THE EBOLA-DOME
THE EBOLA-DOME
Sierra Leone's 365 deaths can be traced back to one faith healer living on the boarder of Guinea who thought she could cure ebola with a touch. The more news that comes out about this outbreak, the more depressing it gets.
Re: THE EBOLA-DOME
Don't forget about the people in Liberia that attacked a clinic and stole the contaminated, blood covered blankets and freed all the quarantined patients.
http://www.pbs.org/newshour/rundown/rai ... ents-flee/
http://www.pbs.org/newshour/rundown/rai ... ents-flee/
- Mongrel
- Posts: 21352
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- Location: There's winners and there's losers // And I'm south of that line
Re: THE EBOLA-DOME
Pretty Bad News
- New case numbers have gone from a linear rate of increase to an exponential one
- Current worst-case projections state as many as 250,000+ could be infected by year's end and now there's distant talk of 1,000,000 infections, though the UN still hopes to limit things to "only" about 20,000 cases.
- Clinics and hospitals are full and understaffed to the point where now new cases are just wandering in the streets.
- West Africa's public health systems are in serious danger of total collapse. Already more people have died from other diseases which health workers have not been able to treat due to the need to focus on the immediate ebola crisis.
- The US is sending in 3,000 U.S. troops in an attempt to contain things.
- Emergency UN Security Council meeting on Thursday, stay tuned.
None of this is super-unexpected, given that the news has for weeks now indicated things are getting worse over there, not better. The potential scale is getting pretty unnerving though, and sending 3,000 carriers to bring back souvenirs to North America is uh... well lets just hope that quarantine procedures for the return are stringent.
This could potentially have a silver lining if other countries finally get their shit together to properly contain this. Not going to be that hopeful just yet though.
- New case numbers have gone from a linear rate of increase to an exponential one
- Current worst-case projections state as many as 250,000+ could be infected by year's end and now there's distant talk of 1,000,000 infections, though the UN still hopes to limit things to "only" about 20,000 cases.
- Clinics and hospitals are full and understaffed to the point where now new cases are just wandering in the streets.
- West Africa's public health systems are in serious danger of total collapse. Already more people have died from other diseases which health workers have not been able to treat due to the need to focus on the immediate ebola crisis.
- The US is sending in 3,000 U.S. troops in an attempt to contain things.
- Emergency UN Security Council meeting on Thursday, stay tuned.
None of this is super-unexpected, given that the news has for weeks now indicated things are getting worse over there, not better. The potential scale is getting pretty unnerving though, and sending 3,000 carriers to bring back souvenirs to North America is uh... well lets just hope that quarantine procedures for the return are stringent.
This could potentially have a silver lining if other countries finally get their shit together to properly contain this. Not going to be that hopeful just yet though.
- zaratustra
- Posts: 1665
- Joined: Mon Jan 20, 2014 6:45 pm
Re: THE EBOLA-DOME
Nah, if there's one thing the US does well, is keep things contained against their will. Those soldiers will spend like a year in a plastic bubble before they can go back home or call a lawyer.
No, the problem is sooner or later this will infect someone that can afford to board an airplane. And THEN the fun begins.
No, the problem is sooner or later this will infect someone that can afford to board an airplane. And THEN the fun begins.
- nosimpleway
- Posts: 4651
- Joined: Mon Jan 20, 2014 7:31 pm
Re: THE EBOLA-DOME
I hear Madagascar is already shutting down seaports and harbors.
Re: THE EBOLA-DOME
Despite how it all looks, Ebola is pretty easy to contain. For example, Nigeria had about 20 cases and at this point they may have it under control. The problem West Africa had was that they already ran out of supplies and available quarantine beds in month 1 of the outbreak. At this point people who get infected are left to either go home and probably get their family sick as well, or roam the streets until they collapse.
On the bright side though, the western world is finally talking about maybe doing something about this runaway situation sometime in the future.
On the bright side though, the western world is finally talking about maybe doing something about this runaway situation sometime in the future.
- Mongrel
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Re: THE EBOLA-DOME
Well, the big danger now is that the disease has spread more in the past six months than it has in the past 1000 years, and comes from a disease family which is notably genetically unstable, so each new case is a couple billion rolls of the dice on creating something nastier. Obviously an airborne version is the worst-case there.
That's already happened lots of times. How do you think the one case in Lagos came about? And there have already been multiple reports of near misses on people from that region flying to other continents.
The Lagos case and other Nigerian cases are a pretty big near-miss. Jokes about Nigerian princes aside, Nigeria is Africa's largest economy (though its per-capita remains shit, even by African standards) and Africa's most populous state.
zaratustra wrote:Nah, if there's one thing the US does well, is keep things contained against their will. Those soldiers will spend like a year in a plastic bubble before they can go back home or call a lawyer.
No, the problem is sooner or later this will infect someone that can afford to board an airplane. And THEN the fun begins.
That's already happened lots of times. How do you think the one case in Lagos came about? And there have already been multiple reports of near misses on people from that region flying to other continents.
The Lagos case and other Nigerian cases are a pretty big near-miss. Jokes about Nigerian princes aside, Nigeria is Africa's largest economy (though its per-capita remains shit, even by African standards) and Africa's most populous state.
Re: THE EBOLA-DOME
This is definitely a worrisome situation, especially now that it's crossed the ocean, but don't worry! The GOP has a solution!
