Ebola Analysis

I have always found human evolution very fascinating. I think it is incredible how we have evolved from caveman to complex modern-day humans. The fact that such an enormous change did not occur overnight, but through a slow process that took place over hundreds of thousands of years, gives me the urge to continue researching. I am curious about how we have evolved dramatically in terms of appearance, characteristics, lifestyle, and many other aspects. Not only are these adaptations interesting, they are also essential to our entire existence. Without evolution, humans would’ve died out due to the various diseases we are exposed to daily. Evolution is a constant undergoing process as our surroundings continue to change. We must adapt to these changes in order to successfully survive. I want to

Dr. Sharon Moalem, the author of Survival of the Sickest, provides a fascinating glimpse into the idea that modern human diseases that afflict us actually have a significant role in the selection and the existence of our ancestors. Before reading this book, I was used to thinking of diseases as disorders that adversely affect a person. While this may be the case for most individuals, Moalem explained in his book that that there’s an underlying connection between various diseases and longevity of a species. He explained how these diseases helped fight against more life threatening situations such as the Bubonic Plague, malaria, and the ice age. Most importantly, I learned that evolution did not necessarily favor adaptations that make us better, but those that help us survive, even if these adaptations would kill us in the long run.

Unlike HIV or other global viruses, Ebola is until this day geographically restrained, facilitating the deduction that the responsible originated from West Africa or returned from areas confirmed as danger zones. The list of suspects is indeed rather short: it amounts to Western Africans travelling to America and U.S. citizen contaminated in the same region. The latter category is, as cases in the western world indicate, consisted virtually exclusively of humanitarian helpers and health personal having been in contact with Ebola patients. Albeit these categories are subject to broad generalizations, they are the fruit of the apparent human condition to investigate, regardless of the rationality behind the reasoning. Seale baptised these generalisations “health imagined communities” (Seale, 2007, p. 92). Lupton emphasized on the experience that constructed risk communities don’t differ from real risk communities as much in their consequences as they do in their

In both Ebola Outbreak by Dabbous and A mask on the Face of Death by Seltzer they discuss the social and political problems contributing to the spread of Ebola and HIV/AIDS. These Epidemics continue to spread thought out the world to millions of people. The main areas that these diseases began to spread began in very poverty stricken countries. Not only did poverty play a role in the spread but both Dabbous and Seltzer pointed out the lack of education in the area which leads people to easily be manipulated by stories about the diseases. The cultural practices in these areas contribute majorly to the spread of the Ebola and the AIDS virus. These viruses continue to spread to other parts of the world and is hard to contain to a specific location.

Therefore we ask ourselves, why is it important to discuss the Ebola virus? The answer is simple; because we need to know how the disease infects humans, and how researchers and medical professionals can prevent the virus from entering the organism. It is important to know that humans are not the host organism, or Ebola's natural reservoir; humans simply become infected when they come in contact with the infected host, such as non-human primate, pigs, or even insects.

Wendy Orent, writing this article after the Ebola outbreak, states that Ebola doesn’t have what it takes to produce a pandemic. Orent believes that there’s no way the next pandemic will spring on us, unlike the ideas of Frank Macfarlane, a virologist. Orent’s theory is that the only way a real pandemic can happen is through social conditions like refugee camps or crowded hospitals.

Plague and Ebola are similar because both diseases are changed over time. According to Plague mutation turned harmless bacteria

Evolutionary or Darwinian medicine is the attempt to explain the human vulnerabilities to illness through Darwinian principles (Chiou 2016, 40). The Darwinian medicine focuses on why traits have persisted and natural selection has not eliminated the traits to leave us vulnerable to disease. The perspectives of human wellness between anthropology, evolutionary biology, and medicine can be quite different, although when taken as a whole, give a complex and more complete analysis of human health and disease (40-44). The evolutionary dynamics of natural selection should in the future select more for individuals who are resistant to chronic degenerative diseases and re-emerging infectious disease according to differential reproductive success, resulting in a new transition period.    The discordance hypothesis attempts to explain how the differences in environments between hunter-gatherers and humans affect human health today.

Some of the people who were infected first in the story were visiting a site in Kenya called Kitum Cave. A U.S. scientific expedition goes there in hopes of finding the origins of these viruses. Unfortunately for the U.S. scientists and military, the mission is unsuccessful, but the doctor who put the expedition together was able to stow the equipment used when the cave was treated as a Hot Zone. This experience and equipment made the eventual decontamination project at Reston possible. The story ends with the book's author visiting Kitum Cave to explore the place that is still suspected to be home to Ebola's host. Through all his research and writing on the book, he has learned how to keep himself as safe as possible during his explorations. Rather than searching for the actual origin of the virus, however, he is searching for the origin of the story. It’s scary to think that this has happened in our own society, and one little mistake can go a long, horrific road. Always remember to vaccinate and keep your immune system strong, because you never know what dangers are coming your

got sick and died. This outbreak infected 318 with a death rate of 93% (Le

Consequently, as I dug up pages upon pages of Information about this Virus, my interest shifted from this one species of living Organisms to the physicochemical and biochemical processes that occur within living Organisms and that prompts complexity of life. In my last few months of secondary Education, although Ebola Virus

The adaptation perspective looks at how humans and other organism changed due to the forces of natural selection in order to adapt to problematic issues like pathogens (Eaton, Konner, and Shostak, 1988; Williams and Nesse, 1991; Stearns and Ebert, 2001). The historical perspective branch looks at the history of evolution in the past to see the relationship of humans and the relationship that we had with diseases. This paper will use the adaptationist perspectives because it focuses into the present to understand how modern medication effect natural selection for human adaptation. Closely related to the Evolutionary Biology is the field of Darwinian Medicine (Evolution Medicine). Darwinian Medicine is using Darwin’s evolutional thoughts to the flied of medicine. It is looking at the medical field to try and learn about the influences that it had on human evolution in the long run. By using the adaptation perspective and the understanding of Darwinian Medicine this paper will be able to explore how modern medicine influence the natural response of the body and how that changed the adaptation of humans and

“In the end the microbes will have the last laugh” Loius Pasteur. The dynamic equilibrium which is equal to disease ecology states that disease is the selective force for human evolution and humans are the selective

The fight for who can proceed in experiments to find the cure for Ebola is on. In the experiments done by the lab scientists from, Therapeutic Intervention of Ebola Virus Infection in Rhesus Macaques with the MB-003 Monoclonal Antibody Cocktail persisted in a slight solution that resulted a minor success, but a success that is well needed. On the other hand, Dr. Lipstich feels that the results may not be so worth it considering that high risk of the scientists themselves catching the deadly virus. The virus held in its early stages in West Africa, where the first host was a little boy that had died in pain. From then the virus spread abruptly from one host to another. As American scientists try to search for the cure in other diseases such as fatal fibrosis, they realized once the damage was done that there was a deadlier, possibly airborne

Abstract evolution has occurred in humans for millions of years; however, in a modern society many scientists and evolutionists are now debating whether or not it is still occurring, and if it follows the same rules. With all of the new technology humans have created, some experts believe that humans have essentially conquered nature, and no further evolutionary changes will occur. Still, others hold opposing views; some experts believe that evolution is still occurring, but modern societal advancements have changed the rules. These experts say that the changes in evolution are a result of recent medical advancements that allow doctors to perpetuate genes that would not have lasted years ago. Additionally, others maintain that evolution is