Ebola scaremongering?
- Thread starter Mynight
- Start date
Yes it does. The first outbreak was spread by poor hygene in african hospitals sharing needles.
That's not the same as them spreading it on purpose or as a weapon of course.
Apologies I didn't see the table at the bottom
. Indeed it does say that then lol
dammit!Guess it does have that quote but it doesn't state that the first deaths were caused by it. Only that it was spread via it.
I'm interested in the few strains in that table I haven't heard of before ie Ivory Coast and Bundibugyo.
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To be fair I'd want an experimental drug tested on someone else first too
With an average fatality rate of 79% (for this particular strain) I'd take my chances with the experimental drug than face the inevitable consequences
Soldato
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I have the utmost respect for the guys who are out there right now trying to help the patients 
.
Kent Brantly and Nancy Writebol are the two American doctors that have caught it. They were working for Samaritan's Purse. They contracted the disease despite wearing full-body protective clothing
.
And then today's news is that the Doctor has requested the experimental serum goes to someone else rather than himself as jsmoke posted earlier. http://news.sky.com/story/1311049/us-ebola-doctor-gives-serum-to-fellow-patient.
I really do tip my hat to the guys and girls out there. Utmost selfless dedication!
The Press Release from Samaritan's Purse:
.Kent Brantly and Nancy Writebol are the two American doctors that have caught it. They were working for Samaritan's Purse. They contracted the disease despite wearing full-body protective clothing
.And then today's news is that the Doctor has requested the experimental serum goes to someone else rather than himself as jsmoke posted earlier. http://news.sky.com/story/1311049/us-ebola-doctor-gives-serum-to-fellow-patient.
I really do tip my hat to the guys and girls out there. Utmost selfless dedication!
The Press Release from Samaritan's Purse:
American Doctor with Ebola Displays Heroism - Samaritan’s Purse physician gives experimental serum to stricken colleague
Dr Kent Brantly and Nancy Writebol are in stable but grave condition. Dr Brantly took a slight turn for the worse overnight. But even as he battles to survive Ebola, this heroic doctor is still focused on the well-being of others.
“Yesterday, an experimental serum arrived in the country, but there was only enough for one person. Dr Brantly asked that it be given to Nancy Writebol,” said Franklin Graham, president of Samaritan’s Purse. “However, Dr Brantly received a unit of blood from a 14-year-old boy who had survived Ebola because of Dr Brantly’s care. The young boy and his family wanted to be able to help the doctor that saved his life.”
The safety of our staff is a top priority and Samaritan’s Purse is currently working to evacuate all but the most essential personnel to their home countries. The evacuation should be completed this weekend. The exact timeline and destinations are being kept confidential to respect their privacy. Samaritan’s Purse is taking precautions that exceed the standards recommended by the Centers for Disease Control (CDC).
None of the evacuating staff are ill and the World Health Organization and CDC continue to reiterate that people are not contagious unless they begin showing symptoms. Following their evacuation, Samaritan’s Purse will work with staff to monitor their health.
Please continue to pray for Kent and Nancy and all those who are affected by Ebola, and the tremendous group of doctors and nurses who are caring for them.
Dr Brantly, a family practice physician, was serving in Liberia through the post-residency programme before joining the medical team responding to the Ebola crisis. His wife and two children had been living with him in Liberia but flew home to the US about a week ago, before he started showing any signs of illness.
Last week, Dr Brantly recognised that he had symptoms associated with Ebola, and immediately isolated himself.
Writebol works with SIM, which manages ELWA Hospital. The two organisations have been working closely to combat Ebola since the current outbreak began in Liberia in March. She had been working as a hygienist who decontaminated those entering and leaving the isolation ward of the Case Management Centre at the hospital. She is married with two children.
“Their heroic and sacrificial service – along with the entire team there – is a shining example of Christ’s love in this crisis situation,” Graham said.
The two cases underscore the seriousness of the horrific outbreak that is spreading throughout Liberia, Sierra Leone, and Guinea and infecting hundreds of people at an unprecedented rate. The deadly disease, which causes massive internal bleeding and has a mortality rate of 60 to 90 percent in most situations, has claimed more than 670 lives.
