About 15 years ago there was a bestselling non-fiction book called The Hot Zone. It covered an outbreak of Ebola virus in an area on the East Coast. Ebola is highly contagious and has an almost 100% mortality. An outbreak is greatly to be feared. In addition to that book, another titled The Coming Plague covered a number of possibilities for disease outbreaks with different agents. Both books were frightening in concept. Recently, Bob and I watched the movie, Contagion, that was a hypothetical spread of a lethal virus spread from incubating in bats to pigs and on to people. It also was highly contagious and lethal. There is a new book out that covers how close humanity is to having RNA viruses “spillover” from animals to humans and be the next plague. Spillover is the title and an article of how RNA viruses (Ebola, Marburg,SARS, Hanta) are a threat as we encroach closer into their territory and hosts.


Marburg virus

Tags: Plague