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Location: SE Louisiana | ..are we in trouble here?? I understand your field is not infectious diseases but This Ebola outbreak is starting to sound like it has become airborne. |
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 Thread Killer
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| I've been watching too...seriously scary! |
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Expert
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Location: SE Louisiana | Just Plain Lucky - 2014-07-28 6:42 PM
I've been watching too...seriously scary!
Well as I see it.... sooner or later it will catch the wrong host at the wrong time and mutate into an airborne pathogen... The odds are simple numbers.. |
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 Elite Veteran
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Location: Ohio | I read an article today about their airport security not being able to stop people from flying, one man had Ebola but wasn't showing symptoms yet so I'm scared to see how far it going to travel.
Updated article....http://www.news.com.au/world/the-arrival-of-an-ebolainfected-air-passenger-in-nigeria-has-airlines-and-airports-scrambling-to-respond-around-the-world/story-fndir2ev-1227004137380
Edited by GrittyCowgirl 2014-07-28 7:00 PM
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 BHW Resident Surgeon
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Location: Bastrop, Texas | This is a highly fatal disease, for sure, with mortality rates as high as 90%, but it's still very rare. I read that there have been less than 1000 cases reported world-wide, over the past 40 years. It's not transmitted by Mosquitos or any kind of bug. You have to come in contact with the body fluids from an animal that has it, like pigs or monkey or you can contract the virus from contact with another human with the disease....including sexual contact. So far, there's no vaccine. |
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Expert
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Location: SE Louisiana | HotbearLVR - 2014-07-28 9:26 PM
This is a highly fatal disease, for sure, with mortality rates as high as 90%, but it's still very rare. I read that there have been less than 1000 cases reported world-wide, over the past 40 years. It's not transmitted by Mosquitos or any kind of bug. You have to come in contact with the body fluids from an animal that has it, like pigs or monkey or you can contract the virus from contact with another human with the disease....including sexual contact. So far, there's no vaccine.
I assume you are aware of the situation in western Africa today...?? Even a doctor that knows what he is doing has it now... 45 new cases between 7/18 and 7/20 in Liberia.(WHO numbers..) which has closed it's borders in an attempt to stop the spread after 224 cases..
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Edited by komet. 2014-07-28 9:42 PM
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The Resident Destroyer of Liberal Logic
Location: PNW | My aunt works as a viral pathologist, and completed her Ph.D doing work with Ebola. I asked her about the situation, and she has no fear of it becoming airborne. You must come into contact with fluids. Here in the states, Ebola is worked with in a level 4 lab - with ALL available precautions taken both before AND after entering/leaving the lab. Even though in Africa they do take precautions such as wearing the HAZMAT type suits, they simply DONT have the same protocols and procedures available to them in the field as they would in a lab: making accidents and mistakes much more likely to happen.
Hope maybe that helps soothe some fears :)
ETA: they also don't have the same quarantine protocols available over there. And many people infect others before symptoms have manifested.
If anybody has any specific/other questions they'd like answered, she said she'd be happy to do so :)
Edited by svincent 2014-07-28 10:13 PM
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BHW Resident Surgeon
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Location: Bastrop, Texas | I did read about the doc who died from Ebola yesterday. It's scary, no doubt. Emergence of resistant bacteria is a far greater risk today, as that is responsible for thousands of deaths in the US every year. There will be a lot of cutbacks in research in years to come, given the overall decline in healthcare. |
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The Resident Destroyer of Liberal Logic
Location: PNW | HotbearLVR - 2014-07-28 10:20 PM
I did read about the doc who died from Ebola yesterday. It's scary, no doubt. Emergence of resistant bacteria is a far greater risk today, as that is responsible for thousands of deaths in the US every year. There will be a lot of cutbacks in research in years to come, given the overall decline in healthcare.
Lol my aunt said almost the exact same thing: "I'm more concerned about the antibiotic fanatics and what they are creating, than Ebola" |
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Expert
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Location: SE Louisiana | HotbearLVR - 2014-07-28 10:20 PM
I did read about the doc who died from Ebola yesterday. It's scary, no doubt. Emergence of resistant bacteria is a far greater risk today, as that is responsible for thousands of deaths in the US every year. There will be a lot of cutbacks in research in years to come, given the overall decline in healthcare.
Thanx Doc... I was not aware the man had died.... The last I heard his treatment had started promptly and he was responding well... Prayers for him and his family. He was a hero working the front lines to stop something horrible.. |
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 Elite Veteran
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Location: Do I hear Banjos? | For me the risk to the US would most likely come from a traveler from the region doesn't know he is infected...(Incubation is from 2 days up to 21 days)...he isn't showing symptoms so he is allowed to board a plane and lands somewhere in Europe before hopping a plane to the US...He starts feeling bad but just figures it's the flu maybe...by the time anyone realizes that he has Ebola...he could have exposed others. Still...it's not likely to spread far and fast...it just doesn't work that way typically. It's been cooking over there in Liberia etc for months now and even with their poor controls/hygene/sanitation...it still has not run rampant. Health workers are always at high risk as they do all they can to try to save people. So sad that so many nurses, care givers and that leading physician have been lost.
Now...Ebola is not airborne and must be transmitted by contact with an infected person's bodily fluids...but...with the ease of travel all over the world...it's a scary thought. What makes this current outbreak different from many in the past is that in the past it would mostly be isolated to remote village areas. This time it has made it to more urban centers where it is more easily spread. Filoviruses like Ebola and Marburg are just nasty things. |
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