An ‘Awww Crud’ article from PANDEMIC FLU INFORMATION FORUM, which tells us that bleeding is not as common a symptom as the CDC/WHO make out —
By Lindsey Dow
September 29, 2014.
http://guardianlv.com/2014/09/ebola-bleeding-less-common-but-more-deadly/
Although bleeding is generally considered one of the most tell-tale signs of Ebola, recent data collected on patients in West Africa suggest that bleeding is less common but more deadly, at least with the strain in West Africa. The report, published by the New England Journal of Medicine, contains data on 1,415 Ebola patients from Liberia, Sierra Leone, Guinea and Nigeria, with an onset of symptoms as recent as August 17.
Now we know why Ebola CFR data from Liberia sucks so badly. They are burning all the bodies and are not testing them for Ebola as it is too risky to the remaining lab workers.
Via the PANDEMIC FLU INFORMATION FORUM -
GEOFFREY YORK
MONROVIA — The Globe and Mail
Published Monday, Sep. 29 2014, 9:46 PM EDT
Last updated Monday, Sep. 29 2014, 9:48 PM EDT
When the body collectors arrived at the home of Theresa Jacob, at the top of a rocky hillside in Liberia’s capital, her family fought to keep her body. She didn’t die of Ebola, they insisted, showing a stack of hospital documents.
It was a futile battle. After a long argument, a team of Red Cross specialists entered the house in full Hazmat suits, goggles, masks, hoods, boots and two layers of gloves. They disinfected the body of the 24-year-old woman with a heavy chlorine spray, put her into a body bag, carried her down the hillside to their truck and drove her away to be cremated.
Because of the risk of Ebola, every body in Monrovia now is collected and burned, regardless of the cause of death. It’s a symptom of a nearly collapsed state in a massive emergency, when extraordinary measures are needed. With at least 1,830 deaths by official count – and two or three times that number by unofficial estimate – Liberia is the most devastated country in the Ebola zone.
Ms. Jacob’s neighbours were shocked when they saw how her body was collected. “Oh, they’re putting her in a plastic bag,” said one woman, wailing with grief.
Everyone in the neighbourhood knew that Ms. Jacob died of the liver illness that had left her bedridden for the past four years. But now she will never have a grave. Her family will have nowhere to visit on Decoration Day, the annual Liberian holiday when everyone goes to the cemetery to clean and decorate the graves of their ancestors, often painting Biblical inscriptions and images on the tombs to thank the ancestors for their sacrifices.
Ebola tests are not even conducted on dead bodies any more, because it’s believed that the information is not worth the extreme infection risk of taking samples from the bodies, and the delay of waiting two days for the results.
>snip<