First american ebola case diagnosed

[braces_for_impact]

Too low a profit margin. I have blessed air. Simply pop n' sniff. Same price, better return.

 

[Jimmy Higgins]

Forget that. I'm giving it away for free. But the Lord needs your help and we all know those who help The Lord will be blessed. So give me all of your money so I can help you for free!

 

[Rhea]

Containment in the US is bound to be facilitated by health care workers applying all necessary standard precautions established by the CDC. That in view of health care workers in affected African nations being a main contributor to infecting the local population as they return to their homes after their shifts. Further factor contributing to the expansion of Ebola in those nations are local traditions regarding burial/funeral rites where loved ones insist in washing corpses and handle them (without any PPE) via direct physical contact. There is also the fear from those local populations to report to a treatment center as they view them as "the place you go to die". Therefor, so many families treating their infected loves ones themselves and exposing themselves to contamination and again as they do not use any protective gear.

It is highly improbable that such common incidences would occur within the American population.

Yes, exactly. I understood that some of the problem with containment in Africa is that the Western aid workers were not trusted to be safe and the Western practices not trusted to be effective (if not downright malign). So I am wondering if the ease of Western medicine and practices at containing it can break that logjam of mistrust.

But it's a tight and enduring logjam (in this and many other medical matters such as birth control and vaccines in non-western areas) so many even this object lesson in efficacy may not help.


On the other hand, this is also not unique to non-western or "third world" countries. Look at how obtuse the USA is on birth control and universal health care. So look who's talking.

Silly tangent, is Africa in "the West" or in "the East"?

I have never heard the term "East" versus "West" as in "Western nations" applied to African nations. Commonly though, the term "Third World nations" comes to mind. Based on the socio economical frailty of those nations to include great political instability in some of them.

If we use "western" versus "eastern" when referring to culture alone, I would not place African nations within the "western culture" category. However,some ex colonies have still retained traits of the "western culture".

Just an aside you brought up, I would just give my 2 cents.

And they don't belong in "Eastern," either. The West, The East, The Middle East and Africa? With strange technological/ideological jumps by some eastern countries in the the category of being "western" style; such as Russia, Japan and China (which practices both eastern and western medicine)?

Hmmm. Time to come up with non- geographical groupings, I guess.

 

[ksen]

White countries are the west.

Asian countries are the east.

Africa is the dark continent.

 

[barbos]

D'oh! Missed that one completely

What if it mutates to spread through coughing?

Viruses have neither lungs nor throats, so this seems unlikely.

Even if they did, they are very small; even a massive coughing fit couldn't propel them more than a few millimetres.

A cough or sneeze can propel droplets several meters, and even if no-one else is in the vicinity, the droplets can settle on environmental surfaces. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3vw0hIs2LEg

In the videos I've seen the medical personnel treating Ebola patients are wearing N-95 filtration masks or full filtration hoods. This is consistent with full Airborne Precautions, not just Droplet Precautions. Note also that they're spraying down environmental surfaces.

Droplet and airborne transmission mechanisms are different. Viral capsids (the protein shells that contain the viral DNA/RNA) are often delicate and disintegrate in dry air. Encased in a droplet of liquid, on the other hand, they're much more robust.

Medical personnel are observing full airborne precautions, not just droplet precautions, despite the reassuring PR.

In the Reston strain, there appeared to be actual airborne transmission from monkey to monkey as well as monkey to pig.

Viral concentration in respiratory secretions is thought to be low, but low isn't necessarily safe.

So, it does spread through coughing.

 

[Loren Pechtel]

Fortunately it's not very likely to spread in the first world. No reason to panic.

So I should cancel my plans to flee to Madagascar before they shut down everything then?

It's nowhere near Brazil, what are you worried about?

 

[Rhea]

What if it mutates to spread through coughing?

Viruses have neither lungs nor throats, so this seems unlikely.

Even if they did, they are very small; even a massive coughing fit couldn't propel them more than a few millimetres.

So, it does spread through coughing.

The humor was missed here... we are talking about the inability of the little ebola virus entity itself to cough

Viruses have neither lungs nor throats,​

and even if the ebola evolved lungs and throats, their microscopic size will prevent their little coughs from carrying very far.

Even if they did, they are very small; even a massive coughing fit couldn't propel them more than a few millimetres.​

Joke alert!

 

[BH]

I'm 50 miles south of Dallas in Corsicana.

 

[ZiprHead]

Let me know when I really have something to worry about. The common flu virus kills in the hundreds almost yearly here in the US.

 

[Jimmy Higgins]

Let me know when I really have something to worry about. The common flu virus kills in the hundreds almost yearly here in the US.

If the same number of people contracted ebola as did the flu...

Regardless, nothing really to worry about, I mean other than the guy who contracted it.

