Not many books will give you a nightmare or two... this one will. Well worth reading!!!
Posted on 05/21/2006 3:13:29 PM PDT by traumer
KILLER BUG AIR SCARE
A WOMAN who arrived in London on a flight from Africa yesterday is reported to have died from the deadly and contagious ebola virus.
Panic has spread among cabin crew and hospital staff after the death of the 38-year-old Briton.
The unnamed woman is understood to work at an embassy in the African kingdom of Lesotho.
Before boarding a Virgin Atlantic flight from Johannesburg to Heathrow she visited a doctor complaining of flu-like symptoms.
She was allowed to fly, but during Flight VS602 to the UK she suffered a violent fit which left her unconscious.
Cabin crew and passengers rushed to her aid but towards the end of the flight she began to vomiting.
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When the Airbus A340-600, carrying 267 passengers and crew, touchdown at Heathrow she was rushed to nearby Hillingdon Hospital, West London.
Her symptoms matched those of the viral haemorraghing fever, ebola. The results of a post mortem are awaited.
Virgin Atlantic cabin crew who came into contact with the woman have been told to monitor their health. One said: "We are now terrified what we may have caught."
Deadly ebola is often characterised by the sudden onset of fever, intense weakness, muscle pain, headache and sore throat.
The sun could kill me in a matter of seconds too.....
;-)
If the passenger had just been to the doctor with flu-like symptoms the day before, it's doubtful her death a couple of days later was caused by ebola. It takes several days to a week for the 'bleeding-out' to manifest itself, and it doesn't sound like that much time had elapsed.
I'm 95+% Irish (and if it isn't Irish, it's Scottish), I'm damn near translucent :)
"God help us when something starts that is highly contagious and we are too PC to quarantine first and then ask questions and test to see what is going on."
We've seen with AIDS what PC mixed with a contagion can bring. A virus somewhere between ebola and HIV, deadly with a medium incubation time, and a population too politically correct to deal with it honestly would be a catastrophe.
Ebola victims should be treated in Washington D.C. hospitals and hospices, with daily tours of the facilities for members of congress. Might cure the immigration mess.
Yeah I was on a similar one.
Chances are some contracting officer who didn't know that Lenovos were made in China bought them.
The GS types who generally make such purchases generally DON'T check everything out like that.
It is a problem, I hope they correct it, but it probably isn't the first time it's happened.
The network those are on is NOT classified (it's call the NIPRNET) and there won't be any chance of the Chinese hacking into the secured networks via those computers anyway (the networks aren't connected in ANY physical way).
Not many books will give you a nightmare or two... this one will. Well worth reading!!!
Also extremely rare thankfully.
A couple of odd things in this story.
The results of a post mortem are awaited. Yet it is announced that she did died of Ebola rather then "may have died".
And she is identified in the headline as an African and in the story as a Briton who worked in the Embassy in Lesotho.
Lastly she was stationed in Lesotho. That is half a continent away from Unganda and the Congo where Ebola outbreaks happen.
I have never heard of a case in Lesotho. It may have happened but I have never heard of it.
This is like SARS in Canada where they left infected patients laying around on gurneys in the hallways, passing on the infection to other people. Or sending relatives home after they have been exposed. This could be really bad and I'm afraid the socialized health care system in the UK is not going to perform very well.
ping to #44
CDC doesn't list any outbreaks in Lesotho....
Just waiting to happen.
From the CDC link here:
Infections with Ebola virus are acute. There is no carrier state. Because the natural reservoir of the virus is unknown, the manner in which the virus first appears in a human at the start of an outbreak has not been determined. However, researchers have hypothesized that the first patient becomes infected through contact with an infected animal. Treating patients with Ebola HF during outbreak of the disease in Kikwit, Democratic Republic of the Congo, in 1995.
After the first case-patient in an outbreak setting is infected, the virus can be transmitted in several ways. People can be exposed to Ebola virus from direct contact with the blood and/or secretions of an infected person. Thus, the virus is often spread through families and friends because they come in close contact with such secretions when caring for infected persons. People can also be exposed to Ebola virus through contact with objects, such as needles, that have been contaminated with infected secretions.
The people on the plane were breathing her air for a long time and those caring for her might have been exposed to her secretions....amazing that everyone wasn't quarantined....some info:
Contagion summary: People can be exposed to Ebola virus from direct contact with the blood and/or secretions of an infected person. This is why the virus has often been spread through the families and friends of infected persons: in the course of feeding, holding, or otherwise caring for them, family members and friends would come into close contact with such secretions. People can also be exposed to Ebola virus through contact with objects, such as needles, that have been contaminated with infected secretions. 1
Contagion discussion: Infection with Ebola virus in humans is incidental -- humans do not "carry" the virus. Because the natural reservoir of the virus is unknown, the manner in which the virus first appears in a human at the start of an outbreak has not been determined. However, researchers have hypothesized that the first patient becomes infected through contact with an infected animal. 1
Nosocomial transmission has been associated frequently with Ebola HF outbreaks. It includes both types of transmission described above, but it is used to describe the spread of disease in a health-care setting such as a clinic or hospital. In African health-care facilities, patients are often cared for without the use of a mask, gown, or gloves, and exposure to the virus has occurred when health care workers treated individuals with Ebola HF without wearing these types of protective clothing. In addition, when needles or syringes are used, they may not be of the disposable type, or may not have been sterilized, but only rinsed before re-insertion into multi-use vials of medicine. If needles or syringes become contaminated with virus and are then reused, numbers of people can become infected.
Ebola-Reston that appeared in a primate research facility in Virginia, may have been transmitted from monkey to monkey through the air in the facility. While all Ebola virus species have displayed the ability to be spread through airborne particles (aerosols) under research conditions, this type of spread has not been documented among humans in a real-world setting, such as a hospital or household.1
http://www.wrongdiagnosis.com/e/ebola/contagious.htm
If they get dizzy they can bend over, put their head between their legs and...
"I'm not one to get excited about these things but in the case of something like ebola, I think they should do more than simply monitor their own health.
"
I agree.
Appears that some testing still needs to be done to confirm Ebola or Marburg.
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