Entries Tagged 'Virus' ↓

I was reading PhysOrg yesterday and came across an article about the Ebola outbreak that is currently underway in western Uganda. The article is an interview with a doctor who contracted the disease from patients brought to his hospital. He survived the disease and is currently recovering. You can read the article here.

The reason the article caught my eye, is because it had Uganda in the title. A relative of mine regularly goes to Uganda on humanitarian missions. So news about Uganda always catches my attention. After reading the article I decided to find out more about the Ebola virus. Here is what I found out.

Ebola is considered to be one of the deadliest diseases in the world. So deadly that it was even investigated by both the Soviet Union and the US as a potential bio-weapon. Amazingly it was rejected by both nations because it proved to be too deadly. It killed it’s victims so quickly that it didn’t have time to spread far enough to be used as a weapon.

It was first identified in 1976 when two nearly simultaneous outbreaks happened in Sudan and Zaire. It was named after the Ebola River that is close to the first outbreak site in Zaire. So far, no one really knows where the disease comes from. It is known that it is nearly always fatal in both humans and other primates. But the carrier animal population has never been identified.

If you want to know more, follow the links below.
Wikipedia: Ebola
CDC Special Pathogens Branch: Ebola Hemorrhagic Fever
World Health Organization: Ebola Hemorrhagic Fever fact sheet

It was 25 years ago that the first computer virus was created. Ironically, it was designed to attack the Apple II. Kind of strange since one of the biggest selling points for Apple today is the relative lack of viruses and malware out there to attack your computer.
The first virus was called Elk Cloner. It was written by Rich Skrenta mainly to bug his friends. And it really didn’t do much beyond annoying people who were infected with it. Every 50 boot ups it would display a simple poem.

Elk Cloner: The program with a personality

It will get on all your disks
It will infiltrate your chips
Yes it’s Cloner!

It will stick to you like glue
It will modify RAM too
Send in the Cloner!

Viruses sure have come a long way since then. Elk Cloner could spread through infected floppy disks. Most viruses today can spread through multiple methods and can infect your computer in many different ways.

Via Machinist: The computer virus turns 25