In the United States, the first person diagnosed with the disease was a Liberian man, who fell ill days after arriving in Dallas and later died, becoming the only fatality. None of his relatives who had contact with him got sick. Two nurses who treated him were infected and are hospitalized. The family of one nurse said doctors no longer could detect Ebola in her as of Tuesday evening. [Emphasis mine]
If the nurse has already recovered, that is further proof that Ebola is only a deadly disease where there is little medical treatment – the Spanish nurses assistant, who caught the disease from an evacuated Spanish missionary, has also recovered. Also, Duncan’s family, who lived with him in the four days he had symptoms before he was taken to hospital, never became sick and have now passed the quarantine period. Which is proof that it is not easily caught and certainly not airborne.
A McMaster researcher is calling for a new, potentially life-saving study of the blood of people exposed to the Ebola virus, based on the idea that the deadly disease may also be safely immunizing scores of people.
Jonathan Dushoff, an associate professor of biology and an investigator with the Michael G. DeGroote Institute for Infectious Disease Research, is one of four researchers who published a letter in the latest edition of The Lancet medical journal calling for more blood tests to confirm the idea that many Ebola infections are asymptomatic and how common that may be…
Currently, the scientists’ idea is based on analyses of blood samples from people exposed to Ebola from animal reservoirs and earlier Ebola outbreaks. An analysis of one post-Ebola group of blood samples, evaluated specifically for antibodies, showed that 71 per cent of “seropositive” individuals did not have the disease.
This theory is supported by literature which I read before this outbreak occurred. One was the book The Hot Zone about the outbreak of Ebola in an U.S. monkey house – the monkeys were imported for research. After the monkey were destroyed and the place cleaned, one of the caretakers was found to have antibodies (immune system cells and chemicals the body makes to attack a specific infectious agent) against Ebola – but he had never become ill.
Also, in another book called Quiet Killers, written by a British infectious disease expert, he mentions that those of European descent appear to have a higher genetic resistance to Ebola. That would indicate that Europeans had encountered the disease sometime in their history, due to the fact that those who can survive an epidemic are the ones who have children. We know that there were many such plagues in our history and we do not know what caused all of them. Thucydides, in his first hand account of the Peloponnesian Wars, mentions a plague in Athens with symptoms that sound something like Ebola:
As a rule, however, there was no ostensible cause; but people in good health were all of a sudden attacked by violent heats in the head, and redness and inflammation in the eyes, the inward parts, such as the throat or tongue, becoming bloody and emitting an unnatural and fetid breath…But if they passed this stage, and the disease descended further into the bowels, inducing a violent ulceration there accompanied by severe diarrhoea, this brought on a weakness which was generally fatal.
Can I steal that article for FB, roscuro? Or better yet, will you post it and I’ll share?
My scientist daughter has been arguing this point all along. That as long as you get medical treatment, your chances of survival are good.
My question about the NYC doctor–if you knew you’d come from a hot zone and you weren’t feeling well (well, but maybe he was, he went for a three mile run), why not take it easy and stay away from most people for awhile? He hadn’t been back to work yet.
But, then, I’m the one who didn’t go to the doctor after that terrible fall–and I should have done so. Maybe we think we’re more impervious to ailments than we really are?
michelle, I had the same thought — why not stay home and voluntarily isolate just to be sure? Going bowling and hobnobbing in social circles seems like it would be at least potentially risky for others. 😦
I don’t think Ebola will become widespread in the west. The biggest threat is to those in countries where medical care is limited. And the patient who died in Texas, remember, was initially turned away by the hospital. I suspect he would have survived had he been admitted when he should have been admitted so treatment would have started right away.
It is a horrific and often fatal disease. It seems we need to get some more practices in place to make sure it doesn’t spread to any more people. And that includes those who have been exposed being especially cautious about possibly exposing others unnecessarily.
I would agree about the self-isolation – it would be more responsible and I know that many returning aid workers do so. But you must remember that after coming out of such a place alive, you might be inclined to go out instead of sitting at home, replaying your experiences – think of how the soldiers returning home from WWII tore up the town. I can’t really relate to going out to restaurants and bowling alleys, as I was so sick when I got home; but I desperately wanted to see people and tell them things.
Michelle, I am flattered that my meanderings have received attention on FB, but I left a message to see if you could add the proper quotations, as credit should go where credit is due.
