Erik Peterson, an assistant professor in the University of Alabama history department, offered an insight into how the virus is spread. Peterson specializes in the history of science.
“Ebola is a zoonotic virus, which means it spreads from animals to people,” he said. “Many, if not most, diseases are of this variety; the flu is one. In the case of Ebola, we believe that it’s harbored in rainforest fruit bats and probably spread to gorillas, chimpanzees, porcupines, pigs and so on. People get it by eating one of these animals or just coming across a dead animal and picking it up.”
This is not the first Ebola outbreak the world has seen.
“In 1989-90, one of the species of Ebola, Reston virus, made it into a lab in Virginia, just outside of D.C. from some monkeys captured in the Philippines,” Peterson said. “Reston virus did not seem to do anything to humans when at least one worker was infected by the virus. This was surprising since most of the monkeys who had it died, and since Ebola virus typically kills a high percentage of those who catch it.”
Michael B.A. Oldstone, a visiting professor and renowned virologist, visited The University of Alabama on Thursday evening to give a lecture on Ebola. A member of the audience asked if the CDC was well prepared for the outbreak. He said the CDC was well prepared to deal with the situation.
“They have a high-pathogen group where they work with Ebola and they work with Lassa all the time,” he said. “The sequences that are done – nucleic acid sequences of Ebola and Lassa are done at CDC, so they’ve been handling these viruses forever.”
The DCH Health System is also working to prepare in the “outside chance the disease presents itself in West Alabama.”
According to a statement from DCH Health System released Oct. 16 via their website, “DCH Regional Medical Center, Northport Medical Center and Fayette Medical Center, are continuing to refine plans regarding screening and triage of patients, placing patients in appropriate isolation, training staff in the correct use of Personal Protection Equipment and all the other factors needed to quickly identify a case and protect employees. The communication of our plan to the staff and all others involved is in progress.”
