Ebola: Facts, Opinions, and Speculations.

Even though every example of Ebola that infected humans is not airborne, we have one case of Ebola that (thankfully) did not cross over to humans that was--the Reston Variant. Even though Ebola is not airborne, I would suggest that it's only prudent to treat it as if it was because it is better to err on the side of safety with a Cat-4 pathogen.

Actually, the reston variant that went airborne was communicable to humans. Both the USAMRID doctors that were kept in isolation after exposure to it tested positive for the virus. However the strain, thankfully, proved insymptomatic to humans. Both doctors developed mild flu like symptoms, but the virus did not cause any more harmful effects.

NY Times published this article yesterday:

‘Don’t Touch the Walls’: Ebola Fears Infect an African Hospital

So many patients, nurses and health workers have died in the government hospital that many people in this city, a center of the world’s worst Ebola epidemic, see it as a death trap.

Now, the wards are empty in the principal institution fighting the disease. Ebola stalks the city, claiming lives every day, but patients have fled the hospital’s long, narrow buildings, which sit silent and echoing in the fading light. Few people are taking any chances by coming here.

“Don’t touch the walls!” a Western medical technician yelled out. “Totally infected.”

...

“People don’t die here now,” said the deputy chief of the hospital’s burying team, Albert J. Mattia, exasperated after a long day of Ebola burials. “They are dying in the community, five, six a day.” Mr. Mattia was particularly disturbed that many of the bodies his team were putting in the ground had come from outside the hospital, thwarting attempts to isolate patients and prevent them from passing the disease to others.

“It’s very, very dangerous, very hazardous; it is contributing to the Ebola dead,” he said as his two deputies nodded glumly in agreement. “You go to the wards, there are no patients.”

“There’s a perception in the population that it is a dangerous place,” said Philippe Barboza, an epidemiologist who heads the World Health Organization team here. “ ‘The farther one is from the hospital, the better,’ ” said Mr. Barboza, summing up the widely held sentiment. “Even to have a meeting here is difficult.”

Which is exactly what will happen in this country if an outbreak occurs.

Meanwhile the article mentioned something I hadn't realized was true in Liberia:

Dead bodies have been appearing on the streets and in houses throughout Monrovia, with people staging roadblocks to ensure that health workers remove them. But with hospitals closed in the capital, it was unclear how many of the victims had died of Ebola, or from other causes.

Talk about adding fuel to a fire. And where the hospitals are open in Liberia:

“People are afraid of the hospital because you don’t know if you will meet up with a nurse who has it,” said Ibrahim Bah, 56.

...

“Unfortunately, people are not coming, because they are afraid,”

Any doubt this will get worse?

originally posted by: Rosinitiate
This is on Forbes today (14hrs ago):

However, Tekmira just announced today that the FDA verbally confirmed the modification of the trials’ status to a “partial hold,” thereby allowing the drug to be used in people infected with Ebola.

And a second in clinical:

The second drug is a different type modified RNA molecule, AVI-7537, from Sarepta Therapeutics. AVI-7537 is directed against one of the three Ebolavirus genes (VP24) targeted by Tekmira’s drug. But its chemistry platform, called PMOplus, is distinctly different from that of Tekmira’s TKM-Ebola. AVI-7537 also works via a different mechanism to block the viral protein from being made.

So it looks like a green light with the partial hold.

FDA Moves On Tekmira's Ebola Drug While Sarepta's Sits Unused

It Seems the primary tactic as this point is to focus on developing an anti viral treatment for those patients infected with the virus, rather than to focus on the far trickier tactic of developing a viable vaccine that can be used to block infection in the first place.

This makes sense to me at this stage as we are anticipating the number of infected to increase in the near future. Vaccination research is likely to take too long to develop a solution during the lifetime of the current epidemic.

If the anti viral approach proves successful, there will be amble amounts of antibodies available for further research into a vaccine, however it's worth pointing out that in those cases where people have survived infection and therefore contain antibodies, the reservoir of antibodies degrades to useless rapidly. This is probably a feature of the 'hot' nature of the virus itself.

No doubt that this is going to get worse.

