Ebola

[Saphira]

Ebola will probably go dormant again in humans, however he virus has an animal reservoir where it is alive and well.
Several 1000's of deaths have occured with this outbreak, but the strain could also be a mutated one, hence then number of deaths, and the problamatic containment of the disease.

Recent reports have suggested that Ebola is mutating as cases increase, raising the odds that the virus could become more transmissible.

Generally speaking, these kinds of diseases have a carrier animal(s) that don't have the same or as bad adverse reaction to the disease as humans. The disease is thus able to spread itself throughout the carrier population.
Eventually human interaction with the carrier will result in infection, which then goes through the standard "epidemic until it burns out" phase.

Forty years ago, Ebola was just the name of a river. It was a small waterway of no particularly sinister character that flowed through northern Zaire, not far from the village hospital where the first known outbreak of a new viral disease had been centered. That river gave its name to the new virus, and now "Ebola" is a global byword for ugly death, misery, and fear of contagion.

Behind that question are three others, less obvious, more complicated, and crucial to seeing Ebola in a broader context: Where did the virus come from? Where is it going? What's next? We do well to consider these questions even as we react to the daily headlines, urge our leaders to take more deeply committed action, and support the organizations (such as Doctors Without Borders) that are fighting the epidemic so courageously in West Africa.

Ebola virus is a zoonosis, meaning an animal infection transmissible to humans. The animal in which a zoonosis lives its customary existence, discreetly, over the long term, and without causing symptoms, is called a reservoir host. The reservoir host of Ebola virus is still unknown—even after 38 years of efforts to identify it, since the original 1976 outbreak—although one or more kinds of fruit bat, including the hammer-headed bat, are suspects. There are hammer-headed bats in southeastern Guinea. It's possible that somebody killed one for food and brought it to Meliandou, where the child became infected either by direct contact with the bat or by virus passed on the hands of an adult.

But just as worrisome as the virus's geographic spread is its journey across the evolutionary landscape. Is it mutating in ways that could make it more dangerous to humans? Is there any chance that it might become transmissible through the air, like the flu, the SARS virus, or a common cold? Although Ebola becoming airborne is the ultimate disease nightmare, that seems to be almost vanishingly improbable. What is now a fluid-borne virus attaching itself to cells lining the circulatory system can't easily change into one that targets the tiny air sacs in the lungs.

Will the epidemic spread more widely, igniting outbreaks in other parts of the world? We hope not. Will it turn up as additional cases, here and there, among people who have traveled from West Africa unaware, lets keep out fingers crossed and hope not!! but the outcome is PROBABLY.