Ebola Outbreak Continues To Expand

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Ebola Outbreak Continues To Expand

Posted by samzenpus on Wednesday July 23, 2014 @09:36PM from the mask-and-gloves dept.

symbolset writes in with the latest about an ebola outbreak spreading across West Africa. The World Health Organization (WHO) continues to monitor the evolution of the Ebola virus disease (EVD) outbreak in Sierra Leone, Liberia, and Guinea. The current epidemic trend of EVD outbreak in Sierra Leone and Liberia remains serious, with 67 new cases and 19 deaths reported July 15-17, 2014. These include suspect, probable, and laboratory-confirmed cases. The EVD outbreak in Guinea continues to show a declining trend, with no new cases reported during this period. Critical analyses and review of the current outbreak response is being undertaken to inform the process of developing prioritized national operational plans. Effective implementation of the prioritized plans will be vital in reversing the current trend of EVD outbreak, especially in Liberia and Sierra Leone.

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Think of it as evolution in action by Anonymous Coward · 2014-07-23 21:36 · Score: 0, Troll

People who kiss and hug and wash dead, infected, highly contagious corpses without any protection are bread out of the gene-pool.
It's a good thing.
1. Re:Think of it as evolution in action by rebelwarlock · 2014-07-23 21:50 · Score: 1, Funny
  
  A shame evolution can't do anything about your vocabulary.
2. Re:Think of it as evolution in action by TheRaven64 · 2014-07-23 22:59 · Score: 4, Funny
  
  I, for one, am in favour of removing bread from the human gene pool.
  
  --
  I am TheRaven on Soylent News
3. Re:Think of it as evolution in action by Rashdot · 2014-07-23 23:25 · Score: 0
  
  It's a good thing.
  So you think it would be a good thing if only the most cold hearted autistic people would survive? There's a brand new state in parts of Syria and Iraq where you will feel right at home.
  
  --
  This is not the sig you're looking for.
4. Re:Think of it as evolution in action by Anonymous Coward · 2014-07-23 23:33 · Score: 2, Funny
  
  I knead to know why you think that.
5. Re:Think of it as evolution in action by Applehu+Akbar · 2014-07-24 01:10 · Score: 3, Funny
  
  Speaking of bread in the gene pool, let's all hope that your hot dog never finds a hot dog bun.
6. Re:Think of it as evolution in action by Anonymous Coward · 2014-07-24 02:52 · Score: 0
  
  What makes you think autistic people are "cold hearted"? Lack of capability to respond to or express emotional I/O doesn't mean that your are incapable of *feeling* as such.
  You seem to be confusing autistic people with sociopaths and psychopaths. You should be ashamed of your ignorance.
7. Re:Think of it as evolution in action by RoboJ1M · 2014-07-24 04:22 · Score: 1
  
  *annoyed grunt*
8. Re:Think of it as evolution in action by interkin3tic · 2014-07-24 04:34 · Score: 2, Insightful
  
  Being ignorant of modern medicine is not a genetically-encoded trait. So, despite your best attempts to rationalize it, no, there's nothing good about people dying in this way.
  
  Moreover, you sound like you consider yourself somehow superior to the people who are dying of the disease, though you are undoubtedly too cowardly to actually come out and say it even as AC. You're protected by geography and the fact that the virus doesn't appear to have gotten into a major international airport. At the moment. If it did, you would yourself likely be bread out of the gene pool. You are in no way superior to the people who are dying. In fact, I think a corpse has you beaten on personality.
9. Re:Think of it as evolution in action by doccus · 2014-07-25 04:26 · Score: 1
  
  At least an autistic wouldn't malke that mistake.
Let's just hope... by Anonymous Coward · 2014-07-23 21:40 · Score: 1

That some religious nutjob out there hasn't been taking samples, or deliberately exposing themselves to it
1. Re:Let's just hope... by Anonymous Coward · 2014-07-23 21:54 · Score: 0
  
  "That some religious nutjob out there hasn't been taking samples, or deliberately exposing themselves to it"
  You mean some terrorist, religious nutjob.
  I always wondered, why they didn't just take t-shirts and rub them on infected cow snouts from regions where foot-and-mouth-disease is still rampant, put them in plastic bags send them to their cousins in the Middle-West, where they'd can rub the snouts of some real American cows with it.
  Just to create havoc on the meat industry, I bet some Vegans would be glad to help.:-)
  Poor terrorist's bio-weapon.
2. Re:Let's just hope... by Anonymous Coward · 2014-07-23 23:47 · Score: 0
  
  That would spike the prices of beef worldwide, thereby hurting the dirt poor religious nutjobs that said terrorist sympathizes with.
3. Re:Let's just hope... by Anonymous Coward · 2014-07-23 23:55 · Score: 0
  
  You mean some terrorist, religious nutjob.
  You may think that...
  
