Ebola

Raudfjorden Beach, Svalbard, Norway

The Ebola outbreak has proven to a challenge for worldwide heatlh leaders.  The CDC has information about Ebola on its website, as does the World Health Organization (WHO).  The CDC information is delineated into a number of topical areas of interest to subject audiences.  I'm interested in the etiology of Ebola, its transmission, and issues surrounding its current outbreak.

My interest in Ebola began during my actuarial career, reading the "Hot Zone" , a 1994 non-fiction book about incidents involving viral hemorrhagic fevers, including ebolaviruses and marbug viruses. The memory of the book stayed with me since I was reading it while sailing down the west coast of Vancouver Island in 15 foot swells in a sailing vessel.  I can recall eating copious amounts of ginger cookies to ward off seasickness as I read of hemorrhagic fevers killing off people very quickly, in a very bloody and gory fashion, as all the while I was lurching back and forth in the sea and swell on the Pacific Ocean.  The ginger cookies did their job and the memory is etched in my experience, gone but not forgotten, as Ebola emerges again, this time, expressed  in the news of an outbreak.

These hemorrhagic diseases killed off people before they had a chance to spread extensively, and, were confined to certain areas in Africa and mostly away from major population centers.

According to the CDC, the virus can be spread through direct contact with blood and body fluids of a person infected with Ebola, with objects such as syringes infected with Ebola and infected fruit bats or primates.  The question remains as to factors impacting the geographical distribution of Ebola, how it independently arises, factors of etiology and its potential spread elsewhere.

The recent upswing in the Ebola virus prompted me to question its etiology, transmission and other issues.  For example, because of the increase in number of cases, I wondered if the virus had recombined with another virus to increase its transmission and decrease its mortality, or if there were other factors.   In this blog article I consider a number of issues, and raise some questions relating to the virus.


Etiology

• Does Ebola predate the AIDs/SIV/HIV viruses and does it provide some idea of the origin of these viruses? The CDC expresses that it does not know the origin of the original host of the Ebola Virus;  It is interesting to study the context of the Ebola virus regarding its emergence out of the Kinshasha Highway  across the Congo into Uganda as discussed in "The Hot Zone".  Did the virus have origins in bat habitats such as caves, rock, lava tubes, environments exposed to varying bacteria and archaea?
• The Ebola virus is a negative sense RNA virus. The production of proteins from a negative sense RNA virus require first the production of Messenger RNA (mRNA) and then proteins from mRNA. Ebola does not have reverse transcriptase, which would ordinarily be needed to enable insertion of its genetic contents into the DNA.   Is its 'purpose' then to directly produce mRNA (messenger RNA), and why? Research has shown that the filoviruses behind Ebola are very old and that there is direct insertion of genetic content with indications of evolutionary divergence a long time ago.  - The Lin Edwards article, "Ebola and Marburg viruses may be much older than thought" discusses this subject.
• Does the Ebola virus relate to issues concerning New World Monkeys and Old World Monkeys and the divergence of the two species?  If so, would this tend to indicate the same type of environmental conditions that may have existed at the time of that divergence?
• What is the distribution of the virus?  Does the virus act with regards to specific populations, affecting certain populations in a negative or positive way, and leaving others untouched.  What factors in these populations would account for the outbreak?  Are other populations at risk?

Transmission

• Did the Ebola virus recombine with another virus (for example the Corona Mers Virus  , Seasonal Flu Virus or enteroviruses) to allow it to decrease its mortality rate and increase its transmission?  Is it continuing to do so and would further recombination with the current seasonal flu change it further along these lines? 
• A subject of interest to is transmission of Ebola from the natural host to a target population.  Is Ebola being expressed, sustained within the target population or being sequestered?  Does this imply sequestration in a host for transmission or expression later under circumstances that may enable it to be used as a regulatory operator or a mediator of group identity or expression of  immunity systems?  Is it developing a symbiotic relationship with the host or another virus in a toxin/anti-toxin sort of manner (discussed by my blog article on Dr Luis Villarreal and his work on group identity systems)? How does this concept explain the existence of this virus in a reservoir species?
• What is the risk for the spread of Ebola?  To what extent is the risk environmental and to what extent can it be transmitted from person to person? 
• Is Ebola being transmitted in a less than lethal form under our eyes without our knowledge?
• Can Ebola be spread by more species of animals than listed under the CDC website?  
• How might Ebola change to become more transmissible to a greater variety of populations impacted by different environmental factors?  How would this risk change if the Ebola virus were to combine with the seasonal flu in a variety of different ways?

