Posted on 10/07/2014 1:58:02 PM PDT by winoneforthegipper
Madrid’s regional government said it would kill the pet dog of a Spanish nursing assistant who became infected with Ebola — overcoming the family’s objections on Tuesday with a court order.
The nursing assistant was the first person infected outside of West Africa, after caring for a Spanish priest who died of Ebola last month. Authorities have three people under quarantine and said that available scientific knowledge indicates there’s a risk the dog could transmit the deadly virus to humans.
(Excerpt) Read more at time.com ...
Why don’t they just quarantine it?
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Why don’t they just quarantine it?
It may be easier in terms of checking it for ebola (think like rabies atopsy) and making sure it does spread it to any other pets...
Could be dogs don’t become “sick” with Ebola, they’re just carriers, and can remain thus indefinitely.
I am by no means an authority on the topic.
Thanks.
There are so many unknowns.
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Nobody knows how the disease expresses itself in other animals. That’s been a big part of the problem figuring out which species it jumps from. Even though they’ve located a “source” cave (where multiple outbreaks patient zeroes went shortly before getting sick) not one single animal or item in it has ever tested positive. Remember we think part of the reason it’s so nasty is that it’s a species jumper, in its proper species (which we think is bats, but maybe not) it could be a completely benign infection with no symptoms at all.
Just call the cops.
We put THOUSANDS of totally harmless dogs down every single day via our "Humane Socities".
A potentially dangerous animal. Why take a chance. A court order has been issued to put it down. Good...Common Sense!!
Who has Ebola? The nurse or the dog?
Does anybody who speaks English actually work at TIME anymore?
Just do it. Go ahead and dispose of this possibly diseased animal before saving this dog becomes the latest Celebrity Cause of the Week. You don’t want Cher or GaGa flying over there to pose next to the animal. Not that either of them would take the dog home, not would their servants.
“(which we think is bats, but maybe not) it could be a completely benign infection with no symptoms at all.’
Like the Typhoid Marys of the bat world?
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From what I’ve read, that’s the case. Canines seem not to become sick themselves from Ebola, the way raccoons (IIRC) can be carriers for Rabies.
Sort of. Think about the 4 corners hantavirus, it’s a mouse disease, which very rarely kills mice, just makes them a little listless for a while, but is very fatal to people. Diseases have a natural evolutionary push to not be extremely fatal, at least not to their normal host species. Kill off your host too fast and you miss a chance to spread to the next host, survival of the species revolves around keeping the host alive (and mobile and social) long enough to spread.
But those rules only apply when you’re talking about the normal host species. Most viruses can only survive in one species, a few (think malaria) have multiple hosts. But some viruses jump from one species to another without ever doing the change necessary to make that jump, so they are extremely fatal very quickly. The good news is that fatality impedes the ability to spread within the second species (ebola would be so much worse if it took a little longer to kill a person). The bad news is until you’ve got a lock on what the host species is, and how it expresses itself in its proper host, you need to be afraid of every animal that’s around a sick person.
Quarantine and test it. No virus, return it. Virus, run tests on it (eg, does the dog’s salivia contain viable virus).
Dogs develop antibodies to the virus. Some believe dog to human infection may be possible. As others have noted repeatedly in other threads, that has not been proven and no confirmed cases exist.
Seems that if the dog has the virus, a lot could be learned from studying it in a properly controlled setting. Examples: does the dog’s saliva include viable virus? Other bodily fluids? Why don’t dogs get sick. Etc.
If the dog doesn’t have the virus, then nothing is served by putting it to sleep.
Malaria is not caused by a virus.
Ooops. I forget whose a what.
Madrid to Kill Dog of Spanish Nurse Infected With Ebola
Is the soccer team doing the killing or is the whole city coming out for this one?
Because: feelings.
PING!
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