Mutant Ebola warning: Leading U.S. scientist warns deadly virus is already changing to become more contagious
Posted on 10/18/2014 10:13:46 PM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet
The deadly Ebola virus could be mutating to become even more contagious, a leading U.S scientist has warned.
The disease has killed nearly 4,000 people, infecting in excess of 8,000 - the majority in the West African nations of Guinea, Sierra Leone and Liberia.
Communities lie in ruins, thousands of children have been orphaned, millions face starvation but the virus continues its unprecedented pace, invading and destroying vast swathes of these countries.
Meanwhile three nurses, two in the U.S. and one in Spain have caught the infection while treating Ebola patients, despite wearing protective suits.
Now U.S. scientist Peter Jahrling of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Disease believes the current Ebola outbreak may be caused by an infection that spreads more easily than it did before.
Dr Jahrling explained that his team, who are working in the epicentre of the crisis in the Liberian capital of Monrovia, are seeing that the viral loads in Ebola patients are much higher than they are used to seeing....
(Excerpt) Read more at dailymail.co.uk ...
This strain is no different than previous strains. They have always been a level 4 hazard in the acute phase since the discovery in 1976 (although it has been around for 1000's of years). The difference this time is simply that it hit mobile areas and is being spread in cars, taxis and planes. Previously it was in rural areas where it would infect isolated villages and burn out.
I should have read your post first. You are correct it is mobile this time. I’m not sure if it lasts longer outside the host, but it could happen. A virus that survives a couple of hours on a taxi seat would have natural selection in its favor. But remember that lonely virus still has to infect someone and then the viruses from that victim still have to compete with the much more prevalent “old” viruses from all the other victims.
The suit was inadequate. When the patient is spewing blood the chance of a floating droplet getting around that unsealed and unpressurized hood is nontrivial. In that phase there should be only level 4 suits.
A very interesting article on Ebola and Genes.
http://jid.oxfordjournals.org/content/204/suppl_3/S1043.full
Therapeutics of Ebola Hemorrhagic Fever: Whole-Genome Transcriptional Analysis of Successful Disease Mitigation
Abstract
The mechanisms of Ebola (EBOV) pathogenesis are only partially understood, but the dysregulation of normal host immune responses (including destruction of lymphocytes, increases in circulating cytokine levels, and development of coagulation abnormalities) is thought to play a major role. Accumulating evidence suggests that much of the observed pathology is not the direct result of virus-induced structural damage but rather is due to the release of soluble immune mediators from EBOV-infected cells. It is therefore essential to understand how the candidate therapeutic may be interrupting the disease process and/or targeting the infectious agent. To identify genetic signatures that are correlates of protection, we used a DNA microarray–based approach to compare the host genome-wide responses of EBOV-infected nonhuman primates (NHPs) responding to candidate therapeutics. We observed that, although the overall circulating immune response was similar in the presence and absence of coagulation inhibitors, surviving NHPs clustered together. Noticeable differences in coagulation-associated genes appeared to correlate with survival, which revealed a subset of distinctly differentially expressed genes, including chemokine ligand 8 (CCL8/MCP-2), that may provide possible targets for early-stage diagnostics or future therapeutics. These analyses will assist us in understanding the pathogenic mechanisms of EBOV infection and in identifying improved therapeutic strategies.
----snip
But researchers Christopher Duncan and Susan Scott of the University of Liverpool say that the flea-borne bubonic plague could not have torn across Europe the way the Black Death did.
"If you look at the way it spreads, it was spreading at a rate of around 30 miles in two to three days," says Duncan. "Bubonic plague moves at a pace of around 100 yards a year."
---snip
The liquidization of internal organs that causes excruciating pain in Ebola victims matches the descriptions of historical autopsies on plague victims, which similarly describe internal organs being dissolved along with the appearance of a black liquid, according to the authors.
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Lovely! A bit of historical speculation, if true, bodes ill for us. Ebola is poised to explode among the population, despite the reassurances of the feds; a direct effect of their PC treatment of the threat.
These West African countries are mostly Muslem, aren’t they ? Carrying the virus to the Infidel sounds like bio jihad - twisted political undercurrents of this administration are grievous.
pinging
There is a delicate balance on this planet between the microorganisms and higher order lifeforms. Every now and then a higher order lifeforms upsets that balance.
Wasn’t it stated in “Art Of War” that one should not plan for what he thinks his enemy will do, but for what is CAN do? Ebola can and will mutate.
Yes it can mutate.
But the mutations can also make it less virulent or completely benign to humans.