Ebola: Family of dead Nigerian nurse on the run

The husband and children of the Nigerian nurse who died after getting infected with the Ebola virus are on the run, the health officials in the country have said.

Nigeria is the fourth West African country to be hit by the Ebola outbreak since it first emerged in March in Guinea. The virus entered the country when Patrick Sawyer, who was suffering from the disease arrived by plane late last month in Lagos.

The nurse, the only Nigerian fatality from the disease which has killed over 900 people in four West African countries, was exposed to the virus at a health facility Sawyer was taken before his death.

The nurse’s family were not the first to flee from quarantine. In Sierra Leone, health ministry data and officials, dozens of people confirmed by laboratory tests to have Ebola are now unaccounted for.

Industry watchers say the government more increase public awareness and sensitisation to educate the public

link

The piece seemed poorly written to me. Your link is to a blog and the blog does not link to any reliable source. Could be true, could be part true or it could all be baloney. Just saying. o reply to: MrLimpet

a reply to: loam

With all the reports of infected medical staff I don't blame people for being wary of hospitals/clinics. Whether they actually had it or not people could go in with symptoms similar to Ebola and contract it from staff, the facility or symptomatic people waiting for testing.

This is the main reason American doctors back in the day made house calls. It kept infectious people out of waiting rooms/medical facilities.

The transport of the Ebola patient to Spain appeared rather impressive then I read in a thread that every square inch of skin should be covered. In some pics of the Spanish patient in transport I saw medical staff with sleeves pushed up above their wrists exposing their arms. Some staff appeared very well covered in orange but several staff members dressed in white had skin showing. I hope they didn't have direct contact with the patient/fluids.

a reply to: ~Lucidity

Here is the actual document the article in your post referenced.

www.paho.org...


Good info, and the first paragraph says:

Given the current situation of Ebola virus disease (EVD) in West Africa, the Pan American
Health Organization / World Health Organization (PAHO/WHO) advises its Member States to
remain vigilant for potential introduction of EVD in the Americas, to raise the awareness and
knowledge of health care providers and to strengthen the implementation of standard
precautions for infection prevention and control in health care facilities at all levels.

a reply to: NEB0168

And to reply to my own post, another quote:

Although most of the Americas’ countries don’t have direct flights with countries where
transmission of EVD is being documented, the introduction of Ebola virus in the Region may
occur through international air travelers. Therefore, in the light of the current epidemiological
and social context related to the outbreak in West Africa, preparedness efforts by national
authorities to face the introduction of EVD cases in the Americas are warranted.

originally posted by: AutumnWitch657
The piece seemed poorly written to me. Your link is to a blog and the blog does not link to any reliable source. Could be true, could be part true or it could all be baloney. Just saying. o reply to: MrLimpet

Hopefully these are more reliable sources.

Business Daily

Nursing World Nigeria

Speculation: Prepare for run on sentences... When this is jumpimg more borders and there is a number of people infected in America, other than the two at Emory, we will have an over run of hospitals and healthcare facilities. As symptoms do present as flu like, a number of individuals who have flu like symptoms will go to hospitals to check. This will bring those not infected with Ebola with those who are infected, thus compounding the problem. Hospitals will not be able to cope with everyone who "should" be put in isolation because not enough beds will be available to wait for positive or negative results. One could imagine the moment someone in America who has never traveled to West Africa and only came down with the disease due to transmission with someone else who has, gets admitted to the hospital, the question "have you recently traveled to West Africa?" Will be out the window and replaced with the question "Have you recently come in contact with someone who has traveled to West Africa?"(might already be on the list of questions) And how are they supposed to know? Again, Flu season will be very scary if it makes it to the developed world in higher numbers. Panic will bring more deaths than the disease itself. Also, going off Obama's new EO on
Quarantinable Communicable Diseases, testing procedures better be quite a bit quicker and reliable or not so good things could happen, i.e. healthy and sick quarantined together simply due to symptoms.

I for one hope that it in the mean time

originally posted by: redshoes

Even though every example of Ebola that infected humans is not airborne, we have one case of Ebola that (thankfully) did not cross over to humans that was--the Reston Variant. Even though Ebola is not airborne, I would suggest that it's only prudent to treat it as if it was because it is better to err on the side of safety with a Cat-4 pathogen.