  I always wondered, why they didn't just take t-shirts and rub them on infected cow snouts from regions where foot-and-mouth-disease is still rampant, put them in plastic bags send them to their cousins in the Middle-West, where they'd can rub the snouts of some real American cows with it. Just to create havoc on the meat industry,
  It isn't the sort of 'grandstanding' event they normally go in for..sad to say something like Foot and Mouth just isn't 'scary' to the general public in large metropolitan areas, however, Ebola is (rightly so in it's own right, but thanks mainly to Hollywood. However, alas, no, Dustbin Hoffman wont be along to save the day in the event of a real outbreak).
  
  I bet some Vegans would be glad to help.:-)
  Ah, I did say just religious nutjob in the original post?
  Vegans do treat the whole thing as a religion rather than a dietary choice, their ramblings, and the antics of PETA remind me strongly of some of the crap that the more outré religious cults that have cropped up over the millennia have|had|still gotten|get up to.
  The reason I didn't mention terrorist in the first post was that it was a bit superfluous as we know who we're talking about here, but there are probably other groups out there who would like to use something like ebola as $deity's instrument of divine wrath|punishment agin $target_group_of_unbelievers.
  All it takes is one nutjob who believes he's doing $deity's work and will receive his eternal rewards for doing so to become deliberately infected and get to $target_population_center, and we're currently not short of a few of these momsers in the general area of the current outbreaks..4 million followers of the $evil_deity_de_jour (aka potential suspects) in one country alone.
  All it takes is a handful of them to be, as they say, radicalised..
4. Re:Let's just hope... by Applehu+Akbar · 2014-07-24 00:59 · Score: 0
  
  all it takes is for one of said nutjobs to smear Ebola on the tips of the BUK missiles that radical sheikhs are undoubtedly buying for them as we speak, and the next mystery plane crash becomes an ideal distribution site for the disease. This would include the NTSB teams that are routinely dispatched from Washington to help investigate.
  This morning's breaking news is that a mystery plane crash just occurred in West Africa.
5. Re:Let's just hope... by Triklyn · 2014-07-24 02:06 · Score: 1
  
  yes because burning isn't a disinfectant or anything. ebola ain't super contagious.
6. Re:Let's just hope... by Anonymous Coward · 2014-07-24 02:11 · Score: 0
  
  You think terrorists sympathise with their poorer brethren? They are merely a means to an end for the terrorists, providing strength in numbers for their cause.
7. Re:Let's just hope... by Anonymous Coward · 2014-07-24 02:46 · Score: 0
  
  In humans at least, ebola isn't especially contagious because it kills the host so quickly that its spread is limited by how many people can be infected before the host dies. Viruses like that don't evolve as quickly and don't generally become more contagious unless they drop some of their lethality. However I don't seem to remember virologists / immunologists and the like ever finding the vector for spread to humans. There is always some vector - whether it be mosquitoes, flies, monkeys, something. It may be non-lethal in the vector species allowing it to develop better human to human contagiousness. Also, in regards to the plane scenario described - there are parts of a "shot down" plane that don't burn; some of it is just subject to impact. A virus could certainly make it through intact.
8. Re:Let's just hope... by Anonymous Coward · 2014-07-24 03:55 · Score: 0
  
  That is what changed here. This strain is not 90% deadly but about 60%. Giving this strain an edge in spreading itself.
9. Re:Let's just hope... by rubycodez · 2014-07-24 04:04 · Score: 1
  
  how ironic, considering it is certain religious practices that have been contributing to the spread of this disease.
10. Re:Let's just hope... by interkin3tic · 2014-07-24 04:37 · Score: 1
  
  While terrorists have and will claim victory over causing economic damage, that's not their goal, and it never was. Their cult doesn't promise them forty grapes/virgins if they total a million dollars in lost GDP or anything like that.
11. Re:Let's just hope... by Anonymous Coward · 2014-07-24 05:10 · Score: 0
  
  That is only because there hasn't been an airborne mutation for humans.
  The more infected, the more opportunity for mutation.
  I'm looking at outbreak models. On a scale of 1 to 10, 10 being a flee to the country side, My data would put me at a 3 that there is also an air born strain making the rounds.
  It's probably anomalous, but lets hope the data returns to a more normal blood contact pattern.
12. Re:Let's just hope... by geekoid · 2014-07-24 05:11 · Score: 1
  
  Action based on ignorance has been the bane of making people healthy for the entire history of medical science.
  Usually religious.
  
