Ebola Outbreak in Africa

[Oryx]

This has been going on for a while, but we currently have the biggest outbreak of Ebola Zaire in history in Africa, maybe in the UK, and we are currently trying to transport two infected people back to the US. While it seems like we know enough about the virus and how it spreads through bodily fluids to be able to stem the infections, often these nations have rituals that will cause infection and they don't trust doctors enough to end those rituals, such as washing the corpse of a victim. Over 1,300 people infected, and over 900 of those died.

To contain the virus, neighborhoods are starting to be quarantined and schools are closed in Liberia, and in Sierra Leone all public meetings are banned. While one would hope that this is contained soon, it's only getting worse as of now.

 

[PokemonLeagueChamp]

Brilliant country, the US, with the bringing a highly infectious disease with no known cure and a high mortality rate within our borders. Nothing can possibly go wrong with that plan.

 

[The Void]

Science brings hope. This April, a molecule called BCX4430 was shown to work against filoviruses such as Ebola when tested on monkeys.

https://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v508/n7496/full/nature13027.html

 

[Star-Lord]

Brilliant country, the US, with the bringing a highly infectious disease with no known cure and a high mortality rate within our borders. Nothing can possibly go wrong with that plan.

You do realize that the US is probably one of the best countries that's equipped to deal with it right? It's a political move because I think it's international law (or a law Bush put into place) that they're legally required to take the US people back in.

 

[PokemonLeagueChamp]

It still seems extraordinarily risky, given the nature of Ebola. At the very least they could have brought them somewhere more remote than the center of a highly populated urban area.

Not to mention the media has yet to mention just how they contracted the disease. Were they not wearing protective gear? If they were and still became infected, then we have a big problem.

 

[Oryx]

It still seems extraordinarily risky, given the nature of Ebola. At the very least they could have brought them somewhere more remote than the center of a highly populated urban area.

Not to mention the media has yet to mention just how they contracted the disease. Were they not wearing protective gear? If they were and still became infected, then we have a big problem.

There have been various stories floating around, that all fall into the "someone screwed up" camp. Some of them are that they should have been in suits in an area and were not, some of them were that they were in a clean area and someone infected didn't know they were and came in and infected them.

 

[Pinkie-Dawn]

I've just heard about this outbreak when a friend of mine showed me this article yesterday: https://www.globalresearch.ca/obama...-americans-with-respiratory-illnesses/5394419


He wasn't quite happy about Obama's decision on dealing with Ebola because he thinks a simple cough can get you locked away in quarantine. However, a few of his facebook followers were calling him out on that claim.

 

[Oryx]

I think people that are all "they can detain us even if we're well???" have no idea what this disease is like. It's a terrifying, massively deadly disease and if someone who might have had contact has to stay in quarantine a week I'm not going to cry over it. Americans have a nasty habit of spreading our sicknesses because we can't just acknowledge we're ill and not go places.

 

[Frequency]

Americans have a nasty habit of spreading our sicknesses because we can't just acknowledge we're ill and not go places.

ALL of this, jesus.

I would like to point out that I'm getting immensely sick of people constantly calling conspiracy theory, or bio-warfare. I've seen like 12 people talk about how this is a plot against humanity, like it's Resident Evil 5 actually happening in real life. I know people say the dumbest things, but this is a bit much.

Now as far as what I think about bringing the infected ones back here, if it can help them get some sort of counter/vaccine to this out, I say go for it. I mean I don't more people getting infected, but damned if we do, damned if we don't? Only difference here is that "Well it's only in Africa, so it's okay, right?" but that's a terrible outlook and I don't care for it. I hope it gets contained because it's really getting out of hand out there.

 

[Silais]

Americans have a nasty habit of spreading our sicknesses because we can't just acknowledge we're ill and not go places.

I think this has to do with the fact that we as Americans receive very little sick time or vacation. I may have a cold or the flu, but if I only receive a week or two of sick leave a year, can I really risk taking time off?

 

[Sydian]

All I know is that they brought two infected Americans to Atlanta which is an hour away from me so I can't help but feel slightly terrified. My medical knowledge is moot though, so someone smarter than me is free to either alleviate or encourage my fears. I prefer the former. I know we're better equipped to deal with this disease, but still. It's just a bit too close to home for me to take it lightly.

 

[Belldandy]

I think this has to do with the fact that we as Americans receive very little sick time or vacation. I may have a cold or the flu, but if I only receive a week or two of sick leave a year, can I really risk taking time off?

That, and if you have kids it's worse. In Canada, you don't get "bonus days" for sick days because your kids are sick. You could be bed ridden for a week and if you have three kids that need supervision due to illness, employers don't care and can penalize you for absences related to not your own illness, but taking days off / not coming in due to needing to supervise a sick child.

It puts parents in a bad spot. It's similar to how people are apprehensive in the USA to go to hospitals due to Health Care bills. We don't have that issue in Canada (thank God), but we still have to somehow cover two weeks of sick days for yourself and x many kids you have with no extensions, etc. Something's wrong with that.

 

[Livewire]

The infected person was brought back to Atlanta, which is where the Centers for Disease Control is - AKA, the most well equipped facility for the study and containment of infectious diseases in the world. If I had a disease like Ebola, that's where I'd want to be.

It's genuinely frightening though. Ebola is one of the deadliest diseases known to mankind, and it has a mortality rate of nearly 90%. Can't really spread like a pandemic-level flu can, so it's not like an Ebola pandemic will kill untold millions of people, but it's even more lethal, and it will ravage these parts of Africa where it hits, unless it can be contained. Which so far is reaaaally hard given some of the cultural practices about caring for the sick and for burials.

 

[Oryx]

Yeah basically it won't spread in the US. The reason it's spreading there is because it spreads through contact with bodily fluids and the cultural practices there require contact with bodily fluids, and those people won't give up the cultural practices with the knowledge of how the disease spreads. We don't have those practices and we're equipped enough to understand to stop them if we did so it's very unlikely to spread here.

I'm still a little irrationally scared though because I read The Hot Zone and it's one of the scariest books ever.

 

[Neil Peart]

Americans panic easily and are generally easily-led, so the incessant fears given the reassurances is no shock to me.

 

[Corvus of the Black Night]

You do realize that the US is probably one of the best countries that's equipped to deal with it right? It's a political move because I think it's international law (or a law Bush put into place) that they're legally required to take the US people back in.

Honestly Moogles, I would much rather have someone who knows how to help people with Ebola come back to the United States, recover, gain an immunity to the virus, and be able to continue helping those people later instead of them dying in the process.

Also, the United States does not have an FDA approved "cure" for Ebola. They were experimenting with possible cures, which they were hesitant to use on the people in Africa due to 1) costs, 2) lack of mass production due to not being FDA approved and 3) unknown results and/or side effects. I should elaborate that there is no publicly available cure and the US is not just "hiding" stuff for boo hoo reasons.

Ebola is spreading quickly in Africa due to a few reasons (and why the US shouldn't worry too much about a pandemic):

• Less sanitary practices in hospitals. Due to the lack of money in the region this one is pretty much a given.
• Funeral practices in the infected area. These practices expose healthy individuals to dangerous infected flesh and fluids. It is recommended to burn the body immediately after death.
• Lack of awareness to transmission methods.