Ebola virus, thoughts and information

[Mojoe]

I just posted some info on my Facebook page and thought it would be interesting to hear the thoughts of CR on the topic. In short, media is reporting to scare people, not to inform them of how the virus spreads or what to do if concerned of infection. That info is here

http://www.who.int/mediacentre/factsheets/fs103/en/

 

Key facts

 

Ebola virus disease (EVD), formerly known as Ebola haemorrhagic fever, is a severe, often fatal illness in humans.

EVD outbreaks have a case fatality rate of up to 90%.

EVD outbreaks occur primarily in remote villages in Central and West Africa, near tropical rainforests.

The virus is transmitted to people from wild animals and spreads in the human population through human-to-human transmission.

Fruit bats of the Pteropodidae family are considered to be the natural host of the Ebola virus.

Severely ill patients require intensive supportive care. No licensed specific treatment or vaccine is available for use in people or animals.

 

Transmission

 

Ebola is introduced into the human population through close contact with the blood, secretions, organs or other bodily fluids of infected animals. In Africa, infection has been documented through the handling of infected chimpanzees, gorillas, fruit bats, monkeys, forest antelope and porcupines found ill or dead or in the rainforest.

 

Ebola then spreads in the community through human-to-human transmission, with infection resulting from direct contact (through broken skin or mucous membranes) with the blood, secretions, organs or other bodily fluids of infected people, and indirect contact with environments contaminated with such fluids. Burial ceremonies in which mourners have direct contact with the body of the deceased person can also play a role in the transmission of Ebola. Men who have recovered from the disease can still transmit the virus through their semen for up to 7 weeks after recovery from illness.

 

Signs and symptoms

 

EVD is a severe acute viral illness often characterized by the sudden onset of fever, intense weakness, muscle pain, headache and sore throat. This is followed by vomiting, diarrhoea, rash, impaired kidney and liver function, and in some cases, both internal and external bleeding. Laboratory findings include low white blood cell and platelet counts and elevated liver enzymes.

 

People are infectious as long as their blood and secretions contain the virus. Ebola virus was isolated from semen 61 days after onset of illness in a man who was infected in a laboratory.

 

The incubation period, that is, the time interval from infection with the virus to onset of symptoms, is 2 to 21 days.

 

That is just a quick copy and paste from the link above.

 

Scarey cliffs:

50-90% of people who get it die from it.

No known, proven treatment.

 

The only plus side to this thing is there's nothing to support it being able to be spread airborne. Virus's and chemical attacks are the nastiest things I can think of.

[bdhill]

A lot of media are trying to generate ratings...Yes, it is a threat, and so are several other "rare" diseases. It is no more a threat to us today than it was 5 or ten years ago. In the future, I feel diseases that have grown resistant to treatments are our biggest threat. The huge influx of non-inoculated immigrants/kids are a bigger threat right now-

[Snowflake]

I say that if you choose to go over to Africa to help people with Ebola and end up with it, Dont expect me to feel sorry for you. I also think that the people that go over to risk their lives to treat folks with Ebola are way better a person than I am. I happen to love my family more than anything and would never be so selfish as to chance my life and risk not being in theirs.

[Mojoe]

I say that if you choose to go over to Africa to help people with Ebola and end up with it, Dont expect me to feel sorry for you. I also think that the people that go over to risk their lives to treat folks with Ebola are way better a person than I am. I happen to love my family more than anything and would never be so selfish as to chance my life and risk not being in theirs.

 

I'm a little put off by that outlook. Kudos for helping others, too bad for you getting the virus. What if we didn't have doctors willing to go over and treat the virus? The flip side to that is, what if the virus came to the US in and animal and spread? But, we never helped other countries with it, for us to learn about it as well as help them? Virus's and diseases are things that don't get better with time.

 

I get what you mean about not wanting to do it yourself. But, I think saying too bad for you, to the people who are willing to be exposed to it comes off a bit narrow minded.

Edited August 11, 2014 by Mojoe
Damn phone

[Jewtoys]

I say that if you choose to go over to Africa to help people with Ebola and end up with it, Dont expect me to feel sorry for you. I also think that the people that go over to risk their lives to treat folks with Ebola are way better a person than I am. I happen to love my family more than anything and would never be so selfish as to chance my life and risk not being in theirs.