That sword cuts both ways.
I agree and if that was the case then the media needs to report this. To just say the nurse got it even wearing a suit is not only misleading but also sensationalism at its finest
It will be much worse then the Black Death. People were much healthier back then. Some of those Crusader armies actually walked to the Middle East.
Stupid isn’t it? So stupid that I can’t imagine anyone being so stupid unless it is on purpose.
Please call congress and tell them that we must be deadly serious about containing Ebola by strict quarantine within the United States and from infected nations. This is our right and our duty and it is THEIR duty to protect US.
Capitol switchboard is 202-224-3121 or Google your congressman or senator and get his contact information and call him / her office directly. You can also call or go to their local offices.
I believe decisive response is urgent because you can’t put this Ebola genie back in the bottle once it gets out. It is a fire, it consumes all the fuel it can get and the fuel is people. The only way to stop a fire is to block it from the fuel or cool it with water. A vaccine or medicine to treat Ebola would be the water and we don’t have reliable, enough or any.
Every possible measure must be taken to stop the spread before draconian measures are imposed. What is being done now is sloppy. We are walking a dangerous road. The threat is blossoming by the day if not hour. Almost every hour there is some new Ebola development and none of them are good. This is a serious and potentially deadly event. Unchecked it could destroy or weaken the United States and facilitate our destruction by others. It has that potential for every country and that is why so many are responding with such strict quarantines. These consequences, no matter how small the probabilities, demand a full effort and significant response.
Ebola is being spread here in the United States right now. First Texas, then Ohio then? Terror is an excellent weapon. It disrupts, confuses, paralyzes and destroys a society. Many others and we on FR have speculated that terrorists may spread Ebola. How do you that remember 9/11 feel right now compared to what you felt then? Do you want to gather your loved ones near you to protect them? I do. Even more than I did on September 11, 2001! Isn’t this passive response by this administration accomplishing the very same things a terrorist would want?
When something is being done that makes as little sense as what Obama is doing there has to be some other reason. I leave it to you dear reader to draw your own conclusions as to the reasons.
What is happening now is insane. It makes no sense at all. For example the head of CDC says: “Stopping travel from Africa won’t do any good because you have to get people into Africa to fight Ebola.” “You can’t get Ebola from an infected person on a bus but an infected person should never be on a bus because he can infect others.” “Blocking travel from infected countries would damage their fragile economies.” What about ours? What about our safety? What about resources we have paid for that should be protecting us?
Even the most despotic dictatorship in Africa has acted to protect his nation by strict quarantine and stopping travel from infected countries. Even CDC, the UN and WHO advocate and credit strict quarantine for nipping the spread of Ebola in the bud at the source in places like Senegal and Nigeria where both have had faster and more successful outbreak controls than we have had here. 35 countries have stopped travel of people from infected West African countries. It is so obvious even a child could understand it so why is it OK for people from infected countries to travel here?
I will post this message and keep posting it until someone stops me.
For further reference:
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/3216461/posts
But sick people don’t have much fight in them. Your gun is no use if a desperate mob can just set your house on fire with you in it, especially if they catch you sleeping. Then there’s betrayal. The Ebola is something to take advantage of, because a great number of people who would be threats can be pressured to comply to save their own lives. If a lot of people are sick and dying, you also have no guarantee that you will have a unified defense. There’s also the danger of vulnerability to nuclear weapons, which would kill over 80 percent I the U.S. population just from the hits. Conventional warfare against the U.S. is borderline suicide softening them up first, not so much.
Each Ebola virus event is a different strain...and this one is by far more virulent. This strain unlike other ones previously lasts longer via aerosol transmission for one thing which makes it much more virulent. You CAN get this one not only sitting next to an infected person on a bus but you can get this sitting half the bus away...
I do not doubt that what you say is also true. Indeed, because we have such a mobile and social population here in the US we are at great risk. Additionally, we have less resources to care for Ebola victims than are deployed in Africa. We could be overrun to beyond capacity within a few weeks.
A link to this thread has been posted on the Ebola Surveillance Thread
Whatever strain Patrick Sawyer had was not like that. He only killed the people on the plane who were splashed or touched his bloody vomit (woman sitting next to him plus flight attendants who cleaned it up). There are of course many variations of the virus around at any one time, but your link says nothing about a new or different strain, just reiterates the traditional protection recommendation that the CDC has chosen to ignore.
Patrick Sawyer was acute and terminal (died hours later). Other less acute cases will be less infective.
Try reading it with discernment...
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