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Speaker 1: Welcome to Stuff to Blow your Mind from how Stuff

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Speaker 1: Works dot com. Hey, welcome to Stuff to Blow your Mind.

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Speaker 1: My name is Robert Lamb and I'm Julie Dufnis. We

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Speaker 1: are back from a short little break there, for a

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Speaker 1: little summer break, and we're here to talk about really

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Speaker 1: an important topic, especially at this at this time, and

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Speaker 1: that is the topic of in bola. That's right today,

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Speaker 1: just for fultonsperiency is August six, So where we are

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Speaker 1: in this process will probably change by the time it

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Speaker 1: gets your earlobes. But we did want to discuss it

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Speaker 1: because it has picked up obviously so much traction in

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Speaker 1: the last couple of weeks here. Yeah, I mean, just

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Speaker 1: the word ebola on its own, especially right now, is

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Speaker 1: enough to just summon all these feelings of fear, these

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Speaker 1: feelings of personal body horror, uh, and even xenophobia. I

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Speaker 1: mean you see that popping up, especially all over social media,

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Speaker 1: where it's suddenly these attitudes of keep it over there,

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Speaker 1: keep people away from me, I'm gonna lock myself with

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Speaker 1: my home and no strangers allowed kind of mentality. Um,

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Speaker 1: But you don't have to give into the full on fear,

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Speaker 1: the full and paranoia, uh, certainly Ebola is a very

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Speaker 1: dangerous virus, and we're going to discuss why it's dangerous

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Speaker 1: and and and why it is UH pivotal that we

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Speaker 1: that we focus on it. UH. But in this episode,

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Speaker 1: we want to we want to lay out the science

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Speaker 1: of ebola, the science of the of a Bola virus

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Speaker 1: disease and UH and discuss what it is, how we're

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Speaker 1: fighting it and UH and and hopefully you'll leave this

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Speaker 1: podcast with a lot more information about what's going on

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Speaker 1: in the world right now with it. Yeah, because it

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Speaker 1: can be overwhelming to hear the statistics and to hear

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Speaker 1: how it spreads. And I have to say, I think

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Speaker 1: that's some news meeting outlets don't necessarily give it the

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Speaker 1: context that it needs. So you have all these sort

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Speaker 1: of free floating facts out there that can really inspire

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Speaker 1: UM a lot of fear in people. And here's here's

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Speaker 1: a good example. This is, you know, the worst outbreak

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Speaker 1: of evil of this virus and history UM happening right

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Speaker 1: now in West Africa, is claimed more than seven lives

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Speaker 1: and this is according to the latest count from the

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Speaker 1: World Health Organization. And we have deaths occurring in Sierra Leone, Liberia,

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Speaker 1: Guinea and Nigeria. So I'm sure you guys have all

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Speaker 1: heard about this and that it is spreading. In fact um,

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Speaker 1: Margaret Chan, who is the chief of the World Health Organization,

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Speaker 1: said that this outbreak is moving faster than efforts to

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Speaker 1: control it. All of that sounds a little a bit chilling,

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Speaker 1: But we'll discuss more about why this is and give

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Speaker 1: it a better context so that we don't react to

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Speaker 1: it in a way that's fear based, and hopefully we

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Speaker 1: can come to this conversation with with more thoughts on

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Speaker 1: how it's actually working and why it's spreading quickly. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: and I mean on top of that, of course, the

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Speaker 1: other side of the equation here is that that we

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Speaker 1: have two American AID workers from blind Berria that are UH.

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Speaker 1: They are currently in Atlanta right here where we record

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Speaker 1: the show UH to receive treatment from Emory and the

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Speaker 1: CDC Special Treatment facilities, and people have responded to that

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Speaker 1: with varying levels of fear and paranoid like I have

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Speaker 1: you Have you even seen it on the the stuff

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Speaker 1: to Blow your Mind Facebook message board where we have

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Speaker 1: we have a lot of followers now, so that's different

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Speaker 1: demographics are are represented there. But I've seen comments like,

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Speaker 1: you know, of course, keep them away, don't bring it here,

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Speaker 1: or or what if the plane crashes, or and and

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Speaker 1: a lot of this is it's you know, there there

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Speaker 1: are several different forces at work here. I mean, part

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Speaker 1: of it is, you know, people are tuning into UM

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Speaker 1: even in just in their peripheries, into a into a

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Speaker 1: twenty four hour cable news cycle that has to really

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Speaker 1: ride stories like this until the horse collapses, uh and

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Speaker 1: get as much as much juice out of it, as

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Speaker 1: much fear as possible. You're you're also dealing with people

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Speaker 1: who have with the people who have depended on movies

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Speaker 1: for a lot of their understanding of of what what

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Speaker 1: the pandemics and epidemics that consists of. I mean, even

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Speaker 1: right now, one of the more immediate examples that comes

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Speaker 1: to mind is there's just a show on effects called

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Speaker 1: The Strain with a vampire pathogen and granted nobody's looking

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Speaker 1: at that would I would imagine and and seeing anything

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Speaker 1: other than fiction there, But there's enough uh reality in

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Speaker 1: the coloring of that show that that it ends up

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Speaker 1: informing your perception of what it means to bring UM

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Speaker 1: a pathogen into the country. But you know, particularly when

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Speaker 1: you consider, too, that bats are peripherally involved with this virus,

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Speaker 1: which we'll talk about in a moment. Um. This is

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Speaker 1: from Time magazine writer Scott z Burns. He says, the

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Speaker 1: people who are infected with ebola developed a screenwriter's list

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Speaker 1: of symptoms, bleeding from the mouth, nail beds, and eyes,

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Speaker 1: as their capillaries disintegrate inside them, their brains awash in

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Speaker 1: the blood of hemorrhagic fever, become deranged, and there is

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Speaker 1: no vaccine, there is no cure approved for use. So again,

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Speaker 1: to your point, this has a filmic quality to it,

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Speaker 1: and you can't help sort of run with some of

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Speaker 1: that now, and you would be so silly, I must said, too,

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Speaker 1: can be completely you know, unfazed by that description. I mean,

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Speaker 1: that is a fearful reality that we're talking about there.

