filoviruses,<\/a>\u00a0which encode their genome\u00a0in the form of single-stranded RNA (in layman's terms, they are known as thread viruses).\u00a0They both\u00a0cause severe disease in human and primates in the form of\u00a0viral hemorrhagic fevers with a\u00a0very high mortality rate. They are extremely efficient killers. So much so that their lethality greatly limits their mobility – viruses of this type kill infected hosts too quickly to spread.<\/p>\n\n\n\nBefore Ebola<\/em> is about Peter Apps' first journey into Africa, to report on the spread of Marburg within northern\u00a0Angola for Reuters.<\/p>\n\n\n\nThe bulk\u00a0of this book takes place in the\u00a0U\u00edge province of Angola, a mythically isolated and dark region of the country, where Marburg suddenly and mysteriously started killing. The Reuters news team went into the region to investigate, speaking to fear-stricken locals and following a\u00a0path of corpses that the virus had left behind.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In most cases the infected, and the families that attempt to care for them, have almost no concept of how the virus works. As with the AIDS epidemic in Africa, a fundamental social misunderstanding of the nature of the illness prevents an effective response. They refuse to burn or bury victims, but choose instead to\u00a0leave the corpses lying idly about, afraid to touch them as the virus moves unabated from one host to the next. Health workers, themselves not knowing what to do, died by the dozens.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Fortunately for Peter Apps, his journey into the dark heart of Angola lasted only a few days.<\/p>\n\n\n\n