Posted on 07/09/2009 12:15:12 PM PDT by dan_s
Don't worry, it can't hurt you—yet.
Scientists have identified Reston ebolavirus—a member of the deadly Ebola group of hemorrhagic viruses—in domestic swine from the Philippines.
The virus, which looks like a piece of yarn with a slight bend, is the only Ebola pathogen not known to cause disease in humans. Even so, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta considers it a biosafety level 4 pathogen, reserved for the most dangerous and exotic diseases.
Ebola and the closely related Marburg viruses are highly contagious, causing vomiting, diarrhea and bleeding with death rates as high as 90 percent. These viruses, originally from Africa, are thought to be caught from close contact with monkeys and apes, their primary hosts, although they have also been isolated from bats that show no symptoms.
Indeed, Reston ebolavirus was first identified in 1989 in crab-eating macaque monkeys that were shipped from the Philippines for research in Reston, Va. Human caretakers developed an immune response to the virus, but they never came down with any symptoms.
The latest outbreak of the Ebola family was discovered in July 2008 as the Philippine Department of Agriculture was investigating "blue ear disease" in pigs, a respiratory condition that causes their ears to turn blue from lack of oxygen. Investigators sent tissue and blood samples to Michael McIntosh at the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Foreign Animal Disease Diagnostic Laboratory at the Plum Island Animal Disease Center in Greenport, N.Y.
McIntosh says he was surprised to find that the tissue samples also contained the Reston strain, which had not been previously identified in swine. His team also confirmed pig-to-human Ebola transmission by identifying six pig handlers, whose blood tested positive for antibodies to the virus, although they showed no symptoms. Manila had announced preliminary findings in January, and McIntosh's study is published in this week's Science.
McIntosh says there are still a lot of unknowns, including how the virus was transmitted to the pigs and whether they show any symptoms independent of blue ear disease. He worries that the virus's passage through pigs could allow it to mutate into something more harmful. The research also raises the possibility that pigs could be infected with lethal Ebola strains. "What is the level of risk? We really don't know," he says, "The fact that it shows up in domestic pigs raises that risk."
Swine Obama? Everyone knows that.
Oh Ebola.
My bad
If this new Ebola virus is so potent that it kills the infected within days of catching it, then it won’t be as bad as the other viruses already around. The crucial tool that viruses use to propagate globally, is the ability to be dormant for a while once infected. This will allow the host to cover more geography until the virus takes its final toll.
Little comfort to those who harbor said virus.
Raise taxes to stop it.
Porkulus to the rescue! oh , the irony.
Ping to 1
Interesting. The question is one of whether having been infected with this apparently harmless variety of ebola confers immunity to the deadly variety of the virus we are all more familliar with.
Oh, just kill me now and get it over with! ;)
Yea, but who’s going to volunteer to test the hypothesis?
Be Afraid!
Captain Trips!
The key question is, “How did this virus travel from Africa to the Philipines?” Terrorist plot to kill pig-owning Christians?
thanks, bfl
Adding a snippit:
U.S. swine flu vaccinations could begin in October-Children among first in line.
To be a McDiner, one has to have either nerves of steel, or total disregard of self. They are beyond comfort!
Isn’t the swine flu also causing vomiting and diarrhea in some patients (as does ebola)?
So pigs can give it to humans and humans can give it to pigs? Is it the same strain? This really boggles my poor little mind.
Then on top of it all, I’m supposed to trust the gov’t to protect me????
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