Posted on 08/24/2014 5:13:33 PM PDT by CorporateStepsister
Thanks for the ping!
Thanks SO much for sharing that link, I'll have zombie dreams tonight for sure.... :)
You’re Welcome, Alamo-Girl!
Although it would be possible for someone to be infected with both Sudan and Zaire strains at the same time, it is highly unlikely that they will recombine.
All 8 Ebola genes are contained on the same piece of genetic material (RNA). In comparison, influenza (flu) has each of its genes on 8 different pieces of RNA. So it is very easy for flu to recombine, but not for Ebola.
Ebola can mutate, one base at a time, but that is a slower process than recombination. That is why we have seen reports that the virus in this outbreak is 3% different than the viruses seen in the Congo outbreaks previously. The virus has been circulating in West Africa for a while, long enough to change 3% from the virus in the Congo.
I have to point out that this is speculative. The boy was only pinpointed as patient zero through a retrospective analysis; how he fell ill is a guess.
Bats have been implicated in carrying Ebola, but no one knows for sure if they are the primary reservoir.
The little boy could have found a dead animal—bat or any other animal—in the forest and played with it. Or he could have touched some contaminated surface. We will never know.
I’ll remember not to play with fruit bats...
I was watching the Peter Jackson version of KING KING. In the cargo hold of the ship I noticed, in the background, a cage for the “SUMATRAN RAT MONKEY”.
Braindead (Dead Alive) also shows you can defeat zombies with a lawnmower and two knives. Wonder if the knives were Ginsu.
They eat bats there. They also pick up dead animals for lunch.
I am aware of that. Several Ebola outbreaks have resulted because someone found a dead monkey or ape in the forest, and decided to eat it.
How the little boy was exposed, however, is anyone’s guess. I doubt he was trying to eat dead animals that he found... kids his age put many things in their mouths, but don’t usually eat them. They won’t even eat food you place in front of them. He could have put a contaminated stick in his mouth, for all we know.
He could have stepped in bat crap in his bare feet. I agree its anyones guess.
Probably a million ways he could have caught it. Very difficult to isolate it although some of these researchers are pretty good at this stuff. Imagine traipsing around the jungle where you know this virus is and seeking it out. Gives me the shivers just thinking about it.
I don’t get it - what does Cameroon have to do with any of this? And why would there be any risk from someone in Houston who was sending something to the Cameroon Embassy in Washington DC?
Do you know where Camaroon is? It is in west Africa where Ebola is rampant, the woman standing behind me was from Camaroon I heard her talking on her cell phone in a strange dialect and I asked where she was from. How long has she been here, did she bring the virus with her? There are people in the US that could be infected, and we will never know until it starts appearing here.
West Africa is a fairly large region. The Ebola outbreak has been located almost exclusively in Liberia, Guinea, and Sierra Leone (with a couple of cases in Nigeria, because some guy flew from the affected area to Nigeria). No reported cases from Cameroon, which is over 1500 miles away from the affected areas.
According to my map Cameroon shares a border with Sierra Leone not 1500 miles away.
You may want to get a new map...
i went back and looked at another map but it is even worse. Camaroom is between Liberia and the Congo. Tell me Camaroon doesn’t have any Ebola.
Cameroon is over a thousand miles away from Liberia. And the Congo? I have not seen anything about reported cases of Ebola in the Congo (or Cameroon, for htat matter).
So, just to clarify, what you are saying is that every person from Cameroon should be treated as a potential Ebola carrier, and avoided at all costs?
The maps I looked at they were Google maps and they showed areas where Ebola had been found. I did not avoid the woman in the post office, we talked while waiting in a very slow line. So I guess the answer to your question is No, every person from Africa should not be avoided.
Is that enough, will you let this conversation pass? You can spend the rest of the evening searching for the maps I pulled up, just to keep yourself busy.
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