Ebola Outbreak

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Last night. On CBC radio. Maybe I got it wrong. For some reason I thought he helped an elderly woman. Maybe there was something else about an elderly woman somewhere and I mixed them up. He tried to help a woman in distress. That much I remember.
 
Yeah I am just thinking that in a chaotic crisis you just 'do' and don't have time necessarily to be too careful. I don't blame him. I think I understand. Also, there was a man (not mixing this up) interviewed on CBC last week who said he is from a very poor family and the government gave households lists of supplies to have during self quaruntine (including bleach perhaps - disinfectants) and he can't afford them. He was going to have enough trouble feeding the family for 10 days with no work. So it may seem straightforward to us but I am sure it is very difficult in actuality, in an impoverished place - this man did not sound uneducated. He spoke fairly clear English.
 
Kimmio said:
Yeah I am just thinking that in a chaotic crisis you just 'do' and don't have time necessarily to be too careful. I don't blame him. I think I understand. Also, there was a man (not mixing this up) interviewed on CBC last week who said he is from a very poor family and the government gave households lists of supplies to have during self quaruntine (including bleach perhaps - disinfectants) and he can't afford them. He was going to have enough trouble feeding the family for 10 days with no work. So it may seem straightforward to us but I am sure it is very difficult in actuality, in an impoverished place - this man did not sound uneducated. He spoke fairly clear English.
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There are some reports that there may be criminal charges against the man currently hospitalized. Nothing confirmed, but he may have lied during screening questions.
 
He may not have known that he could be a carrier without symptoms. Or maybe he wanted to get back to Dallas where he knew he'd have a better chance of surviving after what he'd witnessed? It must've been scary to be there.
 
He was probably terrified. Well, I hope he survives and it didn't spread from him is all. I think they should stop flights in and out of those countries except for medical personnel. Too risky.
 
Kimmio said:
He may not have known that he could be a carrier without symptoms. Or maybe he wanted to get back to Dallas where he knew he'd have a better chance of surviving after what he'd witnessed? It must've been scary to be there.
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The lying wasn't about knowing if he had it, just if it was a possibility (ie contact with someone who had it).
He wasn't going 'back' to Dallas, he has never been to the US before.
 
An American cameraman working in Liberia has tested positive. Between this and more importantly the case in Dallas, I expect the US is going to step up help.
 
It can't be spread before 'symptoms' appear. What about if a person contracted it, didn't know it yet, had no symptoms of actual illness and sneezed because of getting a tickle in their nose, but didn't cover their heir nose and mouth in time? What if it was just a normal sneeze that happens to healthy people - couldn't an 'achoo' spread it? If some snot or spittle actually sprayed into the air and landed on you? If not, why not?
 
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Kimmio said:
It can't be spread before 'symptoms' appear. What about if a person contracted it, didn't know it yet, had no symptoms of actual illness and sneezed because of getting a tickle in their nose, but didn't cover their face in time? What if it was just a normal sneeze that happens to healthy people - couldn't an 'achoo' spread it? If some snot or spittle actually sprayed into the air and landed on you? If not, why not?
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No, it does not spread that way. The ebola virus is not present in the upper respiratory tract. Which is also why it is highly unlikely to go airborne.
 
Kimmio said:
That's good. So it has to be blood, sexual fluids, urine, feces, vomit (sorry but that's what we've got in us) - what about perspiration?
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I've seen sweat listed. It's not very often you see that included in a possible transmission fluid, I'm not certain how it compares to the others in the case. In general, certain fluids are worse than others and they very for different diseases. I'm pretty sure tears is one for Ebola as well.
Someone isn't contagious until they have symptoms as the viral load isn't high enough. The virus has to replicate before someone is infectious, and in the case of Ebola someone has symptoms by that point as it creates a very strong immune response.

I would expect large quantities, like if someone with ebola donated blood before they had symptoms could also transmit the disease, that would be pretty extreme though.
 
Small study:
Clinical specimens. Fifty-four specimens from 26 patients, 12 (46%) of whom died, were collected (table 1). Sixteen clinical specimens from 12 patients were positive by virus culture (4 specimens) and/or RT-PCR (16 specimens), including saliva (8 of 16), skin swab (1 of 11), stool (2 of 4), semen (1 of 2), breast milk (2 of 2), tears (1 of 1), and nasal blood (1 of 1). No virus was found in urine (0 of 11), vomit (0 of 2), sputum (0 of 2), sweat (0 of 1), or the body louse (0 of 1). Three of the 16 positive specimens (2 saliva and 1 nasal blood) visibly contained blood.
http://jid.oxfordjournals.org/content/196/Supplement_2/S142.full
 
A CDC study in 2007 found that Ebola is shed through other bodily fluids during the illness, such as saliva, breast milk and semen. In most cases, these fluids were not visibly contaminated by blood, but they still contained the virus. That study didn't look at sweat, but another one suggested that Ebola could be passed on through sweat.

Researchers suspect the amount of Ebola in these other fluids, like saliva and sweat, to be much lower.
http://www.npr.org/blogs/goatsandso.../how-do-you-catch-ebola-by-air-sweat-or-water
 
@Pinga No, I didn't. I just went looking and couldn't find it.

Now, apparently, the man in Dallas was in contact with a homeless man - they didn't say how - and they located the man and brought him in for testing but he chose to leave the hospital (???) something's weird about that, isn't it - or is it just me who thinks so? Now, there's a random homeless man - they don't know if he has it - and if it spreads (and where would it be most likely to spread - in poor communities?), who are they going to blame it on? I'd prefer to stay away from conpiracies - so I wonder if we will get more details on this man and how the originally infected man was in contact with him.

http://www.cbc.ca/news/world/dallas-ebola-case-lone-u-s-patient-fighting-for-his-life-1.2788183
 
The CBC phone in ws pretty good and the expert addressed many of the questions addresed here.

They discussed the social /economic items which make ebola so dangerous in Africa. It covered such things as why the medical workers were dying (lack of equipment), why the patients were dying (lack of rehydration -- most ebola patients die from lack of fluids), why there is fear regarding the doctors coming in to a town (poor equipment usage results in spreading disease, ie reuse of needles).
They discussed why planes are safe to be on (air is recirculated & cleaned), why it's not the same as SARS (cannot be spread by coughing), and many many more solid responses to questions asked in this thread.
 
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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