The two ideas you suggest about a natural reservoir are only
ideas. Scientists are still looking for a natural reservoir.
On the idea of eating infected wild game, the US troops do not
eat such stuff. They eat their MRE's (Meals Ready to Eat.) There are
many very isolated tribes in Zaire due to the jungle. They would be the
main people who would eat the wild game and we don't even hear about
those outbreaks that a isolated deep in the jungle.
Secondly, Ebola is a relatively new virus. We started studying
it only in 1976. Due to the violent nature of it, only a few places in
the world has the capabilites to study it. This limits how fast we can
find out information about Ebola Virus. There are still lot of things we
don't know about the virus.
You would think that the whole nation would be in an outbreak,
but for some reason, it is not. If we knew more about the Ebola Virus,
then we maybe able to find some type of cure. The virus is still probably
out there somewhere. It is just hiding now. It has not gone away.
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| Nanda Somarajan |
| Academic Technology Development Consultant |
|somarank at slu.edusomarank at hotmail.com |
|Ebola Info. HQ: http://www.angelfire.com/ok/nanda/ |
|Ebola Info HQ Mirror: http://www.geocities.com/CapeCanaveral/Lab/5738/|Home http://www.geocities.com/CollegePark/4116/ |
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On Mon, 28 Apr 1997, Michael Rivero wrote:
> Zaire has been the aite of several outbreaks of Ebola, contained only
> by the remoteness of the outbreak sites. The prevailing theory is that some
> still unknown natural reservoir of the virus is occasionally stumbled
> upon. One theory was the insects of Kitum cave, and another the eating
> of infected wild game.
>> I'm having a hard time understanding why, with the entire nation in turmoil,
> with huge populations of refugees on the move and eating everything they
> can find, why there hasn't been a new outbreak?
>> Don't get me wrong. I don't want to see someone get sick, but with American
> troops in the area and all, it's a valid question. Has the virus just
> "gone away"?
>>> --
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