Ebola

[AdriftatSea]

While I do agree and you are correct Ebola presents itself on a far rapid scale than the virus that causes AIDS it can be just as damning in the long term and spread on a mass scale because it isn't contained in the host body as easily. People that carry the Ebola virus are basically splashing it around everywhere, wherever they are. They are retching from both ends and you cannot really, not really quarantine someone until you get them in quarantine. Does that make sense? Isn't this why we are seeing the healthcare workers getting sick now? And they can go what, three weeks before they present with symptoms?

I understand it 'could' be tracked and should be tracked. But that was my first post, my concern. The man that was on his way home to Minnesota, he was vomiting and had diarrhea on the flight. There were 50 people on that flight. They pulled him off, quarantined him, diagnosed him, told the other people on the flight what the symptoms were and they should watch out for those symptoms and check with their family doctor if they began to notice signs of becoming ill. Then those 50 people were sent along their merry way. What if any of them used the same lavatory as that man? What if it wasn't cleaned properly? What if one, just one of those people had been exposed to the virus and is now home with their family and exposes others? That was what my initial thought/post was about. That one incident is when it became very real to me. It was no longer isolated. What could come from that one single incident?

I don't want to trivialize Ebola, it is a serious disease and this outbreak is ominous. What we fear is that it will not be contained and continue to spread into other underdeveloped countries, perhaps on other continents. It might even cause small outbreaks in developed countries like USA due to international flights (which you talked about earlier), especially in larger cities, although I doubt such outbreaks would take more than a few hundred lives combined. It is highly unlikely that Ebola will ever kill as many "westerners" per year as malaria. And don't get me started on the lethality of malaria vs Ebola in Africa. It is disgusting how much focus the media put on Ebola which hasn't killed 1000 people yet and probably won't kill close to the millions who die from malaria every year. It's sensationalism at its worst and completely out of proportions. The media simply aren't able to scare us with malaria any more so they jump at any new exotic disease that are still able to shock and scare us.

Back to Ebola. One should question why this outbreak of Ebola has been so much more deadly than the about 20 previous outbreaks of Ebola. Has the virus evolved to become more virulent? I believe you mentioned how viruses can change earlier, and it is an apt comment from you. Can Ebola evolve so as to become a threat to our countries? The answer is yes, but highly unlikely, at least on the short term. It needs to change the way it spreads, basically obtain a new trait, which is a complex thing that requires numerous evolutionary steps that takes a long time, if it ever happens. I would be MUCH more worried about disease that is already highly contagious, like the flu, becoming more lethal (because this requires far less evolutionary steps) than of Ebola becoming more contagious. That's is why we are putting so much research and resources into being on top of the flu, both in terms of paying attention to new strains of the flu and how they evolve, but also by trying to understand what made previous strains so incredibly deadly.

As for healthcare workers getting sick of Ebola. This is an occupational hazard, I am afraid. Doctors and nurses get sick from contagious diseases all the time. The problem now is of course that if they get infected with Ebola chances are they might die (and not just stay at home for a few days because they got the cold), hence the suits and sterilization equipment you might have seen on news report. They also work under sub-optimal conditions (not many BSL 3 labs in West Africa, I am afraid) with poor infrastructure making it harder to protect themselves. I would also think they take some risks, as doctors often do.

In regards to your story about the air passengers being allowed to go home and not put in quarantine. I haven't hard this story before. I would speculate that this is related to Ebola not being contagious until patients have started to develop symptoms. Hence, if passengers from that flight were to "turn themselves in" when they start developing symptoms there would not be a risk of anyone else getting infected. The alternative, which would be to quarantine all these guys on the off chance that they got infected from travelling with the potential Ebola diseased, is just too expensive, too rash a measure, and would only risk causing unrest/panic in the public, because it is highly unlikely they would have become infected. I mentioned before that doctor who said he wouldn't be worried at all from sitting next to a person with Ebola on the bus. Ebola simply isn't contagious enough to spread between people just because they sit close to each other.

"What we fear is that it will not be contained and continue to spread into other underdeveloped countries, perhaps on other continents. It might even cause small outbreaks in developed countries like USA due to international flights (which you talked about earlier), especially in larger cities" <----- this...