  --
  The Kruger Dunning explains most post on /. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dunning%E2%80%93Kruger_effect
13. Re:Let's just hope... by Applehu+Akbar · 2014-07-24 06:41 · Score: 1
  
  That's why the second terrorist group to try this technique will probably use the more difficult but effective technique of infecting the shrapnel rods that a BUK explosion scatters through the nearby target, including the bodies of any humans. If this had happened in MH17 it would have, given the looting that occurred after the crash, been a very efficient way of slaughtering the whole Ukrainian separatist army and infecting any number of Russian "advisers."
14. Re:Let's just hope... by AK+Marc · 2014-07-24 08:06 · Score: 1
  
  Ebola isn't airborne, but there could be an airborne delivery mechanism created. Cook up 3 gallons of Jello. Spread lots of Ebola in it in the final cooling stages. Put that Jello in w warhead. Launch it somewhere. When it explodes, the Jello will act as a protection for the more delicate virus, and the infected Jello "dust" could be airborne transmission of Ebola.
  
  I'm not saying it would work. I'm saying that unusual low-tech solutions can have unexpected results, and I wouldn't want to bet everyone's safety on the musings of some nay-sayer on the Internet.
  
  For every advance made, there were always people who claimed it was impossible. Even after the commercial Tesla S release, people were still insisting it was "impossible" to make a car with the released specifications and price. I wonder how many would die from EVD while claiming it was impossible.
  
  --
  Learn to love Alaska
15. Re:Let's just hope... by AK+Marc · 2014-07-24 08:08 · Score: 1
  
  Fill water balloons with infected water. Throw it at riot police.
  
  There are piles of ways to deliver things that aren't "traditional".
  
  --
  Learn to love Alaska
16. Re:Let's just hope... by Anonymous Coward · 2014-07-24 08:36 · Score: 0
  
  You might want to seek psychiatric help, you are extremely delusional.
  The victims of MH17, if hit by magic explosion resistant Ebola, would still be dead and the magic explosion resistant Ebola would not have an opportunity to infect its host, and thus would not spread at all.
17. Re:Let's just hope... by Anonymous Coward · 2014-07-24 08:54 · Score: 0
  
  You should clean your room. Homeland security will be visiting shortly.
18. Re:Let's just hope... by Triklyn · 2014-07-25 02:43 · Score: 1
  
  ... if that were the case, why not just pack anthrax into a crop duster mechanic of some kind, and just ignore the big boom altogether?
19. Re:Let's just hope... by doccus · 2014-07-25 04:29 · Score: 1
  
  THere certainly IS an airborne mutation. Even this one is, slightly. Ands it has a 7 day incubation. That's why iot's been spreading so adly over a quarter of the size of the African continent.
20. Re:Let's just hope... by airdweller · 2014-07-25 07:18 · Score: 1
  
  I thought that's what the chem trails were for?
21. Re: Let's just hope... by Anonymous Coward · 2014-07-31 19:11 · Score: 0
  
  So, we should deduce that the nut jobs could bring about Armagedden by putting the snouts between the bread to destroy the world with what, bacon butties? Maybe only Andrew Zimemern and Anthony Bourdain would die then.
Coming to a plane journey by Anonymous Coward · 2014-07-23 21:44 · Score: 4, Informative

Coming to a plane journey near you, has that chap near you coughing just clearing his throat or is he seriously ill ?
Is he sweating from the heat or fever ?
1. Re:Coming to a plane journey by Anonymous Coward · 2014-07-23 23:44 · Score: 1
  
  An illness with such a high mortality rate is self limiting. It could very well die out quicker in areas with no health care than in areas with health care.
2. Re:Coming to a plane journey by Trepidity · 2014-07-24 00:02 · Score: 5, Informative
  
  It also doesn't transmit very easily. So far there are no known cases of it being transmitted in a plane or airport, despite several known Ebola cases having flown on planes. In each case everyone who had flown with them was monitored, but nobody developed the illness.
  It helps that it doesn't travel by air or aerosols.
  
