Ebola - Red Alert in Nigeria

[Cheezy the Wiz]

It doesn't seem to transmit that easily, but..
and

Well there are human and nonhuman versions of the virus. A monkey-only version, Ebola Reston, was shown to be capable of being transmitted through aerosolized infected blood, which passed the disease from one monkey to another across the room in another cage, but none of the humans who were exposed directly to the disease became infected, as that strain does not infect humans.

It doesn't have to become a world pandemic, it can still be a huge disaster if this continues.

The epidemic, yes, but not because a single woman go out of the quarantined zone. "On the run" is a sensationalist term. Like I said, she's dying of Ebola, she's not going anywhere quickly. She was busted out by her family because they objected to how she was being treated. She is most likely just living out her final days with them instead of in the quarantine.

 

[DinoDoc]

The epidemic, yes, but not because a single woman go out of the quarantined zone. "On the run" is a sensationalist term. Like I said, she's dying of Ebola, she's not going anywhere quickly. She was busted out by her family because they objected to how she was being treated. She is most likely just living out her final days with them instead of in the quarantine.

The problem is the number of people she may have infected in the mean time before her death.

 

[Cheezy the Wiz]

The problem is the number of people she may have infected in the mean time before her death.

It's not like she has influenza. Ebola spreads like HIV: only through significant and direct fluid exchange. Most people who get it either get it from touching their sensory organs after touching blood or feces of an infected person, or by direct blood to blood contact (I get your blood in my cut), or through improper medical practice, like reused needles or improperly sterilized tools.

 

[Loppan Torkel]

Well there are human and nonhuman versions of the virus. A monkey-only version, Ebola Reston, was shown to be capable of being transmitted through aerosolized infected blood, which passed the disease from one monkey to another across the room in another cage, but none of the humans who were exposed directly to the disease became infected, as that strain does not infect humans.

The case referred to in wiki was pig-monkey, and I wouldn't totally rule out human-human aerosol transmittance.

The epidemic, yes, but not because a single woman go out of the quarantined zone. "On the run" is a sensationalist term. Like I said, she's dying of Ebola, she's not going anywhere quickly. She was busted out by her family because they objected to how she was being treated. She is most likely just living out her final days with them instead of in the quarantine.

Yea, I didn't mean to focus on this specific woman more than it seems to be an increasing general concern/mistrust around the disease and the healthcare, which could lead to increased fear, panic and spreading of the disease.
It takes a while before the symptoms appear and if it spreads to a larger city, it might be difficult to contain it. The panic would make people move in all directions...

It's not like she has influenza. Ebola spreads like HIV: only through significant and direct fluid exchange. Most people who get it either get it from touching their sensory organs after touching blood or feces of an infected person, or by direct blood to blood contact (I get your blood in my cut), or through improper medical practice, like reused needles or improperly sterilized tools.

I think it transmits a lot more easily than HIV though.

 

[El_Machinae]

Yes, easier, but it's most contagious when the symptoms are obvious, so it's easier to quarantine than normal. It thrives in low-education rural communities mainly because there is a lot of unsafe contact during the final hours, due to mourning rituals and the like.

The problem is that it's a death sentence. No vaccine, no cure. Pure horror for those infected and their loved ones. IIRC, Doctors Without Borders are basically the front line on this one, deserving those charity dollars they get.

 

[Cheezy the Wiz]

The case referred to in wiki was pig-monkey, and I wouldn't totally rule out human-human aerosol transmittance.

All I'm saying is that it hasn't been demonstrated that humans can catch it via aerosol, but that the animal strains can between each other, so a pig-monkey transfer is not a radical departure from before. Perhaps in the future one of the strains will evolve to either be transmitted via aerosol or to become able to infect humans, but right now the types of Ebola we know of cannot do both.

Yea, I didn't mean to focus on this specific woman more than it seems to be an increasing general concern/mistrust around the decease and the healthcare, which could lead to increased fear, panic and spreading of the decease.
It takes a while before the symptoms appear and if it spreads to a larger city, it might be difficult to contain it. The panic would make people move in all directions...

I honestly think the panic and lack of trust will be far more dangerous than the disease itself.

 

[uppi]

It's not like she has influenza. Ebola spreads like HIV: only through significant and direct fluid exchange. Most people who get it either get it from touching their sensory organs after touching blood or feces of an infected person, or by direct blood to blood contact (I get your blood in my cut), or through improper medical practice, like reused needles or improperly sterilized tools.

Unfortunately, her family is unlikely to implement proper medical practice, which could lead to more infections. Some trained doctors have become infected while treating patients, so it is dangerous even with medical training. HIV seems to be much less infectious.

One escaped infected woman will not doom us all. But it might lead to some unnecessary deaths.

The problem is that it's a death sentence. No vaccine, no cure. Pure horror for those infected and their loved ones. IIRC, Doctors Without Borders are basically the front line on this one, deserving those charity dollars they get.

There are potential promising cures and vaccines, but none have been tested in a phase I trial. So it has been decided that they cannot be used in this case. In some sense the lack of treatments is a failure of how we fund drug development.

 

[FriendlyFire]

I honestly think the panic and lack of trust will be far more dangerous than the disease itself.

Well its only killed 1.5k total dead so far.
Will panic after total dead reached 100k

 

[classical_hero]

It will also depend on the scope of the spread of the disease. So far it's contained to a relatively small area. But if it moves further afield it could be a disaster.

