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Bola Week 2 Assignment 1) Infectious Agent a) Describe the Bola virus, including what type virus it is (family, DNA or RNA, envelope or not) and how many genes it has. The Bola virus is a highly infectious disease that has killed many worldwide. The virus is part of the Fluoridate family that is a highly infectious agent (Garcia et al. , 2012). The Fluoridate family of viruses causes symptoms such as: fever, bleeding, and hypertensive shock to the host in which it enters (Garcia et al. , 2012). Bola virus is a negative RNA virus that is composed of approximately 1 KGB size of he genome (Garcia et al. 2012). The Fluoridate virus is enveloped and non- segmented virus (Feldman & Gibbers, 2011). The Bola virus has seven genes in its genome going from a 3′ to 5′ direction (Feldman & Gibbers, 2011 This is just some of the information that researchers have found about the Bola virus. B) How many different forms (i. E. Strains) of the Bola virus have been discovered, and which one is the main strain killing people in West Africa right now? Bola has been studied, investigated and researchers have come to covers multiple strains of the Bola virus.
In 2001 researchers discovered eight different strains of the virus from animal and human outbreaks (Leroy et al. , 2004). Later discovery found that between October 2001 and May 2003 eleven different strains were discovered from the outbreak (Leroy et al. , 2004). Currently then we are only known to have eleven strains although the rearrangement of the nucleotides is possible to change the possible number of strains of Bola (Leroy et al. , 2004). The Zaire strain of Bola is what is killing the people in West Africa right now, originating from central Africa (Leroy et al. 2004). 2) Reservoir a) The reservoir is usually considered the natural environment of the pathogen. Humans, monkeys, and gorillas are actually not considered the reservoir, but instead they are considered “dead-end” hosts. Why do you think humans and non-human primates are NOT the natural reservoir for the virus? Think about the history and previous outbreaks in other parts of Africa. I think that humans and non-human primates are not the natural reservoir for virus because it is not where it usually originates.
For a human to get a virus it must always be transmitted to them. An example is through malaria that is transmitted through Africa. Despite the fact that the malaria virus was discovered in humans it originated from mosquitoes (Kappa, Vaughan, Bodied & Cowman, 2010). As well the mosquitoes transmitted the virus in the beginning to humans and animals through “biting’ (Kappa, Vaughan, Bodied & Cowman, 2010). Since the virus must always be transmitted to humans or animals in some ay this is why I believe that humans and non-human primates are not natural reservoirs. ) What animal species is thought to be the natural reservoir? What kind of evidence supports the theory (cite your sources). The species that is the natural reservoir has not been yet discovered. The hypothesized natural reservoir for the Bola virus is believed to be rodents and bats (Feldman & Gibbers, 2011). It is believed that it is the natural reservoir in bats because of a specific fruit in Africa that has the Zaire virus and the fruit bats eating said fruit Feldman & Gibbers, 2011).