Ebola Outbreak

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Waterfall said:
Out of all the countries in Africa, Nigeria seems to have things under control. To me it makes sense to listen and pay attention to what it is that they're doing in turning their outbreak around. They are one of the richer and more educated of the countries, and of course that will factor into the equation, but what they are doing should be considered.
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If you look at the story of the doctor who recovered though, you'll see that their treatment facility where they housed ebola patients was well below what anyone should expect from a hospital.
 
Maybe the media should stop scaring the crap out of everyone who's not involved and focus on educating affected communities on best practices. I say that because now the fear is likely to spread faster than the virus.

When there's a hep scare does it spread (the scare that is) this far and wide? Flu kills elderly and immune compromised people in the hundreds to thousands every year.

I want to know...yet I don't want to know - of every case. I want them to prevent and treat it responsibly, is the main thing. But man, it scares me, the more they talk of the severe dangers of spread it seems the more likely they are. Sometimes it feels like it's best NOT to discuss the dangers of spread (unless you are affected live in or have visited an affected place of course) - because somebody wants people good and scared - it boosts ratings, too. I don't like the media on this. Isolated incidents needn't cause panic everywhere - need they?

The nurse in Spain was on holiday when she fell ill. They won't say where.
 
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Kimmio said:
Maybe the media should stop scaring the crap out of everyone who's not involved and focus on educating affected communities on best practices. I say that because now the fear is likely to spread faster than the virus.

When there's a hep scare does it spread (the scare that is) this far and wide? Flu kills elderly and immune compromised people in the hundreds to thousands every year.

I want to know...yet I don't want to know - of every case. I want them to prevent and treat it responsibly, is the main thing. But man, it scares me, the more they talk of the severe dangers of spread it seems the more likely they are. Sometimes it feels like it's best NOT to discuss the dangers of spread (unless you are affected live in or have visited an affected place of course) - because somebody wants people good and scared - it boosts ratings, too. I don't like the media on this. Isolated incidents needn't cause panic everywhere - need they?

The nurse in Spain was on holiday when she fell ill. They won't say where.
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I don't think there's an issue with informing people what's going on. Maybe if the media had done more of this earlier on, when I posted about this on WC1 and they thought it was close to being over, there would have been a bit more help so it would have been done.

I also think that educating people locally so they can then educate people in the area was a good idea.

I do get annoyed by media that has the facts wrong. The mainstream media from Canada seems to have most of it correct as far as I can tell though.
 
Kimmio said:
Maybe the media should stop scaring the crap out of everyone who's not involved and focus on educating affected communities on best practices. I say that because now the fear is likely to spread faster than the virus.
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Can you pinpoint some examples of what the media is doing to scare the crap out of everyone?
 
Maybe it's just me who's being "scared the crap out of". When I read that the nurse in Spain was on vacation but they won't say where...do they need to report that if it is not an issue...which it sounds like it could be (why did she not quarantine herself before going on vacation when she knew without a doubt she had close contact with an infected patient because she was directly treating him? The article I read said she had experienced a fever) ? The thing is...if we don't know where she was on vacation it's anyone's guess and then the whole world wonders. The guardian UK reports a scientist who discovered Ebola in the 70s saying he fears the worst. ...and I think I wrote back on WC1 that I had seen the movie Outbreak just before we heard about Ebola. A teacher, can't remember where I saw this, said she makes her students watch Outbreak because it is realistic in terms out how dangerous diseases get around (in the movie the virus in question was airborne but there were similarities - it came from fruit bats in Africa - someone was likening this to the Black Plague on CNN and it turns out it was a companny trying to promote an herbal potion - they don't even know what this is! And, yet, when will a vaccine be ready and who are they going to test it on?) and this one is not airborne but if you can get it from sweat then even shaking hands or patting someone on the back is a risk, isn't it - even if it's just a little bit (or am I misinformed?). ...and then there is the issue of the homeless man who was being observed for Ebola but is now in a psych ward. Brings to mind what Undef has been talking about. I wish all the networks just reported old school BBC style "this is what happened where and these are the facts" - straight up and dry - and didn't use dramatic words, tones, and headlines...and "dun dun dun dah" music (even CBC and CTV news does that, with some fearsome photo behind them - all the networks do - I can't stand that). I don't want to fear monger myself, so, media, give us the straight facts - no frills, no thrills!
 
