Ebola virus kills 729 people in West African countries

CCTV ^ | 07-31-2014

[BuffaloJack]

Ebola and every other one of these African diseases have been around for centuries. The used to just lump them into an all purpose name of “Jungle Fever”. Everyone knew that if you ventured into some of these areas you’d get “Jungle Fever”. Now the populations there are blooming and the chances of contact massively greater, so now we have started naming the various jungle fevers, of which Ebola is just one. I wonder which one will be the next dire global epidemic threat.

[ColdOne]

has any one died yet who was wearing a protective suit?

[Black Agnes]

http://www.nature.com/srep/2012/121115/srep00811/full/srep00811.html

read that for mode of transmission.

disturbing.

[dangerdoc]

There are many viruses in animals that don’t make them that sick but are fatal to humans.

They are passing them around like we do.

[Fear The People]

Ebola is both clever and horrifying.

Just a drop of sweat, saliva or blood touching your skin will infect you. Merely touching someone that has it will give you Ebola.

Ebola turns an infected person into a sort of ‘volcano’ of body fluids. The person shakes violently, all while blood and sweat is pouring from their skin, mucous membranes and even pores. This blood, vomit, saliva and sweat is violenty spewn all across the room where the person is convulsing. Just one drop touches another human and bingo... they now have it.

Horrifying disease really.
We should build a wall around Africa until it’s over.

[jjsheridan5]

I posted this in another thread, but I thought you should be aware:

Feeling unwell and fearing a similar fate ... [s]he took a communal taxi via Liberia's capital Monrovia, exposing five other people to the virus who later contracted and died of the Ebola. In Monrovia, she switched to a motorcycle, riding pillion with young man who agreed to take her to the plantation and whom health authorities were subsequently desperate to trace.

http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/07/31/us-health-ebola-transport-idUSKBN0G011O20140731

A couple of things to note, while she felt "unwell", she couldn't have been exhibiting severe symptoms, or people would have gotten out of the cab, the cab-driver would have refused her, and a motorcycle rider wouldn't have let her hitch a ride. This is somewhat corroborated by the fact that she rode a motorcycle in the first place. Had the symptoms been severe (relative to other Ebola cases), she wouldn't have been physically able to ride a motorcycle.

This is not people eating bush-meat, or interacting with the recently deceases. This is a red flag that this virus is transmitting itself efficiently. It also means that the doctor who claimed to be willing to sit next to an infected person on a train is either stark-raving mad, ignorant, or trying to pull the wool over our eyes (unless trains have a magical anti-viral property not found in taxi cabs).

[RinaseaofDs]

Good observation. It means the current press narrative about this strain is wrong - this one transmits via aerosol.

Unless this person is smearing her blood on every surface she touches, this is the only explanation that is plausible.

If an infected patient breathes or coughs in the vicinity of other people, then it appears the disease will likely be contracted by anyone in proximity.

Look at how efficiently it transferred to the cab victims.

It would be interesting to know whether the virus can be effectively transmitted via mosquito, flea, or lice.

They should have acquired this knowledge by now. I would have a hard time believing they didn’t try to isolate this bit of knowledge.

[Black Agnes]

http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/07/31/health-ebola-transport-idUSL6N0Q570N20140731

It’s been updated with a new URL.

[21twelve]

I have read that the water droplets of a cough carry it, and go about 3 feet before falling out of the air (so not airborne per se). Also from sweat (touch the seat, door handle while sweating (slight fever). And the virus once on the cab (plane, train, etc.) can survive 3-4 days at normal room temperatures.

So while not as easy as being spread by walking into a room where an infected person has been breathing, it is still very transmissible.

[jjsheridan5]

True, but a simple question: if a person infected with the flu (or a cold) were to enter a cab with 5 other people, how many would contract the disease, on average? I have a gut feeling that it would be less than 5, and probably more like 2 or 3. I hope the Reuters story was wrong (it was Reuters, after all, so it is a good possibility), or that this was a statistical anomaly. Otherwise, things may get very bad within a couple of weeks. We have no evidence that this strain is not airborne.

[Black Agnes]

http://www.nature.com/srep/2012/121115/srep00811/full/srep00811.html

[jjsheridan5]

If it is true that it is airborne, or nearly airborne, then the cat is out of the bag. We should have grounded flights out of the affected area days ago (many days). Even if it is not technically airborne (and it may very well be), the transmission is clearly much more efficient than in the past. Too many are whistling past the graveyard here, and the “all is well, don’t panic” meme that is part of a larger strategy, is going to do more harm than good.

This isn’t some kind of “bird flu” threat, where the disease was always one mutation away. This is clearly a real potential global threat.

[Smokin' Joe]

ping...

[Smokin' Joe]

Fruit bats are believed to be the reservoir species.

They carry the virus, are unaffected by it, and are migratory.

This is what made the source hard to identify, that outbreaks were rural, generally associated with eating 'bushmeat' (infected primates) or bats, caves and mine shafts where the bats might shelter.

The pattern wasn't distinct because the bats were continually on the move.

[Smokin' Joe]

Fruit bats produce feces which land on fruit and in water, which is consumed by primates also eating the fruit (and possibly even the bats).

The primates and bats are considered food, if not a delicacy by the locals, and either in eating the contaminated meat or in the process of butchering the locals become infected.

It is possible that infection could be caused by tainted fruit or water as well, because the virus survives well outside the host for a while and is excreted in any bodily fluid. Cooking might not be sufficient to kill the virus.

[goodnesswins]

Nope...it was “breaking news”

[vetvetdoug]

There you have it, aerosol transmission of Zebola from pigs to primates. Pigs were symptomatic with respiratory disease and passed it on to primates where the primates developed hemorrhagic disease. Proof that Zebola can be aerosol transmission. I wonder why this hasn't been referenced?

[Jedidah]

The patients Megyn Kelly mentioned are the American medical missionaries, Dr. Kent Brantly and Nancy Writebol, who are ill with Ebola that they contracted while treating patients.

Samaritan’s Purse, the relief organization for which they work, is trying to bring them back here to receive better medical care than what they can get in primitive African facilities.

Transport would most certainly be on private aircraft and in isolation.

[Black Agnes]

Because they don’t want a panic.

Because their goal is 90% reduction in human population.

[trisham]

Do you really believe that?