Ebola! Ebola is a very nasty virus that has a very high mortality rate, think ~90% of people who contract this virus do not make it, I heard it described as a virus that essentially liquefies a person's innards. Last I heard they have not discovered the environmental reservoir for it, as in the animal host it hangs out in when it is not decimating villages in Africa. During or after every outbreak the scientists try and track down the original case and then try and retrace their movements in hopes of figuring out how they got the virus. If the source is found then perhaps future outbreaks can be avoided, until then I salute the crazy bastards who willingly fly into these outbreaks and do the best they can to help the people who are effected by them, sick and uninfected/survivors. As much as I admire these people you will NOT be catching me joining them, biosafety level 2 is as high as I am willing to go!Congrats and thank you Weasels, enjoy your GIANTmicrobe!
4 comments:
I suppose it works better if you actually know what an ebola virus looks like. Because it looks a bit like a big...well, let's just say I wouldn't have guessed virus.
That is one weird looking virus. Scary to think that he and his friends can cause such a fuss.
That virus looks a lot like a certain male swimmer. You know what I mean, right?
You guys are all hilarious. The link in the post shows the plush and the electron micrograph it is based off of. Ebola is a filamentous virus so kind of resembles hair, just extremely smaller than hair, and it can look all twisted up. And yes it is amazing how something so innocent (or not innocent...) looking can cause such devastation, part of what makes my field interesting.
Post a Comment