Ebola outbreak in Africa

[G26ster]

baldeagle, I'm sorry, but you couldn't be more wrong about droplets. Yes, some will land on the ground. It's really windy at my house today. Some might get carried away to land harmlessly on an oak leaf 3 blocks away, to be irradiated by ultraviolet sunlight until harmless. Some may land on my neighbor's doorknob. A droplet could land in my granddaughter's eye......and she wouldn't even feel it! Some may go straight across the room to be inhaled by my wife. THIS IS EXACTLY ONE OF THE MEANS OF HOW FLU GETS TRANSMITTED! And... you could step where some of those droplets have landed, and because it survives outside the human host for at least days at a time, you track the virus into your grandkids home, where they get into the carpet.......the same carpet your grandkids play on.

I do not say these things to engender panic. I say them so that you will abandon this false argument that Ebola cannot be spread by this means. There are common sense things we can do to avoid it, and we don't have to be crazy paranoid about it, but responsibility dictates that we take them into account in our daily business........for exactly the same reasons we carry a gun. We don't expect to need it, but we want to have it just in case we do. That does not mean you are about to mugged any minute, and neither does it mean that you will be exposed to Ebola any minute.

TAM, if everything you say here is factual (and I believe it is) then how can simply carrying and using hand wipes and wearing a face mask on the plane (as you stated in a previous post) possibly protect one from this virus? Sure, it might help in a tiny way, but you say, "we don't have to be crazy paranoid about it, but responsibility dictates that we take them into account in our daily business." Well I think based upon what you said here, even being crazy paranoid about it and holing up (ala Howard Hughes) wont protect us. How do we protect ourselves from daily life? How do we protect ourselves from things such as, getting (touching) the mail, eating at restaurants where we don't know the medical condition/sanitary habits/exposure of the food preparer, the server, the previous guests at out table, or walking past other people in town, buying groceries (who touched that product before we did, or sneezed/coughed on the floor we walked on so we track it in the car and in the house and on the rug), and on and on and on. Doesn't seem possible.

Seems to me that taking a "few" non-paranoid precautions like we do to protect from the flu virus, which you says dies almost instantly outside the body anyway, is almost meaningless when it comes to Ebola. I guess we need to change the slogan "always carry, or guess right" to "Hole up like Howard Hughes, or guess right." MHO.

It may not BE possible, but I'm going to try. I don't think wearing a mask all the time is the answer......but wearing a mask in an airplane might be, and people have actually been doing that for years now, so it's not even that unusual. I don't want to minimize Ebola's contagion, but getting it INTO you is a much bigger threat than getting it ONTO you. Some of the people in Africa handling the remains of the dead have caught it, but not ALL of them. That signifies something.

I believe that's my point. I believe, if the "droplet" fact, and the time Ebola can survive on surfaces, if you get it on you, you WILL get it in you. Even with full protection, the nurse contacted Ebola because she probably got it ON her first. My point is if the "droplet" and the "on you" are facts, then there must be thousands of ways to get Ebola on you that you would never be aware of, and eventually in you so, to me at least, taking one, two, or three basic precautions is sort of useless to prevent contagion. I wish all of us the best of luck.

[sjfcontrol]

It may not BE possible, but I'm going to try. I don't think wearing a mask all the time is the answer......but wearing a mask in an airplane might be, and people have actually been doing that for years now, so it's not even that unusual. I don't want to minimize Ebola's contagion, but getting it INTO you is a much bigger threat than getting it ONTO you. Some of the people in Africa handling the remains of the dead have caught it, but not ALL of them. That signifies something.

I would think you would want to wear googles as well (or some sort of sealed eye protection.)

googles != goggles

[Keith B]

It may not BE possible, but I'm going to try. I don't think wearing a mask all the time is the answer......but wearing a mask in an airplane might be, and people have actually been doing that for years now, so it's not even that unusual. I don't want to minimize Ebola's contagion, but getting it INTO you is a much bigger threat than getting it ONTO you. Some of the people in Africa handling the remains of the dead have caught it, but not ALL of them. That signifies something.

I would think you would want to wear googles as well (or some sort of sealed eye protection.)

googles != goggles

This is Googles



These are goggles



This is a goggle eye

[sjfcontrol]

It may not BE possible, but I'm going to try. I don't think wearing a mask all the time is the answer......but wearing a mask in an airplane might be, and people have actually been doing that for years now, so it's not even that unusual. I don't want to minimize Ebola's contagion, but getting it INTO you is a much bigger threat than getting it ONTO you. Some of the people in Africa handling the remains of the dead have caught it, but not ALL of them. That signifies something.

I would think you would want to wear googles as well (or some sort of sealed eye protection.)

googles != goggles

This is Googles

[ Image ]

These are goggles

[ Image ]

This is a goggle eye

[ Image ]

[The Annoyed Man]

It may not BE possible, but I'm going to try. I don't think wearing a mask all the time is the answer......but wearing a mask in an airplane might be, and people have actually been doing that for years now, so it's not even that unusual. I don't want to minimize Ebola's contagion, but getting it INTO you is a much bigger threat than getting it ONTO you. Some of the people in Africa handling the remains of the dead have caught it, but not ALL of them. That signifies something.

I would think you would want to wear googles as well (or some sort of sealed eye protection.)

I wear glasses as it is. They are not sealed, but they do wrap around and protect my eyes to some extent.

I just saw this headline:

Southcom Commander Warns of Potential Ebola-Driven 'Mass Migration' from South of Border

Marine Corps Gen. John Kelly, commander of the U.S. Southern Command, predicted last week that the Ebola virus will not be contained in West Africa, and if infected people flee those countries and spread the disease to Central and South America, it could cause “mass migration into the United States” of those seeking treatment.

