The Ebola Virus Pandemic: “A Weapon of Mass Destruction”? | Global Research
This year’s first outbreak of the hemorrhagic fever virus Ebola started in February in the West African nation of Guinea. It then began spreading to Liberia and, for the first time, to Sierra Leone and now Nigeria. With the possible spread to England in attempts to trace 30,000 people who might have been exposed, and now an American death in Nigeria and two more Americans afflicted with it here in the US, Ebola has rapidly grown into what could become a global epidemic with a potential capacity to wipe out millions.
According to recent statistics from the World Health Organization (WHO) released just last week, at least 672 people have died out of a total of 1,201 cases so far this year in West Africa. However, seven days later the number of fatalities has jumped to 887, a spike of over 200 deaths in just the last few days.
Because the incubation period may last ten days while the infected victim may not even be aware of any illness, the virus is highly contagious. Then what begins like typical flu symptoms of fever, later vomiting as the virus spreads rapidly inside the body causing people to succumb often within days of its onset. Victims literally die from internal bleeding that in the final stages can flow out of every orifice. It has the trappings of a ghastly zombie science fiction nightmare come true.
There is no standard treatment (other than isolating the infected and quarantining those at risk). Nor is there yet an official vaccine, although Reuters just announced that as early as next month the US government will commence testing an experimental Ebola vaccine on humans after positive results were found on primates. It has been reported that the National Institutes of Health (NIH) infectious disease unit and the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) will be running vaccine trials “as quickly as possible.”
