EBOLA CONFIRMED - WHO Warns That Ebola Outbreak in Republic of Congo Could Be Spreading

AP ^ | 02-19-03 | By Louis Okamba Associated Press Writer

[Neuromancer]

WHO Warns That Ebola Outbreak in Republic of Congo Could Be Spreading

By Louis Okamba Associated Press Writer

Published: Feb 19, 2003

BRAZZAVILLE, Republic of Congo (AP) - U.N. health officials confirmed Wednesday that a disease outbreak killing scores of people in the Republic of Congo was Ebola and warned that the highly lethal hemorrhagic fever could still be spreading.

"We're not suggesting that this is over or even contained. We're treating it as an active outbreak," said Iain Simpson, a World Health Organization spokesman in Geneva.

So far, 73 people have been infected, of whom 59 have died, according to WHO investigators. Government health officials in the tiny Central African nation report 80 cases with 67 deaths. The Cuvette West region, where the deaths have occurred, has been quarantined by the government since last week.

Blood samples drawn from victims in the region tested positive for the Ebola virus, said Josef Mboussa, a top official in Republic of Congo's health ministry. The disease is one of the world's deadliest, causing rapid death through massive blood loss in up to 90 percent of those infected. Ebola spreads through bodily fluids. Primates, hunted by many central Africans for food, can also carry the infection.

"There will probably be more deaths due to the complexity of the disease," said Mboussa. Mboussa wasn't able to say if medical examiners were registering new infections in the region; the first reports of the illness reached the capital, Brazzaville, over two weeks ago.

Ebola's two- to 21-day incubation period makes it difficult to gauge how quickly the outbreak may still be moving, Simpson said.

The forested Cuvette West region has 30,000 inhabitants spread among provincial towns and small villages. The disease has centered in the villages of Kelle and Mbomo.

Efforts to investigate the outbreak are being stymied. Frantic villagers terrified by Ebola's horrific symptoms have fled from health workers in their head-to-toe protective suits. Along with medical personnel, anthropologists have been sent to the region to help explain to the disease to people.

"The villagers are very scared; they see people getting sick and dying," said Simpson. "We're trying to get them to understand the situation." Ebola killed 43 people in Republic of Congo and 53 others in Gabon between October 2001 and February 2002.

WHO says more than 1,000 people have died of Ebola since the virus was first identified in 1976 in western Sudan and in a region of Congo.

[Calpernia]

Looks like it has been worked on for terrorism:

http://jama.ama-assn.org/issues/v287n18/ffull/jst20006.html
Hemorrhagic fever viruses have been weaponized by the former Soviet Union, Russia, and the United States.13-15 There are reports that yellow fever may have been weaponized by North Korea.14 The former Soviet Union and Russia produced large quantities of Marburg, Ebola, Lassa, and New World arenaviruses (specifically, Junin and Machupo) until 1992.13, 15 Soviet Union researchers quantified the aerosol infectivity of Marburg virus for monkeys, determining that no more than a few virions are required to cause infection.16 Yellow fever and Rift Valley fever viruses were developed as weapons by the US offensive biological weapons program prior to its termination in 1969.14 The Japanese terrorist cult Aum Shinrikyo unsuccessfully attempted to obtain Ebola virus as part of an effort to create biological weapons.17

[Neuromancer]

Birds as vector?

[CholeraJoe]

like the outbreak of Dengue Fever, a Tropical African Disease in Hawaii

Dengue is far from a tropical african disease. It is endemic in the South Pacific and most of the Americas.

[Neuromancer]

"Tell THAT to the folks who "mysteriously" contracted Hemmoraghic Fever in the Refugee Camps in Pakistan when the war started in Afghanistan!"

CCHF is an arbovirus, a nairovirus in the bunyavirus family. CCHF is found in southern and central Africa, eastern Europe, Pakistan, the Middle East, and the countries formerly known as the USSR. CCHF is transmitted by the bite of a Hyalomma tick, by contact with tissues of infected animals, or by contact with viremic patients. CCHF is transmitted from domestic animals to humans via tick bites.

However, because humans can acquire the disease from infected animal tissues, it is not clear whether some humans acquire the disease from contact with infected animal tissues, or from infected ticks that live on the host animal. The incubation period is 2-7 days.

Sudden in onset, the symptoms include fever, chills, severe muscular pain, headache, vomiting, and pain in the gastric and lumbar regions. Petechiae in the skin begin to manifest between day 3 and day 5.

Ribavirin has been effective in vitro against some Bunyaviridae. It is possible that prophylactic doses of Ribavirin may also be effective in preventing disease in people who have high-risk contact with patients.

[Chancellor Palpatine]

EBOLA OUTBREAK CONFIRMED IN CONGO

Women, Minorities, Children to be hardest hit

Bush Administration did little to stop it

[Chancellor Palpatine]

It really is much more difficult than Clancy envisioned.

[Domestic Church]

Yes, that's the one in post #25...Perdue/Purdue pun intended.(it's hard to not laugh or cry at these articles.)

The very idea of using ebola or any of these incurable horrific illnesses shows the lunatics are running asylum in way too many sections of the globe. At least with nukes there can be some semblance of control.

[DoctorMichael]

Global Biodiversity Strategy - published jointly by UNEP, IUCN, WWF, and WRI

SAVE THE VIRUSES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

VIRUSES HAVE FEELINGS TOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!

FREE EBOLA NOW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

STOP THE PERSECUTION OF EBOLA!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[wbill]

Yup, but the REAL question is "What did Bush know and when did he know it?".

[realpatriot71]

I think biological weapons make a lot sense for two reasons (1) hard to detect and protect against and (2) kills people but leaves infrastructure intact. Nukes as a weapon have to be located somewhere, even if it's only a suitcase, and give of radiation readings. Plus they destroy both humans and infrastruacture.

[Neuromancer]

"The teams are also trying to stop people in the region from eating wild game such as gorilla, gazelle, and antelope. These are among the animals that have been dying off in the surrounding forest and have already tested positive for Ebola."

The reference to gazelle is probably to a small, dog-sized antelope also known as duiker, nowhere near as fast a runner as the East and South African gazelles. These are caught and eaten by chimpanzees, but gorillas do not eat meat, so their source of infection must be something else -- termites or insect larvae have been postulated.