Lost in the ‘All Terri. All the time.’ news coverage is that Marburg’s rearing it’s ugly head again.
Fatality rates for this outbreak are hovering around the mid-nineties.
shudder
Been reading about it for almost a week. Hey, I regularly read international news.
Unless there is a dramatic turn, I doubt it even makes page three of the US media. Out of sight, out of mind. After all, the bird flu is still below much of the US media radar. Did you know reports are now coming out of North Korea?
Yeah, I’d heard about that, and I don’t doubt that it’s been running amok there for a while before the NK’s reported it. Bird flu doesn’t bother me quite as much as Marburg or Ebola. Both of those diseases strike me as particular nasty ways to die, and when you add in the fact that at least in the case of Ebola, they’ve very little idea where the virus “hangs out” when it’s not infecting people, it gets really scary.
This class of viruses are fucking terrifying. From what I’ve heard, they’re not spread via airborne particles (in other words, outbreaks are somewhat ‘self-limiting’.) Let’s hope they never are, otherwise there may be an epidemic situation developing.
These don’t scare me so much, other than in the shudder-late-at-night way, because they tend to kill people too quickly to hang around for too long.
For those that are interested about the subject:
That book is soo not for the queasy. Good (but scary!) read though.
TastesLikeBurning, The Hot Zone is embellished to some degree. The Coming Plague, gives a more factual account, which makes all the more chilling.
Especially since the outbreak of hemorrhagic fever the group is studying is in South America. Yes, there are new world strains as well. There is also an airborne strain, but its limited to monkeys. It doesn’t infect humans. It was named for the region of its first documented outbreak; somewhere in New Jersey, I think.
Its horror novel scary.
The only thing that keeps it from wiping us off the face of the is its own virilance. It outruns its host. It kills so fast, that no one has the opportunity to carry it beyond the local outbreak area.
Here are some reviews if anyone is interested.
The symptoms are similar to those seen in Disseminated intravascular coagulopathy
Reston, Virginia.
I’m well aware of this.
The first known outbeak of Marburg’s Disease appeared in animal handlers in Marburg, Germany.
News Update–Marburg outbreak spreads rapidly.
I read that book years ago during jury duty.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/4407461.stm
Medical notes on Marburg’s
Update–things have taken a horrifying new turn.
From your link
Wow. Just wow.
Nightmarish. I’ve been watching my major newssite RSS feeds for any mention of Angola. It showed up in the Beeb feed today, but for the past few weeks I’ve been Googling for the news. Nothing on the outbreak for all the Terri, Pope and royal wedding coverage. This being mentioned on TV any? 
Fear rules unchallenged.
Families hide victims from medical help! :eek: :eek: :eek:
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/7462784/
Marburgs spreads.
They finally reported on this in today’s Boston Globe. They also showed a map that indicated the different outbreaks. I note that they did not include the outbreak in Reston, Virginia (as recounted in the aforementioned The Hot Zone).
Why? Because it was only among monkeys? Because it wasn’t in Africa (naah – they included the Marburg breakout). I think they thought that people would freak if they learned there had been a case inside the U.S.
IIRC from the book I read, the Reston VA outbreak never actually infected any humans for some arcane reason. One person was thought to have been, but turned out to be sick from a completely different thing. Those involved breathed a sign of relief and figured they had just dodged a honkin’ big bullet. They completely disinfected the building, though.