Ebola virus outbreak

snubbleste · 21-06-2014 12:14pm

The Ebola outbreak in West Africa is "totally out of control,'' according to MedecinsSansFrontiers and are "absolutely convinced that this epidemic is far from over and will continue to kill a considerable amount of people, so this will definitely end up the biggest ever outbreak.''

Ebola has been linked to around 330 deaths in Guinea, Sierra Leone and Liberia, according to the latest numbers from the WHO.
http://www.aljazeera.com/news/africa/2014/06/west-africa-ebola-crisis-out-control-2014620152657770137.html

PucaMama · 21-06-2014 12:18pm

snubbleste wrote: »

The Ebola outbreak in West Africa is "totally out of control,'' according to MedecinsSansFrontiers and are "absolutely convinced that this epidemic is far from over and will continue to kill a considerable amount of people, so this will definitely end up the biggest ever outbreak.''

Ebola has been linked to around 330 deaths in Guinea, Sierra Leone and Liberia, according to the latest numbers from the WHO.
http://www.aljazeera.com/news/africa/2014/06/west-africa-ebola-crisis-out-control-2014620152657770137.html

It is so scary to read that Ebola is so out of control this is such a serious virus

gctest50 · 21-06-2014 12:47pm

Unlucky thief :

The world’s unluckiest thief got a potential death sentence after stealing a phone. The man caught the deadly Ebola virus after stealing a mobile phone from a patient with the disease.

The 40 year-old crook travelled 3km from his home town to the Kagadi Hospital in the Kibaale district, and crept into the isolation ward in the dead of night.

He then made off with a patient’s phone worth 60,000 Ugandan Shillings ($23).

The patient had the deadly Ebola fever, but before he died he managed to tell police of the theft.

Officers tracked down a man who had started using the phone, who then confessed to the crime.

The man claimed he had visited the ward to “comfort” patients, though he didn’t know any of them in person, district police commander John Ojokuna Elatu told Uganda’s Sunday Monitor.

Soon afterwards he started showing signs of the disease

Capt'n Midnight · 21-06-2014 1:11pm

PucaMama wrote: »

It is so scary to read that Ebola is so out of control this is such a serious virus

"It does to you in a day what AIDS does in a year"

www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-20341423

Canadian scientists have shown that the deadliest form of the ebola virus could be transmitted by air between species.

In experiments, they demonstrated that the virus was transmitted from pigs to monkeys without any direct contact between them.

The researchers say they believe that limited airborne transmission might be contributing to the spread of the disease in some parts of Africa.

The only good news about ebola and marburg and similar is that they are so lethal and the symptons are so obvious that potential carriers die off pretty quickly.

I'd shudder to think what would happen if people were contagious for a month before showing symptoms :eek:

It would be cool if we could figure out how to inncoulate fruit bats. Of course we'd have to prove that bats were the main natural resevoir, and develop a vaccine, and an effective dispersal mechanism via free fruit or whatever , and come up with the money to do it.

It's possible that the Plague of Athens was something like this
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plague_of_Athens

In his History of the Peloponnesian War, the contemporary historian Thucydides, sometimes dubbed "the first scientific historian", describes the epidemic. He writes of a disease coming from Ethiopia and passing through Egypt and Libya into the Greek world—a plague so severe and deadly that no one could recall anywhere its like, and physicians ignorant of its nature not only were helpless but themselves died the fastest, since they had the most contact with the sick. In overcrowded Athens the disease killed an estimated one third to two thirds of the population.
...
Thucydides states that people ceased fearing the law since they felt they were already living under a death sentence. Likewise, people started spending money indiscriminately. Many felt they would not live long enough to enjoy the fruits of wise investment, while some of the poor unexpectedly became wealthy by inheriting the property of their relatives. It is also recorded that people refused to behave honorably because most did not expect to live long enough to enjoy a good reputation for it.

gctest50 · 21-06-2014 2:34pm

Capt'n Midnight wrote: »

The only good news about ebola and marburg and similar is that they are so lethal and the symptons are so obvious that potential carriers die off pretty quickly.

Not quick enough though - euthanasia ftw

Son Of A Vidic · 21-06-2014 4:35pm

If Ebola mutates an airborne variant, in this era of quick and easy global travel. Then the potential consequences would be absolutely terrifying.