Actually, the reston variant that went airborne was communicable to humans. Both the USAMRID doctors that were kept in isolation after exposure to it tested positive for the virus. However the strain, thankfully, proved insymptomatic to humans. Both doctors developed mild flu like symptoms, but the virus did not cause any more harmful effects.

Not quite. The workers were tested "seropositive" for Ebola, meaning they had been exposed and their immune systems dealt with it. That they did not get ill, demonstrates that the Reston strain did not infect humans. If you get exposed to a animal virus, you will become seropositive, even if you do not become infected.

The only known transmission was blood to blood contact with a cut. The others unknown but, as they were animal handlers and did things like clean out cages, the exposure is most likely body fluid.

Six of the 178 people who had contact with the infected monkeys at the Reston Quarantine Unit seroconverted. All six of the individuals worked with the primates. None of the six who seroconverted developed a filovirus-related illness. Of them, four (all of whom were animal handlers at one quarantine facility) had serologic evidence of recent infection with Ebola-Reston. It is likely that one of the four infected himself when he cut his finger while performing a necropsy on an infected monkey. The mode of transmission for the other three handlers is not known. The remaining two people were seropositive at low titer and had evidence of past infection. One of these two people is a worker at a facility that temporarily houses nonhuman primates before delivery to U.S. quarantine facilities and had had regular contact with quarantined nonhuman primates for three years. The second person was an employee at Hazleton's Texas Primate Center

Sanford University

a reply to: NavyDoc

Hi Navydoc, can i ask a medical question? I saw yesterday on the congressional discussion on the outbreak that Ebola is not contagious in incubation until the fever and symptoms present.
Is that correct?

they completely decoded the antibody, so they made the drug implanting it in tobacco plabt) so they completely are sure what antibodies are of the disease way back in time.!
they simply could made provisional vaccine of dead viruses and injected it to a horse , harvested the antibodies and made a huge stack of the antibody/ies.

Just like when they made antitoxin (antibody) for diphteria from horse, 70 years ago!

it is all about giving opportunity for companies and bul

As of today:

Total Cases
Updated: August 8, 2014

Suspected and Confirmed Case Count: 1779
Suspected Case Deaths: 961
Laboratory Confirmed Cases: 1134

CDC

Four new Ebola cases in Nigeria, all related to American who brought virus there

Washington Post

originally posted by: violet
Four new Ebola cases in Nigeria, all related to American who brought virus there

Washington Post

As I said on another thread, im not surprised as that American pissed over a number of hospital staff in protest. So they were guaranteed to catch it.

They were basicaly murder victims.

originally posted by: crazyewok

originally posted by: violet
Four new Ebola cases in Nigeria, all related to American who brought virus there

Washington Post

As I said on another thread, im not surprised as that American pissed over a number of hospital staff in protest. So they were guaranteed to catch it.

Technical question - because someone infected pees on you, does that 'guarantee' you get the infection or is it a matter of urine 'droplets' finding their way into your body? Surely if they urinate in your face you're at high risk, but what if it's just on your shoes or pant leg and there's no open cuts?

originally posted by: wishes

originally posted by: crazyewok

originally posted by: violet
Four new Ebola cases in Nigeria, all related to American who brought virus there

Washington Post

As I said on another thread, im not surprised as that American pissed over a number of hospital staff in protest. So they were guaranteed to catch it.

Technical question - because someone infected pees on you, does that 'guarantee' you get the infection or is it a matter of urine 'droplets' finding their way into your body? Surely if they urinate in your face you're at high risk, but what if it's just on your shoes or pant leg and there's no open cuts?

Well it's not guaranteed you will become infected. It's very high risk though. Everybody has cuts in their skin whether they think so or not.

I just caught this about a patient in Toronto being tested after returning from Nigeria with symptoms. Hopefully negative.

Brampton Hospital

I updated the charts on the Ebola - my visual charts & projections based on WHO data thread with the latest official data released on August 8, 2014 by the World Health Organization (WHO).

In addition to updating the original 3 charts, I've also added 2 more. The new ones show projection ranges rather than a line using a different common method for doing such projections.

View the updated charts