Viruses are unlike anything else on earth. Their bizarre nature resembles an entity straight out of a sci-fi movie. For starters, viruses are the only material on earth that straddles the definition of living and non-living. They have some genetic material like living beings, but cannot reproduce on their own and lack other key factors that define life. The unliving, if not the undead.
Where did they come from?
Because they are so ephemeral, no one knows the origin of viruses. They leave no fossils or other traces that can be studied. They could be as old as life on earth or a relatively recent phenomenon. Theories abound, but facts are scarce.
Are they relatively rare?
No. Experts believe they are the most common biological units on earth.
According to a BBC report, if you placed all viruses in the ocean alone, end to end, they’d stretch across 60 galaxies. It’s estimated that there are 100 times as many of these microbes in our bodies as there are cells. And we have about 37 trillion cells.
Viruses are so minute that they’re measured in nanometers. If a bacterium is one-hundredth the size of a human cell, a single virus is one-hundredth the size of that. So there’s room for lots and lots of them.
How do they do their dirty work?
Without a host, viruses are basically just bits of chemical matter. They cannot replicate without healthy cells so they lie in wait until the right opportunity comes along (maybe a droplet of fluid from a sneeze, or water or blood). If they find a way into your cells they may continue to lie dormant or they may activate.
If a virus does spring into action, it tries to take over and force the cell to make copies of itself rather than reproducing normally. When critical mass is reached, the virus can burst out of the cell, sometimes killing it, and begin to move through your innards infecting other cells. Very body snatcher.
Why is Ebola so dangerous?
The Ebola virus has another trick up its sleeve. It’s a kind of stealth agent, mimicking material found in normal cells. So when it invades the body, it doesn’t set off any alarms. Other viruses can do the same thing, but Ebola microbes multiply at such a staggering rate that they overcome us very quickly. The immune system never wakes up. Ebola ruins the clotting function of our blood, attacks many of our organs and our bodies simply go haywire. It is a very efficient killer. That might be its undoing, because if it runs out of living hosts within reach, it will fade away.
What about transmission?
Ebola is so prolific that a fraction of a milliliter of infected fluid contains billions of viral particles. Compare this to tens of thousands of particles found in the same amount of fluid with HIV. It’s the sheer quantity that makes it so infectious.
Still, most experts say it takes very close contact with bodily fluids to catch Ebola. And no studies have seen a virus transmitted through droplets or fluid become truly airborne, but nonetheless Ebola is a powerful enemy.
Officials seem confident Ebola cannot be transmitted until the sick person has symptoms. Symptoms arise along a continuum though; it’s not like flicking a switch on. That makes it very tough for policy makers to create safe guidelines.
So where does that leave us in the US?
In developed nations, it seems highly likely that we’ll be able to contain Ebola even with the initial missteps. Officials need to strike a very delicate balance between implementing effective measures and instilling panic where it is unwarranted. It’s not an easy job; there’s no policy manual for every imaginable public health threat. Still, we can marshal huge resources and that bodes well.
For those infected by Ebola there is no cure or vaccine, but health care workers know how to fight back. If the kidneys are damaged, we get dialysis. If we are dangerously dehydrated, we are given electrolytes. If we have trouble breathing, we have ventilators. Lost blood can be replaced with transfusions. That cuts the death rate and is why, as of this writing, we have lost only one individual in the US.
In Africa though, the density of the population and the lack of infrastructure have created a nightmare. The projections are worrying indeed. Ebola is a frightening and tragic disease and we should mourn those who are and will be lost to it, however many thousands of miles away.
Selected Sources:
http://www.mcb.uct.ac.za/tutorial/virorig.html
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3094976/
http://www.ucmp.berkeley.edu/alllife/virus.html
http://serc.carleton.edu/microbelife/yellowstone/viruslive.html
http://www.nytimes.com/1986/09/28/magazine/viruses-still-a-mystery-after-all-these-years.html
http://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/there-are-372-trillion-cells-in-your-body-4941473/?no-ist
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