| Popis: |
Filoviruses are a family of viruses that infect mammals in tropical regions and cause haemorrhagic fevers when they infect humans. The best-known members of the family are Marburg virus and Ebola. The first outbreak of Marburg virus occurred in laboratory workers handling African green monkeys from Uganda. Subsequent outbreaks occurred in Africa among workers mining guano from bat-infested caves. It is not known if monkeys and bats are reservoirs of the virus or intermediate hosts even though they show no symptoms when infected. There have been over twenty outbreaks of Ebola in various parts of Africa in the last twenty-five years. The virus is highly infectious and spread is facilitated by close contact, especially local burial practices. A refusal to accept the role of virus in the disease makes control very difficult. The different regional outbreaks of Ebola have been caused by different strains of the virus and sequence analysis suggests they had a common ancestor 2,000 years ago. However, all attempts to find the animal reservoir have failed. |
