Silicon Investor (SI) -- The First Internet Community

STOCKTALK

We've detected that you're using an ad content blocking browser plug-in or feature. Ads provide a critical source of revenue to the continued operation of Silicon Investor. We ask that you disable ad blocking while on Silicon Investor in the best interests of our community. If you are not using an ad blocker but are still receiving this message, make sure your browser's tracking protection is set to the 'standard' level.

Strategies & Market Trends : Strictly: Drilling II -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: isopatch who wrote (2391)	10/4/2001 9:31:55 AM
From: isopatch	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 36161

OT/Jim Black. How common is Ebola outside Africa? TIA./eom

To: isopatch who wrote (2391)	10/4/2001 2:21:05 PM
From: jim black	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 36161

Ebola has not occurred outside of Africa. Though an absolute nightmare of a disease the endemic hosts/vectors of the disease have remained hidden despite efforts to find/culture Ebola out of everything from monkeys/bugs/etc in deep jungles, bat caves, birds, etc. As a viral disease goes Ebola would be likely more a Frankenstein for those who might develop/use/abuse it...worse than smallpox. It could well kill whomever might try to use it first. In my cynical position regarding governments in general and the former Soviet Union in particular I would not be surprised to discover the other side or even ours had played around with diseases like this in level 4 labs ( the most dangerous pathogens) . I am surprised this hasn't made it to CNN. Ebola is apparently quite limited in world wide outbreaks as it kills so rapidly it leaves little time for it spread. My biggest worry would be a virus like Clancy described fictitiously in one of his recent books, a virus with the features of Ebola tied to the features of an airborne virus that can sweep worldwide in a flash, namely influenza. Flu has a particularly nasty tendency to under go what is referred to as genetic drift, ie shifting its surface protein structure so rapidly that vaccines developed at the beginning of a season are possibly ineffective at end of season because the virus has changed sufficiently to be immune to vaccinations. Now, hoping not to bore anyone, I will further offer that hemmorhagic viruses are not new, though nature keeps bringing out dragons from a Pandora's Box, not at all rarely. Three hundred years ago, yellow fever was identified clinically classically as proteinuria, bleeding, and jaundice (yellow skin, hence the name) and later traced to the mosquito as vector, having a 5-10% mortality,highly contagious when exposed to mosquitos, mosquito control being best action by far, and immunization is available. There are other scarier "bleeder" viruses (actually a lot of 'em) including Dengue fever to name one. Crimean Congo virus has been reported from Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Afghanistan and Russia, as well as Pakistan where this report originates, to name a few places. It has been established to be tick-borne(as the article states), and transmision from human to human is possible though not airborne apparently. Direct contact with blood of an infected person is probably necessary. It could be a clear danger to our troops stationed in any of the ares of the Mid-East exposed to the ticks and treatment is costly and with massive outbreaks could easily overwhelm rapidly all supplies of blood for replacement I won't expand further but to tell you that IF( GOD FORBID!) one of the hemmorhagic viruses mutates to become airborne and resistant to UV light then we are looking at something like Stephen King's nightmare masterpiece, "The Stand." Was my answer too long? Hope not, since viruses ain't oil, gold, or vengeance. Jim"