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Chapter 1: What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
Show Me The Science with Professor Luke O'Neill. A Newstalk Original Podcast. Hello, Luke O'Neill here, and welcome to Show Me The Science, my weekly podcast. Well, this week, a lot of people asking me about this, actually, Ebola, because it's been in the news, another virus.
I know a fair bit about Ebola because of what we all watch this one, because when it was first discovered decades ago now, it causes a nasty disease. It's very relevant to my research because it infects macrophages, and that's what explain why that's important for the disease. So I've always had an interest in it.
Now, as people will know, because you can't avoid this thing in the media, a big Ebola outbreak is happening at the moment in Africa and it is somewhat disturbing. They reckon it's one of the biggest outbreaks in quite a while, 130 deaths so far, but they reckon the numbers are going to go up and more and more people sadly will die from this.
It's got about a 30% mortality rate, this one, and the people then who come to me and say, oh, should we worry? Well, we worry for people in Africa, but it's a very low risk in Europe, it must be said.
Chapter 2: What is the current state of the Ebola outbreak in Africa?
And the WHO and the European Centre for Disease Control have also said, look, the risk is low. They're using that word that it would come to Europe and that it would cause some kind of pandemic because obviously it's partly people are concerned about another pandemic emerging. Very, very unlikely with Ebola.
I think one of the most positive parts of this, if it can be positive, such a devastating thing to happen to people is there will be new vaccines now and people in Africa need them because that's where Ebola is not, uncommon, shall we say, but that it happens every so often. in places like the Congo and Uganda, you see outbreaks now and again.
So one good benefit from all of this attention will be a bit of money into the research into Ebola that will benefit those countries where Ebola is especially prominent. Now let's look a bit more closely at what it is. Well, it's caused by a virus. It's an infectious disease. It's an RNA virus. And that's the term that people will recognize because guess what?
The dreaded SARS-CoV-2 influenza, they are both RNA viruses and so is Hanta. So these RNA viruses do seem to be especially troublesome. There are DNA viruses out there as well, by the way. But this one is an RNA virus, just like COVID. So again, we look at the RNA viruses slightly differently. And they're different in some ways.
I mean, one way they're different is the way the immune system sees them. Because remember, you have a great immune system to fight infection. And when the virus goes in, any RNA virus, a particular set of systems detect it, a thing called RIG-I, MDA5, I know these are mouthfuls, we work on these in our lab, and they pick up on the RNA, they actually lock onto the viral RNA.
And that sets the alarm off now, and then the immune system kicks in. So we know a fair bit about the immunology of these things and the type of responses that happen, and Ebola is in this RNA virus family. Now, the current outbreak is being caused by a particular member of the Ebola family. There are six known members of the family, and this one's called Bundibugyo. Strange name.
It's named after a region in Uganda where it was first seen. The last outbreak of Bund and Bugge was in 2012. So it's been seen before. It's rarer than the Zaire strain. It's often the Zaire strain that causes outbreaks. So slightly different. Not clear why this one has re-emerged. We do know that the Ebola virus's normal host are bats.
So we're back in the world of bats again, and in particular fruit bats. That's where it lives normally. And it jumps then from the bat into a human. It can also jump from bats into chimpanzees and various other animals. And sometimes a reason for the outbreak would be people catching it off these animals or maybe eating meat from them. And that's another source of infection.
If you eat some meat from an animal that's been infected, there's a risk of you picking up Ebola from that animal. So these things are well known. Now, when it goes into a human, it's in the wrong species. Remember, it likes... Maybe word like is wrong, but it lives in bats quite normally and doesn't really make them sick.
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Chapter 3: How do bats contribute to the transmission of Ebola?
That's in the Congo and also in Uganda. There's a lot of instability there. There's a lot of conflict happening. And that always means more infections because it's hard to keep control of things then if the hospitals aren't opening and if people are moving around and not worrying about these sorts of things because there are other things to worry about.
then you see these things spread even more. So it can be a consequence of unrest, shall we say, a disturbance. And that's when these things can emerge because it's much harder to contain. The healthcare workers are all in there doing their best, of course, trying to contain this.
The WHO, who lead all this, and they're a great organisation, in spite of the US pulling out, big mistake, of course, they're all over this, of course, sending in doctors. They've just liberated or made available 4 million patients. immediately to help, you know, and that's useful in these areas where this virus is. So again, that will help contain the whole thing.
The WHO is great at doing this, it must be said. And in fact, a previous outbreak of the Zaire strain, they managed to vaccinate 345,000 people. Isn't that amazing? Again, in the Kivu epidemic, it was in 2018. And there's an example of getting in there, using the vaccine very well, and that was proven then to stop the spread and limit that in the future. It's wonderful, you know.
And WHO coordinated all that, so it's great to see that. Now, lastly, then, what's happening on the ground in terms of the research? Well, there are new vaccines being developed, as I said, and there's also these antivirals being developed. One big vaccine that's close now, it's going to take another few months, I suppose, to get it there.
It does take a few months to do this, is being made in Oxford. The very same people who brought you the AstraZeneca vaccine against COVID are now making a vaccine using similar technology now. against this strain of Ebola. And it's being led by an Irish person. A big shout out to Tesla.
And I know Tesla, she's leading this vaccine campaign to make a vaccine against this particular Bundabugyo strain of Ebola. And they're predicting it'll take a few months to do all the testing, obviously. But it's the same technology as in the COVID vaccine, so it should be a bit faster. And then meanwhile, Sora Moderna, that company, that made the RNA vaccine against SARS-CoV-2 and COVID.
They're also making an RNA vaccine, not in the US because the US won't support this. It's being made elsewhere. And Europe, of course, is stepping up with RNA vaccines. So we're seeing these vaccines being made.
We predict there will be a very effective vaccine over the coming months against this Bundabugyu strain of Ebola, such that if it re-erupts next time, there'll be a vaccine to use against it is the idea here. So we're seeing great progress there that bodes very well for the future of any other Ebola outbreaks that might involve that particular strain.
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