Why is filoviruses so dangerous?

Answer 1

Filoviruses (Ebola virus and Marburg virus) are only harmful to primates (Humans, Monkey and Apes) there is an unknown animal probably a bat or rodent who harbors the virus without any harm to itself but occasionly transmits it to a human or monkey where it causes a devastating illness. The illness is caused by the virus making the body to produce a substance that cuts tiny holes in blood vessels and then victim eventually bleeds to death. Not all filoviruses a harmful to humans Ebola Reston killed monkeys with ease but humans exposed to it seemed to suffer little or no ill effects. It was only later that they discovered humans had been exposed by testing their blood but none of them had seemed to get sick. Ebola virus can cause a 0-90% fatality rate depending on the strain. Marburg the Death Rate is about 50%. It isn't the most deadly virus. Rabies is 99.9999% fatal if once symptoms begin (only one known Survivor).

If proper biohazard practice is carried out then the disease is rarely transmitted. Large scale outbreaks have never occured. Probably that by the time a person is infectious they are too sick to have contact with other people. The disease is not transmitted by an airborne route like the flu or colds.

Filoviruses are probably over rated as a dangerous disease, sure they are often fatal and they kill in a very nasty way but epidemics are limited to a few hundred people in mostly poor unhygenic conditions. Also in the west we have an aversion to touching dead bodies in coutries where outbreaks have taken place the cultural practice is to wash and touch the dead before burial which has been a major cause of the disease spreading. If an outbreak happened in a modern city it would be quickly recognised and stamped out quickly. A superflu would be a far more dangerous disease and could kill not hundreds but millions of people.

Answer 2

the reason that RNA is so dengerous is because RNA is basically just the segments of your DNA so if a virus hijacks a normal cell, an RNA strand can alter the entire code which can be EXTREEMLY dangerous if it is something like HIV/AIDS or mumps attack your cells it can be a catastrophe! what sucks even more is that you cant fight it with antibiotics. a virus can only be killed by

Answer 3

There can be side effects that are dangerous. Such as pneumonia but usually is it not serious.

Answer 4

Neither RNA nor DNA are dangerous; your body needs both to survive.

Answer 5

RNA viruses are more dangerous because they mutate more rapidly than DNA viruses.

Answer 6

RNA viruses are taken as more dangerous virus than DNA virus because its mutation rate is higher than DNA virus.

NOTE: mutation rate means the capacity of a virus to change their type or sequence.