Family: Ebola patient's condition disturbing (Jesse Jackson now in the mix)

Yahoo! News / The Associated Press ^ | October 7, 2014 | Emily Schmall

[2ndDivisionVet]

The family of a man diagnosed with the first U.S. case of Ebola again visited him at the hospital Tuesday but declined to view him via video because the last time had been too upsetting.

Relatives of Thomas Eric Duncan glimpsed him using a video system at Dallas' Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital on Monday. But when they returned anew, this time with the Rev. Jesse Jackson, they decided such images were too much.

"What we saw was very painful. It didn't look good," said Duncan's nephew, Josephus Weeks....

[9YearLurker]

Whatever his excuse, I take it he was trying to get out of Dodge—and rekindled his relationship with the mother of his children here in order to do so.

He was just a month to late leaving.

[VTenigma]

“It almost sounds like the guy is just being kept alive by a ventilator and a kidney machine.”

I’m with you we’re being played.

[Georgia Girl 2]

I think they may also just be trying to quell the panic they are afraid will happen when they announce the guy died.

Somebody commented that they many be using him as a lab rat for the new anti virals which would not be a stretch IMO.

[a fool in paradise]

Whatever. The dude was on a respirator with his kidneys shut down days ago. He could be considerably melted by now.

He's dead.

Who's going to line up next for that dialysis machine?

[GeronL]

hopefully not my sister but she is only visiting for a few hours today so not likely

[a fool in paradise]

He is probably in a vegetative state, with his eyes fixed open and completely unresponsive. The virus is destroying his brain. Any function now is “lizard brain” stuff. He probably has pools of blood under a very thin sheet of skin. He is probably oozing blood from every small opening. There is no reason to use a ventilator, his lungs are pretty much shot. His kidneys stopped days ago. He is dead. His heart just hasn’t stopped yet. Dying from this stuff is a nightmare.

Any person dying of cancer at this point would've been denied cost approval of such machines or treatment.

And the worst of it is that keeping him alive longer permits the ebola to live in its host longer.

'In 1976 I discovered Ebola - now I fear an unimaginable tragedy' (The Observer, Saturday 4 October 2014 17.00 EDT)

The virus is continually changing its genetic makeup. The more people who become infected, the greater the chance becomes that it will mutate ...

... which might speed its spread. Yes, that really is the apocalyptic scenario. Humans are actually just an accidental host for the virus, and not a good one. From the perspective of a virus, it isn't desirable for its host, within which the pathogen hopes to multiply, to die so quickly. It would be much better for the virus to allow us to stay alive longer.

Could the virus suddenly change itself such that it could be spread through the air?

Like measles, you mean? Luckily that is extremely unlikely. But a mutation that would allow Ebola patients to live a couple of weeks longer is certainly possible and would be advantageous for the virus. But that would allow Ebola patients to infect many, many more people than is currently the case.

But that is just speculation, isn't it?

Certainly. But it is just one of many possible ways the virus could change to spread itself more easily. And it is clear that the virus is mutating.