Rat
Not bored. Never bored.,
Reminded me of the last time I went to Yorkshire.
Frozenwolf150
Formerly SilentKnight
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I'm tempted to say something smartass, but now's not the time. I feel bad for all the victims, including the medicine woman herself. It's probably not her fault that she couldn't afford real medical training, or that she put so much faith in the ways and customs of her people. Herbal methods might be a good placebo for mild symptoms of various illnesses, but when it comes to Ebola, you don't screw around with it.
catsmate
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I suspect greed was also a factor.
Other news.
The situation in Liberia is interesting with quite large areas (the urban slums of West Point and Dolo Town) being quarantined, which has led to violence at at least one person killed.
The question is whether this will prevent the spread of Ebola, albeit perhaps at the cost of effectively writing off thousands (about 50,000 live in the barricaded areas) of lives, or if it may provoke large scale violence and an exodus of possibly infected people. Give the seemingly slapdash preparations, and lack of provision for food and water, I'm not optimistic. I would not write off the possibility of the Liberian army moving in to the slums in force.
The body of a man who recently died in Donegal has been quarantined and is to be tested for Ebola. Dessie Quinn worked in Sierra Leone and was thought to have died from malaria. The move is described as precautionary.
South Africa has banned travellers from Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone from entering the country. Senegal has closed it's border with Guinea
The suspected cases in Sacramento and Dubai have been tested and shown not to be Ebola.
Tests indicate the outbreak of hemorrhagic disease in the DRC is not a strain of Ebola.
No updated death toll, probably 1,400-1,500.
dudalb
Penultimate Amazing
The Sergeants when I went through US Army Basic training would agree with you.............
The_Fire
Unimpressed Female
They'll think its a hoax right up til they contract it themselves. Its awefully hard to claim Ebola is a hoax when you start bleeding from every orifice....
ETA: No, I dont hope they get it. I actually hope they don't. Ebola is a cruel way to die. However some people are beyond redemtion when it comes to beliefs like this. ANd it annoys me.
ETA: No, I dont hope they get it. I actually hope they don't. Ebola is a cruel way to die. However some people are beyond redemtion when it comes to beliefs like this. ANd it annoys me.
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catsmate
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From The Lancet (link).
The Ebola virus outbreak, which has been smouldering in parts of west Africa since December 2013, took centre stage in the world's media at the end of July with the news that two Americans who had been helping to treat patients in Liberia had caught the disease, and were subsequently brought to Emory University Hospital, Atlanta, GA, USA, for treatment. By Aug 11, 1843 cases of Ebola and 1013 deaths had occurred in Guinea, Liberia, Nigeria, and Sierra Leone, making this the largest recorded outbreak. The increase in cases shows no sign of abating, and on Aug 8, WHO declared the outbreak to be a public health emergency of international concern, a decision that activates numerous recommendations for WHO member countries under the International Health Regulations. Although this is the 25th outbreak since the disease was discovered in 1976, its unprecedented size brings into focus several issues around how the scientific community, governments, and the media handle such events.
The high case fatality, terrible haemorrhagic symptoms, and lack of vaccine or cure explain the fear that Ebola provokes. Yet the notion of a global outbreak of Ebola, fostered by parts of the mass media, seems unjustified. Ebola can only be caught by direct contact with someone with symptoms or with their bodily fluids. Although the incubation period of 2—21 days means that a person incubating the disease might fly to any part of the world, once they became ill they would likely be treated in an institution with far better infection control than is available in most of sub-Saharan Africa. Identifying and isolating contacts is taxing, but simpler than if the disease had a respiratory route of transmission. Also, Ebola seldom affects people with the means to buy an airfare. It's worth noting that human Ebola transmission has never occurred outside Africa. Sadly, the fragility of health systems is one reason why Ebola is proving hard to stop in west Africa.
Sylvain Baize and colleagues reported in April that the Ebola outbreak originated in December 2013 in southeast Guinea bordering Liberia and Sierra Leone. Improved roads allowed the disease to travel quickly, and because Ebola was previously unknown in the region—and surveillance is non-existant—health-care workers did not recognise or have the means to manage the outbreak. This combination of factors meant that when Ebola was finally recognised in March it was present in the three countries.
Until recently, the task of managing the outbreak has been left largely to national governments and non-governmental organisations such as Médecins Sans Frontières. A surge in cases since June, the first case in Nigeria in July, and the illness of the two Americans have now triggered a more proactive response from the international community. WHO sent a team of experts at the end of June and has issued a call for infection-control professionals to work in affected countries. The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has disease control experts in all four countries and intends to deploy an additional 50 staff within the next month. The World Bank has pledged up to US$200 million in emergency funding to affected countries.