 

 

You sound like Donald Trump, and that is never a compliment. Obviously :gabe:

[Snowflake]

I know it's fucked up but that's how I feel. I don't want to see anybody die like that, but if you go over there knowing the consequences be ready to accept what you get.

[jeffro]

Fake and gay. Fear mongering and view generating at its finest.

[HotCarl]

I read an article from the head nurse at Emory University Hospital (the hospital hosting the two American Ebola patients) in which she defended the decision to bring two Ebola patients stateside. While she makes a passionate argument for helping these two patients (both doctors themselves) i think she really misses the point on the health system as a whole. She romanticized the move like its the right thing to do and over all the health system in America is expected to do the "right thing". No, lets get one things straight lady the health system in the United States is an industry no different than any other form of commerce. They make money.

 

The points she should have made were that the WHO and CDC both need to study the virus in a controlled environment to test new vaccination's to see if they work (which some have been somewhat successful) THAT is the real reason, and the ONLY reason why these two patients should have been brought stateside. Everything else is just noise.

 

My personal opinion is that weighing the risks of knowingly bringing the virus to the states, was there really no other option?! Are there absolutely NO medical treatment facilities in all of Africa that could have been used?

 

And while I'm not as cold hearted as some i will say that they safety and the needs of the many always outweigh the needs of the individual. Heaven forbid there is some sort of outbreak in Atalanta (a city of 440,000 people) then what happens? who will believe the CDC when they say, "don't worry we have this under control.... again... not like the first time".

 

Not trying fear monger or anything just raising legit questions. Most likely nothing will happen they will treat these patients and hopefully they make a full recovery.

 

EDIT: found the article http://www.washingtonpost.com/posteverything/wp/2014/08/06/im-the-head-nurse-at-emory-this-is-why-we-wanted-to-bring-the-ebola-patients-to-the-u-s/

Edited August 11, 2014 by HotCarl
link

[Mojoe]

I agree. When I first heard they were bringing the issue to the US, my initial thought was WTF are they doing? Isn't there an island somewhere for a controlled environment? People make mistakes. That vile wasn't suppose to be with that vile, or something like that and we have a huge problem.

 

Jeffro, the virus is not fake. I could care less about the media side of things. However, this is a very real problem. Africa is a nightmare with this out there. Yes, it has been around for more than a decade. But, there still isn't a 100% fix for it. And given it mortality rate, that is pretty scary.

Edited August 12, 2014 by Mojoe

[RedRocket1647545505]

I had a biology professor who talked about ebola one time. He said it never propagates very far/long because it replicates so fast that it tends to burn itself out fairly quickly.

 

i.e.....fear mongering by news for ratings

 

I'm not concerned.

[acklac7]

I had a biology professor who talked about ebola one time. He said it never propagates very far/long because it replicates so fast that it tends to burn itself out fairly quickly.

 

i.e.....fear mongering by news for ratings

 

I'm not concerned.

 

Yup, just another "BREAKING NEWS" item for Wolf Blizter to try and capitalize on.

 

The whole ISIS deal is a far, far greater concern IMO.

[Mojoe]

I had a biology professor who talked about ebola one time. He said it never propagates very far/long because it replicates so fast that it tends to burn itself out fairly quickly.

 

I'm looking for more on this. Not finding anything. I get that it tends to kill the person quickly.

 

Interesting read:

 

 

The current Ebola outbreak in Africa has been going on for several months. It hit the American news cycle big time on Monday because an American doctor contracted it while in Africa. And someone on a plane there was found to have the disease. The media is asking, “Could it come here?”

 

This is not the first outbreak in Africa, but past ones have been localized to small villages. The usual outbreak runs its course and eventually just goes away. But this one has been spreading—to multiple regions, including large cities.

 

This is serious business. For those in Africa, it’s a nightmare. Horrible. Devastating. But here are some more facts to put it in perspective for the rest of us:

 

Ebola has never been shown to spread from person to person by air droplets. The reason colds and the flu are so contagious is they do spread that way. Someone posted on my Facebook page that their local news said Ebola does too. Well, it doesn’t. It could mutate, but that’s pure speculation. And that’s where you might get the wrong idea from my first sentence. Ebola is highly contagious, but not from respiratory air droplets.

Ebola is spread by contact with bodily fluids: blood, semen, vomit, feces, saliva. The World Health Organization says it can spread through sweat.

