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Racing To Contain Ebola
An anonymous reader writes "Ebola, one of the most deadly diseases known to humans, started killing people in Guinea a few months ago. There have been Ebola outbreaks in the past, but they were contained. The latest outbreak has now killed over 100 people across three countries. One of the biggest difficulties in containing an outbreak is knowing where the virus originated and how it spread. That problem is being addressed right now by experts and a host of volunteers using Open Street Map. 'Zoom in and you can see road networks and important linkages between towns and countries, where there were none before. Overlay this with victim data, and it can help explain the rapid spread. Click on the colored blobs and you will see sites of confirmed deaths, suspected cases that have been overturned, sites where Ebola testing labs have been setup or where the emergency relief teams are currently located.'"
I thought for a moment that racing is to Ebola what cookies are to flour. Then again, too much sport can kill you anyway. ;-)
Ezekiel 23:20
I thought I had read someplace that severe hemorrhagic fever diseases (and maybe it was Ebola specifically) weren't large-scale pandemic risks because they incapacitated and killed people too quickly, inhibiting their spread. Whereas other diseases like pandemic flu or smallpox were a bigger pandemic risk because the host wasn't knocked down so fast and could be mobile and communicable for longer.
just escape to Madagascar, the virus won't probably reach you there.
Average US American doesn't know what/where Africa is.
I predict a low posts count.
The most terrifying book I have ever read is "The Hot Zone" by Richard Preston. http://www.amazon.com/Hot-Zone... If this gets out and goes global, it is THE END of civilization as we know it. I suspect a few more people might be following this than normal.
"I say we take off and nuke the entire site from orbit. It’s the only way to be sure." --Ripley
Words of wisdom right there folks.
That's where the ancestors of most of our athletes and 2.3% of our Presidents hail from.
Happiness in intelligent people is the rarest thing I know.
Ernest Hemingway
That's where the ancestors of everyone hail from.
This is not the funny you're looking for.
For most of the rest of the world, "America" refers to the pair of continents nestled between the Atlantic and Pacific oceans. Technically everyone on those continents is American, and people with a better handle on geography and a more... robust world perspective recognize the need to specify. For better or worse, our culture has appropriated the term American to mean those within the U.S., but that's not really accurate. I mean, it's literally inaccurate; it's like saying Florida when someone asks you what city you're from.
No, that would be the ocean.
I predict a low posts count.
The most terrifying book I have ever read is "The Hot Zone" by Richard Preston. http://www.amazon.com/Hot-Zone... If this gets out and goes global, it is THE END of civilization as we know it. I suspect a few more people might be following this than normal.
No ebola, while a very nasty and unpleasant disease isn't a "global killer" for the same reason it is so feared: it kills most* of it's victims and that in a relatively short time. That makes fast spreading of it very unlikely unlike other diseases like variants on the flu. That also makes it possible to contain outbreaks even on a larger scale: at worst a pure isolation of the affected people for some weeks is enough.
(* depending on strain, up to IIRC 90% lethality)
It seems this one is being spread by birds, but frankly doesn't it seem like other diseases are killing way more than this instance of ebola?
did you forget to take your meds?
What country uses the expression "US American"?
The rest of the American ones. You know... Canada, Mexico, Belize, Guatemala, Honduras, El Salvador, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, Panama, Colombia, Venezuela, Guyana, Suriname, French Guyana, Ecuador, Peru, Brazil, Bolivia, Paraguay, Chili, Argentina, Uruguay, The Falklands, The Sandwich Islands... A lot of the world substitutes "Fucking" for "US" to separate us from the rest of the Americans.
I predict a low posts count.
The most terrifying book I have ever read is "The Hot Zone" by Richard Preston. http://www.amazon.com/Hot-Zone... If this gets out and goes global, it is THE END of civilization as we know it. I suspect a few more people might be following this than normal.
No ebola, while a very nasty and unpleasant disease isn't a "global killer" for the same reason it is so feared: it kills most* of it's victims and that in a relatively short time. That makes fast spreading of it very unlikely unlike other diseases like variants on the flu. That also makes it possible to contain outbreaks even on a larger scale: at worst a pure isolation of the affected people for some weeks is enough.
(* depending on strain, up to IIRC 90% lethality)
In todays world I can contact a lot of people in two weeks... Even without flying every day. One Liberian ambassadorial aid could really mess some stuff up.
Can we just be NANCs, rhymes with yanks,
and acronym's for North American Non-Canadian?
