Posted on 08/10/2014 12:46:23 AM PDT by Smokin' Joe
I have spent a little time compiling links to threads about the Ebola outbreak in the interest of having all the links in one thread for future reference.
Please add links to new threads and articles of interest as the situation develops.
Thank You all for you participation.
Yes it does.
Thanks for that link. I have made copies to take to the Executive Directors of my local Health Center, Health Department, and the Mayor’s Office, to ask if they are getting prepared.
A brand new BBC documentary on the current outbreak, including some information on ZMAPP development. I think the very end was cut off but worth the 51 minutes.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bjuQofIleOg
Thanks, I will check it out!
For the 'those are third worlders, we're superior and it can't happen here' set, all I can say is that our technology gives us myriad common contact surfaces, waiting to be contaminated and pass on their viral load. The potential for communicating infection is astounding, the ramifications mind-boggling. Rub an eye, pick at your teeth, put a stick of gum or a mint in your mouth after having grabbed the door handle, used the handrail, pushed the elevator button...and you could be dead without even knowing how you got it.
Yep. Although something like handling dead bodies is an even higher-risk behavior that few of us are in the habit of doing.
For the 'those are third worlders, we're superior and it can't happen here'
Of course it can happen here. However, high-level biocontainment patient care units here really are superior and, as long as they aren't overwhelmed, can "handle" the cases presented to them (without allowing the infection to spread beyond that population).
The best example test of that I’ve heard is “put hot sauce on your fingers and see how long it takes for your eyes, nose or lips to burn”...
Let's say you are walking along and step in puke. Ick. (Most people really don't watch where they are putting their feet unless they anticipate an obstacle).
You go into a public restroom and clean off your shoes with a paper towel.
You reach out grab the handle and turn the water on to wash your hands, wash them, and turn the water off.
You contaminated the handle when you turned the water on, and recontaminated your fingers when you turned it off.
It's not just there for you, but the next person, too.
If you rub your eye, your nose, pick at your teeth, or any of a number of little things people do, you run a severe risk of being infected.
That's how dangerous this disease is.
I'm not saying that to panic anyone, after all it is only a level 4 biohazard. (Oh wait, that is as bad as it gets.)
The whole "bodily fluids" thing has been construed to mean a bloodborne or sexually acquired pathogen. However, with Ebola, saliva, vomit, mucous, tears, sweat, and feces, all count along with vaginal secretions and semen.
Contaminated surfaces count (called "fomites") and are capable of infecting the unwary.
I'm just trying to make people conscious of the gestures they make which could infect them, and the surfaces they touch without even thinking about it.
If this disease surfaces here in the US, maybe that consciousness will save some lives.
BTW, there are a whopping 22 beds in those high level (civilian) biocontainment units. I do not think it will take much to overwhelm them, especially when the first case that walks into an ER will probably result in that many people getting infected before it is realized what is going on.
” Yep. Although something like handling dead bodies is an even higher-risk behavior that few of us are in the habit of doing. “
Right now in Monrovia, the taxicabs are the hotzones.
Guess how many cabbies in NYC disinfect their cabs after every fare...
Ever ride in a cab and touch the doorhandle, seat, or armrest? Congratulations, you just touched a ‘dead body’.
Bookmark
Another day and STILL no ebola stats. They used to report the stats every two to three days. Now over a week and...nothing.
Exactly.
Through one of the links to a video series on this thread that I watched, an African Ebola doctor/scientist described one patient becoming infected from a doorknob.
One need only visit emergency rooms during flu season to see what might transpire, if Ebola were to get a foothold in the US. With the first symptoms presenting same as the flu, it could be our worst nightmare.
I really don’t get all the comparisons to AIDS. Truly, if AIDS were as infectious as Ebola, it would have wiped out a huge swath of humanity already.
While waiting for WHO stats, this site gives you numbers directly from the Ministry of Health of each affected country, and there are daily updates when available:
https://www.internationalsos.com/ebola/index.cfm?content_id=407&language_id=ENG
See:
Total: 2,527 clinical cases as at 11 September
Confirmed: 790 |
Probable: 1145 |
Suspected: 592
Deaths: 1349 (584 confirmed)
Source: Ministry of Health Situation Report #119
Published 15 September 2014
Given that Liberian Government Ministers are being fired for not returning home, I think we can safely say things are going to hell so fast that the government — such as it is — of Liberia has lost the ability to do much Ebola counting.
