ViroBlogy

The Ebola victim who is believed to have triggered the current outbreak – a two-year-old boy called Emile Ouamouno from Guinea – may have been infected by playing in a hollow tree housing a colony of bats, say scientists.

They made the connection on an expedition to the boy’s village, Meliandou.

They took samples and chatted to locals to find out more about Ebola’s source.

The team’s findings are published in EMBO Molecular Medicine.

Source: www.bbc.co.uk

Really??  Kids played in a hollow tree where bats USED to be – and the bats in which no-one can find Ebola, are the source of the epidemic? Really??

Now even for one who is prepared to believe the worst of bats – which I am; I am on record as calling them fabulous furry flying cockroaches – the evidence here is VERY thin.

Consider the facts in evidence: 

"Villagers reported that children used to play frequently in the hollow tree"

"Emile – who died of Ebola in December 2013 – used to play there, according to his friends."

"The villagers said that the tree burned on March 24, 2014 and that once the tree caught fire, there issued a "rain of bats""

"A large number of these insectivorous free-tailed bats …were collected by the villagers for food, but disposed of the next day after a government-led ban on bushmeat consumption was announced."

"{While] The scientists …were unable to test any of the bushmeat that the villagers had disposed of, they captured and tested any living bats they could find in and around Meliandou."

"No Ebola could be detected in any of these hundred or so animals, however."

"But previous tests show this species of bat can carry Ebola."

So – the chain of logic goes: 

– Kids played in a tree

– One kid got Ebola

– Bats lived in the tree

– Those bats can be infected with Ebola

– Therefore the one kid was infected by those bats.

Really??  You would convict a whole community of bats for that, IN THE ABSENCE OF ANY EVIDENCE they ACTUALLY carried Ebola??

This is thin – very, very thin.  I am also quite happy to believe the Ebola outbreak started with bats, BUT this proves nothing.  More evidence, less hype!!

See on Scoop.it – Virology News

The WordPress.com stats helper monkeys prepared a 2014 annual report for this blog.

Here’s an excerpt:

The concert hall at the Sydney Opera House holds 2,700 people. This blog was viewed about 31,000 times in 2014. If it were a concert at Sydney Opera House, it would take about 11 sold-out performances for that many people to see it.

Click here to see the complete report.
SO we’re doing alright, then?? Thanks for reading – here’s to a great 2015!

The virus’s genome is already online. You just need the right lab.

Source: www.nytimes.com

Weeeeeellll…yes and no. Smallpox is a BIIIIG genome – not far off in size to the bacterial genome famously resynthesised by Craig Venter et al., a while ago.  This means it would be a huge undertaking, cost a LOT of money, and need sophisticated facilities to do it.

Not something your average cave-dwelling fanatic could do, then!

States could do it, however: a well-funded lab in even a country like North Korea could theoretically resynthesise a poxvirus – but why bother??  We have vaccines against smallpox right now; growing poxviruses and vaccinia virus in particular is a well-established biotechnology still.

SO I think this is an artificial concern, to be honest. 

See on Scoop.it – Virology News

The WordPress.com stats helper monkeys prepared a 2013 annual report for this blog.

Here’s an excerpt:

The concert hall at the Sydney Opera House holds 2,700 people. This blog was viewed about 24,000 times in 2013. If it were a concert at Sydney Opera House, it would take about 9 sold-out performances for that many people to see it.

Click here to see the complete report.

The Ebola Virus is Spreading Across West Africa in The Largest Outbreak To Date

Mortality rates are currently at 60%, where normally up to 90% of affected people die. Unfortunately, there are no cures or vaccines for the disease, despite its emergence in 1976.

In March of this year, cases of Ebola were reported for the first time in Guinea, Western Africa. Notably, these outbreaks took place in Guinean districts that bordered Sierra Leone and Liberia. In the past, outbreaks have taken place in remote areas of Africa, but this outbreak has had the opportunity to cross border and spread throughout Western Africa, and it has done just that. Now fourth months since the March outbreak, 1,093 people have been infected and there have been a reported 660 deaths attributed to the deadly virus (source: CNN vital signs.)

Source: www.vaccinenation.org

I would say – yes!  I am sure the beleaguered healthcare workers in Guinea, Liberia, Sierra Leone and now Nigeria would welcome the experimental vaccine candidates, and the experimental therapeutics, for that matter.

See on Scoop.it – Virology News

See on Scoop.it – Virology News

Benefits of scientific testing in the area are outweighed by risks of pathogenic strains spreading round world, say researchers

See on www.theguardian.com