Viruses that can kill human beings by causing them to painfully hemorrhage will always be scary. Be it the 12th, 21st or 36 century, we shiver at the thought of squirting, messy death. If there’s even the slightest chance we could be infected ourselves, our usually dependable bladders are liable to empty themselves.
Near the end of a New Scientist article about Chapare, a newly discovered and decidedly deadly virus discovered in a remote village in Bolivia, pandemic laymen are introduced to the Chapare’s disease family, arenaviruses. Arenaviruses are severe, have high mortality rates, and could be lurking in your neck of the woods:
Charles Fulhorst, an arenavirus expert at the University of Texas Medical Branch in Galveston, says Chapare is the tip of the iceberg. Many new species of virus lurk in South America – and perhaps North America. “Just when you think you know what’s out there, another one pops out,†he says.Rollin agrees and calls for more lab and field work to get a handle on Chapare. “There are lot of arenaviruses we don’t know,” he says. “Are they going to be the new pandemic virus that’s going to wipe out the planet? I don’t think so, but they could be a local problem.”
It’s enough to make one’s bladder quiver in distress. Dangerous? Check. Mysterious? Check. Hiding in plain sight? Check. Epic-sounding description? Double check.
Almost everyone wants to be remembered after they’re dead; you’d be hard-pressed, however, to find a person who wants to be remembered for the highly infectious and incurable disease that took their life by making their eyeballs violently burst out of their head. The American public can stop worrying about bird flu and Ebola. The Appalachian arenavirus I’m dubbing “Hillbilly Fever” will turn us into a nation of justifiable incontinents.
