It looks like you're using an Ad Blocker.
Please white-list or disable AboveTopSecret.com in your ad-blocking tool.
Thank you.
Some features of ATS will be disabled while you continue to use an ad-blocker.
How, then, did this one spin so far out of control?
...partly a consequence of modernization in Africa...
...Unlike most previous outbreaks, which occurred in remote, localized spots, this one began in a border region where roads have been improved and people travel a lot.
....change funeral practices that involve touching corpses...
....The mobility, and now the sheer numbers...
....The only way to stop an outbreak is to isolate infected patients, trace all their contacts, isolate the ones who get sick and repeat the process until, finally, there are no more cases. But how do you do that when there can easily be 500 names on the list of contacts who are supposed to be tracked down and checked for fever every day for 21 days?
....Workers were failing to trace all patients’ contacts...
The African Ebola outbreak that shows no sign of slowing
....There are several theories explaining the outbreak, Africa’s worst in seven years and the first to kill in the continent’s west. One was published last week in the New England Journal that established “the emergence of a new EBOV strain in Guinea,” which had “evolved in parallel” to other disease veins.
It said the sickness first appeared in December — substantially earlier than other estimates. “The [virus] introduction seems to have happened in early December 2013 or even before,” the researchers said. “It is suspected that the virus was transmitted for months before the outbreak became apparent because of clusters of cases in the [Guinea] hospitals of Guéckédou and Macenta. This length of exposure appears to have allowed many transmission chains and thus increased the number of cases of Ebola virus disease.”
The scientists said data suggests “a single introduction of the virus into the human population. … Further investigation is ongoing to identify the presumed animal source of the outbreak.”
Ebola May Pose Little Threat to U.S., but It Looms Large on Twitter
…Ebola is trending on Twitter. Even a cursory hashtag search turns up, among the news articles and official announcements, expressions of fear, gallows humor and bad information. The virus can spread through the air? OMG! (It cannot.) A possible Ebola case in New York City? Time to pack for Mars! (It was not Ebola.)
Why do people feel compelled to post and rebroadcast jokes, rumors and dread of a distant disease that public health officials say is extremely unlikely to pose serious risk on this side of the Atlantic Ocean?
The science behind how and why ideas spread on social media is a growing area of research. At the most basic level, marketing experts say, people tend to share stories that stir their deepest feelings, whether positive or negative. To wit, frightful shark attacks routinely top the trending charts alongside cheerful cat videos and inspirational quotes.
originally posted by: Jefferton
People have such a short memory these days.
Ebola has been around for decades, and here we still sit.
Just more end of the world drama that will fizzle. Then 20 years later we can do it again.
But you won't remember...
originally posted by: BobAthome
originally posted by: Jefferton
People have such a short memory these days.
Ebola has been around for decades, and here we still sit.
Just more end of the world drama that will fizzle. Then 20 years later we can do it again.
But you won't remember...
i remember,,
july 25 zero day.