Ebola

[GGT]

The virus has been known for decades. Epidemics have occurred (mostly in continental Africa) since the late 1970's. It's currently at crisis level in three western African countries -- Guinea, Liberia, and Sierra Leone.

http://www.reuters.com/places/africa...0HS1T720141003

It's an infectious disease that isn't very contagious.....in countries that have good infrastructure, and coordination of public services. The US is freaking out about ONE case of Ebola diagnosed IN the country....but doesn't have trust in local health officials because of missteps made in Texas.

Discuss....?

[Lewkowski]

---> Not worried about Ebola being a problem state side but it is a humanitarian crisis in other parts of the world. I really think the public in America enjoys being frightened.

[GGT]

---> Not worried about Ebola being a problem state side but it is a humanitarian crisis in other parts of the world. I really think the public in America enjoys being frightened.

Many Texans seem rather "worried" -- school attendance was down 10% in the Ebola patient's district. The Mayor of Dallas held press conferences along with the state's Governor, and tried to say that federal protocol (from the CDC and NIH) should be trusted, even though failures were made at the local (Texas) level.

[littlelolligagged]

This was all over the radio this afternoon, without the convenient bit about his being tested negative (this might not have been known yet).
http://www.wsbtv.com/news/news/cobb-...d-ebola/nhbYB/

But people in the metro-Atlanta area have been wringing their hands about it since the cases they brought back to Emory Hospital for treatment.

Need better education, less fear-mongering.

[GGT]

This was all over the radio this afternoon, without the convenient bit about his being tested negative (this might not have been known yet).
http://www.wsbtv.com/news/news/cobb-...d-ebola/nhbYB/

But people in the metro-Atlanta area have been wringing their hands about it since the cases they brought back to Emory Hospital for treatment.

Need better education, less fear-mongering.

We also need better federal funding for that education, along with public health initiatives from the national/federal level. No state can do this alone, not even the Great State of Texas that considers itself a Lone State

[littlelolligagged]

The CDC has been releasing a lot of information, though I don't really know how much it is being reported and repeated.

[Lewkowski]

We also need better federal funding for that education, along with public health initiatives from the national/federal level. No state can do this alone, not even the Great State of Texas that considers itself a Lone State

Texas is just fine... panic mongering is nothing new in this country. And I'm fairly certain the level of idiocy would be the same in most states with major metropolitan areas (havens for stupidity group think).

[GGT]

Or enforced.

I'd just like to say this a good example that US States can't really act as separate entities, even though politicians like to say so for their own political purposes, and focus on local elections. Also, that federal agencies play an important national and international role than many states (like Texas) don't want to admit.

[GGT]

Texas is just fine... panic mongering is nothing new in this country. And I'm fairly certain the level of idiocy would be the same in most states with major metropolitan areas (havens for stupidity group think).

It could be argued that other states wouldn't have to figure out what to do with contaminated waste, even if they'd followed protocol from CDC. And that Texas was "wrong" to think they had all the answers.

[katsung47]

It’s allscripted! Ebola outbreak and impossibly rapid vaccine response clearlyscripted; U.S. govt. patented Ebola in 2010 and now owns all victims’ blood

September 21, 2014

The United States government now owns the patent on Ebola

This plot gets even more interesting when you realize that a patent onEbola was awarded to the United States government just four years ago, in 2010.

That patent, number CA2741523A1, is available here.

Astonishingly, the patent claims U.S. government ownership over allvariants of Ebola which share 70% or more of the protein sequences described inthe patent: “[CLAIMS] …a nucleotide sequence of at least 70%-99% identity tothe SEQ ID…”

http://www.intellihub.com/scripted-ebola-outbreak-impossibly-rapid-vaccine-response-clearly-scripted-u-s-govt-patented-ebola-2010-now-owns-victims-blood/#

[Ominous Gamer]

rapid response? the disease was discovered in 76... via a Belgium guy at that

[Being]

http://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/sec...ola/ar-BB8RLM4

Answering questions, he said the healthcare worker was wearing full protection gear and following all CDC guidelines when he or she made contact with Duncan.

I guess CDC guidelines are inadequate. WTF? And how the hell is keeping their identity secret helping anyone?

[Flixy]

Well if you had bothered to read past the second paragraph, you'd already have your answer:

The caregiver and the family have requested total privacy, so we can’t discuss any more details of the situation.

Which is, you know, not unreasonable. Or let me ask you this: how the hell would making her identity public help anyone?

[earthJoker]

This thread is incomplete without Ebola-Chan

[Being]

Well if you had bothered to read past the second paragraph, you'd already have your answer:


Which is, you know, not unreasonable. Or let me ask you this: how the hell would making her identity public help anyone?

How do you identify everyone they have been in contact with without identifying them. It's like the whole Duncan fiasco all over again. And we are 1'st world. Yee-haa.

[RandBlade]

How do you identify everyone they have been in contact with without identifying them. It's like the whole Duncan fiasco all over again. And we are 1'st world. Yee-haa.

Don't be a total douchebag. Its the CDC's job to identify them, which they're doing, not every e-tard on the internet. Your idle curiousity doesn't trump anyone's right to medical confidentiality.

A second nurse has been diagnosed with ebola now and she flew the day before diagnosis so the CDC is now alerting all 132 passengers http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-29632433

[Hazir]

One wonders why the care givers in these cases don't go in some sort of restrictive mode. Given that the most likely transmission is between patient and care giver.

The infected nurse in Spain also went on a vacation after her patient died. So that's pretty much first being in an Ebola hotbed, then risking transporting the virus to an entirely new environment.

[Khendraja'aro]

Because people are idiots. I just read an article from a German journalist who complained that everyone treated him like a pariah after he came back from actually being at one of the Ebola hotspots.

