Ebola fear factor

[Suff]

Quarantine before leaving is one answer, but that well known medical facility, The World Bank, is against because of what it might do to the W. African and wider global economy.

Only because they haven't, yet, calculated the damage to the world economy as a whole if Ebola skips W Africa and starts to spread in the first world with first world travel..... Then we'll see just how much money and how many restrictions can be applied to the problem....

Or it will die out and go away. One of the other.

[victor]

apparently the CAPE VERDE islands will not allow travellers from African countries affected

[Workingman]

Breaking news is that one of the health care workers in Dallas who had been treating Thomas Duncan, who died of Ebola last week, has tested positive.

That means another group of possible contacts will have to be isolated and monitored for another three weeks along with those currently being monitored as contacts of Duncan.

And so it could go on......

[Kaz]

Like I said, all of those nursing and treating Ebola patients must be in quarantine themselves until they are 100% sure to be clear. This means 21 days after their last contact!

[Workingman]

Like ripples in a pond........

This new Dallas case is the second case of a carer becoming infected and Dallas is only 2/3 of the way through its first quarantine period. Another separate group now has to be monitored. In Spain the nurse who contracted Ebola from a patient is now gravely ill and the authorities are monitoring people outside of her work colleague or social groups.

I am beginning to wonder what could happen if carers of previous carers continue to become infected. Will hospitals start to run out of staff as more and more people have to be monitored/quarantined? What would happen if medical staff, fearful for their own lives, start to or refuse to care for those with Ebola?

[Diflower]

That's just what I was thinking WM, will the nursing staff and doctors be willing to work with the next one/s?
It's becoming less convincing that it's so hard to catch, after all

[Kaz]

It is getting really worrying, I don't think I would volunteer TBH

[Suff]

It is important to know whether the person was infected before they diagnosed Ebola. I doubt that was stated.

Remember that the US has already successfully treated one infected person. What it comes down to is treating every case as potential Ebola. That is the only way that medical staff will be safe.

[Workingman]

United States 2-1 Ebola, possibly 2.

The people the US saved were their own who were volunteers; every effort was put in to save them. Of the others, one was a Liberian visiting his family and who was treated in a local hospital, the other is one of his carers from that hospital. 48 people are now being monitored. In Spain two patients, priests, were also cared for and one of their carers is now infected. We do not know how many other suspected peoople are being monitored.

We now see roads and driveways being washed with strong bleach and the houses and areas where the infected were known to have been being deep-cleaned. Why is that? We were told that the Ebola virus was "fragile" and was neutralised in seconds on work surfaces, doors, clothing etc.. So, is the deep-cleaning necessary or is it a PR exercise?

Somebody, somewhere, is not telling the truth about Ebola.

We now learn that NHS 111 is being told to screen for Ebola. So, anyone ringing in with a fever, high temperature, etc., is to be processed as possible Ebola. It's autumn going on winter, we get colds, flu, FCOL! On the one hand we are ineffectively testing people at some ports, on the other we are scaring the life out of people on 111.

[Suff]

I haven't done a huge amount of reading into Ebola, but what I do know is that it is extremely fragile in a hot dry climate with lots of UV from the sun. The Sudan, for instance, is about as hostile as it gets for Ebola.

It does, however, survive quite well in warm moist climates with low light. Basically where it thrives which is the jungle. As far as I'm aware, if you trace every single Ebola outbreak back to it's origins, it starts somewhere in the jungle.

However what I also do know is that, in liquid form, it is incredibly infectious. Get some blood on you and you are infected. Of course, because it's a haemorrhagic fever, there's loads of blood coming out of the patients as the disease runs to the end of it's course.

So bleaching drives? Not so clever or so needed. Deep cleaning the house? Depends on the light levels, moisture content of the atmosphere and how warm it is.

We know from test that a virus can become dormant for thousands if not millions of years in deep cold conditions. So how long it last in ideal conditions is unknown except to places like CDC and, possibly places like Porton Down. So cleaning the house sounds sensible.

The beginnings of a healthy fear. What we need now are fear and information in equal doses. Something we're unlikely to get.