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CDC: First Ebola case is diagnosed in the US (Dallas)

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S

speculawyer

Member
reckless said:
If it was airborne, it would travel like the Flu and millions of people would probably be dead already.

There is still no cases of a virus mutating to become airborne.
Click to expand...

Yeah, apparently it is pretty damn unlikely for it to mutate in that manner. But that said, it seems quite infectious considering the health workers catching it.
 
R

reckless

Member
speculawyer said:
Yeah, apparently it is pretty damn unlikely for it to mutate in that manner. But that said, it seems quite infectious considering the health workers catching it.
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Well they are either working with people infected all day like in West Africa or they aren't really trained for these types of diseases like in Dallas \ Spain. Either one leads to a high chance of getting infected.
 
K

Koppai

Member
OMG, I just found out about this "Ebola-chan" meme that's going around. I laughed at it because it was so random but then I felt bad about it. :<
 
E

Ether_Snake

安安安安安安安安安安安安安安安
A top scientist worries that Ebola has mutated to become more contagious

Peter Jahrling, one of the country's top scientists, has dedicated his life to studying some of the most dangerous viruses on the planet. Twenty-five years ago, he cut his teeth on Lassa hemorrhagic fever, hunting for Ebola's viral cousin in Liberia. In 1989, he helped discover Reston, a new Ebola strain, in his Virginia lab.

Jahrling now serves as a chief scientist at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, where he runs the emerging viral pathogens section. He has been watching this Ebola epidemic with a mixture of horror, concern and scientific curiosity. And there's one thing he's found particularly worrisome: the mutations of the virus that are circulating now look to be more contagious than the ones that have turned up in the past.

When his team has run tests on patients in Liberia, they seem to carry a much higher "viral load." In other words, Ebola victims today have more of the virus in their blood &#8212; and that could make them more contagious.
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You can argue that any time the virus replicates it's going to mutate. So there is a potential for the thing to acquire an aerogenic property but that would have to be a dramatic change. When scientists have done studies, playing with influenza strains to make them more virulent, when they increase the aerosol potential of a flu strain, they also reduce its virulence. So when you start messing with viruses, you usually make them less virulent.
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Interview at the link.
 
R

RyanDG

Member
reckless said:
Ok.. there is no record of any human virus ever changing its method of transmission. And there are a lot of viruses that have had a lot more chances to mutate then Ebola has or will have.
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Yeah there is. The avian flu that was responsible for the Spanish influenze epidemic is widely hypothesized as being a case where a previously non-airbourne flu strain gestated in pigs and then became airbourne. There have been recent tests with the H1N1 virus showing how this is possible using ferrets.
 
N

Nivash

Member
RyanDG said:
Yeah there is. The avian flu that was responsible for the Spanish influenze epidemic is widely hypothesized as being a case where a previously non-airbourne flu strain gestated in pigs and then became airbourne. There have been recent tests with the H1N1 virus showing how this is possible using ferrets.
Click to expand...

Do you have any source for that? Every single source I can find says the exact opposite: there have never been a single documented instance of a virus dramatically changing its mode of transmission and any claims of one doing so is pure speculation.

Here are a two for instance: one is from the WHO, the other from a professor of microbiology and immunology at Colombia.

http://www.who.int/mediacentre/news/ebola/06-october-2014/en/

http://www.virology.ws/2014/09/18/what-we-are-not-afraid-to-say-about-ebola-virus/

I find all these supposed quotes of experts making claims that this is something that could happen strange indeed. Maybe they're being misquoted (it's not completely impossible after all, just ridiculously unlikely) or maybe they're speculating a bit too openly in front of the journalists. Either way it's a disservice to the public. Ebola changing its mode of transmission during a single limited outbreak isn't even on the map.
 
E

Ether_Snake

安安安安安安安安安安安安安安安
WHO Sees Ebola Cases as High as 10,000 a Week in West Africa by Dec. 1

The number of Ebola cases in three West African nations may jump to between 5,000 and 10,000 a week by Dec. 1 as the deadly viral infection spreads, the World Health Organization said.

The outbreak is still expanding geographically in Guinea, Sierra Leone and Liberia and accelerating in capital cities, Bruce Aylward, the WHO’s assistant director-general in charge of the Ebola response, said in a briefing with reporters in Geneva. There have been about 1,000 new cases a week for the past three to four weeks, he said.