  --
  10 PRINT CHR$(205.5+RND(1)); : GOTO 10
3. Re:Coming to a plane journey by Anonymous Coward · 2014-07-24 00:04 · Score: 0
  
  So, in UDOTS we're good. Right? I mean, if you're on the right list and all.
4. Re:Coming to a plane journey by msauve · 2014-07-24 01:08 · Score: 1
  
  "An illness with such a high mortality rate is self limiting. It could very well die out quicker in areas with no health care than in areas with health care."
  
  That worked out really well with bubonic plague.
  
  --
  "National Security is the chief cause of national insecurity." - Celine's First Law
5. Re:Coming to a plane journey by Anonymous Coward · 2014-07-24 02:37 · Score: 0
  
  I'd be more worried about the plane being shot down nowadays.
6. Re:Coming to a plane journey by mspohr · 2014-07-24 02:37 · Score: 1
  
  Actually, it does transmit fairly easily.
  From the WHO:
  "Ebola then spreads in the community through human-to-human transmission, with infection resulting from direct contact (through broken skin or mucous membranes) with the blood, secretions, organs or other bodily fluids of infected people, and indirect contact with environments contaminated with such fluids. "
  
  --
  I don't read your sig. Why are you reading mine?
7. Re:Coming to a plane journey by mspohr · 2014-07-24 02:41 · Score: 3, Informative
  
  The problem is that people move around... a lot. Ebola has an incubation period of up to 21 days so that gives an infected person lots of symptom free time to travel to visit his neighboring village or go to the city or get on a plane to visit relatives anywhere in the world.
  
  --
  I don't read your sig. Why are you reading mine?
8. Re:Coming to a plane journey by Anonymous Coward · 2014-07-24 02:50 · Score: 2, Informative
  
  The black plague had a much lower mortality rate than ebola does. The plague also had a very good vector in the fleas on rodents. It wasn't spread as much by human to human transmission as it was by flea bite. Also, the statement that viruses with a very high mortality rate tend to be self limiting is indeed true - although the slower the time from infection to death the faster the spread. Ebola kills very quickly and that limits the spread significantly. It will need to develop to be less quickly lethal in order to spread better.
9. Re:Coming to a plane journey by Shortguy881 · 2014-07-24 03:20 · Score: 4, Informative
  
  Actually Ebola can be transmitted through the air. During the initial discovery and research into the Ebola, there were two major groups involved: the CDC and USAMRIID (CDC's military counterpart).
  
  The CDC's lead researcher of Ebola did a lot of onsite visits in Africa with patients and never contracted the virus, so the CDC's stance is that it is not an air born illness. The team from USAMRIID conducted tests on Ebola in a closed environment with an uninfected control group. The control group was in the same room as the infected group but separated by cages on either side of the room so there was no physical contact between groups. The entire control group got infected, so if you ask USAMRIID, its air born.
  
  The result isn't surprising do to the nature of Ebola. The virus destroys all tissues including lung tissue. Any virus that is exposed to the air in the lungs has the chance of being air born.
  
  Research in 2012 also confirmed this with cross species air born contamination in a controlled environment.
  
  --
  Brilliance without wisdom, power without conscience. Ours is a world of nuclear giants and ethical infants.
10. Re:Coming to a plane journey by Shortguy881 · 2014-07-24 03:21 · Score: 2
  
  I should note the test/control group was monkeys.
  
  --
  Brilliance without wisdom, power without conscience. Ours is a world of nuclear giants and ethical infants.
11. Re:Coming to a plane journey by afidel · 2014-07-24 03:27 · Score: 1
  
  Wasn't that the incident where they pressure washed the cages of the deceased animals thus flinging infected fluids all over the area?
  
  --
  There are 4 boxes to use in the defense of liberty: soap, ballot, jury, ammo. Use in that order. Starting now.
12. Re:Coming to a plane journey by Anonymous Coward · 2014-07-24 04:01 · Score: 2, Funny
  
  Wow. I thought my airplane travel was rough. Do you really routinely have "direct contact (through broken skin or mucous membranes) with the blood, secretions, organs or other bodily fluids of infected people, and indirect contact with environments contaminated with such fluids" while flying?
13. Re:Coming to a plane journey by rubycodez · 2014-07-24 04:06 · Score: 1
  
  no, we don't fondle infected corpses or strangers over here. over there, different story....
14. Re:Coming to a plane journey by Anonymous Coward · 2014-07-24 04:20 · Score: 0
  
  Considering that the study was done by USAMRID that is an important point! Given the US military's record of unethical behavior with regard to medical testing I wouldn't put it past them to use US military personnel or locals as the control group.
15. Re:Coming to a plane journey by Anonymous Coward · 2014-07-24 04:21 · Score: 1
  
  I'm glad you posted the quote, because I think you might be the only one who thinks that's "easily".
16. Re:Coming to a plane journey by Anonymous Coward · 2014-07-24 05:26 · Score: 0
  
  When they're puking up blood, it may not be that easy to avoid their secretions. They're probably more dangerous to doctors but...
17. Re:Coming to a plane journey by smithmc · 2014-07-24 05:43 · Score: 1
  
  There is some research that suggests that Ebola Zaire can transmit from monkeys to pigs without contact, and could possibly be transmitted from pigs to humans. One farm worker is believed to have contracted Ebola Reston (which is not lethal to humans) from an infected pig.
  
  --
  Downmodding is the refuge of the weak. Don't downmod, make a better argument!
18. Re:Coming to a plane journey by pspahn · 2014-07-24 05:45 · Score: 2
  
  All this.
  This is why Ebola is dangerous. It doesn't matter how long it takes for someone to go from "sick" to "dead", as once they get sick, they probably won't be traveling. On the other hand, you have three weeks of incubation to traipse around the world and get somewhere quite distant from the original vector, then get sick, and now all of a sudden you have a handful of cases in Toronto followed by a handful of cases three weeks later in Mexico City ... and so on.
  
  --
  Someone flopped a steamer in the gene pool.
19. Re:Coming to a plane journey by Anonymous Coward · 2014-07-24 06:15 · Score: 0
  
  About the only thing that has stopped this is that poor Africans aren't regular jet setters.
20. Re:Coming to a plane journey by Anonymous Coward · 2014-07-24 06:17 · Score: 0
  
  It helps that it doesn't travel by air or aerosols.
  Well, what if someone contracts the flu and ebola at the same time?
21. Re:Coming to a plane journey by X0563511 · 2014-07-24 07:18 · Score: 1
  
  Not these days. You can be infected without symptoms for almost a fucking month, and the damn things remains viable for two! Hell, even if you survive, it's still in you and can still be transmitted via fluid exchange for a week.
  You go ahead and trust that the mortality rate will stop it. We'll see how well that works out...
  
  --
  For large sets, this will be our guide even unto death, for the LORD will work for each type of data it is applied to...
22. Re:Coming to a plane journey by X0563511 · 2014-07-24 07:19 · Score: 1
  
  It helps that it doesn't travel by air or aerosols.
  Even if that were true (not going to beat a dead horse there) all it takes is one (unfortunate for us, fortunate for the virus) mutation to throw that out the window.
  
  --
  For large sets, this will be our guide even unto death, for the LORD will work for each type of data it is applied to...
23. Re:Coming to a plane journey by AK+Marc · 2014-07-24 08:10 · Score: 1
  
  If it can be spread by infected fluids flung, then the next biological war will be fought by soldiers throwing infected water balloons at each other.
  
  --
  Learn to love Alaska
24. Re:Coming to a plane journey by Anonymous Coward · 2014-07-24 09:52 · Score: 0
  
  I remember reading that it was speculated from early descriptions of the disease that syphilis had a much more acute presentation with a high mortality rate, and with a lot of dermatological manifestations. In other words, these people got real sick, real quick and looked bad in the process. Not exactly the right conditions for a sexually transmitted disease to thrive. But evolution is a marvellous thing. Variants of syphilis that were less acutely fatal and caused less horrible looking lesions arose, and it was these muted (and mutated) forms that were more easily transmitted and thus survived and thrived.
  If variants of ebola that are less acutely fatal arise, they could be the ones that end up being transmitted worldwide.
25. Re:Coming to a plane journey by WuphonsReach · 2014-07-25 05:29 · Score: 1
  
  The problem is that people move around... a lot. Ebola has an incubation period of up to 21 days so that gives an infected person lots of symptom free time to travel to visit his neighboring village or go to the city or get on a plane to visit relatives anywhere in the world.
  
  From doing a layman's reading... you are not infectious until you start showing symptoms around day 21. This is, fortunately, not like influenza where you are infectious before showing frank symptoms. It is also, again fortunately, difficult to transmit only through casual contact.
  
