Ebola outbreak...

Apparently an infected American patient is being evacuated from Liberia and will be treated at Emory University. Let's hope that Emory and the CDC follow the proper containment protocol at *all* times. Don't want to see that horse leave the barn..

Linky

This is a horse we should not even be letting into our barn.

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From a bottle cap message on a Magic Hat #9 beer: Condoms Prevent Minivans
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I want to pick up a bus full of unruly kids and feed them gummi bears and crack, then turn them loose in Hobby Lobby to ransack the place. They will all be wearing T shirts that say "You Could Have Prevented This."

I was shocked to hear about this, and frankly I'm rather uncomfortable about the whole deal. Other countries are trying to keep this disease out, and here we are fucking importing it?

They keep saying that the risk is nothing; "almost zero". Really? Then how did the doctor -- who was wearing a hazmat suit -- contract this illness? No one seems to know. At least they haven't said "oh he pricked his finger" or something of the sort. And considering that no one is infallible, someone caring for him could surely become infected themselves.

I noticed that the State Dept. put out a travel warning to avoid Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea. Looks like we should probably add Georgia to that list?

Considering there was just a big failure in protocol not too long ago at the CDC -- anthrax exposure for one that I can remember -- I just don't have 100% confidence in the ability to keep contained a disease that has up to a 90% mortality rate.

This is just the height of stupidity to me. Why purposely bring in a deadly disease that the rest of the world is trying to keep out? It's not like they're going to cure these two unfortunate people. They don't have a cure at all, even if they have gotten here in treatable condition; which I don't believe they have.

I feel like this is really being done because they are American citizens with families and they don't want to have them die overseas and then not be able to be brought back for burial or something. I can understand the sentiment -- that they don't want to have to bury their bodies in another country or go overseas and try to get them cremated and then brought home or something. But, really? Is this really worth the risk to enable them to die at home? That in itself would still be an issue as handling the bodies would put more people in harm's way.

I may be completely wrong in my read of the situation and that there is some kind of hope for these folks, but I am extremely doubtful. I think that in addition to family/burial considerations, they probably do want our medical officials to get an up-close look at the disease, which is easier to do here than there. But still, far too much risk. If you want to study it and treat it, you go there, you don't bring it here.

I've seen stuff about this in the news too, and the guy might have a chance at living depending on the strain of ebola. I can't remember which strain is most fatal - I think it's Ebola Zaire, which has a 90 percent mortality rate. I also have seen conflicting information about how contagious ebola is: some things say a person is only contagious while they display symptoms and other things say a person can be contagious long after their symptoms have disappeared. So which is it?

Could it be like rabies in the sense that just because you aren't showing any symptoms, that doesn't mean you aren't sick? And once those symptoms do finally show up, you will most likely be dead within a matter of days, even if you catch symptoms early and begin treatment immediately.

But sure, let's bring a virus with no vaccine to the US. It'd give anti-vaxers something to think about when their widdle pweshuses are bleeding from every hole.

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cfchevygirl


I noticed that the State Dept. put out a travel warning to avoid Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea. Looks like we should probably add Georgia to that list?

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I thought it already was ...

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“There are three things all wise men fear: the sea in storm, a night with no moon, and the anger of a gentle man.”

I have seen a few articles about recent ebola outbreaks compared to past outbreaks, and the recent stuff has a much lower death rate, more like 50%. This is bad! This means it can spread much better and yet it is still very deadly!
I could be wrong about the 50%, but not about the implications of a strain with a lower death rate.

I never get sick because I just don't get out much besides work. I am counting on my loser social skills to save me in epidemic situations.
I would keep a metric shit ton of garlic and coconut oil on hand, natural antivirals... Garlic makes my belly explode, but better that than bleeding out of my eyeballs.

Ebola is not contagious until you begin to show symptoms. You will remain contagious throughout the illness and, if you recover, for a while afterwards. The disease can be transmitted via semen for up to 8 weeks, I believe, after recovery. A corpse is also rife with contagious material and the disease is frequently transmitted via the handling of dead bodies, which is a cultural necessity in Africa.

