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Ebola Comes To USA

#181
Stewie26 said:
It appears that the British and French governments are taking the Ebola outbreak quite seriously. The have now suspended airline flights from Liberia and other African countries where Ebola is present. I wonder if more countries will follow their lead?
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I think this is the only sensible solution. It sounds like a knee-jerk reaction at first, but its important to contain the deadly virus quickly.

If a person becomes infected in the US, and then flies to UK, then now the UK is now exposed to the pathogen. And all the flight restrictions that were employed by the UK are rendered fruitless.

EVERYONE needs to get on board (pun intended) with travel restrictions. Otherwise, just a few countries imposing flight restrictions (until the threat has been contained) will have no impact.

edit: syntax corrections
 
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#183
Mosfed said:
oard.

EDIT - having just read your link SkyChief - it seems like a pretty good article to me and I generally agree with what they are saying. You just pulled out one sentence that you didn't agree with.
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So, then, you find this statement as a valid reason for not employing Air Travel Restrictions?:

Air travel restrictions ignore the way Ebola is transmitted:

"Ebola can only be contracted through direct contact with a sick person's bodily fluids. That means saliva, feces, urine, blood, vomit or semen. It isn't transmitted through the air, so you are more likely to catch a cold on a flight than Ebola."

The writer doesn't even have the most pedestrian understanding of the purpose for Air travel restrictions!

She's worried about the sense of well-being of the passengers and crew!!! ROLF!!!:roflmao:
 
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#185
skychief said:
So, then, you find this statement as a valid reason for not employing Air Travel Restrictions?:

Air travel restrictions ignore the way Ebola is transmitted:

"Ebola can only be contracted through direct contact with a sick person's bodily fluids. That means saliva, feces, urine, blood, vomit or semen. It isn't transmitted through the air, so you are more likely to catch a cold on a flight than Ebola."

The writer doesn't even have the most pedestrian understanding of the purpose for Air travel restrictions!

She's worried about the sense of well-being of the passengers and crew!!! ROLF!!!:roflmao:
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That writer is a "Fiil in the blank". You can catch a cold on a flight from someone coughing of sneezing. You can catch Ebola on a flight from someone coughing or sneezing. Logic dictates that you can catch Ebola on a flight.
 
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#186
Not to keep railing on the poor lady who wrote the piece, But, even given the face-value of the statement, there are omissions and misleading data:

"Ebola can only be contracted through direct contact with a sick person's bodily fluids. That means saliva, feces, urine, blood, vomit or semen. It isn't transmitted through the air, so you are more likely to catch a cold on a flight than Ebola."

She fails to mention that sweat can carry the Ebola pathogen.

"It isn't transmitted through the air..." while technically correct, omits the fact that it can be transmitted through the air in aerosol form, i.e., if an affected person sneezed on you or very near you, if the 'sneezed particles' were to contact your eyes, nose or mouth, you could become infected.

Although highly unlikely, it is possible.
 
#187
Hazmat Crews have arrived on the scene to the apartment: Oh look, they are pulling him out as we speak!!

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#188
That Washington Post article is a poorly written mess, and of course the title is misleading and meant to sell papers, but it has some interesting information which explains why most international health organizations do NOT recommend banning air travel to and from these countries, ignored completely in the comments about it.
 
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#189
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Here is the source: Invalid Link Removed


"And that brings us back to Ebola. Despite its nasty reputation, the virus's R0 really isn't that impressive. It typically sits around 1.5 to 2.0.

Even in the current epidemic in West Africa, where the virus has been out of control, each person who has gotten sick has spread Ebola to only about two others, on average.

Why is that?

Many factors contribute to the R0, such as how long you're infectious** and how many virus particles are needed to make another person sick.

But in Ebola's case, the mode of transmission probably helps keep its R0 low. Ebola isn't spread through the air, like the measles or flu. It requires close contact with some bodily fluid, such as blood or vomit, containing the virus.

Now at this point, you're probably thinking, "OK. But an R0 of 2 is nothing to brush off." You're right. R0 of 2 means one person infects two people, who then infect four people, then eight, 16, 32 — the numbers go up fast.

But that isn't likely to happen in a place with a good public health system, like the U.S. Why? Because people with Ebola aren't contagious until they show symptoms.

So to stop the chain of transmission, all health workers in Texas have to do is get the people possibly infected by the sick man into isolation before these people show signs of Ebola.

Then R0 drops to zero. And Texas is free of Ebola."​
 
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#191
Downunderwonder said:
Was it 80 potentially infected? They better get ready to quarantine Texas. They only need to miss one newly infected unsuspecting victim to have an outbreak.
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No. One infected victim left untreated that infects many who remain untreated will cause an outbreak. This scenario is highly unlikely.

I saw an in depth documentary about the way cases were handled from the first outbreak to the spread to other villages and regions, and the perfect combination of denial of a problem by the government, cultural practices involving the handling of bodies, lack of awareness by the public, and poor communication and a well founded mistrust of the government, and the total lack of resources make the spread a lot more understandable. It was originally missionary volunteers that administered the first patients and they treated everyone with the same unsterilised needles, as one example!
 
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#198
48thStreetCustom said:
You are aware that health workers completely stopped the spread of ebola in Nigeria, right? They're using those same exact methods in Texas.
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This is great news!!

I would ask you to provide us a source, tho.

Just last week, the W.H.O. estimated that as many as 20,000 EVD cases would likely occur in the three affected countries by early November.

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#199
skychief said:
This is great news!!

I would ask you to provide us a source, tho.

Just last week, the W.H.O. estimated that as many as 20,000 EVD cases would likely occur in the three affected countries by early November.

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Here's and article on the methods they used:
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And here's a source from the CDC:
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The lesson to be learned from Nigeria, unlike Liberia, is the importance of educating the public and enlisting them to be responsible.
 
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#200
Like many of the "worriers" here, I don't have nearly as much confidence in the US health care system as many here do.

I do think that there is reasonable cause for concern in the US and much more so in the less-developed nations. Consider if each ebola victim infect just two other people, then you have an exponential infection function. It doesn't take much math to figure out that can quickly lead to many millions infected in a relatively short time.
 

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