I have to admit that I am a bit confused at this point.
This disease seems to be deadly in Africa. However, once our medical personnel return home with the infection, they seem to be all better in just a few days. I have a cold that is lasting longer than an ebola infection in an American.
If we have the cure, why have we not made it available to the African nations?
Much attention has focused on the unproven drug ZMapp, which was given to seven patients, two of whom died. But the limited supply is now exhausted and its developer says it will take months to make even a modest amount.
what we have that keeps those few cases alive, is life support systems
but not enough to treat thousands of patients in the US much less abroad in a country/continent where a lot of rural populations believe in witch doctors
Sample size=3
Recovered=2
Still sick=1
Pretty thin statistics...
I have a cold that is lasting longer than an ebola infection in an American.
Keep in mind that they were sick in Africa for an unknown period of time, symptomatic for up to a week, sick for the trip here and were, perhaps, through the worst of it by the time they got here.
I don’t think we have a “cure”, although I think the doctors in the US are using ‘serum’ (in addition to ZMapp) from recovered Ebola patients to help the very few (3 so far?) transferred here by giving the patients ‘antibodies’ that survivors have developed. It’s experimental and not widely available, especially in a hot zone where medical staff are overwhelmed, under supplied, etc. This Ebola seems to be a 50-50 death rate, rather than the 90% that results from the Zaire strain of the virus. The key seems to be if you can intervene very early with hydration, electolytes, etc. and other supportive care, the odds of surviving go up considerably. I think a lot of the victims in Africa are coming in when very ill already. Just my impression from what I’ve been seeing/hearing in the reports. We’re hearing about all the deaths, too - not much on survivors.
Another wrinkle - the last doctor that I heard had Ebola & was transferred somewhere in Europe for treatment, was working in a pediatric unit and supposedly there were not active Ebola cases in that ward. Obviously, somebody had it! Another concerning issue .... doctors taking full precautions are coming down with it ... I suspect it’s when getting out of their protective suits, which is a time of high risk since the suits are contaminated. But still, medical personnel who know all the safety precautions are getting it, now this doctor in a supposedly safe ped ward, etc. Despite the CDC, etc. saying that our health care system will prevent what is happening in Africa, I don’t think it’s going to be as “easy” or simple to contain it here. We’ve been lied to before and I think we’re being lied to now to prevent panic .... but when we start getting Ebola here (and we will) then no matter what they say, panic will abound. Just my 2 cents ... and knowing a little something about human nature ... especially ‘low info’ human nature.
We don't have a cure for ANY virus. From herpes, to the common cold to Ebola, all we can do is treat the symptoms.
"The cure," which is far from proven to the satisfaction of any standards of development, is derived from Tobacco plants, and a process of refinement that mere starts at acres of this variety of nightshade (Solanaceae - which includes tomato -).
I'm not certain, but this strain of Ebola appears to have, in most patients, what may be a heretofore unusually long latency before symptom display period, 21 days. Though hemorrhagic viral diseases are particularly horrifying, these diseases usually display so rapidly their containment is correspondingly rapid, with previous outbreaks confined to a death count in the hundreds.
The habits of physical contact of family with the bodies of the dead hasn't helped.
It also hasn't helped that an area already saddled with a shortage of health care workers has lost whole hospitals of staff to the disease.
Are you seriously that confused? You mean two American medical people being treated at the top Ebola clinic in the world recovered, versus the masses of Africans being treated in Africa, under African conditions, only recovering at a rate approaching 50%?
In a disease where 50% survive anyway, two people returning to America and surviving with the best possible care, and receiving an experimental drug which does not have any significant quantities available, is hardly an indication that we can cure it in America, but not in Africa.
I remember reading about a huge scandal several years ago involving experimental drugs being tested on 3rd-world patients. I would bet there are now a ton of regulations restricting which drugs can be sent where, especially when those drugs are still in the testing stages like the Ebola ones.
The problem I believe is that people practically have to be hooked up to iv's and getting constantly hydrated to replace the dehydration brought about by constant retching and diarrhea. It's easy enough to do this for a few, but once it gets past the point where this can be done people start dying fast.