The dengue and Ebola viruses cause hemorrhagic fevers. Evaluate their threat levels as select agents using the criteria in the textbook, and decide whether they pose significant risk as biological weapons.
What will be an ideal response?
Impact: Dengue virus can cause serious debilitating illness in adults but is only occasionally fatal, while the fatality rate among children is much higher. On the other hand, exposure to a different strain (there are 5) results in more severe disease. The public health impact could be increased by successive release of different strains into a susceptible population. People in areas where dengue viruses are endemic may have natural immunity. Delivery: Dengue viruses are transmitted by mosquitoes. An initial release of infected mosquitoes could result in many illnesses, but if the normal vector is not endemic to the area the disease would not continue to spread. Spread would also be seasonal in most temperate areas. Public perception and preparedness: In temperate zone developed countries there is not much awareness of dengue, so initially people might not perceive that they were under attack. In the 100 or so tropical to subtropical countries where dengue occurs the public would recognize the outbreak more quickly. There are no specific treatments, and vaccines are in development but not yet available. Dengue virus is not an "ideal" biological weapon, but has some potential.
Impact: Ebola virus has a high mortality rate, and the manner of death is alarming. Fatality is not age-dependent. Delivery: Transmission from person to person requires direct contact with body fluids. Deliberate release into an unsuspecting population would be very difficult, probably requiring something like suicide "bombers". Public perception and preparedness: Public awareness of Ebola is very high due to the recent major outbreak, and the movie industry portrayal of the disease. This awareness combined with the obvious, alarming cause of death would likely result in terror in the population. There are no proven treatments and vaccines are in the early stages of development. While the "terror" potential of Ebola is high, the delivery obstacles make it an unlikely weapon.
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Telomerases are important in the replication of linear chromosomes because there is no ________ at the ends of the lagging strands.
Fill in the blank(s) with the appropriate word(s).
The great adaptive radiation of hominoids in the
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