<ul><li><strong>The <keyword id="2653835" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="marburg-virus" source="Orion">Marburg virus</keyword> is a severe hemorrhagic fever virus that often leads to fatality.<br /></strong></li><li><strong>The incubation period for the disease is from 2-21 days.<br /></strong></li><li><strong>Until now, no vaccines have been available to treat the disease.</strong></li></ul>Marburg virus is highly infectious, with a fatality rate of up to 88%. It is a dangerous disease that causes hemorrhagic fever, and WHO has rated it a Risk Group 4 Pathogen (high individual and community risk). The virus belongs to the same family as the Ebola virus – Filoviridae.<br /><br />It was first detected in 1967 in the German cities of Marburg and Frankfurt and the Yugoslav capital Belgrade. While conducting the laboratory research, people were exposed to Ugandan-imported African green monkeys or their tissues. Thirty-one people were infected, and seven deaths were reported.<br /><br /><strong>Transmission</strong><br />The virus spreads via human-to-human transmission or direct contact through broken skin or mucous membranes with infected people’s bodily fluids and surfaces/materials infected with these fluids.<br />Similar to the Ebola virus, the Marburg virus is known to persist in the testicles and inside of the eye. The disease saw various outbreaks over the years. In 2008, unprotected contact with infected bat feces or aerosols was also listed as a cause of the infection. <br /><br /><strong>Symptoms</strong><br />Within an incubation period of 2-21 days, infected individuals get fever, chills, headache, and myalgia (muscle pain).<br />Symptoms become increasingly severe from mild symptoms like maculopapular rash, nausea, vomiting, chest pain, sore throat, diarrhea, and abdominal pain. They can include jaundice, inflammation of the pancreas, severe weight loss, delirium, shock, liver failure, massive hemorrhaging, and multi-organ dysfunction.<br />Death usually occurs eight to nine days after symptoms appear, preceded by severe blood loss and shock.<br /><br /><strong>Diagnosis</strong><br />The <keyword id="14406730" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="marburg-virus-disease" source="Orion">Marburg virus disease</keyword> has symptoms similar to Ebola, malaria, typhoid fever, or dengue; hence, diagnosis becomes difficult. <br /><br />Tests required to confirm a case of Marburg virus disease are-<br /><ul><li>antibody enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA);</li><li>antigen detection tests;</li><li>serum neutralization tests;</li><li>reverse-transcriptase polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) assay; and</li><li>virus isolation by cell culture.</li></ul><strong>Cure or vaccine<br /></strong>There is no defined treatment or vaccine for the Marburg virus disease. However, giving supportive care by rehydration with oral or intravenous fluids can improve the chances of survival.<br /><br />Equatorial Guinea confirms a Marburg virus outbreak with at least nine deaths and 16 suspected cases. Symptoms like fever, fatigue, blood-stained vomit, and diarrhea were reported. Equatorial Guinean health authorities sent samples to determine the cause of the disease, and a district health official alert was made on 7 February 2023. <br /><br />After the disease outbreak in Equatorial Guinea, WHO R&amp;D Blueprint arranged an urgent meeting with the MARVAC partners to discuss the vaccine and therapeutic candidates.<br /><br />Dr. Matshidiso Moeti, WHO Regional Director for Africa, said, “Marburg is highly infectious. Thanks to the rapid and decisive action by the Equatorial Guinean authorities in confirming the disease, emergency response can get to full steam quickly so that we save lives and halt the virus as soon as possible”.<br /><strong>SEE ALSO:<br /></strong><a target="_blank" class="c-link c-message_attachment__title_link" href="https://www.businessinsider.in/science/health/news/ai-wont-replace-doctors-but-doctors-who-dont-use-ai-will-be-replaced-sangeeta-reddy-of-apollo-hospitals/articleshow/97900892.cms">AI won't replace doctors, but doctors who don't use AI will be replaced: Sangeeta Reddy of Apollo Hospitals</a><br /><a target="_blank" class="c-link c-message_attachment__title_link" href="https://www.businessinsider.in/science/news/cancer-diagnosis-can-affect-a-persons-ability-to-keep-a-job-says-a-study-in-american-academy-of-neurology/articleshow/97866989.cms">Cancer diagnosis can affect a person's ability to keep a job says a study in American Academy of Neurology</a><br />

Marburg virus disease: Symptoms, causes, treatment, all you need to know

The COVID-19 <keyword id="43587" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="pandemic" source="Orion">pandemic</keyword> was a life-altering event worldwide, leaving physical, emotional and financial scars that still linger to this day, likely to persist lifelong for many. While its sheer and unprecedented scale might make the outbreak feel like a once-in-a-lifetime occurrence, many experts insist it was only a mere sign of what is to come. <br /><br /> Now, in a sobering revelation, a new study has issued a dire reinforcement of the same, noting that certain animal-to-human diseases could become exponentially deadlier in the coming decades. Their research suggests that these 'zoonotic' pandemics could claim 12 times more lives in 2050 than they did in 2020, a staggering prediction that demands urgent action to safeguard global public <keyword id="6354750" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="health" source="Orion">health</keyword>.<br /><br /> The research notes that epidemics caused by zoonotic diseases, also known as spillovers, may become increasingly frequent in the future. This grim prospect is attributed to two critical factors: climate change and deforestation. As our planet grapples with the consequences of human-induced environmental changes, the risk of these diseases crossing from animals to humans looms large.<br /><br /> To chart future trends, the study looked at the past of four viral pathogens. These included filoviruses such as Ebola and <keyword id="87171" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="marburg" source="Orion">Marburg</keyword>, SARS Coronavirus 1, <keyword id="6545212" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="nipah" source="Orion">Nipah</keyword> virus, and the Machupo virus. Despite being the new poster child of pandemics and zoonotic diseases, the study did not encompass COVID-19.<br /><br /> The team found that from 1963 to 2019, 3,150 outbreaks had claimed a staggering 17,232 lives in 24 countries. Filoviruses alone caused 15,771 casualties, predominantly in Africa.<br /><br /> Perhaps the most alarming revelation was the consistent upward trajectory observed by the researchers. Between 1963 and 2019, epidemics triggered by zoonotic diseases increased by a deadly 5% each year, with fatalities rising by a massive 9%. <br /><br /> "If these annual rates of increase continue, we would expect the analysed pathogens to cause four times the number of spillover events and 12 times the number of deaths in 2050 than in 2020," the study warned. These numbers are likely conservative too, considering that COVID-19 was excluded from the analysis.<br /><br /> The deadly recent epidemics and pandemics are no accidents. Zoonotic spillovers are getting worse, growing in how bad they get and how far they spread. Unless we address the root causes of these evils — such as the looming climate crisis and healthcare gaps — and improve cooperation to address the inevitable future pandemics, deadlier upon deadlier pandemics will continue to trudge upon humanity, adding further burden to the already marginalised.<br /><br /> The findings of this study have been published in <em>BMJ Global Health</em> and can be accessed <a href="https://dx.doi.org/10.1136/bmjgh-2023-012026" data-type="tilCustomLink">here</a>.<br />

Future zoonotic disease pandemics set to turn deadlier, kill 12 times as many people by 2050 due to climate change

