Ebola, A Threat Assessment
Hemorrhagic fevers like Ebola have been in the news over the last several years as severe outbreaks have sprung up in West Africa. It has captured our imagination due to its extremely virulent nature and by the spectacularly gruesome way in which kills those it infects. In addition its origin is relatively unknown which furthers the myth of this virus. Understandably the American public became incredibly worried, with large portions of the population concerned that the pandemic would spread to our shores. But was all this hype really worth it? Sure, Ebola is very deadly. In fact in some cases it kills up to 90% of those infected. What’s even more incredible is that it is not the virus that ultimately kills you, but rather your own immune system. Through viral trickery, the Ebola virus silences and short circuits your immune cells causing massive internal bleeding and organ failure. Also it can last relatively long periods on common hospital surfaces and still remain viable. However while it is quite destructive on the individual level it seems to be relatively impotent on a global level. Outbreaks have been severe but still remain locked to a relatively small area. This becomes very evident if we look at the R0 number and other infection factors of the virus and we can see that it has less teeth than originally thought. Therefore, I believe Ebola is not the harbinger of some future apocalypse, but it is an incredibly complex and fascinating virus that deserves future study.
BIOL 499, Capstone
Paul Allee
P114
11 – 11:30 AM