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Speaker 1: It is also a sensationalized version of this too, and

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Speaker 1: we'll get into that when we talk about symptoms. But

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Speaker 1: let's just tether this to to some other information. UM.

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Speaker 1: I'm sure everybody knows this, but I think it's it's

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Speaker 1: helpful to just repeat it. Um, we're talking about human

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Speaker 1: to human transmission are occurring as a result of close

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Speaker 1: contact with blood secretions or tissues from patients where the

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Speaker 1: virus can travel to a new victim through mucostal surfaces

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Speaker 1: or breaks in the skin. So this is not something

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Speaker 1: that you can catch in the air. Um. Again, that's

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Speaker 1: just I feel like that must be grounded in our

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Speaker 1: imaginations here, because otherwise we can kind of run well

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Speaker 1: with this. And I think hence your point about the

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Speaker 1: message board and oh what if the train of the

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Speaker 1: plane goes down, and what if it spreads from person

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Speaker 1: to person? Yeah, yeah, we we do not see that

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Speaker 1: in the in the in the variations of abola that

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Speaker 1: we're talking about here. Um, it's not the kind of

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Speaker 1: thing that is that a healthy looking stranger on a

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Speaker 1: train is going to cough in your general vicinity and

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Speaker 1: then you're gonna catch it. No, but it would in

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Speaker 1: the film. It would in the film, of course, because

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Speaker 1: that's uh, that's the kind of fearful pathogen that you

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Speaker 1: want to base a movie around. All right, let's get

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Speaker 1: down to brass tacks and talk about this virus. Yes,

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Speaker 1: so yeah, it is important to just start at the

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Speaker 1: very basics. We are talking about a virus, and a

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Speaker 1: virus is a small infectious agent that replicates only inside

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Speaker 1: the living cells of other organisms. Biological viral infections are

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Speaker 1: spread by the virus, which is essentially a small shell

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Speaker 1: containing a genetic material, and it injects its content into

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Speaker 1: a far larger organism cell and so then that cell

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Speaker 1: is infected and eventually transformed into a biological factory producing

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Speaker 1: replicants of the virus. So you know, it's it's the

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Speaker 1: basic genetic mission of any organism at a very simple level.

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Speaker 1: It just gets in there, it makes more copies of

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Speaker 1: itself and pumps those out. Um. But of course it's

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Speaker 1: a it's an invader, and there are uh, with any virus,

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Speaker 1: they're gonna be there's there's the potential for for varying

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Speaker 1: ill effects and uh, and that's the problem, right. Uh.

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Speaker 1: And so the Ebola virus that we're talking about here

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Speaker 1: is a is a philovirus belonging to the virus family

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Speaker 1: Philo variety. So far, we've only identified two members of

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Speaker 1: this family, the Marburg virus and the Ebola virus, and

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Speaker 1: of a Bola viruses we've identified five species. Uh. There's

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Speaker 1: the Thai forest formerly known as the Ivory Coast ebola.

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Speaker 1: There's Sudanese Ebola, there's Zaire Ebola, there's rest in Bola Ebola,

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Speaker 1: and Bunda bug Yo. Yeah, and the one that is

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Speaker 1: taking hold right now in Western Africa is the Zaire strain. Yeah. Um,

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Speaker 1: the rest of his strain is an interesting one. If

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Speaker 1: you guys want to find out more about that, check

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Speaker 1: out the how stuff works article how Ebola works, because

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Speaker 1: that kind of goes into that strain which is not

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Speaker 1: dead lady humans. It is among other animals, but not

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Speaker 1: to us. And that one originally in the Philippines apparently

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Speaker 1: that did, but it has made its way into the US.

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Speaker 1: And I don't want to spend a long time on

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Speaker 1: that one because it really truly isn't deadly to humans. Uh.

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Speaker 1: But the article has a great treatment of it and

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Speaker 1: great information about it. So if you look at this

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Speaker 1: at the philovirus virons of iron being the individual virus um,

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Speaker 1: it may appear in various shapes, including long or branched

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Speaker 1: filaments as well as a shorter filaments that may look

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Speaker 1: like a six or a U or a circle. By now,

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Speaker 1: I feel like every article you found on find online

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Speaker 1: about ebola is kind of using the same image of

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Speaker 1: the viron. So just think of a colorful shoe lace,

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Speaker 1: and you kind of have the idea of what you're

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Speaker 1: looking at. Yeah, it's that blue shoelace among the red tissue.

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Speaker 1: And this is a small crater. We're talking filaments to

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Speaker 1: measure up to fourteen tho nanometers in length. They have

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Speaker 1: a uniform diameter about eighty nanometers and they're enveloped by

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Speaker 1: a fatty membrane. And each viron contains one molecule of

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Speaker 1: single strand negative sense RNA. So it's it's a very

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Speaker 1: simple little creature. This is I mean to even call

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Speaker 1: it a virus, a creature. You get into a lot

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Speaker 1: of uh contested space there, but it's a it's a

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Speaker 1: very simple element in the body that causes this. But

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Speaker 1: it begins replicating and that's where the problem. Yeah, and

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Speaker 1: scientists don't have all the details about how evil it

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Speaker 1: works in the body, but they do have a handful

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Speaker 1: of facts. Um, you just mentioned a couple. The Ebola

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Speaker 1: virus is most closely related to the viruses that cause

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Speaker 1: measles and monks. And one of the proteins, and it

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Speaker 1: is suspected to be the superpower of the ebola is

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Speaker 1: called glycoprotein, and it binds to host cells, so that

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Speaker 1: the virus can enter and then replicate, and the other

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Speaker 1: version is then released from the infected cell and may

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Speaker 1: play a role in suppressing the immune system. And then

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Speaker 1: the virus is pretty much impartial and will infect a

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Speaker 1: wide range of cells in our bodies, but early on

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Speaker 1: typically it goes after those associated with the immune system. So,

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Speaker 1: just to give a little history on an ebola here,

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Speaker 1: this is not one of those illnesses that we have,

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Speaker 1: you know, ancient records of. If we go back to

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Speaker 1: the ninety seven that's when lab workers in Germany and

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Speaker 1: Yugoslavia were handling tissues from green monkeys and they developed

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Speaker 1: hemorrhagic fever and we ended up identifying the Marburg virus um.

