Ebola Patient Zero Identified, Probably Infected By Bats 112
BarbaraHudson writes The CBC is reporting that scientists have possibly found the source of Patient Zero's Ebola infection. From the story: "Patient Zero, two-year-old Guinean Emile Ouamouno, may have been infected while hunting or playing with bats inside a hollow tree near his home in a small village named Meliandou. The study determined Ouamouno's interaction with bats is the likely cause of transmission by ruling out other possibilities, namely that the virus was spread by the consumption of bushmeat. Only children and women presented symptoms or died in the beginning of the current epidemic. Research published in the EMBO Molecular Medicine journal finds that the single transmission, from bat to boy, was then spread human to human."
Re:What's odd is that (Score:1, Interesting)
Yeah laymen's evolution theory at its finest ...
There several ways to survive a plague:
a) don't catch the disease, we don't know if that was genetic or luck, likely no influence on 'breeding'
b) catching the disease, surviving by good nutrition and other lucky cases, no influence on breeding
c) catching the disease, surviving by 'stronger' immune system. Now if the survivor is young enough, he may breed and spread his 'I survived the plague' gene. On the other hand he might be to old, never breed or if he does: does not pass his gene.
So bottom line your idea about the plague and genes is utter nonsense.
The plague is under control because of much much better sanitation, not because humans suddenly became 'immune' to it.