So It Turns Out There's A Lot We Don't Know About Ebola

October 29, 2015 10:04 PM

"It's an explosive virus. It replicates like crazy ... and it destroys everything in its path, so, how is it just hanging out in the testes for like nine months?"
posted by latkes (9 comments total)

Hunh, that post-Ebola syndrome sounds a bit like reactive arthritis (which came up during a terrifying appointment I had for my joints, with Dr Google [should fire that guy]). Similar autoimmune response, sounds like?
posted by cotton dress sock at 11:21 PM on October 29, 2015

Man, I kind of have a thing about eyes. The thought of an eye just "teeming with virus" gives me worse shivers than anything in that horror movie thread.

I won't get into the notion of inserting a fine needle between the iris and cornea....
posted by Hal Mumkin at 4:07 AM on October 30, 2015 [3 favorites]

I won't get into the notion of inserting a fine needle between the iris and cornea....

I don't quite know what noise I made when I read that.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 4:39 AM on October 30, 2015 [4 favorites]

For example, there's a small possibility that the arthritis that so many survivors report is from the virus itself, sitting inside joint spaces. But that would not pose a public health risk.

"Because how do you get infected from someone's joint space? You don't," he says.

But isn't there a possibility that the virus gets to other parts of the body and patient starts spreading infection again? What I fear is that the patient has won the battle but not the war, and the virus can reemerge if their immune system becomes compromised later for any reason (like developing AIDS which is unfortunately a very real risk).
posted by hat_eater at 4:53 AM on October 30, 2015 [2 favorites]

What I fear is that the patient has won the battle but not the war, and the virus can reemerge if their immune system becomes compromised later for any reason (like developing AIDS which is unfortunately a very real risk).

Or simply aging, perhaps?

The arthritis connection was news to me, and points to how little we still know about both infectious diseases and autoimmune issues.
posted by Dip Flash at 5:01 AM on October 30, 2015

I don't quite know what noise I made when I read that.

(the sound of skin crawling)
posted by feckless fecal fear mongering at 8:19 AM on October 30, 2015 [2 favorites]

When I first saw the pictures accompanying Ebola stories my first thought was 'interesting parasitic worm, but where's the virus -- inside the worm which acts as a vector?' and now that it's clear the virus itself can worm its way into sequestered spaces within the body, so to speak, I'd have to guess it's not just a figure of speech and the virus is doing precisely that.

But how? Worming is an active process, and the virus has no muscles, cytoskeleton, or active metabolism. I suppose a ratchet system such as porcupine quills have might work, but that seems to depend on a certain amount of stiffness in the quills to translate any odd touch on them into a push through tissues, and the virus looks really flexible in those pictures, the way it loops around on itself.

If we could figure it out, though, there's always the hope it would be easy to block.
posted by jamjam at 9:07 AM on October 30, 2015

I don't quite know what noise I made when I read that.

Something like this, maybe?
posted by Greg_Ace at 10:09 AM on October 30, 2015

Not that I'm a virologist, so please correct me -- but to attempt an answer to your question, jamjam - all viruses reproduce inside of host cells, so in a sense they all 'worm' their way in. I think what they mean in the article is that the virus is just hanging out inside of these particular types of cells without destroying them quickly and developing into a full-blown infection like Ebola has generally been observed to do in humans.

This article says that the long wormlike shape of Ebolavirus grants it more surface area, and presents the hypothesis that it may therefore allow it to interact with many host cells, giving each virus a better likelihood of infecting a host cell.
posted by esker at 11:07 AM on October 30, 2015