<ul class="summary-list"><li>The CDC is warning doctors to be on the lookout for Marburg virus amid outbreaks in two African countries</li><li>The highly contagious virus causes fever, fatigue, and blood-stained vomit.</li></ul><p>The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention this week <a href="https://emergency.cdc.gov/han/2023/han00489.asp#:~:text=Marburg%20virus%20disease%20is%20a,in%20Equatorial%20Guinea%20and%20Tanzania." target="_blank" rel="noopener">issued a health advisory warning</a> to US doctors regarding an outbreak of the deadly Marburg virus in two African nations. </p><p>The World Health Organization <a href="https://www.afro.who.int/countries/equatorial-guinea/news/equatorial-guinea-confirms-first-ever-marburg-virus-disease-outbreak" target="_blank" rel="noopener">confirmed an outbreak of the virus</a> in Equatorial Guinea and Tanzania earlier this year. Authorities first issued a warning for Equatorial Guinea in February following a series of deaths in early January. The Ministry of Health of Tanzania then <a href="https://www.who.int/emergencies/disease-outbreak-news/item/2023-DON451">announced its own outbreak in late March.</a></p><p>There have been 14 confirmed cases in Equatorial Guinea since the epidemic began, with 10 of those patients dying, <a href="https://emergency.cdc.gov/han/2023/han00489.asp#:~:text=Marburg%20virus%20disease%20is%20a,in%20Equatorial%20Guinea%20and%20Tanzania.">according to the CDC</a> An outbreak among a group of fisherman in Tanzania produced eight confirmed cases of the viral fever, five of which were fatal, the CDC said.</p><p>The CDC on Thursday warned doctors to watch for possible imported cases and patients exhibiting symptoms that include fever, fatigue, and blood-strained vomit and diarrhea. There have not been any reported cases of Marburg virus thus far in the US and the CDC said the risk of imported cases is relatively low.  </p><p>The virus' presence in both Equatorial Guinea and Tanzania mark the first outbreak of the disease in either country. It comes approximately six months after <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/marburg-virus-ghana-declares-outbreak-of-ebola-like-sickness-2022-7" target="_blank" rel="noopener">an outbreak of cases was reported in Ghana</a> in July 2022.</p><p>Marburg virus is rare among people but it is highly infectious once it finds a human host, and the disease can be fatal, with an average fatality rate of around 50%, <a href="https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/marburg-virus-disease">according to the WHO</a>. During a 2005 outbreak of the virus in Angola, the death rate among Marburg patients was as high as 88%, the agency said. </p><h2>What are the symptoms of the Marburg virus?</h2><p>Common symptoms of the Marburg virus include hemorrhagic fever, fatigue, blood-stained vomit, and diarrhea. </p><p>Illness from the disease often begins abruptly, according to the WHO, starting with a high fever, a bad headache, and malaise. Muscle aches and cramps can accompany the onset, as well as jaundice, nausea, and pain in the abdomen. </p><p>The CDC said a non-itchy rash can also appear around the fifth day of the disease, striking the patient's chest, back, or stomach. </p><p>Patients can appear "ghost-like" around day three, with deep-set eyes, expressionless faces, and extreme lethargy, according to the WHO. </p><p>In fatal cases, death often occurs between eight and nine days after the onset, usually preceded by blood loss and shock, the agency said. </p><p>The virus is highly contagious and bodies can remain contagious even after death. </p><h2>What is the treatment for Marburg?</h2><p>There are no known vaccines or antiviral treatments currently approved for the virus, according to the WHO, but supportive care, including rehydration efforts and treatment of specific symptoms, can improve patients' chances of survival. </p><p>The WHO convened an <a href="https://www.who.int/news-room/events/detail/2023/02/14/default-calendar/who-urgent-marburg-meeting">emergency meeting</a> on Tuesday to discuss whether to test one of the multiple <a href="https://cdn.who.int/media/docs/default-source/blue-print/william-dowling_whomarvac_vaccines_14feb23.pdf?sfvrsn=df284d46_3">Marburg virus vaccines and treatments</a> that are currently in the development process.</p><p>Marburg virus can be difficult to diagnose given its similar presentation to several other infectious diseases, including malaria, typhoid fever, meningitis, and Ebola. </p><p>Marburg originates from the same family of viruses that cause Ebola, according to the WHO, a group called filoviruses.</p><p>The Marburg virus is transmitted to humans via fruit bats, which are a natural host of the virus, according to the WHO.</p><p>The virus is not respiratory. Once a human is infected, the virus spreads through direct contact with the bodily fluids of infected people, as well as via contaminated surfaces and materials. </p><p>The virus was first recognized in 1967 among lab workers conducting research in Marburg and Frankfurt, Germany, and in Belgrade, Serbia.</p><h2>How is the WHO responding to the outbreak?</h2><p>The UN health agency said in a <a href="https://www.afro.who.int/countries/equatorial-guinea/news/equatorial-guinea-confirms-first-ever-marburg-virus-disease-outbreak">February</a> that it had deployed health emergency experts in epidemiology, case management, and infection prevention to Equatorial Guinea to try and control the outbreak. </p><p>The organization also sent advance teams to the impacted area to trace contacts, isolate people showing symptoms of the disease, and provide medical care. </p><p><em>02/16/2023: This story has been updated to clarify that Marburg virus is caused by a filovirus in the same family as Ebola, and not the same virus. </em></p><p><em>04/07/2023: This story has been updated to include the CDC's April health advisory warning. </em></p>

What is the Marburg virus? WHO confirms outbreak of the deadly viral disease in Equatorial Guinea and Tanzania

<ul class="summary-list"><li><keyword id="11892827" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="ghana" source="Orion">Ghana</keyword> declared its first outbreak of the <keyword id="14488383" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="marburg-virus" source="Orion">Marburg virus</keyword> on Sunday,</li><li>The virus, similar to Ebola, is a deadly and highly contagious sickness.</li></ul><p>Ghana declared its first outbreak of the highly-contagious and deadly Marburg virus, sparking an effort to contain the sickness.</p><p>Two patients, men who were 26 and 51, died from the illness in the southern Ashanti region of Ghana on June 27 and 28, <a href="https://www.afro.who.int/countries/ghana/news/ghana-declares-first-ever-outbreak-marburg-virus-disease-0">the World Health Organization (WHO) said in a press release Sunday</a>. </p><p>People who have caught the virus in a previous outbreak had a 24% to 88% chance of dying from it, depending on the strain they caught and the care they had access to, <a href="https://www.afro.who.int/countries/ghana/news/ghana-declares-first-ever-outbreak-marburg-virus-disease-0">per the WHO.</a></p><p>There is no vaccine or cure.</p><p>Marburg is a cousin of the virus that causes Ebola virus disease (EVD). Like Ebola, the disease caused by the Marburg virus is a hemorrhagic fever.</p><p>Symptoms include fever, bloody diarrhea, bleeding from the gums, skin, eyes, and bloody urine, <a href="https://twitter.com/_GHSofficial/status/1548688781632495616/photo/1">the Ghana Health Service said in a statement Sunday.</a></p><div type="image" title="A map shows the location of the southern Ashanti region in Ghana, where two cases of Marburg virus have been detected." height="1295" width="1727" msid="92960341" hostid="261" sizebytes="118476"></div><p>The two patients in Ghana, who were not named, had symptoms including diarrhea, fever, nausea, and vomiting, per WHO.</p><p>Authorities responded quickly in the hope of containing it, according to Matshidiso Moeti, WHO Regional Director for <keyword id="11894607" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="africa" source="Orion">Africa</keyword>.</p><p>Marburg can "easily get out of hand" without immediate containment, but "health authorities have responded swiftly, getting a head start preparing for a possible outbreak," she said.</p><p>98 contacts of the patients are being monitored and have been quarantined, per the Ghana Health Service. </p><p>Marburg virus disease is a zoonotic disease, which means it can pass from animals to humans.</p><p>Human-to-human transmission can occur through bodily fluids of infected people, surfaces, and materials, per WHO.</p><p>Previous Marburg outbreaks have been seen elsewhere in Africa, per the WHO, including in Guinea, Angola, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Kenya, South Africa, and Uganda.</p><p>Treatment against the symptoms of the illness, such as rehydration with oral or intravenous fluids, can improve the odds of survival. </p>

Ghana declares outbreak of Marburg virus, a deadly and contagious disease like Ebola, which officials are trying to contain

