The Hot Zone

[bhjelle at unm.edu]

In article <4d32j6$ss8 at newsbf02.news.aol.com>, EdRegis <edregis at aol.com> wrote:
>Anyone thinking that Marburg and/or Ebola constitute a serious public
>health problem is advised to read Malcom Gladwell's review of The Hot Zone
>and The Coming Plague; see "The Plague Year," The New Republic, July 17,
>1995.  
>
I have a question for those who are more intimately
familiar with individual case accounts of Ebola infection
than I. How many (if any) deaths have there been among
European or American patients *who were treated in Europe
or the US* and not in Africa? 

I'd like to throw out the possibility that the nastiest
Ebola viruses (Zaire, Sudan, Cote d'Ivoire) would have
*markedly* reduced mortality in a well-nourished, malaria-
free population with (most importantly) excellent tertiary
medical care. Yes I know Marberg was fatal in some 25% in
Germany, but that was in the 1960s when nobody had a clue
what was going on or that filoviruses even existed. And
intensive care has improved drastically since then.

Comments?

Brian