Posted on 07/29/2014 5:46:41 AM PDT by EBH
Ebola virus disease is sweeping across West Africa in the largest outbreak of the virus to date. Mortality rates are currently at 60% in a disease where up to 90% of infected people can die. But despite this lethality there remain no licensed treatments or vaccines available, nearly 40 years after the disease was first discovered.
In March, Ebola was reported for the first time in Guinea, West Africa, in districts that border neighboring Liberia and Sierra Leone. This proximity meant that unlike previous outbreaks in other parts of Africa, the usually remote Ebola virus had the opportunity to cross borders. With residents migrating back and forth, it did just that. Four months later the outbreak has reached unprecedented scales, with 1,093 people infected and 660 deaths attributed to the virus.
"This is clearly an outbreak across international borders and it has not been handled properly," explains David Heymann, professor of infectious disease epidemiology at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine (LSHTM), who was on-site at the first human Ebola outbreak in 1976.
He says the 24 known outbreaks of Ebola to date have shown that it should be easily controlled. "It's not rocket science to control these outbreaks but instead basic epidemiology: infection control, hygiene practices, contact-tracing and safe burial practices," says Heymann of the virus, which is transmitted through contact with bodily fluids. "Ebola is its own worst enemy, it's too lethal and cannot sustain its own spread."
But whilst it should be easily contained, this time something has gone wrong
(Excerpt) Read more at cnn.com ...
Latest victim traveled all across Africa by plane. Those who traveled with him were informed but allowed to go on their way. It has a 21 day infection timeline. I need to go watch 12 Monkeys.
Our local paper is advertising for guinea pigs to test a new vaccine for ebola.
What do they know that we don’t know?...
Or “The Stand”.
Algore and Bill Gates will have their dreams come true!
CDC Downplays Ebola’s Threat to the United States
http://health.usnews.com/health-news/articles/2014/07/28/cdc-downplays-ebolas-threat-to-the-united-states
Concern was raised over the weekend when it was reported that an Ebola-infected man from Liberia flew to Lagos, the capital of Nigeria, only to die soon after his arrival. Health officials are trying to track down any contacts the man might have had during his journey.
For your entertainment: http://vimeo.com/26450446
Wife and kids of one of the American doctors working the outbreak just returned to the States a few days ago from visiting and working with him. Once home in Fort Worth, they found out the doctor has ebola now. It may already be in the US.
Twelve Monkeys is a movie that you have to watch....rewind....and watch a second time. Too many things involved in the plot...red herrings I’d call them....and by the end you really start to ask yourself about the premise of a disease beyond control.
I would strongly encourage you to go and read Daniel DeFoe’s 1722 novel A Journal of the Plague Year (downloadable on Amazon with their e-reader and free). It will walk you through the 1665/66 period of London and the effects of the plague. I should say...it is a fictional account but DeFoe really leads you through the various issues that confronted society, and how people just laid up boundaries and refuse people passage through their community by the mid-point.
They need to put the affected victims on a colloidal silver drip. Viruses and bacteria don’t like it one bit.
You rang???
Bring Out Your Dead
Post to me or FReep mail to be on/off the Bring Out Your Dead ping list.
The purpose of the “Bring Out Your Dead” ping list (formerly the “Ebola” ping list) is very early warning of emerging pandemics, as such it has a high false positive rate.
So far the false positive rate is 100%.
At some point we may well have a high mortality pandemic, and likely as not the “Bring Out Your Dead” threads will miss the beginning entirely.
*sigh* Such is life, and death...
I am guessing no chance Gaza is in his travel plans?
Two other books about infectious disease - Barbara Tuchman’s A Distant Mirror about the 14th century. She’s something of a lib but very well written. And The Ghost Map about the 1850 cholera epidemic in London. Written by Steven Johnson. My SIL’s brother is the pathologist for the biggest hospital system in my metro area and this is one of his favorite books. He’s a bit odd but so am I.
OUTBREAK!
Could experimental vaccines morph Ebola into something more highly contagious and deadly?
Most of the ones I’ve read about no. The scary part is that vaccine or not, Ebola is likely to do that all on its own.
What? Are you kidding? With his compromised immune system he won’t even visit the Tex-Mex border!
No, it’s time to lock down the borders and quarantine anyone traveling into the country from a part of the world that’s infected.
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