Happiness in intelligent people is the rarest thing I know.
Ernest Hemingway
And that's a crock of shit. If you took any modestly cosmopolitan population geographically aware enough to know about "America", sat them in front of a globe, the vast majority will point to the U.S.A. If you ask where an American is from, they'll point to the U.S.A.
it's like saying Florida when someone asks you what city you're from.
Yet, you argue that someone from Brazil should be called an American because the continent they come from is called South America. I'd buy that if they changed the country's name to "The Brazilian States of America".
Someone flopped a steamer in the gene pool.
Dude, that's just racist, monkeys need love too...
Somebody is a psychopath here.
Most ACs are not even worth the keystrokes to insult them. Be generically insulted by this and ignored otherwise.
Unless a Reston style variant decides to transfer to humans. Then we're pretty fucked.
For most of the rest of the world, "America" refers to the pair of continents nestled between the Atlantic and Pacific oceans.
In Chinese, the word used for North/South America means the United States when used in isolation. This is also true in most other languages I am familiar with. The only exception I know of is Spanish. Spanish speakers are not "most of the rest of the world", although they are most of America (in the Spanish sense).
Just wondering if there is much common sense to push on all these "rescue" efforts in places where population growth is unsustainable. No coincidence that Ebola, SARS etc originate in poor, over-populated parts of the world. We overcome all nature demographic control mechanisms leaving but one - self annihilation through war. How before countries will start eradicating each over getting and maintaining access to ever scare natural resources? How will come to rescue us then?
Yes but unless an air-borne variant strain that can infect humans exists the spread is still not as problematic than some super-flu. How many persons will be in contact with bodily fluids of your aid?
And even if an air-borne variant exists the short incubation period means it will be easier to detect and contain. The misdiagnosis of the flu will be much higher too loading the "care" system more and exposing people having some allergic symptoms or the common cold to the flu virus. When it comes to a disease that spreads relatively quickly and causes the patients to leak bodily fluids like a sieve* the diagnostic situation is a lot easier.
If I'd have to choose a disease to be frightened of the flu is the number one.
(* okay, exaggerated)
For all we know, we all come from a discarded tissue from an alien family that took their vacation on this planet eons ago.
Sociopath here, save the critters. The rest? Fuck 'em
Just wait for the accidental lab release of Ebola crossed with H1N1
Canada does not use that term. They usually use "American" for the people of the USA.
As far as I can tell, it's mainly a Spanish affectation (well, that and autistic people).
At worst a few thousand people die. That's fewer than die in the Arab world because they keep murdering health workers, because THAT's disrespectful of Allah or some such shit.
Average non-US American doesn't care about Africa so I'm not gonna take criticism on this front too seriously. Europe/Asia are no more principled in what guides their interest in geography:
IE. Mineral resources and emerging markets of consumers.
Africa has neither. The few places that do are so easily corrupted that there's no point investing money in the local economy because everyone knows the minute you have capital assets on the ground turning a profit, they'll renege on those property rights and nationalize the institution. Investing money in Africa is an exercise in lighting money on fire in the hope that it'll help you find gold coins before the flame goes out.
If you want to upset this balance of power, you have to figure out how to make educational investments a worth-while use of time. That means clean drinking water, agricultural jobs that aren't bankrupted by USAID sabotage, and enough government stability that they can get at-least 2 generations of pride in their nation's culture without a coup. If New Zealand can't retain their college graduates, what would inspire an enlightened member of an African Society to want to stay in a continent devoid of opportunity?
2 Reasons:
1) They aren't especially smart and don't realize that any attempts they make to make difference will be destroyed or corrupted by greed.
2) They are both smart & exceptionally cynical and decide to leech off the accomplishments of group #1 for their own personal profit.
Here's the problem:
India used to look like Africa, but they were slightly more disciplined about not cutting each other's hands off & giving children AK-47.
A couple decades later and their H1B exports have managed to piss off all sorts of lazy 1st World Degree-holders & their collective sense of entitlement. If US Americans can't drive gas-guzzling SUVs and live in a McMansion when a country as fucked up as India is pushing out human-cogs, what happen when you take the other mega-ghetto of planet earth and dump the contents on the white collar job market?
So far, the answer seems to be 419 scams. Give them a few more years and they'll be taking all our Kickstarter's and Bay Area IPO scams. Then who will be left to buy Google Glass & Smart Cars? Oh Dear...
