On the heels of the 2014 Ebola outbreak, virologist Michael Whitt, PhD, of the University of Tennessee Health Science Center (UTHSC), has co-authored a book concerning that virus and other virulent pathogens, focusing attention on the toll certain emerging viruses can take on the human race.
The book points out how ill prepared officials and agencies are to quickly react to these potentially deadly pathogens that appear to kill randomly and elude cures. Whitt maintains that with increased surveillance and better healthcare resources to recognize and treat patients displaying signs of Ebola infection, the likelihood of a similar major outbreak in the future is greatly reduced, but not eliminated.
Whitt, professor and chair of the Department of Microbiology, Immunology and Biochemistry in the College of Medicine at UTHSC, and Asit K. Pattnaik, PhD, professor in the School of Veterinary and Biomedical Sciences at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, are co-authors of, Biology and Pathogenesis of Rhabdo- and Filoviruses, published by World Scientific. The book reviews the most recent findings on the replication of this group of human pathogens, including the biology of the rabies virus, as well as Marburg and Ebola viruses, and the response of host cells to infection.
“This book represents an authoritative text that brings together the most recent advances on the cellular and molecular biology of Rhabdo- and Filoviruses, including mechanisms of pathogenesis,” according to the publisher. It also looks at the most recent findings on the development of vaccines and antivirals to fight these and related viruses.