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Speaker 1: There were thirty one cases seven deaths so associated with

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Speaker 1: this particular outbreak, and the virus was named after Marbor,

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Speaker 1: Germany because that was the side of one of the outbreaks. Now,

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Speaker 1: fortunately we haven't seen that many outbreaks of Marburg virus

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Speaker 1: over the years. The worst of these was two thousand four,

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Speaker 1: two thousand five outbreak angola, and that claimed two fifty

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Speaker 1: lives with death rate. But but so far that's been

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Speaker 1: the worst of Marburg. Now, as far as I Bola

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Speaker 1: virus goes. We first identified that in seventy six when

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Speaker 1: two outbreaks occurred in northern Zaire and in southern Sudan,

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Speaker 1: and these both occurred in the in the area of

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Speaker 1: the Ebola River. Thus the name in Bola virus. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: and I wanted to just get into a little bit

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Speaker 1: of detail of one of those cases, the one and

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Speaker 1: then in the then country Zaire Um that was in

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Speaker 1: as you say, and that wasn't a man named Mabolo,

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Speaker 1: and he had some symptoms of a really high fever

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Speaker 1: and they thought, okay, malaria, right, and they used the

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Speaker 1: drug Quinnona on him. It was administered to and with

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Speaker 1: a needle. And because medical supplies were in in really

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Speaker 1: short supply, a needle in high demand, they use that

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Speaker 1: needle over and over again, and that just infected scores

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Speaker 1: of other hospital patients. Now, a month later, Maballo died

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Speaker 1: and his family performed the ritual burial of removing all

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Speaker 1: food and waste from his body with their bare hands.

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Speaker 1: So this is you've probably seen this in the media

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Speaker 1: before that this is part of the burial ritual. Weeks later,

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Speaker 1: eighteen of the family members participating in the ritual died,

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Speaker 1: and since then ebola has reserve for something like twenty times,

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Speaker 1: spreading farther and farther out, perhaps because of bats and

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Speaker 1: and changing conditions due to climate change. And we'll talk

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Speaker 1: more about that in a moment um. But I think

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Speaker 1: that that example kind of sets the stage for what

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Speaker 1: we're seeing today. Yeah, key there, especially the handling of

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Speaker 1: dead bodies and close contact with sick individuals during the

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Speaker 1: depths of their sickness. Yeah. And of course now we

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Speaker 1: have disposal methods in place for a new needles that's known,

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Speaker 1: but that was sort of the first vector there. Yea. Now,

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Speaker 1: so you mentioned the bats, and currently sciences scientists believe

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Speaker 1: that bats are likely the reservoir host for a bola. Now,

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Speaker 1: reservoir host can harbor a pathogen indefinitely with no ill effects.

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Speaker 1: But we've also seen ebola spread through guerrillas, chimps, and

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Speaker 1: uh a duker, which is a type of antelope. Uh.

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Speaker 1: And in these cases, uh, they're often deadly results uh.

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Speaker 1: Though some also think that non human primates are just

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Speaker 1: more or less an accidental host, much like human beings.

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Speaker 1: Now you mentioned uh only mentioned Scott z Burns earlier

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Speaker 1: that pizza. He wrote for Time magazine opinion piece titled Contagion,

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Speaker 1: screenwriter Ebola isn't the pandemic fear is. He has just

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Speaker 1: a little bit at the beginning where he mentioned the bat.

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Speaker 1: I just wanted to read that because I thought it

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Speaker 1: was so concisely put. He says, there is an animal

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Speaker 1: somewhere in Africa, most likely a bat, that has worked

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Speaker 1: out an arrangement with a microscopic agent. The deal is this,

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Speaker 1: the agent won't kill the bat if the bat will

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Speaker 1: transport it to other warm blooded animals and give it

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Speaker 1: a chance to do its gruesome work. All the bat

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Speaker 1: had to do to enter this arrangement was built up

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Speaker 1: resistance to the agent over generations and become a good

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Speaker 1: hiding place and then continue about its business of being

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Speaker 1: a bat. I like that because that really gets to

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Speaker 1: the heart of again, what is a bola from from

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Speaker 1: a biological standpoint? How does it fit into the environment.

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Speaker 1: Because it's easy to just think of these diseases it's

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Speaker 1: just an absolute sort of evil, awful thing that rises

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Speaker 1: up and destroys and without remembering that, it is, like

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Speaker 1: everything else, just fulfilling a genetic mission. It is a

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Speaker 1: classic zoo nootic disease meaning that occurs naturally in animals

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Speaker 1: but can be transmitted to humans. And it does look

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Speaker 1: like bats are their best chance. As you say, they

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Speaker 1: have built up an immunity. And according to the World

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Speaker 1: Health Organization, pig farms in Africa can play a role

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Speaker 1: in the amplification of infection because of the pres sense

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Speaker 1: of fruit bats on these farms. And if you think

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Speaker 1: about these pigs being infected and then being slaughtered, and

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Speaker 1: if the practices aren't really very clearly done to specifications

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Speaker 1: that UH would not allow a person to get infected

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Speaker 1: in under their nails or you know, in their saliva

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Speaker 1: on accident, then there you go. You've got transmission of

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Speaker 1: the disease. Moreover, the areas in which fruit bats are

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Speaker 1: dwellings seem to get further and further out in Africa,

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Speaker 1: and this is thought because of the changing conditions due

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Speaker 1: to global warming. So again you see this spread happening.

