Phillippines, NA reports possible Ebola cases

[Zeus 7997]

This is one scary disease and I feel that not enough people know about it. I'm not even sure if people around me know that ebola left West Africa yet.

http://english.cntv.cn/2014/08/02/VIDE1406955241574888.shtml

(Not posting quotes because the article is literally 3 paragraphs long)

This is not long after the first reported Ebola case appeared in North America as well.

http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0102/06/se.04.html

Doctors there are closely watching the condition of a woman who returned form Congo and now shows possible symptoms of the Ebola virus. If diagnosed, it would be the first case of Ebola in North America.

There is a news conference under way right now at Tenderson (ph) General Hospital in Hamilton, Ontario. We've just learned that the woman has not been diagnosed yet. They should have the outcome in a few days. She is seriously ill. They've been talking about how the staff is treating this.

And the hospital seemed to want to make the point that she just became ill, when she got to Hamilton, Ontario. And they were relieved at that. And they said that we're not dealing with the public transit health care risk here. So we will continue to watch the story.

Not cool guys.

[Peace Heavy mk II 7200]

freaking out tbh

[Original Saku 1593]

Fuck this is kinda scary to think about ...

[digi 192]

I don't think I've ever been this afraid of some outbreak in forever. 

[Original Saku 1593]

I mean I probably wouldn't get that shit since I live the NEET life and never leave the house anyways but it's still scary to think about

[Jigsaw9 6783]

Dude, the first article you're linking is from 2 days ago but the second one is... from 2001? lol

 

Anyway, I wouldn't be too concerned just yet about the virus since we're all living in highly developed countries. Ebola spreads via direct contact with bodily fluids like blood or saliva, and in a natural everyday situation it cannot spread so easily if you're being careful (not even with water or other fluids) -- as far as I've heard anyway. It sure is a vile disease tho.

 

By the way, there is one ebola patient now in the US but that's only because s/he got it in Africa as a US citizen and doctors thought s/he might have a better chance of treatment in the USA.

[BrenGun 2261]

Don't worry that much.

If your body is healthy you not gonna die that easy.

Even in Africa not everybody die. only the real weak people die.

And they have treatment for it.

[Zeus 7997]

I don't know what treatment you are referring to but ebola has no cure. You either die or you don't. Something else to consider is the current outbreak is only about 45% fatal ( source ). Past ebola outbreaks in West Africa have gotten as high as 90%. So it's more than just the weak people or the unhealthy people that die.

[Peace Heavy mk II 7200]

From what I read, only one strand is super fatal with the "as much as 90% fatality rate" and most of the cases that have been fatal were due to being in highly undeveloped areas with extremely limited medical expertise.

 

With that being said, the only "cure" for it right now is to be hydrated and on a liquid diet until you get better (or die). 

[Peace Heavy mk II 7200]

http://www.cnn.com/2014/08/04/health/experimental-ebola-serum/index.html

 

This seems to be a bit more promising.

[Zeus 7997]

Let's pray it works.

[Yuuze 49]

From what I read, only one strand is super fatal with the "as much as 90% fatality rate" and most of the cases that have been fatal were due to being in highly undeveloped areas with extremely limited medical expertise.

 

With that being said, the only "cure" for it right now is to be hydrated and on a liquid diet until you get better (or die). 

Generally known as the Zaïre strain, with an 88% mortality overall in outbreaks (also the first to appear in 1976).

 

Ebola is a comparatively stable virus however, and while very infectious when contact with bodily fluids do happen, it is not airborne, and unlike an influenza, does not mutate so rapidly, so is unlikely to give way to the same kind of explosive spread and a vaccine would be effective for a longer time. This whole outbreak has been very poorly handled and it has contributed to the severity. In most past outbreaks, once the spread has been contained it has quickly ended. Ebola does however have a somewhat long incubation period of upwards 21 days from infection until the first symptoms, which makes quick discovery tricky in the absence of tests.

[CAT5 9075]

Yeah, apparently they're treating some ebola patients in Atlanta now - of course, a lot of the residents here are freaking out over it.

[Zeus 7997]

http://news.yahoo.com/cdc-issues-emergency-hands-call-ebola-response-222611995.html

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on Wednesday issued its highest alert for an all-hands on deck response to the Ebola crisis in West Africa.

He said it was the first time since 2009 that the Level 1 alert had been issued. Back then it was in response to the outbreak of H1N1 flu.

West Africa is experiencing the largest outbreak of the hemorrhagic fever in history.

A total of 932 people have died since March in Sierra Leone, Guinea, Liberia and Nigeria.

This is looking pretty grim but contained (relatively).

[Champ213 1858]

Influenza kills more poeple each year in the US (or any country for that matter), than the current Ebola outbreak has killed in West Africa. Just saying.

 

People tend to freak out about Ebola because they watched too many Hollywood action movies about deadly plagues and the gruesome imagery this disease evokes. The chances of a widespread Ebola outbreak in the US or any other industrialized nations are fairly small. The virus just isn't that infectious (Influenza is less deadly, but much more virulent, hence the high death toll each flue season). The reasons the virus spreads so fast in West Africa are several:

 

1. Bad healthcare system (few doctors, bad medical facilities).

2. Bad infrastructure (difficult to efficently distribute help)

3. Superstition, ignorance and mistrust (People don't know about/don't believe in virii, rather attributing the illness to some sort of magic; insistence to bury the dead in a traditional fashion which leads to many infections; mistrust of foreign doctors that come to help.)

 

Suffice to say, the chances that you or anyone around you will die by Ebola are smaller than being struck by a lightning. People like Donald Trump that go all hysteric and demand that the sick doctors are not be treated in the US need to be punched in the face. What a compassionate way to treat your fellow countrymen.

[Zeus 7997]

The difference between influenza death rate and ebola death rate is that while influenza kills more people per capita, it usually is relegated to the elderly or those with compromised immune systems. On the other hand, ebola has a ~50% chance to kill you no matter how healthy you are.

Considering how many people move through the NYC transit system on a daily basis it doesn't hurt to be careful.

[Peace Heavy mk II 7200]

all the people who are complaining about the serum being developed only because white people got it tho