“Any sense that the great effort that’s been kicked off over the last couple of months is already starting to see an impact, that would be really, really premature,” Aylward said. “The virus is still moving geographically and still escalating in capitals, and that’s what concerns me.”
Click to expand...

More at the link.
 
R

Raist

Banned
RyanDG said:
Yeah there is. The avian flu that was responsible for the Spanish influenze epidemic is widely hypothesized as being a case where a previously non-airbourne flu strain gestated in pigs and then became airbourne. There have been recent tests with the H1N1 virus showing how this is possible using ferrets.
Click to expand...

I've never ever heard of "avian flu", and "spanish flu" / H1N1 in the same sentence.
Nor have I ever heard of a "non-airborne influenza".
 
E

Ether_Snake

安安安安安安安安安安安安安安安
From the conference: CDC creating Ebola response team it can put on ground in hours anywhere in U.S. 'A single slip can cause an infection.' --Director Tom Frieden
 
B

Biker19

Banned
onadesertedisland said:
It would not be perfect, but I think restricting air travel from Liberia etc. until the respective outbreaks in their countries are over is the right thing to do.
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Exactly what I'm thinking. As a matter of fact, the airports in Africa should start scanning people for Ebola before letting them travel anywhere.

Raist said:
I see a few people eager to post some bad news, but a few things, I haven't seen posted:

Braintree patient isn't infected:
http://www.boston.com/health/2014/1...u-not-ebola/cNVViEqcqtN5ZZQtEG7eDP/story.html

Texas nurse is getting better:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-29623253
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That's good news to hear. :)

Ether_Snake said:
WHO Sees Ebola Cases as High as 10,000 a Week in West Africa by Dec. 1

More at the link.
Click to expand...

But then there's this news. :(
 
K

KHarvey16

Member
Biker19 said:
Exactly what I'm thinking. As a matter of fact, the airports in Africa should start scanning people for Ebola before letting them travel anywhere.
Click to expand...

You can't screen for it until people are showing symptoms. Once that happens people are usually unwilling or unable to travel.
 
A

acksman

Member
So these people recovering, can they catch it again or do they have enough antibodies to fight it off now?

If the nurse does pull through hopefully she will be able to donate more blood as that does seem to be key in all of this.
 
J

jmdajr

Member
acksman said:
So these people recovering, can they catch it again or do they have enough antibodies to fight it off now?

If the nurse does pull through hopefully she will be able to donate more blood as that does seem to be key in all of this.
Click to expand...

No clue man. I think that has need even proven to be a cure.
 
E

Eighty Deuce

Banned
Hoarding food and getting my M50 gas mask from my left over army gear ready. I'll see you folks on the flip side. Just remember if you hear of a bandit named Carlos spicy wiener, that's me and shout Gaffer. I'll share some water and talk about who was the best waifu in fire emblem awakening.
 
G

GoldenEye 007

Member
Fenderputty said:
Well fuck me.
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That's crazy. Why this outbreak versus others in the past?

That rate of infection is just.... Wow.

Edit: I believe that if you survive you do have an immunity to it. After one recovers, you're still contagious via semen for like 2-3 weeks, though. Unless the random report I saw was inaccurate.
 
F

ferrasvansen

Member
acksman said:
So these people recovering, can they catch it again or do they have enough antibodies to fight it off now?

If the nurse does pull through hopefully she will be able to donate more blood as that does seem to be key in all of this.
Click to expand...


They will have protection for roughly ten years, after that no one is quite sure yet I guess it depends on how much it mutates.
 
R

Raist

Banned
GoldenEye 007 said:
That's crazy. Why this outbreak versus others in the past?

That rate of infection is just.... Wow.

Edit: I believe that if you survive you do have an immunity to it. After one recovers, you're still contagious via semen for like 2-3 weeks, though. Unless the random report I saw was inaccurate.
Click to expand...

EBOV outbreaks usually happened in Central Africa (Almost exclusively Gabon and DRC).
So the current outbreaks is hitting countries which are completely unfamiliar with it. Also happens to be countries amongst the worst in Africa in terms of population density, GDP and healthcare workers per inhabitants.
 
