EBOLA CONFIRMED - WHO Warns That Ebola Outbreak in Republic of Congo Could Be Spreading

AP ^ | 02-19-03 | By Louis Okamba Associated Press Writer

[Neuromancer]

WHO Warns That Ebola Outbreak in Republic of Congo Could Be Spreading

By Louis Okamba Associated Press Writer

Published: Feb 19, 2003

BRAZZAVILLE, Republic of Congo (AP) - U.N. health officials confirmed Wednesday that a disease outbreak killing scores of people in the Republic of Congo was Ebola and warned that the highly lethal hemorrhagic fever could still be spreading.

"We're not suggesting that this is over or even contained. We're treating it as an active outbreak," said Iain Simpson, a World Health Organization spokesman in Geneva.

So far, 73 people have been infected, of whom 59 have died, according to WHO investigators. Government health officials in the tiny Central African nation report 80 cases with 67 deaths. The Cuvette West region, where the deaths have occurred, has been quarantined by the government since last week.

Blood samples drawn from victims in the region tested positive for the Ebola virus, said Josef Mboussa, a top official in Republic of Congo's health ministry. The disease is one of the world's deadliest, causing rapid death through massive blood loss in up to 90 percent of those infected. Ebola spreads through bodily fluids. Primates, hunted by many central Africans for food, can also carry the infection.

"There will probably be more deaths due to the complexity of the disease," said Mboussa. Mboussa wasn't able to say if medical examiners were registering new infections in the region; the first reports of the illness reached the capital, Brazzaville, over two weeks ago.

Ebola's two- to 21-day incubation period makes it difficult to gauge how quickly the outbreak may still be moving, Simpson said.

The forested Cuvette West region has 30,000 inhabitants spread among provincial towns and small villages. The disease has centered in the villages of Kelle and Mbomo.

Efforts to investigate the outbreak are being stymied. Frantic villagers terrified by Ebola's horrific symptoms have fled from health workers in their head-to-toe protective suits. Along with medical personnel, anthropologists have been sent to the region to help explain to the disease to people.

"The villagers are very scared; they see people getting sick and dying," said Simpson. "We're trying to get them to understand the situation." Ebola killed 43 people in Republic of Congo and 53 others in Gabon between October 2001 and February 2002.

WHO says more than 1,000 people have died of Ebola since the virus was first identified in 1976 in western Sudan and in a region of Congo.

[Neuromancer]

OLD THREAD

[Neuromancer]

ORIGINAL OUTBREAK IN APES

[Lil'freeper]

I'm sure that somehow this is all Pres. Bush's fault.

[ksen]

Ever read that book The Hot zone?

After reading that book I got the impression that Ebola burns itself out rather quickly. Still a nasty way to go though.....

[1234]

isn't this 'outbreak' stuff repeated multiple times every year? is this a Yawn...?

[ksen]

I'm sure that somehow this is all Pres. Bush's fault.

Yep, you know if it wasn't for Homeland Defense putting the U.S. on Orange Alert than the African villagers wouldn't be so scared of the guys in the hazmat suits and take off spreading the disease even further.

I mean they've been hearing things like "poison gas", "Bin Laden", "terrorist", what do you expect the villagers to do when they see the men in white suits show up?

[MassExodus]

Read that a while back ... very scary.

"Blood Bomb" - Ugh.

[realpatriot71]

Outbreaks of ebola have been occuring much more rapidly in the last few years, so I don't think this is a yawn, but a possible "tell-tale" sign that the virus is coming into contact with human more and more often. The frightening thing is no one knows where the virus comes from. It just shows up.

[Mr. Bird]

I read The Hot Zone and that quickly eliminated any ideas I had about visiting Africa. You are correct that Ebola burns out fast; it's actually an interesting anomaly, in that it is too virulent to maintain exponential growth.

Another interesting fact is that nearly half of all Ebola victims actually survive. How'd you like to endure a disease that liquifies your internal organs but doesn't kill you? Yikes.

