Ebola Outbreak

http://www.newschannel9.com/news/to...-doctor-home-after-ebola-exposure-11907.shtml

 

By the way, Ebola to me is JFK to Tenny (although I also obsess over WW2 submarines). I gave a 4-H speech on the threat of tropical illnesses, including Ebola, in seventh grade. I've read all the books I know of. I even got to discuss Ebola with David Quammen over whiskey, as he was writing Spillover.

 

I read that differently. So the morristown doctor did quarantine himself

 

Yes. But there are people coming back that might not have the good sense to do so.

 

Brought to you by the people that built the Unsinkable Titanic.

 

Risk management. Just like the building of oil pipelines and offshore drilling.

 

The Hot Zone was a good read. Many folks do not realize that ebola has already been imported to US soil. Luckily, that particular form only infects primates, at least for now. It was airborne and wiped out an entire wing of a primate research import holding facility. That strain of the virus was named after the city where that facility was located, Ebola Reston..as in Reston, Virginia.

 

We have samples of them all.

Don't take my word for it, just look at the experimental treatment they flew out to the two American victims: it was made by exposing mice to 3 fragments of Ebola virus, and collecting the antibodies.

 

I don't doubt you at all. All I'm saying is that it came here in a not as controlled environment as the physician.

 

Right. That monkey house outbreak wasn't intentional, and had it been one of the human kinds there would have been at least 3 human deaths, maybe more. It is still hard to fathom this disease really breaking out in the US without going airborne.

 

The Reston Strain was airborne, right? Seems like I remember it being so, but it's been a ling time since I read about Dr. Nancy Jax and her exploits at USAMRID.

 

No, but it could be transmitted through aerosols (small droplets of water or anything like that). There is a strain that has gone airborne before though.

There is no reason to believe this current Ebola-Zaire strain is not transmittable by aerosols. As long as you aren't hosing down infected material, it should be okay. That is what happened in the monkey house. Enclosures were cleaned with a hose, that hose sent up spray and aerosols with the virus in it, spreading it across the facility rapidly.

 

http://7online.com/health/mount-sinai-patient-tested-for-ebola-virus/239663/


See, it isn't the people CDC flies in under quarantine you should be concerned about, guys. It is the random traveler that we don't know to isolate until they're already here and sick.

 

It is past time to control passengers coming to and from that region, by the way. Nothing drastic, just making sure they are secluded for 21 days after arriving from that part of the world, and discourage non-essential travel there.

 

There is a Dr Jane Orlien on TV right now saying they shouldn't have been brought to the US because some of this ebola is transmitted airborne. That there have been studies were test animals in separate cages transferred ebola between each other.

 

Ya, that was what Jay and I were saying. It is via aerosol, not airborne in the medical definition of the word. Yes, there is a strain that is airborne but this isn't it.


And I repeat, bringing Americans home in sealed containers to a controlled lab is not the danger. That is the wrong thing to focus on. There are people coming back via plane on their own every day that are the real risk.

 

Seriously, this Orlien is a quack shouting fire in a crowd if she is making a big deal about the CDC flying someone back, but not making mention of the doctor in Morristown, the guy in NYC, etc

 

I guess that's the aerosol scenario IP talked about. I just remember reading about monkeys in different sections getting the disease in Reston. My memory is fuzzy, but I think they even bulldozed that building. Again, it's been several years since reading. There were 3 strains I remember :Zaire, Sudan & Reston with Zaire being the most fatal.

 

There is also the Marburg virus, which is a close cousin of Ebola. It makes your hair fall out as well as giving you the other nasty symptoms, but it is only 40 % lethal.

 

Preventing infection for Ebola in the US is no different than the rules of flu prevention. Avoid touching your face. Avoid contact with others. Wash your hands regularly. Wash and sterilize surfaces touched by others regularly. Don't share needles. Don't have sex with strangers/multiple partners/a partner having sex with others. Don't handle dead bodies without following proper protocols. Don't eat meat of sick animals or animals found dead.

These seem obvious, but some combination of the above is behind all Ebola outbreaks.