Posted on 04/09/2014 9:40:30 AM PDT by null and void
West Africa's Ebola unprecedented outbreak is among the "most challenging" for health workers since the deadly disease emerged elsewhere in Africa four decades ago as the suspected death toll topped 100, the WHO said Tuesday.
"We have not had an Ebola outbreak in this part of Africa before," said Fukuda, whose agency has rushed scores of aid workers to the region to contain the epidemic.
The most severe strains have had a 90 percent fatality rate, and there is no vaccine, cure or specific treatment.
According to fresh WHO figures released Tuesday, there have been 157 suspected cases in Guinea, 101 of them fatal. Of those, 67 have been confirmed as Ebola victims by laboratory tests.
Twenty of the cases have been in the capital Conakry, a sprawling port city on Guinea's Atlantic coast and home to up between 1.5 million and two million people.
The WHO has not recommended any trade and travel restrictions for Guinea.
Guinea Forestiere, the southern hotbed.
"Clearly in Guinea Forestiere the outbreak is not over. This is the epicentre of the outbreak, and as long as this is not controlled there, there may be cases being exported from Guinea Forestiere in the rest of the country and likely in other countries," he added.
The chances of survival increase if patients are kept hydrated and treated for secondary infections.
The virus can be transmitted to humans who handle sick or dead wild animals -- believed to be its original source -- and between humans through direct contact with another's blood, faeces or sweat.
Sexual contact, or the unprotected handling of contaminated corpses, can also lead to infection.
"We fully expect to be engaged in this outbreak for another two, three, four months," said Fukuda.
(Excerpt) Read more at afp.com ...
Post to me or FReep mail to be on/off the Bring Out Your Dead ping list.
The purpose of the “Bring Out Your Dead” ping list (formerly the “Ebola” ping list) is very early warning of emerging pandemics, as such it has a high false positive rate.
So far the false positive rate is 100%.
At some point we may well have a high mortality pandemic, and likely as not the “Bring Out Your Dead” threads will miss the beginning entirely.
*sigh* Such is life, and death...
The US accepts 30,000 refugees from there yearly. Imagine this loose on an international flight. They recirculate the air so everybody would be exposed by the time it reached the states. Then, they’d get on airplanes bound for every city in the US. In hours we could experience the next pandemic.
Ping! (Thanks, nully!)
We should IMMEDIATELY send Obama over there to help out!
"Death is a primitive concept; I prefer to think of them as battling evil, in another dimension!"
LOL
Supposedly, the Ebola virus is not airborne, so re-circulated air would not by itself be dangerous. Nonetheless, I wouldn't want to share a lavatory or a middle seat with anyone suspected of harboring such a virus.
A recent caveat--there was talk that maybe this latest strain DID mutate into an airborne virus. THAT would be scary.
Translation: We want more money.
100 deaths from Ebola is food for the tabloids, but mumps, measles, whooping cough, malaria will kill far more people each year.
Thanks for the ping!
Hot chocolate and raw onions is the recommended cure in Guinea
Wouldn’t it make sense to stop flights to and from the area?
What about sexual contact with contaminated corpses?
Halal for 12 hours...
Nonsense!!!
"The WHO has not recommended any trade and travel restrictions for Guinea."
I've read that Ebola can be transmitted via air, although you would be in danger only in very close proximity. On an aircraft, the recirculated air is clean. Only half is recirculated, and is done through HEPA filters that remove bacteria, fungi and viruses.
HEPA filters are not fine enough to remove viruses.
And we are assuming that all airlines maintain their filtration systems...
True HEPA filters with microbial efficiency of >99.999%
http://www.pall.com/main/aerospace-defense-marine/how-cabin-air-systems-work.page
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