Ebola.... NLG's Featured Post of the Week

[cowboygames]

I like opening cans so this time I'll make it a can of worms. How far is this going to spread in our country? I know we have quite a few members in the Dallas area, how are you guys seeing this, being so close to it and all? The reason I ask is becausethey always do such a great job containing the flu virus every year II'm curious to know what people are thinking on how this ones going to play out. What if, for example, someone who had contact with this guy also has tickets to the Cowboys game this Sunday?

[David G]

I wonder why(When there is a known outbreak in another country) and people try to come here, why not have a few day
quarantine? Sure that would be a pain in the butt for some people I understand, However, what about the greater good of the rest of us? To a degree if not all together, it would stop third world disease/virus in this country. We do stop or contain other bad things on their way to here so...........

[777sizzler]

Rob,  It is not opening cans of worms but actually something I take very seriosly.  With all the foreign travel etc. It will be hard to contain this.  This is not good-- . I have been following this and have some knowelege of what is going on thru media.  May be time to dawn my space/zuit suits from the military days that I saved.   The Government I believe knows more than than they are forwarding-as usual.  That fella in Dallas is being prosicuted.   I know some folks that just got some slots from there-Told them to put on your suits!!!!.   

[cowboygames]

It's unfortunate but it seems like a lot of people don't want to talk/worry about it till it's in their neighborhood. Also unfortunately, in most cases that's only a plane, car or train ride away from happening. They talk about the media trying to hype it up, but until they have a known good treatment for it maybe it needs to be hyped up a bit. Those idiots at the hospital that let him go home after he told them he'd been in Liberia obviously wweren't influenced by all the hype...

[777sizzler]

It's unfortunate but it seems like a lot of people don't want to talk/worry about it till it's in their neighborhood. Also unfortunately, in most cases that's only a plane, car or train ride away from happening. They talk about the media trying to hype it up, but until they have a known good treatment for it maybe it needs to be hyped up a bit. Those idiots at the hospital that let him go home after he told them he'd been in Liberia obviously wweren't influenced by all the hype...

I Agree!!!.  But that is JUST one case WE know about,  C'mon---This is a nasty mess, cover-up and I gurantee you this sheet is all over the us now.

[MikeCamp]

I agree, some better facts need to be presented.  Needs to be better facts on how to avoid how its spread etc...  I may be called a conspiracy theorist but I have a feeling our gov and some big time drug companies are involved in this as well.   Another attempt to take our minds of some of the other crap going on in the world, the tactics of pitting us against each other had stopped working so well.  I live about 30 miles or less from that hospital where this guy is being treated, yeah I do worry but what can I really do.  Right now its one person that we know about.  The part I find funny is this, we imported two sick doctors and had them cured in a matter of days.  Someone asked the other day, why can't you just give this guy the same stuff you gave the doctors who were sick, the response was that is no longer available.  MAKE SOME MORE FOLKS!


Wish us all luck, think we may need it.


Mike

[TheAirBalancer]

I wonder that even accounting for USA ineptitude we will still be OK  ........... or zombies 

[777sizzler]

As mike stated, and some others I really think this is a pure MESS.  I am worried -More for my Kids/children.  I actually think this was a intended event with this.  Next thing will be Half-infected ebola bictims be-heading folks.    Enjoy slots and gaming equip. pinballs, arcade machines and cherish your kids, family and anything else you can think of.  Go obamma --Hey he was from Africa tech. also?  --   - No, I am not a hatter before it begins but enough is enough.  Wonder when He will be flying in anytime soon to check on things there.

[Lizzo54]

Ebola is certainly scary, more so about the fatality rate vs recovery.  Its actually classified as a moderate risk due to the spread occurs thru contact with bodily fluids of an infected patient and not airborne, thankfully. I don't believe they are contagious during the incubation period only after they start exhibiting symptoms.  With the texas case,that guy had contact with a family which had members known to have had ebola.  Why this wasn't determined immediately just goes to show that airport security is not as high in other countries. 


The biggest contributor to this outbreak was that sick individuals were directed to health care facilities, thus exposing more people.   As opposedto quarantining    in the home, which is what they have started doing. 