  Scary yes, but not end of the world scary.
  
  --
  Wolde you bothe eate your cake, and have your cake?
26. Re:Coming to a plane journey by Anonymous Coward · 2014-08-01 07:46 · Score: 0
  
  Well duh, it's obviously going to spread when you have test monkeys flinging feces all around!
Does it have Cold resistance level 2 by Anonymous Coward · 2014-07-23 21:56 · Score: 3, Funny

and Antibiotics1 and 2
1. Re:Does it have Cold resistance level 2 by queazocotal · 2014-07-23 22:43 · Score: 5, Insightful
  
  It's a virus, so has pretty good antibiotic resistance.
  To follow on from the other comment.
  You're faced with people who you've never seen, look quite different than you, and turn up in suits that cover their entire body.
  This happens shortly after, or even before the community notices an issue - as they are surveying populations nearby.
  Then people start dying, and these people who don't speak your language want to take the bodies of your loved ones, and desecrate them.
  Add to this that education in these places is basically non-existant in many cases.
  It's no wonder that people can come to the conclusion that the health workers are causing the disease.
  Especially given the centuries long history of exploitation. Fake vaccination programs by the CIA to fine OBL haven't helped either.
2. Re:Does it have Cold resistance level 2 by Anonymous Coward · 2014-07-23 22:47 · Score: -1
  
  "You're faced with people who you've never seen, look quite different than you, and turn up in suits that cover their entire body.
  This happens shortly after, or even before the community notices an issue - as they are surveying populations nearby.
  Then people start dying, and these people who don't speak your language want to take the bodies of your loved ones, and desecrate them.
  Add to this that education in these places is basically non-existant in many cases.
  It's no wonder that people can come to the conclusion that the health workers are causing the disease."
  So we _should_ think of it as evolution in action.
  Places with bad education get depopulated.
3. Re:Does it have Cold resistance level 2 by drinkypoo · 2014-07-23 22:55 · Score: 1
  
  So we _should_ think of it as evolution in action.
  Places with bad education get depopulated.
  It would be true absent politics. Some useless people can band together and legislate some useful people out of existence. Then when hardship comes, they'll miss them since know fuck-all.
  
  --
  "You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
4. Re:Does it have Cold resistance level 2 by jdwoods · 2014-07-23 23:08 · Score: 1
  
  Legislation (at least of the government sort) is not actually required. Some useful people self-eliminate. See the movie Idiocracy
  
  --
  -- Jeff Woods
5. Re:Does it have Cold resistance level 2 by Trepidity · 2014-07-24 00:05 · Score: 1
  
  The way you describe it actually sounds a lot like an X-Files episode.
  
  --
  10 PRINT CHR$(205.5+RND(1)); : GOTO 10
6. Re:Does it have Cold resistance level 2 by Anne+Thwacks · 2014-07-24 00:15 · Score: 0
  
  Unfortunately the schools ahd hospitals were destroyed by the rebels in the recent civil way. The rebels were a bunch of drug-crazed gangsters using child soldiers to.steal the gold and diamond mines.(The entire mines, not just the produce).
  It was American money that funded the rebels, and the Europeans that insisted the government "negotiate" with the rebels as if they were a legitimate democratic opposition. This is the equivalent of asking the Italian government to negotiate with the Mafia. Only worse: The rebels knew they would go to hell for crimes against humanity if caught, so they were prepared to go to any extreme to avoid being caught - chopping random limbs off men women and children without mercy in drug-fueled rampages was only a part of it.
  Yes its a f*ckup - but they were forced into this mess by outsiders. It take a lot to recover from that.
  
  --
  Sent from my ASR33 using ASCII
7. Re:Does it have Cold resistance level 2 by Sockatume · 2014-07-24 00:30 · Score: 1
  
  Where do you think the X-Files got it from in the first place?
  
  --
  No kidding!!! What do you say at this point?
8. Re:Does it have Cold resistance level 2 by Sockatume · 2014-07-24 00:36 · Score: 1, Insightful
  
  Not sure you know how evolution works.
  
