Ebola Virus

--This report focuses on the origins of viruses and discusses the ebola virus in paticular.--






This report was done to explain the origins of the ebola virus.   This virus is one of the most deadly and horrific viruses known to man.   To first understand the ebola virus we must first know a little bit about viruses themselves.


Viruses themselves are extremely small pieces of matter.   To see them with the naked there would have to be thousands of millions of single viruses joined together.   Even some of the most sophisticated compound microscopes cannot see viruses.   To see a single virus you would need an electron microscope or something of the sort.


Even though viruses are considered non-living a debate still goes on on whether or not they are to be considered alive.   They seem to occupy a place midway between the ordinary chemical molecule and the living organism(Viruses and the Nature of Life, Dutton, pg. 8).


Most of the time,   a virus is as lifeless as a rock, and it may remain so for years.   Yet it may come to life at any moment; all it needs is a vulnerable cell to infect. During an infection the virus might well breed a new strain of virus and will proceed to kill 20,000,000 men, women, and children, a record claimed by an influenza virus in 1918.


The potency of viruses could easily be demonstrated by ebola.   One single ebola virus particle could infect a human and, within hours of waking from a dormant state, produce 10,000 new ebola viruses, each as ineffective as the original.   A visible ball of grouped ebola viruses the size of the tip of a pencil, is enough to infect the entire human race.


The virus is essentially a parasite, only able to reproduce inside another living cell.   Once inside the cell however it acts as if it were part of the cell’s own complement of chromosomes, and it succeeds in tricking the cell into producing new viruses.


No one worried very much about what it...