Bats are order: Chiroptera
Rats are order: Rodentia
Global range of bats
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.
There was a story about the recent Phoenix Air flight to France. A UN worker with Ebola is being treated in a hospital outside of Paris. Phoenix Air transported the patient.
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/nov/02/ebola-united-nations-worker-france
I haven’t found any information about the previous flight to London. That is still a mystery.
CDC admits droplets from a sneeze could spread Ebola
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/3222360/posts
N.C. Department of Health and Human Services Closely Monitoring a Traveler from Liberia
Individual at Duke University Hospital for evaluation and testing for Ebola
http://us4.campaign-archive2.com/?u=58ec19aaea4630b1baad0e5e4&id=eb1cba78e0&e=082a67d0c5
First test negative for the Duke University patient—
[snip]
Testing conducted at the State Laboratory of Public Health returned a preliminary negative result for Ebola in a patient. Additional testing will occur 72 hours after his fever first developed to confirm this result.
Ebola Rapidly Advancing in Rural Sierra Leone - report
News24.com
2014-11-03 08:46
London - Ebola is spreading up to nine times faster in parts of Sierra Leone than two months ago, a report by the Africa Governance Initiative (AGI) said on Sunday.
“Whilst new cases appear to have slowed in Liberia, Ebola is continuing to spread frighteningly quickly in parts of Sierra Leone,” said the AGI report.
On average, 12 new cases a day were seen in the rural areas surrounding Freetown in late October, compared with 1.3 cases in early September, the report said, a nine fold increase.
Transmission was also increasing rapidly in the capital Freetown, with the average number of daily cases six times higher than two months ago.
The analysis was based on three-day averages of new cases recorded by Sierra Leone’s health ministry.
“A full-blown crisis”
It emerged after the United States envoy to the United Nations welcomed slowing infection rates in some areas, and improved burial practices.
AGI, a support initiative set up by former British prime minister Tony Blair, said that while the picture was changing, the situation was still “a full-blown crisis”.
“The Government of Sierra Leone is making real strides in tackling transmission by speeding up access to treatment and safe and dignified burial,” AGI chief executive Nick Thompson said.
“But we can’t rest until Ebola has nowhere to hide. And we can see from growth in new cases in some rural parts of Sierra Leone that we still have no time to lose if we’re going to get on top of this.”
Almost 5,000 people have been killed by the virus, according to data from the World Health Organisation, which has recorded more than 13,000 cases but admits the real number of infections and deaths could be much higher.
Another Doctor Dies of Ebola in Sierra Leone
News24.com
52 minutes ago
Freetown - Authorities in Sierra Leone say a doctor has died of Ebola — the fifth local doctor in the West African nation to succumb to the disease.
The government said on Monday that Dr Godfrey George, medical superintendent of Kambia Government Hospital in northern Sierra Leone, died overnight.
George’s death was announced by Dr Brima Kargbo, the chief medical officer of Sierra Leone.
Ebola-carrying Bats May be Heroes and Villains
News24.com
2014-11-03 08:17
London - Bats are living up to their frightening reputation in the world’s worst Ebola outbreak as prime suspects for spreading the deadly virus to humans, but scientists believe they may also shed valuable light on fighting infection.
Bats can carry more than 100 different viruses, including Ebola, rabies and severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS), without becoming sick themselves.
While that makes them a fearsome reservoir of disease, especially in the forests of Africa where they migrate vast distances, it also opens the intriguing possibility that scientists might learn their trick in keeping killers like Ebola at bay.
“If we can understand how they do it then that could lead to better ways to treat infections that are highly lethal in people and other mammals”, said Olivier Restif, a researcher at the University of Cambridge in Britain.
Clues are starting to emerge following gene analysis, which suggest bats’ capacity to evade Ebola could be linked with their other stand-out ability, the power of flight.
Flying requires the bat metabolism to run at a very high rate, causing stress and potential cell damage, and experts think bats may have developed a mechanism to limit this damage by having parts of their immune system permanently switched on.
The threat to humans from bats comes en route to the dinner plate. Bushmeat, from bats to antelopes, squirrels, porcupines and monkeys has long held pride of place on menus in West and Central Africa. The danger of contracting Ebola lies in exposure to infected blood in the killing and preparation of animals.
Natural hosts
Scientists studying Ebola since its discovery in 1976 in Democratic Republic of Congo, then Zaire, have long suspected fruit bats as being the natural hosts, though the link to humans is sometimes indirect as fruit dropped by infected bats can easily be picked up by other species, spreading the virus to animals such as monkeys.
This nexus of infection in wildlife leads to sporadic Ebola outbreaks following human contact with blood or other infected animal fluids.
This no doubt happened in the current outbreak, although the scale of the crisis now gripping Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea, which has killed around 5 000 people, reflects subsequent public health failures.
