The Filoviridae:
Note: This is all factual information, and will contain no mention of the T-virus or any of the Resident Evil viruses.
Filoviridae is the name of the family that contains Filoviruses. There are only two known members of the family: Marburg and Ebola, which has four subsequent strains; Zaire, Sudan, Reston and Ivory Coast. Filoviruses cause a Hemorrhagic fever in humans and non-human primates.
Filoviruses get their name because of their long 'shepherd's crook' shape. They have a long tail and a crook at the top. Each molecule contains a single-stranded negative RNA. New viral particles are created by budding from the surface of the host cells. Filoviruses have also known to replicate in 'crystal' form within cells. In a microscope, these blocks, or crystals appear as dark spots within the cell. They then break and release the virus throughout the body.
Filoviruses's natural hosts aren't entirely known, but it's believed that it comes from a type of bat, more partucularly in their guano. The viruses, once in the human cycle, are spread much in the same way as the HIV virus, through body fluids. In Africa, it is custom to embrace the dead, and this was how larger outbreaks would start.
Marburg Hemorrhagic Fever:
Marburg is an extremely rare virus that was first discovered in 1967 while German and Yugoslavian scientists were doing tissue research on Green Monkeys. The virus was then unknown, and named for Marburg, Germany, the site of one of the outbreaks. Out of the 31 initial cases of Marburg, seven died. This led to Marburg being the first Filovirus discovered by man. Although this first outbreak was in Europe, the virus is indiginous to Africa, mostly in the central areas of Africa including Uganda, Zimbabwe and Western Kenya.
It is still not known exactly how humans contract Marburg, or which animals are the inital sentinal hosts for the virus. Contraction of the virus is through handling dirty equipment, through the contact of body fluids, and even handling diseased monkeys. Marburg incubates in a period of five to ten days, with the symptoms appearing rather suddenly. Those symptoms include a fever, chills, myalgia and headache. After the incubation period is complete, symptoms escalate to include vomiting and nausea, chest pains, abdominal pain, diarrhea, sore throat and a maculopapular rash which mostly appears on the trunk. After these, the more severe symptoms of severe weight loss, jaundice, inflammation of the pancreas, liver failure, delirium, shock, severe hemorrhaging and massive organ failure will occur. Symptoms are similar to sicknesses like malaria, so diagnosis of Marburg can be difficult.
If the patient survives Marburg, complications can include swelling or rotting of the testes, prolonged hepatitis and swelling of the eyes, spinal cord and parotid gland. Recovery is slow and prolonged. Marburg Hemorrhagic Fever has a twenty to twenty-five percent fatality rate.
Ebola Hemorrhagic Fever:
Ebola is the deadlier of the filoviridae sisters. It is a rare and often fatal disease, and has four strains: Ebola Ivory Coast, Ebola Sudan, Ebola Zaire and Ebola Reston. Ebola Reston is the only one that does not affect humans. It is an airborne monkey flu. Ebola is named for a river in the Democratic Republic of Congo, formerly known as Zaire. The Virus was first recognized in 1976.
Cases of Ebola have been centralized in Africa, especially in the countries of the Democratic Republic of Congo, Gabon, Ivory Coast, Sudan, Uganda, and the Republic of Congo, which is usually just referred to as Congo. There was also an isolated case in Liberia, and an isolated case in England where a researcher had a lab accident. No cases of Ebola have ever been reported in North America. The only strain of Ebola that has shown herself in North America was Ebola Reston, named after Reston, Virginia, home of the Reston Monkey House. Ebola Reston decimated the population of research monkeys, but no humans showed symptoms of the virus.
Like Marburg, the sentinal animal carrier of Ebola Hemorrhagic Fever isn't known. Contraction between humans is through bodily fluids, or touching objects that have been contaminated with diseased blood or tissue. The incubation period of Ebola HF can last between two and twenty-one days. Symptoms are similar to Marburg, beginning with fever, joint and muscle pain, sore throat, weakness and headache, and escalating to diarrhea, vomiting and stomch pains, followed by red eyes, rash, hiccups and internal and external bleeding. Vomit in advanced stages of Ebola is often called vomito negro, or Black Vomit, because of the black bits in it, which are pieces of the lining of the stomach and intestines being sloughed off.
Like Marburg, there is no cure for Ebola Hemorrhagic Fever, and it has varying fatality rates, depending on the strain of Ebola that the patient contracts. Reston has a zero percent fatality rate in humans, whereas Ebola Zaire, the most deadly of the strains, can have a ninety percent fatality rate.
Source | The Centre For Disease Control
:Viral Information: