Racing To Contain Ebola

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Posted by Soulskill on Saturday April 12, 2014 @02:35AM from the see-if-dustin-hoffman's-available dept.

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.'"

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Africa, eh? by Anonymous Coward · 2014-04-12 02:38 · Score: -1, Flamebait

I predict a low posts count.
1. Re:Africa, eh? by Anonymous Coward · 2014-04-12 03:09 · Score: 0
  
  Average US American doesn't know what/where Africa is.
2. Re:Africa, eh? by houstonbofh · 2014-04-12 03:11 · Score: 2, Informative
  
  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.
3. Re:Africa, eh? by Anonymous Coward · 2014-04-12 03:16 · Score: -1
  
  What country uses the expression "US American"?
4. Re:Africa, eh? by rmdingler · 2014-04-12 03:18 · Score: 0
  
  I beg to differ, sir.
  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
5. Re:Africa, eh? by Johann+Lau · 2014-04-12 03:18 · Score: 1
  
  I know I didn't say I was comin down,
  I know you didn't know I was here in town,
  But bay-yay-yaby you can tell me if anyone can,
  Baby, can you dig your man?
  He's a righteous man,
  Tell me baby, can you dig your man?
6. Re:Africa, eh? by dougisfunny · 2014-04-12 03:32 · Score: 3, Informative
  
  That's where the ancestors of everyone hail from.
  
  --
  This is not the funny you're looking for.
7. Re:Africa, eh? by b1scuit · 2014-04-12 04:03 · Score: 1, Offtopic
  
  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.
8. Re:Africa, eh? by Anonymous Coward · 2014-04-12 04:13 · Score: 0
  
  No, that would be the ocean.
9. Re:Africa, eh? by Megol · 2014-04-12 04:15 · Score: 2
  
  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)
10. Re:Africa, eh? by houstonbofh · 2014-04-12 04:22 · Score: 1
  
  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.
11. Re:Africa, eh? by houstonbofh · 2014-04-12 04:25 · Score: 3, Insightful
  
  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.
12. Re:Africa, eh? by Anonymous Coward · 2014-04-12 04:46 · Score: 0
  
  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.
13. Re:Africa, eh? by pspahn · 2014-04-12 05:19 · Score: 1
  
  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.
14. Re:Africa, eh? by ravenshrike · 2014-04-12 06:32 · Score: 1
  
  Unless a Reston style variant decides to transfer to humans. Then we're pretty fucked.
15. Re:Africa, eh? by ShanghaiBill · 2014-04-12 06:56 · Score: 2
  
  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).
16. Re:Africa, eh? by Megol · 2014-04-12 07:32 · Score: 1
  
  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)
17. Re:Africa, eh? by Anonymous Coward · 2014-04-12 07:39 · Score: 0
  
  For all we know, we all come from a discarded tissue from an alien family that took their vacation on this planet eons ago.
18. Re:Africa, eh? by Anonymous Coward · 2014-04-12 10:31 · Score: 0
  
  Just wait for the accidental lab release of Ebola crossed with H1N1
19. Re:Africa, eh? by Anonymous Coward · 2014-04-12 11:26 · Score: 0
  
  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).
20. Re:Africa, eh? by ceCA · 2014-04-12 11:45 · Score: -1
  
  Where's African Is that between NY and Vermont?
21. Re:Africa, eh? by Anonymous Coward · 2014-04-12 13:35 · Score: 0
  
  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...
22. Re:Africa, eh? by Anonymous Coward · 2014-04-12 16:07 · Score: 0
  
  That doesn't make it correct.
23. Re:Africa, eh? by Anonymous Coward · 2014-04-12 16:45 · Score: 0
  
  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.
24. Re:Africa, eh? by Sardaukar86 · 2014-04-12 19:59 · Score: 1
  
  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"?
25. Re:Africa, eh? by Anonymous Coward · 2014-04-13 01:03 · Score: 0
  
  Witness the sheer intelligence (not) of Sardaukar86 (foaming @ the mouth) http://news.slashdot.org/comme... + http://news.slashdot.org/comme...
26. Re:Africa, eh? by Anonymous Coward · 2014-04-13 04:58 · Score: 0
  
  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 =]
27. Re:Africa, eh? by houstonbofh · 2014-04-13 05:43 · Score: 1
  
  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...
28. Re:Africa, eh? by Johann+Lau · 2014-04-13 16:48 · Score: 1
  
  "Show me a man or a woman alone and I'll show you a saint. Give me two and they'll fall in love. Give me three and they'll invent the charming thing we call 'society'. Give me four and they'll build a pyramid. Give me five and they'll make one an outcast. Give me six and they'll reinvent prejudice. Give me seven and in seven years they'll reinvent warfare. Man may have been made in the image of God, but human society was made in the image of His opposite number, and is always trying to get back home."
  
  Now here I go,
  Hope I don't break down,
  I won't take anything, I don't need anything,
  Don't want to exist, I can't persist,
  Please stop before I do it again,
  Just talk about nothing, let's talk about nothing,
  Let's talk about no one, please talk about no one, someone, anyone
  You and me have a disease,
  You affect me, you infect me,
  I'm afflicted, you're addicted,
  You and me, you and me
  *sings*
29. Re:Africa, eh? by RockDoctor · 2014-04-14 10:16 · Score: 1
  
  I predict a low posts count.
  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"
30. Re:Africa, eh? by RockDoctor · 2014-04-14 10:35 · Score: 1
  
  Unless a Reston style variant decides to transfer to humans. Then we're pretty fucked.
  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"
Damn English by K.+S.+Kyosuke · 2014-04-12 02:40 · Score: 2

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
1. Re:Damn English by jones_supa · 2014-04-12 02:48 · Score: 2
  
  Bernie Ecclestone decided to spice up the races by putting some Ebola in the mix.
2. Re:Damn English by ericloewe · 2014-04-12 03:09 · Score: 3, Informative
  
  I wouldn't put it past him.
Is Ebola a "rapid burnout" disease? by swb · 2014-04-12 03:00 · Score: 4, Interesting

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.
1. Re:Is Ebola a "rapid burnout" disease? by Shadow+of+Eternity · 2014-04-12 03:03 · Score: 5, Insightful
  
  Back in the mid 1900s sure, but today even Ebola's average of 13 days between infection and onset of symptoms is plenty for someone to get on a plane with a transfer in JFK International...
  
  --
  A bullet may have your name on it but splash damage is addressed "To whom it may concern."
2. Re:Is Ebola a "rapid burnout" disease? by Demonantis · 2014-04-12 03:14 · Score: 1
  
  The benefit of Ebola is that it makes the sick bedridden quickly. In countries with hygiene standards the disease dies out quickly since the pathways of transmission are severely limited. There is research that shows diseases will(in the evolutionary pressure sense, not free will) soften the symptoms to stay in the population. The most successful diseases are the ones where the majority of hosts will ignore the symptoms and go about their daily life.
3. Re:Is Ebola a "rapid burnout" disease? by houstonbofh · 2014-04-12 03:14 · Score: 2, Interesting
  
  Consider how fast the flue spreads with a faster onset... The only reason it has not gone global is that travel out of the regions with it so far can take a week or more. If you want to have a few sleepless nights, read "The Hot Zone" by Richard Preston. It is a true story of Ebola Rushton... http://www.amazon.com/Hot-Zone...
4. Re:Is Ebola a "rapid burnout" disease? by rmdingler · 2014-04-12 03:35 · Score: 3, Insightful
  
  It would wreak havoc in the urban population centers if it ever mutated into an airborne pathogen, but since it is widely believed to be spread via host-to-host contact and human bodily fluids its capacity for epidemic is low.
  A partially immune host, one who's symptoms delay or remain minor, could conceivably have much more time to spread the often fatal disease, but it's not going to "take off" due to poor transmission rates.
  Humans have exhibited an ability in past plagues to leave oozing, infected bodies alone... but if something this virulent ever learns to spread like the flu there will be no more overpopulation worries.
  
  --
  Happiness in intelligent people is the rarest thing I know.
  Ernest Hemingway
5. Re:Is Ebola a "rapid burnout" disease? by Eunuchswear · 2014-04-12 03:39 · Score: 2
  
  one of the interesting things about this outbreak is that it is close to the Tai forest in Cote d'Ivoire, so we can guess where it came from.
  Except that it turns out not to be that strain, it's similar to the strains found in the RDC, 2500 kilometers away.
  How does a disease move 2500 kilometers in less than 14 days?
  
  --
  Watch this Heartland Institute video
6. Re:Is Ebola a "rapid burnout" disease? by Shadow+of+Eternity · 2014-04-12 03:48 · Score: 1
  
  My guess would be a bird, or that it was carried by an animal or person that for whatever reason wasn't affected.
  
  --
  A bullet may have your name on it but splash damage is addressed "To whom it may concern."
7. Re:Is Ebola a "rapid burnout" disease? by mspohr · 2014-04-12 03:51 · Score: 2
  
  That is true.
  However, a complication is that people do move about in the short time before they become incapacitated.
  Plus, we really don't understand well how it is transmitted and where the natural reservoirs exist so it's hard to find the source and eradicate it.
  
  --
  I don't read your sig. Why are you reading mine?
8. Re:Is Ebola a "rapid burnout" disease? by Anonymous Coward · 2014-04-12 04:02 · Score: 1
  
  How does a disease move 2500 kilometers in less than 14 days?
  Perhaps some form of mechanical horse or - and I'm being crazy here - some form of mechanical bird!
9. Re:Is Ebola a "rapid burnout" disease? by kylemonger · 2014-04-12 04:04 · Score: 1
  
  There could be some natural reservoir of the virus that was already nearby but is now on the move due to climate change or habitat destruction. Or maybe some unlucky souls found this new vector.
10. Re:Is Ebola a "rapid burnout" disease? by Hognoxious · 2014-04-12 04:14 · Score: 2
  
  I suspect it involves coconuts and swallows.
  
  --
  Confucius say, "Find worm in apple - bad. Find half a worm - worse."
11. Re:Is Ebola a "rapid burnout" disease? by Eunuchswear · 2014-04-12 04:31 · Score: 1
  
  That's the point - there is a natural reservoir, it's the Tai forest in the Ivory Coast.
  But the strain in Guinea turns out to be from the RDC.
  So it seems highly probable that Ebola has already taken it's first trip on a plane.
  Have an appropriate amount of fun.
  
  --
  Watch this Heartland Institute video
12. Re:Is Ebola a "rapid burnout" disease? by Eunuchswear · 2014-04-12 04:33 · Score: 1
  
  The only way you could get from the RDC to Guinea in less that 14 days is by plane. There are no usable roads for much of the distance. (It can take more that 14 days to get from the interior of the RDC to the capital, never mind getting from there to Guinea).
  (Maybe by boat, but I doubt it).
  
  --
  Watch this Heartland Institute video
13. Re:Is Ebola a "rapid burnout" disease? by dataspel · 2014-04-12 04:34 · Score: 2
  
  European swallow or African swallow?
14. Re:Is Ebola a "rapid burnout" disease? by Anonymous Coward · 2014-04-12 04:35 · Score: 3, Insightful
  
  This Ebola strain is not communicable via air, but others are, e.g. Ebola Reston. Luckily, Ebola Reston is not as deadly to humans, but it still dissolves monkeys. We are one mutation away from an air-born deadly strain which can cause a pandemic.
15. Re:Is Ebola a "rapid burnout" disease? by Shadow+of+Eternity · 2014-04-12 05:08 · Score: 1
  
  So bird is a distinct possibility then, as is concurrent infections from pre-existing sources.
  
  --
  A bullet may have your name on it but splash damage is addressed "To whom it may concern."
16. Re:Is Ebola a "rapid burnout" disease? by Eunuchswear · 2014-04-12 05:18 · Score: 2
  
  A bird is extremely improbable - Ebola is a mammalian disease.
  As I've said before, the pre-existing disease in the close geographical area (near to where my wife's family live :-)) is a different strain.
  It seems to me that this virus is airborne (with a little help from big-brained primates).
  
  --
  Watch this Heartland Institute video
17. Re:Is Ebola a "rapid burnout" disease? by CrimsonAvenger · 2014-04-12 05:27 · Score: 0
  
  Consider how fast the flue spreads with a faster onset
  Only time my flue was ever spread quickly was when the hurricane pushed my chimney over.
  Or did you mean "flu"?
  
  --
  
  "I do not agree with what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it"
18. Re:Is Ebola a "rapid burnout" disease? by Bugamn · 2014-04-12 05:44 · Score: 2
  
  African, of course. Didn't you read TFA? Oh, who I'm kidding, of course not.
19. Re:Is Ebola a "rapid burnout" disease? by dataspel · 2014-04-12 05:58 · Score: 1
  
  So there is no risk of worldwide contagion, given that African swallows are non-migratory.
20. Re:Is Ebola a "rapid burnout" disease? by KingOfBLASH · 2014-04-12 06:18 · Score: 2
  
  A bird is extremely improbable
  Because it's not like a pathogen has ever learned to hop from one species of host to another leaving utter devastation in its wake.
  Swing Flu
  Bird Flu
  Goat Flu
  (funny I meant the last one as a joke but searching for the family guy video, it appears goat flu is real)
  Anyone know someone who'll make book on what the next animal flu will be? My money is on a karma induced pangolin flu wiping out poachers...
21. Re:Is Ebola a "rapid burnout" disease? by Eunuchswear · 2014-04-12 09:20 · Score: 1
  
  Let me know when you find a non-mamalian rabies virus.
  
  --
  Watch this Heartland Institute video
22. Re:Is Ebola a "rapid burnout" disease? by Shadow+of+Eternity · 2014-04-12 09:40 · Score: 1
  
  Good thing there's no such things as mammals that fly OH WAIT
  
  --
  A bullet may have your name on it but splash damage is addressed "To whom it may concern."
23. Re:Is Ebola a "rapid burnout" disease? by Anonymous Coward · 2014-04-12 10:14 · Score: 0
  
  Ebola is not an airborne pathogen and the fact that an infected individual might board a plane is really +5 sensational and not +5 insightful.
  The people dying from Ebola aren't just going to board a plane to JFK either. I mean it's possible, but extremely unlikely.
24. Re:Is Ebola a "rapid burnout" disease? by houstonbofh · 2014-04-12 11:12 · Score: 1
  
  dyac
25. Re:Is Ebola a "rapid burnout" disease? by rtb61 · 2014-04-12 17:39 · Score: 1
  
  It will be a fine balancing act to ensure transport routes sea and air are cut off to prevent transmission of Ebola before it reaches out from less populated regions to major cities where direct contact between persons becomes possible, keeping in mind sneezing, transfer of perspiration from person to person in public transport systems and other transitory methods of transfer that can extend physical contact be actual direct physical contact.
  So major cities throughout the world are under direct threat and likely acting early rather than latter in cutting off sources of infection would be far safer. Especially as under worsening circumstances, those who would risk everyone to save themselves become harder to contain, forcing extreme containment measures, as a result of attempting to apply containment during crisis rather than prior to crisis before chaos ensues.
  
  --
  Chaos - everything, everywhere, everywhen
26. Re:Is Ebola a "rapid burnout" disease? by Eunuchswear · 2014-04-12 21:07 · Score: 1
  
  2500 km?
  Why would bats migrate from the RDC to Guinea?
  Which animal species are you going to suggest next? Fish? Insects?
  
  --
  Watch this Heartland Institute video
27. Re:Is Ebola a "rapid burnout" disease? by Anonymous Coward · 2014-04-13 01:42 · Score: 0
  
  We are one mutation away from an air-born deadly strain which can cause a pandemic.
  I believe Clancy wrote about this concept in Rainbow Six. Like the OP stated, that would end our overpopulation problems.
28. Re:Is Ebola a "rapid burnout" disease? by Shadow+of+Eternity · 2014-04-13 05:27 · Score: 1
  
  Do I LOOK like an expert in bat psychology to you? All things being equal the simplest explanation is most likely to be correct. Either there was a pocket of the disease in the other location already or it was somehow carried there. Maybe it was an animal, maybe a person in the incubation period, we don't know and probably never will.
  
  --
  A bullet may have your name on it but splash damage is addressed "To whom it may concern."
29. Re:Is Ebola a "rapid burnout" disease? by RockDoctor · 2014-04-14 10:37 · Score: 1
  
  but if something this virulent ever learns to spread like the flu there will be no more overpopulation worries.
  ... for about 3 generations.
  
  --
  Birds are not dinosaur descendants;birds are dinosaurs, for all useful meanings of "birds", "are" and "dinosaurs"
30. Re:Is Ebola a "rapid burnout" disease? by RockDoctor · 2014-04-14 10:42 · Score: 1
  
  So major cities throughout the world are under direct threat and likely acting early rather than latter in cutting off sources of infection would be far safer.
  Shrug.
  We were receiving cargo onto the boat less than 48 hours out of Guyana, less than 2 weeks ago. Since then 1/4 of the crew will have crew-changed to (mostly) Louisiana, another 1/4 to Europe, another 1/4 to various places in Africa (including Guyana and Liberia), and half of the Philippine labourers will be lining up for their crew change.
  Stable door is open. Horse is over there [points at horizon].
  
  --
  Birds are not dinosaur descendants;birds are dinosaurs, for all useful meanings of "birds", "are" and "dinosaurs"
31. Re:Is Ebola a "rapid burnout" disease? by RockDoctor · 2014-04-14 10:48 · Score: 1
  
  2500 km?
  Why would bats migrate from the RDC to Guinea?
  Errr, because it was caught in a cargo shipping container?
  (It might be an idea to read my previous - last 15 minutes - posts in this thread.)
  Do I sound unconcerned? Of course I am. It's the same risks that I am exposed to in searching for oil to fuel your lifestyle.
  Do you sound concerned? [I shrug] It's the same risks (etc) but they strike at your home. [Shrug.]
  Welcome to the globailsed economy, where any organism anywhere in the world, be they plutocrat or bacterium, can exploit a homogeneous global target audience.
  
  --
  Birds are not dinosaur descendants;birds are dinosaurs, for all useful meanings of "birds", "are" and "dinosaurs"
32. Re:Is Ebola a "rapid burnout" disease? by RockDoctor · 2014-04-14 10:49 · Score: 1
  
  That's the point - there is a natural reservoir, it's the Tai forest in the Ivory Coast.
  How would that explain the 1979 outbreak of Ebola in N.Kenya/ S.Sudan in 1979?
  
  --
  Birds are not dinosaur descendants;birds are dinosaurs, for all useful meanings of "birds", "are" and "dinosaurs"
33. Re:Is Ebola a "rapid burnout" disease? by RockDoctor · 2014-04-14 10:51 · Score: 1
  
  including Guyana
  Sorry, "Guinea"
  
  --
  Birds are not dinosaur descendants;birds are dinosaurs, for all useful meanings of "birds", "are" and "dinosaurs"
34. Re:Is Ebola a "rapid burnout" disease? by rmdingler · 2014-04-14 12:58 · Score: 1
  
  I can see you're going to make me work for it. Okay. A generation is historically 20-25 years at the mean, 15-35 years at the extreme, and we can probably safely project something on the low side of average after a massive worldwide loss of life... nearby death seems to act as a bit of an aphrodisiac. I will sample 23 years using these predictive assumptions, and not at all because the multiplication of factors 3 and 23 results in a product of 69.
  Depending on the strain, an ebola infection is lethal upon contraction between 50 and 90% of the time. (I am full of hearsay evidence of the disease because I'm 2/3rds of the way through The Hot Zone per a recommended reading from this thread.) It's shortcoming thus far as a Biblical-level plague has been its transmission failures... it kills too quickly and requires almost HIV-like intimate contact to spread from host-to-host.
  So our variable is How many people does it infect if it acquires flu-like efficacy? 5-20% of Americans get the flu per year according to the CDC. If we extrapolate those figures, at 50 to 90% mortality rates for 5 to 20% of the populace, at worst, we would lose a mere 18% of the planet's humans... easily replaceable in 69 years.
  
  --
  Happiness in intelligent people is the rarest thing I know.
  Ernest Hemingway
35. Re:Is Ebola a "rapid burnout" disease? by Eunuchswear · 2014-04-14 18:27 · Score: 1
  
  I didn't say that Tai was the only reservoir, it's just the obvious one for an outbreak in the Guinea - Sierra Leone - Liberia area.
  
  --
  Watch this Heartland Institute video
36. Re:Is Ebola a "rapid burnout" disease? by RockDoctor · 2014-04-17 15:54 · Score: 1
  
  Using the back of a different envelope, let's hypothesise some mutation to ebola that gives it a 70% mortality rate (the mean of the mortality rates you cite), and a flu-like transmission profile. Then in around 5 years of cycling through the population, we'll be down to about 2.1 billion people left on the planet. That's around the population in the late 1920s to late 1930s.
  Add on your 69 years for 3 generations and we'll be back to a population situation of 1933 + 69 = 2002. In short, we'd be back to the approximate population position of today.
  I see that you cite American flu rates, suggesting that you may be American. Given that, likely you live there and rarely leave (average American)? Of the last 3 years I've spent about 8-9 months (I'd have to check my pay slips) living in various countries of Africa and on my last rotation out of there an aircraft fault put us down into Abidjan airport, which borders the most recent ebola outbreak. My next rotation into Africa will see me in Gabon, in the thick of the "ebola belt". Ebola isn't a theoretical issue for me, and I'm paying close attention to the vaccine work, and would consider participating in clinical trials of one.
  
  --
  Birds are not dinosaur descendants;birds are dinosaurs, for all useful meanings of "birds", "are" and "dinosaurs"
just escape to Madagascar by Anonymous Coward · 2014-04-12 03:04 · Score: 4, Funny

just escape to Madagascar, the virus won't probably reach you there.
1. Re:just escape to Madagascar by Dancindan84 · 2014-04-12 05:27 · Score: 1
  
  You mean they haven't closed their ports already?
  
  --
  "Always forgive your enemies; nothing annoys them so much." - Oscar Wilde
2. Re:just escape to Madagascar by Anonymous Coward · 2014-04-12 10:17 · Score: 0
  
  It's possible that Ebola is native to Madagascar.
Nuke it from orbit... by drew_92123 · 2014-04-12 03:12 · Score: 0, Flamebait

"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.
1. Re:Nuke it from orbit... by Eunuchswear · 2014-04-12 03:43 · Score: 1
  
  Fuck you. The population of Conacry is between 1.5 and 2 million.
  
  --
  Watch this Heartland Institute video
2. Re:Nuke it from orbit... by Anonymous Coward · 2014-04-12 03:48 · Score: 0
  
  2 million deaths? thats a rounding error in human population these days
3. Re:Nuke it from orbit... by drew_92123 · 2014-04-12 05:14 · Score: 0
  
  If that shit gets loose and starts infecting thousands or millions there might not be much of a choice... I say kill a few, maybe save a billion. Whats wrong with that?
4. Re:Nuke it from orbit... by gweihir · 2014-04-12 06:26 · Score: 1, Troll
  
  Paranoid bullshit. Maybe see a shrink before you go on a killing-spree?
  
  --
  Most ACs are not even worth the keystrokes to insult them. Be generically insulted by this and ignored otherwise.
5. Re:Nuke it from orbit... by gweihir · 2014-04-12 06:28 · Score: 2
  
  Have you even bothered to find out _how_ it spreads? It is not airborne. The thing that is wrong here is that you are clueless and vicious.
  
  --
  Most ACs are not even worth the keystrokes to insult them. Be generically insulted by this and ignored otherwise.
6. Re:Nuke it from orbit... by drew_92123 · 2014-04-12 06:58 · Score: 0
  
  Prissy little "save everybody" b!tches like you are the reason the world is overpopulated and filled with misery. Got a country of people starving to death? Nuke em... no more pain or hunger! Got a disease spreading that kills most who catch it and no cure or treatment? Nuke em... No more disease! See... it all makes perfect sense.
7. Re:Nuke it from orbit... by gweihir · 2014-04-12 07:20 · Score: 0
  
  Well, clearly you are a psychopath. And likely a severe danger to everybody around you. Or maybe you are just evil and thrive on death?
  
  --
  Most ACs are not even worth the keystrokes to insult them. Be generically insulted by this and ignored otherwise.
8. Re:Nuke it from orbit... by ultranova · 2014-04-13 03:57 · Score: 1
  
  If that shit gets loose and starts infecting thousands or millions there might not be much of a choice... I say kill a few, maybe save a billion. Whats wrong with that?
  
  Well, for starters, the world's nuclear arsenal isn't capable of sterilizing the entire African rainforest system, or even killing all the people living there. Therefore, all you'd get is the fun task of enforcing a guarantine in a radiactive area with devastated physical and social infrastructure.
  
  --
  Forget magic. Any technology distinguishable from divine power is insufficiently advanced.
9. Re:Nuke it from orbit... by RockDoctor · 2014-04-14 10:58 · Score: 1
  
  If that shit gets loose and starts infecting thousands or millions there might not be much of a choice
  If that shit gets loose ... you have already lost the Conacry choice. You'd probably be safer by turning every port of entry into the Continental US into radioactive dust, and a hundred kilometres around.
  Let the Hawaiians die - they've got native fruit bats and must be considered suspect.
  
  --
  Birds are not dinosaur descendants;birds are dinosaurs, for all useful meanings of "birds", "are" and "dinosaurs"
Simple prevention is by Anonymous Coward · 2014-04-12 04:12 · Score: -1

Don't fuck monkeys.
1. Re:Simple prevention is by Anonymous Coward · 2014-04-12 05:32 · Score: 1
  
  Dude, that's just racist, monkeys need love too...
2. Re:Simple prevention is by RockDoctor · 2014-04-14 11:01 · Score: 1
  
  Don't eat bats (unless it is really well-cooked and well-spiced), and don't get bitten by mosquitoes which have previously bitten bats.
  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"
Animal carriers by js3 · 2014-04-12 04:18 · Score: 1

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?
1. Re:Animal carriers by gweihir · 2014-04-12 06:30 · Score: 2
  
  The common flu is killing several orders of magnitude more each year. The problem with Ebola is that once it reaches a certain level, society collapses. Then then you need to contain what is left by force, just to prevent panic. And _that_ is what will kill a lot more people that the disease itself ever could.
  
  --
  Most ACs are not even worth the keystrokes to insult them. Be generically insulted by this and ignored otherwise.
Just let it go. by Anonymous Coward · 2014-04-12 04:23 · Score: -1

It would be best for the continent.
1. Re:Just let it go. by gweihir · 2014-04-12 06:31 · Score: 0
  
  Somebody is a psychopath here.
  
  --
  Most ACs are not even worth the keystrokes to insult them. Be generically insulted by this and ignored otherwise.
2. Re:Just let it go. by Anonymous Coward · 2014-04-12 08:37 · Score: 0
  
  Sociopath here, save the critters. The rest? Fuck 'em
3. Re:Just let it go. by Anonymous Coward · 2014-04-12 16:25 · Score: 0
  
  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.
Arfica, eh? by rmdingler · 2014-04-12 04:29 · Score: 1, Offtopic

USians is just not catching on.
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
1. Re:Arfica, eh? by Anonymous Coward · 2014-04-12 07:27 · Score: 0, Offtopic
  
  'merkins is the preferred term.
  (look up the word in the dictionary)
2. Re:Arfica, eh? by FatdogHaiku · 2014-04-12 07:43 · Score: 0
  
  USians is just not catching on.
  Can we just be NANCs, rhymes with yanks,
  and acronym's for North American Non-Canadian?
  It would need to be NANCOM for North American Non-Canadian Or Mexican. Of course, for Mexican citizens living in the USA it would have to be NANCCRM for North American Non-Canadian Currently Relocated Mexican...
  
  --
  You have the right to remain sentient. If you give up the right to remain sentient, you will be elected to public office
3. Re:Arfica, eh? by Anonymous Coward · 2014-04-12 12:11 · Score: 0
  
  That's because the term is USAsian, not USian.
Anybody else smell... by Anonymous Coward · 2014-04-12 05:15 · Score: -1

Can you hear that?
That was the collective groan of orgasm from the pharmaceutical industry.
If this thing takes off, I can actually see state mandated vaccination$.
In "World War Z" (the book, not the movie) it was rabies medication which made those psychopaths billions of dollars.
how about a karma induced nigger flu by Anonymous Coward · 2014-04-12 07:08 · Score: -1

how about a karma induced nigger flu wiping out niggerlovers
What about the overpopulation? by Anonymous Coward · 2014-04-12 07:29 · Score: 0

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?
1. Re:What about the overpopulation? by noh8rz10 · 2014-04-12 09:47 · Score: 1
  
  I would call it mutual annihilation through war, not self annihilation through war. Unless it is the most inept war ever.
It's simple... by Anonymous Coward · 2014-04-12 08:32 · Score: -1

....we, uh, burn the niggers. Enough of this black-African-Congo-jungle AIDS
Better to let it burn itself out by gelfling · 2014-04-12 12:14 · Score: 1

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.
Don't forget to contain other places by trawg · 2014-04-12 13:39 · Score: 1

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.
1. Re:Don't forget to contain other places by RockDoctor · 2014-04-14 11:04 · Score: 1
  
  There is no vaccine against ebola.
  That said, because I'll be back to work in Africa (to fuel your lifestyle) shortly, I'll be getting a booster on my typhoid jab tomorrow. Because ... that disease didn't stop killing people with Mozart.
  
  --
  Birds are not dinosaur descendants;birds are dinosaurs, for all useful meanings of "birds", "are" and "dinosaurs"
Is this a crowd-sourcing thing? by Anonymous Coward · 2014-04-12 14:37 · Score: 0

Does the web interface offer any way we can help with the effort to contain it?
1. Re:Is this a crowd-sourcing thing? by AndrewBuck · 2014-04-13 02:11 · Score: 3, Informative
  
  (Full disclosure, I am one of the lead coordinators of the mapping effort discussed in the article and in my post below.)
  Yes, the OpenStreetMap project is where the mapping is being done. The map linked in the article shows outbreak information overlaid on top of the OSM database of roads and buildings. It is this underlying map data that the croudsourcing is about.
  If you go to this site you can create an OSM account and then start edititng the map immediately (think wikipedia, but for maps). You normally would edit by just going to the main OSM page and then editing the map there, the site I linked is the HOT task manager. We create areas on the task manager that need mapping done, the area is then broken up into a grid of small square tiles, and then people 'lock' a tile to work on, map all the roads and/or buildings in that tile, and finally mark the tile complete after the map has been updated. This tool was used to map all the roads and buildings in 3 large cities (Gueckedou, Macenta, and Kissidougou), where the outbreak originally started; all three of these towns were mapped completely, down to the last building, within 24 hours of HOT getting satellite imagery for them.
  Right now the focus is to find and map all the small residential areas outside of these main cities, and to draw in the main connecting roads to each village. This helps the medical teams track the spread of the disease from village to village, as well as making it easier for them to travel around to do their own work. I really encourage slashdotters to help out on these kinds of projects. The mapping tools are easy to use (the in browser iD editor especially), but the technical knowledge of the slashdot crowd makes it easy for the average ./er to learn more advanced tools like JOSM and also to help with analysis and writing code to do cool stuff with the map data. You can really help out this (and a lot of other humanitarian efforts) by doing a bit of mapping anywhere in these areas, every little bit of extra data helps.
  -AndrewBuck
No quarintine = no containment by cyn1c77 · 2014-04-12 17:11 · Score: 2

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.
1. Re:No quarintine = no containment by Anonymous Coward · 2014-04-12 19:21 · Score: 0
  
  What "bodily fluids" is spreading this deadly virus that quickly? Is there sneezing or promiscuous fucking going on here?!!
2. Re:No quarintine = no containment by RockDoctor · 2014-04-14 11:09 · Score: 1
  
  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 need the MDT-MRPQ tool that we sent back to that field base for service last month, and we'll need them at the end of next month.
  Are you going to pay the consequential costs of your "advice"?
  (Bear in mind - the lead time to manufacture an MDT-MRPQ tool is around 8 months. Which is why we rent them from Franco-American corporations instead of owning our own. This reduces the price of the fuel in your petrol tank.)
  
  --
  Birds are not dinosaur descendants;birds are dinosaurs, for all useful meanings of "birds", "are" and "dinosaurs"
Useful insight by Anonymous Coward · 2014-04-12 21:44 · Score: 0

".. 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?
So you're saying.... by Anonymous Coward · 2014-04-12 21:48 · Score: 0

"Let's see what we are working with:
(1) 90% mortality rate,
(2) No known vaccine,
(3) Spreads by bodily fluids..." ...that we should drop it in San Francisco...?