- Cthulhu-chan
- Posts: 194
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Re: THE EBOLA-DOME
Unlike most GOP solutions, this one would be very effective. Like most GOP solutions, it is also reprehensible.
- zaratustra
- Posts: 1665
- Joined: Mon Jan 20, 2014 6:45 pm
Re: THE EBOLA-DOME
hahaha those crazy rep-
uh
um
There's just no other way with Ebola. We need to be napalming villages from the air right now.
uh
um
- Brantly B.
- Woah Dangsaurus
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Re: THE EBOLA-DOME
Given that the affected cities are currently Dallas and Omaha, I'm only half-heartedly opposed to this solution.
Re: THE EBOLA-DOME
Nebraska doesn't really count since the person is just being flown there for treatment from Liberia. It's not like someone was left wandering the streets like in Dallas.
- nosimpleway
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Re: THE EBOLA-DOME
I suppose if there's an outbreak of any severity whatsoever in the USA I should go ahead and read up on Ebola, under the assumption I'll catch it sooner or later.
Re: THE EBOLA-DOME
I would like to believe that if I were diagnosed with Ebola, I would have the courage to Put My Affairs In Order and Make the Right Decision, but who am I kidding?
- nosimpleway
- Posts: 4651
- Joined: Mon Jan 20, 2014 7:31 pm
Re: THE EBOLA-DOME
From everything I've read it's a controllable disease that can be treated, assuming you have access to a decent medical facility with well-trained personnel. I think The Right Thing To Do in this case is just go in for treatment and don't escape to go wandering the streets of Dallas before you're done.
Stay tuned for further posts from me on this topic in Times of Minor Unpleasantness.
Stay tuned for further posts from me on this topic in Times of Minor Unpleasantness.
- Mongrel
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Re: THE EBOLA-DOME
It can be treated to improve your chances, but we're still talking about a disease with 25% - 50% lethality (lethality skyrockets without treatment though, because you can die from dehydration or infection).
It's very controllable in that it's pretty simple to prevent transmission with reasonable precautions, but if there's a breakdown in society (as is happening in West Africa), people hide it, or follow dumb superstition, transmission rates can go way higher and it only takes one idiot.
It's very controllable in that it's pretty simple to prevent transmission with reasonable precautions, but if there's a breakdown in society (as is happening in West Africa), people hide it, or follow dumb superstition, transmission rates can go way higher and it only takes one idiot.
- Brantly B.
- Woah Dangsaurus
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Re: THE EBOLA-DOME
Come to think of it, it's probably much easier to contain the virus within a concerned, self-ambulatory living individual than a leaky bag of infectious deadweight.
Re: THE EBOLA-DOME
Mongrel wrote:It can be treated to improve your chances, but we're still talking about a disease with 25% - 50% lethality (lethality skyrockets without treatment though, because you can die from dehydration or infection).
It's very controllable in that it's pretty simple to prevent transmission with reasonable precautions, but if there's a breakdown in society (as is happening in West Africa), people hide it, or follow dumb superstition, transmission rates can go way higher and it only takes one idiot.
Eh. It's telling that Zero cases of Ebola that have reached USA have resulted in casualties. You have to realize that in countries that this is effecting harshly there are frequent pictures of Ebola patients lying in their own bodily fluids while their at the 'hospital' that these countries can support. Any developed country with a competent quarantine procedure can contain this disease easily.
The other thing about Ebola is it's actually super fucking hard to transmit. Like you have to actually swallow bodily fluids from someone who is EXHIBITING symptoms to get it, because you're not contagious until you're already sick and its not airborne at all.
Basically, we shouldn't be worried about us getting it or even dying from it if we get it, what we should be up in arms and worried about and trying to prompt our government to act on at all costs is helping the countries that are suffering for it. A little good will goes a long way in our current 'shoot first ask questions later' foreign policy world.
- Mongrel
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Re: THE EBOLA-DOME
Well, more than half of the European health workers whisked back to European countries who were infected, died. The US has all of one case so far.
But I agree the main risk is panic or other human failures, rather than disease vulnerabilities. The REAL problem if you want to fearmonger is that Ebola is a highly mutative disease and is currently undergoing several orders of magnitude more mutations in the past month than it ever has before, so the risk of a new variation that's much more easily communicable (airborne, living longer outside the body, etc.) is far higher now.
On the plus side, viruses are still just a lifeform. They want to live too. If they're so lethal that they reduce their hosts to a wasteland of un-dug graves, they'll die too. So what you see is that over a long period of time, pretty much every ultra-lethal disease we've ever faced eventually fades or becomes a toned-down nerf-version of itself (did you know syphilis basically melted people when it first arose?). That is of course small consolation to the generation that must deal with the first waves.
But I agree the main risk is panic or other human failures, rather than disease vulnerabilities. The REAL problem if you want to fearmonger is that Ebola is a highly mutative disease and is currently undergoing several orders of magnitude more mutations in the past month than it ever has before, so the risk of a new variation that's much more easily communicable (airborne, living longer outside the body, etc.) is far higher now.
On the plus side, viruses are still just a lifeform. They want to live too. If they're so lethal that they reduce their hosts to a wasteland of un-dug graves, they'll die too. So what you see is that over a long period of time, pretty much every ultra-lethal disease we've ever faced eventually fades or becomes a toned-down nerf-version of itself (did you know syphilis basically melted people when it first arose?). That is of course small consolation to the generation that must deal with the first waves.
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