 

[Phrossack]

I've read of a theory called "aggressive symbiosis" that claims to explain the lethality and easy spread of diseases like ebola. It holds that ebola and some other viruses evolved in symbiosis with certain species of primates; the carriers are themselves immune to to the virus and provide it with hosts, and in exchange the virus is unusually lethal to other primates that might be the hosts' competitors. That would explain why the carrier species are immune to it, and why the virus is so lethal to other species. If ebola didn't have some immune hosts, it would have died out long ago; it's simply too lethal and would have killed its hosts so quickly that they wouldn't have had the time to transmit it.

 

[FriendlyFire]

The hysteria caused by the spread of Ebola has led also to the spread of rumor and conspiracy theories. Angry crowds have accused foreigners of bringing the virus in their midst: In April, the threat of violence forced MSF to evacuate all its staff from a treatment center in Guinea. In Sierra Leone, which has the largest number of Ebola cases at present, thousands protested over the weekend outside the country's main Ebola treatment facility in the eastern city of Kenema.

The demonstration was sparked, the news agency claims, by a rumor spread in a nearby market that the disease was a ruse used to justify "cannibalistic rituals" being carried out in the hospital.

Damm socialist healthcare !!!
Give me freedom or give me death. (Probably death)

Really who among us would want to turn a sick loved one over to a hospital staffed with foreigners, knowing we might never see them again? And hospitals in this part of the world have notoriously poor service. Families routinely have to prepare meals and bring them to patients. Families have to go to local pharmacies to buy drugs and even gloves or needles from India or Nigeria because hospital storerooms are routinely not stocked.

They know there is no cure for Ebola right ?
The problem is that they are ignoring instructions on how to handle loved ones who have Ebola, which going to spread and kill.

 

[FriendlyFire]

American doctor infected with Ebola returns to U.S.

An American doctor stricken by Ebola in West Africa arrived home for treatment in Atlanta on Saturday, and U.S. government officials are urging the public to remain confident in the health-care system’s ability to keep the deadly disease isolated.

A charity organization, Samaritan’s Purse, said two Americans in serious condition with the disease were being evacuated: Kent Brantly, a Fort Worth doctor who had been treating Ebola victims in Liberia, and Nancy Writebol, a missionary from Charlotte.

For example, there was a much-publicized tweet Friday from Donald Trump: “Stop the EBOLA patients from entering the U.S. Treat them, at the highest level, over there. THE UNITED STATES HAS ENOUGH PROBLEMS!”

http://www.washingtonpost.com/natio...-11e4-9e3b-7f2f110c6265_story.html?tid=pm_pop

Damm illegal immigrant bring that Ebola to the US !

 

[timtofly]

While there is not a "cure" the body can recover and "eradicate" the virus. The whole issue is that after recovery, there is a period where it can still cause infection to others, and even through male semen. The other point of infection is how the dead body is handled. So it is just not the precautions necessary for the care of the sick person. There has to be a lot of precaution for at least 21 days after death and after recovery. So even if a person has light symptoms, they can still infect another person weeks after they are better when people have stopped being cautious. In the regions affected they have certain rituals for the dead including embalming which can also spread the virus to others, if not done with great caution. For the most part a person who has it will show symptoms, and will not be a "silent" carrier, but because it takes a while to even show symptoms, it is hard to tell when any actual transfer of the virus has taken place.

The other problem, is that it has symptoms just like influenza and if pre-cautions are not taken, unlike influenza, it can be passed on from person to person. While it is not an "air" born disease, even the spray of bodily fluids containing the infection can spread it to humans. From the studies done, it seems that it is probably fruit bats that "carry" the disease without any symptoms. It may be passed on to human via dead bats pre-pared for food, or bat saliva on droppings that a pig or monkey then eats. They are infected and if handled when dead, passes the infection on to humans.

 

[Goodfella]

Apparently there are people in Liberia who think the virus is a fabrication and an excuse for the government to steal people's organs. I'm not sure though if that's more or less hysterical than the reaction we've had to the two being brought to Atlanta for treatment.

 

[timtofly]

There may be the conspiracy that they will be used to create biological WMD's.

 

[Goodfella]

A large enough number of people seem to think that Obama has something to do with this and that it's a political issue. Earlier I even read some saying Obama's deliberately bringing them over so he can kill white people.

 

[Kyriakos]

Apparently there are people in Liberia who think the virus is a fabrication and an excuse for the government to steal people's organs. I'm not sure though if that's more or less hysterical than the reaction we've had to the two being brought to Atlanta for treatment.

Maybe actual human harvesting is indeed happening (in considerable numbers) in those countries, so such theories rest on that sad fact.

Don't know about Ebola, but it is nice to see how our world just keeps getting better and better, since 2009 or around that. (alternative starting point being 2001).

 

[Goodfella]

Don't know about Ebola, but it is nice to see how our world just keeps getting better and better, since 2009 or around that. (alternative starting point being 2001).

Compared to the pandemics, wars, and other catastrophes that killed hundreds of millions in the 20th century, things right now aren't that bad.

 

[Winner]

I'd say sustained human-to-human epidemic is dangerous, because it gives the virus more time and opportunity to adapt to humans better (it's still primarily an animal virus, of unknown source). If it evolved the ability to spread by droplets through air (as it did at least once in the past, although that particular strain was a monkey virus, not dangerous to humans), then we'd have a serious problem.

Then you'd see an explosive spread from Africa to the rest of the world.

 

[El_Machinae]

And we're vastly less prepared than we'd like to be. Research in Ebola has been glacial, because it was an unimportant poor African disease. Nothing like Erectile Dysfunction, y'know.