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Ebola: Doctors told to prep for global outbreak after victim allowed on two planes

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R

Raist

Banned
iamaustrian said:
You know, there's a reason Ebola is one of the few category A diseases. It's in the same league as smallpox, plague and anthrax.
It's one of the worst viruses on this planet and should not be shrugged off as "but the flu kills more" like so many do.

Here is a very good documentary about Ebola and why it is so horrible.
Click to expand...

No one is saying the virus is not that bad. It's a deadly one of course. But the chances of this spreading like wildfire are essentially zero, so the whole "omg guys person X in country Y is being tested omg omg" reactions are rather funny.

Anyway, here's a great article from The Guardian, about the "OMG PANIIIIIC" reactions, and their consequences.

http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/aug/05/ebola-worrying-disease
 
B

Bam Bam Baklava

Member
CNN is having a field day these days. It's all "CRISIS CRISIS EBOLA CRISIS GAZA UKRAINE CRISIS CRISIS ISIS CRISIS!!!"

I would say network news has it's uses when it comes to breaking news but even then they just spread unconfirmed rumors and theories.
 
S

StickSoldier

Member
So, like, I thought Ebola was going to get shut out pretty quickly according to what some people were saying, but it seems to be getting pretty bad... What exactly do we do to stop the spreading of the disease? I mean, who knows where the disease has been spread to with the businesses still allowing airlines to transport people from West Africa to different countries, right? I can't really put my finger on it, but I just feel like this is gonna get out of control soon especially once it starts hitting bigger cities. Maybe I'm just being nervous for no reason, since I live in the middle of no where Oklahoma, but I can't lie and say I don't feel a tiny bit nervous when Ebola keeps getting brought up in the news, each time worse and worse.
 
C

CarpeDeezNutz

Member
Omega Ultimus said:
I'm pretty sure it doesn't cause necrosis (if that's what you're referring to by "flesh-eating"), otherwise here's the rundown on the virus:
http://www.who.int/mediacentre/factsheets/fs103/en/
Click to expand...

Thanks, not the same scare when I was a teenager, I forget the name back then.

UberTag said:
What was the last viral outbreak to be declared an international public health emergency?
H1N1 in 2009?
Click to expand...

Who even remembers? So many have been thrown at us I forget which is which, can't even remember what the flesh eating one's official name is/was.
 
O

Omega Ultimus

Member
CarpeDeezNutz said:
Thanks, not the same scare when I was a teenager, I forget the name back then.



Who even remembers? So many have been thrown at us I forget which is which, can't even remember what the flesh eating one's official name is/was.
Click to expand...

Hmmm, maybe it was Anthrax? I know that was infamous for a while (and there was fear of an outbreak earlier this year, but that was quickly contained).
 
TheStruggler

TheStruggler

Report me for trolling ND/TLoU2 threads
littleworm said:
Well they needed to give Atlanta something after taking its hockey team from them.
Click to expand...

Denzel-Washington-Boom-Gif.gif
 
C

CarpeDeezNutz

Member
Omega Ultimus said:
Hmmm, maybe it was Anthrax? I know that was infamous for a while (and there was fear of an outbreak earlier this year, but that was quickly contained).
Click to expand...


Nope, but also there was a rumor going around in the early 00's that cocaine was laced with anthrax. An effort by the Taliban to take down partiers. (Not joking).

Necrotizing Fasciitis is what I am thinkng of but I forget what the buzzword was.
 
R

rhizomatic

Member
StickSoldier said:
So, like, I thought Ebola was going to get shut out pretty quickly according to what some people were saying, but it seems to be getting pretty bad... What exactly do we do to stop the spreading of the disease? I mean, who knows where the disease has been spread to with the businesses still allowing airlines to transport people from West Africa to different countries, right? I can't really put my finger on it, but I just feel like this is gonna get out of control soon especially once it starts hitting bigger cities. Maybe I'm just being nervous for no reason, since I live in the middle of no where Oklahoma, but I can't lie and say I don't feel a tiny bit nervous when Ebola keeps getting brought up in the news, each time worse and worse.
Click to expand...

From what I understand (based on the couple dozen news articles I've read), the best way to prevent the further spread of Ebola is through extremely meticulous contact tracing of Ebola patients, and then, upon finding those contacts, keeping a close eye on them for the duration of the virus's incubation period. It's unfortunately a method that requires a lot of legwork, though, and for an outbreak of this size, it's a logistical nightmare. I would assume this only gets more complicated when you factor in air travel.

