212 Ebola messages in my mailbox...

[Chad Irby]

In article <Pine.SOL.3.91.950513221836.520A-100000 at corona>, Patrick O'Neil
<patrick at corona> wrote:

> On 14 May 1995, Jane E. Hawkins wrote:
> > 
> > Question: The dim recesses of my memory say the the index cases for the 
> > last two Ebola outbreaks both worked in cotton mills. I recall one such 
> > mill being virtually pulled to pieces in an attempt to find an insect, 
> > animal, or any organic matter with traces of the virus, to no avail.
> 
>  I read of that and now wonder if they really did attempt to locate some 
> sort of animal or insect-borne host and exclude plants.  I wonder at the 
> possibility that ebola might reside in plants.  Just brainstorming, and I 
> can envision problems for a virus to hop from the physiological 
> environment of a plant to the completely different environment of an 
> animal, especially since we have active immune systems of a nature far 
> different than a plant...

Wouldn't it be ironic if the cotton plants themselves were the disease
vector?  It could be something as simple as an animal or insect vector
that deposited the active virus onto the cotton plant, which provides a
minimal support "culture" until some of the cotton fibers are breathed
into the lungs.

Maybe someone at CDC could drop a couple of milligrams of live Ebola onto
a piece of cotton and see how long the virus stays viable.

Of course, a worse case (and hard to believe) would be that Ebola is able
to live and replicate in cotton plants, but finds a much better host in
human tissues.

-- 
cirby at magicnet.net
I gave up on the fantasy and am looking
for a really good reality...