So Ebola…what do you reckon we should do about it?

Given the international response has so far been woefully inadequate, and we’re now being told this is the worst health threat in last 30 years, what options are available?

I must say I’m really struggling to see the logic in not quarantining all the countries affected, then putting up border restrictions in the UK to ensure noone gets in if they’ve been in one of the affected countries over within 21 days. If you are a health worker already out there or someone who actually lives here then put them in quarantine until they’re clear. Granted this may be harsh but what other options do we have?

I’m certainly not suggesting we just let poor folk of west africa rot. Once we’ve secured our own borders then developed nations need to throw everything possible at eradicating this within a confined border, including healthcare and economic relief. Its bad in 3 countries just now. Once it spreads widely beyond those borders surely we’re all screwed?

Clearly the experts don’t appear to agree with this, they all appear to think only a few isolated cases will enter the country and will be dealt with with minimal risk to the rest of the population. I acknowledge folks are only contagious when ill,and its not airborne, but its not to far fetched to think someone may become ill at work,take the tube home etc etc

so what am i missing?

Its the only way to be sure….

They had the guy on BBC new this morning that first identified the virus in the 70s. Worth a listen, a good sense of perspective vs the Daily Mail esque hysteria.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-29547984

The synopsis was that this is really, really bad and he can’t believe it’s got this stage but that he’s not worried about a large scale outbreak in Europe.

There are loads of reasons why – stronger health care systems, high literacy rates, access to better sanitation etc.

I reckon the American survivalists are heading for their log cabins in the hills and rubbing their hands with glee: “We told you so!”.

Short of that, quarantine can’t work – what about the people who would work in the facilities.

Best solution is to pump *huge* amounts of resources into sorting the problem out in Africa, not trying to prevent it spreading.

Avian Flu H5N1 seemed to get far more attention with regards to shutting down air travel to affected areas though.

and we’re now being told this is the worst health threat in last 30 years, since swine &bird flu, e.coli, mmr, hrt, ice cream, lots I can’t remember right now, etc etc

the media love a good health scare

Agree that we need to pump huge resources at the issue, but surely it would be far easier to do this if the problem was to some extend contained within a limited area.

I just think its nuts that we’re allowing folks to come into britain potentially carrying this thing, especially non uk residents. Take the case of the guy that died in Dallas, he’d had a pretty clear exposure in liberia, lied to the authorities for whatever reason,and came over endangering scores of people. Madness…

The government keep saying we have the best health facilities in the world in place to deal with Ebola if it gets here.

All two beds in the royal free, what if there are three people with Ebola?

I think its natures way of fighting back at the over population of the planet.
Nothing like a good plague for thinning out the herd, and with a 70% mortality rate for those who contract it, it would do nicely if allowed to spread.

Get yourselfs down to Iceland for all the nuggets and baked beans you can carry.

I know they’re now talking about customs temperature scanning on arrival

Would have thought it might be better having airlines doing it before departure….

Maybe make airlines liable for the cost of quarantining passengers discovered to be showing symptoms/fever on arrival – that would see it sorted out in no time!

I’m sitting about 3km away from the hospital where the affected nurse is being cared for in downtown Madrid and although I can’t offer any so,unions which is what the OP has asked I can’t help but express my enormous anger at the situation.

The Spanish government decided to fly in two missionaries in order to keep their staunchly catholic voter base happy despite being ill equipped or prepared to deal with it. The following catalogue of errors makes my adopted home country look like a laughing stock.

It’s just another shitty deal that normal hard working spaniards have to bear the brunt of.

I think its natures way of fighting back at the over population of the planet.

Nah, thats bad AIDS. Which has the added bonus of being righteously judgmental in specifically targeting blokes who insist on touching each others bottoms

There’s an outbreak of it just down the road (in Madrid) from me so it’s fairly close to home. There’s no panic here yet, but the numbers of potentially infected is rising pretty fast… I don’t think it’ll be that hard to contain, though – an educated population, universal health care, and universal access to the media: all these things should be enough.

I’d say it’s definitely a case of when, not if, it’ll show up in London – huge, multicultural city, packed full of international travellers…

There are no direct flights from affected countries so it’s not a problem apparently.
I just hope those crazy Africans don’t suss out the theory of a connecting flight.

The Spanish government decided to fly in two missionaries in order to keep their staunchly catholic voter base happy despite being ill equipped or prepared to deal with it. The following catalogue of errors makes my adopted home country look like a laughing stock.

+1 on that. Bloody useless.

I’d say it’s definitely a case of when, not if, it’ll show up in London – huge, multicultural city, packed full of international travellers…

Yup!

If I was really, really cynical, I can see the possibility of someone who thinks they have been exposed abroad coming to London thinking they could get medical treatment here 😯

The maximum spread rate for ebola is 2 per infected person, so that’s not even a 1/3 on the “Kevin Bacon” scale. Therefore I am not worried.

I know they’re now talking about customs temperature scanning on arrival

Would have thought it might be better having airlines doing it before departure….

Maybe make airlines liable for the cost of quarantining passengers discovered to be showing symptoms/fever on arrival – that would see it sorted out in no time!

