Posted on 07/31/2014 7:21:03 AM PDT by Covenantor
Sierra Leone's president has declared a public health emergency to curb the deadly Ebola outbreak.,p. Ernest Bai Koroma said the epicentres of the outbreak in the east would be quarantined and asked the security forces to enforce the measures.
The UN says 729 people in West Africa have died of Ebola since February - 233 of them in Sierra Leone.
(Excerpt) Read more at bbc.com ...
Maybe it has mutated and is easier to contract now?
latest information on the number of infected had the number north of 2500. that was last week.
if the 90% mortality holds, 2000+ should be adding to the death toll soon.
2 weeks later... the newly infected would spike again. most likely to 5,000-10,000.
that’s when it’s out of control
Ebola ping
Death toll now up to 719 and rising
Something is different about this particular strain. CDC and Euro labs have assigned a general classification but I haven’t seen articles about detailed analysis yet.
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...
There is some indication that, like Ebola Reston, it is airborne.
That’s a very very bad thing. That gets loose in say, Mexico city...oy vey.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2014_West_Africa_Ebola_outbreak
The numbers in this entry have been updated for 27 July. If you look at the graph it appears to be going exponential.
Houston, we’ve got a problem.
Or at least insect borne.
The number of cases began to go up dramatically at the beginning of the rainy season in West Africa. Also known as mosquito season there.
this chart is dated last week and shows 2,628 cases.
the wiki page doesn't match. my guess, someone's trying to manage the panic
hmmm... i think i’m mixing current info with historic info.
in which case, the chart shows the number of cases last week as 814 which is now 1323. a 50% increase in a week.
definitely not good.
And the July 27 number only shows us roughly where ebola was 2 weeks ago.
We have no idea where it is today. And won’t for about 10 more days.
Two Americans providing humanitarian assistance (Samaritans Purse) in West Africa have become infected with Ebola. Family members of one of them, Kent Brantly, a doctor, had been living with him in Africa, but returned to the USA before he began showing symptoms. To be careful, however, the family is on a “21-day fever watch,” in which they are being asked to monitor themselves for symptoms, says Stephan Monroe, deputy director of the CDC’s national center for emerging and zoonotic infectious diseases.
http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2014/07/28/ebola-potential-to-spread/13267909/
Mr Sawyer was allowed to board an ASKY Airlines flight in Liberia, where Ebola is rife, despite vomiting and suffering from diarrhoea. His sister was recently killed by the virus.
He had a stopover in Ghana then changed planes in Togo and flew to the international travel hub of Lagos in Nigeria. The dad-of-three died five days after arriving in the city.
Lancaster University virologist Derek Gatherer said passengers, crew and airport ground staff who came into contact with Mr Sawyer could be in “pretty serious danger”. Ebola is fatal in 90% of cases.
Doctors have identified 59 people who were near him and have tested 20. But they are struggling to find the others, who could have flown to anywhere in the world from Lagos.
Update: Doctors are reportedly investigating the first possible case of the Ebola virus in Hong Kong. A man has also been tested at a hospital in Birmingham and has been given the all clear. Get latest news in our live coverage and on our dedicated page.
http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/world-news/ebola-doctors-told-prepare-global-3933249#ixzz393dcgXtq
Deliberately spreading the disease to the U.S. might not even require a plane ride, and it’s possible that terrorists already willing to strap bombs to their bodies might just as willingly get infected and pay a coyote to get them across our open southern border.
We remember the 9/11 Commission saying that terrorist attack was due in part to our lack of imagination. We couldn’t imagine young Middle Eastern males learning to fly, but not land, passenger jets as part of a plan to fly them into skyscrapers.
The spreading of Ebola to the U.S. could be intentional, given the virus’ relatively long incubation period of up to three weeks without symptoms, and no shortage of terrorists willing to die for their cause. It would be easy for an infected terrorist to slip in among the OTMs (Other Than Mexican) who have also been crossing our border.
“Central Americans are not the only ones being smuggled through Mexico to the United States,” said a 2012 report by the U.N. Office on Drugs and Crime, a fact regularly reported by the U.S. Border Patrol.
http://news.investors.com/ibd-editorials/073014-711061-ebola-virus-could-be-spread-by-terrorists.htm
The dangers are so real that some humanitarian organizations are
****************pulling out to protect their own.*****************
Samaritan’s Purse — an international evangelical Christian humanitarian agency — and the missionary group Serving in Mission have recalled all nonessential personnel from Liberia.
The Peace Corps announced Wednesday it is doing the same, removing its 340 volunteers from that country, as well as Sierra Leone and Guinea.
While there are no confirmed cases, a spokeswoman for the agency did say that two volunteers did come in contact with someone who ended up dying from the virus.
Those Americans haven’t shown signs of Ebola but are being isolated just in case, with the spokeswoman saying they can’t return home until they get medical clearance to do so.
http://edition.cnn.com/2014/07/30/health/ebola-american-aid-workers/index.html
From the CDC. We are at level 2
http://wwwnc.cdc.gov/travel/notices/?s_cid=cdc_homepage_topmenu_003
This was issued in April 2014
http://docs.house.gov/meetings/AS/AS26/20140408/102001/HHRG-113-AS26-Wstate-SpencerC-20140408.pdf
CHARLOTTE, N.C. (CBS Charlotte/AP) — A Liberian health official says the Ebola outbreak is now above the control of its government.
“Our government has declared this now as a humanitarian crisis that is above the control of the national government,” Tolbert Nyenswah, Liberia’s assistant minister of health, told CBS News.
More than 700 people have died in four western African nations during the largest Ebola outbreak ever, with over 320 known cases in Liberia alone. One American died while contracting the virus in Liberia. Two other American medical missionary workers also contracted Ebola.
“This virus, if it is not taken care of, will be a global pandemic,” Nyenswah told CBS News, calling for more international aid to help treat the sick and stop the spreading of the disease.
The Peace Corps has now temporarily evacuated 340 volunteers from Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone after two members were exposed to the virus. CBS News reports those two volunteers have been isolated.
This comes as two North Carolina-based missionary groups have ordered the evacuation of their non-essential personnel from Liberia after a doctor and a missionary contracted Ebola.
SIM USA President Bruce Johnson announced Tuesday that his group and Samaritan’s Purse decided on the evacuation following an upsurge in the number of Ebola cases in Liberia. Johnson said the logistics of the evacuation are being determined.
Spokesman Palmer Holt said approximately 60 employees will be evacuated. A statement from SIM says none of the evacuees is displaying any symptoms of Ebola, but all are being monitored continually.
A Texas-trained doctor and a missionary from Charlotte have contracted the disease.
Airborne or not if this gets out of the fairly narrow geographic region in Africa we will have our first true public health emergency in my lifetime
What many people do not realize is that during the fall and winter months, on any given day there are no extra hospital beds in many large cities - almost every hospital is on divert. Now add a disease on its bow wave through a population, and on top of it one that requires draconian isolation procedures to care for victims, and you will see the healthcare system in this country collapse in a matter of weeks....
That’s one of my fears as well.
And since it’s a fomite, how many people HAVE handled that apple in the produce section of Pathmark before you did...
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