Essay - The Ebola Virus Is Only One of the Potential or...

The Ebola virus is only one of the potential or real epidemics facing Africa today. AIDs may be the most devastating d*****ease on the continent in terms of number affected, while Ebola is feared as much f***** ***** manner ***** death as for the numbers involved. The public h***** become aware of ***** only recently, but ***** disease was first identified in 1976 when an outbreak in northern Zaire and neighboring Sudan killed more than 400 people. There was an eruption again in Sudan in 1979, and in 1995 an isolated case occurred in the Ivory Coast ("Africa's Deadly Visitor" 69). Africa faces the problem that a widespread outbreak of Ebola is possible *****d potentially could kill millions ***** a ***** horrible m*****nner, with no way to cure the ***** or alleviate the suffering to any great degree

Scient*****ts have recently been concerned ***** the development of new and ***** deadly diseases in different parts of the world. The Ebola virus is ***** ***** the deadliest. Epidemics have always been a part of human h*****tory (Dudley 12), and Ebola is an extremely deadly virus from the tropics, a d*****e*****se known as a filo*****. Three subtypes h*****ve ***** identified, each labeled with ***** location of the initial recorded outbreak--Ebola *****, Ebola Zaire, ***** Ebola Reston (Preston 295). These deadly viruses threaten life and confound scientists, and much research will have to be conducted to determine the origin and potential preventions or cures f***** this ***** set ***** *****.

Ebola kills by clotting the blood o***** its victims and chewing through connective tissue. Death comes to victims by "literally coughing your guts out" (***** 27). It is an airborne virus which is highly contagious, and nine out of ten victims die.

***** is evidence ***** Ebola can jump from species ***** species. Viruses are nei*****r dead nor alive. They destroy life in a molecular cell-*****-cell process and they have been on earth far longer than man. They ***** so small that ***** are composed ***** countable numbers of atoms. The ***** scientists to discover these disease agents found that bacteria were not involved ***** that the cause was a new type of life-form, a being L*****tin for poison. ***** details of how a virus worked by inserting itself into cells where it ***** multiply rapidly ***** discovered ***** later (Regis 94-95)

The first symptoms for the ***** ***** include sore throat, headache, and muscle pain, and these ***** are deceptively mild considering the horrors that follow. After a few d*****ys, the sufferer begins to vomit blood ***** bleed profusely, both internally and from the nose, eyes, ***** gums. Between 50 and 90 percent of those infected die within two weeks--and some within days--from blood loss and shock. There is no cure (Glausiusz 24).

***** Ebola "virus" is actually ***** ***** four subtypes that are 30 to 45 percent different at the nucleotide level, suggesting that they may represent four different viruses. This would mean that each filovirus episode, including the three large