SPECIES INFO
Ebola is probably the most feared disease in the world. An interesting 400 page book on the history and study of this disease was written by Richard Preston around 1994 and entitled the Hot Zone. He pictures both the Ebola-Zaire and Ebola-Reston viruses. The story opens with Charles Monet, a citizen, traveling to Kitum Cave near Mount Elgon near the Kenya-Uganda border. Somehow after exploring the cave this poor chap contracted the disease. The author then tracks the importation of monkeys in to the USA as a means of studying disease. The story is enough to scare anyone.
As of 1998 there were four known Ebola viruses. One from Zaire, one from Sudan, another from Tai(Ivory Coast), and another from Reston, Virginia found in imported monkeys. The Marburg virus is closely related and was discovered in Germany brought in by some monkeys.This family of viruses contains several viruses in the family Filoviridae. These viruses are known to cause some very serious and very deadly diseases known as Elbola and Marburg. The viruses themselves are shaped like earthworms, but much much smaller.
Monkeys brought into Germany and North America from various tropical places appear to carry these viruses. When these viruses jump into humans, the results are very sad.
Typical viruses include tiny organisms that contain both a nucleic acid and some proteins. Many of these cause serious illness in humans. Included herein is AIDS, yellow fever, Mumps, Measles, and Hepatitus. Estimates indicate that over 30,000 species are under study with only about 3,000 recognized.
e have lumped all the virus like lifeforms herein, as science is still working on the taxonomy tree in this area.
Viruses are the most primitive of lifeforms. These organisms are usually too small to be seen by typical microscopes. Viruses are composed of a acid nucleus and some proteins. These organisms need to invade a living cell of a host in order to grow and reproduce. Several well known diseases are caused by viruses including Hepatitis, HIV, Mumps, Influenze, Rabies, and Yellow Fever.
There are several even more primitive virus like creatures that include viroids and prions. (Viroids can cause some plant health issues, and Prions can cause the mad cow disease.)