The problem with Ebola is that infected patients leak bodily fluids profusely. Blood, vomit, saliva, and excrement come out you uncontrolled. The healthcare workers in Africa are working in deteriorating facilities without state-of-the-art containment at best, and patched together tents at worst. Small amounts of bodily fluids can be easily brought into scrub chambers, etc. when you are caring for various patients day in and day out.

I am certain that facilities in the U.S. have much better containment areas and procedures with triple washdowns, etc. I am absolutely not concerned that this will somehow leak out and infect the public in Atlanta. Is there a chance that it could? Yes, but I think it is miniscule. The facilities here in the States are light years ahead of what they have in Africa, and of course, we keep Ebola strains here for study already.

I believe they want to bring these two individuals back because they feel that there may be a better chance of survival for them here, and I also believe that the CDC may be able to get more knowledge that could lead to a cure if they have the patients here in the States.

Finally, these two people are not Ebola. They are human beings who are undoubtedly suffering through what must be an incredibly painful and horrific experience. I get it that people don't want to catch Ebola and don't want to take chances with it, but let's not forget that they are human beings. I wish them the best.

Cambion, Ebola Zaire is the most fatal strain of Ebola with a 90% mortality rate, there are other strains with a 50% mortality rate. The other well known strain, Ebola Reston, does not affect humans but is fatal to monkeys.

The Hot Zone by Richard Preston explains about the different strains of Ebola though it focuses on Ebola Reston.

Medical evacuations of US nationals happens all the time, Emory University has very strict protocols for treating infectious diseases and working with the CDC. This is a win/win CDC doctors get to study Ebola and hopefully find a treatment/vaccine, and the US national has a fighting chance to get better. If I was going to Dragon*Con later this month, I wouldn't change my mind about going just because Emory received an Ebola patient.

Keep in mind I'm not a medical professional nor do I play one on tv.

I do feel bad for the patients, but I just don't think there's going to be anything that can be done for them here. They've already given some kind of serum to the female patient and she's only continued to get worse. I believe they also gave the male doctor a blood transfusion from a cured patient, and it hasn't done anything either.

As fast and destructive as this disease moves, I don't think there's anything that can be done, unfortunately. And if that is the case, I don't see what good it does to bring a highly contagious and highly fatal disease, that we've managed to avoid showing up, here on purpose.

I feel sorry for these two. But, if they were childless/childfree, society would not endure the hassle and expense of bringing them here. We all know that.

Also, there is no cure for the disease. If they had a good (I define good as about 75-80 percent) chance of survival with proper medical care, then I would be more amendable to letting them over here. This is not flesh eating bacteria or even TB we're talking about here. No one would do that shit for us if we caught Ebola while in the Peace Corp or doing missionary work. We'd die in that hot ass jungle along with the natives.

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"I have found little that is 'good' about human beings on the whole. In my experience most of them are trash, no matter whether they publicly subscribe to this or that ethical doctrine or to none at all."
~Sigmund Freud

Want to know exactly what Ebola does? (WARNING: NIGHTMARE FUEL)

http://cydathria.com/ebola.html


Wasn't there a scare earlier in the outbreak with some Canadian fellow? Though actually, I think it turned out to be Lassa fever.

Still...


Oh, and the main reason this disease has spread so badly in West Africa is because the people there just won't listen. They apparently see it as a load of foreigners coming in and telling them what to do (don't handle dead bodies, stop eating bushmeat, etc.). That, and the stubborn beliefs that Ebola is a curse or witchcraft of whatever. So, the medical teams there are facing a lot of resistance. Seriously, I've heard that MSF workers have had rocks thrown at them and everything.

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mypersonality.info

"The power of accurate observation is commonly called cynicism by those who haven't got it."
George Bernard Shaw

"An oyster can play catch if u only give it the oprotunity"
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strange aeons
Want to know exactly what Ebola does? (WARNING: NIGHTMARE FUEL)

http://cydathria.com/ebola.html

Thanks for the warning, but silly little me just had to check it out...holy fucking shit!

Movies like Dead Alive, Halloween, and their ilk don't scare me...it's usually movies and books about outbreaks that frighten the fuck out of me.

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I don't fear this.

