It sounds like the American aid workers are doing much better after they were given an experimental drug, which is good. I think people worrying about these two being brought to America is really silly. If it gets here, it certainly won't be from these two. I heard they quarantined someone in New York for showing potential symptoms. I believe this person came from Liberia or around that area a few weeks ago.

There have been some interesting theories about what is going on - the most interesting is that the Americans were brought here to test the new medication because our government expects a widespread outbreak here. There is bitching abroad regarding why the Americans got the experimental drug. This would kinda make sense. Some also believe that this form of Ebola is more communicable that what is being stated in the media. I don't buy that either.

It making it here really isn't that farfetched. It can take up to 31 days for someone to show symptoms, and if someone from the region landed here 2 weeks ago, obviously the folks running the show aren't keeping potential carriers out. How could they? I'm sure most of you heard about the Liberian American who laid over in Nigeria en route to the US and died there from the disease. I wonder if he sneezed on anyone in the plane? I haven't read anything regarding how long the virus lives on surfaces after bodily fluids have been touched, so I guess if it lives a while outside the body, it is feasible that if he used the airplane bathroom, someone could've picked it up.

Here's a CNN article with some high level info about the medication:

http://www.cnn.com/2014/08/04/health/ebola-drug-questions/index.html?hpt=hp_bn13
Thoughts?

[Edited on August 4, 2014 at 11:12 PM. Reason : dfasd]

8/4/2014 11:09:37 PM

I read they did ship some doses to Liberia. but the manufacturing process for the drug is not at scale is my understanding, and being experimental, i'm not sure why anyone would expect it to be used in practice at this point.

8/5/2014 12:58:20 AM

I guess from a profit standpoint, it doesn't behoove many manufacturers to really dig into something like Ebola. For the few large outbreaks there are, it isn't like the people needing the drug can pay a lot of money for it.

But with the potential of it coming here, I bet drug companies are seeing $$$

Something else - I don't think the drug made it to human trials before this outbreak started. The article said it had been tested on only 8 primates. Not sure what implications that might have for the general public, if the outbreak gets bigger.

[Edited on August 5, 2014 at 8:01 AM. Reason : asfd]

8/5/2014 7:58:46 AM

there is no potential of it coming here, it wouldn't survive in the climate for most of the country and in the rest of the country we don't have a problem with people eating dead fruit bats of the ground. We may see a few cases at some point in the future, but there is no risk of an epidemic.

Instead of air travel, if we do have any cases in the US it will probably come from illegal bush game meat markets in cities like NY, although the UK is at much greater risk for that.

Ebola, while virulent, is not as contagious as your Tom Clancy novels imply. It is less contagious than the flu for example it is similar to Hepatitis in how it is spread.

8/5/2014 8:28:54 AM

8/5/2014 9:37:59 AM

(sorry)

8/5/2014 9:44:24 AM

Donald Trump:
"Ebola patient will be brought to the U.S. in a few days -- Now I know for sure that our leaders are incompetent. KEEP THEM OUT OF HERE!"

8/5/2014 1:48:40 PM

can we trade the Ebola patient for Donald Trump? I'd rather keep the Ebola patient.

8/5/2014 1:49:46 PM

^

8/5/2014 1:59:42 PM

I don't know why everyone is making such a big deal about the two patients. I think it will get here, just not by them.

8/5/2014 3:52:15 PM

how do you think it will get here?

8/5/2014 4:11:46 PM

By blimp.

8/5/2014 4:19:10 PM

2 European swallows, held in place with a standard creeper between the dorsal guiding feathers

8/5/2014 4:34:13 PM

but nobody gives a shit about engineered flus

awesome

8/5/2014 10:10:20 PM

http://www.wral.com/triangle-hospitals-prepared-to-treat-infectious-diseases/13869378/



[Edited on August 5, 2014 at 11:24 PM. Reason : ]

8/5/2014 11:24:29 PM

http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x2xelx_pepto-bismol-commercial_fun

8/5/2014 11:30:00 PM

Quote :

"I don't know why everyone is making such a big deal about the two patients."

Because it's the plot of every zombie / disease outbreak movie for the last 20 years:
1) Viral outbreak somewhere remote.
2) Mad/Misguided scientists try to study/clone/weaponize the virus, quarantine test subject.
3) Quarantined subject is moved to area with no outbreak
4) The glass cracks / the glove tears / the subject sneezes into a vent / the slacker IT guy being paid off by competitors turns off the fences / someone gets bit.
5) A disaster of biblical proportions, old Testament, real wrath of God type stuff. Fire and brimstone coming down from the skies, rivers and seas boiling, forty years of darkness, earthquakes, volcanoes, the dead rising from the grave, human sacrifice, dogs and cats living together. Mass hysteria.
6) Introspective monologue and setup for sequels.

We've cleared the first 3 steps with bringing them here, everyone's waiting for step 4.

8/6/2014 9:44:14 AM

8/6/2014 9:47:14 AM

has anyone checked where Ayatollah Mahmoud Haji Daryae has travelled? I bet he has been in west africa recently, we need to send Clark and Chavez to investigate.

