Ebola: "Out of Control in West Africa"

[Flagg]

Originally Posted by Stobey

This is just a curious question to those doctors here. No one knows about insect vectors (like mosquitoes, ticks, etc.); but my question is about flies. There are many bodies of Ebola victims lying in the streets of Monrovia. These bodies are decomposing as others walk by them. We all know how flies love things like vomit, blood, feces. (That's why I hate friggin' flies.) What if one of those nasty little suckers decided to "chow down" and then landed on other people - or food?

Apparently only a few viral RNA strands of this strain are necessary (according to what I have read about this new (?) strain) for contamination to take place. No, I am not trying to be an alarmist. I would just like to know.

I reckon that's a really good question, and I'm no doctor/virologist/epidemiologist, just an interested amateur.

I've read the ebola virus is "non enveloped" unlike many others like the common fly virus, which makes transmission harder.

But I'm thinking there is a big difference between 1 or 10 bodies lying around in the heat and humidity than 100 or 1000.

Good point about flies though. I had a discussion with a fellow soldier recently about how Rommel's Afrika Korps' reportedly poor hygiene practices(just taking random dumps over the next sand dune) helped lead to public health problems amongst soldiers(flies were a big problem) sapping operational strength and impacting on their campaign.

[LarryW]

Containment of this will be like solving the problem of world peace. This thing stalks the poor and hapless with gay abandon. It's not going away by itself. Bet it's still with us a year from now but with a different priority.

Ebola spread fears rise as clinic looted, Liberian officials say

http://www.foxnews.com/health/2014/0...cmp=latestnews

MONROVIA, Liberia – Liberian officials fear Ebola could soon spread through the capital's largest slum after residents raided a quarantine center for suspected patients and took items including blood-stained sheets and mattresses.

The violence in the West Point slum occurred late Saturday and was led by residents angry that patients were brought to the holding center from other parts of Monrovia, Tolbert Nyenswah, assistant health minister, said Sunday.

Up to 30 patients were staying at the center and many of them fled at the time of the raid, said Nyenswah. Once they are located they will be transferred to the Ebola center at Monrovia's largest hospital, he said.

West Point residents went on a "looting spree," stealing items from the clinic that were likely infected, said a senior police official, who insisted on anonymity because he was not authorized to brief the press. The residents took medical equipment and mattresses and sheets that had bloodstains, he said.

"All between the houses you could see people fleeing with items looted from the patients," the official said, adding that he now feared "the whole of West Point will be infected."

Some of the looted items were visibly stained with blood, vomit and excrement, said Richard Kieh, who lives in the area.

(Cont.)

Looting bedsheets of victims spattered with blood, vomit, and shit is probably not the best containment strategy.

[LarryW]

There are also reports that as many as 37 Ebola patients escaped or were forcibly removed from the clinic in Monrovia when the stained and contaminated bed linens were looted. Stand by to stand by.

Liberia creates ‘plague villages’ with Ebola quarantines

http://nypost.com/2014/08/18/liberia...a-quarantines/

To try to control the Ebola epidemic spreading through West Africa, Liberia has quarantined remote villages at the epicenter of the virus, evoking the “plague villages” of medieval Europe that were shut off

With few food and medical supplies getting in, many abandoned villagers face a stark choice: Stay where they are and risk death or skip quarantine, spreading the infection further in a country ill-equipped to cope.

In Boya, in northern Liberia’s Lofa county, Joseph Gbembo, who caught Ebola and survived, says he is struggling to raise 10 children under 5 years old and support five widows after nine members of his family were killed by the virus.

Fearful of catching Ebola themselves, the 30-year-old’s neighbors refuse to speak with him and blame him for bringing the virus to the village.

“I am lonely,” he said. “Nobody will talk to me and people run away from me.” He says he has received no food or health care for the children and no help from government officials.

Aid workers say that if support does not arrive soon, locals in villages like Boya, where the undergrowth is already spreading among the houses, will simply disappear down jungle footpaths.

