Do viruses keep the sea healthy? Scientists have recently discovered that viruses act as the ocean’s immune system. Every day they kill bacteria and algae so that the ocean’s balance is not disturbed. “If there were no viruses, the world’s oceans would clog up. Bacteria and algae would grow and grow and by the end you’d have an ocean full of sludge,” explains marine biologist Willie Wilson from the Bigelow Laboratory for Ocean Sciences in Maine. Viruses also regulate biodiversity (luminescent plankton, below). When a population grows too large, it becomes susceptible to infections.
Which is the world’s most aggressive virus? In 1967 African green monkeys were imported from Uganda to Germany – and the Marburg virus came with them. It is one of the most aggressive viruses in the world: the human fatality rate can be up to 80% in some outbreaks. No vaccine or effective remedy exists. The first victims were scientists in Marburg, Germany, who were carrying out research on the monkeys in the laboratory – hence the name. Alongside the Ebola and Lassa viruses, the killer is still being researched in a high-security laboratory at the Institute for Virology at the University of Marburg.
