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Ebola
Aug 1, 2014 6:16:12 GMT 2
Post by welle on Aug 1, 2014 6:16:12 GMT 2
Ebola has made a comeback this last year in Africa. Some aid organizations like MSF and Samaritan's Purse have been helping. Problem is, Ebola is pretty contagious. I knew there was/is a possibility of aid workers who have contracted Ebola to be flown to Hamburg, Germany. Apparently Atlanta might also accept patients. www.npr.org/blogs/thetwo-way/2014/07/31/336950373/ebola-patient-will-be-treated-in-atlanta-hospitalI somehow doubt it will happen, but we'll see. Personally I think it's not a good idea to help spread the disease like this.
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Ebola
Aug 1, 2014 6:24:48 GMT 2
Post by welle on Aug 1, 2014 6:24:48 GMT 2
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Ebola
Aug 2, 2014 18:06:47 GMT 2
Post by missalaska on Aug 2, 2014 18:06:47 GMT 2
South Africa has said it won't treat anyone arriving with the virus, so husband says who works in southern African tourism and watches these trends like a hawk. An Aussie customer requested a phone call from husband the other day regarding the outbreak. For me the funniest thing is our national flight carrier has invested heavily in flying to this region at the detriment to other routes so it has made it bed.
I've had friends touring that area in their truck with their 2 kids but it looks like they are going in the opposite direction to the spread outbreak. They have been in Cote d'Ivoire for a while now and are going north, fingers crossed for them
Interestingly the outbreak in east Africa a couple of years back was fairly contained.
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Ebola
Aug 2, 2014 19:29:33 GMT 2
Post by auntieannie on Aug 2, 2014 19:29:33 GMT 2
do you think the fact that this one isn't contained has to do with people's lifestyle or with the virus itself?
um, do you think people will try and come in and hide that they have or may have ebola?
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Ebola
Aug 2, 2014 20:30:44 GMT 2
Post by nutraxfornerves on Aug 2, 2014 20:30:44 GMT 2
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Ebola
Aug 2, 2014 22:58:45 GMT 2
via mobile
Post by pizzawheel on Aug 2, 2014 22:58:45 GMT 2
I would suspect that the huge population of West Africa (compared to east) would also make things a lot worse. If it takes off in Nigeria with those mega cities... well.
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Ebola
Aug 2, 2014 23:14:05 GMT 2
Post by welle on Aug 2, 2014 23:14:05 GMT 2
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Post by nutraxfornerves on Aug 2, 2014 23:34:44 GMT 2
Stopping an Ebola epidemic is easy i theory--and horrible i practice. What you have to do is to identify patients early on and get them into isolation, so they don't infect anyone else. But where you have little medical infrastructure, and a rumor mill going full time about how people in hospitals are bing killed for political or ritual reasons... Or that Ebola is not a disease; it is the result of black magic. It is being deliberately spread by government officials or western NGOs. Since you're going to die anyway, there is no reason to go to a doctor.
With care, in this epidemic, there has been a 30-40% survival rate, but the media is often reporting it as "invariably fatal." Yes, it can be up to 90% fatal, but that is in the absence of aggressive treatment.
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Ebola
Aug 2, 2014 23:48:41 GMT 2
Post by auntieannie on Aug 2, 2014 23:48:41 GMT 2
Welle, going back to your OP, I read the article through "Faculty of Medicine" and the reason given for the transport was that since there is no cure, health care workers will try any treatment offered and also the main treatment was making the person as comfortable as possible. You may ask why can't they do that in situ. I'm thinking that modern medicine can not offer the best comfort in countryside dispensaries full of local patients suffering from the same disease; that the authorities are offering the best treatment to the foreign healthcare workers abroad (and maybe try 'heroic' treatments).
Another rationalisation for the move was that Ebola, since it is transmissible through blood and other bodily fluids only, is actually less contagious than flu.
