--> LATEST: Saudi man suspected of contracting Ebola on trip to Sierra Leone dies in a Jeddah hospital, health officials say

Just like me. That's the first thing I thought of too!

Ann Coulter, who was there at the same time I was, agreed.

Which explains a lot about the subject line here.

I'm obviously missing the joke here.

yes indeed

I am absolutely dying laughing

I can't even breathe I am laughing so damn hard

How I missed that is beyond me LOL

And I thought maybe getting herpes was scary.

happens to me often if I am not wearing my "good" glasses

....right to the end.

From HELL

(After Aerows realizes she was late to the party on that one)

I, on the other hand, am a twisted old man!

Asia and the Mid-East would suffer the brunt of the epidemic but we would see panic and quite possibly looting and the subsequent gun related deaths in the streets of the US.

For one, Ebola is only transmitted by bodily fluids. It is not an airborne virus!

Second, Ebola is so quickly deadly that there is not enough time for it to spread before it is diagnosed.

Plus, where Ebola is spreading is where the medical infrastructure is least able to control it.

It is not airborne. So there has to be some other vector.

Ebola has been studied for decades. It is transmitted via contact with bodily fluids. There is no other possible vector, possibly other than magic. Now the magic hypothesis may gain some ground in Kansas, Oklahoma, or some other areas of the world, but in the real world in order for diseases to spread there has to have a mode of transfer. For Ebola, it is bodily fluids. Note that Ebola is not an airborne contagion.

No you do not have to come in contact with bodily fluids - period end of subject - what does it take to register

Touch the skin, clothing, sit in the same chair after a contagious person has sat in it - any close proximity to an infectious person

AND in case studies AIRBORN

For fucking Christ sake. If you touch somebody with a hemoraghic fever, they are going to be sweating, vomiting, and will have loose stool, plus in later stages be bleeding out.

Any physical contact with the patient can transmit the virus. But the vector is bodily fluids, not magic. And no, Ebola is not airborne, and thankfully is not likely to become airborne.

Here: http://www.cdc.gov/vhf/ebola/

I guess its part of all the AIDs HIV prevention training/education we have all been going through

With Ebola - you can merely sit in the same seat, handle a piece of clothing, change the bed sheets a contagious person has come in contact with and contract Ebola - an incredible difference between HIV and Ebola

and BTW - they refer to that as "Direct Contact"

Which can be deposited on surfaces in contact with an infected body. Again, it does not transmit by magic. If my Ebola fevered sweaty hand touches a door knob, and you touch the same door knob, that's a vector for transmission.

Ebola is not an airborne infection, but it can live a relatively long time outside an infected host. In Africa it is spreading partially because of burial practices. The virus is still active after it kills the host.

Please go to the CDC Web site and learn what Ebola is and is not.

I spent the afternoon reading the CDC stuff about Ebola and about the flu, and it seems the only difference is that Ebola doesn't transmit EASILY through inhaling the droplets. However, if you get some spray in your eye, you may have an issue. It's not simply 'bodily fluids' as how we understand HIV transmission to occur - it's much more contagious than that.

It's not like they have BSL-4's around every corner. There's only 15 in the USA. Of course, one is at the CDC in Atlanta where they've been studying Ebola for decades.

The reason why Ebola is killing so many in Africa is based on multiple issues.

1. It is close to the origin of the disease, likely a bat virus, or something like that.

2. The medical infrastructure is unable to contain the infection.

3. It is exacerbated by cultural issues which give rise to further infection. E.G., burial practices, distrust of western medicine, religious practices, etc.

you don't need BSL-4's to contain this. And my understanding is there are only 4, not 15.

If we DO need that level of containment to stop it, we're in serious trouble should it arrive here.

Dr. Brantly:

?n=5921

Here: http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Biosafety_level

If you have more accurate and well sourced information, maybe you can make a correction to the Wiki.

The only such facility on the African continent is in South Africa.

So, I stand by my post.

on edit: treating it and studying it are two different issues. Only the latter requires a BSL-4. However, in the areas of Africa where Ebola outbreaks are happening medical facilities are ill equipped to prevent the spread, which is precisely why we're having this rather large problem.

Regards.

There are only 4 treatment facilities.

That's what I assumed you were referring to, because a lab won't do you any good during an outbreak.

I spent five weeks in isolation in 1967, infectious hepatitis. The issue is protocols.

The traditional handshake is no longer a part of salutations in Guinea as people are now really terrified of being infected with Ebola.

An infected person, who may not show symptoms for up to 21 days, can pass on the disease through direct contact.

Mariam Mansare Schoolteacher
" I don't go to any funeral now whether it is an Ebola-related death or not

"I no longer go out of the house just so that I do not have cause to shake people's hands," Mohamed Barry, a 65-year-old retired civil servant, said.