“If it breaks out, it’s literally, ‘Katie bar the door,’ and there will be mass migration into the United States,” Kelly said in remarks to the National Defense University on Tuesday. “They will run away from Ebola, or if they suspect they are infected, they will try to get to the United States for treatment.

———SNIP———

He spoke about his recent visit to the border of Costa Rica and Nicaragua with U.S. Embassy personnel where they saw men lined up waiting to enter Nicaragua.

“The embassy person walked over and asked who they were and they told him they were from Liberia and they had been on the road about a week,” Kelly continued. “They met up with the network in Trinidad, and now they were on their way to the United States -- illegally, of course.”

If he is not officially reprimanded for his comments, then we'll know that this is a genuine concern of the government's.

[philip964]

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article ... ntine.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Nurse in Dallas gets blood from cured doctor. They better not kill that dog.

Ebola patient in Germany dies.

Patient 0 in Dallas was cared for by 70 nurses. Talk about your nightmare situation.

[KD5NRH]

NBC medical correspondent unclear on what "quarantine" means.
http://us.cnn.com/2014/10/14/health/ebo ... index.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[baldeagle]

Well, this is not good. http://prepperchimp.com/2014/10/12/vide ... yre-lying/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; A group of German doctors is claiming that Ebola can be spread by droplets BEFORE a patient is symptomatic. That is a game changer. I haven't read the paper, so I don't know what the claim is based upon, but if they've proven this, it increases the risk exponentially and elevates the need to ban all travel to and from affected countries except for carefully controlled medical missions.

Edit: I found the article. First, it's not peer reviewed, it's a blog. Second, it doesn't say Ebola can be transmitted in a non-symptomatic subject. It says viruses LIKE ebola can be. Not the same thing. So still no smoking gun, but from my reading one thing is very clear. We don't know as much about ebola as we should, and people who make claims with certainty (such as the head of CDC) should be listened to with great skepticism.

2nd Edit: Once again, hyperbole rules. http://theantimedia.org/cdc-admits-ebola-airborne/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; The title is "CDC Admits Ebola Could Be Airborne". The article quotes Dr. Frieden, of the CDC “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.”

So he didn't admit to anything except the FEAR that IF Ebola can be transmitted through the air it would be devastating.

It's obvious that the panic mongers are eager to stir the pot. What's much less obvious is what is the truth about Ebola. We may never know.

[esxmarkc]

I just saw this headline:

Southcom Commander Warns of Potential Ebola-Driven 'Mass Migration' from South of Border

Marine Corps Gen. John Kelly, commander of the U.S. Southern Command, predicted last week that the Ebola virus will not be contained in West Africa, and if infected people flee those countries and spread the disease to Central and South America, it could cause “mass migration into the United States” of those seeking treatment.

“If it breaks out, it’s literally, ‘Katie bar the door,’ and there will be mass migration into the United States,” Kelly said in remarks to the National Defense University on Tuesday. “They will run away from Ebola, or if they suspect they are infected, they will try to get to the United States for treatment.

———SNIP———

He spoke about his recent visit to the border of Costa Rica and Nicaragua with U.S. Embassy personnel where they saw men lined up waiting to enter Nicaragua.

“The embassy person walked over and asked who they were and they told him they were from Liberia and they had been on the road about a week,” Kelly continued. “They met up with the network in Trinidad, and now they were on their way to the United States -- illegally, of course.”

If he is not officially reprimanded for his comments, then we'll know that this is a genuine concern of the government's.

Well it's good to know Gen. John Kelly reads my posts

....
What need to worry about is it being carried across the border in the arms of it's mother as a quarter million people a day flee the epicenter of an unchecked outbreak raging through an impoverished neighboring country.

You need to think bigger here. It made the dreaded "exponential break" last week which means short of an inoculation there is no getting in front of it. It is jumping an order of magnitude per month. If plotted on a log graph there is a clear trend showing it will hit a million cases by years end.

[MeMelYup]

I have not heard whether Ebola can be carried by mosquitoes, rats, fleas, and lice?

[Beiruty]

I have not heard whether Ebola can be carried by mosquitoes, rats, fleas, and lice?

Most likely yes if the infected person came into contact or bitten by one of the pests.

[Jim Beaux]

Those of you who voiced skepticism when the "powers that be" stated that the Dallas nurse was infected due to a breach in protocol are wrong - there was no protocol!

Shortly after her diagnosis was made public, reports surfaced that Pham was infected because of a breach of protocol — which angered the nurses into speaking out, DeMoro said.

“There were no protocols,” the nurses communicated on the conference call.

The nurses wrote that Texas Health’s “guidelines changed several times.”

It wasn’t clear what version Pham was working under when she got infected.

The hospital also changed guidelines several times during Duncan’s treatment, DeMoro said.

When nurses asked which ones to follow, they were told “It’s up to you,” according to the information provided by DeMoro

http://www.nydailynews.com/life-style/h ... -1.1974607

[sjfcontrol]

There's been another (second) health care worker in Dallas with ebola. News last night gave a scathing report regarding the "protocols" (or lack thereof) in Dallas.

[sjfcontrol]

Looks like the second Health-Care worker with ebola is about to hit the stock market today. Futures down 150 points in an already rocky market.

Now down 315 points in less than 15 minutes

[Beiruty]

I am not afraid about those cases in the US, I am very concerned when those who are in West Africa when they decide to flee their towns and spread the virus more and more. It would be a catastrophe. All those who are showing symptoms in Africa are only housed to die alone.

As for USA, all cases have to be isolated and sent to special hospital for 21 days and the all their contacts too should be isolated.