Spillover Reading Assignment
The chapter begins by explaining the concept of Zoonosis, which is where an infection spreads from an animal to a human. Next the chapter discusses a case of several horses, and a human dying of a previously unknown virus in rural Australia, and the work done to identify and track the virus. After a second person died of complications with the virus, they grew concerned about how far the virus had been able to spread. they then were able to track the virus to a population of bats. The Hendra virus wasn’t the first case of zoonosis, but it served as an alarm bell to the possibility of more cases like this spreading. A good example of diseases that start as zoonosis include: HIV, Influenza, Rabies, and while not discussed in the text, the COVID-19 virus.
“The scariest part, she told me, was the uncertainty. “It’s the fact that this disease has been around for so little that they can’t tell me whether there’s going to be any future health risk.”
The reason that this quote stuck out to me is that it is something that we are currently going through with Long COVID. We have people that have been previously healthy had their entire lives upended by continual inflammatory processes from COVID-19 infections, and the disease is so new that we know very little about the possible complications.
“Human-caused ecological pressures and disruptions are bringing animal pathogens ever more into contact with human populations,”
This quote stuck out to me because it is clear that zoonosis is a common, natural process. However, as the actions of humans continue to develop, the situation worsens and we begin to see the potential risk of pandemics of viruses like the Hendra virus.
This concept will likely be connected to the rest of the book, however this is the first time that zoonotic disease was first discussed/explored, and therefore is relevant to the discussion of how diseases that are usually only seen in certain species of animals ends up spreading to others, including humans, as was seen with the Hendra Virus.
This chapter discusses the origins of a family of viruses that are well known to the world, Ebolavirus. It discusses five different outbreaks that are believed to have occurred as the result of a spillover, and the race to find the source. Part of the issue that they have with this is that the virus is very selective with where it attacks, and it does not remain for very long. This chapter also explores how the virus impacted the united states, mainly by infecting lab workers trying to study it.
“Did you ever consider not going back to Ebola? I asked.
“No,” she said.”
This quote stuck out to me because this was after she was describing her experience in “the slammer” a special isolation unit designed for people exposed to the worst of the worst pathogens. She very well could have died from the ebolavirus, but she didn’t and she had no hesitation about going back to the work. She knew that she wanted to work with ebola, and was determined that nothing would stop her.
“Modern society has lost that sort of ancient, painfully acquired accumulation of cultural knowledge, he said. Instead we depend on the disease scientists.”
I choose this quote because it was talking about how a small village in central Africa had adopted cultural practices that prevent the spread of infections over their years of survival, a sort of cultural evolution. It was impressive to me that the ways we prevent infection are similar to the ways that they prevent infection, despite the different ways that we got there.
The concept that this chapter connects to is “Survival Rate” the reason that I chose this topic is that, while Ebola is not particuarlly infectious, it is highly fatal/dangerous. On average about half of the people who contracted the disease died, at worst more than 90% of the sick people ended up dying from Ebola complications, this is practically unheard of for viruses/diseases, which is what made this virus/spillover so serious, and why so much attention was dedicated to it.
This chapter focuses on the mathematical aspect of disease spread. This was additionally explored by the spread of Malaria. The analysis of the mathametical data demonstrated that while the WHO tried to eliminate the spread of malaria parasites in human, they were not able to effectively accomplish this, and therefore the spread of the disease continued to explode, with efforts dampened by mismanagement.
“Repeatedly passaging P. knowlest through a series of human hosts had made Ciuca’s strain increasingly virulent, too virulent for comfort. This quote stuck out to me, since they are using the plasmodium parasite to essentially cook syphllis to death, but in the process they made the plasmodium too infectious, to the point where it was too dangerous to use in the future.
The chapter begins by explaining the concept of Zoonosis, which is where an infection spreads from an animal to a human. Next the chapter discusses a case of several horses, and a human dying of a previously unknown virus in rural Australia, and the work done to identify and track the virus. After a second person died of complications with the virus, they grew concerned about how far the virus had been able to spread. they then were able to track the virus to a population of bats. The Hendra virus wasn’t the first case of zoonosis, but it served as an alarm bell to the possibility of more cases like this spreading. A good example of diseases that start as zoonosis include: HIV, Influenza, Rabies, and while not discussed in the text, the COVID-19 virus.
“The scariest part, she told me, was the uncertainty. “It’s the fact that this disease has been around for so little that they can’t tell me whether there’s going to be any future health risk.”
The reason that this quote stuck out to me is that it is something that we are currently going through with Long COVID. We have people that have been previously healthy had their entire lives upended by continual inflammatory processes from COVID-19 infections, and the disease is so new that we know very little about the possible complications.
“Human-caused ecological pressures and disruptions are bringing animal pathogens ever more into contact with human populations,”
This quote stuck out to me because it is clear that zoonosis is a common, natural process. However, as the actions of humans continue to develop, the situation worsens and we begin to see the potential risk of pandemics of viruses like the Hendra virus.
This concept will likely be connected to the rest of the book, however this is the first time that zoonotic disease was first discussed/explored, and therefore is relevant to the discussion of how diseases that are usually only seen in certain species of animals ends up spreading to others, including humans, as was seen with the Hendra Virus.
This chapter discusses the origins of a family of viruses that are well known to the world, Ebolavirus. It discusses five different outbreaks that are believed to have occurred as the result of a spillover, and the race to find the source. Part of the issue that they have with this is that the virus is very selective with where it attacks, and it does not remain for very long. This chapter also explores how the virus impacted the united states, mainly by infecting lab workers trying to study it.
“Did you ever consider not going back to Ebola? I asked.
“No,” she said.”
This quote stuck out to me because this was after she was describing her experience in “the slammer” a special isolation unit designed for people exposed to the worst of the worst pathogens. She very well could have died from the ebolavirus, but she didn’t and she had no hesitation about going back to the work. She knew that she wanted to work with ebola, and was determined that nothing would stop her.
“Modern society has lost that sort of ancient, painfully acquired accumulation of cultural knowledge, he said. Instead we depend on the disease scientists.”
I choose this quote because it was talking about how a small village in central Africa had adopted cultural practices that prevent the spread of infections over their years of survival, a sort of cultural evolution. It was impressive to me that the ways we prevent infection are similar to the ways that they prevent infection, despite the different ways that we got there.
The concept that this chapter connects to is “Survival Rate” the reason that I chose this topic is that, while Ebola is not particuarlly infectious, it is highly fatal/dangerous. On average about half of the people who contracted the disease died, at worst more than 90% of the sick people ended up dying from Ebola complications, this is practically unheard of for viruses/diseases, which is what made this virus/spillover so serious, and why so much attention was dedicated to it.
This chapter focuses on the mathematical aspect of disease spread. This was additionally explored by the spread of Malaria. The analysis of the mathametical data demonstrated that while the WHO tried to eliminate the spread of malaria parasites in human, they were not able to effectively accomplish this, and therefore the spread of the disease continued to explode, with efforts dampened by mismanagement.
“Repeatedly passaging P. knowlest through a series of human hosts had made Ciuca’s strain increasingly virulent, too virulent for comfort. This quote stuck out to me, since they are using the plasmodium parasite to essentially cook syphllis to death, but in the process they made the plasmodium too infectious, to the point where it was too dangerous to use in the future.
