Posted on 10/04/2014 7:13:49 PM PDT by Wage Slave
Dr. Rick Sacra, of Holden, who doctors said was successfully treated for Ebola at the University of Nebraska Medical Center, was admitted to UMass Memorial Medical Center in Worcester Saturday morning with a respiratory illness.
Doctors do not think it likely that Sacra, who has been suffering from a persistent cough and low-grade fever for several days, has suffered a relapse of Ebola.
(Excerpt) Read more at wcvb.com ...
Those latent viruses are special cases. Ebola does not have that mechanism.
Ebola, EV68, chininguya, tb...we should just call them all the “obama virus”.
Actually I was talking about the cold viruses.
Common knowledge that colds become fewer and milder as you get older — this I believe is due to immunity acquired earlier in life to individual rhinoviruses and partial immunity to very similar ones. Not sure if coronavirus and enterovirus colds do the same thing..
However, Ebola virus has been found in semen for up to 3 months. People who recover from Ebola are advised to abstain from sex or use condoms for 3 months.
Sounds absolutely horrible. I don’t believe we know enough about it to fully understand the long-term dangers of someone that has had it.
What do they know?
A heck of a lot more about medicine than the rest of us do.
A human who contracts ebola is lucky to survive. One who does is left in a weakened condition, perhaps even with lingering or permanent disabilities. An immune system that has fought for survival is at risk for further challenges.
It takes time to completely recover, even when the virus has run its course.
All three of the ebola survivors who have been dismissed from American hospitals (Dr. Sacra, Dr. Brantly, and Mrs. Writebol) had multiple blood tests that showed no viral presence before they were dismissed.
It is very likely that Dr. Sacra is suffering from a secondary infection, one his weakened immune system is struggling to fight.
Just pray for Dr. Sacra and keep the unkind thoughts to yourself. Please.
The Zaire strain of Ebola is spread via air in monkeys/pigs. First symptoms are respiratory. Just an FYI.
http://healthmap.org/site/diseasedaily/article/pigs-monkeys-ebola-goes-airborne-112112
Hang on.
I think we have a problem.
We know that Ebola can be transmitted in semen up to 60 days after recovery.
Tested and found no viral presence? I don't know that this is true, but if true, I find it surprising.
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Same here - twice. Friend of mine was hospitalized with shingles. Almost died, almost lost her vision. In great deal of pain, as you know.
I think this was the doctor who received antibodies only from Dr. Brantley.
I don’t think he received serum because there was none left.
This is informative:
http://www.cnn.com/2014/08/21/health/ebola-patient-release/
It also addresses your mention of transmission through semen.
Two blood tests, two days apart, for Brantly and Writebol. The Nebraska hospital where Dr. Sacra was treated required three clear tests.
I am not concerned about the survivors, other than to wish them a full recovery. I am deeply concerned about worldwide travel still being allowed from the hot zone.
I’m the next town over from this yank off. It sounds like his immune system is compromised and he has pnemonia.
Shingles is caused by the varicella zoster virus (VZV), of the herpesvidae family of DNA viruses. These viruses all have the ability, through multiple strategies, to evade the immune system, become dormant, then reactivate at a later time. VZV in particular "hides" in three particular nerve root ganglia, which are inaccessible to the immune system. There are other viruses capable of latency and reactivation, but filoviridae (the family Ebola belongs to) are not believed to have this property. However, relapse of a sort may be possible... Ebola (and Marburg) do so much damage to the body, specifically elements of the immune system, that a normal specific immune response may be delayed, so the patient may begin to appear better due to nonspecific immune response, then get worse as the virus continues to reproduce. I believe that this is the sort of thing they are thinking here, although because his immune system is wrecked it is more likely just a more common secondary infection.
It is doubtful anyone here has
enough information to discriminate in this patient
opportunistic infection vs. latent persistent Ebola
infection ... or both.
I agree completely, it was not my intention to suggest otherwise.
Don’t know this doctor’s story or who he is, but I’ve read for years now that those who do live through Ebola are NOT healthy people anymore, at least for a long time and maybe ever. “Immune compromised” is just the start of it. So actually this story could be completely on the up and up. Ebola survivors could probably be killed by a hard cold.
“When its your turn to go, its your turn to go.”
Having grown up on the ocean and spending time in the Army and in Iraq I do not appreciate the rationale of this statement. A lot of people say this. It’s poison. IMO Our decisions and actions are the first 5% of everything that happens to us and frequently make the difference between life and death.
I used to do a mental calculation when rounds were impacting in Iraq. It had to do with distance, frequency, type of round, casualty radius etc. I’d made my mind up that if I hit 10% casualty chance I was out of there. Proximity of the impact was only one factor. I had many rounds come near me but only a few close enough to cause injury. What prevented injury in every one of those instances is that I followed SOPs and the practice of putting a wall between me and the source of the rounds, even when no rounds were incoming.
Contrast this with a contract supervisor who left the latrine 5 min.s before a rocket impacted killing one and injuring another. He had no rationale for it. The proximity is what shook him. He quit that morning and cried his way to the airport. Or the guy who went to take a smoke break and an 82mm mortar came in the roof and hit between his chair and work desk, perforating all his stuff. He immediately left too. I was called over to his site to ‘fix the network’. How am I supposed to fix a laptop shredded by a mortar? In both these incidences they were single attacks. For them it was just a numbers game whether they got hit or not.
Of the half dozen rounds that hit close to me if I’d had a fatalistic attitude I certainly would not have used SOPs and best practices and would likely have been gravely injured or killed. In every one of my close calls I was saved by using SOPs, alertness and action.
I’m making a point about this since I think fatalism is very dangerous to young people. Their choices mean everything for their future. In a dangerous situation they should be at their highest level of alertness, prepared to take the necessary actions they’ve rehearsed or thought out to protect themselves. Thankfully, our military does not accept fatalistic attitudes.
presumably they have already had enough target to ramp up immune system. Thanks, I had not read up on zmapp to know what it was. Since we don’t have any anyway, it wont be involved in any of the patients I may be treating in the next few months.
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