Ebola mutagenicity; Contingency planning

[Albert Nanomius]

hello, I just got done reading an article in the newspaper,
I think it was AP or NYT or something, in which the
whole assertion was that the Ebola virus was NOT likely
to mutate. it was in direct contradiction to your claims. it
claimed the Ebola is DNA based and therefore involves a lot
of "error correction" so that mutation would be unlikely.
It said that in its current form it requires shoddy
sanitation (such as shared needles) to propagate and is
unlikely to advance because of this.

if I read it right, it was implying that the virus had
never spread into a highly populated area yet because
it just didn't have a strong infectious potential. the
way that it kills the host so seriously, and that supposedly
it is NOT contagious until the symptoms are exhibited,
making contact between infected people less likely, so
that these are other factors that minimize its likelihood
of propagation.

furthermore a recent Newsweek article says the virus is
quickly killed by ultraviolet rays, therefore it is
unlikely to survive airborne.

please *cite* who it was who gave you your information
if possible so that it can be corroborated. at least
from what I know, it is misleading. furthermore Richard
Preston, author of the Hot Zone, is quoted as saying that
Ebola is unlikely to go deadly (I saw this in either the
newspaper article or Newsweek).

I personally am not one to necessarily blindly trust
experts. I think it is highly likely that Ebola is going
to mutate, personally, just from an intuitive sense in
the danger and "ingenuity" of viruses.



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