[Neuromancer]

Ebola hemorrhagic fever (Ebola HF) is a severe, often-fatal disease in humans and nonhuman primates (monkeys and chimpanzees) that has appeared sporadically since its initial recognition in 1976.

The disease is caused by infection with Ebola virus, named after a river in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (formerly Zaire) in Africa, where it was first recognized.

The virus is one of two members of a family of RNA viruses called the Filoviridae. Three of the four species of Ebola virus identified so far have caused disease in humans: Ebola-Zaire, Ebola-Sudan, and Ebola-Ivory Coast. The fourth, Ebola-Reston, has caused disease in nonhuman primates, but not in humans.
 
The Hot Zone dealt with Ebola-Reston. But chilling all the same...

[ksen]

Just think what the terrorists could do if they could figure out how to transmit Ebola via some sort of aerosol. *shudder*

[DoctorMichael]

Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh Africa!

..........that continent that enlightened Luddite leaders like Algore aspire to include America with, along with the Greens and the ennui-peddling black leadership.

Just think! A 'simpler' way of life, led closer to mother nature (oops.........Gaia) where we can be embraced in her comforting busom. {/sarcasm}

[Neuromancer]

Implications for US National Security

As a major hub of global travel, immigration, and commerce with wide-ranging interests and a large civilian and military presence overseas, the United States and its equities abroad will remain at risk from infectious diseases.

Emerging and reemerging infectious diseases, many of which are likely to continue to originate overseas, will continue to kill at least 170,000 Americans annually. Many more could perish in an epidemic of influenza or yet-unknown disease or if there is a substantial decline in the effectiveness of available HIV/AIDS drugs.

Infectious diseases are likely to continue to account for more military hospital admissions than battlefield injuries. US military personnel deployed at NATO and US bases overseas, will be at low-to-moderate risk. At highest risk will be US military forces deployed in support of humanitarian and peacekeeping operations in developing countries.

The infectious disease burden will weaken the military capabilities of some countries--as well as international peacekeeping efforts--as their armies and recruitment pools experience HIV infection rates ranging from 10 to 60 percent. The cost will be highest among officers and the more modernized militaries in Sub-Saharan Africa and increasingly among FSU states and possibly some rogue states.

Infectious diseases are likely to slow socioeconomic development in the hardest-hit developing and former communist countries and regions. This will challenge democratic development and transitions and possibly contribute to humanitarian emergencies and civil conflicts.
Infectious disease-related embargoes and restrictions on travel and immigration will cause frictions among and between developed and developing countries.

The probability of a bioterrorist attack against US civilian and military personnel overseas or in the United States also is likely to grow as more states and groups develop a biological warfare capability. Although there is no evidence that the recent West Nile virus outbreak in New York City was caused by foreign state or nonstate actors, the scare and several earlier instances of suspected bioterrorism showed the confusion and fear they can sow regardless of whether or not they are validated.

[Domestic Church]

Back a few months, there was a thread about the possibility of birds being a carrier of ebola. I think it was a Perdue study.

[auggy]

"The frightening thing is no one knows where the virus comes from. It just shows up."

Let's hope it doesn't show up over here after we attack Iraq. We will know where it came from ,if it does.

[realpatriot71]

Interesting. I hadn't seen that. Have any links? If not, I'll just check google later. :-)

[realpatriot71]

Let's hope it doesn't show up over here after we attack Iraq. We will know where it came from ,if it does.

Naturally occuring Ebola, while being VERY deadly to those infected (60-90% mortality rate, depending on the strain), probably wouldn't make a good biological weapon for that same reason. People die or are incapacitated to soon to spread the dz to others efficiently.

[dinasour]

Back a few months, there was a thread about the possibility of birds being a carrier of ebola. I think it was a Perdue study.

Oh No!

Save the Oven Stuffer Roasters.