A Thorny Situation.

North Texas' Next Deadly Virus Is Already Here.

Only months after Ebola took Dallas by storm, killing Thomas Eric Duncan in Dallas and threatening the lives of nurses Nina Pham and Amber Vinson, Dallas now faces another deadly virus, this one known as rose rosette.

While no one contests the tragedy that Ebola caused in Dallas, the good news there is that it was largely a contained plague. Alas, such is not the case with rose rosette. The virus has already spread out across 14 North Texas counties recently, killing thousands of locals and leaving their caretakers devastated.

OK, so, just to be clear: We're talking about roses here. Still, this is a very real and drastic problem!

According to the Dallas Morning News, organic horticulturist and landscape architect Howard Garrett believes the issue has been blown out of proportion and that by raising organic roses, this problem could be resolved, as it would improve the roses' immune systems. (Way to blame the victims, Garrett. Roses are dying, man.)

Fortunately, not everyone is so insensitive about this rose rosette outbreak. In fact, rose lovers from all around the Dallas-Fort Worth area have already banded together to form the Rose Rosette Eradication Alliance. Their first conference attracted over 315 attendees. Rose rosette expert David Byrne, meanwhile, has even received a $4.6 million grant from the U.S. Department of Agriculture to get to the bottom of this horrible, murderous virus.

At this point, it's known that an itty-bitty, wingless mite is the culprit for spreading the virus around the region. Experts are unsure, however, of how these mites travel to and from roses. Also? No one knows yet how to treat the virus or if it affects some rose strains more than others.

But, listen, if we can tackle Ebola, we can probably make it through this, too.