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Speaker 1: This is these are these are all these sort of

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Speaker 1: component parts of why the virus is spreading quickly. So

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Speaker 1: there we see the jump from animals to humans because

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Speaker 1: it may happen because of close contact with these with

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Speaker 1: these pigs we've been in contact with the bats. It

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Speaker 1: may occur from eating bush meat. You're eating ape, you're

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Speaker 1: eating uh uh, you know, chump, you're eating bad and

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Speaker 1: and and and and catching it that way. And then

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Speaker 1: once it's in humans, then there's of course more potential

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Speaker 1: to spread through burial practices, through caring for sick individuals

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Speaker 1: coming into contact with their with their diarrhea, with their vomit,

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Speaker 1: with their blood. Um. Furthermore, men who have recovered from

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Speaker 1: the disease can stial transmit the virus through their semen

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Speaker 1: throughout the seven weeks following the illness. So, I mean,

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Speaker 1: that's one of the things about a bow in one

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Speaker 1: of the facts that you here repeated again again that

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Speaker 1: I Bola remains active for for an extended period of

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Speaker 1: time here. Yeah. Now, compounding that, of course, is just

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Speaker 1: you know, a distrust of government officials, a distrust of

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Speaker 1: UM medical facilities and medical workers and UM. Imagine too,

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Speaker 1: someone trying to quarantine your family member and how upsetting

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Speaker 1: that would be to you, or how upsetting it would

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Speaker 1: be to you if there was a certain burial tradition

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Speaker 1: that you were family UM in your community had always

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Speaker 1: engaged in. And then we're told to stop because as

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Speaker 1: we know, these are the sort of traditions are are

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Speaker 1: deeply ingrained in us and part of the healing process,

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Speaker 1: and to be told that you can't do that probably feels,

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Speaker 1: you know, it's probably fueling some of that distrust towards

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Speaker 1: people in official positions to try to put a stop

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Speaker 1: to the spread. Now, the other thing to consider is

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Speaker 1: that these parts of the world, these some of these

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Speaker 1: countries have been hard hit over the decades with war,

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Speaker 1: with many other different types of strife. So it's kind

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Speaker 1: of like, you know, one thing after another, and you

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Speaker 1: have a community of people who they're only sort of

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Speaker 1: way of dealing with life day to day is each

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Speaker 1: other in the sort of bomb that they have, so

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Speaker 1: trying to you know, these outside organizations coming in and

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Speaker 1: trying to give them these directions probably feels very sort

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Speaker 1: of alien to them and um and sort of disruptive

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Speaker 1: of the ways that they have survived in the past.

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Speaker 1: All Right, we're gonna take a quick break, and when

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Speaker 1: we come back, we're gonna get into these symptoms that

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Speaker 1: occur as this virus spreads through a human host. All Right,

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Speaker 1: we're back, and uh, as we continue to talk about

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Speaker 1: ebola here and now, it's the point where we need

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Speaker 1: to get into how the infection spreads in through the

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Speaker 1: body and the various symptoms that they occur. Now, this

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Speaker 1: is this is likely some of the material that you've

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Speaker 1: you've definitely uh encountered already just through media consumption of

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Speaker 1: the ongoing crisis. But if you remember, we talked about

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Speaker 1: the virus in the cell and and how the virus

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Speaker 1: needs to invade the cell and turn the cell into

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Speaker 1: a virus producing factory. And what happens then is the

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Speaker 1: virons burst out of the cells and begin producing the

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Speaker 1: protein ebola virus glycoprotein and attaches to the cells on

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Speaker 1: the inside of the blood vessels. So this is where

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Speaker 1: things start getting um interesting because this increases the permeability

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Speaker 1: of the blood vessels and blood leaks out of the vessels,

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Speaker 1: and it also affects the body's ability to coagulate and

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Speaker 1: thicken the blood. Yeah, because all of those things are

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Speaker 1: triggering these chemical responses that we begin to see as symptoms. Now,

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Speaker 1: when ebola enters a human being, it kind of hangs

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Speaker 1: out seemingly harmless for about two to twenty one days,

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Speaker 1: typically more four to ten, and then you get to

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Speaker 1: see those symptoms come first. You see fever, chill, headache,

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Speaker 1: muscle and joint aches, and tiredness, and then it begins

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Speaker 1: to get uh much more intense. Yeah, and when the

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Speaker 1: immune system fights back, the ebola actually works to elude it.

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Speaker 1: It blocks the signaling to cells called neutrophils, and these

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Speaker 1: are white blood cells that are in charge of sounding

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Speaker 1: the alarm basically and uh so. And then on top

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Speaker 1: of that, ebola will actually infect immune cells and hitchhike

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Speaker 1: to organs such as the liver, the kidney, displein, and

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Speaker 1: the brain. Yeah, we thought about the ability of virus

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Speaker 1: to do that with the neutrophiles. It's kind of fascinating

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Speaker 1: that they can game the immune system like that. Alright, So,

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Speaker 1: as you mentioned, we're looking at an incubation period about

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Speaker 1: four to nine days after exposure, but it may last

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Speaker 1: up to twenty one and then that's where the course

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Speaker 1: of the illness really gets going. Um usually last between

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Speaker 1: six and ten days. Uh. Days one through three, Uh,

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Speaker 1: you're looking at flu like symptoms and just a general

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Speaker 1: feeling of bodily weakness. Days four through seven. Uh. Patients

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Speaker 1: may also get vomiting, diarrhea, nausea, low blood pressure, headaches

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Speaker 1: and anemia. Yeah, and some of them will develop a

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Speaker 1: rash on their trunk and their shoulders. Right. And then

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Speaker 1: days seven through ten, this is where things can get

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Speaker 1: far worse. Uh. This is towards the end of the

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Speaker 1: illness where you may encounter just fury and feelings of confusion,

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Speaker 1: bleeding both internally, uh and externally. And this can also

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Speaker 1: progress towards coma shock and death, but not in all cases.