<ul class="summary-list"><li>A man in West Africa died of the Marburg virus, which causes internal bleeding and organ failure.</li><li>The <keyword id="43588" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="60" keywordseo="World-Health-Organization">World Health Organization</keyword> said the <keyword id="6361612" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="disease">disease</keyword> was capable of spreading far and wide.</li><li>WHO says fruit bats can pass the disease to humans.</li></ul><p>A man in the West African country of Guinea has died after contracting the Marburg virus, which causes internal bleeding and organ failure. The <a href="https://www.afro.who.int/news/west-africas-first-ever-case-marburg-virus-disease-confirmed-guinea">World Health Organization</a> on Monday confirmed the man's death and said the "highly infectious disease" could "spread far and wide."</p><p>It is the first time the Marburg virus has been detected in Guinea, per WHO.</p><p>According to WHO, the man visited a local clinic to seek treatment but his condition deteriorated quickly. Researchers at Guinea's national hemorrhagic fever laboratory and the <a href="https://www.pasteur.sn/">Institut Pasteur in Senegal</a> confirmed the Marburg-virus diagnosis.</p><p>WHO said the virus could pass to people from fruit bats and is transmitted from one person to another through surfaces and bodily fluids.</p><p>The organization said the illness tended to begin with an abrupt and sudden onset of high fever and headaches, with severe internal bleeding occurring within seven days. WHO said the virus had death rates of 24% to 88% in past outbreaks.</p><p>"We applaud the alertness and the quick investigative action by Guinea's <keyword id="6354750" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="health">health</keyword> workers," Dr. Matshidiso Moeti, WHO's regional director in Africa, said in the organization's Monday statement.</p><p>"We are working with the health authorities to implement a swift response that builds on Guinea's past experience and expertise in managing Ebola, which is transmitted in a similar way," Moeti said.</p><p>Contact-tracing efforts are underway to identify the man's close associates. In an interview with <a href="https://news.trust.org/item/20210810182617-i4sqd/">Reuters</a> on Tuesday, Georges Ki-Zerbo, the WHO country head in Guinea, said 155 people were identified as close contacts. He said they would be observed for three weeks.</p><p>"It is active surveillance. The contacts are kept at home, isolated from other members of the family. They are visited every day to check on potential symptoms," Ki-Zerbo told Reuters.</p><p>"Globally, the approach to combating Marburg would not be different from Ebola. The only difference is that there is no vaccine or drug specifically directed to the virus. Only supportive care is available."</p><p>WHO said the Marburg virus was from the same virus family as <a href="https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/ebola-virus-disease">Ebola</a>, which has a <a href="https://www.afro.who.int/health-topics/ebola-virus-disease#:~:text=Ebola%20virus%20disease%20(EVD)%2C,fatality%20rate%20is%20around%2050%25.">50% fatality rate</a> on average. A 2014 outbreak of Ebola saw 28,600 infections and 11,300 recorded deaths across <a href="https://www.usaid.gov/ebola">Guinea, Liberia, and Sierra Leone</a>.</p><p>Gueckedou, the prefecture in Guinea where the man died of the Marburg virus, is the <a href="https://www.ecdc.europa.eu/en/publications-data/ebola-virus-disease-outbreak-guinea-2021">same place where the 2021 Ebola outbreak in Guinea was first detected</a>, WHO said.</p><p>According to the <a href="https://www.cdc.gov/vhf/marburg/index.html">US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention</a>, the Marburg virus was first identified in 1967 after scientists working at labs in Marburg and Frankfurt in Germany and Belgrade, Serbia, fell ill. In total, 32 people were infected and seven deaths were reported at the time. The CDC said the virus was traced back to scientists who had been exposed to the tissues of imported African green monkeys during their research.</p><p>Fruit bats remain the "reservoir (hosts)" of the Marburg virus, but they do not show obvious signs of illness even when they are carrying the disease, per the CDC.</p><p>As of Monday, <a href="https://covid19.who.int/region/afro/country/gn">Guinea had reported 27,112 COVID-19 cases and 263 deaths</a>, with <a href="https://ourworldindata.org/coronavirus/country/guinea">150 new cases a day reported on average over the past week</a>. Only <a href="https://coronavirus.jhu.edu/region/guinea">2.67% of Guinea's population have been fully vaccinated</a>.</p>

A man died in West Africa of a virus that causes internal bleeding and organ failure. WHO says it could 'spread far and wide.'

<ul class="summary-list"><li>Scientists say climate change and globalization have driven the spread of zoonotic disease.</li><li>Zoonotic diseases are spread from animals to humans, or from humans to animals.</li></ul><p>As the <keyword id="11893994" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="covid-19" source="Orion">COVID-19</keyword> <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/fauci-us-out-of-the-pandemic-phase-covid-2022-4">pandemic begins to wane</a> in several countries, scientists around the world are keeping tabs on other viruses that could spread from animals to humans.</p><p>Many of the most devastating viruses in human history have originated in animals and evolved to infect humans. Some species, like mosquitos, are known to transmit viruses like <a href="https://www.cdc.gov/zika/index.html">Zika</a> and <a href="https://www.cdc.gov/westnile/index.html">West Nile</a> via their bites. Bats, rats, monkeys, and birds have also hosted a variety of pathogens that later jumped to humans.</p><p>Viruses are <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/why-omicron-variant-mutations-are-concerning-2021-11">notoriously adaptable</a>, as constant mutations can help them reproduce in new hosts — and humans have made it relatively easy for viruses to jump species in the past century or so. Global development has <a href="https://www.aamc.org/news-insights/wild-scientists-strive-stop-animal-diseases-igniting-next-pandemic">driven humans and animals closer together</a>, and as we creep into each other's environments, there's a greater likelihood of sharing viruses.</p><p>Climate change also plays a major role. A warming planet, areas of high population density, and the movement of tropical species create prime conditions for a viral shake-up. One modeling study, published Thursday in the journal <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-022-04788-w">Nature</a>, indicated that a mammalian melting pot is already brewing in parts of the world, demonstrating a need for scientists to keep a close eye on emerging diseases in animal populations.</p><p>Here are a few types of viruses that scientists are watching now:</p><h2><strong>Some coronaviruses </strong>that can cause severe illness</h2><div type="image" title="MERS virus camel" height="2305" width="3500" msid="91212760" hostid="261"></div><p>The Centers for Research in Emerging Infectious Diseases (CREID) has teams at eight centers around the globe tracking various coronaviruses.</p><p>Coronaviruses are a large family of viruses that usually cause mild to moderate upper-respiratory tract illnesses in humans. However, a few novel coronaviruses — meaning they were new to humans — have caused large-scale outbreaks including severe disease.</p><p>Before COVID-19 became the biggest threat of the coronaviruses, SARS and MERS both jumped from animals to humans. </p><p>SARS, or <a href="https://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/health/conditions-and-diseases/severe-acute-respiratory-syndrome-sars">severe acute respiratory syndrome</a>, is widely believed to spread from bats to another small mammal before it reached humans in 2002, sickening people in 26 countries. Cases of SARS were reported to be more severe and with a higher mortality rate compared to COVID-19 <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1876034121001003">on average</a>; however, the SARS outbreak burned out much quicker than the COVID-19 pandemic.</p><p><a href="https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/middle-east-respiratory-syndrome-coronavirus-(mers-cov)">Middle East respiratory syndrome</a> originated in dromedary camels and evolved to spread to humans in 2012. Compared to other coronaviruses, MERS does not spread as easily between humans, so outbreaks of the illness have been contained to close contacts. Cases have been reported at very low rates in recent years, according to surveillance by the <a href="http://www.emro.who.int/health-topics/mers-cov/mers-outbreaks.html">WHO</a>.</p><h2>Scientists are still keeping tabs on <keyword id="12199113" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="ebola" source="Orion">Ebola</keyword>, linked to contact with bats and monkeys</h2><p><strong></strong></p><div type="image" title="fruit bats" height="1363" width="2000" msid="91212764" hostid="261"></div><p><a href="https://www.cdc.gov/vhf/ebola/index.html">Ebola virus</a> is another zoonotic disease that most likely transferred from bats or monkeys to humans, causing hemorrhagic fevers that can be deadly. People with Ebola or similar illness may vomit blood in severe cases, and it doesn't help that the virus spreads through direct contact with bodily fluid and tissue.</p><p>Ebola is a member of the family filoviruses, which all tend to infect hosts in that same way. A virus with an advantageous mutation could jump from animals to humans at a wet market where fresh meat is sold, and then it's just a matter of time before it adapts to spread between humans as well.</p><p>Another filovirus called <a href="https://www.cdc.gov/vhf/marburg/index.html">Marburg virus</a> was confirmed to have spread from monkeys to humans working in a lab in Germany in 1967. The disease is relatively rare today, but outbreaks have sickened and killed people in Africa, where the affected monkeys originated.</p><h2><strong>Mosquito-borne illnesses are a growing concern for humans, but they don't have the same pandemic potential</strong></h2><p><strong></strong></p><div type="image" title="mosquito" height="683" width="1000" msid="91212767" hostid="261"></div><p>Flaviviruses, a family of tiny, single-stranded viruses transmitted by ticks and mosquitos, remain a serious threat to humans, but they're unlikely to reach the same scope as COVID-19.<strong> </strong></p><p>Viruses like <a href="https://www.cdc.gov/westnile/index.html">West Nile</a>, <a href="https://www.cdc.gov/dengue/index.html#:~:text=Dengue%20viruses%20are%20spread%20to,illness%20in%20areas%20with%20risk.">dengue</a>, and <a href="https://wwwnc.cdc.gov/travel/diseases/yellow-fever#:~:text=Yellow%20fever%20is%20a%20disease,organ%20failure%2C%20and%20sometimes%20death.">yellow fever</a> can enter the human bloodstream by mosquito bite, but they cannot spread from person to person. These diseases can only reach as far as infected mosquitos can travel — an area that's fast expanding as the planet warms.</p><p>Scientists have <a href="https://www.albany.edu/news-center/news/2021-study-west-nile-virus-cases-predicted-increase-new-york-connecticut-due#:~:text=30%2C%202021)%20%E2%80%93%20A%20group,years%20due%20to%20warming%20trends.">predicted</a> that the number of West Nile cases, as well as the geographic space they cover, will increase especially in the northern US in future years. Other mosquito-borne diseases, like <a href="https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lanplh/article/PIIS2542-5196(21)00132-7/fulltext">malaria</a>, are expected to spread globally as well as their hosts expand to cover a larger area. </p>