  --
  No kidding!!! What do you say at this point?
9. Re:Does it have Cold resistance level 2 by Anonymous Coward · 2014-07-24 02:44 · Score: 0
  
  Did you realize that your comment is answering a Plague Inc. reference?
10. Re:Does it have Cold resistance level 2 by weszz · 2014-07-24 03:03 · Score: 1
  
  Pandemic reference anyone?
  In the game you can get antibiotics resistance to your deadly virus, cold or heat resistance etc...
  Pretty sure that is where this one was going...
11. Re:Does it have Cold resistance level 2 by Anonymous Coward · 2014-07-24 04:17 · Score: 0
  
  I thought it was a "Plague, Inc" reference, myself
12. Re:Does it have Cold resistance level 2 by JigJag · 2014-07-24 04:39 · Score: 1
  
  Note to people not having a clue of what the parent poster meant: this is a reference to the excellent game Plague Inc. available on Android and possible Apple. If you haven't tried it, give it a shot.
  
  --
  "The hallmark of humanity is the ability to move beyond sensory inputs" - Mary Helen Immordino-Yang
13. Re:Does it have Cold resistance level 2 by Maxo-Texas · 2014-07-24 06:02 · Score: 1
  
  We are in trouble when it buys Airborne and Water transport.
  
  --
  She was like chocolate when she drank... semi-sweet at first and then increasingly bitter.
14. Re:Does it have Cold resistance level 2 by Anonymous Coward · 2014-07-24 06:51 · Score: 0
  
  Pandemic reference anyone?
  Actually a "Plague, Inc." reference, I think.
15. Re:Does it have Cold resistance level 2 by Gr8Apes · 2014-07-24 07:06 · Score: 1
  
  In the game you can get antibiotics resistance to your deadly virus,.
  No you can't. A virus is not affected by antibiotics.
  
  --
  The cesspool just got a check and balance.
16. Re:Does it have Cold resistance level 2 by Anonymous Coward · 2014-07-24 07:24 · Score: 0
  
  He's using "Social Darwinism".
17. Re:Does it have Cold resistance level 2 by khallow · 2014-07-24 09:16 · Score: 1
  
  Unfortunately the schools ahd hospitals were destroyed by the rebels in the recent civil way. The rebels were a bunch of drug-crazed gangsters using child soldiers to.steal the gold and diamond mines.(The entire mines, not just the produce). It was American money that funded the rebels, and the Europeans that insisted the government "negotiate" with the rebels as if they were a legitimate democratic opposition. This is the equivalent of asking the Italian government to negotiate with the Mafia. Only worse: The rebels knew they would go to hell for crimes against humanity if caught, so they were prepared to go to any extreme to avoid being caught - chopping random limbs off men women and children without mercy in drug-fueled rampages was only a part of it.
  In other words, a relatively nasty government. So what are you going to do about it? And why treat them any differently than say Zimbabwe or North Korea?
18. Re:Does it have Cold resistance level 2 by weszz · 2014-07-24 14:09 · Score: 1
  
  I have universal pandemic on my phone, had pandemic before it as well, same game, different name.
19. Re:Does it have Cold resistance level 2 by LienRag · 2014-07-25 04:19 · Score: 1
  
  Especially given the centuries long history of exploitation. Fake vaccination programs by the CIA to fine OBL haven't helped either.
  I think that nobody would have objected to the CIA fining OBL...
20. Re:Does it have Cold resistance level 2 by symbolset · 2014-08-06 20:19 · Score: 1
  
  Nobody is going to read this, but in human medical history the only virus to have been eradicated is Smallpox. Polio is almost there.
  
  --
  Help stamp out iliturcy.
Could be worse... by loimprevisto · 2014-07-23 21:59 · Score: 2

At least it's not Anthrax-Leprosy-Mu!

FNORD!

--
Much Madness is divinest Sense --
To a discerning Eye --
Much Sense -- the starkest Madness
1. Re:Could be worse... by Anonymous Coward · 2014-07-23 23:23 · Score: 0
  
  Might get worse , the Hajj is in a month or so. They have banned visas from Liberia and Guinea but the boarders are porous so.... plus there is MERS and other diseases that are emerging.
  The Hajj pilgrimage is increasingly accessible due to a more mobile global population. Large gatherings like this may be an increasing risk now or in the future.
  Utopia, Janus,
2. Re:Could be worse... by Anonymous Coward · 2014-07-23 23:44 · Score: 1
  
  The boarders? People who rent temporarily? And they're porous?
3. Re:Could be worse... by Applehu+Akbar · 2014-07-24 01:07 · Score: 1
  
  They get porous boarders in Chicago all the time. You're not safe unless you're an owner and no closer than Schaumburg.
It is near by Anonymous Coward · 2014-07-23 22:08 · Score: 5, Funny

Disease outbreak...check
Pre-WW3 conflicts...check
Justin bieber...check
Ok im ready for Earth obliteration... time to reset society...
1. Re:It is near by mysidia · 2014-07-24 00:22 · Score: 1
  
  Correct. Just waiting for someone to press the big red button and end it all.
2. Re:It is near by X0563511 · 2014-07-24 07:29 · Score: 1
  
  I think this is appropriate.
  
