Ebola rears its ugly head

[rajagainstthemachine]

Ebola cases are now being reported outside Africa, in USA, Spain and possibly France.
It's pretty worrying if this turns into a global pandemic. Although the tendency is to dismiss many outbreaks such as bird flu, mers, swine flu as local contained outbreaks, one can't help but feeling if Ebola is going to surpass them all in terms of infections and difficulty of treatment.
I'm not worried.....




























F....in 'ell I am.

[PNGMK]

The bottom line is that Ebola will thrive in unhygienic environs where there is lax discipline. That shouldn't be a problem in the west... (excluding the impoverished deep South, inner London, ghettos or Pars).

[sundaymorningstaple]

PNGMK you are talking about the ghetto of every major city in the US and in the world for all intents and purposes.

[JR8]

Don't worry if it lands in SG no one will tell you, so everything will be ok.

[Strong Eagle]

With the propensity of so many Singapore men to hawk out large green lugies into the nearest sink, sidewalk, or trash can, it seems that Singapore supports a prime vector for ebola.

[rajagainstthemachine]

Don't worry if it lands in SG no one will tell you, so everything will be ok.

What worries me I that there is no known cure yet and contacting the disease means almost certain death.
As for Singapore, ok I'll be dammed if there was a single Ebola victim was reported from here.

[the lynx]

Well judging by how some experimental drugs have been curing two Ebola victims in USA, a gleam of hope would be here - soon hopefully.

Nevertheless, everyone should take precautions because Ebola kills faster than we produce cure.

[bgd]

A while back I watched a series of documentaries.

The first was on flu. I came away thinking there was no hope and flu would get us all one day.

The secound was on Aids. Flu had nothing on Aids. Aids was unstoppable. Aids would get us all.

The third was on the American religious right. My God. Forget about the flu and Aids, the religious right in America was the biggest threat mankind has ever faced.

So I don't worry about Ebola, there are worse things out there. But I haven't seen that documentary yet.

[Sporkin]

I did not receive a response from the Ministry of Health when I asked them if experimental ebola drugs like ZMAPP are available here.

Well judging by how some experimental drugs have been curing two Ebola victims in USA, a gleam of hope would be here - soon hopefully.

Nevertheless, everyone should take precautions because Ebola kills faster than we produce cure.

[JR8]

The third was on the American religious right. My God. Forget about the flu and Aids, the religious right in America was the biggest threat mankind has ever faced.

I thought global-warming was? And before that (70s) global-cooling.

[rajagainstthemachine]

One of the theories is that Ebola is a man made virus that was engineered during the cold war and then tested on monkeys in Africa, some of these monkeys escaped into the wild and passed the contagion on from one monkey to another and eventually to humans.

[Strong Eagle]

One of the theories is that Ebola is a man made virus that was engineered during the cold war and then tested on monkeys in Africa, some of these monkeys escaped into the wild and passed the contagion on from one monkey to another and eventually to humans.

I presume you forgot to put on your tin foil hat while writing this one?

[x9200]

I don't really see it any worse than SARS. SARS was airborn - i.e. many people just got it though the ventilation ducts. Ebola needs physical contact with the body fluids of the person who already shows the symptoms. Ebola IMHO is much easier to be contained (if it comes to the worse). It spreads in Africa because of some burial customs and overall tragically low hygienic standards. I don't see it spreading in any civilized country at all, one of the reasons being also the severity of the disease - once one has it with the symptoms developed, (s)he is down and/or dead within short time preventing spreading the disease further.

[rajagainstthemachine]

One of the theories is that Ebola is a man made virus that was engineered during the cold war and then tested on monkeys in Africa, some of these monkeys escaped into the wild and passed the contagion on from one monkey to another and eventually to humans.

I presume you forgot to put on your tin foil hat while writing this one?

err sorry here we go

[PNGMK]

PNGMK you are talking about the ghetto of every major city in the US and in the world for all intents and purposes.

That's my point...

However what concerns me most is the NBC cameraman who was infected within 24 hours of landing in Liberia in what appears to be a no touch case (i.e. airborne infection?). The second aspect that concerns me is that so many trained health professionals are being infected.... that should not be happening and makes me wonder if there is an unknown transmission path.