The CDC is insisting that there's not much to fear if you're in a developed country, though, because a lot of the problems apparently come down to really inadequate supplies and conditions for doctors and hospitals. These are some of the poorest countries in the world, and in addition, there are a lot of rumors going around that make a lot of people there very skeptical of doctors who are trying to help, which certainly doesn't help things. I don't think they're saying there's no chance of someone with Ebola coming back home to, say, the US, just that if they do, the healthcare infrastructure is much better equipped to deal with it.

I mean, I've been wringing my hands about this for the past couple weeks, but I have so many other things to worry about in my life right now that it's really not worth worrying about, at least not worrying about it becoming an epidemic in the US. I am, however, quite worried about the situation in West Africa, and how the WHO, the CDC, and other organizations actually plan to deal with it. The outbreak is nowhere near over yet.

UberTag said:
What was the last viral outbreak to be declared an international public health emergency?
H1N1 in 2009?
Click to expand...

It was actually polio earlier this year, apparently. http://www.nytimes.com/2014/05/06/health/world-health-organization-polio-health-emergency.html
 
B

Bam Bam Baklava

Member
StickSoldier said:
So, like, I thought Ebola was going to get shut out pretty quickly according to what some people were saying, but it seems to be getting pretty bad... What exactly do we do to stop the spreading of the disease? I mean, who knows where the disease has been spread to with the businesses still allowing airlines to transport people from West Africa to different countries, right? I can't really put my finger on it, but I just feel like this is gonna get out of control soon especially once it starts hitting bigger cities. Maybe I'm just being nervous for no reason, since I live in the middle of no where Oklahoma, but I can't lie and say I don't feel a tiny bit nervous when Ebola keeps getting brought up in the news, each time worse and worse.
Click to expand...

Sorry we're being realistic and calm instead of hyperbolic and panicky.

If you're gonna worry. Worry for the people of the region and not about some Last of Us apocalypse.
 
S

StickSoldier

Member
rhizomatic said:
From what I understand (based on the couple dozen news articles I've read), the best way to prevent the further spread of Ebola is through extremely meticulous contact tracing of Ebola patients, and then, upon finding those contacts, keeping a close eye on them for the duration of the virus's incubation period. It's unfortunately a method that requires a lot of legwork, though, and for an outbreak of this size, it's a logistical nightmare. I would assume this only gets more complicated when you factor in air travel.

The CDC is insisting that there's not much to fear if you're in a developed country, though, because a lot of the problems apparently come down to really inadequate supplies and conditions for doctors and hospitals. These are some of the poorest countries in the world, and in addition, there are a lot of rumors going around that make a lot of people there very skeptical of doctors who are trying to help, which certainly doesn't help things. I don't think they're saying there's no chance of someone with Ebola coming back home to, say, the US, just that if they do, the healthcare infrastructure is much better equipped to deal with it.

I mean, I've been wringing my hands about this for the past couple weeks, but I have so many other things to worry about in my life right now that it's really not worth worrying about, at least not worrying about it becoming an epidemic in the US. I am, however, quite worried about the situation in West Africa, and how the WHO, the CDC, and other organizations actually plan to deal with it. The outbreak is nowhere near over yet.



It was actually polio earlier this year, apparently. http://www.nytimes.com/2014/05/06/health/world-health-organization-polio-health-emergency.html
Click to expand...

Yeah, seems like it's going to be very hard to contain with how people are reacting to the disease over in Africa. You hear all these stories about people kissing their loved ones after passing, which is apparently when the disease is at it's most potent. Then you have people fleeing to different locations, attacking health workers, and doctors themselves dying. It's a very hard thing to grasp at how to stop it from successfully spreading. It's just not heading in a good direction.

And I know the chances of it reaching my town is almost 0%, but I wonder what the chances of it getting over to another country are right now, other than the 2 Americans being brought over. I guess there's nothing we can really do and no reason to worry about it yet. Just gotta continue to keep an eye on the news to make sure we're in the know I suppose.

Bam Bam Baklava said:
Sorry we're being realistic and calm instead of hyperbolic and panicky.

If you're gonna worry. Worry for the people of the region and not about some Last of Us apocalypse.
Click to expand...

I'm sorry, go ahead and be realistic man, that's fine with me. I'm worried about everyone involved because people are losing their lives to it. This is horrible situation for all involved. It seems to me that you think I'm not worried about the people who are living this based on my initial post you replied to, but that's completely inaccurate. My bad if that's what you thought. I was just assuming that from when people initially were saying that Ebola was hard to spread and it would die down, that it should have happened already. It just seems to be getting worse and I don't see any closure of this in near sight at the current rate it's spreading. That's all.
 