3 types of viruses that can jump from animals to humans, and which ones scientists are watching to prepare for the next pandemic

Los Angeles, Apr 8 () Exploitation of wildlife by humans through hunting, trade, and habitat degradation leads to close contact between the animals and humans, increasing the risk of spillover of viruses like the novel coronavirus which causes COVID-19, according to a study.<p> The study, published in the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B, provides new evidence for assessing spillover risk in animal species and highlights how the processes that create wildlife population declines also enable the transmission of animal viruses to humans.</p><p> "Spillover of viruses from animals is a direct result of our actions involving wildlife and their habitat," said lead author Christine Kreuder Johnson, from the University of California, Davis in the US.</p><p> "The consequence is they're sharing their viruses with us. These actions simultaneously threaten species survival and increase the risk of spillover. In an unfortunate convergence of many factors, this brings about the kind of mess we're in now," Johnson said.</p><p> The scientists assembled a large dataset of the 142 known viruses that spill over from animals to humans and the species that have been implicated as potential hosts.</p><p> Using the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List of Threatened Species, they examined patterns in those species' abundance, extinction risks and underlying causes for species declines.</p><p> The data show clear trends in spillover risk that highlight how people have interacted with animals throughout history, the researchers said.</p><p> They found that domesticated animals, including livestock, have shared the highest number of viruses with humans, with eight times more zoonotic viruses compared to wild mammalian species.</p><p> This is likely a result of our frequent close interactions with these species for centuries, the researchers said.</p><p> According to the study, wild animals that have increased in abundance and adapted well to human-dominated environments also share more viruses with people.</p><p> These include some rodent, bat and primate species that live among people, near our homes, and around our farms and crops, making them high-risk for ongoing transmission of viruses to people, it found.</p><p> The researchers noted that at the other end of the spectrum are threatened and endangered species.</p><p> These are animals whose population declines were connected to hunting, wildlife trade and decreases in habitat quality, the said.</p><p> These species were predicted to host twice as many zoonotic viruses compared to threatened species that had populations decreasing for other reasons, according to the researchers.</p><p> Threatened and endangered species also tend to be highly managed and directly monitored by humans trying to bring about their population recovery, which also puts them into greater contact with people, they said.</p> Bats repeatedly have been implicated as a source of "high consequence" pathogens, including SARS, Nipah virus, Marburg virus and ebolaviruses, the study noted.   SARSAR

Wildlife trade, habitat degradation driving virus spillover: Study

<keyword id="3658" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="india" source="Orion">India</keyword>'s <keyword id="16540944" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="exports-in-January-fell" source="Orion">exports in January fell</keyword> by 6.58 per cent to $32.91 billion as against $35.23 billion in the same month last year, a data stated on Wednesday.<br /><br />The fall was due to <keyword id="16540946" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="slowdown-in-global-demand" source="Orion">slowdown in global demand</keyword>.<br /><br />Similarly, imports also declined in January by 3.63 per cent to $50.66 billion as against $52.57 billion in the same month last year.<br /><br />Trade deficit in January was $17.75 billion, a 12-month low.<br /><br />Cumulatively, however, during April-January 2022-23, the country's merchandise exports rose 8.51 per cent to $369.25 billion, while imports increased 21.89 per cent to $602.20 billion, the data showed.<br /><br />Export sectors that recorded negative growth during the 10-month period of this fiscal include engineering goods, iron ore, plastic and linoleum, gems and jewellery.<br /><strong>SEE ALSO:<br /></strong><a target="_blank" class="c-link c-message_attachment__title_link" href="https://www.businessinsider.in/science/news/ai-performs-poorly-in-detecting-covid-by-listening-to-cough-says-a-uk-based-study/articleshow/97950791.cms">AI performs poorly in detecting Covid by listening to cough says a UK-based study</a><br /><a target="_blank" class="c-link c-message_attachment__title_link" href="https://www.businessinsider.in/science/health/news/marburg-virus-disease-symptoms-causes-treatment-all-you-need-to-know/articleshow/97947576.cms">Marburg virus disease: Symptoms, causes, treatment, all you need to know</a><br />