The announcement of US Military involvement there was the give away on that score. The WHO needs American military boots on the ground to have any hope of tracking the rate of Ebola infection spread.
See this —
Want to Fight Ebola? CDC to Train Health Workers
By Brenda Goodman, MA
WebMD Health News Reviewed by Arefa Cassoobhoy, MD, MPH
http://www.webmd.com/news/20140915/ebola-cdc-training?src=RSS_PUBLIC
“Sept. 15, 2014 — The CDC is looking for a few good nurses and doctors — but especially nurses — to help fight the Ebola epidemic.”
and
“Training Course Details
The course offered by the CDC is modeled on the training provided by Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF), or Doctors Without Borders. Among other things, instructors will teach participants to safely put on and take off the full-body personal protective equipment that doctors must wear around highly infectious patients. It will also teach the buddy system that MSF uses to help keep its doctors safe. Partners are taught to watch each other as they don the gear to make sure no steps are missed.
“This is an unprecedented event that’s occurring,” says John Brooks, MD. He’s an infectious disease specialist with the CDC who is in charge of the program. “The call for people who can provide medical care to the hundreds of patients who have Ebola virus disease, it’s a big call. The first step in getting people to go care for these people is to provide them with the proper training to make sure they themselves don’t get infected and can provide that care safely.”
“
See —
Ebola crisis: Obama administration to ask Congress for $1 billion to fight outbreak, sources say
Published September 15, 2014 FoxNews.com
“The Obama administration plans to ask Congress to approve $1 billion to fight Ebola, sources say, as the U.S. military command in Africa makes countering the deadly disease its highest priority.
The increased funding would result in the deployment of approximately 3,000 U.S. military personnel, the creation of a joint task force commanded by a three-star officer, military provision of logistics and mobility support, three field medical facilities and a training program for health care workers, a source told Fox News on Monday.
The support is estimated to last at least six months and cost upwards of $1 billion dollars, with estimated daily costs of at least $5.4 million a day.
The request would not be in addition to money that’s already been approved, but rather, re-appropriating existing funding.
The fight against Ebola is considered, in part, a national security issue because the disease threatens fragile governments in Africa and could lead to more safe havens for terrorists. The request falls under the jurisdiction of the Pentagon because the military has the capacity to set up quarantine camps.
Sources told Fox News on Monday that the request is expected to be discussed Tuesday at the Senate Armed Serviecs Committee hearing with Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel and Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Gen. Martin Dempsey. But the sources said they believe the requested amount is a lot to reprogram.”
>snip<
Weeks late and 1,000 beds short —
Obama to Announce Expanded Effort Against Ebola
By HELENE COOPER and MICHAEL D. SHEARSEPT. 15, 2014
“WASHINGTON — Under pressure to do more to confront the Ebola outbreak sweeping across West Africa, President Obama on Tuesday is to announce an expansion of military and medical resources to combat the spread of the deadly virus, administration officials said.
The president will go beyond the 25-bed portable hospital that Pentagon officials said they would establish in Liberia, one of the three West African countries ravaged by the disease, officials said. Mr. Obama is expected to offer help to President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf of Liberia in the construction of five Ebola treatment centers around Monrovia, with about 500 beds.
In addition, Mr. Obama is expected to announce that he is appointing a woman as an Ebola czar to coordinate the American response, along with an increase in the number of doctors and other health care workers being sent to West Africa. The military is likely to provide medical supplies and training for African health care workers as they seek to contain the virus.
The Obama administration is also planning to send hundreds of thousands of Ebola home health and treatment kits to Liberia, as well as tens of thousands of kits designed to test whether people have the disease. The Pentagon will provide some logistical equipment for health workers going to West Africa and what administration officials described as “command and control” organizational assistance on how to coordinate the overall relief effort. The Army Corps of Engineers is expected to be part of the Defense Department effort.
But the administration’s new efforts still appear to fall short of the 1,000 beds that Liberian officials and international aid groups say are needed in the next week alone to contain a disease that has been spreading exponentially.”
>snip<
The Gateway Pundit blog is advertising one of the Freep threads.
See —
Latest update from WHO released a little while ago.
http://apps.who.int/iris/bitstream/10665/133546/1/roadmapupdate16sept14_eng.pdf?ua=1
If AIDS was as contagious as Ebola, and as deadly, there would be a dearth of interior decorators, and different people would be running a lot of things, from networks to government agencies.
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