Unknown disease in South Africa and Zambia #2
By glazou on Tuesday 14 October 2008, 22:56 - General - Permalink
Aaaaah, it's a new "Old World" arenavirus. Spread of arenavirii is highly linked to deforestation, rodents that used to live far away from human beings reaching contact with human settlements. But that one is a bit scary because of its lethality rate.
Comments
Maybe not so scary after all. High lethality rate may also prevent a pathogen to continue spreading. For instance, the highly lethal Ebola virus has never spread on a large scale because it kills people so fast that it can't survive in humans. On the contrary, HIV which affect people for years, spread to perfection.