India's exports in January fell 6.58% to $32.91bn

<ul><li><strong><keyword id="6354576" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="facebook" source="Orion">Facebook</keyword> has updated its “Why am I seeing this ad?” tool.<br /></strong></li><li><strong>This update will help users understand how machine learning is used to show ads.<br /></strong></li><li><strong>Read further to know more about the update and its benefits.</strong><br /></li></ul>Facebook has updated its “Why am I seeing this ad?” tool to give users a better understanding of how the platform uses data and technology to show them ads. <br /><br />Helping users learn how the machine learning models contribute to the ads people see on the platform will increase transparency.<br /><br />"Being transparent about how we use machine learning is essential because it ensures that people are aware that this technology is a part of our ads system and that they know the types of information it is using,” Meta said.<br /><br /><strong>Here’s how the tool works<br /></strong>Meta uses machine learning to curate information and understand your activity both on and off the platform and then display ads related to similar topics.<br />For example, based on how and which posts you like on the platform or on different websites, Facebook shapes ads accordingly.<br /><br /><strong>'On' <keyword id="1500335" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="facebook-activity" source="Orion">Facebook activity</keyword><br /></strong>Facebook can use these things to put your profile in a certain category and show ads related to it:<br /><ul><li>Pages on Facebook you've liked.</li><li>Information from your Facebook and Instagram profile.</li><li>Ads you've clicked on.</li><li>The content of posts that you've made or interacted with across Facebook and Instagram.</li><li>Places you've checked into using Facebook.</li></ul><strong>'Off' Facebook activity<br /></strong>Advertisers can add Facebook business tools to different websites or applications that allow them to curate information, know your interactions/purchases and help show ads that suit your interest.<br />Note: Users can always change and manage their ad preferences.<br /><br /><strong>Here's where we can know more about the tool and what it includes:<br /></strong><ul><li>Whenever you see an ad on your Facebook click on the three dots from the upper-right-hand corner of the ad.</li><li>Choose the' why am I seeing this ad' option.</li><li>Here you can see why this ad was shown to you and what other things influence your ads.</li></ul>You can make changes to your ad preferences and personalize your ads. Also, you can hide ads from a specific advertiser as well.<br /><strong>SEE ALSO:<br /></strong><a target="_blank" class="c-link c-message_attachment__title_link" href="https://www.businessinsider.in/science/health/news/marburg-virus-disease-symptoms-causes-treatment-all-you-need-to-know/articleshow/97947576.cms">Marburg virus disease: Symptoms, causes, treatment, all you need to know</a><br /><a target="_blank" class="c-link c-message_attachment__title_link" href="https://www.businessinsider.in/tech/apps/news/from-privacy-settings-to-educational-tools-here-are-some-new-facebook-features-you-should-know/articleshow/97280127.cms">From privacy settings to educational tools, here are some new Facebook features you should know</a><br />

Facebook updates its ‘Why am I seeing this ad’ tool: Here’s how it works

<p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table float_right"><div><div class="image on-image"><img src="https://static-ssl.businessinsider.com/image/59b878e69803c51e008b52e5-1068/shutterstock578490778 1.jpg" alt="couple kissing bedroom" data-mce-source="Shutterstock" /><p class="source"><span>Shutterstock</span></p></div><p></p></div></div>After a team of British researchers found bits of Zika virus lingering in the semen of men whose symptoms had cleared months before, they began to wonder: What other viruses <a href="https://wwwnc.cdc.gov/eid/article/23/4/16-1692_article">hide out</a> in unsuspecting parts of the body?</p><p>At least 27, according to a <a href="https://wwwnc.cdc.gov/eid/ahead-of-print">report</a> published Wednesday by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. These include viruses that have been at the center of recent epidemics, like Ebola and Marburg, as well as viruses like mumps and adenovirus, which can cause a version of the common cold.</p><p>"This really raises the question of what is the definition of an STD," <a href="http://sph.berkeley.edu/fenyong-liu">Fenyong Liu</a>, a professor in the division of infectious diseases at the University of California Berkeley School of Public Health who was not involved with the new report, told Business Insider.</p><p>The viruses appear to take advantage of one of the body's key protective mechanisms, a phenomenon known as immune privilege. Certain parts of the body, like the eyes, are essentially no-fly zones for the immune system's defense armies. They are shielded from inflammation to protect more critical functions like vision. Similarly, it's believed that some reproductive organs may be immune privileged to protect sperm or eggs.</p><p>But this immune privilege may also serve as a foothold for a disease-causing virus like Ebola or Marburg, which the new study finds can remain in human semen for surprisingly long stretches of time. Here, the immune system can't touch them.</p><p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table float_right"><div><div class="image on-image"><img src="https://static-ssl.businessinsider.com/image/581e58a9691e888d008b500d-869/lead_960-2.jpg" alt="ebola virus cell" data-mce-source="National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, National Institutes of Health" data-mce-caption="Ebola virus particles (blue) budding from an infected cell." /><p class="source"><span>National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, National Institutes of Health</span></p><p class="caption">Ebola virus particles (blue) budding from an infected cell.</p></div><p></p></div></div>Typically in the event of a viral outbreak, physicians and public health experts urge people to stay away from anyone who is infected for several weeks, paying particular attention to things like saliva and blood. The new study suggests this may not be enough. In some cases, viruses can persist for <a href="https://www.cdc.gov/media/releases/2016/p0830-ebola-virus-semen.html">as many as 565 days in semen</a>, meaning that an infected person could theoretically remain contagious for up to several months after they come down with one of the viruses.</p><p>"Clinicians and researchers need to consider the possibility that traditionally 'non-sexually transmitted' viruses can persist in semen, and this therefore raises the possibility of sexual transmission," Alex Salam, the lead author on the paper and a clinician and clinical researcher for the United Kingdom Public Health Rapid Support Team, told Business Insider.</p><p>Although the researchers found pieces of the genetic material of these viruses, including Lassa fever, Epstein-Barr, and varicella zoster (the virus that causes the chicken pox), that doesn't necessarily mean that the virus could be transmitted sexually. To find out if that is the case, they'll need more research.</p><p>In the past, it was unclear how several viruses on the list could spread. BK virus, for example, <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4721986/">was thought to spread from person to person through respiratory fluids</a> or urine, but the new study suggests that it can also be passed on through semen.</p><p>"This should raise people's awareness that even though they might contract a respiratory illness or something that effects the lungs, it could potentially be spread through an entirely different part of the body like the semen," said Liu.</p><p>To come up with their list, researchers combed the scientific literature and found nearly 4,000 published papers that documented evidence of viruses whose genetic material had ended up in semen.</p><p>In addition to the 27 viruses they found, the researchers also discovered the genetic material of several other viruses, such as dengue, SARS, and smallpox, in human testes. There isn't enough evidence yet to say if these viruses would also be present in semen, however.</p><p>Lots of questions about the viruses remain. The most pressing is whether or not they could all be sexually transmitted to a new host. The researchers also want to know how long the viruses remain in semen and in what concentrations, as well as how their presence might impact sperm and male fertility more broadly.</p><p>"This brings up more questions than it answers - and that's fascinating," Liu said.</p>    <div class="margin-top">        <h3>NOW WATCH: <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/hurricane-irma-lightning-space-footage-2017-9">Incredible footage from space shows massive lightning storms in Hurricane Irma</a></h3>        <div>            <iframe class="bijwplayerclass" data-player="jwplayer" src="https://content.jwplatform.com/players/SavCps9N-CEZHWCBG.html" width="100%" height="100%" frameborder="0" scrolling="auto" style="margin:0px;" allowfullscreen=""></iframe><script>function receiveMessage(event){ console.log(event.data.fullscreen); Android.fullscreen(event.data.fullscreen); }window.addEventListener("message", receiveMessage, false);</script>        </div>    </div>

