Ebola Virus

I've just started to read through here. There is a post on page 2 with much information.

There was mention of solar batteries limited lifetime. The edison battery has some other problems, but has been known to keep operating for over 90 years. A company called Iron Edison is selling them at present.

This entire thing is starting to sort out the best and the worst in people and institutions.

Kudos to the "Faith Based Community" (as the media persists in calling it):

who send missionary doctors to Africa to fight the disease and who have managed to undo a royal bureaucratic screw-up where a family was isolated in the house where an ebola victim was staying: trapped with soiled linen and other potentially infectious matter! Luckily these people were taken in to a clean shelter space to wait out the quarantine period.

And darts for the bureaucrats and government officials who:

Refuse to impose travel restrictions
Are trying to minimize the problem rather than issuing clear and easy to understand warnings and instructions
Can't even carry out simple quarantine precautions (trapping the family of a victim in the afore said house with infectious matter!)

What I found most amusing was a Slate piece which was critical of Christian missionaries who were risking everything to stop this disease (although I don't see a huge lineup of "Progressives" heading to Africa to do anything at all). The irony is just stunning (even for myself who is not particularly religious): through their arrogance and incompetence, the "Progressives" are actually doing more to spread the "Word" that they want to suppress! When only the Faithful are out there doing anything positive while the Progressives snipe from the corner, eventually people will see who is responding to the crisis with words, and who is responding with deeds. Generally, people respond to those who can perform positive actions rather than hollow words.

Thucydides wrote:This entire thing is starting to sort out the best and the worst in people and institutions.

Kudos to the "Faith Based Community" (as the media persists in calling it):

who send missionary doctors to Africa to fight the disease and who have managed to undo a royal bureaucratic screw-up where a family was isolated in the house where an ebola victim was staying: trapped with soiled linen and other potentially infectious matter! Luckily these people were taken in to a clean shelter space to wait out the quarantine period.

And darts for the bureaucrats and government officials who:

Refuse to impose travel restrictions
Are trying to minimize the problem rather than issuing clear and easy to understand warnings and instructions
Can't even carry out simple quarantine precautions (trapping the family of a victim in the afore said house with infectious matter!)

What I found most amusing was a Slate piece which was critical of Christian missionaries who were risking everything to stop this disease (although I don't see a huge lineup of "Progressives" heading to Africa to do anything at all). The irony is just stunning (even for myself who is not particularly religious): through their arrogance and incompetence, the "Progressives" are actually doing more to spread the "Word" that they want to suppress! When only the Faithful are out there doing anything positive while the Progressives snipe from the corner, eventually people will see who is responding to the crisis with words, and who is responding with deeds. Generally, people respond to those who can perform positive actions rather than hollow words.

I agree with you on this. I am not a Christian, that does not keep me from having a deep respect for persons who put themselves at risk to help others, regardless of their faith tradition... and I do note it is often Christians who do this. I don't understand Slate's idiotic reaction. For gods' sake people, grow the bleep up. Slate, not the readers of this forum.

Scariest to me are government types proclaiming they've got it under control. Ohoh. Never ever say something like that. It is a dare to Mother Nature.

My newspaper emails are reporting a maybe Ebola case in Washington DC, currently at Howard University hospital.

In regard to someone else's post. Ebola has certainly been a slatewiper on the local level for decades. It comes out of wherever it hides to wreck havoc then burns out. This time it seems to have got itself replicating in a bigger much more widespread situation. I meant that at its current infection rate and method of spread it is unlikely to jump like wildfire worldwide... but, who knows? And at the local level the loss can be appalling, simply appalling. There have been scary guestimates put out for its possible spread in Africa over the next few months. How accurate? I have no idea. I hope they are being alarmist.

It boggles my mind that any flights out of the affected region of Africa are being allowed. To anywhere. That means within Africa as well as to elsewhere.

One would like to think American medical and public health people would react better, but the stories out of Dallas point to incompetence as usual. They leave family members in an Ebola infested apartment? No one disinfects it for days and days? The hospital he first went to sends him back home to possibly spread it around some more, knowing he's just come from Africa???? Are they insane? Incompetent? What? I am not a trained medical professional and I darn well know better. Soooo what is their excuse??? And are those medical persons who examined him in quarantine? I bet not. I bet they're out there touching other patients etc.

As I said in an earlier post, do not count on hospitals in an epidemic. They are sloppy way too often. They'll all get the bug and ...well look what has happened in many African hospitals. A complete breakdown of care, way too often. This thing can rage through a hospital killing darn near everyone, patients and staff. It has done this before. One of the earliest outbreaks destroyed a hospital run by Belgian nuns, killed them all. Was a horror. Is in The Hot Zone. Creep you out. And those dingbats in Dallas just trala trala with their sloppy... argh, just argh

Old fashioned red Lysol is also effective against Ebola.. and just bout anything else. I presume so is Betadine, they use it to prep for surgery, IIRC.