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I didn't get the feeling the Spanish nurse's assistant was on an international holiday, although maybe I saw a different report. I took it to mean that she wasn't at work when she came down with symptoms.
Do you mean you watched outbreak just before this recent Ebola outbreak? As for how realistic the movie is, it really depends on the disease, there are very different modes of transmission.
While it is possible the homeless man is in the psych ward due to the added stress of knowing he had possible contact with Duncan, it's also quite possible the two are unrelated, the homeless population has a higher rate of mental illness than the general population.
 
ChemGal said:
I didn't get the feeling the Spanish nurse's assistant was on an international holiday, although maybe I saw a different report. I took it to mean that she wasn't at work when she came down with symptoms.
Do you mean you watched outbreak just before this recent Ebola outbreak? As for how realistic the movie is, it really depends on the disease, there are very different modes of transmission.
While it is possible the homeless man is in the psych ward due to the added stress of knowing he had possible contact with Duncan, it's also quite possible the two are unrelated, the homeless population has a higher rate of mental illness than the general population.
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I don't know if it was international or within Spain - they didn't say. They said holiday/ vacation. The article I read said something like "it wasn't clear where she was when she was on vacation". And that's the thing. They should find out and report that in order not to scare people all over the world, imo!
 
Yes, homeless have a higher rate of mental illness than the general population but it was a good reason to "bring him in" - they could not hold him otherwise. And now what's in store for him? Will we hear from him? Not likely because he's just some mentally ill homeless guy. And...it took possible contact with Ebola to get him there. And, of course, risk is showing up so soon, in the poorest areas with the greatest likelihood of spread...as predicted that it could if it hit the west. Something does not seem not right but those are the last people most people in the mainstream care about so noone will make a stink about it.


I would like to know more about the homeless guy.
 
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ChemGal said:
I didn't get the feeling the Spanish nurse's assistant was on an international holiday, although maybe I saw a different report. I took it to mean that she wasn't at work when she came down with symptoms.
Do you mean you watched outbreak just before this recent Ebola outbreak? As for how realistic the movie is, it really depends on the disease, there are very different modes of transmission.
While it is possible the homeless man is in the psych ward due to the added stress of knowing he had possible contact with Duncan, it's also quite possible the two are unrelated, the homeless population has a higher rate of mental illness than the general population.
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Yeah, I watched the movie. Realistic in terms of "this could happen". Different but not so different if we are talking about saliva and sweat, not just blood and sexual fluids (some people sweat a lot). Less transmittable than the flu, but still, highly transmittable it would seem. Look at the gear the medical personnel are wearing! As it is I think air travel should be very limited in and out of the most affected places. Limited to medical personnel...who have been quarantied if working with Ebola patients. Maybe this is why we have phone and video conferencing/ Skype...so business can be conducted without travel when necessary!
 
Kimmio said:
Yes, homeless have a higher rate of mental illness than the general population but it was a good reason to "bring him in" - they could not hold him otherwise. And now what's in store for him? Will we hear from him? Not likely because he's just some mentally ill homeless guy. And...it took possible contact with Ebola to get him there. And, of course, risk is showing up so soon, in the poorest areas with the greatest likelihood of spread...as predicted that it could if it hit the west. Something does not seem not right but those are the last people most people in the mainstream care about so noone will make a stink about it.


I would like to know more about the homeless guy.
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You're assuming that he is in the hospital due to the Ebola issue. I'm not quite so sure, it seems odd that he was being searched for, as he wasn't complying with checking in, yet it was eventually discovered he was in the hospital. To me, filling in the gaps, it seemed like he was admitted without the information being conveyed. It is all speculation as the reporting on him was spotty and I get it - he has his right to privacy.
 
Does ebola thrive in warmer weather? What are the ideal conditions for ebola to thrive? Does colder weather decrease or increase it's spread? Or not affect it at all?

Climate change seems to have affected the increase of other viruses and the locations they are now found.
 
