Dog with ebola-- nice as a band name, but instead a reality in Spain...

[Kyriakos]

Saw this article posted in another forum:

Javier Limon Romero and his dog Excalibur
COURTESY ASOCIACION PROTECTORA VILLA PEPA

BY SHEILA COSGROVE BAYLIS
10/07/2014 AT 07:20 PM EDT

Authorities in Spain plan to euthanize the dog of a nurse diagnosed with Ebola, but her husband, who is in quarantine, is trying to save the family pet.

Javier Limon Romero not only has to worry about his wife – Teresa Romero Ramos, who caught Ebola after she helped treat a priest who died from the disease – but also their dog, Excalibur.

Madrid Health officials issued an order Tuesday for the dog to be euthanized, despite Romero's plea on Facebook to spare his pet's life and instead, quarantine the animal.

A Change.org petition has garnered nearly 141 thousand signatures in support of quarantine, with signers making comments like, "Please don't let innocents pay for human errors" and "I'm fed up with animals being treated like mere objects in this country …"

A study on the CDC website shows that dogs can be infected with Ebola, but are asymptomatic.

Romero said in his Facebook post that he left the dog with food, water and access to the outdoors while he is in quarantine and his wife is in the hospital.

http://www.people.com/article/dog-of-nurse-with-ebola-may-be-euthanized

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Some questions there...:

1) Isn't Ebola supposed to always result in death, and moreover lead to death pretty fast? (even more so if not treated). So what is the point of keeping a dog in quarantine if you won't risk treating it (as is utterly logical!).

2) Just how easy is for one to be infected with Ebola? Cause the dog in theory might have licked some exposed wound-type bit on the human's body, but still it seems pretty alarming that it got the virus.

3) Just how bad are things with Ebola in Spain?

In my view this is quite the charade. If people are dead from Ebola, forget the dog. I am even alarmed that this story may be true (with as many signatures for a rather absurd cause in this very lethal context).

 

[Josu]

1) Isn't Ebola supposed to always result in death, and moreover lead to death pretty fast? (even more so if not treated). So what is the point of keeping a dog in quarantine if you won't risk treating it (as is utterly logical!).

No, it does not always result in death, just about 90%. I do not see the point of keeping the dog in quarantine, apparently the dogs can keep the virus, but not developt the symptoms, quarentine does not have logic if dog is not going to be analyzed.

2) Just how easy is for one to be infected with Ebola? Cause the dog in theory might have licked some exposed wound-type bit on the human's body, but still it seems pretty alarming that it got the virus.

One can be infected by contact with body fluids (spits, blood, urine, sweat, depositions and so on)

3) Just how bad are things with Ebola in Spain?

Currently: 1 person infected, 2 isolated and 50 under monitorization. The sicknes incubates during 6 to 21 days. We wont see how bad are things until 2 or 3 weeks.
What is really bad is that the security protocol failed and Government claims that they do not know why, this means that:
1) the protocol was leaky
2) they do not know how to fix the protocol because they do not know where did it failed.

Other interesting point is that prime minister is missing and the health care minister does not answer questions, she is letting the technicians answering

 

[Valka D'Ur]

Quarantine the dog. If they're so paranoid about who the nurse might have passed the disease on to, why don't they euthanise everyone she came in contact with?

And no, ebola isn't always fatal. There was a news story a day or two ago about someone who had it and survived.

 

[Algeroth]

1) Isn't Ebola supposed to always result in death, and moreover lead to death pretty fast? (even more so if not treated). So what is the point of keeping a dog in quarantine if you won't risk treating it (as is utterly logical!).

2) Just how easy is for one to be infected with Ebola? Cause the dog in theory might have licked some exposed wound-type bit on the human's body, but still it seems pretty alarming that it got the virus.

3) Just how bad are things with Ebola in Spain?

In my view this is quite the charade. If people are dead from Ebola, forget the dog. I am even alarmed that this story may be true (with as many signatures for a rather absurd cause in this very lethal context).

1) Nope, Ebola have death rates somewhere between 40-90 % and it seems that proper health care tends to keep it down around 40 %. Still horriblyleathal, but not "always result to death". And the incubation period is quick but not _that_ quick.

2) Kinda hard. Even more in the dog's case where it needs to cross another species barrier.

3) Just as bad as in the USA.

 

[El_Machinae]

Quarantine until blood tests come back, I assume.

 

[Gary Childress]

1. Survival rate of Ebola in Africa has been between 40-50% from what I have read. Maybe I'm wrong.

2. Ebola is transmitted through contact with an infected person/animals bodily fluids.

3. I don't know the answer to this one.

In reply to your note below: Our family dog developed cancer many months back. It finally got to the point where it appeared to be suffering and so I euthanized the dog. The dog had a good life with our family. I had the dog cremated. I assume euthanizing the dog before it got worse was the right thing to do. My family and I are "pet lovers" but we are not insane.

