What Makes Ebola So Deadly?
Ebola Virion An electron micrograph of an Ebola virion, with added color. CDC/Cynthia Goldsmith, downloaded from Wikimedia CommonsEbola viruses prevent the body from mounting an immune response against them, but a new study finds that mutating just one gene makes the virus unable to suppress the immune system. A new study has found, at a molecular level, what makes the Ebola virus so deadly. The virus uses a combination of genes to prevent the cells they infect from triggering the immune system, a team of biologists at the University of Texas Medical Branch and the U.S. National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases found. People who die from Ebola generally don't seem to have had an immune response to the virus at the time of their deaths. There are Ebola outbreaks every couple of years-sometimes more than once a year-in central and west Africa. Up to 90 percent of those who get...