Ebola epidemic 'out of control' says charity

[n2doc]

Global medical charity Doctors Without Borders has given warning that the Ebola crisis in West Africa is "unprecedented, absolutely out of control", as states across the world took steps to prevent its spread.

Bart Janssens, the charity's director of operations, warned there was no overarching vision of how to tackle the outbreak, in an interview with Belgium's La Libre Belgique newspaper.

"This epidemic ... can only get worse, because it is still spreading, above all in Liberia and Sierra Leone, in some very important hotspots," Janssens said.

"We are extremely worried by the turn of events, particularly in these two countries where there is a lack of visibility on the epidemic. If the situation does not improve fairly quickly, there is a real risk of new countries being affected.

"That is certainly not ruled out, but it is difficult to predict, because we have never known such an epidemic."

more

http://www.aljazeera.com/news/africa/2014/07/ebola-epidemic-out-control-says-charity-2014730143330618539.html

[Squinch]

1. I have a "Here it comes!" feeling about this. There are large communities from both

Sierra Leone and Liberia throughout the US, and there is a lot of travel back and forth.

[Lee-Lee]

2. Me too

I've been seriously thinking about limiting how much I go around people the next few weeks and making sure I could hole up at home for a whole if need be.

[Squinch]

3. I hate to admit this, but I looked up the incubation period, and then did a little calculation

of how much food I would need if an outbreak happened here.

[Lee-Lee]

12. My old boss used to require us to have 3 weeks food at home

His reasoning was that when we had some sort of disaster he wanted his deputies to be able to work and not worry if they or their families would be fed, and he didn't want us to be a drain on the relief work we were supposed to be helping facilitate.

When I got hired he asked how many people lived in the house, I said just me, and they gave me 7 cases of MRE's along with my uniforms and gear.

Seemed a little over the top then. Over time it's seemed more and more reasonable.

[Laffy Kat]

17. Totally unnecessary at this point.

Relax. I'll be the first to panic when it's time. It ain't time.

[spinbaby]

4. Three-week incubation period

I heard this morning on the news that the incubation for ebola is three weeks. In three weeks a seemingly healthy person could travel around the world and infect half of China before they figure out they're sick.

[charlie and algernon]

5. That's why I kinda think China's over-reaction to the so-called plague victim may have been a cover

for what may have been an Ebola victim. Someone who got on a plane and made it to China before coming down with the symptoms. At that point, China is more than justified for laying down the quarantine net to prevent a catastrophic Ebola pandemic. Only they can't say it was Ebola for fear of inciting a major panic. But you say it's Plague and people won't ask too many questions.

[Squinch]

8. Yes. But I read a study saying that there are 5% who have incubation periods of up to 4 weeks.

[pnwmom]

11. Except they say that people are only infectious when they're having symptoms.

Which is why they let the family of Dr. Brantley go home -- although they're watching them carefully. They weren't exposed to him in the few days before he got sick.

[spinbaby]

22. That's good to know

I hope it's true.

[pnwmom]

23. Took the words out of my mouth. n/t

[ProdigalJunkMail]

6. It may be seriously time to limit travel

where the outbreak is running rampant... unfortunately, the countries in question don't really have gov't's that can enforce any real control so it might just be that stopping inbound flights (or at least quarantining) may become necessary to control the spread.

sP

[Aerows]

7. People that survive it

are still contagious up to seven weeks later. How's that for scary?

[B2G]

9. Yep and it's readily transmissible through sexual contact.

[zappaman]

10. Mother Earth is fighting the parasites that are trying to kill her.

This is serious shit.
If it has mutated to become airborne, we will see a big reduction in the world's population!

[La Lioness Priyanka]

14. is is serious but there not as an act of a vengeful and conscious earth. nt

[CrispyQ]

13. I read an article several years ago that stated the US medical system is not

prepared for a big outbreak of anything. It was quite scary & I doubt things have gotten any better, she says, trying not to think of "The Stand."

[Warren Stupidity]

16. We've underfunded our public health infrastructure for decades.

Who needs a public health infrastructure when their a bright new shiny for profit health "services" to be built and a huge captive market of peasants to extract rent from?

[Warren Stupidity]

15. The fact that major city hospitals in europe and america are "taking steps"

is very telling. This has gotten out of hand. Ebola's emergence in Lagos was a clear indication that it has broken out of its prior rural isolated nasty lethal infection mode.

[raccoon]

18. Get your will drawn up, if you haven't already. nt

[CoffeeCat]

19. Here are a few things that I am most concerned about...

I'm wondering if Ebola is now airborne? Three doctors who treated Ebola patients in Africa, had been doing this work for months. Suddenly, they all have Ebola; one has died, one is in critical condition and one is in serious condition. All three doctor were taking extreme precautions, wearing protective garb/masks and following CDC guidelines for infectious-disease prevention. But they still contracted Ebola and curiously--within days of each other.

Has this particular Ebola strain evolved--and become airborne or more virulent?

Also, this situation with Dr. Sawyer, the man who fought Ebola in Liberia, is curious. He flew to Nigera and then collapsed while disembarking. He then died of Ebola five days later. No doubt, this man was very ill while on that plane. Was he contagious? Seems highly likely, considering his sudden collapse and quick death. Interesting note about passengers on his flight. They either deplaned and went to Nigera (hotels or their homes) or they boarded other flights. For some odd reason, passenger-flight-list records were not kept for that flight. Those people are dispersed all over the world, most likely. They were not detained or monitored for symptoms. They're living their lives, some traveling and most likely unaware that they shared a flight with someone who died of Ebola.

Dr. Sawyer collapsed on 7/20. So, if people on that plane were infected, we should begin to see those new cases surface.

We are still learning as this crisis unfolds--but this has the potential to spread and mimic the horrors that we've seen in books like The Hot Zone and movies like Contagion.

[GusBob]

20. he was very sick according to reports vomiting

And his sister had died from the disease. He had to know the risks. This story is very disturbing

[davidn3600]

21. Sawyer was apparently interacting with his sister in Liberia

Sawyer had been caring for his Ebola-stricken sister in Liberia, Decontee said, though at the time he didn't know she had Ebola.

http://www.cnn.com/2014/07/29/health/ebola-outbreak-american-dies/index.html

That's almost certainly where he got infected.