Ebola

[45thAnniversary2SS]

Originally Posted by Steve Dallas

I hope we stamp out the hotspot currently happening in Dallas. We'll know in a few weeks.

I do think that we need to look seriously at travel quarantines or outright bans to and from certain areas.

Isn't the current hotspot just the area surrounding the hospital?

[Scalded Dog]

Originally Posted by Steve Dallas

On another note...you know what really scares me?

That somehow ISIS, Al Queada or some random lunatic will purposely infect themselves. Then at the point that they become sick, they start travelling on planes and purposefully infecting lots of people who would be difficult to track down.

It's lucky that our borders are secure, and impervious to illegal entry!

(oh... wait a second...)

[Steve Dallas]

Sigh...so WHY were ANY of the nurses in contact with Duncan even allowed to fly?

http://www.cnn.com/2014/10/15/health...html?hpt=hp_t1

[Steve Dallas]

Originally Posted by 45thAnniversary2SS

Isn't the current hotspot just the area surrounding the hospital?

Not anymore. The second nurse apparently flew the day before she reported symptoms. Hopefully none of the passengers were infected...

These nurses were self testing and weren't quarantined. Allowed to go about their daily business.

[45thAnniversary2SS]

Originally Posted by Steve Dallas

Not anymore. The second nurse apparently flew the day before she reported symptoms. Hopefully none of the passengers were infected...

These nurses were self testing and weren't quarantined. Allowed to go about their daily business.

Wow. Why even chance it? If you are working with an ebola patient you can't travel until sympton period is over. Doesn't seem to be asking too much.

[The_Blur]

Restricting travel to and from other countries creates other problems, especially if Americans are over there trying to come home.

Stocking up on emergency supplies is always a good idea. I keep a hurricane kit ready at all times.

[DGthe3]

Want to know how to not get Ebola?

Don't handle the bodily fluids of people with Ebola. This is hard to avoid (but manageable for the most part) if you are a treating an Ebola victim, and almost impossible to encounter unless you are treating an Ebola victim. This is assuming that you abide by traditional western customs, rather than say smearing the blood of deceased loved ones on your face as a way to honour them. Even then ... if they didn't have Ebola, you can go right ahead and do that & you won't catch Ebola. Might catch something else, like HIV, but not Ebola.

The threat Ebola presents is miniscule. There are probably hundreds of diseases in North America that are more likely to result in you dying than Ebola is. Yes, the mortality rate of Ebola is high, but the infection rate is tiny. Other diseases that much easier to catch, but you have a lower chance of dying from, will often have substantially higher death tolls.


All in all, there have been something like 10,000 people who have died from Eboloa since the first recorded outbreak. Malria hits that number pretty much every week. Tuberculosis kills roughly that many people every couple of days.

The real problem is fear. I would not be surprised if in North America & Europe more people get killed due to mass hysteria about an Ebola 'outbreak' than people who catch the disease in their home country. Whether it be getting into traffic accidents on the way to a big box store to stock up on supplies, or people just straight up murdering someone because they're infected (or at least, thought to be infected) and just about everything in between.

On the list of things to be afraid of dying from, unless you live in West Africa Ebola should rank somewhere below falling off a ladder or being stuck by lightning (and maybe slightly above being struck by lightning while on a ladder, by the way ... don't clean your gutters during a storm unless you want to win a Darwin award)

[ZED SLED]

It's just Mother Nature's way of dealing with the blight on her planet called the human race. If it works and there are any mods left, they can merge this thread with the Walking Dead thread.

[Steve Dallas]

Originally Posted by DGthe3

Want to know how to not get Ebola?

Don't handle the bodily fluids of people with Ebola.

The problem is, if a person is infected, he may cough (spittle hitting another person, not airborne) or somehow contact people as well. That's why the CDC is now tracking down everyone on that flight the nurse was on. It's not just health care workers that are at risk. There is a period of time where the infected person can spread the disease before coming down with more serious symptoms.

I agree the chances are small...and has a small number of deaths so far...however predictions are for the number of deaths to increase. This is why an exponential spread of Ebola is so scary. A few weeks ago, this was contained in Africa. Now, there are cases in the U.S. and other countries as well.

I do think that we need a healthy dose of fear when confronting this, because the lack of fear and the "trust" in our hospitals procedures is really at question here when people who were in contact with Duncan were not quarantined and allowed to travel. To me, it's insane that this nurse was allowed to fly.

[JaniMaks]

I have more of a strict stance on this:

1) Suspend travel from the hot zones to the US (until they the travelers are cleared from the originating airports)
2) No more voluntary quarantine (it needs to be strictly enforced and needs to be solitary quarantine)
3) The Dallas hospital should be designated ground zero and should be shut down until its cleared the hospital and all its staff is cleared by the CDC.
4) Any new infected should be transported and treated at and by CDC centers not hospitals
5) Strict screening at local airports here in the US

As i said before i have a very strict stance on this, once its controlled we can all go back to our normal lives.

[90503]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature...&v=7LhtEgsbTLk

[Scalded Dog]

TMZ is killing it: The other day, they were discussing the NBC correspondent Dr. Nancy Snyderman, after she 'voluntarily violated' her voluntary quarantine in order to get some food:

"Why didn't she just order a bowl o' soup to go?"

See? Ebola CAN be funny!

[DGthe3]

Originally Posted by Steve Dallas

On another note...you know what really scares me?

That somehow ISIS, Al Queada or some random lunatic will purposely infect themselves. Then at the point that they become sick, they start travelling on planes and purposefully infecting lots of people who would be difficult to track down.

Except that ITS REALLY HARD TO GIVE SOMEONE EBOLA. The risk of infection is dependant on the amount of exposure and the method of exposure. A bit on the skin likely isn't enough to do it. Ingesting it (don't ask me how a casual passerby would be ingesting the bodily fluids from a terrorist with Ebola) increases the chances, and injection raises it even more.

Think of it this way: are you afraid of catching HIV from a terrorist? Because it would be easier catch HIV from a terrorist due to the fact that you can live for years with the disease while its contagious, rather than days with Ebola (and by the time an Ebola victim is contagious, there isn't much time until they are pretty much bedridden).

[DGthe3]

Originally Posted by Steve Dallas

The problem is, if a person is infected, he may cough (spittle hitting another person, not airborne) or somehow contact people as well. That's why the CDC is now tracking down everyone on that flight the nurse was on. It's not just health care workers that are at risk. There is a period of time where the infected person can spread the disease before coming down with more serious symptoms.

I agree the chances are small...and has a small number of deaths so far...however predictions are for the number of deaths to increase. This is why an exponential spread of Ebola is so scary. A few weeks ago, this was contained in Africa. Now, there are cases in the U.S. and other countries as well.

I do think that we need a healthy dose of fear when confronting this, because the lack of fear and the "trust" in our hospitals procedures is really at question here when people who were in contact with Duncan were not quarantined and allowed to travel. To me, it's insane that this nurse was allowed to fly.

A healthy dose of fear is washing your hands after being in contact with an Ebola victim. Insane is believing that Ebola poses a significant risk to western populations.