SIM, a Christian group that has sent doctors to the Ebola front in West Africa, has a location where it can quarantine workers for 21 days after they come home. Other mission agencies are quarantining volunteers and staff outside the United States before they allow them to return.
Doctors Without Borders (MSF) requires its workers to follow a protocol that includes staying within four hours of a hospital that has isolation capabilities. The group defended its practices in a statement Thursday: “Until today, out of more than 700 expatriate staff deployed so far to West Africa, no MSF staff person has developed confirmed Ebola symptoms after returning to their home country.”
Wandering Views 
Congratulations to Alabama! You are The Heart of Dixie!
http://thehill.com/blogs/ballot-box/221738-5-most-conservative-states
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Another aid worker has come down with Ebola. Not alarming and I hope he makes a quick recovery: http://www.cbc.ca/news/world/ebola-outbreak-craig-spencer-doctor-in-new-york-city-tests-positive-for-virus-1.2811150. However, it is this part of the article that really intrigues me.
If the nurse has already recovered, that is further proof that Ebola is only a deadly disease where there is little medical treatment – the Spanish nurses assistant, who caught the disease from an evacuated Spanish missionary, has also recovered. Also, Duncan’s family, who lived with him in the four days he had symptoms before he was taken to hospital, never became sick and have now passed the quarantine period. Which is proof that it is not easily caught and certainly not airborne.
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Roscuro, I began to suspect that too. People who get treatment survive.
If they catch it in time.
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Chas, this article is really intriguing: http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/hamilton/news/ebola-study-some-people-may-be-immune-1.2798454
This theory is supported by literature which I read before this outbreak occurred. One was the book The Hot Zone about the outbreak of Ebola in an U.S. monkey house – the monkeys were imported for research. After the monkey were destroyed and the place cleaned, one of the caretakers was found to have antibodies (immune system cells and chemicals the body makes to attack a specific infectious agent) against Ebola – but he had never become ill.
Also, in another book called Quiet Killers, written by a British infectious disease expert, he mentions that those of European descent appear to have a higher genetic resistance to Ebola. That would indicate that Europeans had encountered the disease sometime in their history, due to the fact that those who can survive an epidemic are the ones who have children. We know that there were many such plagues in our history and we do not know what caused all of them. Thucydides, in his first hand account of the Peloponnesian Wars, mentions a plague in Athens with symptoms that sound something like Ebola:
LikeLike
Can I steal that article for FB, roscuro? Or better yet, will you post it and I’ll share?
My scientist daughter has been arguing this point all along. That as long as you get medical treatment, your chances of survival are good.
My question about the NYC doctor–if you knew you’d come from a hot zone and you weren’t feeling well (well, but maybe he was, he went for a three mile run), why not take it easy and stay away from most people for awhile? He hadn’t been back to work yet.
But, then, I’m the one who didn’t go to the doctor after that terrible fall–and I should have done so. Maybe we think we’re more impervious to ailments than we really are?
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Which article, Michelle? The first link or the second link I posted?
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I took it all! You can see on FB. A jounalist friend is intrigued and excited by it. Thanks, Phos.
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michelle, I had the same thought — why not stay home and voluntarily isolate just to be sure? Going bowling and hobnobbing in social circles seems like it would be at least potentially risky for others. 😦
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I don’t think Ebola will become widespread in the west. The biggest threat is to those in countries where medical care is limited. And the patient who died in Texas, remember, was initially turned away by the hospital. I suspect he would have survived had he been admitted when he should have been admitted so treatment would have started right away.
It is a horrific and often fatal disease. It seems we need to get some more practices in place to make sure it doesn’t spread to any more people. And that includes those who have been exposed being especially cautious about possibly exposing others unnecessarily.
LikeLike
Have you ever seen a picture of a Japanese with his/her mouth covered by a medical face mask? That seems like a good way to act.
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From the chart above: “Goes bowling.”
Sigh.
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I would agree about the self-isolation – it would be more responsible and I know that many returning aid workers do so. But you must remember that after coming out of such a place alive, you might be inclined to go out instead of sitting at home, replaying your experiences – think of how the soldiers returning home from WWII tore up the town. I can’t really relate to going out to restaurants and bowling alleys, as I was so sick when I got home; but I desperately wanted to see people and tell them things.
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Michelle, I am flattered that my meanderings have received attention on FB, but I left a message to see if you could add the proper quotations, as credit should go where credit is due.
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More facts in the case: http://www.worldmag.com/2014/10/dallas_nurse_declared_ebola_free
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