The Ebola Virus

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medhead said:
What you clearly fail to approximate is that wet transmission even if inhaled is actually exchange of body fluids. It is well known that the virus lives in bodily fluids, so that someone inhaling, ingesting or injecting those bodily fluids have a very good chance to get infection.

On the other hand, a bodily fluid that lands on a surface and then dries in which the virus remains alive is vastly more difficult. Inhalation of dried, resuspended bodily fluid is very different to breathing in someone's sneeze. If the virus lived in that dried material a much greater risk is created.

You might see this as pedantics, but that is the strict definition. This is much better than just making something up that is out of step with the rest of the world. For a start your way means we can't even determine the appropriate PPE required.
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Technically a virus when not in a host is not alive. It is more of a case of whether the virus can be reactivated once dried.

Reminds me of my old Biology teacher telling us one reason why spitting in public is an offence in most places. For example a person that has Tuberculosis, if they spat in public, their spit would dry up and once dry could be picked up by the wind. The dried up spit could inhaled by another person(s).

I wonder if their is anything in journals regarding Ebola's viability outside the host.
 
juddles said:
If that were true we would have thousands of non-african cases already. Nice theorizing, but not mirrored by reality.
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Rubbish! Entirely dependent on a contagious passenger (i.e. actually in the active phase of the disease) being on the plane - a possibility that, thankfully, is still very uncommon.
 
Umm, for me being in a position to inhale a significant quantity of fluids ejected from a person is close personal contact.

whatmeworry said:
Technically a virus when not in a host is not alive. It is more of a case of whether the virus can be reactivated once dried.

Reminds me of my old Biology teacher telling us one reason why spitting in public is an offence in most places. For example a person that has Tuberculosis, if they spat in public, their spit would dry up and once dry could be picked up by the wind. The dried up spit could inhaled by another person(s).

I wonder if their is anything in journals regarding Ebola's viability outside the host.
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accept the correction. Was only talking in general terms.
 
Himeno said:
Just because that hospital is bad, doesn't mean there isn't fear mongering. Have you seen how the US media has been treating this?
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Having being in both American and African hospitals unless I had to be I would pick the African hospital
 
They screen for a raised temperature and then ask questions.
What percentage of people with a fever have Ebola?A tiny amount I would have thought.
 
Cartoon on Ebola.
First-Dog-on-the-Moon-18.-014.jpg
 
Reminds me of an excellent presentation I saw a few years ago from a uranium miner in Africa. The greenies got into the village an started banging on about the 0.0005% risk of someone dying in 50 years time. The mining company said malaria and HIV/aids. It is a stark comparison when massive percentages of the population suffer from those problems.
 
Princess Fiona said:
There was some sort of Ebola inservice at work today. Looks like anyone who's sick from an affected country presenting to an ED in NSW will be treated by staff in isolation wearing full PPE until it can be excluded.
http://www.health.nsw.gov.au/Infectious/alerts/Documents/NSW-EVD-Risk-Assessment-Algorithm.pdf
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Yep. We had videos emails around about Ebola and about donning PPE.

There was also a small news story about Ebola at a nsw hospital last week sometime. ;)
 
Well perhaps the end of the world is not nigh afterall....

WHO Declares Nigeria Ebola-Free After 42 Days With No Cases - NBC News
[FONT=proxima_nova_rgregular]ABUJA - The World Health Organization declared Nigeria Ebola free on Monday after a 42 day period with no new cases, a success story with lessons for countries still struggling to contain the deadly virus. "Nigeria is now free of Ebola," WHO representative Rui Gama Vaz told a news conference in the capital Abuja, prompting a round of applause from other officials. "This is a spectacular success story ... But we must be clear that we have only won a battle, the war will only end when West Africa is also declared free of Ebola."[/FONT]
[FONT=proxima_nova_rgregular]The first case in Nigeria, Africa's most populous nation, was imported from Liberia, when a Liberian-American diplomat called Patrick Sawyer collapsed at the main international airport in Lagos on July 20. Because the country was ill prepared and had no screening procedures in place, Sawyer was able to infect several people, including several health workers in the hospital where he was taken.[/FONT]
[FONT=proxima_nova_rgregular]

​

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[FONT=proxima_nova_rgregular]Ebola has killed 4,546 people across Liberia, Guinea and Sierra Leone, the three worst-affected countries. Nigeria had 20 cases in total, of which eight died.[/FONT]

Interesting comparing Nigeria to Texas....where it would appear that an ill-prepared hospital was a contributing factor to ebola spreading to two health-care workers.

Nigeria Declared Ebola-Free; 'Spectacular Success' - ABC News

Doctors who survived Ebola in Nigeria credited heavy doses of fluids with saving their lives as the World Health Organization declared the country Ebola-free Monday, a rare victory in the battle against the disease that is ravaging West Africa.
In the end, Nigeria — the most populous country in Africa, with 160 million people — had just 20 cases, including eight deaths, a lower death rate than the 70 percent seen elsewhere across the stricken region.
Officials are crediting strong tracking and isolation of people exposed to the virus, and aggressive rehydration of infected patients to counter the effects of vomiting, diarrhea and other symptoms.
Nigeria's containment of Ebola is a "spectacular success story," said Rui Gama Vaz, WHO director for Nigeria.
 
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I received this from HAL yesterday for a cruise we are on tomorrow

In light of recent national news regarding the Ebola virus, we wish to advise you that we have adopted new boarding procedures and screenings in conjunction with the US Centers for Disease Control (CDC) and World Health Organization (WHO). We are screening for any guests or crew who have visited or traveled through countries with Level 3 CDC Travel Health Notices (Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea) within 21 days of a cruise departure date and they will be denied boarding. We are also monitoring bookings for any guests coming from these countries. Additionally, we will deny boarding to any guest who has had physical contact with or helped care for a person suspected of having Ebola or diagnosed as having Ebola within a minimum of 21 days before embarkation, until further notice. Holland America Line has robust medical protocols that are consistent with public health recommendations. We are monitoring the situation closely, along with our colleagues in the rest of the travel industry. Guests seeking more information on Ebola can visit the World Health Organization's website at http://www.who.int; or the CDC site at Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
 
Princess Fiona said:
There was some sort of Ebola inservice at work today. Looks like anyone who's sick from an affected country presenting to an ED in NSW will be treated by staff in isolation wearing full PPE until it can be excluded.
http://www.health.nsw.gov.au/Infectious/alerts/Documents/NSW-EVD-Risk-Assessment-Algorithm.pdf
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Yes. That was started at one of Adelaide's large public hospitals two weeks ago. Someone was brought in by Ambulance and the isolation procedures commenced. Staff in ER looked at the Ambos uniforms and asked if they needed to go into isolation and the Ambulance taken off the road to be fumigated, given that the patient had symptoms and therefore contagious. Nup. Sigh.
 
Yeah and the tyres and road it drove on should have been replaced too! ;)
 
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ABC1 said:
Yeah.. thanks Tasmania, thanks a lot.
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That possibility was discussed on the TV over the weekend. For those who are so inclined, ie suicide bombers, I guess it wouldn't be all that difficult for someone to become exposed in Africa and then travel the world.

Plant, not sure what you mean. In the unlikely event that this person did have the Ebola virus then the procedures used weren't up to scratch.
 
I think the point is obvious; They shouldn't go off half coughed. Remove the ambulance and fumigate before even knowing if the patient has Ebola? Yeah ok.
 
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