With regards to malaria, I don't understand why they can't produce enough malarone for the children to build resistance to malaria. Our guys begin taking it two weeks before they travel. It's readily available here.

It's really sad what with all those people dying from Ebola - our govt rushes in, gives the medicine that has been developed here to the two American healthcare workers, gets them healthy enough to fly back then brings them along with the medication back. They didn't offer it to one single Liberian patient. Said there just isn't enough to go around.

There's a Tom Clancy novel about this. Seriously though.

[SoulMonster]

They can produce enough malaria medicine if they wanted to but since many African countries and people aren't able to pay for it, increased production can't really be justified. What needs to be done is to come up with some innovative ways of producing malaria medicine which enables more cost-efficient production, then the exit price can be lowered and more people will be able to buy it. A few companies and research groups are focussing on just that, e.g. production of artemisin in yeasts and other recombinant organisms.

Back to Ebola. I am reading the account of a health worker who just returned from Liberia. Here is his explanation as to why the virus are able to spread so efficiently there:

- People believe Ebola is something the President has made up, or something USA or the West has brought here. Many believe they can be protected by wearing talismans, clothes and through healing, and that ebola will only affect non-believers. People lack information and don't believe the information they get. That is why the virus continues to spread, says Ljung who decided to leave Liberia earlier this week. (Source: http://www.dagbladet.no/2014/08/10/nyheter/ebola/utenriks/sykdom/epidemi/34685661/)

I checked this with the wikipedia page on the current outbreak:

Difficulties faced in attempting to contain the outbreak include the outbreak's multiple locations across country borders, inadequate equipment given to medical personnel, funeral practices such as washing a body, and reluctance among country people to follow preventive practices, including "freeing" suspected Ebola patients from isolation. [... ] There are reports of suspicion that the disease is caused by sorcery and that doctors are killing patients. In late July, the former Liberian health minister Peter Coleman stated that "people don't seem to believe anything the government now says." (Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2014_West_Africa_Ebola_outbreak).

Edited August 10, 2014 by SoulMonster

[SoulMonster]

Back at work after summer vacation and a newsletter from Vaccine Nation was in my inbox with a link to this graphics:

[Lio]

They can produce enough malaria medicine if they wanted to but since many African countries and people aren't able to pay for it, increased production can't really be justified. What needs to be done is to come up with some innovative ways of producing malaria medicine which enables more cost-efficient production, then the exit price can be lowered and more people will be able to buy it. A few companies and research groups are focussing on just that, e.g. production of artemisin in yeasts and other recombinant organisms.

Back to Ebola. I am reading the account of a health worker who just returned from Liberia. Here is his explanation as to why the virus are able to spread so efficiently there:

- People believe Ebola is something the President has made up, or something USA or the West has brought here. Many believe they can be protected by wearing talismans, clothes and through healing, and that ebola will only affect non-believers. People lack information and don't believe the information they get. That is why the virus continues to spread, says Ljung who decided to leave Liberia earlier this week. (Source: http://www.dagbladet.no/2014/08/10/nyheter/ebola/utenriks/sykdom/epidemi/34685661/)

I checked this with the wikipedia page on the current outbreak:

Difficulties faced in attempting to contain the outbreak include the outbreak's multiple locations across country borders, inadequate equipment given to medical personnel, funeral practices such as washing a body, and reluctance among country people to follow preventive practices, including "freeing" suspected Ebola patients from isolation. [... ] There are reports of suspicion that the disease is caused by sorcery and that doctors are killing patients. In late July, the former Liberian health minister Peter Coleman stated that "people don't seem to believe anything the government now says." (Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2014_West_Africa_Ebola_outbreak).

So it's like it was with hiv. That was invented by the West too, and you could get cured by having sex with a virgin. Yes, that's probably the best idea ever. I thought there was an account of one Ebola patient 'rescued' from the hospital by his family and going missing in a large city in one of the countries that's now affected. Don't quite remember where, but, yes, I think that's always going to be a huge problem. (At least in the foreseeable future.)

[Lio]

[The Glow Inc.]

Dem, dey completely fucked...

[Ace Nova]

People in real countries don't need to worry. "Oh the US' health care is so expensive!" Well...we won't die from Ebola.

Thanks to Obamacare.

I'm guessing that's supposed to be funny?