G

GoldenEye 007

Member
Raist said:
EBOV outbreaks usually happened in Central Africa (Almost exclusively Gabon and DRC).
So the current outbreaks is hitting countries which are completely unfamiliar with it. Also happens to be countries amongst the worst in Africa in terms of population density, GDP and healthcare workers per inhabitants.
Click to expand...
I see. Makes sense.
 
N

Nato

Banned
reckless said:
If it was airborne, it would travel like the Flu and millions of people would probably be dead already.

There is still no cases of a virus mutating to become airborne.
Click to expand...

Influenza is not truly airborne by the technical definition. It spreads by droplets and direct contact. If you look at the R0 of influenza you will probably find it is not as high as you might expect compared to true airborne diseases like measles. Ebola obviously spreads primarily by direct contact but it is thought that droplet transmission is possible as well, similar to flu. Luckily coughing and sneezing are not common symptoms for Ebola which may explain why direct contact transmission is predominant. However, this raises the question of what might happen in a case where someone is coinfected with Ebola and the flu or common cold. Another interesting aspect is that influenza becomes much more transmitable during colder months, and according to some studies this is due to better virus stability at lower temperatures and lower humidity. Obviously every ebola outbreakto date has occurred in hot and humid environments, raising the question of whether Ebola will react similarly to influenza in a novel, winter environment.
 
N

Nuklear

Banned
Scoop them up before they sell out on Amazon! Amazon.com: EBOLA Protective Kit, Zaire ebolavirus kit


uiH9oNH.png



Not like this thing will protect you at all.
 
A

AmyS

Member
United Nations is saying there's 60 days to beat Ebola starting from Oct. 1st.

The UN says the ebola outbreak must be controlled within 60 days or else the world faces an "unprecedented" situation for which there is no plan.

The United Nations made the stark warning as it warned the disease "is running faster than us and it is winning the race".

Nearly 9,000 cases of ebola have been reported so far in West Africa, including 4,447 deaths.

"The WHO advises within 60 days we must ensure 70% of infected people are in a care facility and 70% of burials are done without causing further infection," said Anthony Banbury, the UN's deputy ebola coordinator.

"We need to do that within 60 days from 1 October. If we reach these targets then we can turn this epidemic around."
Click to expand...

The rest here along with the video:
http://news.sky.com/story/1352857/sixty-days-to-beat-ebola-united-nations-warns

Here also:
http://online.wsj.com/articles/up-t...ses-could-occur-each-week-says-who-1413293490
 
C

ChrisD

Member
Nuklear said:
Scoop them up before they sell out on Amazon! [

Not this thing will protect you at all.
Click to expand...

This has to be some elaborate joke... 4Chan, Reddit, something. Surely the general populace isn't so crazy as to get things like that to #1 on Amazon. >.>

Edit: My parents are both freaking out because CNN said 76 people in Dallas are being monitored. Apparently, some guy at work, knows a guy, who's wife is a veterinarian, who said the dog is at the Man's Best Friend right near us (Grand Prairie). We're all going to catch it, but white people will live, it's connected to Obama, the borders are the issue somehow, we need to move...

I don't want to argue with them and say how conspiracy theorist they sound -- especially since I'm no scientist/doctor -- but jeez. I thought I was the worst in the family when it came to fear by hysteria.
 
R

RyanDG

Member
Raist said:
I've never ever heard of "avian flu", and "spanish flu" / H1N1 in the same sentence.
Nor have I ever heard of a "non-airborne influenza".
Click to expand...

http://www.cdc.gov/flu/avian/gen-info/facts.htm

Specifically:

"Human influenza A viruses" usually refers to those influenza A subtypes that have spread widely among humans. Currently, H3N2 and H1N1 influenza A subtypes are circulating among humans and H2N2 influenza A circulated from about 1957-1968.
Click to expand...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Influenza_A_virus_subtype_H1N1

The Spanish flu, also known as la grippe, La Gripe Española, or La Pesadilla, was an unusually severe and deadly strain of avian influenza, a viral infectious disease, that killed some 50 to 100 million people worldwide over about a year in 1918 and 1919. It is thought to be one of the deadliest pandemics in human history.
Click to expand...

H1N1 is an avian flu subtype, and was responsible for the spanish flu.