T

Tacitus_

Member
StickSoldier said:
I'm sorry, go ahead and be realistic man, that's fine with me. I'm worried about everyone involved because people are losing their lives to it. This is horrible situation for all involved. It seems to me that you think I'm not worried about the people who are living this based on my initial post you replied to, but that's completely inaccurate. My bad if that's what you thought. I was just assuming that from when people initially were saying that Ebola was hard to spread and it would die down, that it should have happened already. It just seems to be getting worse and I don't see any closure of this in near sight at the current rate it's spreading. That's all.
Click to expand...

People are losing their lives everyday. It's nothing new. Or did this get on your nerves just because it has a chance to spread out of the regions we don't think about?
 
S

StickSoldier

Member
Tacitus_ said:
People are losing their lives everyday. It's nothing new. Or did this get on your nerves just because it has a chance to spread out of the regions we don't think about?
Click to expand...

Get on my nerves? What do you mean man? What reason do I have to be getting annoyed about when there's something much greater at hand? I don't hold what you guys say to heart, it's just a minor observation I had when the Ebola started really hitting the news. Anyways, I was just asking a question lol. I know people lose their lives everyday, it just so happens that this is a pretty big thing going on right now in the world. That's not to say that anyone's death is less horrible. Death sucks period.
 
T

Tacitus_

Member
StickSoldier said:
Get on my nerves? What do you mean man? What reason do I have to be getting annoyed about when there's something much greater at hand? I don't hold what you guys say to heart, it's just a minor observation I had when the Ebola started really hitting the news. Anyways, I was just asking a question lol. I know people lose their lives everyday, it just so happens that this is a pretty big thing going on right now in the world. That's not to say that anyone's death is less horrible. Death sucks period.
Click to expand...

Get in your nerves as in - get worried.

Anyways, this is still a fairly minor thing. There have been <2k cases , while for comparisons sake, malaria killed at least 200k people in 2012 (with suspected deaths tripling that count), but only Bill Gates seems to care about that.
 
S

StickSoldier

Member
Tacitus_ said:
Get in your nerves as in - get worried.

Anyways, this is still a fairly minor thing. There have been <2k cases , while for comparisons sake, malaria killed at least 200k people in 2012 (with suspected deaths tripling that count), but only Bill Gates seems to care about that.
Click to expand...

Ahh sorry man, my misunderstanding. Yeah, I think it's just because it's the first time that I've actually been self aware of a situation like this in my life. I never followed anything like this before, so it's something that sort of is on my mind a bit. I'll just sit back and watch the TV to see how it progresses, because as of now, who knows what direction it's heading in.

Edit: I've got a lot of growing up to do if you can't tell lol. I sheltered myself from things like this my whole life because I was stupid, so I might come across as not very informed.
 
N

Nivash

Member
StickSoldier said:
And I know the chances of it reaching my town is almost 0%, but I wonder what the chances of it getting over to another country are right now, other than the 2 Americans being brought over. I guess there's nothing we can really do and no reason to worry about it yet. Just gotta continue to keep an eye on the news to make sure we're in the know I suppose.
Click to expand...

There's a possibility that someone infected could get on a plane, travel to some other country and develop symptoms there but that's not truly a spread of the disease and the risk of that person infecting anyone else is extremely low.

The outbreak virus was analysed months ago and it's the same old Ebola Zaire as always. We know how to deal with that. There have been cases of hemorrhagic fevers in the West before and they have always been contained quickly. The very similar Marburg virus - especially in mode of transmission - was discovered 1967 in Germany and Yugoslavia but only caused 31 cases with 7 deaths. And this was back when no one even knew what it was yet. Another case of Marburg occurred in 1990 in Sweden but no one else was infected and the index case even survived.

There's been a lot of talk about how Patrick Sawyer managed to board a plane while infectious but there's been much less talk about how he doesn't appear to have infected anyone except that doctors and nurses treating him (who would have been in direct contact and therefore at the greatest risk). Sawyer was quarantined in Nigeria 19 days ago and Ebola has an incubation time of a maximum of 21 days, with the hospital staff that Sawyer did infect developing symptoms within days. Had Sawyer infected anyone before them we would have known by now.

Point is, Ebola is not a particularly easily transmitted disease. The reason it's spreading in Western Africa is down to the area being very poor with limited healthcare (worst-hit Liberia only had 1 doctor and 27 nurses/100 000 people in 2010) with some unfortunate cultural trends of mistrusting authorities and unsanitary burial practices making things worse.

