EBOLA, creeping timebomb?

[bluninja]

Did we catch a break? Who knows if there'll ever be anything virile enough to spread across the globe. One thing we do know though, is that we ain't ready for it.

You mean this sort of thing has happened before ...

Sorry you seemed to be postulating if there will ever be anything virile enough to spread across the globe. Given that Flu made it round the world when there weren't regular intercontinental flights to infect an estimated one third of the worlds population and killing an estimated 50-100 million people worldwide, I'd say it was already here waiting for the next lethal mutation. Ebola has nothing on influenza

[mashman]

Sorry you seemed to be postulating if there will ever be anything virile enough to spread across the globe. Given that Flu made it round the world when there weren't regular intercontinental flights to infect an estimated one third of the worlds population and killing an estimated 50-100 million people worldwide, I'd say it was already here waiting for the next lethal mutation. Ebola has nothing on influenza

Today is what I meant (more people, global travel etc...). Like you say, if, when, the real flu comes back there's gonna be one hell of a mess. From what I can see we ain't ready for it in the slightest... and the bit that really pisses me off is that there will be country's that won't be able to afford any cure/vaccine and will be left to die with the people and the country being blamed no less.

[pete376403]

The 1918 flu could well have been distributed by soldiers returning to home countries from WWI. (by sea, of course.)

[Naki Rat]

How about a reality check from Laurie Garrett, author of the best selling 'The Coming Plague'

[bluninja]

I saw a bit of an internet video where they said there does not have to be contact for it to spread and that someone with it got on a plane which would mean everyone on that plane would get it possibly. So people getting on planes run a risk of getting Ebola as well as it crashing if the video is true. Also it was in the news last week that 10 out of 15 Boeing employees would not fly on the Dreamliner due to quality control issues.

An expert on Ebola transmission, safe riding, aeronautical build quality, and the ability to link Ebola spread to Boeing Dreamliner's quality control in the same paragraph.

So if the Dreamliner crashes with an Ebola infected person on board and it lands in the sea, would that transmit the virus everywhere?

[oldrider]

I saw a bit of an internet video where they said there does not have to be contact for it to spread and that someone with it got on a plane which would mean everyone on that plane would get it possibly. So people getting on planes run a risk of getting Ebola as well as it crashing if the video is true. Also it was in the news last week that 10 out of 15 Boeing employees would not fly on the Dreamliner due to quality control issues.

Not to mention "friendly fire" from the forces of evil above below and all around ...

[awa355]

What the f***k is the point of this??

http://www.aljazeera.com/news/europe...631278150.html

Wouldn't it make sense to take the vaccine to Darkest Africa and find a health worker, working with the disease to trial any vaccine?

[Winston001]

Tend to agree but getting approval for human testing of any medicine is very difficult. There are all sorts of safety protocols and restrictions.

Experimenting on dark skinned naive Africans tends to be frowned on. Even if it makes sense in this particular instance.

Thalidomide is the lesson always lurking in the back of scientists minds. (Actually it is still used but not by pregnant women).

[oldrider]

Interesting enough if anyone was game enough to go over there and try to treat the victims with anything other than "approved big phama drugs", the so called authorities would have them run out of town or jailed rather than give it a try!

One would think it should be an opportunity to try alternative treatment when there is little or no other hope of a successful treatment!

[george formby]

I've missed the middle bit of this thread but has anyone mentioned HIV? Out of Africa.

Then we has the Asian contributions, like bird flu, slowly jumping to new species every few years.

Happy days.

Jeez, the long term consequences of CJD are still not apparent.

And yeah, influenza. The virus can live in mucus on a public telephone mouth piece for hours in temperatures just above freezing. Very infectious.

Ebola is nasty but quite difficult to catch in the Western world.
And vaccine smacchine. The British aid Doctor who is alive & well put his cure down to good hospital care not the new wonder drug.

[ricardohardo]

I've missed the middle bit of this thread but has anyone mentioned HIV? Out of Africa.

Then we has the Asian contributions, like bird flu, slowly jumping to new species every few years.

Happy days.

Jeez, the long term consequences of CJD are still not apparent.

And yeah, influenza. The virus can live in mucus on a public telephone mouth piece for hours in temperatures just above freezing. Very infectious.

Ebola is nasty but quite difficult to catch in the Western world.
And vaccine smacchine. The British aid Doctor who is alive & well put his cure down to good hospital care not the new wonder drug.

Would it also be difficult to catch in NZ due to our lack of bats & kiwi biker moderators inability to get any ?

(Lollipop to the Mod who corrects my grammar first)

'The WHO also warns against consuming raw bushmeat and any contact with infected bats or monkeys and apes. Fruit bats in particular are considered a delicacy in the area of Guinea where the outbreak started.

In March, Liberia's health minister advised people to stop having sex, in addition to existing advice not to shake hands or kiss. The WHO says men can still transmit the virus through their semen for up to seven weeks after recovering from Ebola - BBC '

NB: NZ already has a significant population of monkeys.



.

[Paul in NZ]

The 1918 flu could well have been distributed by soldiers returning to home countries from WWI. (by sea, of course.)

It was

It was called the spanish flu because spain wasnt a main theatre of WW1 so the serious flu there could be reported.

In two months New Zealand lost about half as many people to influenza as it had in the whole of the First World War. No event has killed so many New Zealanders in such a short time.

Many people believed that the severe form of influenza was caused by the arrival of ‘a deadly new virus’ aboard the Royal Mail liner Niagara on 12 October, (The PM at the time Massey and Ward were onboard and refused to be quaranteened) but this is unlikely to have been the case.

However the pandemic arose, by the time it eased in December the death toll had topped 8600. Maori suffered heavily, with at least 2160 deaths. But death did not occur evenly either among Maori or New Zealanders as a whole: some communities were decimated; others escaped largely unscathed. The only places struck with uniform severity were military camps.

Central committees were established to coordinate relief efforts, and areas were divided into blocks or districts, each with its own ‘depot or bureau’. Many public facilities and businesses closed, and public events and gatherings were postponed. With the medical workforce already stretched due to the war, volunteers had to fill the gaps, whether in their own household or in their local community.

In the aftermath, the public sought answers from the government. What they got was a major reorganisation in the form of the 1920 Health Act, which Geoffrey Rice, author of Black November: The 1918 influenza pandemic in New Zealand, describes as ‘the most useful legacy' of the pandemic.

HOWEVER - you have to remember that between 300 and 500 MILLION people caught this globally and 30 to 50 million of them DIED...

3% to 5% of the world population...

After our recent brush with the flu where Vicki came as close as anyone needs to come to dying and the wife of a work mate wasnt so lucky, trust me when I say that things like influenza can kill you faster than you would think.

NEVER underestimate this stuff...

[R650R]

Hhhhhmmmm listening to news about the guy who flew Liberia to Texas.
They refusing to release details of his flight, saying zero risk to other passengers....

[yokel]

well looks like that terrorist group EBOLA has a cell in the US.

http://www.cnbc.com/id/102037055

[SPman]

Listening to a Dr just back from Nigeria (from her 3 week quarantine at home...) - reckons there'll be 1.4mil cases by early 2015, and most countries are sitting on their hands about the whole scenario. "Terrorists" are much more worthy.........