 

An American doctor recently infected was in Africa caring for multiple infected people at their sickest, under less than ideal conditions and in close contact. How he got it exactly has yet to be reported, but no doubt, despite the best precautions, the longer you’re potentially exposed and the more fluids you’re exposed to, the more likely you’re going to become infected. For example, there could have been a break in the protective gear, an area not cleaned, a contaminated-needle stick.

 

Ebola does not penetrate intact skin. Certainly, you don’t want to get any fluids on you, but technically, the only way they’re going to infect you is if they come in contact with mucous membranes (like in your mouth, nose, vagina, rectum) or enter through a crack in your skin.

 

Yes, the USA Today headline seems, to me, a little misleading, but it is true. Plane travelers can carry Ebola. They could carry any virus, for that matter. As with most infections, once someone gets infected, symptoms can take several days to show up. Before they get sick, they could travel. They would be contagious.

 

But, you don’t get Ebola from casual contact, so even if you were to sit next to an infected person for hours, you’d have to come in contact with bodily fluids to be at risk. That’s unlikely, especially if you use good hygiene like frequent hand washing, which brings me to the next fact.

 

If an infected person comes to the United States or another developed country, when they get sick (and these people get very sick) they will be transferred to a hospital and put in isolation. Even the health care workers who first come in contact—before the disease is diagnosed—will be protected by the common practice of wearing protective clothing and masks. As we know from the doctors infected in Africa, this is not foolproof, but in the tragic instance that someone—health care worker or not—comes into direct contact with the infected person’s bodily fluids, they will be isolated, probably immediately or certainly at the first sign of symptoms.

 

One of the big problems in Africa is the very sick are often treated at home. And even if they’re not, many clinics have conditions that would be considered appalling here in the United States. They just don’t have many good, clean, up-to-date health care facilities. Preparing for burial is also often done by family members at home—another way people are exposed.

 

 

The probable reason this outbreak is spreading over various regions in Africa is this: Family comes in for funerals, etc. They get infected but don’t get sick right away, so they go home. They’re treated in their home and spread the infection. Here in the U.S. and other places, public health is on high alert for someone getting sick who has traveled recently in Africa.

 

The Ebola virus has only been known about since 1976. Past outbreaks have come and gone rather quickly, so it has been harder to study. New facts will emerge.

 

 

On the other hand, much misinformation will be spread, as is often the case with scary diseases. See number 1 about the newscast. Some will spread that as fact. I mean, it was on the news.

 

 

Headlines are there to get your attention. Read beyond them. These days, headlines are not known for accuracy. They’re written to get you to click and read the article. How many Internet headlines have you clicked on only to find the real story is something totally different? And, actually, if you read the entire USA Today article, you’ll find some very good content.

[Akula]

NPR did a good segment on the outbreak, it has some pretty heave economic and social impacts on that part of Africa. I think we should load a few folks up and bring them to the US.

 

Wait, we did that.

[Putty]

I think it's wreckless to bring those infected people back to the US. If we end up with an outbreak here in the US it won't be anything nice. The shit is contained in another country...leave it there and the people with it.

[Berto]

I still think it is a bad idea to bring them here. Like others said there are plenty of other locations that can give the treatment they got here. I thought basically they just hook them to IV's and let their body get rid of it.

 

Good idea on getting an island. You'd think WHO would have thought about that.

 

What gets me is we have all these 'facts' about ebola. How you basically have to stick your finger with an open wound into an infected person's mouth and so forth. If it was so drastic and so easy you'd think it'd be contained by now. Their facts should be taken with a grain of salt

[HotCarl]

In another article I did read that outbreaks in first world countries are rare and often contained immediatly simply because our society and daily environment is cleaner. Our sewage is under ground, its normal for people to wash their hands several times a day, we bath ourselves regularly, etc... in third world countries none of this occurs.

 

Add to that, if there ever was a legitimate scare people become hermits. Everyone will stay home, no one will go out for any reason. Overreaction? probably, but do this for a week or so in an urban or suburban environment and it isolates cases quickly.

[Mojoe]

For Ebola, I think we will have no issue. But, it does make you wonder some things. I'm still stunned they brought infected people here. That is a huge WTF to me, but they don't call me to get the ok on things like that.

[wagner]

Yup, just another "BREAKING NEWS" item for Wolf Blizter to try and capitalize on.

 

The whole ISIS deal is a far, far greater concern IMO.

 

Could not agree more. This ISIS business is not good on many levels, but its more important to talk about "death at the race track" or "famous funny man dead"....