“If sufficient medication, food and water are not in place, the community will force their way out to fetch food and this could lead to further spread of the virus,” said Tarnue Karbbar, a worker for charity Plan International based in Lofa county.

Ebola has killed at least 1,145 people in four African nations, but in the week through Aug. 13, Lofa county recorded more new cases than anywhere else — 124 new cases of Ebola and 60 deaths.

The World Health Organization and Liberian officials have warned that, with little access by health care workers to the remote areas hidden deep in rugged jungle zones, the actual toll may be far higher.

(Cont.)

[ProudGSMom]

I'm not fishing for compliments - or asking for a kick in the teeth - but I respect the opinions here. I've done my best to be both factual and realistic, but I'm afraid it still smacks of alarmist tin-foil-hat-brigade.

http://www.chicagonow.com/uncommon-s...oose-08192014/

[LarryW]

Originally Posted by ProudGSMom

I'm not fishing for compliments - or asking for a kick in the teeth - but I respect the opinions here. I've done my best to be both factual and realistic, but I'm afraid it still smacks of alarmist tin-foil-hat-brigade.

http://www.chicagonow.com/uncommon-s...oose-08192014/

Yes, Mam, I'm no fan of the tin hat bunch either. I guess one of my many weaknesses is that I generally feel better when things are under some kind of control. Or if I can see that there's someone with a plan for getting them under control. IMO the Ebola thing isn't under control and there doesn't appear to be anyone in town or on the horizon that's willing to risk whatever it will take to change that. Can I or anybody here do anything about it? No.

Maybe I just worry for no reason. I'd like to trust fate more. I'd like to trust people more. What was it Reagan said? "Trust but verify." I just can't see a way to verify anything positive about the news coming out of west Africa. JMHO, Mam.

Tin hat? Size 7 3/8, please.

[Trapper John]

Originally Posted by LarryW

IMO the Ebola thing isn't under control and there doesn't appear to be anyone in town or on the horizon that's willing to risk whatever it will take to change that. Can I or anybody here do anything about it? No.

Wrong on both counts Larry.

[mark46th]

Yeah, I don't see it popping up all over sub-Saharan Africa. I would be looking for the bad guys who stole bedding, etc. A small piece of a contaminated sheet in a local water source could make a lot of people sick...

[LarryW]

Some good news. Not often you hear about “good news” in the same discussion as “Ebola”.

Samaritan’s Purse Doctor Recovered from Ebola

http://www.samaritanspurse.org/artic...CM_SocialMedia

Dr. Kent Brantly, the Samaritan’s Purse doctor who contracted Ebola while caring for patients in Liberia, will be released from Emory University Hospital in Atlanta today after completing his recovery from the deadly virus.

“Today I join all of our Samaritan’s Purse team around the world in giving thanks to God as we celebrate Dr. Kent Brantly’s recovery from Ebola and release from the hospital,” Samaritan’s Purse President Franklin Graham said in a statement. “Over the past few weeks I have marveled at Dr. Brantly’s courageous spirit as he has fought this horrible virus with the help of the highly competent and caring staff at Emory University Hospital. His faithfulness to God and compassion for the people of Africa have been an example to us all.”

Dr. Brantly survived the virus that typically causes massive internal bleeding and has a mortality rate of 60 to 90 percent in most situations. The current outbreak of Ebola has claimed more than 1,350 lives in the west African countries of Guinea, Liberia, Nigeria and Sierra Leone.

(Cont.)

[ProudGSMom]

But, some research has indicated Ebola may still be found in breast milk for up to two months and semen for over three months after all other signs of infection are clear. I'm assuming Emory has tested, uhm, all of his body fluids.

I'd hate for him to infect his wife while celebrating his recovery. Maybe she should just go in Enfamil for a while

[LarryW]

Originally Posted by ProudGSMom

But, some research has indicated Ebola may still be found in breast milk for up to two months and semen for over three months after all other signs of infection are clear. I'm assuming Emory has tested, uhm, all of his body fluids.

