GUINEA was synonymous to Human Rights Violation, till 2014. But suddenly one dis-pleasant morning of May 2014 it was in news for attack by a species that belongs to Filoviridae.
Science has taken care that the deadly virus soon becomes Endemic and the count of death in neighboring countries of West Africa soon reached zenith. Then the protocol of WHO has begin and immediately the world has gone on an alert and quarantine wings at all the airports immediately were kept on alert.
Lets take a quick snapshot on what's Virus - (Virion) is a stable infective particle that's released from cell and is capable of infecting other cells of same type.
This particular class of Filo virus dates back to year 1967, when some German Scientists developed hemorrhagic fever while working on tissues of green monkeys. The virus was named after Marburg - site where this incident happened and hence the name of one of the strains is Marburg Virus. Then for a couple of years this virus went silent and in year 1976 there was an outbreak in Zaire and this was identified as Ebola virus, though the outbreaks were mid sized the catastrophe was significant. This particular virus is Zoonotic, i.e. these are transmitted from animals to humans, in a layman language. So majority of the scientists were perplexed since then about the source of this virus and finally they realized that the reservoir is Fruit Bats in Africa.
Though we evolved over a period of time, when it comes to survival skills we still get inspired by our ancestors - THE EARLY MAN, Africa doesn't have a life stock infrastructure and as its a meat eating culture they rely on Bush Meat as its available and affordable. Bush Meat is wild animal meat, often the Chimpanzees Monkeys Gorillas and Fruit Bats. The infection spreads from the infected person only through bodily fluids, infected blood or organs or indirectly through contact with contaminated environments. Most dreadful part is even funerals of Ebola victims can be risky if the mourners have a direct contact with the deceased.
Ironically we observe that though this happens to be a dreadful disease, till to date we haven't actually conquered this peril, what could be the reason?
If you really brood over this it eventually boils down to the fundamentals of Economics, the so called divide between Developed and Developing countries, billions of dollars are pumped by developed countries for research related to diseases that affect the majority of population in the DEVELOPED countries, what's stopping all the Pharma giants to take the research that's stuck at clinical trials level to the next phase?
It's true that along with the coffin makers even these multinationals mint huge money during these outbreaks.But amidst all this chaos, unfortunately the imminent threat that terrorism poses to society is forcing the developed countries to focus on this particular virus if it reaches into the hands of TERRORISTS.
ISIS - Islamic State of Iraq and Syria ; I need not go into the details of this but "Bioterrorism" will throw light on the reason for my abrupt mention of it. Developed countries and especially the CDC - Centers for Disease Control & Prevention immediately raised alarm as this particular disease falls in the A category of risk agents for the National Security. During the cold war Russians have tried their best to develop biowarfare agents and Ebola was on their list and to our surprise even Japan has joined the party but none of them couldn't sustain the project in developing them. But never the less they tried developing the antidote's and many of them are on the verge of release positively by next year.
The reason for this elaborate prelude is to analyse the scope of considering this particular virus as bio war agent is viable or not for terrorists, and below is a link that gives you a thorough insight of the ways in which the virus can be used for attacks.
http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/weaponized-ebola-is-it-really-a-bioterror-threat/
Perhaps its a Gordian Knot for all the antisocial elements, but never the less knowing the rogue thought process of them and the war between countries for getting that dominant position in developing variety of weapon arsenal might end up in development of a process for using this species as weapon of mass destruction in future.
But what's Tamba Snell ?
Tamba Snell was a pseudonym that was given to Dr. Kent Brantly, that was a coded message sent to Liberia when his blood was tested positive for Ebola."Tamba" is a common Liberian Name.
He was attacked during his stint at Liberia to serve his residency.Kudos to Dr. Kent, as he wants to get back to Africa in order to support the people and the government to tackle this dreadful disease.
Some useful Links;
http://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-26835233
http://www.who.int/mediacentre/factsheets/fs103/en/
http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/weaponized-ebola-is-it-really-a-bioterror-threat/
Perhaps its a Gordian Knot for all the antisocial elements, but never the less knowing the rogue thought process of them and the war between countries for getting that dominant position in developing variety of weapon arsenal might end up in development of a process for using this species as weapon of mass destruction in future.
But what's Tamba Snell ?
Tamba Snell was a pseudonym that was given to Dr. Kent Brantly, that was a coded message sent to Liberia when his blood was tested positive for Ebola."Tamba" is a common Liberian Name.
He was attacked during his stint at Liberia to serve his residency.Kudos to Dr. Kent, as he wants to get back to Africa in order to support the people and the government to tackle this dreadful disease.
Some useful Links;
http://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-26835233
http://www.who.int/mediacentre/factsheets/fs103/en/