In the span of 32 years (1976-2008), the Ebola virus infected 2,232 people in remote village areas and killed 1,503. Just since early this year, the mortality rate has already claimed nearly a third of those fatalities as it has infiltrated three capital cities with populations in the millions.
Samaritan’s Purse is working in cooperation with Liberia’s Ministry of Health, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), United Nations agencies including the World Health Organization (WHO), and other NGOs to provide life-saving medical care for patients at ELWA Hospital near Monrovia and in Foya in northern Liberia.
Medical personnel have been treating patients through a method called barrier nursing, which eliminates skin-to-skin contact through thick, layered protective suits that are decontaminated each time a person leaves the isolation unit.
Dr Brantly completed his residency in family medicine at John Peter Smith Hospital in Fort Worth, Texas, before joining the post-residency programme.
“There’s an incredible level of braveness in Kent,” Robert Earley, president and CEO of JPS Health Network, told the Fort Worth Star-Telegram. “You don’t meet people like this every day.”
Dr Brantly attended Southside Church of Christ in Fort Worth while working as a resident at John Peter Smith. At the Sunday morning service, there was a special prayer time for the doctor and his family.
“People are still taking it in,” Jason Brewington, a church member who worked with Brantly told the Dallas Morning News. “It’s just hard to believe there can be a virus so deadly.”
Dr Kent Brantly and Nancy Writebol are in stable but grave condition. Dr Brantly took a slight turn for the worse overnight. But even as he battles to survive Ebola, this heroic doctor is still focused on the well-being of others.
“Yesterday, an experimental serum arrived in the country, but there was only enough for one person. Dr Brantly asked that it be given to Nancy Writebol,” said Franklin Graham, president of Samaritan’s Purse. “However, Dr Brantly received a unit of blood from a 14-year-old boy who had survived Ebola because of Dr Brantly’s care. The young boy and his family wanted to be able to help the doctor that saved his life.”
The safety of our staff is a top priority and Samaritan’s Purse is currently working to evacuate all but the most essential personnel to their home countries. The evacuation should be completed this weekend. The exact timeline and destinations are being kept confidential to respect their privacy. Samaritan’s Purse is taking precautions that exceed the standards recommended by the Centers for Disease Control (CDC).
None of the evacuating staff are ill and the World Health Organization and CDC continue to reiterate that people are not contagious unless they begin showing symptoms. Following their evacuation, Samaritan’s Purse will work with staff to monitor their health.
Please continue to pray for Kent and Nancy and all those who are affected by Ebola, and the tremendous group of doctors and nurses who are caring for them.
Dr Brantly, a family practice physician, was serving in Liberia through the post-residency programme before joining the medical team responding to the Ebola crisis. His wife and two children had been living with him in Liberia but flew home to the US about a week ago, before he started showing any signs of illness.
Last week, Dr Brantly recognised that he had symptoms associated with Ebola, and immediately isolated himself.
Writebol works with SIM, which manages ELWA Hospital. The two organisations have been working closely to combat Ebola since the current outbreak began in Liberia in March. She had been working as a hygienist who decontaminated those entering and leaving the isolation ward of the Case Management Centre at the hospital. She is married with two children.
“Their heroic and sacrificial service – along with the entire team there – is a shining example of Christ’s love in this crisis situation,” Graham said.
The two cases underscore the seriousness of the horrific outbreak that is spreading throughout Liberia, Sierra Leone, and Guinea and infecting hundreds of people at an unprecedented rate. The deadly disease, which causes massive internal bleeding and has a mortality rate of 60 to 90 percent in most situations, has claimed more than 670 lives.
In the span of 32 years (1976-2008), the Ebola virus infected 2,232 people in remote village areas and killed 1,503. Just since early this year, the mortality rate has already claimed nearly a third of those fatalities as it has infiltrated three capital cities with populations in the millions.
Samaritan’s Purse is working in cooperation with Liberia’s Ministry of Health, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), United Nations agencies including the World Health Organization (WHO), and other NGOs to provide life-saving medical care for patients at ELWA Hospital near Monrovia and in Foya in northern Liberia.