This is fluids borne and afflicted people often have severe projectile vomiting, which is extremely hot with live virus. Ergo goggles are very crucial and masks -preferably N95 type-... more to keep another person's vomit, blood, diarrhea and snot out of your nose and mouth than anything else, I suspect. Gloves, fluids proof disposable gowns, nitrile gloves, hair covers and booties. The whole nine yards. A helper gets a tiny drop of mucus or vomit on her hand or neck then touches it, she rubs her eye or nose or mouth.... she just gave herself a hot dose of Ebola.

I note in news reports bodies die in the street. Eventually they take the body away... but is anyone sterilizing that dirt and general area? How long can this bug live in the dirt? On surfaces? Some can live a long time, others not.

I looked at our church's reaction. AGWM is partnering with Convoy of Hope to send supplies. BJ & I are giving now, more later. We want to take a bit out of savings, replace later. One of the good reasons to get personal finances in good order is the ability to do things! There are likely to be many places you can give, just make sure they are honest. There are likely to be scams.

BJ wonders if hydrogen peroxide would work. That gives me to think that cost and availability are critical elements for cleansing.

Any information on vaccines? With a really good vaccine available it would be possible to erect effective barriers.

According to one report the looters of the looted hospital were chanting "There is no ebola in Liberia." A number of the infected patients from there have not returned. Another report reports eight killed where a team was trying to educate the locals. They didn't like what they were told.

With Louis Pasteur's experimental work being about 150 years old, you would think the basics would be understood. For that matter, the biblical separation of sick people and the warning of "Unclean" was a form of quarantine, and historically led to quarantine becoming a medical procedure. (When Europe was having problems with leprosy. Wonder how much worse the black death would have been without at least some experience with quarantine.)

Anyone remember why in the Dahak fiction series that planet survived the kids found? Now, that would be a QUARANTINE! If you recall the fictional disease had a long hard to detect period. But killed everything.

DW has an excellent knowledge of history which shows through in his stories.

Story from CNN about how a nursing student jury rigged her own safety gear. Necessity is the mother of invention and this invention looks doable to duplicate.

Fatu, who's in her final year of nursing school, invented her own equipment. International aid workers heard about Fatu's "trash bag method" and are now teaching it to other West Africans who can't get into hospitals and don't have protective gear of their own.
Every day, several times a day for about two weeks, Fatu put trash bags over her socks and tied them in a knot over her calves. Then she put on a pair of rubber boots and then another set of trash bags over the boots.
She wrapped her hair in a pair of stockings and over that a trash bag. Next she donned a raincoat and four pairs of gloves on each hand, followed by a mask.
It was an arduous and time-consuming process, but Fatu was religious about it, never cutting corners.

Northstars comments on arranging things for a possible crisis which will be useful even without one got me thinking. I've started a new thread: Practical Tips, Etc. and format. Intended to pass information on which fits the above criteria.

Northstar and others: Please post. I would like to know more about possible medical.

BTW, if bleach can be used to sterilize, it wouldn't hurt to get an extra supply. It can be used for other things if not needed for a crisis. Ditto latex gloves, etc.

Three cheers for Fatu who invented her own inexpensive biotainer equipment!!!

Wonder what could be used for a good mask with the Fatu biotainer? Nose & eyes need protection also.

Spotted a site for tracking disease locations. Got a notice that I can't look at it with my current applications.

http://www.healthmap.org/en/

DDHv wrote:Wonder what could be used for a good mask with the Fatu biotainer? Nose & eyes need protection also.

Spotted a site for tracking disease locations. Got a notice that I can't look at it with my current applications.

http://www.healthmap.org/en/

In the absence of safety glasses, regular glasses will provide some protection.

biochem wrote:

DDHv wrote:Wonder what could be used for a good mask with the Fatu biotainer? Nose & eyes need protection also.

Spotted a site for tracking disease locations. Got a notice that I can't look at it with my current applications.

http://www.healthmap.org/en/

In the absence of safety glasses, regular glasses will provide some protection.

Yep, so would a clear plastic bag over the hair and eyes. Obviously you should not put a plastic bag over your nose and mouth. Asphyxiation kills even faster than Ebola.

In a positive note the Washington DC suspect case turned out NOT to be Ebola. Various suspect cases are popping up all over but being found to be other things. This tells me medical people - post the Dallas fiasco- have gotten a lot more cautious and suspicious. Good.