Marburg Threads

[Archer]

This link is very interesting!

https://luanda.usembassy.gov/wwwhfactsaboutmarburg.html

[Guest fledgling666]

All you have to do is read the quotes at the beginning of Sense Anti-Sense to know it HAS happened.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

ONCE. "all you have to do......" to know that it has happened once ever in the history of mankind (Tuskeegee). speculation about diseased blankets given to native Americans in the early settlement of this continent have, to my knowledge, not been proven. this leaves this happening ONCE ever in the history of mankind. how does that make it even a remotely possible scenario?

one other thing- the effects of filoviruses are known. what good would it do for anyone or any organization or any government to "test" or "experiment" with the family of viruses (ebola, marburg, denge fever) on anyone. the only experiment i can see being done with any of them is on animals and it would be to find which is unaffected, and, therefore, the host (my guess on that is a parasitic insect of some sort- tick, flea, horsefly, other "flies", mosquitos, etc).

[4th Horseman]

ONCE. "all you have to do......" to know that it has happened once ever in the history of mankind (Tuskeegee). speculation about diseased blankets given to native Americans in the early settlement of this continent have, to my knowledge, not been proven. this leaves this happening ONCE ever in the history of mankind. how does that make it even a remotely possible scenario?

one other thing- the effects of filoviruses are known. what good would it do for anyone or any organization or any government to "test" or "experiment" with the family of viruses (ebola, marburg, denge fever) on anyone. the only experiment i can see being done with any of them is on animals and it would be to find which is unaffected, and, therefore, the host (my guess on that is a parasitic insect of some sort- tick, flea, horsefly, other "flies", mosquitos, etc).

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

ONCE...well, i guess it it would be ok to take that point of view, UNLESS yours was one of many lives ruined by a ONE TIME unauthorized experiment, (Tuskeegee). Mine wasn't so that should answer anyone's questions as to whether i have been personally affected.

Giving anyone, organizations, or any governments the benefit of the doubt is all well and good, but you must factor in the rouge elements, Al Queda, etc, in order to make your point a more salient one.

What is the greatest threat to our existence other than the nuclear issue? In my opinion,

Its biological warfare. These organizations are well aware of that fact and would not hesitate to use the aforementioned viruses should they ever be able to develop the means to produce and deliver them. And we havent even mentioned Anthrax..

Maybe i speak from paranoia ...but i dont worry so much anymore about the mushroom cloud, i worry more about the Cessna flying low over my neighborhood.

Remember, we are all brethren and sisteren? on this board, so because i come from a place of graveyard (work) induced dementia :Gehenna_demon: doesn't mean you have to be nasty..

[nothing i do is magic]

According to CNN today, the Marburg virus has claimed 253 people: CNN.com - Ebola-like disease kills 253 people

more info on Marburg, from MSDS lab in Canada , and the WHO

Just a couple things:

Those who study it trace Ebola to Kitum Cave in Kenya (just double checked that), though what in/about Kitum Cave was not clear in The Hot Zone - the rocks, the dust, the bat guano, plants, etc. (the book does a better job of explaining these possibilities than I can even attempt). I can't remember offhand where Marburg is thought to be from, besides Africa, or if there's even a source tentatively pinned down. It was discovered at, and thus named for, a town in Germany. A host has not been discovered for either virus. Certain monkeys are suseptable, but die very quickly. (Ebola Reston is fatal in some simians but has little to no effect in humans.)

I'll admit to not knowing very much on the subject, but one of my classes is on Native American history. I'm pretty damn sure smallpox blankets were distributed to some people some where, but my specifics aren't so good. See here for transcribed historical evidence: Jeffery Amherst's letters discussing germ warfare against American Indians . However, I think the idea has permeated pop culture and may be thought of as having occured more often than it did. Many native populations were decimated by smallpox and other European diseases before they ever encountered a white face.

There are four strains of Ebola: Zaire, Sudan, Tai, and Reston. Ebola Reston has never been lethal to anyone who tested positive to it, and, IIRC, those who tested positive actually had no symptoms of it. Despite their high virulence, Ebola is hard to catch. There is only one strain of Marburg virus, and it is less virulent than the three Ebola strains that affect humans.

Again, The Hot Zone, by Richard Preston, is highly reccomended.

- nothing, who maintains what we saw on MM was not Marburg (exactly)

[hippyroo]

Thanks for the ego-building reply, fourhorsemen.

Again, I wouldn't be shocked to learn that one group of people would decide to use another group of people to test viruses or other agents.

After reading about what happend to groups like: the Armenians, Kurds, Jews, Tustis, and Cambodians I have accepted that it doesn't take a whole lot to turn regular people into monsters.

[Guest fledgling666]

- nothing, who maintains what we saw on MM was not Marburg (exactly)

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

i'm not "nothing..." but here's what i know- they said so in the show. they called it marburg variant prp, or prk, or ppk or aomething like that.

marburg was discovered in zoo or circus animals from africa in germany, i think it first affected a construction crew (?).

when saddam used chemical weapons and/or biological weapons on the kurds, it wasn't testing, it was mass murder. he knew what it would do and did it. there was no need to gather results, to watch the progress, to log the event and the aftermath, to measure the spread, etc. i can't speak for the other occurances, i wasn't much aware of them.

now, i have some questions- who thinks Al Qaeda would test marburg on africans? i don't. the terrorist organization has long had ties to africa. to sudan and ethiopia, possibly to egypt, lybia, liberia, sierra leon, etc. of course, these countries are not angola, and, angola may have a larger christian population than the other countries. but they are suffering as badly, if not moreso than the middle east and other third world areas. al qaeda would identify and sympathize with most countries in africa. if they had such a thing, my opinion is that they would test in Europe, Isreal, Saudi Arabia, Lebenon, Iraq (now), and, of course, if they could, the US. in fact, the only terrorist organizations around today that are big enough to use a biological weapon would want to use it on America and/or Europe, but mostly, America, before and above anywhere else. so, in my opinion, in addition to ruling out governments, who have nothing to gain by killing 253 africans, i think we can now rule out most terrorist organizations except for the truly unpredictably crazy ones or those that may or may not exist that simply hate angolans for whatever reason they may. but then most of these organizations would not be able to afford to buy such weapons even on the black market, so we are back to- i doubt it. seems to me that it is naturally occuring, as would be my stance without all the thought into the matter, especially without any evidence to the contrary.

as a matter of faith in whether or not my government or other governments would do the right thing or whether or not they might do a wrong thing, i have none, perse. but there are consequences should that happen. those consequences should be enough to stop just about anyone from doing the unthinkable, but then again, there are serial murderers, rapists, thieves and tyrants among us who know the consequences and still go forward with their plans. what i'm saying is that i doubt it was deliberately spread by a government or organization of whatever sort, be that terrorist or not, but that i don't completely rule out the possibility, as we live in "an age of prominent madmen."