Ebola Virus ...

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"Ebola is a rather simple virus-as simple as a firestorm. It kills humans with swift efficiency and with a devastating range of effects." (Preston 46) According to this, Ebola is distantly related to measles, mumps and rabies. This virus has no cure. Ebola is named for the Ebola River, which is the headstream od the Mongala River. It is orginated in the Congo and affects monkeys. Humans and monkes are both primates and Ebola feeds on primates in the very same way that a predator consumes certain kinds of flesh. Marburg is one of a family of viruses known as the filoviruses, It was the first filovirus to be discovered; Filovirus is also known as "thread virus". The filoviruses look alike, as if they are sisters, and they resemble no other viruses on earth. While most viruses are ball-shaped particles that look like peppercorns, the thread virus have been compared to strands of tangled rope, to hairm to worms, to snakes. However, Marburg virus affects humans somewhat like nuclear radiation, damaging virtually all of the tissues in their bodies. It attacks with particular ferocity the internal organs, connective tissue, intestines and skin.

Compared to HIV ...

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"The Ebola virus particle contains only seven different proteins-seven large molecules... Whatever these Ebola proteins do, they seem to target the immune system for special attack. In this they are like HIV, which also destroys the immune system, but unlike the onset of HIV, the attack by Ebola is explosive." (Preston 46) The main difference between HIV and Ebola is the mode of action. AIDS is an acronym for Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome. HIV is transmitted like Ebola, but is much less contagious than Ebola. AIDS moves silently and one of the reasons why it has been so successful in penetrating the human species is its long incubation period. It is not easy to identify a carrier of HIV and he or she may freely transmit the virus over a long period of time, unknowingly. The virus attaches itself to T-Lymphocytes, or the cells that are responsible for the human immune system and which fight disease and infections. The virus when it begins to replicate, disables and destroys the T-Lymphocytes, thus making even common infections like colds lethal, in the absence of an immune system.