In the midst of all this chaos is Enterovirus D68 which i see as a more serious and perntant threat at this time.  Particularly disturbing is the recent rash of neurologic illnesses and paralysis that has been occurring in effected children.  Earlier they announced a Rhode Island girl infected with Enterovirus d68 died from a combination of the virus and a rare staph infection. 
Very scary stuff that can be avoided by good hygiene practices, hand washing and surface disinfection.


Anyway, thats my rant and my professional opinion,  my full-time job Is a Director of Public Health. 


Lenny

[CVslots]

Today the news revealed that the Dallas Ebola patient completed a questionnaire before leaving Liberia asking specifically if he had been in contact with or around anyone infected with or who had died from Ebola....he answered NO, when later he admitted he had been helping a pregnant woman and her family who had come down with Ebola ....Nice that he was so selfish that he felt it was ok to lie about something that could kill thousands/millions of people, just because he wanted to come to US.


Apparently, completing the questionnaire and getting your body temp taken is routine for now when leaving Liberia.

[cowboygames]

And if you get the crap your odds are 50/50. I don't know about you guys but I always lose when my odds are 50/50. Hell, I generally lose when my odds are 80/20 in my favor, lol

Our government has a strong propensity for to little to late and that's what worries me. I'm not begging for a police state by any stretch of the imagination but Jesus Christ try and do something to protect us from this kind of thing

[Magicslots]

O.K. guys, I live close, about 30 miles from there, so here is my 2 cents.  I am a firefighter, have been for over 35 years, and i know a lot about hazardous materials / bio containment procedures etc.   I will tell you straight up, the govt. is feeding the public a load of shit about this!!!!   When personnel are wearing are wearing level B suits, (the public calls them moon suits) and then tells you that you cant be exposed by contact with surfaces, etc its a load of horse crap.  Those suits aint cheap, and you dont wear the damn things unless you have to!. CDC and multiple other long term studies have shown that the virus can live on surfaces outside of the body for up to six to ten days, dependent on the variant strain.  That's strong stuff gents.  The Feds, the locals, and the hospital have all dropped the damn ball big time here!
As for me and mine, we are staying the hell away from Dallas, and taking extra precautions, as I think everyone else should.

[777sizzler]

Yes,  I know some folks that were just in dallas area a few days ago picking up machines.  I had also planned a trip to go there and houston but have cancelled for the time being.  Dallas is huge-I know.  Am I over-reacting or being just cautios and worried.  I would say the latter.  This really is not a joking matter here but the state of texas (look it up/research) has the most slot machines in any state. People and companies pick them up and deliver them in mass quantities.

[Joeylc]

This was a good read... 

You've heard it again and again: to get Ebola, you   need to have direct contact with the bodily fluids — such as vomit,  urine, or    blood — of someone who is already sick and symptomatic to get the   disease.

But what, exactly, does that mean? Here's a more concrete guide on how the virus can move from one person to another.

How you can get Ebola

1) You can get the virus if you have "direct contact" with a range of  bodily fluids from a sick person, including blood, saliva, breast milk, stool, sweat, semen, tears, vomit, and urine. "Direct  contact" means these fluids need to get into your broken skin (such as a  wound) or touch your mucous  membranes (mouth, nose, eyes, vagina).

2) So you can get Ebola by kissing or sharing food with someone who is infectious.

3) Mothers with Ebola can give the disease to their babies. Ebola spreads through breastfeeding — even after recovery from the disease. As one study put it, "It seems prudent to advise breastfeeding mothers who survive (Ebola) to avoid breastfeeding for at least some weeks after recovery and to provide them with alternative means of feeding their infants."

4)  You can get Ebola through sex with an Ebola patient. The virus has been able to live in semen up  to 82 days after a patient became symptomatic, which means sexual transmission  — even with someone who has survived the disease for months — is possible.

5) You can get the virus by eating wild  animals  infected with Ebola or coming into contact with their bodily  fluids. The fruit bat is believed to be the animal  reservoir for Ebola,  and when it's prepared for a meal or eaten raw, people get sick.

So you can get the virus through exposure to bat secretions. However, if you cook a bat infected with Ebola and then eat it, you won't get sick because the virus dies during cooking.