8/6/2014 9:47:59 AM

Apparently a Saudi man may have died from the disease after a business trip to Sierra Leone but not confirmed by the WHO:
http://www.cnn.com/2014/08/06/health/africa-ebola-outbreak/index.html?hpt=hp_c2

igeria reported that a nurse died after treating someone believed to have contracted Ebola in Liberia. And Saudi Arabia reported that a man died, apparently of the virus, after a trip to Sierra Leone. The World Health Organization did not immediately confirm the deaths.

8/6/2014 10:20:26 AM

Quote :

"There is bitching abroad regarding why the Americans got the experimental drug."

I'm sure if the drug companies shipped cases of untested, experimental drugs to Africa, people would start grumbling that the evil Big PharmaTM are using Africans as human guinea pigs (a la Constant Gardener). They do have a history of doing that, so I can imagine that their executives may be skiddish about being pinned as exploiting the crisis to test new drugs on Africans. (no sympathy here... just point out the facts).

8/6/2014 11:57:24 AM

I really don't think it's all that farfetched to think it'll get here from travelers. I don't expect a huge outbreak, but we just don't know.

8/6/2014 1:08:47 PM

Wasn't obama born in Africa? he probably brought that shit over when he imported.

8/6/2014 2:37:21 PM

http://www.rightwingwatch.org/content/rick-wiles-ebola-could-solve-americas-problems-atheism-and-homosexuality

Right before chatting with a Republican congressman on his on “Trunews” program yesterday, End Times radio host Rick Wiles said that an outbreak of Ebola in the U.S. might actually be a good thing if it ends up giving an “attitude adjustment” to all the gays and atheists, along with people who use pornography or have had an abortion, who will die if they aren’t “protected by God.”

“Now this Ebola epidemic can become a global pandemic and that’s another name for plague. It may be the great attitude adjustment that I believe is coming,” he said. “Ebola could solve America’s problems with atheism, homosexuality, sexual promiscuity, pornography and abortion.”

8/6/2014 8:36:43 PM

CDC issues highest-level alert for Ebola outbreak; Liberia declares state of emergency

http://nydn.us/1slD0Iq

[Edited on August 7, 2014 at 11:42 AM. Reason : get your survival shit ready!]

8/7/2014 11:42:00 AM

^^ I'd like to give that guy an attitude adjustment of my own.

8/7/2014 1:25:49 PM

Op-Ed on cnn asking why Africans did not get the treatment.

http://www.cnn.com/2014/08/06/opinion/washington-ebola-zmapp-drug-africa/index.html?hpt=hp_bn7

The same people asking this question would be complaining if they were given the treatment and it went sour. The companies would be accused of using Africa as a test bed for their medication.

8/7/2014 1:56:16 PM

WHO calling it a possible international emergency:

http://www.cnn.com/2014/08/08/health/ebola-outbreak/index.html?hpt=hp_t2

8/9/2014 3:36:43 PM

http://www.wral.com/husband-of-nancy-writebol-among-3-quarantined-in-charlotte/13882783/

3 quarantined in Charlotte! OMFG

8/11/2014 4:07:33 PM

Read an article on CNN that they think they've found patient zero. Not that it will really help anything, but it was interesting how they tracked the disease from this one 2 year old, to where it is now.

8/11/2014 8:16:31 PM

http://krqe.com/2014/08/12/liberian-doctors-to-get-experimental-ebola-drug/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+krqe-business+(Local+News+from+KRQE.com)

UN and WHO have approved using the experimental drugs in Africa.

The one they used in the us has to be grown in Tabacco plants after being grown in a bacteria or something so it'll be a while before they have more.

8/12/2014 11:48:24 AM

Yea it will be months before a new supply is stocked.

I saw where the third administration of the drug, to a priest in Spain, did not work, however who knows the specifics as to when it must be administered. The priest may have been too far gone before getting the treatment.

Let's hope that it doesn't have "I Am Legend" type side effects

8/12/2014 12:59:52 PM

I would like to declare myself the expert on ebola because I live 81 miles from Lagos.

According to the radio here, ebola can easily be prevented if you eat onions and bathe in hot salt water. Or maybe bathe in salt water that has onions in it. Or maybe you have to drink the salt water (2 people in Nigeria have died from doing this last one). The exact configuration varies from one expert to another, but the ingredients of salt, onions, and hot water are all there. These originated from the pronouncement of a king in Nigeria, who had a "magical revelation."

Meanwhile the one kind-of accurate thing that people here believe about ebola is causing a serious problem to the economy and some of my projects. The radio said, "Don't eat bush meat," which is a smart enough thing, but people in these parts are unclear on what, exactly, bush meat is, so they've responded by not buying any meat, period. Never mind that rabbits are not indigenous to the area and can't be bush meat, suddenly nobody wants the rabbits I raised because ebola.

Every time a Nigerian person shows up in a Beninese hospital, everybody freaks out that the Big E is here now. So far these cases have turned out to be hepatitis and malaria.

