Expert: Walter Hintz - 2/22/2006

Question
Sorry it has taken me so long to return the last e-mail and thanks for responding so soon last time (I wrote the Ebola question just in case it took me so long to respond that you may not remember).

Anyway...

Being an experienced science teacher (I read your biography from the website) what was your immediate reaction from both your science and personal point of view to the news of the original Ebola Virus outbreak in 1976?

Answer
Hi John
You are correct in that I do not remember the exact question about Ebola.  I have not kept up with the most recent news about ebola so I am not sure what is happening at this point.  I have not heard that it has become pandemic so I guess there is some control.
From my studies of virus particles I was not surprized at the outbreak.  We live in a viral age.  We have conquered bacterial infections to a point( although some are making a comeback and evolving) and people are living longer. long enough to succomb to a virus.  The virus particle is insidious.  It is difficult to combat because it keeps evolving. From  a pessimistic point of view I forsee that this will continue.  Now we have viruses in birds.
 Worse yet we are confronted with malformed pieces of infectious protein called prions.