Geological Factors

• What factors in Africa are most significant in the etiology of Ebola?  Heat, humidity, coeexistence with and diversity of animal species, alkaline environments, carbon dioxide sequestration and outgassing (e.g. Lake Nyos), the Archaean basement substrate of the West African bedrock, granite, uranium, endospores such as bacillus anthracis, and  natural nuclear fission reactors from underground uranium (Gabon)? 
• What is the impact of the African mining fields?  Iron, gold, lead, silver, arsenic, mercury , uranium and nickel are among products of mining.  Nickel has a positive feedback impact on inflammatory markers. 
• How do endospores such as bacillus anthracis  fit into the story of Ebola, set in the mining context of West Africa, with its iron, gold, silver, arsenic, uranium, nickel and mercury, and the expression of inflammatory markers and feedback indicators?
• Are these various environmental issues constrained to Africa or are they present in other environments, and where do other similar environmental conditions exist?  Do these conditions have to exist in the same place or can an individual experience them by exposure to a variety of locations? For example, Archaean basement layers of rock exist in the Arctic, in Svalbard, which I visited in 2005. How would exposure to Archaea and other factors present in West Africa differ from the situation in Svalbard where it is much colder! Where else can we find archaea and chiral substances?
• How do increases in solar radiation  and changes in the Earth's magnetic field impact the expression of Ebola in Africa? To what extent would these factors affect the expression of Ebola in other areas of the planet?

Environment and Physiology

•  Does the emergence of a disease that promotes bleeding have significance as it relates to climate change or other planetary or environmental factors?    Is some environmental change occurring that would result in blood clotting more easily, something that would need to be countered by less viscous blood and changes in the coagulation cascade?
• How might the environmental factors in Africa affect blood coagulation?  Through mitochondrial regulation as it is impacted by environment, haplogroups and uncoupling in oxidative phosphorylation?  Through the impacts of oxygen reactive species?  Through solar radiation, geomagnetic storms and cycles?  Through the Warburg effect  (which replaces aerobic respiration with glycolysis)? Through arsenic mining?  Through positive feedback mechanisms involving hypoxemia  and inflammatory responses?  
• Is it possible that the Archaean basement layer of rock in West Africa impacts the blood coagulation cascade  and the blood vasculature through chirality?  Would concepts of fractal dimension  and tortuosity explain concepts of blood coagulation and vascular inflammation and other disorders, including stroke and cancers, including those of the blood and lymphatic systems?  
• What impact does the water people drink (and breathe through water vapor) impact people, including the impact on group identity systems and physiological parameters?
• Does the outgassing  of carbon dioxide  as a result of global warming, the release of iron from iron sequestered in the rock, and the release of endospores from sequestration, explain any of the natural events happening today, as regards vascular and coagulation issues?
• Is it possible that Ebola, as a disorder that promotes bleeding, developed as a feedback mechanism to counter the impact of increased blood coagulation due to the environmental impacts raised above? 
•  Bleeding may increase as blood coagulation factors are used up; does Ebola act to promote such bleeding to counter increases in clotting factors secondary to these environmental issues?  Is it possible that Ebola thus impacts the regulatory mechanisms of the coagulation cascade?

Detection

• Could an easy detection test be done for Ebola using, for example, saliva? This might prove less expensive and easier to measure for initial testing prior to full blood workups if it was sufficiently sensitive and specific.
• Could the d-dimer test and PPT tests be used as early indicators of Ebola.
• Can a series of early indicators, including markers of respiratory and coagulation system function and exposure to certain environmental factors, be developed to ascertain risk patterns for specific populations?  
• Where might the solution to Ebola be found?  Only time will tell.  Are lamprey VLR's a potential solution for isolating, detecting, and finding a cure for Ebola, considering their ability to detect bacillus anthracis and their affinity for carbohydrate glycoproteins?  Considering the age of the filoviruses and the characteristics of Ebola itself, is this a potential area to investigate?

Summary

Does the emergence of Ebola reflect the re-emergence of ancient historical patterns?  Have these patterns been carried by reservoir species from the depths of time to the particular victims of Ebola? Will Ebola adapt and spread elsewhere or re-emerge in other parts of the planet, independently?

Are the issues happening in West Africa an early indicator ('Canary in a Coal Mine')  of planetary changes?  These changes include changes in Earth's magnetic field, climate change, global warming and solar radiation, and downstream effects including release of sequestered minerals and gases such as carbon dioxide and methane from rock and oceans.  These are all areas of concern.  Historical examples of changes in Earth's magnetic field are shown over longer periods of time and more recent geologic time periods in this Wikipedia article on the Earth's Magnetic Field.

Finally, I am reminded of the childhood game, "Animal, vegetable or mineral" and associations with the "Tree of Life" (and probably, by extension, "The Tree of Good and Evil").  Ebola is a disease with a past, reflecting deep phylogeny and the rivers of time as embedded in the history of our rocks.

