Posted on 04/12/2005 4:29:07 PM PDT by SittinYonder
WASHINGTON, April 12 (Reuters) - An outbreak of deadly Marburg virus in Angola is probably not a global threat but international experts are working to bring it under control, the head of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said on Tuesday. The hemorrhagic fever, a relative of the Ebola virus, has killed some 200 people and terrified people in Uige province, northeast of Angola's capital Luanda. It causes fever, vomiting and diarrhea and can cause internal and external bleeding. The virus can be found in all the bodily fluids so health care workers must take extreme care, CDC Director Dr. Julie Gerberding said. "People are frightened and people are embarrassed to be associated with this but I think the important message is we need to identify those who are sick, get them into care and teach health care workers how to protect themselves from blood and body fluid exposure," Gerberding told CNN television.
(Excerpt) Read more at cnn.netscape.cnn.com ...
Does this alleviate your obsession or only increase your fears?
Of course this doesn't take into account terrorist vectors.
PING
Good thing you put this up, I was just getting ready to go out and handle strangers' bodily fluids. That was close. /sarc
LOL. Unless you're getting paid really well, that's a bad idea whether there's a marburg outbreak or not.
All it takes is one person on a flight out of Angola to anywhere in Europe and then another on a transatlanic flight.
This article should help the sheeple (who don't even know this is happening) feel better. </s>
Er, yes, all of that. Death is, of course, only a side effect.
I'm sure there are others here who know more than I do about it, but it's my understanding an Italian died after returning to Italy from Africa and nine people or so were quarantined - this would have been last week when there were millions of people in Italy for the Pope's viewing/funeral. That's the thing that, if correct, bears the most potential for creating a serious global problem (IMO).
Avoid elaborate burial rituals involving handling the body repeatedly of someone that died of Marburg and you'll be OK.
You think they'll be running around with hypodermic needles jabbing people?
It's not airborne.
A suicide carrier terrorist could do a lot of damage.
> Does this alleviate your obsession or only increase your fears?
They have an expression for this in the UK:
"Confirmed by an official denial"
Interesting that the denial (of the potential for
pandemic) was thought necessary.
Hedging their bets.
I agree. If it takes 10 days for symptoms to show up, let's give it another two weeks and see where we stand.
That may be whoever I believe that an outbreak of this kind would be dealt with much faster and more effectively than it is currently in Africa. For example most American's understand how disease is spread and would be more willing to listen to the CDC or state health authorities. I doubt there would be the mass hysteria there is currently in Angola over health care workers in decontamination suits We also do not wash our own dead which is where a lot of the infection is being spread in Africa. Overall we have a higher level of sanitation. It could spread over here however I do not think it will take the toll it is currently especially since it is not airborne.
No, they'll just spit on your Big Mac. It is transmissible through sweat, saliva, etc.
Thanks to AIDS activists, protecting the American people from an epidemic is a civil rights issue not a health issue.
The media, the Democrats and public health officials if given the choice between blocking the entrance into the US by people from the infected region or puting the entire population at risk they would choose to play down the risk and hope millions of Americans did not die.
Even if there was a massive outbreak of the disease in Mexico, they would not do what it takes to seal that border.
An outbreak of deadly Marburg virus in Angola is probably not a global threat but ...
The 'but' negating factor.
The links to this story do not work or the story has been removed. Do we have a good link?
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