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What started as a raised eyebrow is growing into a concern.
It's on the cusp of going global IMO.. Where will it end?
Seems very contagious and poor survival rates.
Why haven't flights and travel out of effected countries been stopped yet?
No
HTH
no.
I find it extremely worrying that staff at 1st world hospitals are still managing to get the disease from their patients. It's brilliant that they put themselves on the line (even more so the volunteers in africa) but WTF is going wrong for them to catch it? What does it mean for the chance of 3rd world medical facilities?
Doubt it.
I'm curious if survivors develop immunity?
Seems very contagious
It's really not. With some very simple preventative measures (hand washing, proper handling/isolation of the sick and dead etc) it doesn't spread very easily at all.
Don't believe the hype. Ebola is actually pretty low risk of epidemic in terms of requiring direct transmission (not being airbourne), only being virulent when symptoms show and not surviving well out of the host. The poor sanitation, medical systems and lack of public knowledge are contributing to the terrible situation in west Africa.
If you want to worry about a viral epidemic worry about Spainsh flu or some other form of airbourne flu coming back.
The survival rate is poor in countries where the medical system is poor, because it's in Africa at the moment the survival rate has been low. If you're that bothered, donate money to charities trying to do something about it in the affected countries, or write to your MP.
I wasn't concerned before western hospital staff started catching it.
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OP you could build a shelter and seal yourself inside - give it say 20 years and pop back into the world - Hey presto, job jobbed.
(assuming there isn't an epidemic of something or other in 20 years)
On a serious, and worrying note, my best mate is a Navy Medic, and sails out to Africa on RFA Argus today. Spoke to him Sunday, and he's out there for a minimum of 6 months. I think he's more worried about this than the various war zones he's found himself in. And he's been in some hairy ones. What might kill him this time, he can't shoot at. Which is concerning him.
They'e out there to take care of what is considered the inevitable influx of medical staff who are going to be infected and need treatment, at distance, in a surgical environment
He's a braver man than me
What people should be really concerned about regarding this is the poverty that allowed it to develop and flourish. That poverty is the real story here.
Ebola, IS and UKIP. Talk about an "annus horriblis"!
Love that the media scaremongery is getting through.
On a serious note 70% of the favelas of western africa might well be screwed. Ebola + no sanitation + ignorance/superstition + next to zero access to healthcare = screwed
I'd heard that there were two types of Ebola. A nasty one that's hard to catch which is the one in the media right now. The other can be caught like a cold but is only as nasty as a cold. However, if the two meet and firm a hybrid...
No idea how true that is though.
P-Jay, I'd read that she could identify of how she's caught it (& had to insist on checks when she showed symptoms) and a doctor suggest he 'might' have seen her touch he head with a dirty glove... 2 health workers in Texas now.
Yes I understand it can be blown up by the media but as above it didn't worry me (personally) until as above 1st world nurses started getting it.
[url= http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2014/10/14/more-ebola-vaccine-studies/17254175/ ]Vaccine on the way[/url] but (only) months away
You should be more worried about flu than Ebola. In fact, you should be more worried about a whole host of illnesses and diseases before Ebola.
I love that the right-wing evolution-denying Americans are worried about it becoming airborne 🙂
A brand new, barely tested vaccine released in a panic
It's [url= http://www.channel4.com/programmes/utopia ]Utopia[/url] come real!
My Wife is HM Forces medical and is back off maternity leave soon and compared to past stuff is pretty uncomfortable considering the numbers already being sent out. I suggested it would be highly unlikely that our troops would be put in the absolute high risk situations not that the reality expressed by Binners seems exactly gravy.
Influenza's are definitely more to worry about.
[url= http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1918_flu_pandemic ]Spainsh flu 1918[/url]
There have been plenty of Ebola outbreaks in better prepared African countries that have been well contained
It's not just the fact that cities like Monrovia have four times the population density of London; it's also that in West Africa nothing gets cleaned and there is no hygiene. I know that because I sell the raw materials to West Africa and they don't buy any; all they buy is materials for perfume and skin cream. That there is seldom any electricity, with which to pump the well water up into the roof tanks doesn't help this at all.
So: a very hot country where bugs thrive with massive populations crowded into filthy insanitary cities and any epidemic will spread fast. It's actually surprising that influenza hasn't devastated cities like Lagos or Kinshasa.
On the news they tried to push the hard to catch angle as not airborne,
And said body fluids blah blah and compared it to aids in as much body fluids is they way it's spread.
