Ebola scaremongering?

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-29541840
Isn't this a little pointless? What about travellers who are infected but in the incubation phase - they won't be detected.
I guess you might argue it could prevent some from getting in - but if they're at that stage already you're gonna have your hands full quarantining an entire flight!

I agree, it looks like it is more to be seen doing something than to actually prevent spread.
 
Ebola isn't contagious during the incubation period apparently. If they're not showing symptoms preflight as long as they don't start up inflight then I don't think you'd need to quarantine the other passengers.

However a questionnaire seems rather stupid. people would just lie on them.
 
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...it's called "Ebola Scaremongering?"...
The fact is, Western medical people can help with little risk to themsleves, and all but none to you - you are far far more likely to be struck by lightning twice in row than to catch Ebola...

Recent events are suggesting otherwise.
This nurse was trained. She was in a quarantine zone, in a facility designed and used for the purpose of infectious diseases.
Clearly there was a procedural issue. Potentially her mistake on removal of her PPE.
Still she has caught it, and potentially (hopefully not) spread it.
 
Ebola isn't contagious during the incubation period apparently. If they're not showing symptoms preflight as long as they don't start up inflight then I don't think you'd need to quarantine the other passengers
That's my point. Those incubating the virus will walk right through. If travellers are stopped because they are at the stage symptoms can be detected, then the likelihood of other passengers becoming infected is significantly increased.
 
So that's 750 more people to be put at risk... Well done UK government clap clap clap. Imagine if they were Zombies :rolleyes:

Thankfully these aren't zombies, and I suspect that military trained medics will probably be extremely careful and that 750 is from memory several times the total number of trained doctors in some of the countries.

Helping contain it now, before it spreads much further is not just good for humanitarian reasons, but extremely good in terms of practical reasons, as at the moment it's mainly hitting (massively overworked and often poorly trained/untrained) medical personal and the immediate families, with most of the victims being pretty poor/unable tor travel, but if it hits say some tourists in the area and it's not spotted until they're in say Tokyo, London, or NY it will be much much worse.
One of the main reasons it's spreading so fast in the affected areas is that there are not enough trained medical staff to deal with it, so the overworked (and poorly equipped) staff are making mistakes due to exhaustion, and family members are continuing to catch it because they're the ones looking after the sick in too many cases (meaning that the number of infections is going up rapidly, increasing the risk to everyone else and keeping the infection going).

It could also be looked as a good way to give our personal real life training to deal with it, for when (not if) we start to get the odd case in the UK - both Texas and Spain have shown their proceedures/training were not up to scratch for dealing with suspected cases (IIRC the Texas case resulted in an ambulance not being taken out of action for decontamination for several hours which could have led to a host of additional infections).

One of the big drawbacks of our modern methods of travel is that it's almost impossible to isolate an infection long enough for it to die out naturally (unlike in the past when the main method of travel was foot, horse or sailing ship, and thus taking days to travel any real distance), so assisting in controlling it whilst it's "on the other side of the world", is a very good thing to do.
 
One of the big drawbacks of our modern methods of travel is that it's almost impossible to isolate an infection long enough for it to die out naturally (unlike in the past when the main method of travel was foot, horse or sailing ship, and thus taking days to travel any real distance), so assisting in controlling it whilst it's "on the other side of the world", is a very good thing to do.
The Plague did alright. Just been looking at the chronology for that and it spread like wildfire when it reached Europe.

Impressive.
 
Plague had animals (namely rats fleas) as vectors though. Our sanitation was also much lower in those days. However you could argue they had stronger immune systems as a result of poor sanitation.

Unfortunately the Spanish in their wisdom put the dog down rather than allow research if the current ebola strain could jump species. Admittedly dogs aren't a huge issue but cats could be in the uk.
 
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Interesting that there's a growing school of thought that the Black Death wasn't actually Bubonic Plague, but possibly a haemorrhagic fever like Ebola or Marburg.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theories_of_the_Black_Death#An_Ebola-like_virus.3F

To quote from your article
Their research and findings are thoroughly documented in Biology of Plagues.[27] More recently the researchers have published computer modeling[28] demonstrating how the Black Death has made around 10% of Europeans resistant to HIV.

Wut? I am somewhat confused, a zoologist used computer modelling to show that 10% Europeans are resistant to HIV due to the black death which he thinks was an Ebola virus rather than the black death...
Might be a lot of background reading required to ascertain what I think regarding that. Either way, probably not that important in current events.
 
My Spanish friend told me the nurses didn't have training how to use the biosuit or what they are called, I.e put them on and take of properly, he said she could have got it from the outside of the suit when taking it off.

how true that is I don't know.
 
My Spanish friend told me the nurses didn't have training how to use the biosuit or what they are called, I.e put them on and take of properly, he said she could have got it from the outside of the suit when taking it off.

how true that is I don't know.

That sounds depressingly possible, one of the first people to identify ebola (and by the sounds of it had a really close call, as the blood samples were shipped in a thermos and one of the two test tubes had broken), did an interview with the Guardian where he makes the point that funding and preparations for an Ebola like virus have been terrible due to funding cuts in the relevant departments at the WHO main offices (and political appointees without a clue in some countries), and Spain seems to have dumped all preparations for such an illness.
 
I have the upmost respect for those assisting the infected abroad for little to no self gain putting their lives at risk to help others

But since these people are at such high risk of contracting the disease would it not be prudent for them to go through a small period of isolated observation before being allowed back into the country ?
 
To quote from your article


Wut? I am somewhat confused, a zoologist used computer modelling to show that 10% Europeans are resistant to HIV due to the black death which he thinks was an Ebola virus rather than the black death...
Might be a lot of background reading required to ascertain what I think regarding that. Either way, probably not that important in current events.

I presumed that it just meant that there was a percentage of the population with a more effective immune system against viruses. After the Black Death that percentage was significantly higher as those without it died off.
 
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