As for the non-airbourne, I apologize. You are correct to an extent.

For example, H5N1 is currently an avian influenza strain that is only spread to humans with direct contact with the infected birds. H1N1 is speculated as being similar, until it mutated and became airborne to humans.



Nivash said:
Do you have any source for that? Every single source I can find says the exact opposite: there have never been a single documented instance of a virus dramatically changing its mode of transmission and any claims of one doing so is pure speculation.

Here are a two for instance: one is from the WHO, the other from a professor of microbiology and immunology at Colombia.

http://www.who.int/mediacentre/news/ebola/06-october-2014/en/

http://www.virology.ws/2014/09/18/what-we-are-not-afraid-to-say-about-ebola-virus/

I find all these supposed quotes of experts making claims that this is something that could happen strange indeed. Maybe they're being misquoted (it's not completely impossible after all, just ridiculously unlikely) or maybe they're speculating a bit too openly in front of the journalists. Either way it's a disservice to the public. Ebola changing its mode of transmission during a single limited outbreak isn't even on the map.
Click to expand...

Here's a couple of resources:
http://www.cidrap.umn.edu/news-perspective/2014/04/study-notes-h5n1-tweaks-boost-airborne-spread

This specifically talks about the mutation of H5N1 to become more transmissible as an airborne virus in ferrets, and its concerns for humans.

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2720273/

This article is just a brief one showing how the pigs acted as an intermediary for the eventual mutation and transmission of the airborne strain during the Spanish influenza to humans.

There are quite a few articles discussing the origins of the spanish flu, and others, but here's just a couple of examples.



Edit: As a side note - about ebola changing its method of transmission - i absolutely agree with you. The mutation of H1N1 is hypothesized to have been something that was occurring long prior to the outbreak in 1918, due to the close proximity farm animals lived to one another (and to humans). We were basically creating a festering pit that was just asking for the mutation to occur for the last 10,000 years.
 
P

Phreaker

Member
Pretty good article from NY Times today: What You Need To Know About The Ebloa Outbreak

In some parts of West Africa, there is a belief that simply saying &#8220;Ebola&#8221; aloud makes the disease appear. Such beliefs have created major obstacles for physicians trying to combat the outbreak. Some people have even blamed physicians for the spread of the virus, opting to turn to witch doctors for treatment instead. Their skepticism is not without a grain of truth: In past outbreaks, hospital staff members who did not take thorough precautions became unwitting travel agents for the virus.
Click to expand...

icJlh3H8xIX5H.png
 
M

Madness

Member
Apparently a second nurse tested positive for ebola after caring for Duncan. I think it's time the US realized this is a very contagious disease and that only the very top Hazardous protocols need to be implemented for every person who is positive.

I mean wtf, the disease isn't even airborne and two nurses who should know more than anyone are positive now.

Enough military aid, let's refocus on ending this shit in West Africa. This is a global disease in a global community and world, you can't think you'll isolate it to Africa.
 
R

Ryuuroden

Member
Madness said:
Apparently a second nurse tested positive for ebola after caring for Duncan. I think it's time the US realized this is a very contagious disease and that only the very top Hazardous protocols need to be implemented for every person who is positive.

I mean wtf, the disease isn't even airborne and two nurses who should know more than anyone are positive now.

Enough military aid, let's refocus on ending this shit in West Africa. This is a global disease in a global community and world, you can't think you'll isolate it to Africa.
Click to expand...

Yup, I just heard this news on BBC as well. Fucking inept and mismanaged hospital if some of the shit i heard is true. Not the fault of the nurses since everything I've heard is hospital management refused to provide full protective gear so that people had to go in and out with actual skin being uncovered. Nurses Union rep said on cnn that nurses had to go in an out of the containment area with no protection at times. Also that they had hazardous waste piled to the ceiling cause hospital didn't know what to do with it. None of that shit is a nurses job to take care of.
 
A

aaaaa0

Member
The problem is people have been downplaying how easy it is for Ebola to spread.

http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2014/07/31/world/africa/ebola-virus-outbreak-qa.html?_r=0
The NY Times said:
"Ebola spreads through direct contact with body fluids. If an infected person’s blood or vomit gets in another person’s eyes, nose or mouth, the virus may be transmitted. Although Ebola does not cause respiratory problems, a cough from a sick person could infect someone who has been sprayed with saliva. Because of that, being within three feet of a patient for a prolonged time without protective clothing is considered to be direct contact. Specialists at Emory University Medical Center in Atlanta have also found that the virus is present on a patient’s skin after symptoms develop, underlining how contagious the disease is once symptoms set in.