Ebola is not a threat to the western world. Or most of the eastern or southern either for that matter.
 
I

iamaustrian

Member
Nivash said:
There's a possibility that someone infected could get on a plane, travel to some other country and develop symptoms there but that's not truly a spread of the disease and the risk of that person infecting anyone else is extremely low.

The outbreak virus was analysed months ago and it's the same old Ebola Zaire as always. We know how to deal with that. There have been cases of hemorrhagic fevers in the West before and they have always been contained quickly. The very similar Marburg virus - especially in mode of transmission - was discovered 1967 in Germany and Yugoslavia but only caused 31 cases with 7 deaths. And this was back when no one even knew what it was yet. Another case of Marburg occurred in 1990 in Sweden but no one else was infected and the index case even survived.

There's been a lot of talk about how Patrick Sawyer managed to board a plane while infectious but there's been much less talk about how he doesn't appear to have infected anyone except that doctors and nurses treating him (who would have been in direct contact and therefore at the greatest risk). Sawyer was quarantined in Nigeria 19 days ago and Ebola has an incubation time of a maximum of 21 days, with the hospital staff that Sawyer did infect developing symptoms within days. Had Sawyer infected anyone before them we would have known by now.

Point is, Ebola is not a particularly easily transmitted disease. The reason it's spreading in Western Africa is down to the area being very poor with limited healthcare (worst-hit Liberia only had 1 doctor and 27 nurses/100 000 people in 2010) with some unfortunate cultural trends of mistrusting authorities and unsanitary burial practices making things worse.

Ebola is not a threat to the western world. Or most of the eastern or southern either for that matter.
Click to expand...

There are 8 confirmed cases now that Sawyer has infected. I doubt all of these were medical staff. One nurse died already.

Furthermore the WHO declares Ebola epidemic(with almost 1000 dead) a global health emergency.
The Ebola outbreak raging in West Africa is a global public health emergency that requires a strong and immediate coordinated international response to stop it, the World Health Organization (WHO) said today. However, this does not mean that all, or even many, countries will see Ebola cases.

The current Ebola outbreak in West Africa is the "largest, most severe, and most complex outbreak in the nearly 4-decade history of this disease. [It's] moving faster than we can control it," Margaret Chan, MD, director-general of the WHO, said at a news conference in Geneva, Switzerland.
Click to expand...

sources:
http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/08/08/us-health-ebola-emergency-idUSKBN0G80M620140808
http://edition.cnn.com/2014/08/08/health/ebola-outbreak/
http://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/829629

edit:
The 75 years old spanish patient arrived in europe(Madrid). He seems to be stable with no "extrenal bleedings".
YculTvV.jpg
 
A

Alucrid

Banned
StickSoldier said:
So, like, I thought Ebola was going to get shut out pretty quickly according to what some people were saying, but it seems to be getting pretty bad... What exactly do we do to stop the spreading of the disease? I mean, who knows where the disease has been spread to with the businesses still allowing airlines to transport people from West Africa to different countries, right? I can't really put my finger on it, but I just feel like this is gonna get out of control soon especially once it starts hitting bigger cities. Maybe I'm just being nervous for no reason, since I live in the middle of no where Oklahoma, but I can't lie and say I don't feel a tiny bit nervous when Ebola keeps getting brought up in the news, each time worse and worse.
Click to expand...

Unless you like in Oklahoma, Liberia, then you have nothing to worry about.
 
I

iamaustrian

Member
mario_O said:
Nigeria declares state of emergency over Ebola.
Seven cases confirmed of Ebola in Lagos two of whom have died, and with several dozen under surveillance.

http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/08/08/us-health-ebola-nigeria-jonathan-idUSKBN0G81WB20140808
Click to expand...

update: 9 confirmed now; 2 dead, 139 under surveillance
source(s): http://www.vanguardngr.com/2014/08/ebola-alert-nigeria-records-2-deaths-9-cases/
and austrian radio news broadcast.

Patrick Sawyer's deadly legacy spreading
 
S

Spineker

Banned
I very much doubt the western world is at much risk but Africa is in big trouble if they don't get this thing under control.
 
N

Nivash

Member
iamaustrian said:
There are 8 confirmed cases now that Sawyer has infected. I doubt all of these were medical staff. One nurse died already.
Click to expand...

