Post to me or FReep mail to be on/off the Bring Out Your Dead ping list.
The purpose of the “Bring Out Your Dead” ping list (formerly the “Ebola” ping list) is very early warning of emerging pandemics, as such it has a high false positive rate.
So far the false positive rate is 100%.
At some point we may well have a high mortality pandemic, and likely as not the “Bring Out Your Dead” threads will miss the beginning entirely.
*sigh* Such is life, and death...
"Communicated by: ProMED-mail
[The analysis of local culture is very relevant to the problems of prevention in these countries.
If the particular ebolavirus strain causing the current epidemic (actually pandemic, because it has crossed international borders) has been in West Africa at least since 2006, why haven't cases been seen before? Well, they have; they were viral hemorrhagic fever patients coming to the Lassa ward of Kenema General Hospital, where they were treated with the proper precautions and did not spread either in hospital or to the community. But since fatal cases were presumably buried with traditional rites, why didn't the carers and mourners get massively infected in past years as they are being now? It's looks as though we have a strain that is more virulent than the Zaire strain has been in the past in West Africa yet not as virulent as it is in the Congo, where up to 90 percent of victims died.
The media should stop repeating there is no treatment and that the death rate is 90 percent. There is no "specific" treatment, but over 30 percent of known cases have recovered so far, a great tribute to MSF and the other NGOs working in hospitals in the 3 countries. - Mod.JW
A HealthMap/ProMED-mail map can be accessed at: http://healthmap.org/promed/p/46