Patient Zero in Ebola outbreak was Guinean toddler

news.yahoo.com...

The first known victim of the current outbreak was 2-year-old Emile Ouamouno, who lived in the picturesque forest village with his parents and three sisters, including 4-year-old Philomene. According to the World Health Organization, the boy fell sick last December with a mysterious illness that caused fever, black stools and vomiting. About a week after his death, Philomene got sick and died. She was shortly followed by the children's pregnant mother and grandmother.

Tragic story.
I as a dad can only imagine the pain this father must feel.

a reply to: TheSilverGate

Too horrifying to fathom.

Holy cow! I can't imagine losing my whole family to a my serious illness...and what a horrible way to die.

Yahoo comments give me little hope for humanity

Wait.....I just re read that....so the father is alive and well? And a sister or two....How come they didn't catch it? Are they different blood type? Or....I just can't believe they didn't come in contact with them. They would have had to have...it was almost the whole family ?

With all due respect for the family, I wonder if this might help them track down the viral host organism? I mean, if the first victim was a 2 year old, then what/how could a 2-year old get it before his older family?

Was he playing away from the home?
Did he pickup a dead bush animal?
Was he bitten/stung by an insect?

a reply to: Meldionne1

Same thing I was wondering as well. He lost two kids, his pregnant wife and his mother/mother in law not sure which, and with that said I'm glad he didn't lose his other 2 children.
But them being in contact with them and likely on a daily basis, it is odd they weren't infected.
There is much we don't know about this though, as in maybe certain blood types or other genetic types are more prone one way or the other.
I feel for the family, but I do hope some how something can be found in this tragedy to help fight this epidemic.

toddler patient zero

11th August- The guardian

It's very likely that toddler caught Ebola from infected bush meat - most likely fruit bat.

As for why the father didn't catch it, it's probably likely that the mother tended the sick child hence limiting his physical contact. Ebola isn't nearly as infectious as the common cold so simply being near a patient wouldn't necessarily be enough to transmit it.

I too wonder why some don't get the virus. The Duncan case, several people in cramped quarters with soiled clothing and sheets in piles and so far, no one else is sick. I don't get it but as I posted earlier on another thread, I think it's similar to when a family member of a large family gets the flu, maybe another member or two might also get it but some don't. Flue is airborne so it can't be because the non afflicted people weren't exposed. On the other hand, in some large families, everyone gets the flue. This happens with every disease. Throughout history, you can read where a family member never contracted a virus while in another family everyone else did. There's no rhyme or reason here. Just the luck of the draw I guess.

It breaks my heart the amount of families that have been torn apart by Ebola, It makes me also think about people that say we should fence them off and let them all die to save the rest of us, I don't understand how they can see stuff like this and think of them like they aren't people.

I read this story the other day a man writing about his son the 1000th Ebola survivor he had lost his wife and 2 daughters to it but it spared his son thankfully, he also had close contact with his son when symptoms were starting to show but did not catch it either, very moving story.

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