Deadly Ebola & Lassa Viruses May Be More Common Than Thought

[Shiloh]

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/deadly-ebola-lassa-viruses-may-more-common-thought-194911225.html

Deadly Ebola & Lassa Viruses May Be More Common Than Thought
By Wynne Parry, LiveScience Contributor | LiveScience.com ? 18 hrs ago

Ebola and Lassa are hemorrhagic fevers, made memorable by the horrific symptoms that can accompany them.

First identified about four decades ago, these killer viruses can cause their victims to bleed both internally and from the mucosal membranes of the eyes, nose and elsewhere. A severe infection can also produce neurological problems, including tremors and brain swelling.

But mounting evidence indicates these terrifying diseases, which occur in Africa, may not be the terrifying new arrivals ? called emerging infectious diseases ? they have been labeled, a team of researchers argues.

Genetic evidence and signs of widespread exposure to these diseases in parts of Africa indicate they are, in fact, well-established diseases only discovered by Western medicine about 40 years ago, they say...

 

[Gert van der Hoek]

Re: Deadly Ebola & Lassa Viruses May Be More Common Than Thought

Monday, Nov. 19, 2012

Research suggests Ebola, similar ailments may be more common but spreading


Harvard researchers are challenging the popular portrayal of the Ebola virus and other viral hemorrhagic fevers as emerging, highly rare, and deadly diseases that cannot be researched or understood using traditional epidemiological techniques.

?In the viral studies field, it?s become doctrine that diseases like Ebola are emerging diseases when it comes to human populations,? Gire said. ?What we?re saying in this paper is that there is growing evidence that they are actually very, very old, and that some populations may have been exposed to them for millennia. That?s a new concept because it?s widely thought that these diseases kill virtually everyone who contracts them.?

More: Harvard Gazette