Medical personnel have been treating patients through a method called barrier nursing, which eliminates skin-to-skin contact through thick, layered protective suits that are decontaminated each time a person leaves the isolation unit.
Dr Brantly completed his residency in family medicine at John Peter Smith Hospital in Fort Worth, Texas, before joining the post-residency programme.
“There’s an incredible level of braveness in Kent,” Robert Earley, president and CEO of JPS Health Network, told the Fort Worth Star-Telegram. “You don’t meet people like this every day.”
Dr Brantly attended Southside Church of Christ in Fort Worth while working as a resident at John Peter Smith. At the Sunday morning service, there was a special prayer time for the doctor and his family.
“People are still taking it in,” Jason Brewington, a church member who worked with Brantly told the Dallas Morning News. “It’s just hard to believe there can be a virus so deadly.”
Kent Brantly and Nancy Writebol are the two American doctors that have caught it. They were working for Samaritan's Purse. They contracted the disease despite wearing full-body protective clothing
Probably where "full-body" means wearing a kitchen apron and mask, not a positive pressure suit (which any sensible person would be doing in such an environment), nothing to be alarmed about.
Most of the pictures in the news show what appear to be positive pressure suits even in otherwise run down hospitals dealing with it.
I suspect the problem is more down to other hygiene practises, etc. as well as climate and so on.
I know that the royal airforce has plans in place to repatriate british citizens abroad that might have contracted the disease, so that might be the case for the US... they would land in army bases kitted out with procedures to deal with ebola and help the diseased.
Soldato
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http://abcnews.go.com/Health/story?id=117310
Wiped 60% of us out before, and ushered in our modern society free from serfdom.
Wiped 60% of us out before, and ushered in our modern society free from serfdom.
Soldato
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Nonsense. You lower the human population through family planning, contraceptive education, equality for women and economic development... not through epidemics.
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Also nonsense. DNA analysis of Black Death victims was published in 2010 (that theory of it being Ebola is from 2001 btw) proving it was bubonic plague caused by the bacteria Y. pestis, the same found in victims of bubonic plague today.
Correct, and Yersinia pestis is also extremely easy and cheap to treat thankfully. Ebola is far more dangerous because of the complete lack of treatment.
The BBC news story saying that the NHS is ready to cope with Ebola made me laugh too, seen as the country has TWO labs that have category 4 containment. Who the hell is going to handle tissue samples from these patients? No blood sciences lab in their right mind would accept a blood or urine sample from an Ebola patient in the UK due to the risk to staff.
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HPA, NIMR and a few others have BSL4 labs, pretty sure they'd be used too.
NIMR possibly, but HPA ones depend entirely on how they are set up. Then you have the massive headache of how do you get the samples to these labs, how do you obtain samples on wards, do you use only staff that have direct training with Ebola, such as MSF charity doctors etc? These are just a small percentage of the many questions aimed solely at how to handle a patient sample, yet it gets even worse if you look at it more broadly.
I.e. Does the NHS have a large enough stock source of IV fluid to treat ebola symptoms effectively in key areas (aka hospitals nearest airports and seaports). Do we even have a plan in place to block any patient with any symptoms of the disease from entering our country at the moment? Are customs staff suitably trained to actually handle a suspected ebola patient if they had to assist on a flight/ship before ambulance crew turned up? Are the ambulance crew even trained for it and have the right equipment etc?
Funny thing about the NHS is, everything boils down to cost. All of these things and hundreds more that I can think of off the top of my head, all lead to the conclusion that the NHS isn't ready for this disease at all.
Of course the NHS would cope. Cope does not imply perfect care just the ability to cope - perform adequately and not get overwhelmed. The same as anywhere else in the world. In fairness we have great expertise in these sort of things. Look how well we dealt with the MERS case.
The NHS doesn't have the resources to cope with a real outbreak. If these 700 patients where in the UK, it would have crippled the NHS trusts in the area due to having to set up temporary quarantine zones and have them staffed properly, without negatively effecting other non-Ebola related care elsewhere.