Carefully watching the Ebola crisis, as I have personal connections to the area. The heroism of the medical workers cannot be overstated. I know what health care infrastructure is like in West Africa and the overwhelming obstacles to maintaining a safe environment. It is the burden and overwork which makes the medical workers so vulnerable to the sickness – their immune systems are easily overcome: http://www.worldmag.com/2014/07/americans_remain_in_grave_condition_as_worsening_ebola_prompts_evacuations
It is interesting to me that fruit bats are the suspected natural reservoir. The beep of fruit bats serenaded my sleep every night in the village, they swooped over our heads as we sat talking outside in the evening, and their droppings coated the walkways around our buildings. Not easy to avoid contact with bats in West Africa.
Also, the public health containment of SARS is mentioned. I lived through that (we were close enough to Toronto, where the outbreak occurred that people traveled regularly back and forth from the city) – my grandmother was dying in the hospital at the time and we had to go through screening and precautions in order to visit her. There was a lot of fear and misunderstanding – some hysterical people wanted to ban all travel from East Asia – but it was contained, and as it is said in the broadcast, SARS was more infectious than Ebola.
Are they close at all to finding a cure or good treatment for Ebola, roscuro? It sounds like a horrific disease and listening to a piece about it on the car radio yesterday I was marveling also at the courage and selflessness of the medical workers who are accompanying the U.S. patients home.
It’s infectious (according to what I’ve heard) only through bodily fluids, it’s not an airborne disease. The radio program I was listening to stressed our ability here to contain, isolate and protect the patients — they’re from the states and their families are here, which is why they wanted to be brought home for hospitalization.
Donna, the World piece mentions an experimental serum. From other sources, I believe the serum is an anti-viral drug. Viruses invade body cells, (unlike bacteria, which kill body cells using toxins), forcing the cell to act as a replicating factory for the virus DNA or RNA, which wears out the cell and kills it. Anti-biotics are ineffective against virus, as they target foreign cells (bacteria); anti-virals, which are still new, try to stop the virus at the replication stage, but as healthy body cells use the same replication techniques, the side effects can be nasty.
So, there is understandable caution in using a brand new anti-viral. A vaccination is even harder to develop, due to the virulence of the disease (who wants to be the one injected with a small amount of inactivated Ebola to see if it creates an immune reaction?). However, it appears that proper hydration and care early in the disease is lowering mortality – the last serious outbreak in DRC, where there was little medical care, had a fatality of 90%; in this outbreak, it is between 50-60%.
Michelle (Anon), people fail to realize that Ebola is in North America – in well contained, high security labs. These patients will be transported and cared for by the best and most sophisticated medical care available. My thought is, that they are offering themselves as guinea pigs. Writebol, the hygienist, received the dose of serum – these labs have the opportunity of looking at how her body receives and responds to it.
Brantly received a blood transfusion from a 14 year old who recovered from Ebola. When someone has a viral infection, they generally receive life-long immunity to it (the exceptions are when something inactivates the immune system, as in AIDS) – so the 14 year old’s blood would carry immune cells that identify and kill the virus. So, the labs also have the chance to see how a vaccination could work. It is within everyone’s interest that medical workers survive Ebola – not only do they carry valuable experience, but they will be immune to the disease.
So when someone starts panicking about Ebola patients in the US, tell them to read The Hot Zone. In 1996, there was an Ebola outbreak in imported monkeys that were in quarantine. All the monkeys were destroyed and the facility disinfected by special personnel (the account is a bit over-dramatic). No humans became ill, but the book mentioned one intriguing fact, a caretaker of the monkeys was later tested and found to have antibodies to Ebola in his blood. That would indicate that he had been exposed to the disease and become immune, without becoming noticeably ill – and he was moving among the public at the time. So, the panic over these patients coming to the US comes a bit late.
Here’s a follow-up to a story Roscuro posted on here a couple months ago about two 12-year-old girls who repeatedly stabbed another girl of the same age. They had plotted for months to kill their friend in order to gain “favor” with a character in horror stories they’d read online.
One of the girls has now been determined to be incompetent to stand trial.