I'd hate for him to infect his wife while celebrating his recovery. Maybe she should just go in Enfamil for a while

Exactly!

Imagine the challenge in monitoring the follow-up condition of a person recovering from Ebola in a place like Liberia. IMO it’d be impossible. You’d have to hold the patient for 60+ days after they have been declared to be “Ebola free” before turning them loose. How hard would that be?

“Trust but verify” will demand a lot more of a commitment in recovery than it did in fighting the outbreak.

We ain’t heard the last of this. It ain't over 'til it's over, and it ain't over.

[mugwump]

Originally Posted by LarryW

Exactly!

Imagine the challenge in monitoring the follow-up condition of a person recovering from Ebola in a place like Liberia. IMO it’d be impossible. You’d have to hold the patient for 60+ days after they have been declared to be “Ebola free” before turning them loose. How hard would that be?

They've effectively conceded defeat in West Africa. The military have cut road/rail/air communication around the affected region, establishing the first cordon sanitaire since 1918. There are still local quarantine zones being established within the cordon, like West Point in Liberia, but no one expects them to succeed anymore. The public health wonks will hold their collective breaths while the disease hopefully burns itself out without spreading any further. Good luck with that.

[Richard]

<snip> Ebola’s fatality rate in the current outbreak is slightly over 50% — with 2,473 cases and 1,350 deaths — and previous outbreaks have hovered up to 90%. So it may seem hard to understand how someone can survive the disease, which attacks people’s organs and thins blood vessels. But the physicians at Emory University Hospital, where the American patients were treated, tell TIME that even though Ebola’s death rates are frankly terrifying, it’s key to remember that those are in countries — Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone — with comparatively weak health care systems. Multiple patients are kept together in a single space and health care workers have neither enough protective equipment nor resources to provide the supportive care that patients need — like isolation, clean linens and replenished fluids and electrolytes.

Still, some people in the U.S. and elsewhere manage to survive the deadly disease.

There’s no cure or treatment for Ebola, but some drugs are being tested. That includes ZMapp, which Brantly and Nancy Writebol received in Liberia. But, their physicians say since they were the first human patients to get the drug, there’s no way to tell what impact it had.

Experimental drugs aside, what doctors can provide Ebola patients is supportive care, like monitoring their heart rate, blood pressure and breathing, as well as replenishing fluids, which can help keep the body as stable as possible so it can fight the virus. (A lack of protective equipment and high demand make this type of care difficult in some of the hardest-hit areas of the outbreak.)

When a person is infected with a virus, their immune system starts to create antibodies to attack it. If the person is strong enough and their body sustains that strength long enough, their immune system can eventually neutralize and clear the virus on its own. Ebola can be detected through blood tests, the results of which only take a day or two to get back. The doctors at Emory said they were able to determine through both blood- and urine-diagnostic tests — and with the help of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention — that the virus was no longer in the patients’ systems and that they were both symptomless for at least two or three days.

(Cont'd) http://time.com/?xid=newsletter-brie...health-africa/

And so it goes...

Richard

[The Reaper]

Again, not a medic, but asymptomatic, and non-infectious are two different things entirely.

If they screw this up, the results are going to be significant.

TR

[Monsoon65]

Every since I read that book, Ebola has scared the crap out of me. Sounds like a nasty way to go.

They mentioned a doc that was working with Ebola patients in Africa. Seems that some nuns were vaccinating people with the same needle, spreading the disease around.

While he was treating them, he noticed he had torn his suit. Dude checks it out, says, "Screw it, I'm dead", takes it off and continues treating. He lived.

[The Reaper]

Originally Posted by Broadsword2004

Given what seems to be the incredible character of this doctor and also his probably being knowledgeable himself about Ebola having been a doctor treating people with it, I am assuming that he probably is safe to be out and about. If he felt there was any risk he could still have it in him and could spread it, I think he would refuse to have come out in public yet. It isn't like say Joe Blow having caught it.

There are some big assumptions, and a huge risk, in that statement.

I am sure Typhoid Mary thought she was low/no-risk as well.

TR