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Speaker 1: And that's one thing to keep in mind here at

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Speaker 1: all times. Um, you'll you'll often see that nine mortality

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Speaker 1: rate thrown out with ebola, but that that is just

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Speaker 1: it's more correct to say that the mortality rate can

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Speaker 1: be up to with ebola, and it's gonna reach its

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Speaker 1: high highest levels in areas where it is not treated

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Speaker 1: or not treated effectively. You see that that mortality rate, Um,

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Speaker 1: it's still high, but you'll see it go down ten

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Speaker 1: and twenty thirty points or thirty points are more in

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Speaker 1: cases where the patients are are are actually going to

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Speaker 1: be cared for in in a more u sustainable way. Yeah.

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Speaker 1: And with this zy ear strain that is currently under way,

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Speaker 1: in the past has been but I think they've got

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Speaker 1: it down to about sixt right now, that's where I've

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Speaker 1: seen it hanging out. Yeah, and you probably already mentioned this,

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Speaker 1: but I did want to say that the blood does

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Speaker 1: start to cot al throughout the body. That's that's it

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Speaker 1: causes sort of this breakdown of the organs and the

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Speaker 1: failure of organs, and when it's clotting throughout the body,

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Speaker 1: that exhaust the supply of proteins that handle clots. So

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Speaker 1: that means that when tissue damage occurs in the other

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Speaker 1: personal body, those proteins aren't available to do their clotting work,

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Speaker 1: and that's where it all begins to break down internally.

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Speaker 1: And generally death is not a result of the hemorrhaging,

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Speaker 1: but from multi organs failure or shock. Yeah. Now, of

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Speaker 1: course not everyone dies from ebola, and when people survive ebola.

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Speaker 1: There are a few different factors that that that that

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00:22:32,000 --> 00:22:33,879
Speaker 1: play a role here. I mean, one, of course, is

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Speaker 1: just the overall immune system health of an individual. Is

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Speaker 1: this a young person with you know, that's that's that's

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Speaker 1: in the prime of their life that have encountered the virus,

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00:22:44,640 --> 00:22:47,240
Speaker 1: or is this uh an older individual is to someone

403
00:22:47,280 --> 00:22:52,080
Speaker 1: with an already compromised immune system, etcetera. The other factor

404
00:22:52,160 --> 00:22:56,000
Speaker 1: here that that that scientists are still trying to understand

405
00:22:56,000 --> 00:22:58,840
Speaker 1: exactly how it plays plays into this. But how many

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Speaker 1: virons does want and up taking into their system? How

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Speaker 1: big is the initial viral invasion of your body? Is

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Speaker 1: it a small number, is it a larger number? Obviously

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Speaker 1: that is thought to play a role as well. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: and that might depend on whether the animal or the

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Speaker 1: human you are infected from where they were in that illness.

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Speaker 1: So as you say, how many virons are present in

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Speaker 1: the bloodstreamer, saliva or whatever it was that was the

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Speaker 1: infecting um element, So the way that it's transmitted can

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Speaker 1: also Uh, it can also influence the mortality rate. For instance,

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Speaker 1: needles have a greater mortality rate than say saliva. So

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Speaker 1: you're probably wondering at this point, Um, how does one

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Speaker 1: treat a bola? How does one treat a bola under

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Speaker 1: more or less ideal circumstances in the field in Africa? Well,

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Speaker 1: currently no licensed vaccine for ebola is available. That several

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Speaker 1: vaccines are being tested, but none are available for clinical use.

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Speaker 1: So if you're a severely ill patient with a bola, uh,

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Speaker 1: what's generally going to happen is gonna be dehydrated, so

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Speaker 1: you're going to require oral hydration with solutions containing electrolytes

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Speaker 1: or intravenous fluid, so sailing the infusions and electrolytes to

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Speaker 1: keep you hydrated. And beyond that, there's not a lot

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Speaker 1: that can be done in the field. However, there are

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Speaker 1: some some additional experimental treatments they're making the news and

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Speaker 1: in which there is a lot of hope. Yeah, and

430
00:24:26,320 --> 00:24:27,800
Speaker 1: before we get to that, I wanted to say that

431
00:24:27,880 --> 00:24:31,560
Speaker 1: studying is kind of I would say difficult as well,

432
00:24:31,640 --> 00:24:35,719
Speaker 1: because there exists these things called biological safety levels that

433
00:24:35,800 --> 00:24:39,600
Speaker 1: correlate to different types of lab studying different viruses, and

434
00:24:40,440 --> 00:24:44,720
Speaker 1: b LS one is the least life threatening, while BSL

435
00:24:44,880 --> 00:24:47,520
Speaker 1: four is the most. An ebola requires a b s

436
00:24:47,760 --> 00:24:51,639
Speaker 1: L four lab protocol, so scientists have to work in

437
00:24:51,760 --> 00:24:55,600
Speaker 1: space suits with respirators and get decontaminated before entering and

438
00:24:55,680 --> 00:24:59,280
Speaker 1: leaving these labs. And only about a dozen of these

439
00:24:59,359 --> 00:25:03,320
Speaker 1: labs current only exists in the United States. And furthermore,

440
00:25:03,760 --> 00:25:07,359
Speaker 1: because the number of victims has been low relative to

441
00:25:07,400 --> 00:25:11,000
Speaker 1: other diseases right. Malaria is a good example, and the

442
00:25:11,040 --> 00:25:13,399
Speaker 1: outbreaks tend to happen in remote parts of the world.

443
00:25:14,000 --> 00:25:18,040
Speaker 1: A k outside of the United States UM. Because we're

444
00:25:18,040 --> 00:25:22,440
Speaker 1: so American centric um where it's difficult to administer vaccines,

445
00:25:22,480 --> 00:25:26,040
Speaker 1: there hasn't been a lot of industrial support for creating one.