Wandering Views 
Carefully watching the Ebola crisis, as I have personal connections to the area. The heroism of the medical workers cannot be overstated. I know what health care infrastructure is like in West Africa and the overwhelming obstacles to maintaining a safe environment. It is the burden and overwork which makes the medical workers so vulnerable to the sickness – their immune systems are easily overcome: http://www.worldmag.com/2014/07/americans_remain_in_grave_condition_as_worsening_ebola_prompts_evacuations
http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/azaria-marthyman-ebola-doctor-returns-home-to-victoria-1.2721631
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It is 22 minutes long, but this radio broadcast about the outbreak is well worth listening to:
http://www.cbc.ca/player/Radio/The+Current/ID/2480916395/
It is interesting to me that fruit bats are the suspected natural reservoir. The beep of fruit bats serenaded my sleep every night in the village, they swooped over our heads as we sat talking outside in the evening, and their droppings coated the walkways around our buildings. Not easy to avoid contact with bats in West Africa.
Also, the public health containment of SARS is mentioned. I lived through that (we were close enough to Toronto, where the outbreak occurred that people traveled regularly back and forth from the city) – my grandmother was dying in the hospital at the time and we had to go through screening and precautions in order to visit her. There was a lot of fear and misunderstanding – some hysterical people wanted to ban all travel from East Asia – but it was contained, and as it is said in the broadcast, SARS was more infectious than Ebola.
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Are they close at all to finding a cure or good treatment for Ebola, roscuro? It sounds like a horrific disease and listening to a piece about it on the car radio yesterday I was marveling also at the courage and selflessness of the medical workers who are accompanying the U.S. patients home.
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I walked just now with a friend who is outraged the two Americans are being brought to the US. I have no opinion but wondered why. Anyone know?
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It’s infectious (according to what I’ve heard) only through bodily fluids, it’s not an airborne disease. The radio program I was listening to stressed our ability here to contain, isolate and protect the patients — they’re from the states and their families are here, which is why they wanted to be brought home for hospitalization.
But it is scary stuff.
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Donna, the World piece mentions an experimental serum. From other sources, I believe the serum is an anti-viral drug. Viruses invade body cells, (unlike bacteria, which kill body cells using toxins), forcing the cell to act as a replicating factory for the virus DNA or RNA, which wears out the cell and kills it. Anti-biotics are ineffective against virus, as they target foreign cells (bacteria); anti-virals, which are still new, try to stop the virus at the replication stage, but as healthy body cells use the same replication techniques, the side effects can be nasty.
So, there is understandable caution in using a brand new anti-viral. A vaccination is even harder to develop, due to the virulence of the disease (who wants to be the one injected with a small amount of inactivated Ebola to see if it creates an immune reaction?). However, it appears that proper hydration and care early in the disease is lowering mortality – the last serious outbreak in DRC, where there was little medical care, had a fatality of 90%; in this outbreak, it is between 50-60%.
Michelle (Anon), people fail to realize that Ebola is in North America – in well contained, high security labs. These patients will be transported and cared for by the best and most sophisticated medical care available. My thought is, that they are offering themselves as guinea pigs. Writebol, the hygienist, received the dose of serum – these labs have the opportunity of looking at how her body receives and responds to it.
Brantly received a blood transfusion from a 14 year old who recovered from Ebola. When someone has a viral infection, they generally receive life-long immunity to it (the exceptions are when something inactivates the immune system, as in AIDS) – so the 14 year old’s blood would carry immune cells that identify and kill the virus. So, the labs also have the chance to see how a vaccination could work. It is within everyone’s interest that medical workers survive Ebola – not only do they carry valuable experience, but they will be immune to the disease.
So when someone starts panicking about Ebola patients in the US, tell them to read The Hot Zone. In 1996, there was an Ebola outbreak in imported monkeys that were in quarantine. All the monkeys were destroyed and the facility disinfected by special personnel (the account is a bit over-dramatic). No humans became ill, but the book mentioned one intriguing fact, a caretaker of the monkeys was later tested and found to have antibodies to Ebola in his blood. That would indicate that he had been exposed to the disease and become immune, without becoming noticeably ill – and he was moving among the public at the time. So, the panic over these patients coming to the US comes a bit late.
LikeLike
Here’s a follow-up to a story Roscuro posted on here a couple months ago about two 12-year-old girls who repeatedly stabbed another girl of the same age. They had plotted for months to kill their friend in order to gain “favor” with a character in horror stories they’d read online.
One of the girls has now been determined to be incompetent to stand trial.
http://news.yahoo.com/girl-12-not-competent-trial-stabbing-163729959.html
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The Russians seem to be enjoying themselves.
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/putin-v-obama-russian-deputy-prime-minister-mocks-president-with-catty-pictures-on-twitter-9642451.html
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