Ebola Zaire

[Ian A. York]

In article <892480909wnr at panoptic.demon.co.uk> Blade at panoptic.demon.co.uk writes:
>Due to a distinct media apathy about this topic is any one able to 
>inform me of the situation in Zaire. Have any discoveries on the 
>origins of this virus been discovered from this outbreak?

The media has lost interest because the epidemic is essentially over.  

I'm not sure what you're asking, exactly.  The index case (i.e. the first
human to have contracted the disease) has been identified; he was a
charcoal maker or something like that, if I recall correctly.  He and
almost all of his family dies, and the WHO (doing wonderful work; they
deserve credit for their involvement in the outbreak) has been able to
track back almost all of the subsequent cases to him through a chain of
contacts. 

If you're asking what the normal animal reservoir is, that is still 
unknown and being intensively studied.  The major suspect is monkeys of 
some kind, but there has been no confirmation of that yet.  (Note that 
the carcoal maker spent a lot of time in the jungle and so could have 
contracted the infection from many things.) 

Here is a list (compiled by Dr. Robert Hessler) of Ebola information 
sites on the Internet.

Re: EBOLA - WEBSITES
====================

http://www.bocklabs.wisc.edu/outbreak.html
    Most current info including WHO releases and Reuters News articles

http://www.who.ch/
http://www.who.ch/programmes/cds/ebola.html
    World Health Organization's Ebola info page

http://www.nando.net/newsroom/nt/world.html
    Click on their Ebola link to get other links and information

http://ichiban.objarts.com/ebola/bibsearch.html
	Ebola bibliography with close to 200 entries

http://www.cdc.gov/
    The Centers for Disease Control home page
    (select "What's New" from menu)

http://www.cdc.gov/ncidod/ncid.htm
    The Nation Center for Infectious Diseases

http://www.apocalypse.org/pub/u/davido/ebola.html
http://ichiban.objarts.com/ebola/ebola.html
httP://outcast.gene.com/ae/WN/SU/ebola_infection.htm
    Several attempts to create a master page for links to the Ebola outbreak

http://outcast.gene.com/ae/WN/NM/interview_murphy.html
    Interview with Dr. Frederick Murphy, one of the first Ebola 
    researchers. Includes some electron-microsope views of the beastie 
    and a bibliography.

http://www.bocklabs.wisc.edu/ebola.html
    Another reading list

http://www.bocklabs.wisc.edu/outbreak.html
    Info on, what else, the Ebola outbreak

http://www.uct.ac.za/microbiology/ebola.html
    EMERGING AND RE-EMERGING VIRUSES: AN ESSAY 
    By Alison Jacobson
    Department of Microbiology
    University of Cape Town
    Essay on all the new bugs that are going to kill us

http://www.uct.ac.za/microbiology/ebopage.html
    Links to other info, and general Ebola information

gopher://gopher.stolaf.edu:70/00/Internet%20Resources/
US-State-Department-Travel-Advisories/Current-Advisories/zaire
    Latest State Dept. advisory on Zaire; basically says: RUN AWAY!

gopher://gopher.bio.net/
    Searchable archives of a variety of biology-related mailing lists,
    some of which have Ebola discussions.

sci.med
clari.news.africa
    useful Usenet groups

http://www.lib.utexas.edu/Libs/PCL/Map_collection/africa/Zaire.GIF
    Map of Zaire, shows location of Kikwit (map's about 256K in size)

//------------------------------------------------------------------
// Robert Hessler, MD, FACEP
// Assistant Director, Emergency Services
// Bellevue Hospital and NYU Medical Center
// 462 First Ave
// NY, NY  10016
// 212-562-3346 voice   212-562-3001 FAX

Date: Tue, 23 May 95 05:35:58 +0000
From: hessler at nic.com
............................................................................


-- 
Ian York   (york at mbcrr.harvard.edu)
Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, 44 Binney St., Boston MA 02115
Phone (617)-632-3921     Fax  (617)-632-2627