans. These fatal species are the ‘Zaire Ebolavirus (EBOV)’, the Reston Ebolavirus (RESTV), and the Sudan Ebolavirus (SUDV). Due to the difficulty in obtaining samples and studying the disease because of the remote areas in which it outbreaks, the cause of Ebola is not yet defined. However, it is greatly suspected that fruit bats carry and spread the virus (through their droppings) without being affected. As mentioned above, the virus is then transmitted to humans through contact with the infected bodily fluids of an infected organism or

Sickness and pestilence have been framed by physical manifestations since the beginning of mankind. We’ve seen examples of illness being represented as a living thing as early as 15000 B.C. in paintings from the Lascaux cave.1 People have always feared disease and how you can’t see it. Because of this, humans began to represent it in a physical way as if giving it shape would make it easier to resist. Symbolism like this also made disease easier to comprehend.

The history of Leprosy in Chinese records can be traced back into 1000B.C, for instance, in the period of the last emperor of shang dynasty, because of dissatisfaction with the tyranny of the King Zhou, as well the Chu population’s disagreement of the tyranny from the warring states of ancient China, then "painted lacquer on the body, and then mad for death", these records are from the "Historical Records” and " Stratagems of the Warring States”. “Stratagems of the Warring States " describe that the appearance changed by lacquer painted on the body, cut off his eyebrows and hair changed, actually, this is the first official record of leprosy.

The fight for who can proceed in experiments to find the cure for Ebola is on. In the experiments done by the lab scientists from, Therapeutic Intervention of Ebola Virus Infection in Rhesus Macaques with the MB-003 Monoclonal Antibody Cocktail persisted in a slight solution that resulted a minor success, but a success that is well needed. On the other hand, Dr. Lipstich feels that the results may not be so worth it considering that high risk of the scientists themselves catching the deadly virus. The virus held in its early stages in West Africa, where the first host was a little boy that had died in pain. From then the virus spread abruptly from one host to another. As American scientists try to search for the cure in other diseases such as fatal fibrosis, they realized once the damage was done that there was a deadlier, possibly airborne

Ebola is the global killer and communicable disease of the world with 69 % case fatality rate, whereas only Zaire strain virus has 90% case fatality rate. It attacks Guinea, Liberia, Sierra Leone, especially the west African’s region as

This viral disease is very rare which causes severe bleeding and 90 percent in deaths of those who are infected. Ebola showed up without warning in the late 2000 in the northern district of Gulu in Uganda, Africa. Health care workers separated patients from others so they wouldn’t spread and get worse. There are 40 people that died in the first wave of the epidemic. The virus killed 224 people then out of nowhere it stopped and seems to have gone back into the jungle, this was in February 2001. There is a lot we still don’t know about the Ebola virus but the scientists began to piece of the things they don’t know together. The virus was discovered in the Democratic Republican of Congo in 1976. There are four different types of Ebola viruses. They are all named from where they are discovered at: Ebola – Zaire, Ebola – Sudan, Ebola – Ivory Coast, and Ebola – Reston. In 1989, the United States the Ebola – Reston virus was found in Reston, Virginia. There were sick monkeys imported from Philipines to a research lab. Some lab workers showed signs of the virus in the blood but didn’t become ill. Still don’t know where the virus is coming frombut think it resides in rain forests of Africa and Asia. The Ebola virus might as well be animal borne passed to primates like monkeys and apes and humans by another

more and more accessible. Lassa fever is mostly on the rise as its main vector,

Normally infecting fruit bats, the Ebola virus found a mutation allowing it to spread to humans. This virus is an acute and often fatal illness. This virus first erupted in two outbreaks in 1976 (one occurring in Nzara and Sudan, while the other occurred in a village near the Ebola river, where the virus takes its name.) The current outbreak, starting in West Africa with the potential to spread throughout the world,  is  larger and more complex than previous outbreaks. This virus has caused more deaths than all other past Ebola outbreaks combined. With approximately five people infected with the virus every hour in Sierra Leone alone, how far – and how fast – will the Ebola virus go?