[AxlisOld]

People in real countries don't need to worry. "Oh the US' health care is so expensive!" Well...we won't die from Ebola.

Thanks to Obamacare.

I'm guessing that's supposed to be funny?

Actually I believe that is an actual African dialect.

[Georgy Zhukov]

I hope my Nigerian prince friend is okay.

[Patience 4 Axl]

Are you that guy up the street?

[arnold layne]

Does that even need to be answered?

[DieselDaisy]

And here's me thinking Ebola was Snakepit's latest lady friend.

[Dan H.]

I'm not worried about it, I'm a white educated middle class American. I don't think I can die of Ebola.

(Be sure to put that on my marker if I do in fact die of Ebola)

[MrSoftie]

Have you guys/gals heard this rubbish about Ebola victims coming back to life after X days? The zombie apocalypse is upon us lol

[Fucking Little Schemer]

First Africa, the US now Spain. Theres plenty of places around the globe where this could turn nasty, the middle east for example.

[Snake-Pit]

The Mediterranean's like a bigger Rio Grande with Ebola on the other side.

Also, what if that Spanish nurse who went on holiday but no one knows where went to London?

What if I made out with her?

Hmmm...

[magisme]

I made this thread before it was trendy. Where my merge at?

[AxlisOld]

Did everyone ignore the fact that you need to swap fluids with an infected person and that ebola is not airborne? Or are we just looking for another H1N1, Swine Flu, Bird Flu, SARS, etc, situation?

[DieselDaisy]

The Mediterranean's like a bigger Rio Grande with Ebola on the other side.

Also, what if that Spanish nurse who went on holiday but no one knows where went to London?

What if I made out with him?

Hmmm...

Corrected.

[Snake-Pit]

The Mediterranean's like a bigger Rio Grande with Ebola on the other side.

Also, what if that Spanish nurse who went on holiday but no one knows where went to London?

What if I made out with him?

Hmmm...

Corrected.

Are you a victim of the myth that getting with women is hard, or are you just a fat fuck and getting with women is hard, for you?

[Powerage5]

We all gon' die.

[DieselDaisy]

I will tell you one thing about myself. I have never been to a gay pride event. (I think I prefer the former Snakepit, the one that was basically homosexual and loved to attend gay pride marches rather than this, ''yeh, I fucked 5 women last night, four of which had different ethnic backgrounds to my own'' Pit.

[Snake-Pit]

I will tell you one thing about myself. I have never been to a gay pride event. (I think I prefer the former Snakepit, the one that was basically homosexual and loved to attend gay pride marches rather than this, ''yeh, I fucked 5 women last night, four of which had different ethnic backgrounds to my own'' Pit.

So you're a fat fuck who hasn't been laid in a long time.

Got it.

Also, Soho rules and pride is fun. Also, Notthing Hill is fun, life is fun.

@ pride I remember booze and people.

@ Notting Hill I remember girls winding on my cock, meeting some girl and going back to her place around the corner for sex and, beer.

[Fucking Little Schemer]

I will tell you one thing about myself. I have never been to a gay pride event. (I think I prefer the former Snakepit, the one that was basically homosexual and loved to attend gay pride marches rather than this, ''yeh, I fucked 5 women last night, four of which had different ethnic backgrounds to my own'' Pit.

So you're a fat fuck who hasn't been laid in a long time.

Got it.

Also, Soho rules and pride is fun. Also, Notthing Hill is fun, life is fun.

@ pride I remember booze and people.

@ Notting Hill I remember girls winding on my cock, meeting some girl and going back to her place around the corner for sex and, beer.

did you show her your snake?

[Snake-Pit]

I will tell you one thing about myself. I have never been to a gay pride event. (I think I prefer the former Snakepit, the one that was basically homosexual and loved to attend gay pride marches rather than this, ''yeh, I fucked 5 women last night, four of which had different ethnic backgrounds to my own'' Pit.

So you're a fat fuck who hasn't been laid in a long time.

Got it.

Also, Soho rules and pride is fun. Also, Notthing Hill is fun, life is fun.

@ pride I remember booze and people.

@ Notting Hill I remember girls winding on my cock, meeting some girl and going back to her place around the corner for sex and, beer.

did you show her your snake?

Naturally.