Ebola & Marburg Virus Hunters

These are the pictures of the Marburg (left) and Ebola (right) virus, those faceless little beasts that cause ambiguous pains and aches as they get down to business. Each virus hijacks the internal cell machinery, replicating at a terrifying pace until the cell wall ruptures and release the next generation of viral bodies into the bloodstream.

Imagine this happening millions of times every couple of minutes. The symptoms sometimes progress to uncontrollable vomiting of blood and the expulsion of bloody stool. In more horrific cases the nervous system is affected which induces thrashing, an effective method of distribution for the virus-laden blood to infect new hosts. But most vicitims just fade away in a relatively short period of time and with almost no chance of recovery.

Now the BBC reports in this article that, "The first vaccine to protect monkeys against Ebola and Marburg viruses has been developed by scientists from Canada, the United States and France. The study could advance research into finding treatments for use in humans." Angola is continuing to fight the outbreak of Marburg, while cases of Ebola have been reported in Congo.

Scientists adapted another type of virus to carry proteins from the Ebola and Marburg viruses. This modified virus was injected into Macaque monkeys who were later exposed to the disease-causing pathogens. Just a single injection completely protected the monkeys and the initial data is so encouraging, say the researchers, that the technique could be used against other emerging viruses and may even lead to a trial vaccine being developed for humans.

Some in the West would argue that this is not our problem since only a relatively small number of people have died from the virus (120 Congolese deaths in 2003). Shelving the obvious moral arguments, a critic needs to understand that if a mutation were to occur and the virus adapted itself to a maintain a longer incubation period (i.e. not killing its hosts so damn quickly), and with the advent of modern transportation (i.e. international travel); the virus will come find them.