tissues into active virus particles.
It is reported to liquefy the internal organs, resulting in uncontrollable bleeding from every orifice.
In fact, it does nothing of the sort. Almost all these ‘facts’ – repeated in countless books, magazines, television programmes and films – are either simply fiction or
misconceptions promulgated by writers who haven’t bothered to do their research. True, Ebola does multiply at a terrifying rate, and uncontrollable bleeding from every orifice does frequently
occur during the terminal stages of the disease.
But Ebola actually attacks only the circulatory system, and merely two components of that. It targets the platelets responsible for blood clotting, and the endothelial cells that line the inside
of veins and arteries and essentially keep the blood contained inside. It launches, in effect, a two-pronged attack: the circulatory system begins to leak as the endothelial cells fail to function,
and the blood that then leaks out doesn’t clot.
The effects are usually first apparent in those organs where the membranes are the thinnest and most vulnerable: typically the lungs, eyes, mouth and nose. Tissues and organs become soggy as
they fill with blood; the lungs stop functioning properly; blood enters the digestive system; the throat becomes bloody and infected, making swallowing impossible; blood leaks from the eyes and
other orifices; in the latter stages brain functions become erratic and then cease almost entirely, as the skull fills with blood.
Again contrary to popular belief, a notable peculiarity of Ebola and the other viral haemorrhagic fevers is that the organs themselves are not destroyed. Despite the huge amounts of blood
present in them, the actual tissues of the organs remain perfectly healthy – in effect, they have ceased to function because they have drowned in blood. And if a patient does manage to
survive an attack by Ebola, he or she will normally suffer no lasting ill-effects: once the virus has been eliminated from the body, the organs will begin working normally once again.
In short, an attack by Ebola is essentially functional – the virus attacking the whole body through the circulatory system – rather than biochemical, in that there is no destruction
of cells or organs. The attack is always very fast but the recovery, if the patient is lucky enough to survive, is also both fast and complete.
But one other popular ‘fact’ is true: in the latter stages of the infection, one drop – a single millilitre – of a victim’s blood can contain as many as one
hundred million virus particles.
The Ebola virus is an extremely simple yet very mysterious organism. Like the other filoviruses, it is a microscopic thread visible only at magnifications in excess of one hundred thousand, and
is characteristically very twisted and convoluted at one end – a feature that some virologists call the ‘shepherd’s crook’ or the ‘eyebolt’.
Structurally, it consists of a single strand of ribo-nucleic acid, containing the virus’s genetic code, encased in a sheath of structural proteins of seven different types. Three of these
proteins are partially understood, but virtually nothing is known about the other four. The structure and function of these four proteins is a mystery, but the combination in Ebola is lethal
– the virus appears specifically adapted to attack the circulatory system, and the human immune system seems completely incapable of fighting back.
It is also, using the tense terminology of the virologists, a badly adapted parasite. A well adapted parasite lives in some kind of harmony with its host: the relationship becomes almost
symbiotic, and both host and parasite will survive. Ebola can kill its human host within days, and will itself die unless it can migrate rapidly to another human being.
This fact suggests that Ebola has another host somewhere, some animal or bird living in the tropical rainforest in Zaïre which
It is reported to liquefy the internal organs, resulting in uncontrollable bleeding from every orifice.
In fact, it does nothing of the sort. Almost all these ‘facts’ – repeated in countless books, magazines, television programmes and films – are either simply fiction or
misconceptions promulgated by writers who haven’t bothered to do their research. True, Ebola does multiply at a terrifying rate, and uncontrollable bleeding from every orifice does frequently
occur during the terminal stages of the disease.
But Ebola actually attacks only the circulatory system, and merely two components of that. It targets the platelets responsible for blood clotting, and the endothelial cells that line the inside
of veins and arteries and essentially keep the blood contained inside. It launches, in effect, a two-pronged attack: the circulatory system begins to leak as the endothelial cells fail to function,
and the blood that then leaks out doesn’t clot.
The effects are usually first apparent in those organs where the membranes are the thinnest and most vulnerable: typically the lungs, eyes, mouth and nose. Tissues and organs become soggy as
they fill with blood; the lungs stop functioning properly; blood enters the digestive system; the throat becomes bloody and infected, making swallowing impossible; blood leaks from the eyes and
other orifices; in the latter stages brain functions become erratic and then cease almost entirely, as the skull fills with blood.
Again contrary to popular belief, a notable peculiarity of Ebola and the other viral haemorrhagic fevers is that the organs themselves are not destroyed. Despite the huge amounts of blood
present in them, the actual tissues of the organs remain perfectly healthy – in effect, they have ceased to function because they have drowned in blood. And if a patient does manage to
survive an attack by Ebola, he or she will normally suffer no lasting ill-effects: once the virus has been eliminated from the body, the organs will begin working normally once again.
In short, an attack by Ebola is essentially functional – the virus attacking the whole body through the circulatory system – rather than biochemical, in that there is no destruction
of cells or organs. The attack is always very fast but the recovery, if the patient is lucky enough to survive, is also both fast and complete.
But one other popular ‘fact’ is true: in the latter stages of the infection, one drop – a single millilitre – of a victim’s blood can contain as many as one
hundred million virus particles.
The Ebola virus is an extremely simple yet very mysterious organism. Like the other filoviruses, it is a microscopic thread visible only at magnifications in excess of one hundred thousand, and
is characteristically very twisted and convoluted at one end – a feature that some virologists call the ‘shepherd’s crook’ or the ‘eyebolt’.
Structurally, it consists of a single strand of ribo-nucleic acid, containing the virus’s genetic code, encased in a sheath of structural proteins of seven different types. Three of these
proteins are partially understood, but virtually nothing is known about the other four. The structure and function of these four proteins is a mystery, but the combination in Ebola is lethal
– the virus appears specifically adapted to attack the circulatory system, and the human immune system seems completely incapable of fighting back.
It is also, using the tense terminology of the virologists, a badly adapted parasite. A well adapted parasite lives in some kind of harmony with its host: the relationship becomes almost
symbiotic, and both host and parasite will survive. Ebola can kill its human host within days, and will itself die unless it can migrate rapidly to another human being.
This fact suggests that Ebola has another host somewhere, some animal or bird living in the tropical rainforest in Zaïre which
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