446
00:25:26,400 --> 00:25:32,000
Speaker 1: But given that this outbreak has happened and people are

447
00:25:32,040 --> 00:25:36,760
Speaker 1: now engaged, people are are definitely more interested in finding

448
00:25:37,359 --> 00:25:39,760
Speaker 1: a seroreum that could work. And as you say, there

449
00:25:39,880 --> 00:25:43,920
Speaker 1: have been some reports in the media. I think some

450
00:25:44,200 --> 00:25:47,520
Speaker 1: media outlets have called it a secret theorem, which is

451
00:25:47,600 --> 00:25:51,119
Speaker 1: really problematic. It's not secret. Again, I feel like this

452
00:25:51,200 --> 00:25:55,760
Speaker 1: is this the word serum is so loaded from a

453
00:25:55,760 --> 00:25:58,240
Speaker 1: news sense you can you almost can't help it adds secret,

454
00:25:58,359 --> 00:26:00,520
Speaker 1: secret theorem from a laban. And the fact of the

455
00:26:00,600 --> 00:26:02,760
Speaker 1: matter is is that there's a treatment. There's a drug

456
00:26:02,800 --> 00:26:05,520
Speaker 1: that has been in development and has been used only

457
00:26:05,560 --> 00:26:08,080
Speaker 1: in animals so far, but you could say that about

458
00:26:08,280 --> 00:26:11,720
Speaker 1: nearly any other disease or virus out there. There is

459
00:26:12,359 --> 00:26:14,880
Speaker 1: a drug that is being worked on UM. But as

460
00:26:14,920 --> 00:26:17,760
Speaker 1: we say, the conditions for it going to market haven't

461
00:26:17,760 --> 00:26:22,879
Speaker 1: exactly been like, hey, let's accelerate this until now. So

462
00:26:22,960 --> 00:26:26,959
Speaker 1: the yeah, the the particular treatment in question here, the

463
00:26:26,960 --> 00:26:31,080
Speaker 1: serum is is known as z MAP and uh this

464
00:26:31,280 --> 00:26:33,440
Speaker 1: is uh, this has been developed by a San Diego

465
00:26:33,440 --> 00:26:37,959
Speaker 1: based company, map Bio Biopharmaceutical and it's one of a

466
00:26:38,000 --> 00:26:42,160
Speaker 1: class of new drugs known as monoclonal antibodies, and these

467
00:26:42,359 --> 00:26:47,400
Speaker 1: use uniquely manufactured proteins to prevent in theory, the ebola

468
00:26:47,480 --> 00:26:51,560
Speaker 1: virus from infecting new cells. Um they've also been used

469
00:26:51,560 --> 00:26:53,600
Speaker 1: in the treatment of some cancer, so it's not just

470
00:26:53,760 --> 00:27:00,920
Speaker 1: completely an ebola centric treatment strategy. And so with z MAP,

471
00:27:00,920 --> 00:27:04,800
Speaker 1: we're talking about a three antibody cocktail. Again, not a vaccine,

472
00:27:05,280 --> 00:27:09,440
Speaker 1: but just a way of artificially boosting immune response against

473
00:27:09,520 --> 00:27:12,960
Speaker 1: sugar tag proteins on the outside of the ebola virus.

474
00:27:13,800 --> 00:27:17,960
Speaker 1: And interestingly enough, tobacco plays a role in it. Yeah,

475
00:27:18,600 --> 00:27:22,080
Speaker 1: but particularly an Australian strain of of the tobacco plant

476
00:27:22,960 --> 00:27:26,080
Speaker 1: is involved in this. And there's actually a division of R. J.

477
00:27:26,240 --> 00:27:29,280
Speaker 1: Reynolds to tobacco that's tied up in the drug trials

478
00:27:29,320 --> 00:27:33,600
Speaker 1: for this. But anyway, in this circumstance, this secret serum,

479
00:27:33,640 --> 00:27:36,959
Speaker 1: if you will, is being administered to the two Americans

480
00:27:37,200 --> 00:27:39,960
Speaker 1: here in Atlanta with it, or has been administered Dr

481
00:27:40,080 --> 00:27:44,000
Speaker 1: Kent Brantley and Missionary Nancy right Ball, that's right, and

482
00:27:44,160 --> 00:27:46,520
Speaker 1: only three doses had ever been created, so two of

483
00:27:46,560 --> 00:27:49,720
Speaker 1: those were used on them, and of course we'll see

484
00:27:49,760 --> 00:27:51,960
Speaker 1: what the results are. Yeah. I think everyone's pretty hopeful

485
00:27:51,960 --> 00:27:54,560
Speaker 1: about it and and also ultimately hopeful about the potential

486
00:27:54,600 --> 00:28:00,320
Speaker 1: here to create a better treatment regime for use in Africa. Yeah.

487
00:28:00,359 --> 00:28:03,359
Speaker 1: I mean, because again, this is this virus just it

488
00:28:03,520 --> 00:28:06,760
Speaker 1: ravages the body, and here we have this opportunity to

489
00:28:07,240 --> 00:28:11,680
Speaker 1: perhaps um lesson suffering and do something about it. Um.

490
00:28:11,720 --> 00:28:14,880
Speaker 1: I did want to share a letter from a listener, Jessica,

491
00:28:14,920 --> 00:28:16,800
Speaker 1: because I think it helps to give a little more

492
00:28:16,880 --> 00:28:21,440
Speaker 1: context to this um. Yeah, because ultimately we are we

493
00:28:21,440 --> 00:28:23,640
Speaker 1: we are not in direct contact with you know, we're

494
00:28:23,640 --> 00:28:26,880
Speaker 1: seeing this from Afar, and she has has been there

495
00:28:26,920 --> 00:28:29,360
Speaker 1: and and say she wanted to share some of her thoughts.