But it’s a pointless exercise as it can take up to 21 days to become symptomatic and for a fever to develop.

Border restrictions wouldn’t work either as people will still travel to other countries before heading to the UK and ‘forgery’ to mention where their journey started from.

I can’t see it being a big thing, one or two cases might make it to the UK but he’ll be treated and dealt with without any problems. As for the suggestion earlier that only two beds are available at the Royal Free Hospital to deal with all cases that may come to the UK, that’s not the case as there are other hospitals with wards able to deal with it in other cities.

It’s gonna be either like what Donk says up there, the latest in a long line of health scares that the meeja love or it will be like World War Z (the book which was a bit more realistic than the film).

I would suggest suspending flights from the worst hit places and giving lots of aid but I’m sure that neither will happen and we will stumble on hoping it will go away just like we do with everything else…

If it kills more than 55,000 people in Nigeria, it might even overtake deaths in road traffic accidents. If it gets to be four times worse, at 220,000, it could overtake AIDS.

Still, I washed my hands on the way in and out of Chesterfield Royal this morning while visiting my old auntie.

Take car. Go to Mum’s. Kill Phil – “Sorry.” – grab Liz, go to the Winchester, have a nice cold pint, and wait for all of this to blow over.

The almost comical catalogue of errors in the Dallas case really makes you think how easily this could spread now that a kind of saturation point of victims has been exceeded in the original case countries. Just need a few ill people to slip through and end up ill in a normal hospital ward after telling fibs about where they have been and potentially infecting many hospital staff.

Interesting to see burials not cremations on the TV, is the virus still active in a dead and buried host ?

Binners is right cull them with nukes

The temperature test is not conclusive. The guy that just died in Dallas travelled via Brussels. He was tested, but the incubation period was at a too-early stage to show any heat.

I’ve ordered some ant-viral hand gel for working in a post room. 😉

[tin foil hat]
How long before somebody drops a few of the infected off in Syria?

[/tin foil hat]

As with all international issues, I’m sure the solution is high level bombing, and drone strikes. After a while we can stop bombing ebola, and start bombing immune systems, if it looks like they might get on top

I wonder what would happen if someone with flu contracted Ebola and it mutated…….

Interesting to see burials not cremations on the TV, is the virus still active in a dead and buried host ?

Massively so

I’d say it’s definitely a case of when, not if, it’ll show up in London – huge, multicultural city, packed full of international travellers…

Excellent,I am heading down next week.
What precautions should I take?
Do you think around the Southbank will be ok,or should I just avoid poor people and sk8rs?

Don’t worry “Natural News” has the answer: herbs!

If we really want to stop the spread of this viral pandemic right now, both government and the media should be urging citizens to boost their immune defenses by consuming more nutritious foods, herbal spices, superfoods and anti-viral plants (which include peppermint, basil, rosemary, cinnamon and oregano, just to name a few).
…
But instead of urging the public to enhance their immune function and boost their natural defenses against Ebola, everyone is ridiculously told to “wash your hands”…

— http://www.naturalnews.com/047089_Ebola_pandemic_government_lies_disinformation.html

😯

Thanks Graham,I knew someone would be on the case.
Holland & Barrett here I come.

Put a large fence up around Africa and just wait…

It will burn out eventually.

I’ve bought a tin of red paint, put a big cross on the front and door called in to work sick.

I think there needs to be a ‘Ebola Tombola’ gameshow in which the goal is for an African Ebola victim to infect as many captured ISIS operatives as possible in one minute inside in a giant spinning Tombola.

Hosted by a heavily armed Noel Edmonds.

The winner gets an all expense paid trip to a hospital of their choice.

I think its natures way of fighting back at the over population of the planet.

The great thing about this is that its wrong on so many levels. Fine work indeed.

Ok, people are always going to get here indirectly, but I think it would be sensible to suspend flights from the most heavily affected regions.
But it won’t happen.

100 squaddie nurses are shipping out from the army medical centre based in my village. Aiming to setup containment centers for infected medics. UK zombie holocaust starts from the local pub then lol.

In the time that ebola’s taken to kill a couple of thousand, malaria has killed more like half a million and tuberculosis double that again. Estimated deaths from AIDS in sub-Saharan Africa in 2013 were over a million as well.

If we’re going to throw a load of resources at fighting disease in Africa, they might want to look at some of those.

who had macedonia in the sweepstake?

edlong – Member

In the time that ebola’s taken to kill a couple of thousand, malaria has killed more like half a million and tuberculosis double that again. Estimated deaths from AIDS in sub-Saharan Africa in 2013 were over a million as well.

If we’re going to throw a load of resources at fighting disease in Africa, they might want to look at some of those.

yes because there has hardly been any research into aids, malaria or tb. I don’t even think there are any kind of precautions anyone can take against these nor treatments if you do catch one of them 😕

The Hot Zone by Richard Preston is a factual book written about the first 2 outbreaks of Ebola, E.Sudan and E.Zaire. A frightening read and the only reason why it didn’t kill more people was because the location of the outbreaks and the virus killed people so quickly there was limited transmission.