To all North American FuwaFuwa [important]

[Darizuka]

As some of you may have known

And/or most of you dont know..

EBOLA has reached US soil. Ground Zero Dallas Texas.

Please be careful... im worried for all your safety.

Its due to unawareness and people being oblivious which led it be possible to reach US soil.

I dont want any of our friends from this community to become another number in the death toll.

So please for the love of God, Buddha, Allah, Krishna or Vishnu, Odin, Zeus, Joseph Smith, Flying Spaghetti Meatball Monster or being an Atheist.. be safe and practice with extreme caution.

[Kaguya]

It reached my country a long time ago. Not too worried about it- working at home and living mostly isolated has it's perks. Nothing nearby and almost no people pass through here, so it's fine. 

 

I can see why you'd want to warn people about it. Putting important on the title is kinda vague, though. You should probably at least put Ebola in the title somewhere.

[Heizei_koukousei]

So please for the love of God, Buddha, Allah, Krishna or Vishnu, Odin, Zeus, Joseph Smith, Flying Spaghetti Meatball Monster or being an Atheist.. be safe and practice with extreme caution.

The Flying Spaghetti Meatball Monster is watching over all of us in this dire time of need

[edwd2]

thanks

[krill]

The Flying Spaghetti Meatball Monster is watching over all of us in this dire time of need

 

may he embrace you in his noodley goodness

[Fiddle]

I will be careful not to come into direct contact with the bodily fluids of a quarantined man from Texas.

 

Silliness aside, I don't find this to be worth worrying about. As I'm sure you know, Ebola is extremely (at least by the standards of what we normally perceive as epidemics) non-contagious. Anybody who contracts the disease in such a well-off nation as the United States will receive special care, not only for their health, but to prevent the spread of the disease, the latter of which is very feasible. The authorities are well aware, I'm sure, of how to guarantee the public health in a circumstance such as this one. It simply won't spread in North America in the same way that it is in Africa, where lives are lost from easily preventable and treatable diseases on a regular basis.

[reyaes]

Thanks for the concern.

 

My workplace would be terrible for the potential of this disease. Everyone keeps their own cups on the same 4 square foot counter top. They're all labeled, but there's probably twenty of them sitting there.

 

Maybe I should start putting mine in my locker, just in case.

[Tay]

Just going to take a second to say that there are fairly good methods of statistics in epidemiology and nobody should be freaking out that this will turn into a zombie-style outbreak. The etiology of Ebola is well known, and hopefully a little info will help you realize the threat isn't as dire as uninformed newscasters can make it out to be.

The following is summarized from the website of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the national public health institute of the United States:

Ebola virus causes a hemorrhagic fever disease, presenting with fever, headache, joint and muscle aches, weakness, diarrhea, vomiting and abnormal bleeding. The incubation period is 2-21 days after exposure, most commonly between 8-10 days. The most important fact is that the virus is transmitted through direct contact with blood or bodily fluids of an infected person or by exposure to objects, such as needles, that are contaminated. There is no spread from droplets (for example coughing) or from food or water.

The major concern arises if a person with the virus leaves West Africa, and this leads to the necessity of increasing awareness of the condition. The major potential for preventing spread of the virus is avoiding contact with secretions from an infected individual. Medical personnel in particular do need to be vigilant and take immediate precautions if a person is suspected of having the virus. This might include immediate isolation of the patient and those who have been in direct contact. There is no risk of transmission during the incubation period and only low risk of transmission in the early phase of symptomatic patients.

So! Like pretty much anything else in life, limit who you swap body fluids with and don't reuse needles. The actual # of people who need to be concerned is very low, thanks to how poorly Ebola spreads.

[Stray Cat]

Yea, I've been talking about this in class all the time the last few weeks. The fact that it spreads so poorly is exactly why it's so infections, (thank heavens for evolutionary trade-offs). There are two reasons why this outbreak has gotten so bad:

1. The use of unsterilized needles in some of the patient care facilities and swapping of fluids in Africa as Tay addressed (because nobody knew what was going on at the time).
2. The burial practices of those communities involved, which consists of hugging, kissing, and washing the dead in the river, which spread the disease into the water supply where family members are standing.  

Hopefully with the development of Zmapp we will be close to a cure soon.  All we can do for now is hope Ebola-chan has mercy on us. 

[crunchytaco]

I'm ready for the apocalypse. 

[FruitsPunchSamurai]

Surprised that Liberia isn't quarantined so that no one can leave the country. Crazy how the doctors didn't ask him if he had been traveling which is basic medical protocol. Then they sent him home only with antibiotics. Also he could have infected up to 12 people in Dallas. And meanwhile Obama and all of his lackeys are out playing a game of Golf. How America has fallen...

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2775608/CDC-confirms-Dallas-patient-isolation-testing-returning-region-plagued-Ebola-HAS-deadly-virus.html#article-2775608

[Tay]

Yeah, the West African situation isn't very good at all. For those of us here in the West (NA, EU), though, the protocols are excellent and we're a far, far cry away from any kind of epidemic. Let's all be grateful for that and keep cool heads. : )

[Flutterz]

Just going to take a second to say that there are fairly good methods of statistics in epidemiology and nobody should be freaking out that this will turn into a zombie-style outbreak. The etiology of Ebola is well known, and hopefully a little info will help you realize the threat isn't as dire as uninformed newscasters can make it out to be.

