"Treat the feverish African immigrant, you don't need protective gear they said, it'll be fine they said.'
Ebola polka
Democratic Republic?
Well, I guess that they have around the same governing “excellence” as our Democrats.
Bump
For those who don’t know:
The Democratic Republic of the Congo is an active war zone, making it dangerous for medical staff, especially foreign medical staff, to go into affected areas. Kidnapping and murder of foreigners is common.
Therefore, we can expect this outbreak to quickly become as bad as or worse than the 2014 outbreak, as doctors and nurses get exposed and die. 6.7 million infected with malaria. Half a million with HIV. Over 100,000 new cases of measles per year reported (more unreported). 4 million orphans. Population 82 million. Estimated number of doctors: less than 10,000. Although there exists a national health plan, no funding since 2010. So many of the less than 10,000 doctors have emigrated to where they can get paid.
Ebola bump for later.....
"Treat the feverish African immigrant, you don't need protective gear they said, it'll be fine they said.'
The DRC has the advantage that Ebola is a known disease there, unlike the case when Ebola broke out in Guinea. The name of the virus, in fact, is the name of the river in the Congo where the first outbreak was discovered. Thus, when there are Ebola cases in the Congo, they are recognized almost immediately.
That fact alone makes an outbreak the size of the one in West Africa unlikely.
The outbreak in Guinea, which spread to Sierra Leone and Liberia, went misidentified for months. It was thought to be Lassa fever, a disease with similar symptoms. By the time Ebola was correctly diagnosed, hundreds of people were already sick and hundreds more were exposed. So it took a massive effort to stop the outbreak.
I expect the outbreak in the Congo will run its course in a manner more like the typical outbreak.
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...