Conservatives should be giddy. If there was an ebola outbreak, that'd give them another thing to feel all smug about... until they died at least.

 

[Hickdive]

Too low a profit margin. I have blessed air. Simply pop n' sniff. Same price, better return.

Let me assure you, there is NO profit in canned air :-(

 

[credoconsolans]

What makes me nuts is the guy is a citizen of Liberia.

Why are people from that country still allowed in?

He came to the US to visit family.

Number of family members he came in contact with? 16 - 18 people. No way he had a small family.

Five of these people are children who attend, not one, but 4 local schools.

News stories said the guy went to the hospital complaining of a fever, then was sent home with antibiotics. Family claims he told the staff he was from Liberia.

What are you willing to bet the idiots at the hospital had no idea where Liberia is?

It IS Texas.

 

[bilby]

What makes me nuts is the guy is a citizen of Liberia.

Why are people from that country still allowed in?

He came to the US to visit family.

Number of family members he came in contact with? 16 - 18 people. No way he had a small family.

Five of these people are children who attend, not one, but 4 local schools.

News stories said the guy went to the hospital complaining of a fever, then was sent home with antibiotics. Family claims he told the staff he was from Liberia.

What are you willing to bet the idiots at the hospital had no idea where Liberia is?

It IS Texas.

Liberia is in the former Loviet Union. I think.

 

[barbos]

What if it mutates to spread through coughing?

Viruses have neither lungs nor throats, so this seems unlikely.

Even if they did, they are very small; even a massive coughing fit couldn't propel them more than a few millimetres.

So, it does spread through coughing.

The humor was missed here... we are talking about the inability of the little ebola virus entity itself to cough

Viruses have neither lungs nor throats,​

and even if the ebola evolved lungs and throats, their microscopic size will prevent their little coughs from carrying very far.

Even if they did, they are very small; even a massive coughing fit couldn't propel them more than a few millimetres.​

Joke alert!

It was not missed.

 

[gmbteach]

Too low a profit margin. I have blessed air. Simply pop n' sniff. Same price, better return.

Let me assure you, there is NO profit in canned air :-(

Tell that to the souvenir sellers.

 

[Loren Pechtel]

What makes me nuts is the guy is a citizen of Liberia.

Why are people from that country still allowed in?

He came to the US to visit family.

Number of family members he came in contact with? 16 - 18 people. No way he had a small family.

Five of these people are children who attend, not one, but 4 local schools.

News stories said the guy went to the hospital complaining of a fever, then was sent home with antibiotics. Family claims he told the staff he was from Liberia.

What are you willing to bet the idiots at the hospital had no idea where Liberia is?

It IS Texas.

Why shouldn't we allow them in. Our system can cope with Ebola, it's not going to spread here like it does there.

 

[Under the Rose]

The CDC has issued guideline to funeral homes in the event they need to handle an Ebola death.

CBS46 News has confirmed the Centers for Disease Control has issued guidelines to U.S. funeral homes on how to handle the remains of Ebola patients. If the outbreak of the potentially deadly virus is in West Africa, why are funeral homes in America being given guidelines?

Complete Coverage Of Ebola Outbreak

Authorities: Ebola patient had contact with 5 children

The three-page list of recommendations include instructing funeral workers to wear protective equipment when dealing with the remains since Ebola can be transmitted in postmortem care. It also instructs to avoid autopsies and embalming.

 

[Sabine Grant]

What makes me nuts is the guy is a citizen of Liberia.

Why are people from that country still allowed in?

He came to the US to visit family.

Number of family members he came in contact with? 16 - 18 people. No way he had a small family.

Five of these people are children who attend, not one, but 4 local schools.

News stories said the guy went to the hospital complaining of a fever, then was sent home with antibiotics. Family claims he told the staff he was from Liberia.

What are you willing to bet the idiots at the hospital had no idea where Liberia is?

It IS Texas.

Why shouldn't we allow them in. Our system can cope with Ebola, it's not going to spread here like it does there.

The only acceptable policy issued by the CDC would be to quarantine passengers arriving from the affected nations for a period up to 3 weeks. However as you correctly stated, Ebola is certainly not a threat to the US population as it is in those affected nations.

And again, based on what I developed on regarding a far more infectious disease such as active TB, there is no CDC instructed measure to either quarantine or prevent individuals arriving from nations with a persistently high ratio of documented TB cases to enter the US. Again, identified and diagnosed as TB patients in the US remain isolated cases despite of the highly contagious/infectious aspect of active TB.

 

[barbos]

So another american got infected, this time NBC reporter.
Maybe this thing is more serious (even for first world countries) than people think?

 

[bilby]

So another american got infected, this time NBC reporter.
Maybe this thing is more serious (even for first world countries) than people think?

Two infections, zero deaths? That's a pretty low bar for 'serious'.