I'm currently in Columbus, OH - currently undergoing a mumps problem, with almost 200 cases reported. The number is still growing. This is a dumb problem to have to worry about. Get your vaccinations.
Does the web interface offer any way we can help with the effort to contain it?
That doesn't make it correct.
Somebody is a psychopath here.
Pruning the population of its perpetually problematic diseased enclaves would be a good move for any species. Taking two steps forward and one step back is for the best.
What country uses the expression "US American"?
The rest of the American ones. You know... Canada, Mexico, Belize, Guatemala, Honduras, El Salvador, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, Panama, Colombia, Venezuela, Guyana, Suriname, French Guyana, Ecuador, Peru, Brazil, Bolivia, Paraguay, Chili, Argentina, Uruguay, The Falklands, The Sandwich Islands... A lot of the world substitutes "Fucking" for "US" to separate us from the rest of the Americans.
Bullshit, and you'd know it was bullshit if you'd ever been to any of those countries. They refer to themselves by the name of their Nation, not the continent it's located on, just like pretty much everyone else on the planet does.
Let's see what we are working with:
(1) 90% mortality rate,
(2) No known vaccine,
(3) Spreads by bodily fluids,
(4) Area with poor hygiene,
(5) All experts recommend letting the virus "burn itself out."
Objectively, is there really anything to do other than to strictly and conservatively quarantine every country (and sub-quarantine cities as necessary) with a positive case?
We should not even be sending in aid workers, who could potentially be exposed. Medicine and water can be airdropped.
That's the short term solution. In the long term, you need to educate the population, improve hygiene and infrastructure, and figure out where the infection is coming from. In general, the African governments have not really been interested in doing any of the above.
Well dang, best post I seen for a while and I just gone and used up my mod points, M-O-O-N, that spells mod points.
..Mullah or Pope, Preacher or Poet, who was it wrote: "Give any one species too much rope and they'll fuck it up"?
".. if something this virulent ever learns to spread like the flu there will be no more overpopulation worries..."
You mean that something like this would only attack extremist green fascist tree-huggers? Where can I get it?
"Let's see what we are working with: ...that we should drop it in San Francisco...?
(1) 90% mortality rate,
(2) No known vaccine,
(3) Spreads by bodily fluids..."
Witness the sheer intelligence (not) of Sardaukar86 (foaming @ the mouth) http://news.slashdot.org/comme... + http://news.slashdot.org/comme...
For most of the rest of the world, "America" refers to the pair of continents nestled between the Atlantic and Pacific oceans. Technically everyone on those continents is American, and people with a better handle on geography and a more... robust world perspective recognize the need to specify. For better or worse, our culture has appropriated the term American to mean those within the U.S., but that's not really accurate. I mean, it's literally inaccurate; it's like saying Florida when someone asks you what city you're from.
When I've been to Africa "American" specifically refers to someone from the USA, and you must specify if you mean somewhere else. Same in Europe, except amongst some friends giving me a hard time =]
Bullshit, and you'd know it was bullshit if you'd ever been to any of those countries. They refer to themselves by the name of their Nation, not the continent it's located on, just like pretty much everyone else on the planet does.
Actually, my personal favorite is Mexico where the word for norther visitor and the word for diarrhea is the same. Turista. And I guess you are right, as those European's don't seem to be on the same planet most of the time...
*sings*
Prediction fulfilled - even including this reply to a (spit) AC.
And I work in the area. But I've been watching it for a couple of months now.
Birds are not dinosaur descendants;birds are dinosaurs, for all useful meanings of "birds", "are" and "dinosaurs"
Even then only for usages of the word "fucked" that include a mere 75% mortality.
We're humans ; we'd make that up in a couple of generations. 40 years. No, 50 years. No, maybe as little as 60 years.
Actually, stepping back the human population by (say) 75% might be one of the best moves a "Mad Scientist" (or "Rogue Government") could make for the species. Might be death for you, or for me (I was handling equipment 2 days out from from Liberia just 2 weeks ago), but on average, that's not likely to be a bad price.
Birds are not dinosaur descendants;birds are dinosaurs, for all useful meanings of "birds", "are" and "dinosaurs"
Good luck with the latter. Unless you live in a bat- (and mosquito-) free country. Which is pretty unlikely.
Birds are not dinosaur descendants;birds are dinosaurs, for all useful meanings of "birds", "are" and "dinosaurs"