U.S. doctor stricken with Ebola said to be improving

Reuters ^ | 08/03/2014 | BY RICH MCKAY

[SeekAndFind]

Dr Kent Brantly, a 33-year-old father of two young children, was able to walk, with help, from an ambulance after he was flown on Saturday to Atlanta, where he was being treated by infectious disease specialists at Emory University Hospital.

[trisham]

"We moved our base camp last night and we’re now positioned literally
within feet of the river. Have been sitting here watching the border
patrol patrolling in their riverboats all night and all morning..."

~Jim Robinson

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[Uncle Chip]

The flight over must have done him some good because he looked good yesterday —

[alloysteel]

Apparently there are survivors of the ravages of the Ebola virus. In the world at large, there must also be some natural immunes, whose biological settings are adjusted just enough so the combination of factors that lead to death do not proceed, even though the individual may be subject to fevers and bodily distress before the progress of the disease is arrested.

Our study of the causes and propagation of diseases, while already light-years beyond what it was just fifty years ago, is only now beginning to yield on the more pernicious and aggressive of disease agents. Ebola is like the HIV that progresses to full-blown AIDS, not over a period of several years, but in DAYS, compromising the natural immune systems of the body, and causing massive organ failure once it hits tipping point.

[Principled]

...it was unlikely that Brantly's wife and children, who left Liberia shortly before he began exhibiting symptoms, had contracted the disease.

Oh. OK.

[livius]

Haven’t seen him, but some people (about 40-50%) do recover from this disease. I don’t think he would have been brought here if he was in really bad shape, because he couldn’t have withstood the trip.

He may remain infectious for awhile, but it looks to me as if they’re isolating him properly. Also, I haven’t heard anything about the woman who was his coworker (I believe she was a hygiene volunteer) who was also brought back. She was the one to whom he gave his dose of the experimental serum.

Interesting to see if there’s a difference in their outcomes.

Aside from that, I think there are probably conditions that exist in Africa that don’t exist here that encourage the spread of Ebola.

However, in general I’d be much more worried about Obama’s “Pan African Conference” next week. There are 10 African heads of state coming, and I think they’ll be pretty safe. But people like that always travel with a retinue that will fill an entire huge plane, so I hope there’s some monitoring going on.

[Uncle Chip]

If they can get one or both of those two that they are bringing here cured and healthy, then they might be able to develop a cure for the disease from their blood serum.

That is probably what they are thinking and hoping.

[SeekAndFind]

RE: Oh. OK.

Shouldn’t the CDC check them just to make sure?

[jocon307]

Yes, good to know that, eh? Since they are out and about wherever.

Look, I very much admire people who go and help the world’s most helpless, don’t get me wrong.

But disease is no respecter of persons.

[Black Agnes]

Once he becomes asymptomatic, the clock starts on his body clearing the virus. I’ve seen anywhere from 7 weeks to 60 days before all his secretions are clear of the virus. Then another clock starts. I’ve seen either 21d or 42d before the area can be declared ebola free.

So we’ll know by Thanksgiving or Christmas if Emory has dropped the ball or not.

[sten]

this’ll do wonders for the conspiracy folks

[Cowgirl of Justice]

Doesn’t the mortality rate go down 10% with each transmission to a new host? IIRC, humans aren’t good hosts and the virus weakens each time it is passed on to a new host.

[sten]

for some reason, they aren’t answering the phone. must be on vacation. it is summer, after all

[Selene]

Br. Patrick Nshamdze, Hospital Director, dies at 52

“Yesterday, August 2nd, our beloved Brother and Hospital Director Patrick Nshamdze died in ELWA Hospital in Monrovia at age 52, after 23 years of religious proffession.

Br Patrick, born in Cameroon, was tested Ebola positive on July 29, after being sick for two weeks. He had been previously tested on July 18, with a negative result.

All of us who form the family of the Saint Joseph´s Catholic Hospital and the Hospitaller Order of Saint John of God ask for your prayers for his soul.”
http://www.sjcatholichospital.com/news/

RIP Br

The takeaway here is even when you feel ill you may not test positive for ebola even though you have it.

[Covenantor]

Brantley just got there yesterday afternoon.

He’s improving from what specific state of health? The fatigue from the long trip? Or from the effects of Ebola?

What did they do for him that less ythan 24 hrs later he’s improving.

CDC is blowing smoke.

[I am Richard Brandon]

Does the body do a 100% job of clearing the virus, or does some remain in the body for ever as happens with some other virus infections?

[SeekAndFind]

This site should help answer some of your questions:

http://www.webmd.com/news/20140404/faq-ebola-virus

And here:

http://www.webmd.com/a-to-z-guides/ebola-fever-virus-infection

[Black Agnes]

Once he becomes asymptomatic, the clock starts on his body clearing the virus. I’ve seen anywhere from 7 weeks to 60 days before all his secretions are clear of the virus. Then another clock starts. I’ve seen either 21d or 42d before the area can be declared ebola free.

So we’ll know by Thanksgiving or Christmas if Emory has dropped the ball or not.

[Veto!]

there must also be some natural immunes, whose biological settings are adjusted just enough so the combination of factors that lead to death do not proceed, even though the individual may be subject to fevers and bodily distress before the progress of the disease is arrested.

I know this is true. A man I knew when I lived in San Francisco contracted AIDS 26 years ago. Today, he is still perfectly healthy. An anomaly. Turns out his family was from a certain area in Northern Italy that apparently produces people who don't get sick from the AIDS virus.

I have no idea whether he can or would spread it. Don't know him well enough to ask.

One would think that researchers would be very serious about testing people with natural immunity to various killer diseases.

[ozaukeemom]

I really hate words like “unlikely” when it comes to things like someone contracting a deadly disease.