The hysteria bewilders me, especially in America. Ebola will not spread in the US. It barely spreads in Africa. The affected countries (excluding the huge outlier of Nigeria) have a combined population of 21 million people. Around 2,500 people have been infected. Meanwhile the densely packed supercity of Lagos has roughly the same population and 12 cases.

8/20/2014 7:28:54 AM

8/20/2014 9:28:35 AM

Seems like most of the Americans who have gotten Ebola have turned out fine.

Raises the question, is ebola actually that deadly? Or only that deadly because it's mainly in Africa where medicine is terrible?

9/3/2014 6:04:07 PM

Both. Also, they got medicine that had never been used before as far as we know.

9/3/2014 6:53:05 PM

The Anthrax
Monkeypox
Swine Flu
Bird Flu
Flesh-eating Bacteria
Smallpox
Mad Cow Disease

I CAN'T SORT IT ALL OUT

9/3/2014 7:32:48 PM

^^It isn't necessarily because the medicine is terrible, it is because hygiene in general is terrible.

9/3/2014 7:59:11 PM

Quote :

"Seems like most of the Americans who have gotten Ebola have turned out fine. Raises the question, is ebola actually that deadly? Or only that deadly because it's mainly in Africa where medicine is terrible?"

The Americans have all gotten the the most intensive medical treatment available to anybody who isn't either the President or some kind of sheik. You might as well say, "Magic Johnson has had AIDS for thirty years, it can't be that bad."

Put another way: throw enough money at it and your odds of dying decrease. Not all the way (that Spanish priest died in Spain), but some.

I put a lot of the blame on the psychology of the whole thing, the panic, the rumors, the myths, all that. Hard to treat a patient who doesn't come to the hospital because they think the hospital is a place you go to die (true enough for a lot of people in Africa and everywhere else, come to that). Hard to manage an outbreak when the people are rioting.

9/11/2014 11:37:10 AM

I would also bet that there is some fear that you might go to the hospital and end up quarantined against your will. That would certainly keep me away from one. I'm sure that isn't the case, but I bet it is a worry among the infected.

9/11/2014 4:52:52 PM

Health workers are getting sick and dying at an alarming rate. There's an op ed piece that is yelling fire in a crowded theater about it becoming airborne, but there was the following quote that made me say "whoa"

Quote :

"Liberia has only 250 doctors left, for a population of four million."

I feel bad for the people there.

Below is the source NYTimes article:

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/09/12/opinion/what-were-afraid-to-say-about-ebola.html?emc=edit_tnt_20140911&nlid=745484&tntemail0=y&_r=2

9/12/2014 11:02:50 AM

This quote made me say "whoa"

Quote :

"THE Ebola epidemic in West Africa has the potential to alter history as much as any plague has ever done."

As in "whoa, what an idiot"

9/12/2014 7:41:19 PM

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xhH1chIk9_0

9/13/2014 7:47:41 PM

http://washingtonexaminer.com/cdc-issues-ebola-checklist-now-is-the-time-to-prepare/article/2553396

9/15/2014 7:30:24 PM

I sat through a presentation by Dr Fischer at work today. Interesting to hear from a doctor who was in Guinea dealing with this shit two months ago.

He pointed out that his hotel, town and hospital had no running water or electricity, which obviously makes it hard to keep yourself or your hospital clean. He said the suits they wear are so fucking hot that he could only work safely for one hour in it. His record is two and he had a heat stroke. Also mentioned people really distrust the government and doctors because they only show up when things are really bad. Also he discussed the scarcity of health care workers and said that they are in danger of losing almost all of their healthcare workforce in some countries. He also pointed out tha this outbreak is less deadly if treated, as only like half died, but they are doing new things that previously were not done, like giving IV fluids immediately. Previously workers have been scared as needlesticks are pretty much the most fatal form of transmission. But as mentioned in this thread, the standard mortality rate in first world countries is far lower than those receiving treatment in some backwoods hospital in Africa.

He thinks the airborne threat is pretty silly as no virus has ever mutated that significantly. But he thinks that this could be a generationally defining epidemic. He is extremely concerned by the rate of growth, as it is quickly becoming exponential and that cases are being grossly under reported. Fully half of the cases of ebola have been in September alone. And he went over what local hospitals are doing to prepare in case somebody does get off a plane from one of these west African countries with a fever and diarrhea. I was shocked to find out that nowhere do they recommend separate donning and doffing rooms. Seems like common sense that the room you first enter to suit up should not possibly have ebola in it from the guy who just came out of the hotzone and stripped off his protective suit, but apparently that is SOP in almost every place.

9/15/2014 10:38:48 PM

Looks like we may be sending military over there to help now.

9/16/2014 8:03:29 AM

I thpught it was the onion when I saw that jeadline "us sending military to fight ebola"

9/16/2014 1:25:18 PM

You would think, but no, we're really going over there. I guess for quarantine support?

I just wonder if things are worse than what they're really telling us.

9/16/2014 1:48:46 PM

9/16/2014 3:52:30 PM

http://www.cnn.com/2014/09/23/world/africa/ebola-outbreak/
Ebola cases could reach 550,000 by January.

9/24/2014 9:53:50 AM