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There's a strong possibility Ebola symptoms were masked
"There is strong epidemiological evidence that once an individual has resolved an Ebola virus infection, they are immune to that strain,"
[–]ELasry[S] 111 points 2 days ago
To woody121: Thank you! No reason why Ebola should mutate to an airborne virus. It survives in body fluids, but not on dry surfaces due to it's lipid membrane.
originally posted by: raymundoko
Studies have shown a flu vaccine does not reduce your chance of contracting the flu...even the CDC admits it varies wildly in effectiveness.
It does however make the flu more mild and reduces hospitalization. And Ebola making it to the USA is not inevitable. It made it to Nigeria and is already contained...
a reply to: windwaker
originally posted by: raymundoko
If it was airborne it would be IMPODSIBLE to hide it. Everyone on the plane with Sawyer would have contracted it.
a reply to: quirkygirl
I am supervising the suspect tent, which has room for 25 patients who are likely to have Ebola – 80-90% of those we test have the virus. We administer treatment for malaria, start patients on antibiotics, paracetamol, multivitamins, rehydration supplements, food, water and juice while they wait for their results. Sometimes people have arrived too late and die shortly after arriving. In one afternoon last week I watched five seemingly fit, healthy, young men die. I gave the first a bottle of oral rehydration solution and came back with another for the second. In the half a minute or so in which I had been away the first man died, his bottle of water spilt across the floor.
originally posted by: raymundoko
If it was airborne it would be IMPODSIBLE to hide it. Everyone on the plane with Sawyer would have contracted it.
a reply to: quirkygirl
....Thankfully, it's still in it's bodily fluids transmission stage. I think it will stay that way for the time being, because it's still spreading. H2H transmission hasn't affected it yet, and it's happy. Once it starts burning out, I think you'll see a mutation occur. For now, happy and fed ebola is not mutating.
Ebola Virus 'Rapidly Mutating' as Research Finds Almost 400 Mutations; International Aid Moves at a Snail's Pace
....Every time a new person gets Ebola, the virus gets another chance to mutate and develop new capabilities. Osterholm calls it "genetic roulette."
....Ebola is an RNA virus, which means every time it copies itself, it makes one or two mutations. Many of those mutations mean nothing, but some of them might be able to change the way the virus behaves inside the human body.
....One group of researchers looked at how Ebola changed over a short period of time in just one area in Sierra Leone early on in the outbreak, before it was spreading as fast as it is now. They found more than 300 genetic changes in the virus.
"It's frightening to look at how much this virus mutated within just three weeks," said Dr. Pardis Sabeti, an associate professor at Harvard and senior associate member of the Broad Institute, where the research was done.
Even without becoming airborne, the virus has overwhelmed efforts to stop it.
the virus is[...]spreading out of control because of the lack of doctors, epidemiologists and nurses keeping Ebola at bay.
Even without becoming airborne, the virus has overwhelmed efforts to stop it.
Among their findings, the researchers discovered that the current viral strains come from a related strain that left Central Africa within the past ten years. And the research confirms that the virus likely spread into Sierra Leone when women became infected after attending the funeral of a traditional healer who had been treating Guinean Ebola patients.
One surprise from the paper is that two different strains of Ebola came out of that funeral. This suggests that either the healer was infected with two different strains or that another person at the funeral was already infected.
Ebola's mutation rate itself isn't anything unusual[...]Viruses randomly mutate over time. This is completely normal for viruses, and there's no reason to think that Ebola's mutation rate is anything weird or unusual.
The changes to Ebola have nothing to do with it being hard to stop, in fact, the strain found in West Africa is actually less potent than previous strains as it has a lower Case Fatality Rate. (50-70% instead of 70-95%)
originally posted by: soficrow
eta: Another fact - this epidemic is out of control - which is why every nation in the world with any capacity should send everything they have to help stop it where it started.