The US (and any other equivalent nation) has umpteen vials of this stuff in their bio research labs anyway. They feel like letting it out - they will. Or, some idiot working there takes it home thinking it's a test tube shot of Jagermeister or something eyes2

That's what scares me - sloppy people.

I don't worry about it. There are *right now* people infected with Bubonic Plague in the US, and anywhere. Among all sorts of other nasty bugs like drug resistant TB.

Ebola? It looks like it'll kill ya quick anyway.

Bio Things scare me too -

Here's an interesting book if you like Sci Fi and want a scare -
(It's fiction, so no need to panic) -

http://www.amazon.com/Andromeda-Strain-Vintage-Michael-Crichton-ebook/dp/B007UH4EPS

I'm fascinated by VHFs, but this one... I'd much rather remain fascinated at a distance.

While I do agree that the people being brought here may have a better chance of surviving, and they'll be treated in a more controlled environment with stricter protocols, it still scares the shit out of me.

I just don't know how to feel about this, other than agoraphobic.

I hope they both come out of it alive. The doc who wanted the other victim to get the serum gives me just a little more faith in humanity.

This is what gets me. I saw an update on TV this morning and they basically said there's nothing treatment-wise that they can do. They're just trying to keep their bodies strong in order to be able to naturally fight off the disease. Yeah? And what are the odds of that? Not very good I'd say.

I am sorry these people got sick, and no doubt it is a horrible thing to go through. But, at the same time, all it takes is for one person to unknowingly contract this disease, and since symptoms take a while to show, it's certainly possible that someone could leave that hospital and pass it around. I mean, I'm assuming that everyone who works on these patients is then going home to their daily lives. If they were kept in isolation themselves until the patients either got better (unlikely) or passed and then they were kept long enough to insure they -- the workers -- didn't show symptoms, then, maybe.

They're still not saying how the doctor and nurse contracted it. I believe the nurse was helping decontaminate the doctors and aid workers, so why wouldn't it be possible for someone here doing the same job to also contract it? Yes our workers are probably more skilled, but mistakes happen.

What's even scarier is how the doctor may have contracted it. They won't say that either. Did he jab himself with a needle? That could happen to someone here -- it has, with other diseases. Was he not properly, completely decontaminated? Why couldn't that happen here as well? Did the nurse and doctor become infected at the same time/same event?

Apparently the CDC is saying he SEEMS to be improving somewhat. Though, at this point, there is incentive to lie about this because people are already upset and scared about importing a deadly, incurable disease; if they knew it was exposing Americans unnecessarily and not helping the patients, it would be very bad PR for sure.

I also saw a quote from someone saying essentially that while they understand the fear, that compassion needs to outweigh that. I'm all for compassion, but, how many more people do we put at risk in that case? If they felt they had to do this, it should've been on a medical ship or something, somewhere off the coast, or a lab that is fairly isolated from the general population; not in a major American city.

The other thing about this is that they keep saying that we have these top-notch trained people medically dealing with this. I have no doubt of that. YET, these people are not skilled in treating Ebola. They may have played around in the lab with it, but in live people? And this doctor and nurse, they WERE experienced in dealing with live Ebola in patients, and still came down with it. So yeah, you can be smart and skilled and top of your field, but if you're dealing with an actual manifested disease -- outside of a test environment, without live human patients -- I think that's a whole different ballgame.

Link

Two more Americans were exposed to Ebola. They're in isolation, but they had contact with someone who then died from the disease. Now if they have become infected too, do they come back to the U.S. as well? Are we just going to start bringing them all back? How many more will there be? I have to imagine that each and every Ebola patient brought here -- and even each and every transport attempt -- only increases the risk of this virus infecting more people. Now it's 2; does 2 become 4? Then 8? 10, etc?

Mind you, even though I am only a couple of states away from Georgia, I am not paralyzed with fear that I will contract Ebola, or anything of the sort. But, that doesn't mean I'm not concerned that people local to the patient might end up contracting this illness, even if it spreads no further than the hospital or Atlanta or whatever. I don't want to see fellow citizens infected and affected by this.

A few days ago, Americans had at least (imo) a 99% chance of never being touched by this deadly disease, until "we" decided to bring it here on purpose. Now? The risk still may be small, but it's much more of a risk with it inside our borders than it was on a different continent.

