Ebola Virus

Arol wrote:

cthia wrote:
Death toll tops 1000. Experimental drug?

Should be getting my copy of Hot Zone this week.
Does it give any indication of if someone one infected, is also infectious the whole of the incubation (2-15 days) period?
In other words a possible carrier, until the virus manifests itself?

The E wrote:
As good as The Hot Zone is, you should never forget that it's also 20 years old. Information found in it may not accurately represent what is happening in Africa right now.

Absolutely correct, yet it is a convenient reference and starting point, and because our experience and breakthroughs with the virus is nil, it is an excellent reference. Everything inside is spot on, even better than the media reports! Ebola just doesn't show up often enough, thank God, nor is it amenable to convenient study.

Does it give any indication of if someone one infected, is also infectious the whole of the incubation (2-15 days) period?

As I understand the book, being able to infect only presents itself after the incubation period in some viruses, but not with ebola. You can infect others within the incubation period. However, the incubation period ranges from 2 (very little time) to 21 days. And is used as indication of possible infection, not a safety zone. And since those first symptoms mimic regular illnesses well ...

True. And there were CDC folks with very different opinions and versions of the story than that told in The Hot Zone. Sorry I cannot remember names and titles, but I do remember there were more/different versions of that and various opinions on how contagious Ebola, including E. Zaire is/are, including by folks who had actually worked E.Zaire outbreaks personally in Africa. Soooo there are other opinions and takes on all this. Just sayin...

cthia wrote:My sister is allowing my niece to play around in the stock market to learn. We have taught her to research. Then research. Then research some more. Her research and attentiveness to the news has sparked renewed interest in Ebola, having read THE HOT ZONE quite some time ago. She rang me today and asked "Uncle, do you think the virus that has killed seven million pigs since June 2013, has anything to do with the Ebola outbreak? It's such a big coincidence."

I never even considered that myself. Of course, I do not know, but it is a coincidence and certainly worth considering!

She's still only 12-yrs-old, still.
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news ... ce-health/

That is a very interesting and scary story but I do not see how it has anything to do with Ebola breaking out in Africa, unless you think someone is running around popping off bioweapons.

Now, whether they are correct or not about this particular pig virus being unlikely to jump to humans... that is another subject. Things have jumped the species barrier between pigs and us before, so there is precedent for it happening again. So far has not. No stories of hog farmers dying, anyway. IIRC the 1918 Influenza pandemic was a swine to human species jumper. Ahem. That... did not work out well for us. This may actually be more problematic... only if it jumps, mind you, than E Zaire burning through Africa. Why? Because this is here, now. May it burn out without jumping species. But... we all need to pay attention.

Northstar wrote:

cthia wrote:My sister is allowing my niece to play around in the stock market to learn. We have taught her to research. Then research. Then research some more. Her research and attentiveness to the news has sparked renewed interest in Ebola, having read THE HOT ZONE quite some time ago. She rang me today and asked "Uncle, do you think the virus that has killed seven million pigs since June 2013, has anything to do with the Ebola outbreak? It's such a big coincidence."

I never even considered that myself. Of course, I do not know, but it is a coincidence and certainly worth considering!

She's still only 12-yrs-old, still.
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news ... ce-health/

That is a very interesting and scary story but I do not see how it has anything to do with Ebola breaking out in Africa, unless you think someone is running around popping off bioweapons.

Now, whether they are correct or not about this particular pig virus being unlikely to jump to humans... that is another subject. Things have jumped the species barrier between pigs and us before, so there is precedent for it happening again. So far has not. No stories of hog farmers dying, anyway. IIRC the 1918 Influenza pandemic was a swine to human species jumper. Ahem. That... did not work out well for us. This may actually be more problematic... only if it jumps, mind you, than E Zaire burning through Africa. Why? Because this is here, now. May it burn out without jumping species. But... we all need to pay attention.

