Posted on 08/10/2014 12:46:23 AM PDT by Smokin' Joe
I have spent a little time compiling links to threads about the Ebola outbreak in the interest of having all the links in one thread for future reference.
Please add links to new threads and articles of interest as the situation develops.
Thank You all for you participation.
Short form — PPE protecting from airborne transmission of Ebola is the minimum necessary to be safe.
Ebola control measures and inadequate responses
Timothy W Ryschon a
http://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(14)61346-5/
The title “Is respiratory protection appropriate in the Ebola response?”1 suggests that a critically important hypothesis regarding transmission of Ebola will be discussed. Instead, in their Letter,1 the authors assert that direct contact precautions advocated by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, are sufficient, and argue against more conservative infection control measures.
Despite their insistence that conservative respiratory precautions are not needed, such measures are publicly and repeatedly shown during the repatriation of infected health-care workers to specially equipped medical centres, rather than to any hospital practicing direct contact precautions, reinforcing a serious inconsistency between recommendations and practice.
In the practice of evidence-based medicine, patients are afforded the most conservative interventions until alternatives are substantiated through rigorous scientific methods. When confronted with clinical features and behaviours that defy our expectations, predictions, or understanding, clinical scientists build testable hypotheses around those observations and in the interim protect patients, their caregivers, and contacts with the most conservative precautions.
Our present reality concerns an expanding number of clinicians who were infected while ostensibly observing the direct contact precautions. No evidence has been provided to the contrary. Ebola observers can deduce the epidemiological implications of aerosol transmission described in extant literature, and mentioned although not referenced by Jose M Martin-Moreno and colleagues in their Letter.1 Accordingly, hospital administrators will enact more conservative precautions that either the authors1 or the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have prescribed.
Scientists should make undiluted risk assessments and serious plans to contain, detect early, and actuate meaningful health-system responses to Ebola infection.
The scientific community must argue for the most conservative infection control responses that make sense in light of the present data. I believe the authors1 and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have failed to do that and in so doing, have imperilled individuals unnecessarily.
I declare no competing interests.
Reference
1 Martin-Moreno JM, Llinás G, Martínez Hernández J. Is respiratory protection appropriate in the Ebola response?. Lancet 2014; 384: 856. Full Text | PDF(108KB) | PubMed
Another short form -- the CDC just got called as the PPE "Emperor with no cloths" and nothing is going to get that credibility back for Western HCW or Hospital Administrators.
If MSF were to leave and then the US Military? It really would be “game over”.
*Shudder*
In my opinion, it is nearly certain that Ebola will infect enough people in the worst hit countries to cause a breakdown in their basic infrastructure.People will be forced to attempt to flee. Some of them will be infected. Ebola will spread far and wide unless the rest of the world takes horrific steps to isolate the infected areas.
Since the spread is slower than "terrible disease" spread shown in movies (28 Days, WW-Z, Contagion, Planet of the Apes, etc...) it seems people don't think of it as a threat.
Unfortunately, the short attention span theater of the news cycle will probably move on, too. The ensuing complacency works against anyone in harm's way, and had there been less of that in high places, perhaps this outbreak could have been contained months ago.
Those of us used to dealing with change over much greater time spans recognize just how fast this is.
I know. Nothing we do or say can even get their attention. At least for now...
On the airport list, they missed Minneapolis/St. Paul. Hub airport and the Twin Cities’ area has enclaves of Liberians (25,000+/-) and Somalis (not sure how many, but not so assimilated).
Oh great. That is just peachy.
Well, it’s not as if that was Patrick Sawyer’s ultimate destination or anything. Oh wait. It was. *smh*
Yup, I noticed that. I avoid the Minneapolis airport at all costs, too many terrorist connections and now with this...
“West Africa death toll passes 3,000 - WHO”
About all you say about WHO is that their numbers have always been wrong and are getting worse, and their advice is terrible.
Doctors Without Borders has made the human race proud in this.
WHO, and the response of the world in general, has shown human government to be contemptible.
This has been a historic failure of human government in general, but a single individual stands out as more culpable than any other single person: Margaret Chan (the head of WHO).
Firing Margaret Chan would be too good for her.
The second good news I've seen on Ebola:
Possible anti-viral research breakthrough, including Ebola
Basically, it appears Ebola and HIV share a similar way into the cells they infect. A desperate/inspired doctor in Africa took that basic information and started trying HIV drugs on Ebola patients. The initial read is that it WORKED!!
I found both of these here:
Outstanding Ebola web site thread (Pandemic Flu Information Forum)
Anyone following Ebola should check out the links I put in post 2513.
This is the first good news I’ve seen on Ebola. We might already have at least one effective drug.
c 2513.
remember those lamp posts?
A million infected and mostly dead by January maybe but hey, let’s schedule a study for that drug’s effectiveness. It may be dangerous or something with a mortality rate GREATER than ebola. Can’t be too careful! /s
(wanna lay odds they cut off the supply of this drug somehow? (plant fire, accidental contamination, etc))
"We still do have gaps in the supply, which are quite significant," said Antonio Vigilante, the Deputy Special Representative of the U.N. Secretary-General in Liberia. "Nobody expected that the requirements of protective gear would go in the order of millions." Liberia now requires an estimated 1.3 million protective suits, Vigilante said.
Now imagine the difficulty of keeping up with any major outbreak here...
Was just reading The PFIF on this drug. Very interesting and hopeful.
Quite so !
Also noticed that early medical intervention within the first 5 days of symptoms seems to be the key to overcomming or arresting Ebola.
Frequently, "necessity is the mother of invention" .. and innovation.
The similarity of Zaire , Marburg , and HIV as an invasive virus may have led this doctor to proceed, absent any human trials, and may have lead to possibly control this disease.
It couldn't have come at a better time, considering Ebola's increased spread ,doubleing every three weeks.
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