Probably one for the ethics committee. Do we best serve the interests of the community at large by transporting these healthcare workers or by leaving them where they are? It all depends on the actual reason for the move. in a case by case basis.
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Ebola
Aug 3, 2014 8:44:05 GMT 2
Post by missalaska on Aug 3, 2014 8:44:05 GMT 2
It might be more to do with the travel of people in the region seeing as the capitals are coastal ports and are areas of infection. I understand that it takes 3+weeks to show symptoms, and it is highly contagious. The outbreak in Uganda a couple of years was away from the capital.
Now that Nigeria is a risk, I think there is concern that it might unwittingly arrive in SA.
Scrap what I said about friends and their travel plans looking at the map if they move from Cote d'Ivoire they will have to go north to Mali and then west to Senegal to avoid the affected/infected areas.
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Ebola
Aug 3, 2014 9:48:03 GMT 2
Post by auntieannie on Aug 3, 2014 9:48:03 GMT 2
um... maybe time for your friends to can the travelling for a while?
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Ebola
Aug 3, 2014 10:25:26 GMT 2
Post by missalaska on Aug 3, 2014 10:25:26 GMT 2
I've no idea what they'll do, annie, I haven't heard from her in a little while as they've had issues with their technology, so I'm not even sure if they are still in Cote d'Ivoire. They've recently recovered from typhoid (all four of them) and the daughter had a hectic bout of malaria, so I think they are lying low and recuperating. Not that it is stopping her lashing her tongue with the carnival crew, which includes me!!!
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Ebola
Aug 7, 2014 14:22:34 GMT 2
Post by welle on Aug 7, 2014 14:22:34 GMT 2
It's a little more clear where the push to get the americans back into the US comes from. They received experimental treatment (just tested on monkeys). A lot of interesting data will come out of this. It will be fascinating to watch how quickly and to whom the serum can be made available. The fact the treatment was used at all is highly unusual
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Ebola
Aug 7, 2014 16:53:12 GMT 2
Post by lumi on Aug 7, 2014 16:53:12 GMT 2
It is definitely very interesting though quite scary really. I read yesterday that a patient thought to have ebola died in Saudi Arabia. If that was the case then the threat of the disease/illness (which one is it?) spreading globally is very real.
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Ebola
Aug 7, 2014 20:42:33 GMT 2
Post by welle on Aug 7, 2014 20:42:33 GMT 2
It is definitely very interesting though quite scary really. I read yesterday that a patient thought to have ebola died in Saudi Arabia. If that was the case then the threat of the disease/illness (which one is it?) spreading globally is very real. Very very real.
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Ebola
Aug 7, 2014 22:11:50 GMT 2
Post by slowcoach on Aug 7, 2014 22:11:50 GMT 2
Ebola, is one of a handful of diseases that were known to pose a threat in terms of warfare or terrorist acts. A level of preparedness already existed in the US, paid for in part by the government via programmes run by agencies such as the DTRA. The treatment given is one such example. I believe that it is relatively cheap to develop such drugs up to the level where they are good prospects but obtaining full approval for them would be prohibitively expensive.
I wouldn't have any qualms about the flying in of known Ebola cases, it is the unknown cases that are the worry.
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Ebola
Aug 7, 2014 22:45:49 GMT 2
Post by auntieannie on Aug 7, 2014 22:45:49 GMT 2
yes, slow, I was thinking about unknown cases and where they're likely to fly. London comes to mind.
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Ebola
Aug 8, 2014 19:20:27 GMT 2
Post by auntieannie on Aug 8, 2014 19:20:27 GMT 2
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Ebola
Aug 8, 2014 20:49:45 GMT 2
Post by auntieannie on Aug 8, 2014 20:49:45 GMT 2
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Ebola
Aug 12, 2014 18:52:58 GMT 2
Post by lumi on Aug 12, 2014 18:52:58 GMT 2
A Nigerian women arriving at Istanbul Ataturk airport today has been taken to hospital to determine if she has ebola. Mr lumi was at the same airport today. Fingers crossed that the women and her child have some other, more treatable illness and not ebola.