The virus can survive for several hours on surfaces, so any object contaminated with bodily fluids may spread the disease. According to the C.D.C., the virus can survive for a few hours on dry surfaces like doorknobs and countertops and can survive for several days in puddles or other collections of body fluid. Bleach solutions can kill it.
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http://www.cdc.gov/vhf/ebola/hcp/monitoring-and-movement-of-persons-with-exposure.html
The CDC said:
Close contact

Close contact is defined as
a.being within approximately 3 feet (1 meter) of an EVD patient or within the patient’s room or care area for a prolonged period of time (e.g., health care personnel, household members) while not wearing recommended personal protective equipment (i.e., standard, droplet, and contact precautions; see Infection Prevention and Control Recommendations); or
b.having direct brief contact (e.g., shaking hands) with an EVD patient while not wearing recommended personal protective equipment.

Brief interactions, such as walking by a person or moving through a hospital, do not constitute close contact.
Click to expand...

The bottom line is, if you are within 3 feet of someone that has Ebola, for longer than a few minutes, and you're not properly wearing personal protection gear and following all the tricky procedures that implies (donning correctly, safe removal procedure, never touching your face or any other unprotected part of your body, etc), that constitutes direct exposure to the virus, and carries with it some risk of infection.

In fact, if you touch any surface that has been touched by someone with Ebola within the last few hours, and then accidentally touch your face or eyes or any other vulnerable part of your body, you have some risk of infection.

This is much scarier than the people running around saying you have to drink someone's saliva or snot or semen or whatever to get Ebola.
 
E

EricTheCleric

Member
jmdajr said:
Guess the nursing union is none too pleased...
Click to expand...

yes

it appears the biggest threat of spreading ebola is, guess what..., politics

wanting to save money on organisation and structure as well as employee education is now biting the right wing politics on healthcare in the back


but lets just blame the immigrants instead...
 
N

Nuklear

Banned
Tom Frieden should be fired over the way he handled this entire situation. It's inexcusable how fucked up the Dallas situation is. The CDC should have never let them handle it alone.
 
D

Dictator93

Member
EricTheCleric said:
yes

it appears the biggest threat of spreading ebola is, guess what..., politics

wanting to save money on organisation and structure as well as employee education is now biting the right wing politics on healthcare in the back


but lets just blame the immigrants instead...
Click to expand...
Great post.
 
D

dallow_bg

nods at old men
aaaaa0 said:
The problem is people have been downplaying how easy it is for Ebola to spread.

http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2014/07/31/world/africa/ebola-virus-outbreak-qa.html?_r=0


http://www.cdc.gov/vhf/ebola/hcp/monitoring-and-movement-of-persons-with-exposure.html


The bottom line is, if you are within 3 feet of someone that has Ebola, for longer than a few minutes, and you're not properly wearing personal protection gear and following all the tricky procedures that implies (donning correctly, safe removal procedure, never touching your face or any other unprotected part of your body, etc), that constitutes direct exposure to the virus, and carries with it some risk of infection.

In fact, if you touch any surface that has been touched by someone with Ebola within the last few hours, and then accidentally touch your face or eyes or any other vulnerable part of your body, you have some risk of infection.

This is much scarier than the people running around saying you have to drink someone's saliva or snot or semen or whatever to get Ebola.
Click to expand...

I thought we understood this.
Why else would they perform top to bottom disinfecting of the patient homes.

And the close contact thing more applies to the later stages of the disease when the patient is close to death and the virus has really spread throughout their body.
Look at Duncan's close family who was living with him for a few days with early symptoms. They're just about to be cleared with no one getting sick.
 
T

thefro

Member
Nuklear said:
Tom Frieden should be fired over the way he handled this entire situation. It's inexcusable how fucked up the Dallas situation is. The CDC should have never let them handle it alone.
Click to expand...

To be fair, pretty much everyone at the local, state, and federal level messed up. CDC is only one part of that.
 
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