Word: lassa
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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Then came nature's counterattack: in one wave after another, HIV, Ebola, Marburg virus, Lassa fever, Legionnaire's disease, hantavirus, hepatitis C--in all, at least 30 newly identified pathogens over the past two decades--swooped down upon different population groups. Most of them came out of the newly inhabited and exploited rain forests of Africa and South America, making an inter-species jump from animals to humans...
Ebola is just one of several viruses to have emerged from the jungle in the past few decades; others include Lassa and Marburg in Africa, and Sabia, Junin and Machupo in South America. But the most insidious of all, of course, is the AIDS virus, HIV. It probably originated in Africa as well, but unlike Ebola, it was ideally suited to spread around the globe. It kills so slowly and leaves victims without symptoms for so long that they can infect many others before dying...
Even so, the accident has raised questions about whether such dangerous disease agents are being handled carefully enough. Sabia and several related viruses -- Junin, Machupo and Guanarito in South America and Lassa in Africa, all members of the arenavirus family -- are particularly frightening because they can kill in such a grisly way. Characteristic symptoms are high fever, uncontrolled bleeding in virtually every organ and finally shock. The liver turns yellow and decomposes. Blood can leak from literally every bodily orifice, including the eyes and the pores of the skin...
...entirely. What they might have to consider, though, perhaps in consultation with the CDC, is treating Sabia virus as a so-called class 4 biohazard from now on, which means researchers will be able to handle it only inside a glove box or while wearing a space suit. Lassa and Guanarito are deemed class 4 already. The CDC might also do well to institute a rule that any unclassified infectious agent should be considered class 4 until proved otherwise...
...view, the worst is yet to come. As the world's population continues to grow, he writes, and human settlements and activity intrude farther into the rain forests, previously unknown viruses like HIV, Lassa, the filovirus and others are emerging to wreak their toll. In a rather mystical but ominous conclusion, Preston warns that "the rain forest has its own defenses...The earth's immune system, so to speak, is starting to kick in...The earth is attempting to rid itself of an infection by the human parasite. Perhaps AIDS is the first step in a natural process of clearance...