What really surprises me is that the medical staff assisting the women from the plane seem to be wearing only a regular cheap face mask and gloves. I thought that ebola was thought to be spread by sweat, so even brushing up against the arm of someone infected could transmit the virus. Turkish Airlines (who the women was flying with) said that they disinfected the plane though I do wonder how thorough such a cleaning would have been. Surely it would be a massive job to do a deep clean of ALL surfaces in a plane?
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Ebola
Aug 12, 2014 19:29:20 GMT 2
Post by auntieannie on Aug 12, 2014 19:29:20 GMT 2
disinfection of the plane, I guess, was a spray jobby. plus they would know where she sat and may have cleaned a bit more thoroughly that area.
face mask wouldn't be important in case of ebola as at the moment it is understood to be only transmitted via bodily fluids. Plus, that would have been scary for the child. If ebola was suspected, I would have hoped the staff had their forearms protected. Although if she was well enough to move unaided, just the gloves would have been sufficient, right?
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Ebola
Aug 12, 2014 19:51:18 GMT 2
Post by lumi on Aug 12, 2014 19:51:18 GMT 2
I don't know any details, annie, just the short news article I read which showed the women in a wheelchair and the medical staff next to her. The way I see it though, even if the patient can move unassisted, there is still a good chance you will bump or brush up against them. We brush up agaist people so often I think that it usually goes unnoticed.
I really hope it turns out not to be ebola though. It would be very frightening if it begins to spread to other countries. I haven't read the enws on this for a few days - is the area in Nigeria contained or is it still spreading? Was the patient in Saudi confirmed to have ebola?
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Ebola
Aug 12, 2014 22:57:08 GMT 2
Post by welle on Aug 12, 2014 22:57:08 GMT 2
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Ebola
Aug 12, 2014 22:58:17 GMT 2
Post by welle on Aug 12, 2014 22:58:17 GMT 2
The link doesn't work for me. Anyone else have this problem?
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Ebola
Aug 12, 2014 23:12:31 GMT 2
Post by auntieannie on Aug 12, 2014 23:12:31 GMT 2
argh! I don't know what is happening with the linky thing. I'll try and find the article and re-link. sorry.
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Ebola
Aug 12, 2014 23:15:45 GMT 2
Post by auntieannie on Aug 12, 2014 23:15:45 GMT 2
there, Welle... I edited my links. sorry it seems sometimes when I copy the link in the linky thing a second http:// appears and it stops the link from working. all repared above. ta!
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Ebola
Aug 12, 2014 23:23:07 GMT 2
Post by welle on Aug 12, 2014 23:23:07 GMT 2
Thanks Annie!
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Ebola
Aug 18, 2014 12:04:27 GMT 2
Post by welle on Aug 18, 2014 12:04:27 GMT 2
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Ebola
Aug 18, 2014 16:03:11 GMT 2
Post by missalaska on Aug 18, 2014 16:03:11 GMT 2
Thankfully both people tested in JHB are clear.
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vinnyd
Happy Potters
Posts: 335
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Ebola
Aug 18, 2014 17:46:16 GMT 2
Post by vinnyd on Aug 18, 2014 17:46:16 GMT 2
It's a little more clear where the push to get the americans back into the US comes from. They received experimental treatment (just tested on monkeys). A lot of interesting data will come out of this. It will be fascinating to watch how quickly and to whom the serum can be made available. The fact the treatment was used at all is highly unusual I don't think there was any particular push. I imagine they wanted to come home. They are citizens. They can't be kept out. We don't have any provision for stripping citizens of citizenship (as the USSR did to Trotsky and Solzhenitsyn, for example), and even if we could constitutionally have such a provision and did have one, I doubt that we would have enabled the government to strip someone of citizenship simply because they contracted the wrong disease. (There are provisions in the law for quarantine. People in quarantine are within the US.)
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