496
00:28:29,800 --> 00:28:32,040
Speaker 1: She said, in two thousand and eight, I traveled to

497
00:28:32,080 --> 00:28:34,880
Speaker 1: Sierra Leone for six week immersion with a large group

498
00:28:34,920 --> 00:28:38,440
Speaker 1: of early twentysomethings. We visited schools and clinics. She put

499
00:28:38,560 --> 00:28:42,000
Speaker 1: quotation marks on this, partly to expand our mindsets, but

500
00:28:42,120 --> 00:28:44,320
Speaker 1: also to provide what little help we could to a

501
00:28:44,400 --> 00:28:49,080
Speaker 1: recovering community. Siriel Leone experienced a horrifically brutal civil war

502
00:28:49,160 --> 00:28:51,840
Speaker 1: from the late ninety nineties to the early two thousands

503
00:28:51,920 --> 00:28:54,560
Speaker 1: and is still attempting to heal. The people of the

504
00:28:54,600 --> 00:28:57,240
Speaker 1: country are truly the friendliest, most open and loving people

505
00:28:57,280 --> 00:29:00,160
Speaker 1: I've ever met in my life changed dramatically in US

506
00:29:00,160 --> 00:29:02,800
Speaker 1: a few weeks I was there. I write because of

507
00:29:02,800 --> 00:29:06,040
Speaker 1: the Ebola happenings, and I've attached photos of what consists

508
00:29:06,040 --> 00:29:09,880
Speaker 1: of available medical care in Freetown, the capital city, which

509
00:29:09,920 --> 00:29:13,000
Speaker 1: is home to nearly one point one million people. Many

510
00:29:13,040 --> 00:29:15,440
Speaker 1: Americans have allowed their fear to get the better of

511
00:29:15,480 --> 00:29:18,160
Speaker 1: them with the recent transport of an infect American doctor

512
00:29:18,200 --> 00:29:20,920
Speaker 1: back to the United States for advanced treatment. What many

513
00:29:20,960 --> 00:29:23,800
Speaker 1: people don't realize is that the standard of care and

514
00:29:23,960 --> 00:29:26,960
Speaker 1: underdeveloped countries doesn't even come close to what we have

515
00:29:27,200 --> 00:29:30,800
Speaker 1: available in the United States. The hospital in Freetown, which

516
00:29:30,840 --> 00:29:33,120
Speaker 1: was still under construction in two thousand and eight, consists

517
00:29:33,120 --> 00:29:36,080
Speaker 1: of a three level, multi room mud brick building with

518
00:29:36,160 --> 00:29:40,440
Speaker 1: running water. However, running water, the luxury that it is,

519
00:29:40,440 --> 00:29:43,120
Speaker 1: isn't sourced from a public water treatment facility like it

520
00:29:43,160 --> 00:29:45,160
Speaker 1: is in the US. It may come from a tap,

521
00:29:45,240 --> 00:29:48,400
Speaker 1: but it's not potable due to ramp at equally and

522
00:29:48,520 --> 00:29:51,960
Speaker 1: lack of proper sanitization. And then she goes on to say,

523
00:29:52,000 --> 00:29:55,240
Speaker 1: when it comes to disease fatality, you cannot consider the

524
00:29:55,280 --> 00:29:59,240
Speaker 1: disease itself in isolation. You must consider the accompanying conditions

525
00:29:59,400 --> 00:30:02,680
Speaker 1: under which has been fatal. Even common diseases such as

526
00:30:02,720 --> 00:30:05,400
Speaker 1: the flu, kills dozens of infants in the US every year,

527
00:30:05,480 --> 00:30:08,880
Speaker 1: consider the social and medical factors in tandem. These are

528
00:30:08,920 --> 00:30:12,480
Speaker 1: cultures that are based on physical contact and closeness. Even

529
00:30:12,520 --> 00:30:14,640
Speaker 1: people you've never met before will greet you with a

530
00:30:14,680 --> 00:30:18,000
Speaker 1: full body embrace. Physical contact for the living and the

531
00:30:18,080 --> 00:30:22,440
Speaker 1: dead provides the basic foundation of many African societies. And

532
00:30:22,560 --> 00:30:25,520
Speaker 1: as for the medical factor, many of these quote treatment

533
00:30:25,640 --> 00:30:29,320
Speaker 1: facilities are little more than four walls and what may

534
00:30:29,400 --> 00:30:32,240
Speaker 1: or may not amount to a solid roof. Thatching and

535
00:30:32,320 --> 00:30:36,120
Speaker 1: tarps are common because they're simply nothing else available, especially

536
00:30:36,160 --> 00:30:39,120
Speaker 1: outside of the quote unquote city. And then she goes

537
00:30:39,120 --> 00:30:40,720
Speaker 1: on in a little bit more detail, and she says,

538
00:30:40,760 --> 00:30:43,480
Speaker 1: top that off with a social fear of modern medicine,

539
00:30:43,520 --> 00:30:46,680
Speaker 1: and you've got the worst conditions possibly for a highly

540
00:30:46,760 --> 00:30:50,800
Speaker 1: communicable disease. Moving and infected US citizen back to high

541
00:30:50,840 --> 00:30:53,040
Speaker 1: level medical care is not only best for him, but

542
00:30:53,120 --> 00:30:55,640
Speaker 1: it's truly in the best interests of research for finding

543
00:30:55,640 --> 00:30:58,800
Speaker 1: effective treatment and a cure, not only now but for

544
00:30:58,880 --> 00:31:01,600
Speaker 1: future outbreaks. I left a large piece of my heart

545
00:31:01,640 --> 00:31:04,719
Speaker 1: in Sierra Leone, and I wish so much to relieve

546
00:31:04,760 --> 00:31:08,000
Speaker 1: their continued suffering. Anything that we can do, we should.

547
00:31:08,080 --> 00:31:11,880
Speaker 1: It's the human thing to do. Thanks so much, Jessica, indeed,

548
00:31:11,920 --> 00:31:14,400
Speaker 1: thank you for writing in then in providing that a

549
00:31:14,440 --> 00:31:19,440
Speaker 1: personal account that that deals with today's topic. So there

550
00:31:19,440 --> 00:31:23,800
Speaker 1: you go, there's ebola in a nutshell. Look at the virus,

551
00:31:23,880 --> 00:31:25,800
Speaker 1: a look at the symptoms, I look at some of

552
00:31:25,800 --> 00:31:28,840
Speaker 1: the treatments available to us, and and overall, you know,

553
00:31:28,880 --> 00:31:32,719
Speaker 1: hopefully this helps to distill some of the fear, uh

554
00:31:33,160 --> 00:31:35,960
Speaker 1: that is that's out there. Yeah, and I hope that

555
00:31:35,960 --> 00:31:38,800
Speaker 1: that you know, it's it's looked at in a different context.

