![]() ![]() ![]() “We learned from that that Ebola can come through these immediate hosts - chimps or gorillas,” he explains.īut what remains to be known about the virus is which animals harbor it permanently and asymptomatically. ![]() It appeared as if the virus had swept through the forest as well as the village, killing both gorillas and humans alike. He and his team spent 10 days in a forest known to be a gorilla habitat, but encountered none.Įarlier, however, locals had found a pile of 13 dead gorillas. Quammen witnessed this firsthand during his time in central Africa two years ago - during the last Ebola outbreak. For instance, we know that the disease can be spread through certain animal hosts. With the Ebola virus, few things are known to be absolutely true. ![]() “The purpose is not so much to solve this outbreak, this epidemic, or come up with a vaccine, but to be able to prevent the next one,” he says. His investigations are now the subject of his latest book, “Ebola: The Natural and Human History of a Deadly Virus.” That’s why science writer David Quammen travelled deep in the forests of central Africa. The task that’s left for scientists is to determine what that starting point was. Throughout the course of the current Ebola epidemic, there has been a lot of misinformation circulated - for instance, how the disease is born and spread.īut as is the case with most diseases like Ebola, there is a definitive ecological and biological start to the virus. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |