Posted on 08/13/2014 5:52:12 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
If you can get it from inhaling particle matter (sneezes etc...) it is airborne IMO.
Perhaps because they don’t take the appropriate precautions?
When dealing with blood born pathogens, you have to use AAMI PB70 level 4 gowns (which have been tested to be both impermeable and to prevent the passage of virus particles). Even in the States, it is very common for health care personnel to use lower level gowns and barriers when facing possible exposure to blood born pathogens. It is a risk, but most of the time the health care workers win the bet.
The odds change dramatically when you are dealing with an exceptionally virulent blood borne pathogen like ebola.
My guess is that almost no-one in the affected area even has the more expensive AAMI PB70 level 4 gowns (they are comparatively much more expensive). I would also bet the WHO (which always stresses economics over safety) is not telling African’s to use the more expensive gowns. (I have always suspected their since with-drawn advice to the 3rd world that it was okay to reuse disposable syringes if you ran water with beach through them was responsible for Middle Class vector of the spread of AIDS in Africa, but that is just speculation on my part).
And then there is the whole airborne vector for spreading ebola as claimed in the Reston VA outbreak.
ASSYMPTOMATIC CARRIERS and a possible airborne mutation. Simple answer is we don’t know a lot about Ebola other than it is highly contagious and has high mortality. If we look at historic pandemics like the Spanish influenza after WW-I and the Black Death we are only learning years later about how these diseases may have spread. During the time of the plague there was an apparent pneumonic disease with even higher mortality than the plague. The disease referred to as the English sweating sickness killed within hours of symptoms appearing..mainly high fever and profuse sweating. The cause of this pandemic is still unknown.
... and those carriers with symptoms have only symptoms like diarrhea & vomiting - which are found in many very common and non-serious health problems (and even in people with no health problem).
Therefore you can't quarantine everyone who has Ebola like symptoms and can't separate the symptomatic who have Ebola from those who don't until they already had the opportunity to spread the disease.
What is interesting is how two new shows (The Strain - a parasite/virus adaptation of vampirism, and The Last Ship) are dealing with an "outbreak" of some type just as the Ebola outbreak hits. Granted, given the vast amount of shows on the idiot box, getting two with similar issues at any given time to real life is more likely happenstance than enemy action, but it is interesting.
So that we will be sympathetic and not complain when 0 lets thousands into the USA for “free” treatment on 0bamacare.
Easy answer. Third-world medical facility, equipment, and procedures.
Would that do any good with a southern border that is basically a sieve?
There is a movement for "Barry The Brave" to do something about the Bola crisis.
At: < /http://www.worldnewsbureau.com/2014/08/six-million-americans-sign-obama-ebola-petition.html >
The organization Americans For Obama Ebola (AFOE) demands the President visit hospitals in the West African country of Sierra Leone
to show his concern and investigate ways the U.S. might help.
AFOE announced a new Twitter campaign on Wednesday featuring celebrities holding signs that say '#Obama To Africa - Show You Care.'
Celebrities as well as everyday citizens are encouraged to add their voices to this cause by submitting their own photos to AFOE.
AFOE claims 6 million signatures so far .
Alledgedly , Biden also supports this effort, but will remain at home with his 12 gague shotgun.
>>> ... on Sunday .....
A bit too late, isn’t it? And praying and hoping for the best?
Like a bandaid on an open artery wound.
“If this is true, then how have more than 170 health workers caught the disease? These workers are dressed head to toe in suits that are specifically designed to prevent the spread of the virus.”
Incorrect assumption. The vast majority of the health workers likely had minimal protection. This means ordinary surgical masks and rubber gloves.
“(ordinary) surgical masks are primarily designed to protect the environment from the wearer, whereas N95 respirators are supposed to protect the wearer from the environment.”
Infectious Ebola virions are usually 920nm (nanometers) in length, 80nm in diameter. N95 respirators are designed to filter out viruses from 10 to 80nm in size, and the larger they are, the more effectively they are filtered. Over 80nm they should be entirely filtered.
However, breathing is not the only way to get the virus. It can have ready access through the eyes, so surgical protective glasses are a must.
The third way the virus can infect is through physical contamination. This means that all clothing and equipment must be decontaminated either chemically, or in an autoclave. Shoes are second most contaminated after hands.
Importantly, since gloved hands get the most physical contamination, you cannot just peel the gloves off, or you might get contamination on your skin from the “peeling hand”. So you must first decontaminate your gloved hands, and then peel and discard your gloves.
Likewise, protective shoe coverings, if you have them, also need decontamination before removing for discard.
With garments, sleeves are the most contaminated part, so it is essential that you put on a different blouse in between patients. This is why plasticized paper surgical garments are popular these days.
Bottom line: these health care workers likely were unable to protect themselves, or did not properly decontaminate themselves.
What about the movie Idiocracy
I suspect that, while very dangerous, it is not so dangerous as its PR. I remember late in the SARS attempt to gin up Panic that SARS was claimed to have death rates that at first were 50% or more. That estimation declined over the course of the Official Panic. Then there was a doctor who was treating SARS in an Anatolian village. Instead of counting only the people who got sick and needed treatment, he tested the whole village and found that virtually everyone in the village had developed antibodies and there were only a couple of deaths. That showed that SARS was more like a widespread but mild Flu. That was all reported once and disappeared. The Hype went on but interest was waning as no one was dying in news consumers’ neighborhoods and it dropped off the charts.
Yup, that’s exactly what they are doing and that’s the problem. Hence the pictures of boots and gloves being aired out on sticks for reuse. That is not going to cut it! That is why we throw everything out that is used in our hospitals on patients. It’s not really much of a mystery.
Thanks for the ping!
You’re Welcome, Alamo-Girl!
ping
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