As far as I am aware you can not catch aids from spit,snot or a sweat, which you can catch Ebola.
So it's quit possible you could catch Ebola from gym equipment that has just been used if you touch your mouth after touching sweaty equipment. Also have you ever had someone spit on your lip while talking or a waiter wipe his brow or cough spittle into his hand before handling your plate. Or someone blowing the Nose into a snotty tissue getting some on there hand before shaking your hand.
It goes on, they reckon a 100,000 will die in Africa alone before they get this under control.
I don't understand how there is not an international flying medical squad backed by some armed forces who could go and close a place down and quarantine and treat all effected at point of outbreak as and when it occurs.
Apparently it manifest in the wild life and spreads to humans when eaten so even if this outbreak runs its course there could be another next year from consumption of bush meat.
Which makes me think what happens if it gets into our wildlife, the poor badgers are already in the cross hairs due to TB.
DezB - Member
Love that the media scaremongery is getting through.
You have to ask why now. A friend of mine came back from Africa with suspected Ebola over a decade ago (I'd prefer if she'd just brought back a tshirt or a straw donkey really). It didn't cause a media sensation or a state of national emergency.
At least its on the agenda and the west might actually pull their finger out of their arse and do something to help, even if it comes from some selfish motivations. The instances of western medics contracting it aren't out of any greater virulence of the disease its because people from the west are making an effort to tackle the issue.
but not yet on the menu 🙂the poor badgers are already in the cross hairs due to TB.
It goes on, they reckon a 100,000 will die in Africa alone before they get this under control.
Are any of them white and middle class?
Is this not what [s]we[/s] our media tries to get us to panic about just before it gets cold and then we panic about decade long winters and 12 feet of snow?
Worried? Only about how shit our media is and how little we care about Africans.
@z1ppy the Nurse in Spain who caught it, broke the number 1 rule - she touched her forehead with an dirty gloved hand
They haven't confirmed how she caught it. There is also concern here that the protective suits that were issued weren't up to scratch, for example. And apparently the camera in the hospital suite only showed what was happening to the person watching the monitor at the time, it didn't record - so I suspect we'll never know for sure the cause.
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Regarding catching Ebola from gym equipment, there was a medical expert on the radio the other day who if I recall sweat was lower risk and anyway by the time Ebola becomes contagious in the host, the person in question wouldn't be well enough to get to the gym anyway.
Look on the bright side, it'll solve the housing crisis.
French TV followed a team of local guys going around picking up and disposing of corpses. About as high a risk as you can get with what looked rudimentary but adequate protective kit. They've been doing it from the start of the epidemic and not one of the team has caught the disease.
dont think it'll solve the housing crisis more like increase it !
Mass extinction 6 coming along nicely.. I wonder when Leaf will sort out zmapp, as soon as all the western governments put in an order of x million orders
I don't understand how there is not an international flying medical squad backed by some armed forces who could go and close a place down and quarantine and treat all effected at point of outbreak as and when it occurs.
There is. I saw it in a documentary called 'Outbreak'
Duston Hoffman is one of the doctors; can you beleive it?
So this a bit of speculation if things ever made it over here but ...
OK so you *may* catch it with contact with bodily fluids.
how much contact .....
Just sitting in the work toilet stalls the other day and noticing (hearing) how many people don't actually wash their hands after especially if they think they're not being noticed - I really do hate doors that you have to pull to exit from toilets.
I've noticed more people around wash their hands if I'm in there already doing so. And anecdotal evidence suggests this can be actually pretty equal distribution between male and female after a brief office poll.
Hell ... sitting on a publicly shared toilet *may* be an issue itself.
Read The Hot Zone by Richard Preston this year before the current outbreak...worth a read and, whilst clearly a horrific disease if you catch it, its made me far less concerned about the current situation
twinw4ll - Member
Look on the bright side, it'll solve the housing crisis.
Silly, black people don't own houses!
*Scuttles off and checks in mirror .. Phew I'm still a skinny white cyclist.
Thank you binners my mind is eased.
It's probably the stupid BBC news reports preying on sleep deprived parents @ 6am... Implanting the seed of sensationalist fear. Focusing on health workers catching it then moving swiftly on to mortality rates explodes all sorts of over imaginative apocalyptic scenarios in cloudnine world.
Do not eat complimentary peanuts in a bar.