Sources:

marilyndunstan.blogspot.com
Evolution of Adaptive Immunity

Wikipedia:
Ebola virus disease
"The Hot Zone"
Kinshasha Highway
Archaea
Sense (molecular biology)
Messenger RNA
Reverse Transcriptase
Filoviridae
New World Monkey
Lake Nyos
Endospore
Bacillus Anthracis
Natural nuclear fission reactor
Nickel
Chirality
Sunlight
Earth's Magnetic Field
Oxidative Phosphorylation
Reactive Oxygen Species
Geomagnetic Storm
Warburg Effect
Glycolysis
Coagulation Cascade
Fractal Dimension
Tortuosity
Outgassing
Carbon Sequestion
Animal Sentinel
Earth's Magnetic Field-Geomagnetic Polarity
Earth's Magnetic Field-Brunhes Geomagnetism
Earth's Magnetic Field

World Health Organization:
Ebola Virus Disease

CDC:
CDC
Ebola (Ebola Virus Disease
2014 Ebola Outbreak in West Africa (Outbreak Distribution Map)

Phys Org: 
Ebola and Marburg Viruses May be Much Older Than Thought

JoVE Visualize: Anthrax lethal toxin inhibits translation of hypoxia inducible factor 1? and causes decreased tolerance to hypoxic stress

Geology and Mineral Resources of West Africa - The Archaean Basement

National Academy of Sciences: High-affinity lamprey VLRA and VLRB monoclonal antibodies

Berkeley Lab: Structure of the Ebola Virus Glycoprotein Bound to an Antibody from a Human Survivor

NASA Science News - Earth's Inconsistent Magnetic Field

Tenth Anniversary, September 11, 2001 Attacks

September 11, 2001 Damage, World Trade Center, New York, NY, December, 2001 (image on Photoshelter)

It is difficult to believe that ten years has passed since the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001. The destruction of the World Trade Center Twin Towers; the attack at the Pentagon and the heroic action by the passengers of United Flight 93 in bringing down the hijacked jet before it could reach its target in Washington D.C. Almost three thousand lives were lost in the attacks.

So much has happened in the time frame since the attacks, including the war on terrorism instigated by President Bush in the aftermath of the attacks, and a continuation of the fight by President Obama.

Importantly, Osama Bin Laden, whose Al Qaeda organization was responsible for the attacks, was killed in Abbottabad, Pakistan, in a U.S. C.I.A. raid conducted by special forces, including the Navy Seals unit that killed Bin Laden. Bin Laden’s death provides a sense of justice for the horrific damage his organization has done; however, importantly, it also stopped his ability to conduct more attacks. His death, however, may provide the weakened Al Qaeda organization he leaves behind with motivation for future attacks.

These events string themselves along the arrow of time as particularly significant and memorable. They take their place in the hall of memories amongst the family gatherings, the company picnics, the morning rush hour, the vacations and the hometown football victories and vigorously drown them out. We will always remember where we were when the September 11, 2001 attacks were launched. We will remember what we were doing when Osama Bin Laden was killed. These events are etched in our memories and will march down the hallway of time with us as we age and relate this history to the younger generation.

We will remember those who lost their lives. Our hearts go out to them and the families they left behind. We stand behind our government in its efforts to bring Al Qaeda to justice and we applaud the raid against Osama Bin Laden that resulted in his death.

This tragic event has had an impact upon all of us that will be with us the rest of our lives.

September 11 Memorial, Lower Manhattan, NYC, December, 2001 (image on Photoshelter)

While a sense of time may give us pause to consider past events there is no place that shows the impact of time more than its impact on the health of first responders and others in the World Trade Center area who were exposed to the dust from the attack.

New York City Fireman and Police Vehicle, Lower Manhattan, NYC, December, 2001 (image on Photoshelter)

For those exposed to the World Trade Center’s dust, time is not simply a memory of the event; it represents the impact of inhaled noxious pollutants, marching in physiological time within the body, damaging bodily systems. A witches brew of toxic substances contained in the dust has triggered a variety of dangerous health effects. It is clear that as time marches on, the toxic aftermath of September 11, 2001 still impacts first reponders.,

There is a World Trade Center Health Registry for people that lived, worked and went to school in the World Trade Center area.

Legislation has been passed to provide compensation to first responders, however it does not currently cover cancer, as discussed in CNN’s Dr. Sanjay Gupta’s coverage of the dust impacts of September 11 attacks.

The impacts of the the World Trade Center attacks will more fully emerge as time unfolds and the effects of dust, particles, toxic and alkaline substances play out on the people affected.