Ebola....

[bio_nerd101]

Does anyone know what Ebola is and how a city can be prepared for an attck?

[MrMistery]

ebola is a very very old virus belonging to a class called filiviruses. It produces a desease called hemoragic fever. Although there is no cure for ebola, recent studies on people living in the places contaminated with ebola have revealed that their blood contains anti-ebola antibodies, meaning that they have survived an infection.
An interesting virus, deffinetly worth keeping an eye on it

[Darby]

What sort of attack do you mean?

[Snake_Bis]

And what do you mean when you say "very very old virus " ?

[Vagabond]

I think he means that it has been around for a long time and many people have studied it. Compared to say AAVs or the like of so called new noval viruses...

[MrMistery]

actually i was refering to the fact that it is believed to have appeared very early in evolution. However, from what i know it hasn't been discovered for that long...

[Vagabond]

Ah ok LOL sorry about that I will try not to interpret peoples posts any more

ah yes it looks like the first strains of ebola were discovered in 1976. Not that long ago..

[MrMistery]

yeah i knew about the 70s also, but wasn't sure and didn't want to give wrong information...

[bio_nerd101]

by attack i mean like if the city was all of a sudden catching the virus, how can we stop the virus from spreading?

[crashxxbrn]

Isolation is key, since there is not yet a cure. I'd suppose prophylactic treatment with antiviral therapies would also be beneficial, but I remember reading that it wasn't 100% effective.
Those viral hemorrhagic fevers are a mysterious bunch.

[Darby]

People with ebola do not wander around and spread it - they are very quickly too ill to move around, and the virus spreads through the hemorrhaged blood, a pretty ineffective mode, especially in a world aware of the dangers. Family members and medical people treating the afflicted are most at risk.

[ReggieLynch]

The last known outbreak of Ebola to a great magnitude was the Black death. They have just figured out that is was a hemerogic disease and not a bacteria. totally different symptoms from the bubonic plague.
But so far it has only been rediscovered in the costs of Africa. Yes it can be spread quite easily as it can take up to two weeks to show symptoms but in that time you are contagious.
Thankfully though, There is no reason to fear a massive outbreak in times when we can properly identify and quarantine those who are infected.

Reggie