Wibbs · 21-06-2014 6:06pm

Capt'n Midnight wrote: »

It's possible that the Plague of Athens was something like this
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plague_of_Athens

Yep and a couple of the various plagues that hit Europe in successive waves for the guts of 2000 years may have been it or another form of haemorrhagic fever. It wasn't just the Black death going on. Chroniclers tended to lump in every pandemic as "plague", but quite a few were oddballs. One the "sweating disease" came from nowhere and rampaged through Tudor England. Anne Boleyn nearly succumbed from it. There were other oddballs too and they only really died off in the 18th century. Never mind the usual, near pedestrian cholera, smallpox, malaria, flu, measles etc on the go. Hell I'm old enough to have caught measles(both types) mumps, chicken pox and a host of other lurgys that were just considered rites of passage.

Europe and Europeans have probably been exposed to more pathogens for longer than any other population on earth. Pain in arse for our ancestors, but if you're of European descent(maybe not Icelanders) your ancestors were the ones who survived these various ailments long enough to reproduce. I'd bet that outside better medical care(which would likely collapse fast under such an epidemic) European would be hit and hit bad but nowhere near other areas and populations

snubbleste · 02-07-2014 6:59pm

There have been 759 confirmed or suspected cases of Ebola in Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone, WHO says, with 467 people known to have died as of 02 July

http://www.aljazeera.com/news/africa/2014/07/crisis-talks-held-as-ebola-death-toll-soars-20147282632436552.html

gctest50 · 02-07-2014 8:00pm

snubbleste wrote: »

There have been 759 confirmed or suspected cases of Ebola in Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone, WHO says, with 467 people known to have died as of 02 July

Paddy Power taking bets which one does the most ?

“He took the 2009 pandemic flu virus and selected out strains that were not neutralised by human antibodies. He repeated this several times until he got a real humdinger of a virus,” said one scientist who was present at Professor Kawaoka’s talk.

“He left no doubt in my mind that he had achieved it. He used a flu virus that is known to infect humans and then manipulated it in such a way that it would effectively leave the global population defenceless if it ever escaped from his laboratory,” he said.

“He’s basically got a known pandemic strain that is now resistant to vaccination. Everything he did before was dangerous but this is even madder. This is the virus,” he added.

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/science/exclusive-controversial-us-scientist-creates-deadly-new-flu-strain-for-pandemic-research-9577088.html

PucaMama · 07-07-2014 2:38pm

Only quickly scanned this when I first saw it. Didn't see the dates got such a fright

http://www.theliberal.ie/threshold-to-armageddon/

gctest50 · 07-07-2014 4:07pm

PucaMama wrote: »

Only quickly scanned this when I first saw it. Didn't see the dates got such a fright

http://www.theliberal.ie/threshold-to-armageddon/

Dates ? How do ya mean ?

(a bit sensationalist but anyway : )

1 July 2014

Liberia: Nurses Flee Ebola - C.H. Rennie Hospital the Latest Hit - 441 Persons Contacted Ebola - 419 Persons Under Surveillance

http://allafrica.com/stories/201407020894.html

its not good :

People stop going to the hospitals once it gets a grip

Meanwhile, several nurses have expressed fear over the outbreak of the Ebola virus that killed one of their colleagues at the hospital.
The nurses said they have been working in fear because of the "deadly Ebola virus that has no cure."

Once the first wave of them die, they'll start blaming the hospitals n stuff

The nurses said some residents of the community are allegedly engage into stigmatizing health workers at the hospital.
"Even if we are in our bus passing, they (residents) will be on the road calling us Ebola, Ebola and so, the patients themselves are not coming because they are afraid," another nurse added.

The 1995 Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC)
outbreak was devastating for health care workers—of the 250
individuals who died, 47 (approximately 20%) were health
care professionals (Guimard et al., 1999). In the 2000-2001
Uganda outbreak, 224 individuals fell victim to this frightening and devastating virus; 14 of those who died were nurses
(World Health Organization [WHO], 2003).

PucaMama · 07-07-2014 4:09pm

gctest50 wrote: »

Dates ? How dya mean ?

its not good :

People stop going to the hospitals once it gets a grip

Once the first wave of them die, they'll start blaming the hospitals n stuff

I meant the link I shared

holystungun9 · 07-07-2014 4:29pm

I heard that it's like man flu but not as severe.

gctest50 · 07-07-2014 5:37pm

PucaMama wrote: »

I meant the link I shared

well, thats whats happening now

- wonder how long it'll be before it reaches here or mutates and goes airborne ?