I would suggest euthanizing the dog and cremating it. There is nothing wrong with cremation. I hope to be cremated one day and my ashes spread on some farm land. The people who are concerned about euthanizing the dog are most likely very confused people.

 

[Old Hippy]

1) Nope, Ebola have death rates somewhere between 40-90 % and it seems that proper health care tends to keep it down around 40 %. Still horriblyleathal, but not "always result to death". And the incubation period is quick but not _that_ quick.

.

does anyone know at which point those who survive Ebola stop becoming infected and thus capable of spreading it, or is it something like hep C, that would require years of precautions being taken to stop infecting others.

just curious as I know several people with Hep C that have to deal with it for years after their recovery, and potenialy can remain highly infectous

 

[Valka D'Ur]

Why should they kill a dog that isn't sick?

 

[Thorgalaeg]

People here seem more upset because the dog than by officials incomptence which could lead us all to a pandemy of unknow proportions.

 

[timtofly]

ABC News said that they were going to do a blood transfusion from the recovered American Kent Brantly to help fight ebola in the journalist Ashoka Mukpo. It would seem that it is a recoverable virus that does not stay in an infectious stage in a human. Of course this is experimental, but I don't think they would try it, if it would pass on some hidden infectious properties later on. In the case of the dog, there is no way to know if the dog would be a carrier or not, until after it effected people later on in life, and then it may be a different strain.

Ebola starts out in bats, and bats are carriers who do not get any symptoms either.

Ebola and Hep is in the same family of viruses, but they have different names and different attributes.

 

[Josu]

Why should they kill a dog that isn't sick?

The dogs can keep the virus, but not developt the symptoms. So it may not be sick, but if the dogs keeps the virus is a threat.
In any case if the dog keeps the virus it is as well a chance to research around this disease.
In an ideal scenario I see 2 options, keep the dog in a lab if it is virus carrier, keep the dog free if not, but this is not ideal scenario, this is scenario in which the goverment repatriated 2 sick missionaries because "there was zero risk". The technicians in the hospital received a course of half an hour and they told the wolrd that the protocol was executed to the letter.
Goverment has deceided to kill the dog with hoping the things do not screw more up.

People here seem more upset because the dog than by officials incomptence which could lead us all to a pandemy of unknow proportions.

What I see is half population quite paranoid and the other half laughing at the incompetence (many jokes and memes) that Spain has shown as nation.
I am a little worried because I would preffer the dog as health minister rather than the current one, who I consider corrupt and idiotic moron. Same people who has lead the repatriation protocol is leading the issue now.

 

[Kyriakos]

The evil dog-slaying empire of Spain against a dog

Reminds me of that film with the premise of "The -one- Cyclops declares war on the entire Roman Empire".

 

[timtofly]

It would be foolish to kill the dog before any blood work came back that declared the dog even had Ebola.

 

[Gucumatz]

If the blood work confirms it, seems logical to euthanize the dog. Dogs are exceedingly messy creatures and if medical knowledge on how long a dog can act as a carrier for Ebola is limited, better not take risks considering Spain's response so far

 

[Domen]

When I think of a band named "Dog with Ebola", I imagine it to be a punk band. Do you also feel like this?

 

[timtofly]

If the blood work confirms it, seems logical to euthanize the dog. Dogs are exceedingly messy creatures and if medical knowledge on how long a dog can act as a carrier for Ebola is limited, better not take risks considering Spain's response so far

It should probably be looked into and studied though. What other animals in Africa could there be that are making the matter worse and no one has viewed it relative, until this poor dog in Spain gains international recognition?

 

[Ghpstage]

If the blood work confirms it, seems logical to euthanize the dog. Dogs are exceedingly messy creatures and if medical knowledge on how long a dog can act as a carrier for Ebola is limited, better not take risks considering Spain's response so far

If we only have limited knowledge on how dogs react to the virus and act as carriers then this is a good argument to keep the dog alive!
Knowledge of how one of the most common animals found in domestic settings might fit into an outbreak scenario could be worth a great deal in the future.

 

[Gary Childress]

Why should they kill a dog that isn't sick?

Sorry, my mistake. I thought I read that it had already been determined that the dog has Ebola in it. I'll go back and re-read.

 

[SS-18 ICBM]

How do I know this isn't another one of those news articles that ends up on a Cracked.com Quick Fix?

 

[Kyriakos]

When I think of a band named "Dog with Ebola", I imagine it to be a punk band. Do you also feel like this?

Let's put it this way: it would raise some eyebrows if it was a collaboration of Prokofiev