A lot more diseases could be sexually transmitted than we thought

<p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"><img src="https://static-ssl.businessinsider.com/image/5aa7fcc33be59f19008b45a0-1778/5516f59269bedd9247343a7b.jpg" alt="pandemic disease ebola" data-mce-source="John Moore/Getty" data-mce-caption="Doctors Without Borders (MSF) staffer Alex Eilert Paulsen watches as mattresses and bed frames burn at the Ebola Treatment Unit (ETU) on January 31, 2015 in Paynesville, Liberia." /><p class="source"><span>John Moore/Getty</span></p><p class="caption">Doctors Without Borders (MSF) staffer Alex Eilert Paulsen watches as mattresses and bed frames burn at the Ebola Treatment Unit (ETU) on January 31, 2015 in Paynesville, Liberia.</p></div><p></p></div></div></p><ul><li><strong>The World Health Organization recently updated their blueprint for research that lists the diseases most likely to cause a global pandemic that could kill millions.</strong></li><li><strong>Along with hemorrhagic viruses like Ebola and mosquito-borne diseases like Zika, they added a mysterious new condition: "Disease X."</strong></li><li><strong>Disease X represents the unknown disease that's quite likely to cause the next pandemic.</strong></li></ul><hr /><p>The inescapable truth for those who study disease outbreaks, new viruses, and the spread of illness is a haunting one.</p><p>The <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/disease-dangers-pandemic-influenza-ebola-2017-5">next pandemic is coming</a>.</p><p>Known, incurable diseases lurk in hidden reservoirs all over the world. Thousands of unknown viruses circulate around the globe. And in labs, both <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/nih-lifts-ban-on-flu-mers-sars-virus-gain-of-function-research-2017-12">for the sake of experimentation</a> and potentially also for <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/pandemic-risk-to-humanity-2017-9">nefarious purposes</a>, research is conducted on biological agents to see if it's possible to <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/plague-biological-weapon-2017-7">make them more deadly</a>.</p><p>In their <a href="http://www.who.int/blueprint/priority-diseases/en/">recent blueprint for research on priority diseases</a> that could cause this pandemic, <a href="http://www.who.int/blueprint/priority-diseases/en/">the World Health Organization</a> (WHO) added a new potential threat: Disease X.</p><p>"Disease X" stands for the unknown.</p><p>The rest of the diseases on that list are already-known conditions. These include <a href="https://www.cdc.gov/vhf/diseases.html">hemorrhagic fevers</a> like Crimean-Congo hemorrhagic fever, Ebola, Marburg, Lassa, Rift Valley fever, Nipah, and henipaviral diseases. Other priority illnesses include coronaviruses like MERS and SARS and the mosquito-borne disease Zika.</p><p>Viruses and bacteria can mutate and become more infectious or deadly (or both), and there's a constant risk that new illnesses could find ways to jump from their hosts to humans.</p><p>It's likely that whatever pathogen causes the next pandemic, it'll be something we don't know how to react to. And as we've seen when new diseases like Zika first emerge, we're not able to stop these illnesses from rapidly spreading with devastating results.</p><p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"><img src="https://static-ssl.businessinsider.com/image/59b665ee5124c993065dc489-800/china-detains-five-after-unearthing-tonnes-of-pig-carcasses-2017-9.jpg" alt="FILE PHOTO: A worker walks past pens containing pigs at a farm located on the outskirts of Beijing September 7, 2012.      REUTERS/David Gray/File Photo" data-mce-source="Thomson Reuters" data-mce-caption="FILE PHOTO: A worker walks past pens containing pigs at a farm located on the outskirts of Beijing" /><p class="source"><span>Thomson Reuters</span></p><p class="caption">Pigs in a factory farm could pick up a bird virus.</p></div><p></p></div></div></p><h2>What to expect from an unknown disease</h2><p>As the WHO's description explains, the disease that turns out to be "Disease X" could be one that we don't yet know is dangerous.</p><p>Seemingly non-threatening diseases have changed course before. </p><p>As Dr. Michael Kurilla, director of the Office of Biodefense Research Resources and Translational Research at the NIH's National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/zika-virus-shows-why-emerging-diseases-are-so-dangerous-2016-1">told Business Insider in 2016</a>, for years we thought certain viruses known as coronaviruses were relatively innocuous.</p><p>"But then SARS came around," he said then, referring to the 2002-2003 outbreak of the coronavirus that infected more than 8,000 and killed approximately 10% of those infected. Ten years later came MERS. Both of these ended up on the WHO blueprint for research on diseases that could cause the next pandemic - as did Zika, which until recently hadn't been considered a disease of major concern.</p><p>A pandemic could also come from a mutated version of an existing pathogen.</p><p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table float_right"><div><div class="image on-image"><img src="https://static-ssl.businessinsider.com/image/5aa821db3be59f1e008b474a-600/165-ww-269b-5-nurse-l.jpg" alt="1918 pandemic" data-mce-source="National Archives" data-link="http://www.archives.gov/exhibits/influenza-epidemic/records-list.html" /><p class="source"><span><a href="http://www.archives.gov/exhibits/influenza-epidemic/records-list.html">National Archives</a></span></p><p class="caption">It's almost certain that we'll eventually see a disease like the 1918 pandemic influenza that was one of the deadliest events in human history.</p></div><p></p></div></div></p><h2>A deadly flu</h2><p>A mutated flu has long been a contender for the source  of our next pandemic, according to virologists and epidemiologists.</p><p>"We are coming up on the centenary of the 1918 influenza pandemic," George Poste, a member of the <a href="http://www.biodefensestudy.org/">Blue Ribbon Study Panel on Biodefense</a>, a group created to assess the state of biodefense in the US, <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/pandemic-risk-to-humanity-2017-9">previously told Business Insider</a>. "We've been fortunately spared anything on that scale for the past 100 years, but it is inevitable that a pandemic strain of equal virulence will emerge."</p><p>Writing in the Daily Mail, Dr. Jonathan Quick, a faculty member of Harvard Medical School and chair of the Global Health Council, recently said that our factory farm system could be the perfect incubator for a pandemic flu. There are thousands of close-together pigs potentially exposed to chickens or wild birds, which creates the perfect opportunity for a bird flu to acquire the genes needed to start infecting mammals like pigs - and humans.</p><p>"The renegade influenza viruses they spawn could one day annihilate the people they feed," <a href="http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-5465241/Why-believe-killer-flu-pandemic-just-corner.html">he wrote</a>.</p><p>And there's always the possibility that someone intentionally could create and spread a pandemic disease. That's the <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/pandemic-risk-to-humanity-2017-9">scariest global disaster that Melinda Gates can imagine</a> happening within the next ten years, she recently said in an interview at South By Southwest.</p><p>For preparations sake, she said we should have the equivalent of a disease-monitoring organization like the CDC solely focused on bioterrorism.</p><p>As journalist David Quammen explained in his book "<a href="http://www.amazon.com/Spillover-Animal-Infections-Human-Pandemic/dp/0393066800?tag=bisafetynet2-20">Spillover: Animal Infections and the Next Human Pandemic</a>," a deadly new virus will inevitably appear: "If you're a thriving population, living at high density but exposed to new bugs, it's just a matter of time until the [Next Big One] arrives."</p>    <div class="margin-top">        <h3>NOW WATCH: <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/peter-diamandis-how-silicon-valley-can-make-100-new-60-2018-2">What Silicon Valley is doing to make humans live longer</a></h3>        <div>            <iframe class="bijwplayerclass" data-player="jwplayer" src="https://content.jwplatform.com/players/kPPOD3rk-CEZHWCBG.html" width="100%" height="100%" frameborder="0" scrolling="auto" style="margin:0px;" allowfullscreen=""></iframe><script>function receiveMessage(event){ console.log(event.data.fullscreen); Android.fullscreen(event.data.fullscreen); }window.addEventListener("message", receiveMessage, false);</script>        </div>    </div>

The World Health Organization has listed 'Disease X' as the next potential pandemic - here's how worried you should be

