Ebola: Hype Or Legitimate Threat?

[ColdSVT]

Guys...look up droplet and contact precautions...thats how it speads

It is super lethal...hence why it is a BL4 micro organism.

Will it kill us all? No lol...but ill bet my last dollar we see a few more cases

It spreads via feces, vomit, saliva, blood, semen, exudate, sweat and mucous.

[K_Mac]

Containment is rather simple, no one goes in & no one comes out...

 

We have much less chance of sealing the borders of several African countries than we do of sealing our own. 4,000 troops, or 40,000 won't get it done. There are many simple answers to complex problems...and they are all wrong. 

[F14A-B]

My point on troops wasn't to seal borders, not at all.. I don't believe they should go, I do believe air travel should most definatly be restricted though..

I will leave it at that, as I tippy toe on this topic..

[SirSnookalot]

I have watched enough media coverage of the threat to come to the same conclusion. Sure it is a dangerous disease and we don't really understand as much about it as we would like. We have to establish better protocols and provide better training. Our world-class hospitals do not protect us unless we train and drill healthcare professionals to properly handle this threat and make sure the proper equipment is in place. There is plenty to be done here in my opinion.

I know that many would simply like to stop all travel from anywhere that poses a threat. Sounds good, but as SirSnook says it really is not that simple...

I'm going to pay attention to experts in the field of infectious diseases, they have had experience and I've had none.  I'm on the fence restricting air travel, if necessary do it.  Where it gets complicated is that it just isn't flights from West Africa.  Certainly not out of the realm of possibility an exposed person enters the US from a different part of the world via another airline. Do we restrict all flights, if so that would have a terrible impact on the economy.

[FD.]

A few facts the media fails to mention.

 

1.  Malaria will kill more people world wide TODAY than Ebola has killed in the last 10 years.

 

2.  Ebola epidemics occur in places without soap, bleach, and clean water.

 

Another example of the News machine creating news for it to report.

 

EDIT:

 

In an effort to be precise, which the media has no concept of, here are the facts according to the World Health Org.

 

Between 1976 and 2012 there were 1590 total deaths from Ebola haemorrhagic fever.  None of which occurred outside of the west central African countries.

http://www.who.int/mediacentre/factsheets/fs103/en/

 

In 2012 alone, more than 473,000 people died from Malaria. 1296 a DAY.  Some estimates almost double that number.

http://www.who.int/features/factfiles/malaria/en/

 

 

In one of Tom Clacy's novels, and I forget which one, it was the weapon of choice of the terrorists.  The had supposedly figured out how to make it a biological weapon.

 

Mostly fiction with a few threads of fact.  Kinda like todays media.

[Catch and Grease]

Give it a little bit. It'll be like every other news story, it'll be gone with the wind and unheard of.

Like whatever happened to the guy stuck In Mexico that got arrested over the border? You hardly ever hear about that but right after it happened it was "big news" I guess they use whatever gets people to watch their news program at the time.

[A-Jay]

Ebola: Hype Or Legitimate Threat ?

 

Legitimate Hype.

 

Very similar to the latest version of reporting the weather.

 

However in this country, the weather will probably kill more people.

 

A-Jay

[J Francho]

A-Jay's font choice is killing me, lol.

 

Even where it's reached pandemic levels, the virus looks like it's about 50% lethal.  I feel bad for the thousands of kids that lose their parents in this.  More survivors should step up and take care of these kids, since they are now immune to this strain.

[A-Jay]

A-Jay's font choice is killing me, lol.

 

Even where it's reached pandemic levels, the virus looks like it's about 50% lethal.  I feel bad for the thousands of kids that lose their parents in this.  More survivors should step up and take care of these kids, since they are now immune to this strain.

 

After rereading my initial response, I am going to admit that it's insensitive and I'll apologize for that.

Though it was a poor attempt, my point was that this virus appears to be more of a threat in some areas and less in others.

Definitely not a matter I should be joking about. 

 

 

A-Jay

[roadwarrior]

Like whatever happened to the guy stuck In Mexico that got arrested over the border? You hardly ever hear about that but right after it happened it was "big news" I guess they use whatever gets people to watch their news program at the time.

 

The story is on the front page of Fox News EVERY day.  There is a huge following, but for some unkown reason

the situation has not been resolved. I guess there is something that we are not being told.

 

Regarding Ebola...There are no "direct flights" from the affected countries. The simple solution is refusing to issue visas 

to people from this region of Africa and any other hot spot that pops up. There is no excuse for refusing to protect the folks.

An aggressive program should be in place.

[FD.]

 

 

lots of info in 3 min

[South FLA]

OPEN YOUR EYES PEOPLE! AIRBORNE DROPLET TRANSMISSION DOES OCCUR

 

What perplexes me is that as a biologist, in biology 101 you learn that viruses spread via aromatized sneeze particles!   So it is not unheard of to become infected from being in close proximity to someone that sneezes and is infected with the virus and is in the state of viral shedding.  So yes, it can become airborne via a sneeze!   However, I don't think we will have an American outbreak worth mentioning.   Just don't let the media or poliiticans convince you that you cannot catch it via airborne means.

 

"We found EBOV to be shed in a wide variety of bodily fluids during the acute phase of illness, including saliva, breast milk, stool, and tears. In most cases, the infected bodily fluid was not visibly contaminated by blood."

Source: http://jid.oxfordjournals.org/content/196/Supplement_2/S142.full

 

 

Read article below on how your sneeze particles travel in an airplane

http://www.popsci.com/article/science/how-sneeze-particles-travel-inside-airplane

 

CDC admits that it is possible:

Source: http://nypost.com/2014/10/29/cdc-admits-droplets-from-a-sneeze-could-spread-ebola/

 

Old research article on how airborne droplets can spread virus:

http://healthmap.org/site/diseasedaily/article/pigs-monkeys-ebola-goes-airborne-112112

 

So in the true scientific definition of a pure airborne virus, where the virus doesn't need to be encased in a droplet particle and can survive on its own, most likely Ebola cannot be spread, but encased in aromatized sneeze particles it can and does! 

 

If it were not so easily spread and so deadly then why do you think healthcare workers and our government goes through such extreme safety measures as donning full body suits when working with or around infected patients.  They just don't want to create a hugh public panic, but don't be fooled it is a big deal. I wish a journalist would ask one of these government agents if they would feel safe if someone with ebola sneezed and they were on the opposite end of the room with no protection.

[IAY]

I am not even going to bother posting any scientific facts on how the  disease spreads/can spread. Nigeria and Senegal who also had Ebola outbreak fully contained them, and both countries are free of Ebola. Uganda successfully contained Marburg virus (same family as Ebola and equally deadly) without it barely being mentioned on the news. The health system in those three countries did excellent job preventing an outbreak; do you think that US healthcare is worse than theirs?

 

How the US mass media tries to terrorize the listeners to increase their ratings is disgusting. 

[J Francho]

You want to hear an Ebola joke?

You probably won't get it.

[IAY]

You want to hear an Ebola joke?

You probably won't get it.

*golf clap

[slonezp]

_{http://abcnews.go.com/Lifestyle/sexy-ebola-nurse-costumes-raise-temps-ire/story?id=26484278}

[Catch and Grease]

How the US mass media tries to terrorize the listeners to increase their ratings is disgusting.

Couldn't agree more.

[Raul]

Ebola is not airborne.

You want to hear an Ebola joke?

You probably won't get it.

That was fast !

[Choporoz]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0QIWZ7HxuHc

 

This was August 5.   Would still have been just as good yesterday....and with the exception of updating some numbers, nearly as current.  I think Jon Stewart nailed it.