develop into an unstoppable tidal wave. If the virus killednine out of ten people it infected and there was no vaccine or cure for it, you could see the possibilities. The possibilities were global. Johnson liked to say to people that we don’t really know what Ebola has done in the past, and we don’t know what it might do in the future. Ebola was unpredictable. An airborne strain of Ebola could emerge and circle around the world in about six weeks, like the flu, killing large numbers of people, or it might forever remain a secret feeder at the margins, taking down humans a few at a time.
Ebola is a rather simple virus—as simple as a firestorm. It kills humans with swift efficiency and with a devastating range of effects. Ebola is distantly related to measles, mumps, and rabies. It is also related to certain pneumonia viruses: to the parainfluenza virus, which causes colds in children, and to the respiratory syncytial virus, which can cause fatal pneumonia in a person who has AIDS . In its own evolution through unknown hosts and hidden pathways in the rain forest, Ebola seems to have developed the worst elements of all the above viruses. Like measles, it triggers a rash all over the body. Some of its effects resemble rabies—psychosis, madness. Other of its effects look eerily like a bad cold.
The Ebola virus particle contains only seven different proteins—seven distinct types of large molecules arranged in a long braided structure that is the stringy Ebola particle. Three of these proteins are vaguely understood, and four of the proteins are completely unknown—their structureand their function is a mystery. Whatever these Ebola proteins do, they seem to target the immune system for special attack. In this they are like HIV , which also destroys the immune system, but unlike the creeping onset of HIV , the attack by Ebola is explosive. As Ebola sweeps through you, your immune system fails, and you seem to lose your ability to respond to viral attack. Your body becomes a city under seige, with its gates thrown open and hostile armies pouring in, making camp in the public squares and setting everything on fire; and from the moment Ebola enters your bloodstream, the war is already lost; you are almost certainly doomed. You can’t fight off Ebola the way you fight off a cold. Ebola does in ten days what it takes AIDS ten years to accomplish.
It is not really known how Ebola is transmitted from person to person. Army researchers believed that Ebola virus traveled through direct contact with blood and bodily fluids (in the same way the AIDS virus travels). Ebola seemed to have other routes of travel as well. Many of the people in Africa who came down with Ebola had handled Ebola-infected cadavers. It seems that one of Ebola’s paths goes from the dead to the living, winding in trickles of uncoagulated blood and slimes that come out of the dead body. In Zaire during the 1976 outbreak, grieving relatives kissed and embraced the dead or prepared the body for burial, and then, three to fourteen days later, they broke with Ebola.
Gene Johnson’s Ebola experiment was simple.He would infect a few monkeys with the virus, and then he would treat them with drugs in the hope that they would get better. That way, he might discover a drug that would fight Ebola virus or possibly cure it.
Monkeys are nearly identical to human beings in a biological sense, which is why they are used in medical experiments. Humans and monkeys are both primates, and Ebola feeds on primates in the same way that a predator consumes certain kinds of flesh. Ebola can’t tell the difference between a human being and a monkey. The virus jumps easily back and forth between them.
Nancy Jaax volunteered to work as the pathologist on Johnson’s Ebola project. It was Level 4 work, which she was qualified to do, because she didn’t need to be vaccinated. She was eager to prove herself and eager to continue working with lethal viruses. However, some people
Ebola is a rather simple virus—as simple as a firestorm. It kills humans with swift efficiency and with a devastating range of effects. Ebola is distantly related to measles, mumps, and rabies. It is also related to certain pneumonia viruses: to the parainfluenza virus, which causes colds in children, and to the respiratory syncytial virus, which can cause fatal pneumonia in a person who has AIDS . In its own evolution through unknown hosts and hidden pathways in the rain forest, Ebola seems to have developed the worst elements of all the above viruses. Like measles, it triggers a rash all over the body. Some of its effects resemble rabies—psychosis, madness. Other of its effects look eerily like a bad cold.
The Ebola virus particle contains only seven different proteins—seven distinct types of large molecules arranged in a long braided structure that is the stringy Ebola particle. Three of these proteins are vaguely understood, and four of the proteins are completely unknown—their structureand their function is a mystery. Whatever these Ebola proteins do, they seem to target the immune system for special attack. In this they are like HIV , which also destroys the immune system, but unlike the creeping onset of HIV , the attack by Ebola is explosive. As Ebola sweeps through you, your immune system fails, and you seem to lose your ability to respond to viral attack. Your body becomes a city under seige, with its gates thrown open and hostile armies pouring in, making camp in the public squares and setting everything on fire; and from the moment Ebola enters your bloodstream, the war is already lost; you are almost certainly doomed. You can’t fight off Ebola the way you fight off a cold. Ebola does in ten days what it takes AIDS ten years to accomplish.
It is not really known how Ebola is transmitted from person to person. Army researchers believed that Ebola virus traveled through direct contact with blood and bodily fluids (in the same way the AIDS virus travels). Ebola seemed to have other routes of travel as well. Many of the people in Africa who came down with Ebola had handled Ebola-infected cadavers. It seems that one of Ebola’s paths goes from the dead to the living, winding in trickles of uncoagulated blood and slimes that come out of the dead body. In Zaire during the 1976 outbreak, grieving relatives kissed and embraced the dead or prepared the body for burial, and then, three to fourteen days later, they broke with Ebola.
Gene Johnson’s Ebola experiment was simple.He would infect a few monkeys with the virus, and then he would treat them with drugs in the hope that they would get better. That way, he might discover a drug that would fight Ebola virus or possibly cure it.
Monkeys are nearly identical to human beings in a biological sense, which is why they are used in medical experiments. Humans and monkeys are both primates, and Ebola feeds on primates in the same way that a predator consumes certain kinds of flesh. Ebola can’t tell the difference between a human being and a monkey. The virus jumps easily back and forth between them.
Nancy Jaax volunteered to work as the pathologist on Johnson’s Ebola project. It was Level 4 work, which she was qualified to do, because she didn’t need to be vaccinated. She was eager to prove herself and eager to continue working with lethal viruses. However, some people
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