<p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"><img src="https://static-ssl.businessinsider.com/image/53dfc901eab8ea5f69dfd633-1826/smallpox-vaccine-in-vial-6.jpg" border="0" alt="Smallpox vaccine in vial" data-mce-source="REUTERS/Havakuk Levison" /><p class="source"><span>REUTERS/Havakuk Levison</span></p><p class="caption">Most of us don't get the smallpox vaccine anymore, which means we'd be vulnerable to a bioterrorism attack using the virus.</p></div><p></p></div></div></p><ul><li><strong>The FDA just approved a drug that could be used to treat smallpox.</strong></li><li><strong> The disease was officially eradicated in 1980, but e</strong><strong>xperts are concerned that people could re-create smallpox and use it as a <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/category/biological-weapons">biological weapon</a>.</strong></li><li><strong>Infectious disease researchers and <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/category/bioterrorism">bioterror</a> experts say the world is unprepared for the emergence or release of a pandemic disease.</strong></li></ul><hr /><p><br />On any list of the most <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/deadliest-diseases-prevention-2017-7">devastating diseases humanity has ever had to contend with</a>, smallpox comes in near the top.</p><p>The contagious and potentially fatal disease is caused by the variola virus. It <a href="http://www.academia.dk/BiologiskAntropologi/Mikrobiologi/PDF/Viruses_Plagues_and_History.pdf">killed approximately 300 million people</a> before mass vaccination campaigns made smallpox the first infectious disease to be eradicated from the wild in 1980.</p><p>But that doesn't mean it's gone for good.</p><p>The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) announced on July 13 that it had for the first time approved a drug that could treat smallpox if it were ever released as a weapon in a terrorist attack. The medication is called TPOXX (tecovirimat). </p><p>"To address the risk of bioterrorism, Congress has taken steps to enable the development and approval of countermeasures to thwart pathogens that could be employed as weapons," FDA Commissioner Scott Gottlieb said in a statement. "Today's approval provides an important milestone in these efforts. This new treatment affords us an additional option should smallpox ever be used as a bioweapon."</p><p>The potential release of smallpox as a weapon is an extremely concerning scenario; many experts think that <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/pandemic-risk-to-humanity-2017-9">a weaponized form of disease is one of the biggest risks</a> humanity faces.</p><p>The world isn't ready for that possibility, nor is it primed to respond to a pandemic disease that occurs naturally. That means it's plausible that some sort of deadly pathogen - likely a virus - could spread around the globe.</p><p>As <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/bill-gates-warns-the-next-pandemic-disease-is-coming-2018-4">Bill Gates said in a recent talk</a>, world governments are ill prepared for these sorts of scenarios.</p><p>"In the case of biological threats, that sense of urgency is lacking," Gates said. "The world needs to prepare for pandemics in the same serious way it prepares for war."</p><p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"><img src="https://static-ssl.businessinsider.com/image/5a3a74bf4aa6b5d3198b5fa5-1778/shutterstock403792792.jpg" border="0" alt="biosafety virus work lab biological weapon" data-mce-source="Shutterstock/Tonhom1009" /><p class="source"><span>Shutterstock/Tonhom1009</span></p></div><p></p></div></div></p><h2>The return of smallpox</h2><p>There are good reasons to be concerned about a potential smallpox release.</p><p>In theory, only two labs in the world are authorized to possess the variola virus: the CDC in Atlanta, and the State Research Center of Virology and Biotechnology in Russia.</p><p>But more samples of the virus may be out there. In 2014, <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/unauthorized-smallpox-specimens-discovered-in-nih-lab-2014-7">vials containing smallpox were found</a> in a cold storage room of an FDA lab at the National Institutes of Health's campus in Bethesda, Maryland. The possibility of an accidental release from that kind of forgotten sample is remote but real.</p><p>More concerning is the fact that researchers think it wouldn't be difficult for an ill-intentioned actor to create a version of the smallpox virus - even a more dangerous one - in a lab.</p><p>Now that smallpox has been "eradicated," most people no longer receive a vaccine, meaning the vast majority of the world would be vulnerable to an outbreak.</p><p>The Department of Defense recently commissioned <a href="http://www8.nationalacademies.org/onpinews/newsitem.aspx?RecordID=24890&amp;_ga=2.264774095.1762283079.1530026023-1256261885.1529511670">a report</a> on defense against biological weapons from the National Academy of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. The <a href="https://www.nap.edu/catalog/24890/biodefense-in-the-age-of-synthetic-biology">report</a>, published in June, said that the re-creation of known pathogenic viruses like smallpox using the techniques of synthetic biology should be of the "highest concern" for the US.</p><p>"The U.S. government should pay close attention to this rapidly progressing field, just as it did to advances in chemistry and physics during the Cold War era," Michael Imperiale, a professor of Microbiology and Immunology at the University of Michigan and the chair of the committee that wrote the report, <a href="http://www8.nationalacademies.org/onpinews/newsitem.aspx?RecordID=24890&amp;_ga=2.264774095.1762283079.1530026023-1256261885.1529511670">said in a statement</a>.</p><p>Last year, a <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/heres-how-deadly-eradicated-viruses-could-re-emerge-2017-10">Canadian researcher studying synthetic biology demonstrated</a> that it was possible to create pox viruses related to smallpox from scratch using genetic material purchased through the mail.</p><p>Doing that cost the researcher $100,000 and "did not require exceptional biochemical knowledge or skills, significant funds, or significant time," <a href="http://www.who.int/csr/resources/publications/smallpox/18-ACVVR-Final.pdf?ua=1">according to</a> a World Health Organization report. </p><p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"><img src="https://static-ssl.businessinsider.com/image/581e515d691e888d008b500a-960/lead960-2.jpg" border="0" alt="ebola virus cell" data-mce-source="National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, National Institutes of Health" data-mce-caption="Ebola virus particles (blue) budding from an infected cell." /><p class="source"><span>National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, National Institutes of Health</span></p><p class="caption">Ebola virus particles (blue) budding from an infected cell.</p></div><p></p></div></div></p><h2>Other dangerous diseases</h2><p>Weaponized variola is far from the only disease that researchers think could lead to a pandemic.</p><p>Experts think that if a flu like the 1918 version were to emerge again, it could kill 30 million people within six months. Even scarier flus are possible, too: In <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/our-next-pandemic-could-start-from-within-2014-7">ongoing studies in 2014</a> that were <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/nih-lifts-ban-on-flu-mers-sars-virus-gain-of-function-research-2017-12">resumed in the past year</a>, scientists demonstrated how the flu virus can be made more deadly. The also showed that deadlier viruses can be engineered to become more contagious.</p><p>Experts at the CDC and World Health Organization keep <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/bill-gates-warns-of-deadly-disease-pandemic-2018-5">lists of the diseases</a> that are most likely to cause a deadly pandemic. Those lists include a number of naturally occurring pathogens, including some that might be turned into biological weapons, like Ebola, Marburg, SARS, anthrax, botulism, plague, tularemia, and smallpox.</p><p>Experts have also run simulations to see how the world would respond to the intentional release of a pandemic disease. The general consensus has been that humanity would not fare well.</p><p>In May, the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security <a href="http://www.centerforhealthsecurity.org/about-the-center/pressroom/press_releases/2018-05-15_clade-x-policy-recommendations.html">ran a simulation</a> demonstrating what might happen if a fringe group were to release a modified disease related to the <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/nipah-virus-outbreak-deaths-in-india-2018-5">Nipah virus</a>. An outbreak of the little-known Nipah virus in India in May sickened at least 18 and killed 17 of those infected.</p><p>In the Johns Hopkins simulation, the modified virus killed more than 150 million people within a year.</p>    <div class="margin-top">        <h3>NOW WATCH: <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/what-is-super-earth-2018-6">Super-Earths are real and they could be an even better place for life than Earth</a></h3>        <div>            <iframe class="bijwplayerclass" data-player="jwplayer" src="https://content.jwplatform.com/players/9OrTF64m-CEZHWCBG.html" width="100%" height="100%" frameborder="0" scrolling="auto" style="margin:0px;" allowfullscreen=""></iframe><script>function receiveMessage(event){ console.log(event.data.fullscreen); Android.fullscreen(event.data.fullscreen); }window.addEventListener("message", receiveMessage, false);</script>        </div>    </div>

The FDA just approved a drug to treat smallpox in case of a bioterrorism attack - here's why that scenario is so scary

