Marburg and Ebola viruses, the villains of thrillers like The Hot Zone, are among the scariest pathogens on the planet. But somebody has to study them, and for most of his career Bob Swanepoel has been pursuing them in the wild like a big game hunter. Most recently, he helped track down the probable source of the Marburg virus. He tells Debora MacKenzie what it’s like to track these killers.
You’ve spent years searching for the source of the Marburg virus. Why?
It’s important to find out where these viruses live so we can get people to avoid them. We and colleagues tested thousands of ground-dwelling…
