Ebola outbreak: How Nigeria is beating the killer virus

BBC ^ | Oct 16, 2014 | David Shukman

[Innovative]

With a population of more than 170 million, Nigeria is Africa's most populous nation and there were fears that Ebola would take hold when a Liberian-American arrived with the disease in July.

An initial contact list of 281 people soon increased to a staggering 894 - each of them visited and checked repeatedly for signs of infection. But the sleuthing did not end there. Specialists then calculated how many people were living within a particular radius of the 894 people who were being monitored. This depended on the density of the housing in each particular area. The result was that officials and volunteers embarked on rounds of visits that would take them to an extraordinary 26,000 households.

In all, there have been 19 confirmed cases of infection in Nigeria and eight deaths, including Patrick Sawyer - figures that are tragic for the families involved but infinitely smaller than they might have been.

[Innovative]

More details in Scientific American:

http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/how-did-nigeria-quash-its-ebola-outbreak-so-quickly/

It is deeply saddening to see that Nigeria was able to provide sufficient resources to stop the outbreak, but the United States seems to be uninterested and unable to do so.

[Morpheus2009]

Because at this point, even those living in the earlier days before we even knew about germs seem to have a better deduction on disease than our government does now. If one wants to talk about Medieval, well, one is watching a class evolution towards the medieval way with the Middle Class being ground beneath the heels.

[DoughtyOne]

With regard to Ebola, the United States of America is operating as a Fourth World nation.

Even the Third World nations are trying harder than we are.


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In this political cartoon, Ramirez presents, "UNDER CONTROL!"

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...this is a general all purpose message, and should not be seen as targeting any individual I am responding to...

[Diana in Wisconsin]

Without reading the article, I’m gonna guess: No flights in or out, no one allowed to travel by any means and strict quarantines?

[GrandJediMasterYoda]

Interesting. I could have sworn though that Nigeria would have been tricking the virus by sending it emails....”Hello, recently I have come into a large amount of cash...”

[NonValueAdded]

Look at the (productive) effort that went into the tracing of just one entrant. Now ramp that up to 150 a day coming in.

[logi_cal869]

I disagree that it’s ‘saddening’, but I’m disinclined to have that discussion today or further elaborate beyond stating this ‘could’ be the beginning of a movement...

...if I weren’t so cynical of even fellow Conservatives, let alone those that just align ‘right-of-center’ or, for that matter, those that purport to represent us...

[fivecatsandadog]

Is it possible that Nigeria has a leader who takes responsibility for the health of its citizens, and does not hesitate to implement the necessary steps to ensure that everybody is on the same page concerning those safeguards? Some one like that is to be admired. I doubt he allowed political BULLSHIT to get in the way.

[Innovative]

Interesting relevant article:

Airborne Transmission of Ebola

Aug 24, 2014

http://www.americanthinker.com/2014/08/airborne_transmission_of_ebola.html

“The Canadian Health Department states that airborne transmission of Ebola is strongly suspected and the CDC admits that Ebola can be transmitted in situations where there is no physical contact between people, i.e.: via direct airborne inhalation into the lungs or into the eyes, or via contact with airborne fomites which adhere to nearby surfaces. That helps explain why 81 doctors, nurses and other healthcare workers have died in West Africa to date.”

[Balding_Eagle]

This whole Ebola story is a living example of how Democrats (the ones in charge in this situation) either don’t understand, or if they do, reject science.

[tcrlaf]

Senegal beat Ebola by isolating the infected person, and putting armed troops on it’s border with Ebola Infected countries, with orders to SHOOT anyone trying to cross the border.

[Innovative]

Meant to give the link to the BBC article, here it is:

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-29654002

[Mr. Jeeves]

Unspoken in the article: The Nigerian public knew its government would not have been afraid to enforce its isolation of suspected patients at gunpoint.

[Wuli]

The Nigerians did one of the most important things to do in a potential viral epidemic - KNOW with every effort you can muster where the potential spread of the contagion is by learning with every effort you can everyone who has come into contact with an infected person or with someone who has been in contact with an infected person. Don’t merely wait for new infections to self-identify.

So, it requires we ask the question: Has the Dallas hospital and CDC made the “contact chain” effort like Nigeria, extending out from their patient, to all his known contacts and all their contacts, or are they still just waiting for those in that chain to self-identify.

[TexasGator]

“Without reading the article, I’m gonna guess: No flights in or out, no one allowed to travel by any means and strict quarantines?”

You should read the article. The original case was like ours. He flew in, symptoms detected and then released to infect others.

[Secret Agent Man]

obama wants ebola to hurt america.

nigeria doesn’t want it to hurt nigeria.

that’s’why.

[ProtectOurFreedom]

Their president doesn’t want to exact REVENGE on his people.

[Sherman Logan]

Without reading the article, I’m gonna guess: No flights in or out, no one allowed to travel by any means and strict quarantines?

Nope.

Intense tracing and supervision of contacts.

[al baby]

Cover Your Mouth!
The spray radius of a sneeze is 15 feet. A sneeze is a reflex response using the muscles of the face, throat and,chest,releasing up to 40,000 droplets...

The droplets of a sneeze can travel as fast as 150 feet a second, so If a sneeze takes a little less than a tenth of a second then the answer would be around 15ft, I’d guesstimate the maximum straight line projection at 12 ft.

[Larry Lucido]

Those emails go viral!