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To: Gay State Conservative
It's my understand that the disease is so virulent that it routinely affects doctors and nurses who treat victims

Ebola as it's known today is virulent, but it's only passed through an exchange of bodily fluids with the victim. If a healthcare professional is treating people with hemorrhagic fever symptoms in this region and they don't take proper procedures to protect themselves, I'd question how much they really know about the disease.

If the doctors or nurses took those precautions, and were still infected, the disease may be spreading through another vector.

16 posted on 07/23/2014 10:08:10 AM PDT by Lou L (Health "insurance" is NOT the same as health "care")
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To: Lou L; driftdiver; SMARTY

The great fear is that the virus will mutate and, at some point, become airborne. Up until now, the virus has apparently been transmitted only through direct contact.

The notable exception is the Reston, Va. case a few years ago in which workers caring for infected animals contracted the disease through the air. As I recall, none got ill, although at least one tested positive for antibodies.

So there are both species-to-species and transmissability issues, as well as the virus’s ability to adapt and mutate.

As someone else noted, most strains of Ebola are so virulant that they kill quickly. That is both terrible and, from a containment standpoint, desirable. When the incubation and fatality rates drop so that the infected can travel and transmit, the world will be in deep trouble.

Perhaps I should say in more deep trouble, as if we don’t already have enough.


39 posted on 07/23/2014 12:14:09 PM PDT by Jedidah
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To: Lou L

You can’t effectively treat patients and behave like they’re level 4 bio hazards at the same time. This leads to medical professionals in plague zones getting sick.


40 posted on 07/23/2014 12:19:54 PM PDT by discostu (Villains always blink their eyes.)
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