He then wrote that he knew the incubation period to sometimes last as long as 3 weeks - so what did the moron do in week 2? He went to the gym.

[RandBlade]

A dog travelling from overseas can require three months of quarantine but a human can't just stay isolated for three weeks god forbid. If you're in the incubation period you shouldn't be making people need to treat you as pariah.

[Lewkowski]

Either its easier to transmit then what's been reported or everyone is going crazy about a non-threat in 1st world countries. More will die from so may other causes it would be silly to list them.

[Hazir]

Either its easier to transmit then what's been reported or everyone is going crazy about a non-threat in 1st world countries. More will die from so may other causes it would be silly to list them.

Transmission is stage-related; once you have the symptoms you're a hotbed of infection. Before that it's relatively safe to be around you. The problem is that the symptoms start out as relatively mild. Some patients didn't even break a fever at first.

[earthJoker]

Either its easier to transmit then what's been reported or everyone is going crazy about a non-threat in 1st world countries. More will die from so may other causes it would be silly to list them.

Yeah, because there as absolutely nothing between total ignorance and world wide panic.

[RandBlade]

Either its easier to transmit then what's been reported or everyone is going crazy about a non-threat in 1st world countries. More will die from so may other causes it would be silly to list them.

Normally I agree with you. That was my exact attitude to SARS, Swine Flu etc - regular common cold causes far more damage.

However this has the potential to become a pandemic if its not controlled. At the moment it isn't and if it ends tomorrow then it'll be concern over nothing - tragic for the families concerned that have lost someone, but fewer in total than in one day of unreported road accident casualties. If its not controlled and treated then it could become a crisis though, which is why lessons need to be swiftly learnt about the mistakes made in Texas.

[Khendraja'aro]

Well, I'm not sure about the pandemic thing. Don't forget that this thing doesn't have an airborne transmission vector. You need to come into close contact with a carrier and that's the reason why nurses and doctors catch the stuff.

That's why, even when Ebola is nasty, epidemiologists would rather worry about H5N1 and the like.

[earthJoker]

Currently the lethal rate of Ebola is over 50%, therefore I think even an epidemic (not pandemic) outbreak would result in a large number of causalities. That is of course assuming that rate would be the same in an industrialized country.

[RandBlade]

Well, I'm not sure about the pandemic thing. Don't forget that this thing doesn't have an airborne transmission vector. You need to come into close contact with a carrier and that's the reason why nurses and doctors catch the stuff.

That's why, even when Ebola is nasty, epidemiologists would rather worry about H5N1 and the like.

Understood but then diseases like AIDS aren't airborne either. I think the key difference is oddly enough the high mortality rate is why Ebola isn't likely to become that serious, with illnesses like HIV people can be a host spreading the disease untreated for years before death. The transmission window for this is much smaller.

[EyeKhan]

I'm not worried about ebola - the biggest reason it's such a problem in Africa right now is ignorance and superstition within the general population. I am surprised by the nurses catching it, however, especially the one in Spain since they knew exactly what they were dealing with when their patient arrived. It seems like it's easier to transmit than AIDS, but that's probably because patients are bleeding and barfing all over the place, whereas people with HIV are not. I think I read ebola can be transmitted via sweat, too, which HIV cannot. If true, that's a big difference in communicability.

[EyeKhan]

It’s allscripted! Ebola outbreak and impossibly rapid vaccine response clearlyscripted; U.S. govt. patented Ebola in 2010 and now owns all victims’ blood

September 21, 2014

The United States government now owns the patent on Ebola

This plot gets even more interesting when you realize that a patent onEbola was awarded to the United States government just four years ago, in 2010.

That patent, number CA2741523A1, is available here.

Astonishingly, the patent claims U.S. government ownership over allvariants of Ebola which share 70% or more of the protein sequences described inthe patent: “[CLAIMS] …a nucleotide sequence of at least 70%-99% identity tothe SEQ ID…”

http://www.intellihub.com/scripted-ebola-outbreak-impossibly-rapid-vaccine-response-clearly-scripted-u-s-govt-patented-ebola-2010-now-owns-victims-blood/#

This actually gives me more confidence in the government. At least someone out there has a grip on all the world's chaos. I hope the US government is behind all the chaos in the Middle East too, it's less scary when there's a puppet master orchestrating everything. Much better than events spinning out of control.

[GGT]

One wonders why the care givers in these cases don't go in some sort of restrictive mode. Given that the most likely transmission is between patient and care giver.

The infected nurse in Spain also went on a vacation after her patient died. So that's pretty much first being in an Ebola hotbed, then risking transporting the virus to an entirely new environment.

Hundreds (if not thousands) of healthcare/humanitarian workers have been working in West Africa's "hot zones", and returned to their home countries without spreading the disease.

The only westerners who've been infected were either direct care-givers, or indirect field workers (like the photo-journalist who helped spray down a contaminated vehicle in Liberia). Since Ebola didn't hitch a ride from all those workers, or spread across borders, it was thought to be contained by all the personal-protective-equipment and chlorine washes used in the field.

Either its easier to transmit then what's been reported or everyone is going crazy about a non-threat in 1st world countries. More will die from so may other causes it would be silly to list them.

Yeah, sure, more people (in developed, 1st world nations) will die in car crashes, or from heart disease, or influenza, than Ebola...but that doesn't mean Ebola only really impacts the African continent. Globalization made the world smaller.


Our system failed at the state level, Texas in particular, but also at the private/for-profit hospital level. Texas Health Resources is more than just Texas Presbyterian....it's a network of hospitals that could/should have drawn from several resources but didn't.

[Hazir]

Thought to be contained, which could have been made certain of.