Also an urban fox would happily chow down on a large portion of chunder and when you flush your Ebola ridden log down the karzy I am sure ratty will have a nibble and if moggies prove infected wave good buy to tibbles.
Dogs will obviously not be affected, definatly not mine.
70% of us are pretty screwed (up), but ebola is a separate issue IMO.
Departments at work are having specific Ebola protection training. Infection control dept is escalating the sessions to top priority
I have a mate who unblocks drains for a living and can regularly be found covered in a healthy splash of human excrement.
His prices will be going up.
The Spanish nurse who caught it must have done something more than touch her forehead with a gloved hand.
Did you see the pictures of her in the press?
Did you see the pictures of her in the press?
Is she fit?
monkeyfudger, i know quite a few black people who own houses, what are you trying to say?
It won't take much to overwhelm the hospitals. A few people with no symptoms on arrival maybe telling a few fibs to get through customs then spend a few days wondering about a big city before seeking treatment. Again telling a few fibs about where they have been will see whole A&E departments contaminated and shut.
On a slightly worrying note my junior doc sis stayed at the weekend and told me about something that happened to one of her friends a couple of weeks ago. The friend is on call for the infectious diseases dept and received a call from an out of hours GP asking advice about an ill patient from west Africa, she passed this up to the consultant to query the best course of action. The advice given was to send the patient to A&E and let them deal with it.
It only takes one bad descision and lots of people will be screwed.
vickypea - Member
The Spanish nurse who caught it must have done something more than touch her forehead with a gloved hand.
Doesn't seem too far fetched, touches sweaty brow sweat then gets in eyes.
I don't understand how there is not an international flying medical squad backed by some armed forces who could go and close a place down and quarantine and treat all effected at point of outbreak as and when it occurs.
Because that's a good idea and would cost a fair bit of money.
No one would ever agree to it.
rickmeister - Member
Interesting read... any thoughts ?
[url= http://worldtruth.tv/brain-eating-nanobots-being-put-in-vaccines-says-whistleblower/ ]Brain Eating Nanobots[/url]
AIDS is much worse but doesn't get this much media attention
I'm not worried, it's killed a few thousnd in some densely populated slums with horrific hygene. It'll take more than handwashing to spread it, but I doubt it'd be widespread even if it did reach Europe.
The problem will be the hysteria currently being whipped up by the media at the behest of the governmnet, to cover up their failings to date.
The media will make peeps afraid to go out, food will be delivered by a man in a van, there will be a rush on fuel,anti septic soap, and gloves, work places and schools will be deserted, public transport will grind to a halt as drivers refuse to drive without ppe, the cashless society will arrive as the public become affraid to handle cash.
Make a good horror movie.
But most sensible people will just carry on with their lives hopefully,while forums become full of horror stories of people being scared to death.
AIDS is much worse but doesn't get this much media attention
The 80's is over dude.
but I doubt it'd be widespread even if it did reach Europe.
I have to admit that I also assumed that it was the supposed poor infection control in West African countries that was the main reason why it has been so difficult to control, but it has now infected three health workers in developed countries- one in Spain and two in the US. So, although I'm not quite panicking yet, I am monitoring the situation a bit more closely..
The 80's is over dude.
Pretty horrifically insensitive comment. AIDS is no longer much of an issue in the developed world because we can afford antiretroviral drugs. Meanwhile in sub-saharan Africa:
An estimated 1.1 million adults and children died of AIDS, accounting for 73% of the world’s AIDS deaths in 2013.
When aids first hit it was stigmatised by the ignorant as it was linked to homosexuality and even amongst the informed it was stigmatised as most STDs are because it was sexually transmitted.
The ignorant believed you could catch aids from a kiss or a cuddle, or drinking from the same cup.
Basically if Ebola comes here it will be everything the ignorant thought aids was , except you have a 30% chance of survival and there will be no stigma as you did not catch it playing hide the sausage.
Up to 8 October, 4,033 people had been reported as having died from the disease in five countries; Liberia, Guinea, Sierra Leone, Nigeria and the United States. The total number of reported cases is in excess of 8,300.
From [url= http://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-28755033 ]here[/url].
(4,033/8,300) x 100 = 48.6%. The BBC, from whom that quote comes, keep giving fatality rates like 70%, 80%, 90%, while at the same time publishing uncalculated stats to the contrary. The news media needs to sort its shit out on this. The only thing likely to spread rapidly and dangerously is panic. As Mark Twain said well in advance of the WWW: “A lie can travel half way around the world while the truth is putting on its shoes.”