<p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table full"><div><div class="image"><img src="https://static-ssl.businessinsider.com/image/53f4f01369bedd3833f7d187-1200-800/screen%20shot%202014-08-20%20at%202.57.08%20pm.png" border="0" alt="healthcare team original Ebola virus"><p class="source"><span>Courtesy CDC / Dr. Lyle Conrad</span></p><p class="caption">This is the team that first went looking for the source of the Ebola virus in Zaire, now known as the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Piot is the third from the left in the middle row, wearing the colorful shirt.</p></img></div><p></p></div></div>When Ebola first arrived in Europe on September 29, 1976, the vials of the virus were carried from Zaire, now the Democratic Republic of the Congo, in a shiny blue thermos on a passenger flight.</p>
<p>Three lab workers in Antwerp, Belgium, received the thermos and prepared to open it on a lab bench. The precautions they took and the room they were in were appropriate for handling organisms like salmonella or tuberculosis, with none of the security procedures or body suits that we now associate with manipulating Biosafety Level 4 pathogens like Ebola.</p>
<p>All the lab team knew was that they were receiving blood samples from an unusual epidemic that was suspected to possibly be some form of "yellow fever with hemorrhagic manifestations," according to Peter Piot, one of the three in the room and a co-discoverer of the Ebola virus. Piot wrote about the experience in his book "<a href="http://www.amazon.com/No-Time-Lose-Pursuit-Viruses/dp/039306316X" target="_blank">No Time to Lose: A Life in Pursuit of Deadly Viruses</a>."</p>
<p>Wearing latex gloves and no other protection, they opened the cheap plastic thermos that was supposed to hold two glass vials of blood that had been drawn from a Flemish nun who was too sick to be evacuated from the Congo.</p>
<p>One of the vials was broken - the thermos hadn't been stored carefully enough on the passenger plane that carried it from Kinshasa.</p>
<p><div class="KonaFilter image-container"><div class="image"><img src="https://static-ssl.businessinsider.com/image/53f602bf6bb3f7b8071577d3-1200-858/screen%20shot%202014-08-21%20at%2010.28.30%20am.png" border="0" alt="Flemish nun looks at colleagues graves Ebola 1976" width="800"><p class="source"><span>Courtesy CDC / Dr. Lyle Conrad</span></p><p class="caption">This photo from 1976 shows one of the Flemish nuns from the mission in Zaire looking at graves of colleagues and patients who died in that Ebola outbreak.</p></img></div><p></p></div>Blood and broken glass mixed with half melted ice. Piot, who was a 27-year-old medical school graduate and junior lab worker at the time, describes that moment:</p>
<blockquote class="blockquote">We didn't even imagine the risk we were taking. Indeed, shipping those blood samples in a simple thermos, without any kind of precaution, was an incredibly perilous act. Maybe the world was a simpler, more innocent place in those days, or maybe it was just a lot more reckless.</blockquote>
<p>If they had any idea what Ebola was at the time, it would have been shipped to one of the three non-Soviet labs that were considered able to handle hemorrhagic viruses.</p>
<p>But since the team had no idea of exactly what they had received, Piot's two co-workers, postdoc student René Delgadillo and Guido Van Der Groen, reached into the soupy viral mess and picked out the intact vial.</p>
<p>"It makes me wince just to think of it," Piot writes.</p>
<p>To isolate the virus, the three - still maskless and with no protection but gloves - injected the blood into cell cultures and into the brains of adult and baby mice ("I never liked this aspect of the work," Piot writes).</p>
<p>They tested the blood, cell cultures, and mice over the next several days for known hemorrhagic diseases like yellow fever and Lassa fever, but antibodies for those diseases never turned up. Their boss, Stefaan Pattyn, looked into the epidemic itself, and found a village called Yambuku that seemed to be the origin.</p>
<p>The Flemish nun had died on September 30, and pieces of her liver were flown to Belgium on yet another passenger flight.</p>
<p><div class="KonaFilter image-container float_right" style="width:400px"><div class="image"><img src="https://static-ssl.businessinsider.com/image/53f4ec20ecad041e66f7d185-576-768/576px-antwerpen_tropisch_instituut1.jpg" border="0" alt="Antwerp Institute of Tropical Medicine" width="400"><p class="source"><span><a href="http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Antwerpen_Tropisch_Instituut1.JPG">Torsade de Pointes/WikiMedia Commons</a></span></p><p class="caption">This is the Antwerp Institute of Tropical Medicine in 2009.</p></img></div><p></p></div>Pattyn thought the virus must be a new rare hemorrhagic fever, a disease that causes the seemingly constant bleeding that accompanies some Ebola cases, and the sort of fever that the lab was not certified as safely equipped to handle - but they wanted to keep investigating anyway.</p>
<p>Piot says that at this point, he was "inflamed" with interest and "loved the detective thrill." His medical school advisor had told him to stay away from infectious diseases since "they've all been solved," a statement that, looking back on it, was quite naive.</p>
<p>This one hadn't been solved, and seemed like the chance to both discover something new and to save lives.</p>
<p>Piot still didn't know how incredibly deadly the virus is - that it was a hemmorhagic fever was strongly suspected but still not confirmed - but all evidence pointed to something grave. The World Health Organization ordered the samples shipped to one of the only labs equipped for hemorrhagic viruses, Porton Down in Britain, and from there they were sent to the CDC in Atlanta, considered the reference library for these types of diseases.</p>
<p>But despite the fact that they knew enough to know that the virus shouldn't stay in the Belgian lab, Pattyn kept a few samples. "By this point for him to keep us working on these samples was sheer folly," Piot writes. "He knew we were not equipped to do the work in safety."</p>
<p>Piot doesn't know why exactly - perhaps Pattyn was reluctant to send away what they'd been first to examine. "It was new, it was exciting - just too exciting to hand it over to the Brits or, in particular, to the Americans," he writes. They kept a few cell cultures and some newly-infected mice, Pattyn claiming they needed a few more days before they were ready for transport. And they kept examining them to see what they could find.</p>
<p>Before long, something went wrong. Pattyn, who was in charge but was a little clumsy in the lab itself, according to Piot, dropped an Ebola vial on the floor, where it shattered onto Delgadillo's shoes.</p>
<p>"Godverdomme," goddamn, said Pattyn. They disinfected the floor and removed the shoes.</p>
<p><div class="KonaFilter image-container full"><div class="image"><img src="https://static-ssl.businessinsider.com/image/53f4db4469bedd6a60f7d185-1200-924/screen%20shot%202014-08-20%20at%201.25.46%20pm.png" border="0" alt="Ebola Virus 1976 Image" width="800"><p class="source"><span>CDC/ Frederick A. Murphy</span></p><p class="caption">This 1976 image of the Ebola virus is similar to the one that would have convinced Pattyn that they were looking at something that could be similar to Marburg - or worse.</p></img></div><p></p></div>Only then did Piot realize how dangerous their behavior might have been, the risks they were taking.</p>
<p>After the cells they'd kept were ready for analysis, the lab technicians took a sample and took pictures with an electron microscope. The virus was huge. Piot said they saw "very large, long, wormlike structures: nothing like yellow fever."</p>
<p>Pattyn realized that it looked like the longest known virus in existence, a rare lethal hemorrhagic fever called Marburg that had killed a number of lab workers in Germany nine years before, after they'd handled infected monkeys.</p>
<p>They finally realized their folly and sent the rest of the samples to the high-security CDC labs. If the virus was Marburg or something related, they knew that they lacked the equipment to study it.</p>
<p>And they started looking for money to go to Zaire and see the outbreak for themselves.</p>
<p>Confirmation soon arrived from the CDC that the virus was not Marburg, it was something new. This was the first time the world recognized the virus that came to be known and feared as Ebola. That 1976 Zaire outbreak gave the virus its name, and killed 88% of those infected, 280 people - the most of any outbreak until the current one.</p>

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