[Qiviut]

Last sentence of article:

"As long there is one case of Ebola virus disease anywhere in the world and people are allowed to travel," Nigeria's health minister, Onyebuchi Chukwu, said recently, "every country in the world remains at risk."

[Delta Dawn]

I have to admit that I am a bit confused at this point.

This disease seems to be deadly in Africa. However, once our medical personnel return home with the infection, they seem to be all better in just a few days. I have a cold that is lasting longer than an ebola infection in an American.

If we have the cure, why have we not made it available to the African nations?

[Smokin' Joe]

Ping…

A link to this thread has been posted on the Ebola Surveillance Thread

[Black Agnes]

And I wonder about releasing people who are ‘cured’ but still harbor the virus to be transmitted sexually.

[silverleaf]

and so obama sends in the US military

[yefragetuwrabrumuy]

Ebola is acting like a typical epidemic. The problem is that governments tend to make the same mistakes during an epidemic. And this is not entirely their fault, because they cannot see the invisible currents of epidemic flow.

In practical terms, the best reaction is seemingly overreaction. That is, epidemics ebb and surge; and it is when they seem to be ebbing, they are in fact spreading out.

So, for example, when patient zero shows symptoms, the assumption has to be that his entire family are infected, and that his entire town needs to be quarantined. (This is extremely difficult to do.)

When his town shows symptoms, his whole region needs to be quarantined, and his entire nation is at risk. Then, when there is a second outbreak outside of his region, his entire nation should be quarantined, and the rest of the world is at risk.

[null and void]

Eeeee-bolllll-aaaaaa ping!

Bring Out Your Dead

We’re gonna need

a bigger cart!

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...

[donozark]

One of the most disturbing pictures to come out of this is the one of a man laying on his back on a street, with a crowd of people watching him (at a safe distance). A health care worker in a hazmat suit hosing him down with some type of disinfectant. The man was basically left to die. As many are.

Just wait until professionals get out into the bush. I suspect entire villages are "dead." Or awaiting the Grim Reaper. This thing is spinning out of control. Nations have failed to secure their borders. America comes to mind. We are going to reap a whirlwind. All in the name of political correctness....

[GOPJ]

The resurgence of the disease in a place where doctors thought they had it beat shows how history's largest Ebola outbreak has spun out of control.

This time, the virus is traveling effortlessly across borders by plane, car and foot, shifting from forests to cities and springing up in clusters far from any previously known infections. Border closures, flight bans and mass quarantines have been ineffective.

"Everything we do is too small and too late," said Poncin. "We're always running after the epidemic."

Our 09/11 surprise came early to Miami...

[Prophet2520]

yefragetuwrabrumuy is entirely correct that overreaction is the path to safely preventing outbreak. However, it is also at odds with individual liberty. If someone in your town gets a case of ebola, are you ready to be quarantined and prevented from going to work so you can pay the bills and keep them from confiscating your house? In the age of flight is quarantining a town even remotely effective? What if the person has been on a flight within the last two weeks? Do we quarantine the towns of everyone on the flight? What if they work out of town in a company with 5000 employees working in multiple states with some having flown in for business meetings. Do we quarantine the towns of all 5000 and etc.

An ebola outbreak is not just a health problem it is an economic disaster. The more aggressively you try to stem the health problem, the bigger the economic disaster. And by the way, economic disasters, and quarantines can lead to other deaths from many causes.

Governments try to choose the path of least overall damage, based on their history with the disease. Unfortunately they are finding this outbreak more difficult to contain than all previous outbreaks. Hindsight is 20-20. Why couldn’t they have just seen that this one would be worse than all previous outbreaks combined and taken more drastic measures early on? Why, why why...