So far there are no evidence to the contrary and all of them being medical staff remains the most likely. Nigeria hasn't been helpful at giving out details on how they were infected but have at least stated that they were all in direct contact with Sawyer, which the medical staff would be. What has been confirmed however is that Sawyer was not treated as an Ebola case for 24 hours after arrival at the hospital which leaves a wide window for staff to be infected.

This is what I suspected from the beginning because there simply is no way that many staff members would have been infected if they had followed procedure.

Edit: we're also only days away from the end of the 21 day incubation period so we should have a clear picture of just how many Sawyer infected soon enough.
 
T

Tigress

Member
ferr said:
I was playing some Plague Inc the other day and I definitely think we should all go to Greenland and shutdown ports then work on a cure from there.
Click to expand...

I was playing Plague, put it on normal, and tried to keep the virus as close to ebola as possible (nixing any mutations that were definitely not symptoms and I think I gave it spreadable by rodents to mimic animal spread, particularly bats). The virus was so lame that Madagascar never closed its borders cause they never got threatened enough (nor greenland) and they didn't even get halfway to the cure before my virus killed off all hosts and couldn't spread anymore. I think I only even killed off the "country" it started in (Central Africa, I meant to do west but tapped the wrong area). US got 4 cases and that was it. There were many countries in Africa even that it petered out pretty quickly (S. AFrica got a few hundred cases and once again it killed all the hosts before it could spread more).
 
I

iamaustrian

Member
Nivash said:
Edit: we're also only days away from the end of the 21 day incubation period so we should have a clear picture of just how many Sawyer infected soon enough.
Click to expand...

Not really.
They are still searching for all the people he had contact with as they are hundrets or even thousands.
It's not only the plane's crew. There are also the normal airport crew, shops and cafes owners and their customers. Hell, even the cleaning staff of the toilets and every single one who has used said toilet is at possible risk
 
L

Laekon

Member
How did the two Americans get Ebola if it is hard to spread while using normal medical procedures? All the pictures I've seen from Africa show people using full coverage gear. If your using that type of equipment I think they would also be washing it off before taking it off.

The tea party stuff about this is just crazy.
 
S

SteveWinwood

Member
Laekon said:
How did the two Americans get Ebola if it is hard to spread while using normal medical procedures? All the pictures I've seen from Africa show people using full coverage gear. If your using that type of equipment I think they would also be washing it off before taking it off.

The tea party stuff about this is just crazy.
Click to expand...
They were interacting with him extensively before they knew he had Ebola.
 
W

Wilsongt

Member
Tigress said:
Just search ebola on G+ and you'll find some really crazy conspiracy theories. Apparently Obama wants to bring Ebola over here and create an epidemic so he has an excuse to force a vaccine down us and put in martial law and take away our guns (I'm not exagerating, I really did see some article on that that some one had linked on G+. It was on the teaparty.org site apparently. Admittedly I don't think the vaccine part was there, that was just another crazy theory but I've seen that theory linked with the overall theory so I added it in). Actually I'm surprised this isn't some Kenyan plot by the non US citizen to bring down the US (let me guess, there is a theory about that too somewhere?).

Actually, here's the link to the theory I just posted so people can see I'm not making up that there are people proposing that ebola is a way to take away our guns: http://www.teaparty.org/ebola-outbreak-can-lead-gun-confiscations-martial-law-50532/. The comments are just as crazy!

You'd think it was an Onion article.
Click to expand...

Infowars...
 
N

Nivash

Member
SteveWinwood said:
They were interacting with him extensively before they knew he had Ebola.
Click to expand...

Yeah, Nigeria has confirmed that it took 24 hours after he arrived at the hospital before they knew it was Ebola. The reason is that he had a transfer in Togo so they didn't know that he travelled from Liberia first.

That leaves a long time for medical staff to come in contact with fluids before they knew that it wasn't Malaria or whatever working diagnosis they had.
 
K

kess

Member
Tigress said:
Just search ebola on G+ and you'll find some really crazy conspiracy theories. Apparently Obama wants to bring Ebola over here and create an epidemic so he has an excuse to force a vaccine down us and put in martial law and take away our guns (I'm not exagerating, I really did see some article on that that some one had linked on G+. It was on the teaparty.org site apparently.
Click to expand...

Awesome, the same sort of conspiracy mongering that's helping the disease spread in West Africa.
 
K

kamorra

Fuck Cancer
I can now confirm that transmission through digital media is actually possible since I've had very high fever for the last four days. Please be alarmed.
 
A

Alastor3

Member
I read somewhere that people that get infected and survive can still give the virus to others for 2 months after the infection.

Do we have news about the two person that receive the prototype vaccine in the US ?
 
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