The following is summarized from the website of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the national public health institute of the United States:

Ebola virus causes a hemorrhagic fever disease, presenting with fever, headache, joint and muscle aches, weakness, diarrhea, vomiting and abnormal bleeding. The incubation period is 2-21 days after exposure, most commonly between 8-10 days. The most important fact is that the virus is transmitted through direct contact with blood or bodily fluids of an infected person or by exposure to objects, such as needles, that are contaminated. There is no spread from droplets (for example coughing) or from food or water.

The major concern arises if a person with the virus leaves West Africa, and this leads to the necessity of increasing awareness of the condition. The major potential for preventing spread of the virus is avoiding contact with secretions from an infected individual. Medical personnel in particular do need to be vigilant and take immediate precautions if a person is suspected of having the virus. This might include immediate isolation of the patient and those who have been in direct contact. There is no risk of transmission during the incubation period and only low risk of transmission in the early phase of symptomatic patients.

So! Like pretty much anything else in life, limit who you swap body fluids with and don't reuse needles. The actual # of people who need to be concerned is very low, thanks to how poorly Ebola spreads.

[Stray Cat]

I'm curious, how is it that it is transmitted through the bodily fluids of an infected person but not through droplets (of what I assume are bodily fluids) when coughing?

[Tay]

Ebola is thought to have come from bats. When somebody is infected with Ebola they are very bad at transmitting it. Even when personnel had scary blood-blood contact, we think the transmission rates were <1/300.

Ebola's natural reservoirs in the body are primarily blood, organ secretions, and sex organs that have secretions. Sneezing and coughing more often than not is when you expel the bacteria and junk in your nose and lungs as a clearing mechanism, and thus rarely includes the types of body fluids that would be infectious. Add the fact of poor transmission and you'll see that sneezing is thus not really an issue.

If it helps you can think of Ebola transmission similarly to something like AIDs. If you don't encounter their blood or body fluids (milk, semen, other types of secretions), the chances of catching it are very low.

That changes, as said above, when you actually are dealing with a confirmed case. We have advanced protocols about that. But in your day to day life, the guy sneezing next to you without covering his mouth is still annoying and can give you the flu, but Ebola ain't something to stress about.

[Darizuka]

Let us not forget in every form of fiction. US has the worst containment of disease/infections

[Darizuka]

But...that's fiction, and is usually in regards to a zombie infestation or some apocalyptic plague or the accidental release of some chemical weapon or engineered disease. Ebola has occurred before, and it hasn't brought the US to its knees. I don't think this time will be any different.

News just in. The guy apparently had interacted with almost 100 people before he was quarantined

[Flutterz]

News just in. The guy apparently had interacted with almost 100 people before he was quarantined

Yeah, and unless what I've heard was wrong the ones he could have infected are quarantined too.

[Darizuka]

Yeah, and unless what I've heard was wrong the ones he could have infected are quarantined too.

FLUTTERsu-Chan

well... i think ur story is of the cameraman of NBC or something... hmmm

[Flutterz]

No, it says here that several other people are quarantined:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/national/health-science/texas-ebola-patient-thomas-eric-duncan-may-have-had-contact-with-up-to-100-people/2014/10/02/1a36f7aa-4a37-11e4-891d-713f052086a0_story.html

 

"A law enforcement officer was stationed at the apartment complex Duncan was visiting to make sure the quarantined individuals do not go out."

[Stray Cat]

This pretty much sums up the way I feel about how things have been going recently. 

 

[roninmedia]

I'm a registered pharmacist in Texas and Florida.

 

Ebola is spread through contact with bodily fluids or in very close quarters through a cough or sneeze, so should be able to keep yourself safe. There has not been a documented case of a virus in humans going from non-airborne to non-airborne, so while it is a possibility, has not happened yet.

 

 

European members have it on their doorstep to in Spain and Germany.

[crunchytaco]

What I want to know is how an American nurse was infected with Ebola after wearing an astronaut suit. They suspect that not all protocols were followed, following the treatment. I think that's an excuse to suppress fear because scientists are admitting they have to re-examine the way Virus's infect others. 

 

http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2014/10/15/texas-health-care-worker-ebola-second-case/17290575/

[zoom909]

Ebola can be transmitted through the air via tiny droplets that emerge when you cough or sneeze.  Even you don't breathe them in, if these tiny droplets should land on you or some object near you...

Have you ever been in a situation where you were on a plane, in a theater, in a meeting, etc. and somebody was coughing right near you for a period of time?

Have you ever forgotten to wash your hands before eating, or touched something that a sick person used and touched your own eyes or nose without thinking about it?

Most people know how to avoid getting a cold, but mistakes can happen.

When you're risking just getting a cold, it's not so bad.

When you're risking getting a killer hemorrhagic fever that has no cure, you might want to take it more seriously.

The people who treated the Ebola patients, don't you think they took every precaution imaginable?  And then came down with it anyway?

Isn't it better to err on the side of caution given the symptoms of the illness and its recovery rate?

[solidbatman]

While the situation in Africa is horrible, the media has way overblown what it might do to the US or Canada. Both countries, while large, are equipped to prevent such outbreaks.

Keep in mind that just about every year, we have some new, terrible epidemic that will end America. ie. Bird flu, SARS, MRCA, Swine Flu (I got that one and survived just fine), and before that things like AIDS and what not. Point is, the media absolutely loves scaring you. That is why minor weather events like 2 inches of snow in a southern state gets insane coverage. People get scared and watch, meaning they see more ads. Works the same way with this. The media is going to try and scare everyone into watching using "expert analysis" to scare you thus making them more money. 

The west will be fine.