(snip)Liberia's Health Minister Walter Gwenigale raised a laugh on Monday at a press conference when he warned people to stop having sex because the virus was spread via bodily fluids.

"I see some people smiling but we have to tell you all the facts so that you don't get contaminated," he said.

But news of the Ebola outbreak has not yet affected night life in the capital, as the city's clubs remain open till dawn.
-----------------------------------

The outbreak originated in the southern Forest Region where Geuckedou is thought to be the hardest hit town with more than half of the cases of infection and deaths.

Bats, a local delicacy in the south, are thought be carriers of the virus. Their sale and consumption has been banned by the health ministry along with other bushmeat.

(snip)...in most countries of the region, like in Ivory Coast, the government has advised people not to consume bush meat but it is not been banned and I am told that you can still see it on sale on the side of the road outside the main city Abidjan.
--------------------------------------
(snip)
Trade frozen

The outbreak is also affecting business. Senegal, for example, has closed its land borders with Guinea until further notice, and hundreds of people and their merchandise are stranded in vehicles on the Guinean side.


http://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-26844105

and people are EATING the things ! Ack !!

...maybe just ignorance but some people don't seem too concerned. Yikes!

They think it may be able to transmit via moist air droplets and thus not able to travel far. But far enough as in the below referenced case where separated pigs and monkeys were found to have transmitted the virus from one to the other.

This is all based on 1 study ( a non repeated study) using a total of 4 monkeys.

1) The virus used in mentioned study is Ebola strain Kikwit 95 not the Ebola Zaire strain currently circulating, TOTALLY different strains. Further the virus in this study was grown to high titer in a lab , over years, on Vero cells ( a monkey cell line). This allows the virus to more efficiently infect monkey cells, it can overcome cellular tropism.

2) Ebola can be shed in nasal secretions( i.e. sneezing) or any bodily fluid that is well known, as is that can pigs sneeze also well known. Fomites ( virus deposited on surfaces via nasal droplets happens this way) and is considered still considered direct contact NOT airborne.

3) The authors of the study offer other just as reasonable routes of entry for why the monkeys got sick AND they themselves do not definitely conclude airborne transmission.( mostly fomites)

Under conditions of the current study, transmission of ZEBOV
could have occurred either by inhalation (of aerosol or larger droplets),
and/or droplet inoculation of eyes and mucosal surfaces and/or
by fomites due to droplets generated during the cleaning of the room.
Infection of all four macaques in an environment, preventing direct
contact between the two species and between the macaques themselves,
supports the concept of airborne transmission.
It is of interest, that the first macaques to become infected were
housed in cages located directly within the main airflow to the air
exhaust system. The experimental setting of the present study could
not quantify the relative contribution of aerosol, small and large
droplets in the air, and droplets landing inside the NHP cages
(fomites) to EBOV transmission between pigs and macaques.
These parameters will need to be investigated using an experimental
approach specifically designed to address this question

supports but does not prove.

4)They gave those piglets A SHIT TON of virus up the nose to make them ill. A million viral particles (about 2 to 3 times a lethal dose, far more than one person would come into contact with unless they handled copious amounts of infected body secretions ). Also when given this way it gets on their fur, snouts etc dribbles out. They give so much in studies to ensure animals get ill (due to high cost of repeating it if the animal do not become infected ) but it is not real a world scenario. Like spraying up your nose with garden hose of Ebola laden water.

5) Finally look at their defined " no contact" housing. (pic attached below). The monkeys are housed directly under the powerful air exchange for the entire room and couldn't move for 12 days surrounded by the piglets. 12 days! All while under a powerful airflow (ten complete room volumes of air exchanges per hour) in the room. ( FYI all rooms in a BSL4 are all under negative pressure with unidirectional airflow). Every nasal droplet shed in that room is is heading towards those monkeys. Fomites could have gotten on/in their eyes, mouth ,water, food, cage, etc Their whole set up is designed to maximize exposure to fomites.

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6) Last MAJOR geek point our receptors on our cells are different than the monkeys, close but not the same. This virus and others, require a receptor to enter lung epithelium. Even if this study was the gospel truth( it is not) (and not DONE under highly manipulated conditions with a mere 4 monkeys) and you took the study virus and gave it to directly people, the virus would still have to mutate to infect new hosts ( people). This actually takes a fair bit of time as it has to be past around alot first before anyone would get sick/die due to again to cellular tropism.

TL R this study is is like when Myth busters has to finally resorting to blowing up whatever because the myth they tried was found to be busted/improbable.

Sorry for the long post

Hope this helps.
bench

I can't say there's anything to recommend it, although it's widely consumed in the south pacific islands where i was living.

Or fruit?

Because it was cooked in that! I suspect the meat would taste like rodent. Rabbit maybe.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-28678699