6) You can get Ebola through contact with an infected surface. Though Ebola is easily killed with disinfectants like bleach, if it isn't caught, it can live outside the body on, say, a doorknob or counter top, for several hours. In body fluids, like blood, the virus can survive for several days. So you'd need to touch an infected surface, and then put your hands in your mouth and eyes.

This is why the funerals of Ebola victims are problematic. Someone who has died from the virus will have a very high viral load. Since the virus can live in bodily fluids on their body, if you participate in the ritual washing of an Ebola victim and then touch your hands to your face, you could get the virus.

7) You could also get the virus by  working in a biosafety-level-4 lab that studies Ebola, touching lab  specimens, and then putting your contaminated hands in your mouth, eyes  or a cut.

You  can get Ebola by being pricked with a needle  or syringe that has been contaminated with the virus. This has been a  source of transmission for health workers, but unless you're sharing  needles with Ebola victims, this isn't likely.

How you can't get Ebola 1) You can't get Ebola from someone who is not already sick. The virus only turns up in people's bodily fluids after a person starts to feel ill, and only then can they spread it to another person.

This is why health officials say they are not worried about the other passengers on the Texas patient's flight into the United States. At that time, the patient was asymptomatic and therefore not a risk to those around him.

2) You can't get Ebola from mosquitoes. The CDC says, "Only mammals (for example, humans, bats, monkeys and apes) have shown the ability to spread and become infected with Ebola virus."

3) You usually can't get Ebola through coughing or sneezing. The virus isn't airborne, thankfully, and experts expect that it will never become airborne. But, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said, "If a symptomatic patient with Ebola coughs or sneezes on someone, and saliva or mucus come into contact with that person's eyes, nose or mouth, these fluids may transmit the disease." This happens rarely and usually only affects health workers or those caring for the sick.

The bottom line: Ebola is difficult to catch As you'll probably have noted, Ebola isn't very easy to transmit. The scenarios under which it spreads are very specific. And Ebola doesn't spread quickly, either. A mathematical epidemiologist who studies Ebola wrote in the Washington Post, "The good news is that Ebola has a lower reproductive rate than measles in the pre-vaccination days or the Spanish flu." He found that each Ebola case produces between  1.3 and 1.8 secondary cases. That means an Ebola victim usually only  infects about one other person. Compare that with measles, which creates  17 secondary cases. If you do the math, that means a single case in the US could lead to one or two others, but since we have robust public health measures here, it probably won't go further than that. Compare that to West Africa, which  is now dealing with upwards of 6,000 cases in a completely broken health  system. That's where the worry about Ebola should be placed.


http://www.vox.com/2014/10/1/6878695/ebola-virus-outbreak-symptoms

[777sizzler]

Yes, Great info Joey.  The #6 "infected surfaces" changed some of my plans for a while.  Even though the plague can only live so long on them, when handling equipment most sweat,scratch, and rub while working.  There are already other cases popping up now in other areas.  This is great info again and just what they know about this mess to this date and time.  .

[777sizzler]

Some of the local kids have joked that they have ebola-just being kids and tring to get of school etc.  I set them straight on this as far as young kids goes.  My wife is a very high ranking teacher in school district for some quite years so we hear it all.  This is nothing to be taken lightly.

[jay]

In Africia they believe that Elbola ia a weaponized conspiracy to eliminate the masses and for the west to capitalize on the resource wealth.
Of course we all know that its the lead in to the next zombie movie.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Night_of_the_Living_Dead_(1990_film)
 
 
 
 
 
 

[rickhunter]

Well, the guy from Liberia died today.  My dad always told me that life has a way of billing you for your mistakes.  The guy lied about his exposure to Ebola to get into this country and he paid the ultimate price.  Too bad that a lot of innocent people came in contact with this guy, hopefully nothing further develops.

[777sizzler]

Yes, Now they are talking about putting a Dog down with the case in Spain I think it was.

[777sizzler]

I now see recently they did put the Dog down.  Not sure if I agree with this.  If the dog was in no pain a lot possibly could have been learned-in that case just quarantine the dog.  If the dog was in misery and doing bad then I could see this for the correct action.