The two American health workers were given the experimental treatment ZMapp (dubbed “secret serum” in some reports, although it's neither secret nor a serum) before evacuation from Liberia. This development raises ethical issues around use of experimental drugs and equity of access to treatment. Because Ebola is a potential agent of biological warfare, the US Government has funded development of ZMapp, which is a mixture of three humanised monoclonal antibodies against the Ebola virus produced in tobacco plants. The drug was effective in a monkeymodel of Ebola, but has not entered human trials. The US Food and Drug Administration has given approval for another government-funded drug, TKM-Ebola, which interferes with viral RNA, to be used in Ebola-infected patients.
On Aug 12, a panel convened by WHO concluded that, in the circumstances of the Ebola outbreak, use of unproven treatments is ethical. This seems a laudable conclusion when death is the most likely outcome of infection. In reality, current supplies of ZMapp are exhausted after the donation to Liberia of enough drug to treat just two patients.
The international community is only now catching up with the rapid spread and scale of the Ebola outbreak. The epidemic reinforces the need for nations to investment in health infrastructure and disease surveillance to keep pace with other developments in Africa. Efforts to contain Ebola should not divert resources from more mundane infections, such as malaria, which have a far higher long-term disease burden.
The Ebola virus outbreak, which has been smouldering in parts of west Africa since December 2013, took centre stage in the world's media at the end of July with the news that two Americans who had been helping to treat patients in Liberia had caught the disease, and were subsequently brought to Emory University Hospital, Atlanta, GA, USA, for treatment. By Aug 11, 1843 cases of Ebola and 1013 deaths had occurred in Guinea, Liberia, Nigeria, and Sierra Leone, making this the largest recorded outbreak. The increase in cases shows no sign of abating, and on Aug 8, WHO declared the outbreak to be a public health emergency of international concern, a decision that activates numerous recommendations for WHO member countries under the International Health Regulations. Although this is the 25th outbreak since the disease was discovered in 1976, its unprecedented size brings into focus several issues around how the scientific community, governments, and the media handle such events.
The high case fatality, terrible haemorrhagic symptoms, and lack of vaccine or cure explain the fear that Ebola provokes. Yet the notion of a global outbreak of Ebola, fostered by parts of the mass media, seems unjustified. Ebola can only be caught by direct contact with someone with symptoms or with their bodily fluids. Although the incubation period of 2—21 days means that a person incubating the disease might fly to any part of the world, once they became ill they would likely be treated in an institution with far better infection control than is available in most of sub-Saharan Africa. Identifying and isolating contacts is taxing, but simpler than if the disease had a respiratory route of transmission. Also, Ebola seldom affects people with the means to buy an airfare. It's worth noting that human Ebola transmission has never occurred outside Africa. Sadly, the fragility of health systems is one reason why Ebola is proving hard to stop in west Africa.
Sylvain Baize and colleagues reported in April that the Ebola outbreak originated in December 2013 in southeast Guinea bordering Liberia and Sierra Leone. Improved roads allowed the disease to travel quickly, and because Ebola was previously unknown in the region—and surveillance is non-existant—health-care workers did not recognise or have the means to manage the outbreak. This combination of factors meant that when Ebola was finally recognised in March it was present in the three countries.
Until recently, the task of managing the outbreak has been left largely to national governments and non-governmental organisations such as Médecins Sans Frontières. A surge in cases since June, the first case in Nigeria in July, and the illness of the two Americans have now triggered a more proactive response from the international community. WHO sent a team of experts at the end of June and has issued a call for infection-control professionals to work in affected countries. The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has disease control experts in all four countries and intends to deploy an additional 50 staff within the next month. The World Bank has pledged up to US$200 million in emergency funding to affected countries.
The two American health workers were given the experimental treatment ZMapp (dubbed “secret serum” in some reports, although it's neither secret nor a serum) before evacuation from Liberia. This development raises ethical issues around use of experimental drugs and equity of access to treatment. Because Ebola is a potential agent of biological warfare, the US Government has funded development of ZMapp, which is a mixture of three humanised monoclonal antibodies against the Ebola virus produced in tobacco plants. The drug was effective in a monkeymodel of Ebola, but has not entered human trials. The US Food and Drug Administration has given approval for another government-funded drug, TKM-Ebola, which interferes with viral RNA, to be used in Ebola-infected patients.
On Aug 12, a panel convened by WHO concluded that, in the circumstances of the Ebola outbreak, use of unproven treatments is ethical. This seems a laudable conclusion when death is the most likely outcome of infection. In reality, current supplies of ZMapp are exhausted after the donation to Liberia of enough drug to treat just two patients.
