Here are two recent
stories about viruses. They started out alike, and ended up very differently.
In October, a woman
in Guinea died of Ebola, leaving behind two daughters, one of them two years
old, the other five. A relative named Aminata Gueye Tamboura took the orphaned
children back to her home in northwest Mali–a 700-mile journey. Tamboura didn’t
know it then, but the younger girl, named Fanta Conde, was infected with Ebola
as well. For three days, they traveled on buses and in taxis as Fanta grew ill,
developing a scorching fever and a perpetual nosebleed. Soon after arriving in
Mali, she died. Yet Tamboura never
became infected with Ebola. Nor did Fanta’s sister or her uncle, who also made
the trip. Nor did anyone else who shared the buses and taxis with Fanta, or who
encountered Fanta elsewhere on her doomed journey. After Fanta’s death, the
entire country of Mali braced for a devastating outbreak. But the outbreak
never came.
The other story
began in December. Someone–we don’t know who–paid a visit to Disneyland
in California…… Those people later developed measles, and may have spread the
virus to others. By the end of January, the Disneyland outbreak had reached 94
cases, and that number is certain to rise higher.…..To Read More…
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