Ebola… Are 70% of us screwed?

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.

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”!

Interesting read… any thoughts ?

http://scgnews.com/ebola-what-youre-not-being-told

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.

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 Utopia 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.

Spainsh flu 1918

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.

the poor badgers are already in the cross hairs due to TB.

but not yet on the menu 🙂

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 we 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.

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.