More Cases Of Ebola In Europe Unavoidable: WHO

And the bad news is,

Kelland, Health and Science Correspondent

MADRID/LONDON, Oct 7 (Reuters) - The World Health Organization said on Tuesday that Europe would almost certainly see more cases of Ebola after a nurse in Spain became the first person known to have caught the virus outside Africa.

With concerns growing globally that Ebola could spread beyond West Africa, where it has already killed more than 3,400 people in the worst outbreak in history, Spanish officials tried to reassure the public that they were tackling the threat. But health experts said the risk of a full-blown outbreak outside Africa was slim.

Revising protocols seems to be popular these days:

Rafael Perez-Santamaria, head of the Carlos III Hospital in Madrid, where the infected nurse had treated two Spanish missionaries who had contracted the disease in West Africa, said medical staff were "revising our protocols." Four people including the nurse's husband were admitted to hospital for observation.

Europe thinks they're the best, too.

European hospitals, unlike most of those in the affected parts of Africa, have the facilities to isolate an infected patient thoroughly, WHO European director Zsuzsanna Jakab said it was "quite unavoidable ... that such incidents will happen in the future because of the extensive travel from Europe to the affected countries and the other way around."

Nevertheless, she said that "the most important thing in our view is that Europe is still at low risk, and that the western part of the European region particularly is the best prepared in the world to respond to viral haemorrhagic fevers including Ebola."

You can't overprotect:

Peter Piot, a professor at the London School of Tropical Medicine who was one of the discoverers of Ebola, said caring for its victims demanded draconian discipline, as the slightest mistake could be fatal.

"It should be a lesson for everybody that you can't overreact. You can't overprotect," he told a WHO science group teleconference.

Read the whole story at source: www.huffingtonpost.com...

This is such a nasty virus. I hope everyone's competence equals their confidence.

Have someone read Dan Brown's novel Inferno?
Still not up to those proportions, but ... make you think.

I heard an interview with a nurse on the news yesterday. She suggested all the stricken patients be taken to one hospital, which I thought was an excellent idea........... it can be staffed with CDC folks since they are "so confident', in their ability to stay safe while handling it. I do like the idea of having confined to a single location, rather than spread all over.

I'm thinking we are going to need to find some external structures, or even build some isolation and quarantine areas should this become ... what it is capable of becoming. We are not there yet, thankfully. Still just the one case here as far as we know.

Interesting.......... CNN has reported that Spain is sending word to affected countries, that should they become infected with Ebola, if they come to Spain, they will not be able to deal with it there.

Viral diarrhea is still a bigger killer than Ebola.
Hype.

a reply to: alexball

Hm. Can't tell if you are joking, or serious. How is viral diarrhea transmitted, (over than the obvious), is it a type of malaria?

Anyway, right now we are dealing with Ebola, rather than the other virus, so I suppose we must focus on that?

Don't worry ole chap. Your king and queen will save you. No worries here. I'm sure they have extra $ to go around and get the vaccines. Don't forget to vaccinate. What am i saying, i'm sure the queen will make it mandatory to vaccinate. They love their people. I'm sure she can auction off a cottage or two to help the citizens.NO PROBLEM, right?

originally posted by: ladyinwaiting
Interesting.......... CNN has reported that Spain is sending word to affected countries, that should they become infected with Ebola, if they come to Spain, they will not be able to deal with it there.

GEE, i wonder why, with all that updated technology to stop the ebola you think that the door and sheets would definately stop the bug. No worries there, RIGHT?

originally posted by: cloaked4u

originally posted by: ladyinwaiting
Interesting.......... CNN has reported that Spain is sending word to affected countries, that should they become infected with Ebola, if they come to Spain, they will not be able to deal with it there.

GEE, i wonder why, with all that updated technology to stop the ebola you think that the door and sheets would definately stop the bug. No worries there, RIGHT?

My initial reaction was not to respond to your post, but curiosity got the best of me. How did you deduct what you wrote from what I said, and why did you decide to post it thusly?

Specifically, when did I mention anything about doors and sheets or their ability to stop Ebloa?

I'm just curious, so please share your thought processes. Thanks.

Later: Okay, after reading your location and mood, I'll respond by saying forget it. Don't really need to hear anymore from you.
Hope you find a more interesting way to entertain yourself.

originally posted by: alexball
Viral diarrhea is still a bigger killer than Ebola.
Hype.

See if you feel that way when it hits Malta........

its one thing to have a virus you can medicate and treat, its another to have one that spreads like the flu but kills 50% or higher of the infected.

Hospitals are not equiped to handle numerous cases , they dont have the staff and theres not enough of the Zmapp to handle tons of cases...

It takes 20 or more staff to care for ONE person with Ebola.....whats a hospital going to look like with 50? 100? more?

Not to mention it could mutate away from that cure.....

a reply to: alexball

This is different.. this is a very touchy situation. It has such a high mortality rate, that they can't take chances. People in a lot of protective gear are still catching it. While I think it is far from panic-mode time, it's a serious situation and needs to be carefully watched, and more countries need to produce more assistance if they want to see this go away.

its one thing to have a virus you can medicate and treat, its another to have one that spreads like the flu but kills 50% or higher of the infected.

It doesn't spread like the flu, that's just not true.

If it did, this would have already been a global pandemic on a massive scale months ago. Could it mutate to become airborne? I guess. Has HIV mutated to become airborne in all of it's life? No.. it hasn't. So it's just idle speculation to assume that Ebola will.

I'm not dismissing how dangerous it is, I just don't think it's productive to make it seem worse than it is.