Anybody monitoring the Ebola outbreak ?

IMO the risk of spreading over to the U.S. seems to be low at this time. The outbreak appears to be regional in nature and is spreading by virtue of improper medical procedures, tribal belief systems in relation to medical care and poor vaccination programs. If one was to travel to Africa at this time, I would be highly concerned. But here at home, I think it spreading amongst the population at large is preventable. Maybe @alaskachick could chime in, as I assume she has much better field knowledge on this region medically than most any of us here.

 

The real issues in Africa, at the moment, seems to be, folks just do NOT like Quarantine, and just don't seem t want to stay and die in the "Quarantine Location"..... So they run, and hide, and infect others.... It only takes ONE Carrier, to leave Africa, and go to London, or another Air Travel HUB, and things will get sticky, Real Quick.... The only Saving Grace, in all this is, that Quarantine, in Second and First World Countries can, and will be enforced, by Death, is necessary. My Opinion..... YMMV....

 

Yup. Unfortunately, it's not really an outbreak we need to worry about over here until it leaves the African region and enters a hub. All bets would be off after that, though. Sometimes speculative discussion is good, but with a topic such as this, it's also kind of based on specialists and boots on the ground. No sense in exaggerating this, because it's extremely deadly. No sense speculating too much, because there is no major city hub infected yet. I would keep an eye out for anything popping up in Europe or any trade hub from the African continent, especially warmer climate zones.

 

why, they are to busy running cover for Barry, attempting to protect him from impeachment when they loose the senate in the fall.

 

Alaskachick flew to NYC, on Thursday Morning, to brief a New Dr's w/o Boarders Team heading to the Turkish/Syria Boarder that will be dealing with Syrian Refugees, in the Camps, just across the Boarder. Part of that Briefing is to bring them "Up to date" on the Outfits Policies and Procedures, in dealing with Infectious Diseases, that the Refugees are bringing with them, into already crowded Camps. When she finishes with this assignment, she will go to their Training Facility in Rochester, NY, and be Training a New Team that will be going to Western Africa, where this is certainly a BIG Issue. There are Folks, and Outfits that ARE dealing with this issue, however the LOCAL Conditions, and Politics, make it very hard to contain such outbreaks, as has been seen in the above Posts. .....

 

As long as nobody in Mexico gets ebola, we are safe for the time being.

 

Pushing nearly 1,000 cases and over 600 deaths WHO | Ebola virus disease, West Africa – update

If they cannot contain this and see a decline in cases, this could get very bad.



What I find interesting at first glance, is the outbreak locations and severity. From the data I have gathered, no documented outbreaks have occurred in Guinea, Liberia, and Sierra Leone previously, but this is where it is happening. Out of all the data, the prior outbreaks have taken place in the following African countries:





Ebola first appeared in 1976 in 2 simultaneous outbreaks, in Nzara, Sudan, and in Yambuku, Democratic Republic of Congo. The latter was in a village situated near the Ebola River, from which the disease takes its name.

Genus Ebolavirus is 1 of 3 members of the Filoviridae family (filovirus), along with genus Marburgvirus and genus Cuevavirus. Genus Ebolavirus comprises 5 distinct species:

• Bundibugyo ebolavirus (BDBV)
• Zaire ebolavirus (EBOV)
• Reston ebolavirus (RESTV)
• Sudan ebolavirus (SUDV)
• Taï Forest ebolavirus (TAFV).

BDBV, EBOV, and SUDV have been associated with large EVD outbreaks in Africa, whereas RESTV and TAFV have not. The RESTV species, found in Philippines and the People’s Republic of China, can infect humans, but no illness or death in humans from this species has been reported to date. -LINK-

The EBOV (Zaire) and SUDV (Sudan) species appear to be the most troublesome thus far, and I am wondering which species we are talking about with the current outbreak in Guinea, Liberia, and Sierra Leone. If anybody can track down this information as soon as possible, I would appreciate it.

 

Oh, man. That's terrible. EBOV was gonna be my guess by the severity. Yeah, this is the worst Ebola outbreak yet, let's hope they can contain it. The Zaire (EBOV) species seems to be the most prevalent and also has the highest fatality rating if my math is correct.

 

It looks like we are in a downward trend, with the number of cases dropping (in Guinea), which is good. Let's see if it stays this way.

Disease Outbreak News - WHO | Regional Office for Africa