The international community is only now catching up with the rapid spread and scale of the Ebola outbreak. The epidemic reinforces the need for nations to investment in health infrastructure and disease surveillance to keep pace with other developments in Africa. Efforts to contain Ebola should not divert resources from more mundane infections, such as malaria, which have a far higher long-term disease burden.
catsmate
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Jrrarglblarg
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I heard a bit on NPR yesterday about someone in Nigeria that had been shot and was just left on the ground unattended because nobody was able to organize the resources to get an ambulance involved. The incredible gulf between the medical capability and equipment on the ground in Africa compared to Europe or the US is hard to comprehend.
catsmate
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No formally updated death toll.
A UK national infected with Ebola is being evacuated from Sierra Leone, he will be treated at the Royal Free Hospital in London.
More border closures; Sierra Leone has closed it's borders with Liberia and Guinea. The country's parliament has passed new laws criminalising hiding suspected Ebola cases.
The suspected case of Ebola in Montreal has tested negative.
A UK national infected with Ebola is being evacuated from Sierra Leone, he will be treated at the Royal Free Hospital in London.
More border closures; Sierra Leone has closed it's borders with Liberia and Guinea. The country's parliament has passed new laws criminalising hiding suspected Ebola cases.
The suspected case of Ebola in Montreal has tested negative.
pakeha
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About the same as 4 days of measles fatalities worldwide, then.
If you get ebola, you've got a 50% (or worse, depending where you are) chance of dying, and in a pretty unpleasant way. The thing is, it is not easily transmissible, compared with measles, or 'flu. Also, you're not contagious until after you start showing symptoms, so the chances of it spreading by plane travel is much lower than with 'flu.
catsmate
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Exactly.
Correa Neto
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But still with some rather unpleasant prospects from the point of view of a third-worlder. One contagiuous person at any slum - be it in Africa, Iraq, India or here in Brazil has the potential to spread it across a wide circle. It may be, I belive, a bit hard for many people at the first world to understand certain conditions and situations at third world countries. The gap is huge. There are also other rather dire possibilities, even for first worlders.
Ebola in a Brazilian slum would eventually be contained. But if the disease managed to find an animal host in that region, we could expect periodic outbreaks in the future.
Skeptic Ginger
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I doubt the nightmare will be much worse than the current situation there. Watch that VICE video. Everyone should watch that.
Correa Neto
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Containment-
Probably it would be, but it would not be easy - most of them are dominated by local drug lords. Our slums usually not only lack basic health infrastructure such as sewage but also contain a high density of people. Rocinha (Rio's greatest slum), for example, has 300 tuberculosis cases for each 100K inhabitants (yes, it is that big). Poor sanitation, people closely packed together, poor education plus other issues such as drug use are a terrible combination. I'm also afraid it would spread outside it well before being contained, since most people who live there work outside the slum.
Guess slums in Africa can be worse than Rocinha, but the overall conditions of slums are similar all around the world.
As for our possible local vectors, I don't know. We have marmosets living quite close if not within cities, for example. Could they be vectors?
Aniway, the even with say, "just" 30-40% of lethality, it would be a tragedy anywhere in the world if for example 10K people are contaminated. To the costs in human lives, add the socioeconomic problems that would (will?) follow. Panic, prejudice, stupidity, opportunism...
Other diseases kill more people, but they are not as lethal and can be cured or at least controlled by medicine. Ebola can take a heavy toll on the poor.
Skeptic Ginger
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I would have thought so if I hadn't seen the scene in Slum Dog Millionaire where they blind that kid with acid so he can be a better beggar, and the VICE documentary on the Liberian slums where dead bodies lie in the street like dead dogs would, people eat the soylent green meat and human feces piles are almost impossible not to step in because they are simply everywhere.
Some things truly are worse than one can imagine.
Frozenwolf150
Formerly SilentKnight
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I'm not sure what you mean by that. Are you being sarcastic?
Seriously though, it does have a higher rate of infection in impoverished regions without the resources or knowledge to properly deal with an outbreak. Also, many African traditional burial rituals involve handling, washing, and touching the dead body, which brings people in contact with the bodily fluids and thus infection. So yeah, there is a correlation with poor African communities.
catsmate
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Still no offical up-to-date death toll.
Patient zero (sort-of) may have been identified: a two-year-old girl, who died on 06DEC2013 in Meliandou, in south-eastern Guinea. How she became infected is unknown but she's the earlier known case from the current epidemic.
Patient zero (sort-of) may have been identified: a two-year-old girl, who died on 06DEC2013 in Meliandou, in south-eastern Guinea. How she became infected is unknown but she's the earlier known case from the current epidemic.