Posted on 10/02/2014 8:16:57 AM PDT by Enlightened1
The circle of people who have come into contact with Ebola patient Thomas Eric Duncan is rapidly expanding, jumping from 18 to 80 early today and then leaping to 100, according to Texas health officials.
(Excerpt) Read more at abcnews.go.com ...
I know that you guys are arguing, but this really is a great, informative conversation. Don’t be mad and keep going with the rational, cited arguments. You may not be aware of this, but you’re bringing out the best in each other.
You’re both spreading fantastic information.
What about that is inconsistent with it being a new strain of ebola? It's not a new disease. It shares a common ancestor with Central African strains of ebola, but it is a new strain.
The initial assessment from March/April has since been panned by geneticists. It’s considered a strain of Zebola.
It has sequence similarity closest to the Zaire lineage using a vareity of heuristics.
I’ve seen no references to Ebola Guinea in any publications.
I'm not sure I understand what you mean - ebola, like HIV, can be transmitted sexually but it can also be transmitted by many other pathways that don't transmit HIV. On the other hand, you can be infected with HIV asymptomatically for years -- infecting a great many people -- and that's not possible for ebola, which sickens people very quickly (before a person has a chance to infect many people).
TL;DR - HIV is much easier to spread because people with HIV often don't know they're spreading it for years.
Particularly in places, like the US, which have sophisticated infrastructure for handling infectious disease outbreaks. Health workers are used to dealing with plenty of diseases far more infectious than Ebola.
I'm not a geneticist, but it seems somewhat pedantic to be arguing whether it's a new strain of Ebola Zaire or a new strain of ebola related to Ebola Zaire. The point is that the strain in West Africa is significantly different (both genetically and observed in patients) from previously detected strains in Central Africa, but shares a common ancestor with Ebola Zaire - there's no debate on either of those points that I'm aware of.
So those dogs in Dallas who were sniffing around vomit might bite people and give them ebola?
Thanks!
Oh, I agree about the pedantics of phylogenetics at some point.
It’s not really that different observed in patients however. The difference in reported CFR seems to be different merely because many tested cases don’t subsequently get treated or die and become recorded as deaths. Plus the outbreak is still going exponential there so there are many recently infected that simply haven’t had a chance to kick off just yet.
But there was an article (from msf? maybe) that indicated that of the cases that had actually *resolved* that there was not quite 90% CFR with this outbreak.
Genetically it looks like zebola has just drifted a bit since we first encountered it in ‘76.
At some point phylogenetic tree and classification becomes like angels dancing on the head of a pin. I learned long ago that if a geneticist made up his/her mind about a particular branch to let them LOL.
Several years ago, we lost most of our emergency rooms — in large part because they were overrun by illegal aliens.
If we get one single van/car/truck rollover with 18 illegals — and believe me, it happens more than people would guess — that puts certain hospitals out of commission.
Anyone thinking that we have enough hospitals and beds now better come visit Southern Arizona. There are not even enough beds in the ERs now.
Go into one and see all the patients in the hallways, some barely alive, others, moaning and groaning as everyone walks by.
Florida is the same. It is why Florida has the moniker, God’s waiting room
Wow about the moniker!
OR—the kids have walked in, played in, or rode their bikes and scooters through the large puddle of vomit Duncan deposited on the sidewalk outside the entrance to the apartments! Then dragged the virus inside on their sneakers!
Face it—these are not meticuous Japanese kids who are trained to leave their shoes OUTSIDE their dwellings.
A rose by any name...
The strain in Dallas is the Killer Strain. Call it what you like.
Outstanding Reference of the Day Award
Not to mention those god-awful leaf blowers that they use around apartment complexes this time of year.
You know, I kinda thought about NOT doing this, but since it appears some people want this to cause a panic...So be it...
I would say the best thing to do is not go to the ER if you or someone you know believes (thinks) they have been in contact, or has been exposed to the Ebola pathogen...
A real leadership role in this would be to tell people to limit their exposure at public events for about 2-3 weeks, allow those who may very well be virulent, to be identified and the chain of exposure would be limited if people would NOT panic and go to a healthcare facility right away...
Make a PHONE CALL, first, who do you call???
Good question...
CDC Atlanta - (800-232-4636) TTY: (888) 232-6348
Or...
Go ahead and call your local hospital and let them know, let the teams come to you, do not go to them...
Sure, its going to be scary, they’ll prolly roll up on you with HAZMAT suits on...But hey, YOU are doing the right thing...Limiting your potential exposure to others because YOU believe you may be infected is a very mature, logical, and sensible thing to do...
Too bad this word is not going to get out fast enough before the weekend though...
I did hear that some folks are considering shutting down Friday night football in the Dallas area...That may happen, it may not...But that will certainly feed the fire of panic in people too damn stupid to understand how well this entire country can prove itself to the rest of the world that we do respect the disease, and we know how to mitigate the spread of this if everyone take a moment and THINKS first before acting...
But hey, this is just me, what do I know, I only live here...For now...;-)
The only source I hear that is fanning the panic flame is the U.N. and its band of idiot thugs talking about this blood borne pathogen going airborne...
I only point to the last post I made in how to mitigate this problem...
Too bad we don’t have someone in the government with the intelligence to establish a “hotline” for folks who believe they might be exposed...
IMHO, it would be tax money well spent in the interim...
But then again, I’m not the Secretary of HHS, nor the President of these United States...
“Being a leader is not being ABOVE the people...It is being WITH the people...” (Stevie-D, 2014)
Man, that’s a good one...Someone write that one down, before I fergit it...
Just mentioned ebola to a millennial in a grocery store. He said “You can’t get ebola unless you catch aids” then looked at me like I’m an idiot. Which is what all millennials do since they know so much more than everyone else. We are in trouble if we ever have to depend on that generation.
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