New Killer Virus Found In Boliva

New Killer Virus Found In Boliva

www.newsci entist.com

A team of disease hunters has announced the discovery of a deadly new virus, found in a remote village in South America. Experts say the virus – named Chapare – is probably limited to a small swathe of Bolivia, but urbanisation and climate change could expand its range.
Further tests confirmed that this Chapare virus was a new beast, part of a deadly family called arenaviruses. In West Africa, the related Lassa virus infects about 300,000 to 500,000 each year, killing 5000, according to the World Health Organization. The South American forms are rarer, but far deadlier.

(visit the link for the full news article)

We now have a hemorrhagic fever of our very own in the America's now that rivals Ebola. Sounds like a great weapon (like in Outbreak) or a great way to get Marshall Law going.

But this is my favorite quote from the piece -

"Charles Fulhorst, an arenavirus expert at the University of Texas Medical Branch in Galveston, says Chapare is the tip of the iceberg. Many new species of virus lurk in South America – and perhaps North America. “Just when you think you know what’s out there, another one pops out,” he says."

Great! So there is what hanging out around the corner? I never thought I would hear the words : New Virus, Hemorrhagic, North America in the same sentence.

www.newsci entist.com
(visit the link for the full news article)

When I see this, I think of a post I just threw up here with links to lists/reports of dead scientists/micro-biologists.

What better way to enure the spread of diseases than to get rid of people who specialize in finding the causes/cures?

reply to post by harddrive21


These nasty viruses are being found in South America??
This is great news, more motivation to leave the Southern borders WIDE open!!

Thanks for both your replies RC and LN.

Rabbit Chaser - no kidding there friend. Take out the few people who best understand/study these things so we have no defensive line. I just watched I am Legend this weekend - that shows the "danger" of leaving just ONE microbiologist/virologist alive. The cure will eventually be found (I know the science behind it is weak - just a good pop culture example).
LostNemesis - I agree with your point...Just think back 10 years to some of the Ebola outbreaks in Africa - they tried the quarantine lines, but they were broken. Here, someone can get in to the US and as much as I would like to believe a hospital quarantine would work, it wouldn't. People trying to live under the radar may not seek medical help, spreading it to other transients and out to the public. A scary thought.

reply to post by harddrive21


You know, it's been said that the hospital is actually the quickest place to "catch" anything, if there was some outbreak.

And this really just makes me think of the articles a while back, of people crossing the border with drug-resistant forms of Tuberculosis, I think ?? Not good stuff.

reply to post by LostNemesis


LOL, since I work for a hospital, all I will say is Yes and Nosocomal infections suck.
The best example to date is the gentleman who married a woman whose father worked for the CDC as a specialist in TB. The guy contracted MDR-TB (multi-drug resistant Tuberculosis) and went on his honeymoon in Europe, came back and was sent to Isolation in Colorado (he eventually had part of his lung surgically removed). Here is a link to some info on this case on wikipedia :

en.wikipedia.org...

As open as the borders are, air travel is still the *best* way to spread disease.

Another example is SARS and Toronto :

en.wikipedia.org...