Interesting article in the Wall Street Journal regarding the Firestone rubber plant in LIberia. Had ebola come into facility / workers. Implemented lockdown procedures, proper meds, management learned about the disease, how it spreads. They have had great results. In a land of poverty, they refocussed their resources (houses, etc) to treat the problem with "1st world" solutions.

The surrounding country, though, cannot, and does not have the resources to do so.

It also covered the challenges of Liberia, the civil war, the decimation and rebuilding of the land/property/equipment. The multiple levels of the problem, including that many doctors from Liberia fled during the civil war and are practising in other countries, such as US and Europe.

The problems don't just start.
A land is fertile for civil war, for illness, for epidemics, for starvation.

Symptoms ignored, it's not our problem, and eventually, it becomes our problem.

In some ways, I don't mind the paranoia of the folks in Canada, US and Europe. It may force people to be willing to assist folks in other locations with much needed resources.
 
Waterfall said:
Does ebola thrive in warmer weather? What are the ideal conditions for ebola to thrive? Does colder weather decrease or increase it's spread? Or not affect it at all?

Climate change seems to have affected the increase of other viruses and the locations they are now found.
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Like all viruses, it needs a host to replicate. To just survive outside a host, cool, dark and humid:
http://www.ctvnews.ca/health/ebola-how-long-can-it-live-on-a-surface-what-if-it-mutates-1.2041584
 
Pinga said:
In some ways, I don't mind the paranoia of the folks in Canada, US and Europe. It may force people to be willing to assist folks in other locations with much needed resources.
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Or, as sometimes happened in the past, it can just play into the hands of isolationists who want to shut out the world and let it go to hell. That's a particular risk in the US which has a history of isolationism but I could see some factions in Canada playing that card, too, though it is less likely to succeed given our history of foreign aid and action.
 
ChemGal said:
So in addition to the smaller secondary Ebola outbreak, there is also a Marburg outbreak:
http://www.forbes.com/sites/davidkr...health-worker-dies-of-marburg-ebola-relative/

It makes you wonder a bit if someone is going on to have so many outbreaks around the same time, or if they are just being recognized for what they are.
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hoosht!

i'm glad there isn't an uberlovingpowerfulknowing creator of both good and evil and neutrals things that we can blame this on -- what an abusive monster that would be -- who would be the Simon Wiesenthal?

i'm glad that its just imperfect reality, us working bit by bit through our lives, acting and reacting, doing, no magic wands, no perfect cures or panaceas, etc etc etc
 
Latest News
Last Updated: October 13, 2014 04:24 GMT


Imported Cases Many locations are testing people who have traveled to Ebola-affected countries and returned with a fever and other symptoms. Nigeria, Senegal and the United States have confirmed imported cases of Ebola. International SOS is monitoring these closely. Click here for more details.

13 October Sierra Leone: In the latest WHO situation reports, 137 newly confirmed cases have been identified up to 11 October. Read more...

Liberia: Media sources report that healthcare workers have planned an indefinite strike starting midnight 12 October. Read more...
  • Healthcare workers have planned an indefinite strike starting midnight 12 October.They are demanding higher salary considering the risks faced while treating Ebola patients. Government officials are trying to resolve the issue. In Liberia, more than 90 healthcare workers have died of Ebola.
12 October United States: A healthcare worker at the Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital who cared for the nation's first Ebola developed a fever on 10 October and was confirmed to have Ebola today. The woman is hospitalized in isolation, and reportedly only had contact with one other person while showing signs of Ebola. That person is under "active monitoring" and has no symptoms. This is the first time Ebola has moved person-to-person in the United States, and only the second time it has ever spread between people outside Africa. (The first was a healthcare worker in Spain, announced last week.) The general public in Texas is not at risk. Read more about Ebola in the US...

11 October Spain: The nurse's condition is said to be improving, following treatment with ZMapp. Read more...

United States: Journalists from US NBC News who worked with an infected photojournalist (see story below, 6 October) have been ordered into quarantine in New Jersey. The order came after the crew did not comply with voluntary isolation. None of them have any symptoms of illness. They are required to stay in home isolation until 22 October. The infected photojournalist is said to be improving.
 
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