Don't worry about it, they are screening. /s
Posted on 10/03/2014 4:34:28 AM PDT by markomalley
Today, the Ebola virus spreads only through direct contact with bodily fluids, such as blood and vomit. But some of the nation's top infectious disease experts worry that this deadly virus could mutate and be transmitted just by a cough or a sneeze.
"It's the single greatest concern I've ever had in my 40-year public health career," said Dr. Michael Osterholm, director of the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy at the University of Minnesota. "I can't imagine anything in my career -- and this includes HIV -- that would be more devastating to the world than a respiratory transmissible Ebola virus."
Osterholm and other experts couldn't think of another virus that has made the transition from non-airborne to airborne in humans. They say the chances are relatively small that Ebola will make that jump. But as the virus spreads, they warned, the likelihood increases.
Every time a new person gets Ebola, the virus gets another chance to mutate and develop new capabilities. Osterholm calls it "genetic roulette."
As of October 1, there have been more than 7,100 cases of Ebola, with 3,330 deaths, according to the World Health Organization, which has said the virus is spreading at a much faster rate than it was earlier in the outbreak.
Ebola is an RNA virus, which means every time it copies itself, it makes one or two mutations. Many of those mutations mean nothing, but some of them might be able to change the way the virus behaves inside the human body.
(Excerpt) Read more at edition.cnn.com ...
I believed this until I saw the ambulance driver for the doctor brought back to the U.S.
Time will tell. If infections are indeed contained, then no worries. If it spreads to the general public, we’re screwed.
Don't worry about it, they are screening. /s
A link to this thread has been posted on the Ebola Surveillance Thread
I’m not a scientist or any type of medical expert etc...but I was thinking - what if Ebola & the entovirus (D68) somehow joined up & mutated?
Stranger things have happened.
FALSE... YES, EBOLA MIGHT BE TRANSMITTED BY AIR.
PARAPHRASING SOCRATES, THE CDC ADMITES THAT ALL THEY KNOW IS THAT THEY KNOW NOTHING ABOUT EBOLA.
Preventive Medicine Expert: Obama ‘Underplaying’ Ebola Risk
on Breitbart TV 2 Oct 2014
Dr. Elizabeth Lee Vliet, a preventive medical specialist who practices in Texas and Arizona, who has served as Adjunct Associate Professor in Family Medicine at the University of Arizona College of Medicine, Assistant Professor in Family Medicine at Eastern Virginia Medical School, and Medical Director for the Women’s Program at Maryview Hospital accused the government of “underplaying the risk” of the Ebola virus, and seemed to argue that flights from countries with large Ebola outbreaks should not be allowed into the US on Thursday’s broadcast of “The Laura Ingraham Show.”
Dr. Vliet said that the government is not doing everything it could to protect Americans from the virus. Speaking on the prospect of a flight ban and the contention that only individuals who are showing symptoms of the virus can transmit it, she said “viruses mutate and change, and so to say anything with 100% certainty when you are dealing with viruses that change is medically irresponsible.” And that “no one can say with 100% certainty” when someone becomes infectious, and this is the reason why European nations have halted flights from countries like Liberia.
She further wondered why the American recently diagnosed with Ebola was not stopped, asking “why wasn’t he stopped at customs, why wasn’t he screened then, why wasn’t he quarantined as they’re doing in other countries?”
Dr. Vliet also declared that President Obama is “underplaying the risk to Americans, and I think when we have evidence going back to the Reston lab accident in Virginia a couple decades ago, of potential airborne transmission, the Canadian government has said that airborne transmission was strongly suspected [we should be more cautious].”
She reported that Canadian health advisories on the virus scrubbed their mentions of the potential for airborne transmission of the virus even though the data did not change, “I printed out the Canadian public health advisory back in June. There is a statement in their report that airborne transmission was strongly suspected based upon the 2012 Canadian study with a transmission between two species [pigs and monkeys] that were not in physical contact…I just re-printed the Canadian advisory this week, lo and behold, that statement has been taken out…the medical data did not change,” she said.
Follow Ian Hanchett on Twitter @IanHanchett
In early August the CDC issued guidance to airlines about how to handle a passenger who might be infected with Ebola.
One of their “suggestions” was:
Providing the sick passenger with a surgical mask, if possible, to reduce the emission of bodily fluids into the air.
AKA was preventing the spread of the illness through expelled bodily fluids found in coughs and sneezes. If this isn’t the spread of Ebola through the air, I don’t know what is.
All that is going on is an argument over details - not denying the actual facts.
I’m glad I wasn’t the only one wondering if the pregnant teen back in Liberia was actually carrying HIS child.
Time for 50 of our American jihadis to come home with Ebola in their 2 oz. shampoo bottles. Go to a tightly packed club, a football game, or any number of other ways to make physical contact with numbers of people. Hit NYC to collapse the financial system by actual illness plus panic.
This is the dirty bomb of our time. Maybe an infected suicide bomber with Ebola detonates a vest and spreads infected guts all over a crowd. Do it during cold and flu season so many people are wiping their noses.
Oh, I forgot. President Obola has it under control and we don’t need to restrict air travel from Africa.
Ebola apparantly can be transmitted by air, it can become airborne and then infect others while airborne, and then afterwards, infect even more. For airborne travel, it thrives within metallic Aluminum tubules, where it is nurtured with an air supply and nutrients... even entertainment.
I read that he is not really working for NBC, but "freelance" and was hired Tuesday and had symptoms on Wednesday. Ah, here is the link: http://www.nbcnews.com/storyline/ebola-virus-outbreak/nbc-news-freelancer-africa-diagnosed-ebola-n217271
Not sure, but one thing is for sure, it doesn't reproduce in a sewer. So this is not cholera where we worry about bacteria reproducing in the water.
Thanks for the ping!
Ebola is not transmitted through the air. They know it is not from dealing with the disease for quite a few years. It is not the same type of virus as influenza.
The difficulty right now is that it wasn’t contained in Liberia and West Africa due to the political unrest in the area and that people in those countries so distrusted their government they felt it was giving them false information. I think we have a similar situation, only we are in danger of giving way to hysteria.
One likely option is walking in the wrong place. Ebola patients leak or even spray fluids from both ends. It ends up on the floor/ground, and it doesn't get decontaminated immediately (or ever) if the staff are overworked (and the typical West African medical worker is caring for 5-10 times the patient load they should see). Outside of hospitals/clinics, Ebola victims wait to get in, often contaminating the surrounding grounds. He probably stepped in it and then took his shoes/boots off at the end of the day. Game over.
Arguing over the details? Like the POTUS back in 1998 when he defined sexual relationship? Or like Obama when he said that some mysterious phantom enemies want him to suck oil through a straw? Again, this arguin over details is pretty stupid, if you ask me. Couldn’t putting a mask on someone with the flu prevent them from spreading it too. We can argue over how long various viruses stay airborne, but that is rediculous. It’s important to go above an beyond what we know in precautions against a disease such as Ebola.
Well cholera is easy to kill so long as their is good sewage treatment in effect. Ebola is a virus, it doesn’t eat, it doesn’t sleep and it relies on a host body as a surrogate for reproducing itself.
That reproduction is key. It is true the virus can remain viable for days or weeks under certain conditions, but without reproducing, the chances of infection diminish to essentially zero.
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