PucaMama · 07-07-2014 5:48pm

gctest50 wrote: »

well, thats whats happening now

- wonder how long it'll be before it reaches here or mutates and goes airborne ?

In the link Ebola has spread to the us and Russia etc that's what gave me a fright whole cities were gone. I think its irresponsible to release a work of fiction like that.

Insect Overlord · 07-07-2014 6:07pm

Irresponsible?! You must be thankful every day that you weren't around to fall for the original War of The Worlds broadcast!

PucaMama · 07-07-2014 6:17pm

An File wrote: »

Irresponsible?! You must be thankful every day that you weren't around to fall for the original War of The Worlds broadcast!

Ebola is far scarier to me than any alien

gctest50 · 07-07-2014 6:21pm

PucaMama wrote: »

In the link Ebola has spread to the us and Russia etc that's what gave me a fright whole cities were gone. I think its irresponsible to release a work of fiction like that.

It's just a matter of time - nothing at all to worry about though for the moment

or this yoke will get loose :

http://www.vetmed.wisc.edu/kawaoka-1918-like-virus/

.

PucaMama · 07-07-2014 6:22pm

gctest50 wrote: »

It's just a matter of time - nothing at all to worry about though for the moment

Was VERY worried. I would hope it doesn't get out of Africa.

Celly Smunt · 07-07-2014 6:27pm

Has madagascar closed its borders yet?

gctest50 · 07-07-2014 6:44pm

PucaMama wrote: »

Ebola is far scarier to me than any alien

you need to cuddle the little microbes too

they can't help it - its genetic

www.giantmicrobes.com/uk/products/ebola.html

http://www.giantmicrobes.com/uk/products/flesheating.html

.

PucaMama · 07-07-2014 7:04pm

gctest50 wrote: »

you need to cuddle the little microbes too

they can't help it - its genetic

www.giantmicrobes.com/uk/products/ebola.html

http://www.giantmicrobes.com/uk/products/flesheating.html

.

Is buy those for being so unusual

gctest50 · 07-07-2014 7:05pm

You can also put the "fun" back into "fungal infections"

PucaMama · 07-07-2014 7:11pm

Such a funny site

snubbleste · 12-07-2014 6:40pm

Death toll now 539.
First confirmed case in the Sierra Leone capital (pop 1.2m)
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-07-12/ebola-spreads-to-sierra-leone-capital-of-freetown-as-deaths-rise.html

snubbleste · 15-07-2014 11:36am

IrishAid/taxpayer gives €144k towards fighting ebola in West Africa.
http://www.thejournal.ie/ebola-virus-aid-1572006-Jul2014/

whilst Irish people are sleeping on the streets of Dublin

snubbleste · 24-07-2014 7:08pm

In Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone, 632 people have died from the illness, according to WHO.
Medic treating 100 patients catches it himself
Chief Ebola doctor in Sierra Leone has contracted the disease

PucaMama · 24-07-2014 8:00pm

snubbleste wrote: »

IrishAid/taxpayer gives €144k towards fighting ebola in West Africa.
http://www.thejournal.ie/ebola-virus-aid-1572006-Jul2014/

whilst Irish people are sleeping on the streets of Dublin

if ebola goes global those homeless would be even more vulnerable. ebola is a greater risk.

homemadecider · 24-07-2014 8:03pm

snubbleste wrote: »

IrishAid/taxpayer gives €144k towards fighting ebola in West Africa.
http://www.thejournal.ie/ebola-virus-aid-1572006-Jul2014/

whilst Irish people are sleeping on the streets of Dublin

Ah yes, because shure those brown people aren't worth helping for such a trivial matter as a non-curable deadly virus that has killed over 600 people in a matter of months.

MadYaker · 24-07-2014 10:22pm

snubbleste wrote: »

IrishAid/taxpayer gives €144k towards fighting ebola in West Africa.
http://www.thejournal.ie/ebola-virus-aid-1572006-Jul2014/

whilst Irish people are sleeping on the streets of Dublin

We could cut our international aid budget to zero and people would still be sleeping on the streets of dublin, and every other town in Ireland. Totally senseless comparison that always annoys me a bit.

On topic: The WHO website is probably the best source of info on stuff like this since they are the people who are actually dealing with it on the ground: http://www.who.int/features/2014/ebola-sierra-leone/en/

Its great for unbiased factual info on anything disease related. Sounds like they aren't really containing it at all at the moment, just still playing catch up as it continues to spread.

Ebola virus outbreak

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