556
00:31:38,840 --> 00:31:42,280
Speaker 1: And when you hear than knowing that in the past

557
00:31:42,440 --> 00:31:47,080
Speaker 1: the ZI year strain has been mortality, but it's not

558
00:31:47,160 --> 00:31:51,280
Speaker 1: it's now. Or if you hear that it's spreading rapidly,

559
00:31:51,360 --> 00:31:54,760
Speaker 1: then it's more understood in the ways that it's being

560
00:31:55,080 --> 00:31:58,600
Speaker 1: um spread. It's not spread in the air. It's spread

561
00:31:58,720 --> 00:32:03,160
Speaker 1: because of these other actors, the extenuating factors, and certainly

562
00:32:03,320 --> 00:32:06,040
Speaker 1: in in a place like the United States, we don't

563
00:32:06,040 --> 00:32:10,800
Speaker 1: even begin to have those factors at play. So for

564
00:32:10,840 --> 00:32:14,240
Speaker 1: people to fear that it could somehow incubate here and

565
00:32:14,360 --> 00:32:18,160
Speaker 1: infect us all and become this pandemic is like highly

566
00:32:18,400 --> 00:32:21,720
Speaker 1: highly unlikely. So yeah, this is not the strain, This

567
00:32:21,800 --> 00:32:25,120
Speaker 1: is not Stephen King's the stand. Uh, this is real life.

568
00:32:25,120 --> 00:32:27,920
Speaker 1: And hopefully we've provided you a little information to go

569
00:32:28,000 --> 00:32:30,280
Speaker 1: on here, and if you want to learn more, do

570
00:32:30,480 --> 00:32:34,520
Speaker 1: check out that article how Ebola works on how stuff

571
00:32:34,520 --> 00:32:37,840
Speaker 1: works dot com, and of course, uh, the CDC and

572
00:32:37,880 --> 00:32:41,600
Speaker 1: the World Health Organization both have excellent resources about this

573
00:32:41,720 --> 00:32:44,880
Speaker 1: as well. Indeed, I mean, really there's a phenomenal amount

574
00:32:45,320 --> 00:32:48,320
Speaker 1: of of information out there on the web right now

575
00:32:48,560 --> 00:32:51,840
Speaker 1: to douse the fires of paranoia with. But the thing

576
00:32:51,920 --> 00:32:53,800
Speaker 1: is you have to you sort of you have to

577
00:32:53,840 --> 00:32:57,239
Speaker 1: open your eyes, your ears and in your mind and

578
00:32:57,280 --> 00:33:00,840
Speaker 1: actually engage with that information. And know, I do want

579
00:33:00,840 --> 00:33:04,400
Speaker 1: to underline the the urge to to to just give

580
00:33:04,400 --> 00:33:07,120
Speaker 1: into the fear is understandable. I mean it's when you

581
00:33:07,120 --> 00:33:09,640
Speaker 1: when you're when you're faced with some sort of uh,

582
00:33:09,680 --> 00:33:13,120
Speaker 1: you know, deadly virus, you want to run away from it.

583
00:33:13,160 --> 00:33:15,480
Speaker 1: I mean, that's part of our our program. But yeah,

584
00:33:15,600 --> 00:33:17,800
Speaker 1: it well, but we should remember that we've been here

585
00:33:17,840 --> 00:33:20,920
Speaker 1: before and on more intimate terms with the virus and

586
00:33:20,960 --> 00:33:23,840
Speaker 1: I'm talking about H one and one bird flu or stars,

587
00:33:23,880 --> 00:33:28,240
Speaker 1: so um. You know. Again, it's just it's important to

588
00:33:28,240 --> 00:33:30,480
Speaker 1: review the facts and and to try to see what

589
00:33:30,560 --> 00:33:33,360
Speaker 1: sort of cultural lenses on top of this, is there

590
00:33:33,400 --> 00:33:36,560
Speaker 1: a little of the stranger factor of the fear of

591
00:33:36,560 --> 00:33:42,280
Speaker 1: of foreigners going on. I don't know. They're all things

592
00:33:42,280 --> 00:33:46,320
Speaker 1: happening under the cover of unconscious. If you would like

593
00:33:46,480 --> 00:33:48,480
Speaker 1: more information on our show, go to stuff Toble your

594
00:33:48,520 --> 00:33:50,960
Speaker 1: mind dot com. That is where you will find all

595
00:33:50,960 --> 00:33:53,840
Speaker 1: of our blog post all of our podcast episodes are

596
00:33:53,920 --> 00:33:56,680
Speaker 1: videos links out to our various social media accounts. I'll

597
00:33:56,720 --> 00:33:59,400
Speaker 1: be sure to check out our YouTube page Mind Stuff Show.

598
00:33:59,840 --> 00:34:02,880
Speaker 1: We you're constantly updating that with new shows and new

599
00:34:02,920 --> 00:34:06,280
Speaker 1: show ideas and new content. And no doubt you have

600
00:34:06,480 --> 00:34:09,279
Speaker 1: some thoughts swirling about your mind about this topic. We

601
00:34:09,320 --> 00:34:12,680
Speaker 1: would like to hear about them and get your perspective,

602
00:34:13,200 --> 00:34:16,080
Speaker 1: and you can send those thoughts to us via email

603
00:34:16,160 --> 00:34:23,560
Speaker 1: at below the mind at how staff works dot com

604
00:34:23,600 --> 00:34:26,040
Speaker 1: for more on this and thousands of other topics. Does

605
00:34:26,040 --> 00:34:33,160
Speaker 1: it how stuff Works dot com