Sunday, August 29, 2010

EBOLA: the terrifying true story

THE HOT ZONE

By: Richard Preston

Richard Preston is the author of Hot Zone, which explains how the deadly virus Ebola, invaded Central and east Africa and kills its Host. Ebola broke out around the late 70s to the early 80s, and killed many villagers. The Ebola virus is a LEVEL 4 virus that has no cure! Scientist tried to find way to protect people but 9 in 10 people who contract this disease is bond to die. There are three types of Ebola. Ebola Zaire, Ebola Sudan and Ebola Reston, these viruses are very deadly.

Marburg is related virus that also has no cure but is not as deadly as Ebola. In 1980, a French man named Charles Monet went a trip to the Kitum Cave, and there he became the first known person to contract Marburg, he took a plane to Nairobi Hospital, Monet developed a massive head ache that never went away. Suddenly he began to bleed out of all part of his body. On the plane, Monet passed the disease on to others. When he reached the hospital, Dr. Musoke tried whatever he could to save Monet but, it was useless. Monet vomited on Musoke’s face and through that contact, he received the disease. Miraculously, he didn’t die. Marburg broke at in Germany and killed NINE OUT OF TEN people. Ebola Sudan, broke out killing the villagers, but then died down.

Ebola Zaire was the worst! Ebola Zaire is named after the Ebola River, a tribune of the Congo River, Ebola Zaire is the most lethal strain, Ebola Zaire first occurred in Sept 1976. No one really knew where Ebola Zaire started from. One day a school teacher went on a trip, when he returned, he wasn’t feeling so well and the Nuns gave him a shot, the nuns reused Needles without washing or sterilizing it, which caused the first cause of Ebola Zaire. The school teacher got Ebola and died, but the nuns reused the needles and passed around Ebola unknowingly.

Ebola Zaire hit 55 villages near the hospital. It killed the patients, their families (mostly women who prepared the dead for burial).The nurses and then to the nuns began started contracting Ebola. The first nun infected got Ebola from delivering a stillborn from a mother dying of Ebola and had to abort her baby. Sister M.E.(name protected) breaks with Ebola Zaire. A priest and Sister E.R. take Sister M.E. to an airfield in Bumba and flew her to Kinshasa to Ngaliema Hospital which is run by Swedish nuns, where she was taken care of, but she dead in the hospital. Sister’s death was a bloody one, she bleed out and died. The room was bloody and no one wanted to clean it up, they left the room like that for days, and doctors started to believe her death was either Marburg or a Marburg related disease.

Sister E.R broke out with the Ebola virus as well and she was taken care of by a nurse by the name of Mayinga N. She too would break out with Ebola, she was in denial, Mayinga disappear for two day and she was nowhere to be found. When Mayinga dropped out of sight for two days and went to the city to get her travel permits, she came in contacted with about 37 people and even shared a soda with one, but none was infected with the Ebola virus. The two days she was "missing" were October 12-13, 1976. On the 13th she took a taxi to the largest hospital in Kinshasa, Mama Yemo Hospital, because she didn't want to admit she had been infected she sat in line for hours at Mama Yemo Hospital. The doctor gives her a shot for malaria and told her to go to the already overcrowded quarantine room, so she took a taxi over to University Hospital where they say she could have malaria. Mayinga returns to Ngaliema Hospital to be admitted as a patient. She gets a private room and falls into lethargy. News of Mayinga in town while sick causes a panic.

President Mobutu Sese Seko sent his army to surround the Ngaliema Hospital. He also blocked off the Bumba Zone, ordering intruders to be shot .Riverboat captains refused to pick up anyone on the river in Bumba. Pretty soon all radio contact in Bumba ceased as well. The doctors at Ngaliema Hospital decided to give Sister M.E. an agonal biopsy. An agonal biopsy was performed because Sister M.E. was against autopsies. Doctors took samples of the liquefying liver as well as blood samples from her arm. Samples were sent to Belgium and England. America had to beg in order to get a sample and, that sample was sent to D.C.D in Atlanta Georgia.

When the samples arrived the tubes had broken and rotten blood was everywhere. Patricia Webb opened the case to find tar-like blood. She used rubber gloves and collected some of it on cotton balls. She put droplets of the blood into the flasks containing monkey cells. The monkey cells began to pop. Frederick A. Murphy was a good photographer, so he viewed the dying cells, look to photograph the dying cells. On October 13, Murphy tested the blood and discovered what he believed to be Marburg in the cell. He told his partners about his findings. They studied the shape of the virus and tested it for Marburg, but the test was negative so, Johnson named the virus Ebola .Karl believe that Ebola would not erase the human race but it would only thin out unnecessary people.

In Virginia, One of the U.S. Army personnel was called upon when the Reston outbreak occurs is Major Nancy Jaax. Jaax works with the most lethal viruses and other dangerous agents in full-body "space suits" within laboratories known as "Hot Zones. Her husband, Jerry Jaax, also works in the Army's Veterinary Corps, and he was uncomfortable with his wife's being at such a high risk of exposure to deadly agents at Fort Detrick, Maryland. Filovirus (a family a viruses that comprises only Ebola and Marburg. Also called thread virus.) were level 4 virus, they had no cure and Scientist did not know their original host.

The monkeys at a research facility in Reston, Virginia, begin to fall ill, and after some time, Dan Dalgard the head veterinarian sends tissue samples to Peter Jahrling. Tom Geisbert was an intern working at USAMRIID, using an electronic microscope took and co discovered Ebola Reston. When they determine the illness is a strain of Ebola. The military, along with the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), took on the task of entering the monkey house and destroying the animals in an attempt to keep the virus from jumping into the human population and causing a potentially worldwide crisis. The entire facility must be treated as a Hot Zone, and hundreds of monkeys were killed. Many mistakes happened during this mission: a woman's ventilated suit runs out of battery power, a monkey thought to be unconscious wakes up on the operating table while it is being euthanized and tries to bite a soldier, and tears occur in various members' space suits. Eventually, the entire building is decontaminated, and the personnel return to their regular lives. Though many workers at the monkey house were exposed to Ebola Reston, none died or even tested positive for this these. Ebola Reston was deadly to Monkeys but harmless to humans.

Richard Preston did a lot of research on the Ebola virus, reading this book explained the level of ignorance amongst people, he explained how Ebola works and How people can die from it. In the book Preston, explains how Ebola might have existed Millions of years ago, still in hiding and will return. Preston, helped scientist understand Ebola and how maybe Doctors could prevent and maybe find a cure for this disease. In 1994 another outbreak of Ebola was found in Cote d'Ivoire, where a scientist was dissecting a wild monkey and became seriously ill. In 2007, Ebola also broke out Bundibugyo District in Uganda, killing 39 people. Up to date, there are five types of Ebola, Zaire, Sudan, Reston, Cote d’Ivoire, and Bundibugyo.

Resource:

The Hot Zone by Richard Preston

CDC

http://www.cdc.gov/ncidod/dvrd/spb/mnpages/dispages/ebola.htm

Wikipedia-http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ebola

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