Nightmares Are Imminent
Apr. 4th, 2005 12:40 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
sadlikeknivesOnce upon a time, I took a class on the anthropology of the AIDS epidemic. During that class, I read a book that made mention of the Marburg virus (AKA Marburg's virus, AKA Marburg('s) disease). I did some research, and then I didn't sleep for a week. When I did start sleeping again, I had nightmares. Eventually, I managed to block the virus's existence out of my mind and go on with my life.
Marburg, you see, kills by causing the victim to bleed to death through their pores and other orifices. There is no cure. There is no vaccine. And it has a mortality rate somewhere in the mid-nineties. The only mercy is that it kills pretty quickly. As a matter of fact, most outbreaks of Marburg end quickly, because the poor sot who contracted it dies before he can pass it on to other people. It comes from green monkeys. The first outbreak happened to a group of animal handlers at a research facility in Marburg, Germany. I think I read somewhere that they pretty much just locked them in to die, because if you come into contact with someone with Marburg--guess what! You get Marburg, too!
Well, it's baaa-aaaack. And it's already killed a hundred and twenty people in Angola.
*whimper*
(And of course, this is getting absolutely zero coverage in the American press.)
Marburg, you see, kills by causing the victim to bleed to death through their pores and other orifices. There is no cure. There is no vaccine. And it has a mortality rate somewhere in the mid-nineties. The only mercy is that it kills pretty quickly. As a matter of fact, most outbreaks of Marburg end quickly, because the poor sot who contracted it dies before he can pass it on to other people. It comes from green monkeys. The first outbreak happened to a group of animal handlers at a research facility in Marburg, Germany. I think I read somewhere that they pretty much just locked them in to die, because if you come into contact with someone with Marburg--guess what! You get Marburg, too!
Well, it's baaa-aaaack. And it's already killed a hundred and twenty people in Angola.
*whimper*
(And of course, this is getting absolutely zero coverage in the American press.)