“What is happening now is a public health disaster rather than a problem of wildlife management”, said Marcus Rowcliffe at the Zoological Society of London (ZSL), which runs London Zoo.
Bats’ role in spreading Ebola is probably a function both of their huge numbers, where they rank second only to rodents among mammals in the world, as well as their unusual immune system, according to Michelle Baker of the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation, Australia’s national science agency.
Baker, who is intrigued by bats’ ability to live in “equilibrium” with viruses, published a paper with colleagues last year looking at bat genomes. They found an unexpected concentration of genes for repairing DNA damage, hinting at a link between flying and immunity.
“[This] raises the interesting possibility that flight-induced adaptations have had inadvertent effects on bat immune function and possibly also life expectancy”, they wrote.
Understanding bats
As well as tolerating viruses, bats are also amazingly long-lived. The tiny Brandt’s bat, a resident of Europe and Asia, has been recorded living for more than 40 years, even though it is barely the size of a mouse. Bats also rarely get cancer.
“We are just at the beginning”, Baker said in a telephone interview. “But if we can understand how bats are dealing with these viruses and if we can redirect the immune system of other species to react in the same way, then that could be a potential therapeutic approach.”
It won’t be easy. Turning on components of the immune system can bring its own health problems, but the idea, which has yet to get beyond the basic research stage is to turn up certain elements to achieve a better balance.
One reason why Ebola is so deadly to people is that the virus attacks the immune system and when the system finally comes back it goes into over-drive, causing extra damage.
Ebola works in part by blocking interferon, an anti-virus molecule, which Baker has found to be “up-regulated”, meaning it is found in higher levels, in bats.
Venison, with wings
The bat immune system may or may not lead to new drugs one day. Still, experts argue there are plenty of other reasons to cherish bats, which also play a vital role in pollination and controlling insect pests.
They are also a traditional source of protein in West Africa, often served in a spicy stew, and restrictions on bushmeat consumption are now contributing to food shortages in parts of West Africa, according to the international food policy research institute.
Hunting and butchering bats may be risky but cooking is thought to make them safe. The World Health Organisation advises animals should be handled with “gloves and other appropriate protective clothing” and meat should be “thoroughly cooked”.
“In the long run it would be sensible to see people moving away from hunting bats but in the short term they provide an important source of food”, said Rowcliffe of ZSL.
“Essentially, wild meat is a good, healthy product. People in Britain eat venison and rabbit, and in many ways it’s no different to that.”
A very broad and informative compilation of Ebola science news and research links going back more than ten years.
Well worth bookmarking.
Not msm links. ;>)
http://www.sciencemag.org/site/extra/ebola/?
Hmmmm. IIRC, Bats are rodents...
Patient being evaluated for potential Ebola virus at Duke University Hospital
Liberian woman hospitalized over Ebola does not have disease, test showed
Ebola rapidly advancing in rural Sierra Leone
Ebola Quarantines Ignore Experience and Trample Freedom
Yeah, right. The sad part is that if they get away with it, it'll be "See, we told you so.", and if they don't, some people are going to get very sick.
Bats are order: Chiroptera
Rats are order: Rodentia
Global range of bats
Post Ebola Syndrome persists once virus is cured
Kaci Hickox: Sorry, Everybody, I’ll Stay Away From You With The Ebola I Definitely Don’t Have
(from 2 weeks ago) 43 declared Ebola-free in Texas; no longer being monitored
Nurse Kaci Hickox Vows to Stay Away From Public Places, Apologizes to Her Town [VIDEO]
Botrytis Cinerea: Worse than Ebola
Understanding Obama's Ebola Psychosis [and administration activists like Kaci Hickox]
[BBC Update Ebola: London woman tests negative] Ebola crisis: Woman admitted to London hospital with
Patient being evaulated for ‘potential Ebola virus’ at Duke University Hospital
N.C. Department of Health and Human Services Closely Monitoring a Traveler from Liberia
Satire: Top Democrat Says Republicans Scarier than Ebola, ISIS
Funny that all the bats I ever met (caving) I took great pains to abstain from injuring--the only rat I ever had a confrontation with, I stomped to death (then, very carefully washed my boots).
Your diligence and hard work are much appreciated.
Thanks, Thud! You are among those who have really helped us all keep abreast of developments. Your diligence is appreciated, too. What little I do couldn’t be done without you guys.
Franken: Ebola Victim's Widow to Get Benefits
Craig Spencer, NYC doctor with Ebola improving, hospital says
Duke Hospital monitoring patient for possible Ebola Read more at
Standing up to the Ebola scaremongers (Look who is taking Kaci Hickox's side)
Some things just beg for a barf alert...
Site source article for link to the State Department memo pdf linked a few posts back.
http://www.sabreakingnews.co.za/2014/11/03/ebola-in-sierra-leone-rising-frighteningly-quickly-agi/
Sierra Leone cases spreading nine times faster now than two months ago.
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