Considering the vast damage that ebola does, I am absolutely shocked that the people lucky enough to live through it can (allegedly) eventually live normal lives again. With skin falling off and organs liquefying, I fail to see how that can even be fucking possible. Even with that whopping 10 percent survival rate for ebola Zaire, how exactly do you live after all that damage? Maybe survival rates for ebola will be better in a developed nation with access to proper treatments and clean tools, but I'd really rather not find out.

Ebola is supposed to be relatively easy to contain in regard to outbreaks, but from the sounds of the news, it's spreading faster in Africa than it can be controlled. Who is to say the same won't happen in the US?

Hmmm... I think I read that the liquification and bleeding out of your internal organs is the final stage before you die. If you are going to survive Ebola, you don't get to this stage. The idea is to try and prevent the patient from getting there by supporting their immune system and general strength during the earlier stages.

But, I'm not sure. It sounds like it can kill you slowly or fast, like a shooting star.

And now it appears that there's been another death in Nigeria (nurse who had treated someone with Ebola) along with a few others that have now been infected. There's also another purported death in Saudi Arabia. That particular individual had made a trip to Sierra Leone. And the beat goes on....

Yay, now we're getting a sickie flown back to us.

British Ebola patient flying to UK for hospital treatment

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mypersonality.info

"The power of accurate observation is commonly called cynicism by those who haven't got it."
George Bernard Shaw

"An oyster can play catch if u only give it the oprotunity"
Some random YouTube commenter

"hate comments will be deleted!! fuckers!"
Some random YouTube uploader

More good news! Apparently another US doctor has contracted ebola. But here's the M. Night Shyamalan plot twist: this doctor, while assisting in ebola relief efforts, never actually treated an ebola patient. No one knows how they got sick, and, big shock, this doctor has come back to America for treatment!

Africa seems to be doing a real shit job of containing the virus spread, though I imagine fire-bombing ebola clinics and ebola-positive patients escaping isn't doing much good either. And bring sick American doctors back here isn't fucking helping. The World Health Organization seems to feel that a US outbreak is inevitable because all the volunteer medical people being sent to Africa are coming back home sick. Plus if someone can contract ebola now without having come into direct contact with another case of it, it makes me wonder if there isn't a mutation in the works that is causing the virus to become more contagious.

http://www.naturalnews.com/046775_Ebola_patient_US_doctor_deadly_virus.html?utm_content=buffere74bc&utm_medium=social&utm_source=facebook.com&utm_campaign=buffer

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Cambion
More good news! Apparently another US doctor has contracted ebola. But here's the M. Night Shyamalan plot twist: this doctor, while assisting in ebola relief efforts, never actually treated an ebola patient. No one knows how they got sick, and, big shock, this doctor has come back to America for treatment!

Apparently, no one knows WTF this virus is doing

Will it become airborne?

Set up a field ops at some offshore US territory. Or at a remote site in Alaska. Treating Ebola cases right smack dab in the middle of Atlanta sounds like a damned foolish thing to do.

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Cambion
More good news! Apparently another US doctor has contracted ebola. But here's the M. Night Shyamalan plot twist: this doctor, while assisting in ebola relief efforts, never actually treated an ebola patient. No one knows how they got sick, and, big shock, this doctor has come back to America for treatment!

Apparently, it's now thought that a woman he performed a C-section on had ebola - but she also had HIV which is why she wasn't symptomatic.

That's a slight relief. As least he didn't actually get it out of nowhere.

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mypersonality.info

"The power of accurate observation is commonly called cynicism by those who haven't got it."
George Bernard Shaw

"An oyster can play catch if u only give it the oprotunity"
Some random YouTube commenter

"hate comments will be deleted!! fuckers!"
Some random YouTube uploader

Uh Oh...It looks as though the first case of Ebola has been diagnosed here in the USA in a patient being treated at a Dallas hospital...


http://www.cnn.com/2014/09/30/health/ebola-us/index.html?hpt=hp_t1

Apparently Ebola has made it here to the US. A person was sick with Ebola and didn't know it. They flew in from Liberia to Texas.

I wonder if anyone else was infected?

Ebola in Texas