OUTBREAK and the IMMUNE SYSTEM essay
             The movie OUTBREAK starring Dustin Hoffman, Rene Russo, and Cuba Gooding jr. incorporates many of the biological concepts discussed in class this year. OUTBREAK involves concepts we have learned such as: Viruses and Bacteria, Human Genetics, Evolution and Mutation, and overall the Immune System of the human body.
             OUTBREAK was the idea that a virus from Africa called "Mutoba" whose host was a monkey traveled to America and infection of this deadly disease quickly spread because of the virus Evolving/Mutating from a virus that is only spread by contact to an airborne virus. The virus was first discovered in 1967 in a small village in Zaire that was only a spread by contact. The virus was brought to the camp by a couple of men that sent out to build roads in the jungle then they came back to the village and drank from the well, from there all the people from the village drank form the well and by the time they found the source of the disease it was too late. However, the virus that infested Cedar Creek was first spread by contact because of a monkey that was smuggled from Africa to a pet store to be sold. However, after the monkey infected people the virus mutated and then became contagious by air. The protein coat around the virus changed allowing it to survive in the air. A protein coat protects the virus inside from dying as soon as it hits the air. It is shown that the protein coat changed in the movie by a picture comparing the two viruses from 1967 to the present virus in Cedar Creek. The present day virus has a sharp box like structure surrounding it that helps it survive in the air longer.
             The Mutoba virus kills by first infecting a single cell then replicating itself millions of times before killing the cell and moving on until there is no more cells left to kill and your insides basically melt from all the cells being destroyed. People show symptoms of the virus in abo...