If you look at the linked WHO fact sheet on Crimean-Congo Haemorrhagic Fever, it appears that "Ebola-style" is an exaggeration. The disease is only fatal in 30% of cases, which is far better than Ebola, but more importantly, the disease vectors appear to be ticks, and contact with infected blood and tissue.
who.int
According to CDC, Ebola can theoretically be transmitted through the air, although there are no documented transmissions that way.
cdc.gov
Thus, the chilling image in The Twelve Monkeys, of the lethal disease being casually spread from a vial of virus emptied in a crowed airport, doesn't apply to Crimean-Congo Hemorrhagic Fever, and maybe not to Ebola, either.
Interestingly, last night I was reading a description to how the Plains Indians experienced smallpox, and the descriptions were similar - death within a day or two of exposure, people dying where they fell, bleeding from nose and ears. American Indians migrated to the Americas before smallpox became endemic in Europe, and the American Indian population had no resistance. Some tribes lost upwards of 90% of members.
Not sure whether the "smallpox infected blanket" is the 19th century version of an urban legend, but this particular outbreak was inadvertently spread by some unknowingly infected passengers on a riverboat. |