Oh dear,
[url= http://m.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-29632433 ]Clicky[/url]
According the World Health Organisation Guinea has 0.1 doctors per 1000 people. Officially, according to WHO, Liberia and Sierra Leone have no doctors at all, the figure is simply too small to register.
In the UK we have 2.8 doctors per 1000 people.
There lies the problem in West Africa, it basically has no doctors.
http://data.worldbank.org/indicator/SH.MED.PHYS.ZS
Three_Fish - Member(4,033/8,300) x 100 = 48.6%. The BBC, from whom that quote comes, keep giving fatality rates like 70%, 80%, 90%, while at the same time publishing uncalculated stats to the contrary. The news media needs to sort its shit out on this. The only thing likely to spread rapidly and dangerously is panic. As Mark Twain said well in advance of the WWW: “A lie can travel half way around the world while the truth is putting on its shoes.”
all good points.
but the 'dead' numbers don't include those who have the disease, but aren't quite dead yet...
but the 'dead' numbers don't include those who have the disease, but aren't quite dead yet...
What?
I can't help wondering when IS ( or whatever they're called this week) are going to get themselves infected before embarking on a western world vomit and shit tour....
Seems as if social media and the press are looking for stories, chap transported to hospital today in north wales, paramedics wearing yellow protective suits and masks, episode filmed and put on social media, now deleted.
How many nurses/doctors will be phoning in sick if there starts to be cases where they work?
Three_Fish - Member[i]"but the 'dead' numbers don't include those who have the disease, but aren't quite dead yet... "[/i]
What?
The 8,300 includes people still ill - so haven't decided whether they're deaths or survivals. The correct denominator for % mortality is deaths+survivors and we don't have those figures there
Is it called Ebola or Eebola? The black keys on my piano are made from Ebony so I reckon Ebola is correct.
No Idea - guess you'd need to hear it said by a native of Zaire or Congo really
Is it called Ebola or Eebola?
You say tomato I say tomato.
[url= http://news.sky.com/story/1354204/ebola-mistakes-in-fighting-deadly-virus ]Oh dear [/url]
Absolutely, positively has to be the health and safety manager
What started as a raised eyebrow is growing into a concern.
To be honest, a resurgence of Ebola in Africa only ever manages to raise an eyebrow in the West, it's only dead Africans after all. It only becomes a concern when it's not just Africans dying from it.
I'm loving reading some of the comments above though 🙂 Some people on here are going to be absolutely bricking it when flu season hits and they think they've got ebola, that they must have picked up in the M&S toilets in Dudley.
Is M&S in Dudley the first port of call for a Liberian on a UK holiday?
Erm....
I'm loving reading some of the comments above though Some people on here are going to be absolutely bricking it when flu season hits and they think they've got ebola, that they must have picked up in the M&S toilets in Dudley.
My OH is a doctor currently working as a Paediatrician in Gateshead. She's already fed up to the back teeth of being told by parents that their kids might have Ebola.
Pretty horrifically insensitive comment. AIDS is no longer much of an issue in the developed world because we can afford antiretroviral drugs. Meanwhile in sub-saharan Africa:
because we can afford [s]antiretroviral drugs[/s] condoms and education.
I did not realise we had come as far as we had with the treatment of HIV untill last year when I was talking to the son of someone I worked with, who said one of his very good friends from uni, a young woman was HIV positive and that occasionally (normally if they are under the influence) they have casual sex.
Now this did not compute with me, but he seemed very laid back about it. Said they took precautions and it was fine.
He did not see it as the worst disease ever, more an STD that had to be managed with drugs and adamant his friends life would not be shortened at all by the fact she had HIV and did not think he was taking his life into his own hands by occasionally sleeping with her.
Anyone that compares HIV to something like Ebola should be instantly ignored.
With modern retrovirals etc HIV is not a absolute death sentence, it is the norm with modern drugs for children to be born with no virus load at all to positive mothers. Most people diagnosed will live mostly normal lives for decades after being diagnosed. A condom is all the protective equipment you would need and even without the risk isn't huge.
I would rather chance an HIV needlestick then an Ebola kiss.
On a more alarmist note I have fully fitted out my winter bike with crud catchers complete with fast fender.
Fender looks ridicules but if dogs and the local wildlife are going to start shitting Ebola I figured the extra coverage would be worth the added derision .