Masters Series: This Deadly Virus Can Wipe Out Village After Village
Editor's note: In March 2014, the World Health Organization announced 112 cases of Ebola had resulted in 70 deaths. Fifteen months later, Ebola has infected more than 26,300 people, killing nearly 11,000. Left untreated, Ebola is one of the deadliest diseases ever.
In today's weekend Masters Series essay – adapted from the May issue of Stansberry Venture – editor Dave Lashmet discusses the factors that make Ebola one of the most dangerous threats in the world today... and who is most at risk...
This Deadly Virus Can Wipe Out Village After Village
By Dave Lashmet, editor, Stansberry Venture
When the foreigners showed up... they were met with machetes and clubs.
The Ebola response team's truck rolled into the rural Kono district of Sierra Leone late last November. But the local villagers ignored the red cross stamped on its door. The villagers focused instead on the guys in rubber suits who jumped out of the vehicle to collect their neighbor's corpse. And they weren't interested in what the foreigners were trying to say in alien languages, like English...
Instead, the villagers attacked them with every local weapon and drove the doctors from the village square. After that, they buried their neighbor's body the traditional way – with everyone touching the infected corpse with their bare hands – almost assuring that the deadly virus would infect and kill many more villagers.
It's easy to see why the Ebola outbreak rages on in West Africa.
The tragedy is, we had nearly stamped out the epidemic... But superstitions die hard. A number of districts in Guinea and Sierra Leone continue to report security incidents – like machete-wielding mobs threatening violence – when public-health officials try to transport Ebola patients or try to sanitize the bodies of Ebola victims for burial.
The locals may have thought the doctor was a warlock and his aides were his evil minions... which 500 years of cultural practice had warned them against.
Most people in Guinea and Sierra Leone believe in a mix of tribal religion, Christianity, and Islam. Witchcraft is the dominant theme, followed by herbal medicine, and then faith healing.
Most folks only have a third-grade education, and there was only one medical doctor per 100,000 people even before the Ebola epidemic started. Half of those doctors died in the epidemic.
So when a medical-aid truck pulls up in the African countryside, it is sometimes greeted with violence... or the villagers just run away, crying out "Ebola, Ebola!" as if the truck full of doctors carries the virus. Fear and ignorance are spreading the disease.
Liberia beat back the Ebola epidemic because English is the common tongue in Monrovia, the major population center. Communication is possible between doctors and the community.
Granted, Liberia is still at risk from a resurgence of Ebola infections because of its long borders with Sierra Leone and Guinea. Other nearby countries, like the Republic of Guinea-Bissau, Mali, and Nigeria are at risk, too. At least 150 million people are potentially in danger...
You see,villages in Africa are no longer isolated.
The continent's road network has grown by an average of 7,500 kilometers per year over the past decade... The Economist reports you can find road-building crews almost wherever you travel in Africa. Travel is also faster – where there are roads, there are trucks, taxis, and motorbikes.
When Ebola breaks out again, we'll see a hopscotch effect: It'll be in 10 villages, not just one. The spread of infection will be much quicker.
And it's all due to malaria.
Unlike the U.S., Canada, Europe, Australia, or Japan, West Africa is rife with malaria. It's not just a sickness, either. According to the World Health Organization's "World Malaria Report 2014," malaria kills half a million children in Sub-Saharan Africa every year.
Just as important, the type of malaria common in West Africa – from a parasite called P. falciparum – gives you a continuous high fever, not a mix of chills and fever. In other words, the symptoms of malaria look exactly like an early Ebola infection. That's a problem for Africa's doctors.
Furthermore, less than 10% of the victims in the current Ebola epidemic show uncontrolled external bleeding – and few had blood pouring from their mouths, which is how Hollywood likes to depict Ebola in films like Outbreak. Instead, this bleeding can look like a miscarriage, and malaria also preys on pregnant women, whose immune systems are lowered to tolerate the "foreign" tissue of a fetus. Plus, some less-common species of malaria parasites in West Africa defy the immune protection most people get by surviving childhood infections. It's a real nightmare...
Then, there's Lassa fever to consider. It's another hemorrhagic fever, which means it makes you bleed internally and externally. Lassa fever is carried by field rats in West Africa that are considered a staple part of farmers' diets.
So if you have a high fever and bleeding in Africa, you either have malaria, Lassa fever, or Ebola... which means you could either be not contagious at all, not very contagious, or contagious enough that you could wipe out entire villages... and nearby hospitals.
In the developed world, none of these lethal infections are present. So an Ebola case would stand out. Nobody would be cared for at home while bleeding. An ambulance would come, and our hospitals can afford rubber gloves. So the chain of transmission is broken.
Unfortunately, another 2 billion people around the world live in tropical squalor and face the daily threat of malaria. These folks don't have reliable health care or much formal education.
The countries most at risk are India, Indonesia, Pakistan, South Africa, the Republic of the Congo, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Mozambique, Equatorial Guinea, and the Central African Republic. And, bucking a global trend, malaria cases and deaths are growing in Venezuela.
So if Ebola hits a hot slum city, it's going to take root, then take off.
Most global health experts think this is only a matter of time. What makes the current Ebola epidemic unique is that it made it to a major population center.
In the past, outbreaks have been in an isolated village or two. Up until last year, it didn't take root in a place where 100,000 people live within one square mile, sharing a common, unsterile water supply. In the current Ebola epidemic, thousands died, starting with a two-year-old kid who likely had contact with an infected fruit bat.
And dozens of such mega-slums blanket cities around the world, from Mombasa to Mexico City. The only help might be a vaccine...
In Stansberry Venture, we've found a company with a vaccine that may save millions of lives. It could eliminate Ebola, one of today's most deadly infectious diseases. Plus, the company has a vaccine that could cure prostate cancer.
You've probably never heard of this company. But it has twice inked big deals with biotech giants... and it could double on positive trial results in the coming months.
Good investing,
Dave Lashmet
Editor's note: Dave is optimistic that the company he recently recommended to Stansberry Venture subscribers may have found the cure for Ebola. Plus, it's waiting on Phase III results for a drug to cure another incredibly deadly disease.
Earlier this week, Dave released a presentation detailing this opportunity. His early track record in Stansberry Venture has been nothing short of incredible. The first three companies he recommended are up an average of 120%. And this company could be his newest "double in waiting." Click here to watch his presentation.