Comments on: Ebola and "the French Disease" https://gregladen.com/blog/2014/10/27/ebola-and-the-french-disease/ Tue, 04 Nov 2014 03:24:30 +0000 hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.4.6 By: Greg Laden https://gregladen.com/blog/2014/10/27/ebola-and-the-french-disease/#comment-484202 Tue, 04 Nov 2014 03:24:30 +0000 http://scienceblogs.com/gregladen/?p=20570#comment-484202 Humans could bring Ebola to a new host.

Ebola could become more benign, and thus, worse, if it manages to circulate in humans and human commensals (rats, etc) … i.e., it could become a version of the plague, more or less.

]]> By: Jim Moore https://gregladen.com/blog/2014/10/27/ebola-and-the-french-disease/#comment-484201 Tue, 04 Nov 2014 01:34:34 +0000 http://scienceblogs.com/gregladen/?p=20570#comment-484201 Many thanks, Debashish & Doug.!
A friend, reading this, asked me exactly what risks I meant – new diseases (cf. Nathan Wolfe’s book, The Viral Storm)? Part of me wanted to dodge it – the point about unanticipated consequences is not anticipating them – but vague “beware, the sky might fall” is cheap.
Ebola has not previously spent much time in humans, so has had little chance to adapt. Obviously the longer the epidemic goes on, the greater the chance the virus will adapt to humans. For example: ebola is not contagious until symptoms manifest. Well, logically speaking isolating patients as soon as symptoms show up creates a strong selective pressure on the virus to become contagious BEFORE symptoms are visible (like HIV).
So that’s one possibility.

]]> By: Doug Alder https://gregladen.com/blog/2014/10/27/ebola-and-the-french-disease/#comment-484200 Thu, 30 Oct 2014 16:21:26 +0000 http://scienceblogs.com/gregladen/?p=20570#comment-484200 Fantastic read – wondering what the connection was kept me reading to the end.

]]> By: Debashish Das https://gregladen.com/blog/2014/10/27/ebola-and-the-french-disease/#comment-484199 Tue, 28 Oct 2014 12:25:31 +0000 http://scienceblogs.com/gregladen/?p=20570#comment-484199 Great.
Read it tooo.
http://www.flamingopink.com.au/2014/10/shouldnt-fear-ebola/

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