Of course. And she was not proposing that there is a link, rather that it is an interesting coincidence worth considering, especially since it is believed that "Ebola Reston" was transmitted to monkeys from pigs, and to humans from monkeys.
http://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/vi ... ses.242988

One of the reasons the Spanish flu was so deadly was the effects of malnutrition due to WW I. Similar malnutrition is endemic in Africa too.

Poker

pokermind wrote:One of the reasons the Spanish flu was so deadly was the effects of malnutrition due to WW I. Similar malnutrition is endemic in Africa too.

Poker

True. Malnutrition always lowers the body's defenses. But part of the problem with the 1918 flu was it triggered a massive over response in young adults' immune systems and ironically that over response is what killed so many in an age group not normally susceptible to death by flu.

I've endured both the Hong Kong flu in the late 1960s and H1N1 in 2009-ish and do not recommend either. The bout of Hong Kong flu is what made me so determined to be able to deal at home with nasty bugs. I did that alone in my apartment for 3 weeks.. with what an 18 year old had in her cupboards. And I swore, never again would I be caught like that... and ... I never have been. Which has also been useful for ice storms, thunderstorms, job loss, bronchitis, pneumonia, strep, etc over the decades. eh. No harm no foul.

We all shrug at flu, but the news said it kills about a half million people every year, worldwide. Just the ordinary type flu. Perspective, eh?

with the way modern air travel is, one wonders how long before it shows up in a place that may not be prepared for and with very unsanitary funerary customs like some part of the world have. Some of the places that may not be abl to handle would be certain countries in the middle and near east. I rather think it would be devastating if it got there from a couple air travelers.

What a bunch of crap...I wish to use something more descriptive and vulgar but I have to be politically correct. My mother was a legal immigrant and is very proud of it. She and my father are mult millionairess. They did it through hard work, investing, reinvesting, and a little luck! Second, my mother entered this country on a work visa. My mother never intended to stay but then she met my father and she followed him across the world due to my dad's military deployment to Okinawa to fly missions into Vietnam and surrounding countries. My mother had to apply for citizenship. She had to take a class to learn about America and to be able to pass the citizenship exam. Most average Americans would fail the exam without studying for the exam. @Dieu Le Fera Your complaints about immigrants fall on death ears hear. I am a 1st generation American on my mother's side and 2nd generation American on my father's side. Their are many ways to citizenship within the USA. Yes, a person has to be proficient at reading and writing English but it is not an insurmountable goal. So, please do not put out that politically correct crap but that really means you do not have valid point. Rant Over! By the way it took about a year for my mom to get a work visa within the USA.

Dieu_Le_Fera wrote:

pokermind wrote:I have no problem with legal immigration, or rational guest worker programs.
Poker

I hate to say it but you do have a problem with immigration, just by using the word. It is a dirty word, one that despite legal or not they are still labeled an "immigrant". You are not calling them citizens. See the difference?

It's better to be laughingstock for crying Wolf than be caught flat footed by Ebola. Just look at Japan, they had a cult with PHD's in it that made Sarin gas in order to bring on End times according to their leader! Their are people that have no compassion for society as a whole, only compassion for an individual group(s). America this is our wakeup call to secure the borders.

Securing the border is a national defense and health issue period! If people want to make immigration a political issue then adjust the legal immigration limits through Congress!

I did a calculation of the world population of 6 billion with a mortality rate of 90% and got a number of 120 million survivors. That's a scary thought.

http://www.newsmax.com/SciTech/US-TEC-Ebola-Bot/2014/08/09/id/587830/

If I mentioned this as evidence I would be ridiculed as crazy!

smr wrote:I did a calculation of the world population of 6 billion with a mortality rate of 90% and got a number of 120 million survivors. That's a scary thought.

That's not how diseases work, you know. Especially not deadly ones, since it assumes that noone will change their daily routine one tiny bit in the face of an epidemic. It's a scary thought, yes, but it's in "not even wrong" territory when it comes to estimating the final death count.