The Ebola Virus In The Hot Zone

The Ebola Hemorrhagic Fever is easily one of the most frightening diseases to greet the medical world and to this day still poses a heavy threat to those at risk of exposure. There have been several cases of epidemic outbreaks that alarmed not only the plagued areas, but also the anthropological world. This virus has become one of the most publicized viruses since the AIDS frenzy, and was adapted by Hollywood into a film starring Dustin Hoffman called Outbreak. It even inspired exploratory novels such as Richard Preston’s non-fiction scientific thriller The Hot Zone, a gripping narrative that is used in today’s college classrooms because of its accurate portrayal of the virus’ outbreak. This scientific enigma has been a constant subject of

Ebola is a filovirus in the family Filoviridae. This family currently contains only two members: the Marburg virus and the Ebola virus. Like Ebola, Marburg also causes a hemorrhagic fever and is very similar in its transmission, mortality rate, prevalence, and lack of treatment. Both of these viruses are also classified as RNA. The Ebola virus is rod-shaped with brush-like spikes that protrude from the outer membrane. It is also what science calls pleomorphic, which means the virus can change shape rapidly and take on many forms. Before we can delve into the Ebola outbreaks and their relation to culture and anthropology as a whole, we must first understand exactly what the disease is. There are four subtypes to have been identified of the Ebola virus thus far. Each of them are classified by the area in which the variation of the virus first showed up; Zaire, Sudan, Reston, and Ivory Coast. Three of the four are highly deadly to humans. The fourth, Reston, has not yet been known to cause severe disease in humans. However, this strain is extremely deadly to

The virus is introduced to the human population through contact with blood, secretions, organs, and or bodily fluids of the infected animal. The most prevalent cases of Ebola have occurred in Africa, and most strains have been sourced back to the handling of chimpanzees, monkeys, bats, and various other forest animals that had later fallen ill with or were killed by the virus. Once Ebola is contracted from animal to human, an epidemic is an immediate risk. Not only can the disease spread easily from an infected patient during treatment, but even after death, the virus can be spread from the deceased’s body to those handling it, putting funeral-goers at extremely high hazard. The only strain of Ebola that does not appear threatening to humans is the Ebola Reston virus. Although there haven’t been enough studies on the strain to officially confirm this theory, when tested, 0% of the healthy adult males exposed to the Reston-infected monkeys were struck with the