研究所、轉學考(插大)、學士後-英文題庫下載題庫

 Disaster movies often portray catastrophes that destroy, or at least threaten to destroy, Earth’s entire population. In fact, a virus emerged in the 1970s that could have been just that lethal. 

     Named after a river that traverses the Congo, the Ebola virus originally manifested itself in the interior of Africa in 1976. Two strains of the disease, with almost identical symptoms, affected humans: Ebola Zaire and Ebola Sudan. The Sudan version was deadly enough, killing 50 percent of those it infected; however, Zaire, with its 90 percent mortality rate, was even worse. 

   The origins -- though not the cause -- of Ebola Sudan can be traced back to a single individual in a Sudanese town. Ebola Zaire seemed to erupt in over 50 villages simultaneously. Both strains quickly invaded local hospitals, where needle sharing and other unsanitary practices ensured the rapid spreading of the infection by bringing people into contact with contaminated blood. If the virus had been capable of spreading through the air, or if one infected person had unknowingly entered a large population center, Ebola might have become a worldwide epidemic.

   However, soon after these fierce outbreaks the virus died out, at least temporarily. Ebola was so lethal and killed so quickly (in a matter of days) that within a short period of time there was no one around to infect. Hospital workers in at least one case deserted their workplace in panic, thus halting the administering of potentially unclean, disease-spreading injections. 

  But Ebola has not disappeared. With no known vaccination or cure in the offing, it seems only a matter of time until another epidemic erupts.