Posted on 04/09/2005 5:42:01 PM PDT by Mother Abigail
It would be nice to have some news come out from the area, except that the ones who would give semi-authoritative answers, the WHO, aren't there in any significant way, because they are being threatened.
Don't expect help from the UN, of course.
There IS news that it is in Luanda, the capital of Angola, where Marburg has been found in two (what a laughable number) in the Cacuaco slums.
I expect an explosive situation in Africa, in the next two weeks. If I'm wrong, I'll hang up my hat forever. Other countries are likely going to, if they haven't already, enforce the Angola borders out of self-protection.
True,but SOME attempt could be made.
The mode of primary infection in any natural setting is unknown with Marburg and Ebola viruses. All secondary cases have been nosocomial or caused by intimate contact with a patient. Transmission occurs usually by contaminated blood samples. One Marburg case was acquired by sexual contact more than 60 days after the original infection. In addition, there is evidence to suggest respiratory spread of infection. Epidemiological data of the 1989 Reston outbreak suggest that droplet or vomit transmission was a major factor in virus spread within quarantine facilities. Virus is usually recovered from acute-phase sera and has also been found in throat washes, urine, soft tissue effusates, semen and anterior eye fluid, even when the specimens were obtained late in convalescence. It has also been regularly isolated from autoptic material, such as spleen, lymph nodes, liver and kidney but rarely from brain or other nervous tissues.
These are African borders. Same families and tribes are on both sides in the same areas.
We saw this with SARS as well, nothing is as important to the government as open borders and free travel.
bump
Thanks for the informative post.
I agree. You know when there will be reporting? As soon as some reporters in some large city in Africa find out they've been exposed.
FReepmail me if you want on or off my health and science ping list.
MA, thanks for the ping.
This is the stuff that nightmares come from.
I agree with the earlier poster's answer, and also, many folks got kind of jaded by the SARS outbreak. It didn't ever develop into the pandemic that a number of well-meaning professionals warned that it might (including CDC Director Gerberding). The thing is, Dr. Gerberding really wasn't crying wolf: It did have the potential but fortunately was contained (it could re-emerge). Now the agencies are a little gun shy about wide-ranging warnings. Of course, one case getting off a plane in Atlanta or somewhere and that will change. I think these comments apply to Avian influenza H5N1 as well.
This is new.
Most of the reports, such as this one, take this posture:
"Yokouibd ... stressed that it was "not an airborne
disease".
So which is it, world?
Do we have an airborne threat here?
I've read that Ebola spread because of cultural funeral rites, family members washing the body before burial. If this is still going on in some areas, that would contribute to it's spread.
more here...
This was a New York Times article, and not the first one on it. No television coverage that I've seen, though.
Oh no.
There was a story in the past week about Delta releasing passenger lists to the CDC, and one a week or two ago about, IIRC, the feds being able to deny flights, or not let people disembark? I wonder if that's all related.
What worries me the most is the lag time that always seems to occur in reporting cases, or the inability to report cases in outlying rural areas, which then may be transmitted to more people.
"We saw this with SARS as well, nothing is as important to the government as open borders and free travel."
SARS spreading was/is completely different....
You cannot compare bum chuck Africa from megalopolis China, imho.
The latest reports this afternoon indicated that the two dead in Luanda were an Italian male and a teenage boy, with six other cases suspected. Neither of whom had traveled from Uige or had contact there. That's leap of more than 120 so miles over the mountains to Luanda. It seems there's a strong possibility that the Italian may have contacted people outbound from Angola already.
I've seen stories on the CNN, AFP, & MSNBC web sites (all linked at Drudge)..and the article in this thread.
Not nearly as salacious as Michael Jackson, and Terri Schiavo's parents had a better publicist.
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