  --
  For large sets, this will be our guide even unto death, for the LORD will work for each type of data it is applied to...
EVD by Anonymous Coward · 2014-07-23 22:09 · Score: 0

really is a stupid pointless acronym
1. Re:EVD by jdwoods · 2014-07-23 22:36 · Score: 1
  
  Created by someone with a TLA addiction.
  
  --
  -- Jeff Woods
2. Re:EVD by Sockatume · 2014-07-24 00:30 · Score: 1
  
  It's exactly as many syllables as "ebola" but carries more information, what's not to like?
  
  --
  No kidding!!! What do you say at this point?
3. Re:EVD by Himmy32 · 2014-07-24 00:48 · Score: 1
  
  Or a whole lot less, considering how many other TLA's there are for EVD. It takes to the third page of google for there to be a page on ebola when searching for EVD. But if you say Ebola everyone knows what you are talking about.
  
  Now I can understand wanting to abbreviate "ebola hemorrhagic fever", which is way more descriptive.
4. Re:EVD by Sockatume · 2014-07-24 01:00 · Score: 1
  
  It's a technical term, so in its actual context it's very clear. As for lay accounts, they will generally explain what it means.
  
  --
  No kidding!!! What do you say at this point?
5. Re:EVD by murkwood7 · 2014-07-24 01:35 · Score: 1
  
  Is an External Ventricular Drainage a device or procedure in the treatment of Ebola?
  
  --
  - X/Y -
6. Re:EVD by hey! · 2014-07-24 04:24 · Score: 1
  
  I worked in public health informatics for many years, and it's a longstanding tradition to use three letter codes. I think this is the legacy of old systems which provided three or four character fields for codes, but it certainly speeds things along when you're keying data into a spreadsheet.
  The tradition isn't formalized, and so it's application is somewhat irregular, but it's important in this case to realize that public health surveillance makes a strong distinction between a *disease* (a disorder of structure or function in an organism like a human) and an *infectious agent* (the parasite, bacterium, virus or prion that transmits the disease). That's because you can find the infectious agent without finding any cases of the disease -- for example in an asymptomatic human, in a disease carrying vector like a mosquito etc. Non-specialist use the same terms to refer to either the disease or the agent (this naming by association is called "metonymy", a word every system designer should be familiar with). So of course the abbreviations experts use seem nonsensical to non-specialists.
  The abbreviation "EVD" maskes perfect sense -- it is the *disease* caused by the Ebola Virus (EBOV). A non-specialist uses terms loosely and would say things like "They found Ebloa in Freetown." A specialist wouldn't use such loose language. He'd say "We found a human case of EVD in Freetown," or "We had a serum with a positive titer for EBOV from Freetown."
  
  --
  Post may contain irony: discontinue use if experiencing mood swings, nausea or elevated blood pressure.
7. Re:EVD by hey! · 2014-07-24 04:54 · Score: 1
  
  It's exactly as many syllables as "ebola" but carries more information, what's not to like?
  Indeed, it carries MUCH more precision than just "Ebola", which can mean any of the following:
  "Ebola River" is a tributary to the Congo River.
  "Ebola Hemorrhagic Fever" was the name of a disease first discovered in people living in the remote Ebola River watershed.
  "Ebola Virus" (abbrev. "EBOV") is the infectious agent that causes "Ebola Hemorrhagic Fever"
  "Ebolavirus" is the taxonomic genus to which the "Ebola virus" belongs.
  "Ebola Virus Disease (abbrev. "EVD") is now the more common name for Ebola Hemorrhagic Fever. We can call it that because we have definitively identified the infectious agent that causes the disease (EBOV). Changing the name pre-emptively differentiates EVD from other hemorrhagic diseases that might arise from the same area.
  Laymen simply say "Ebola" and let their audience sort out what they mean -- if indeed they mean anything precisely. I once had this conversation with an elderly relative.
  Relative: 90% of bats have rabies.
  Me: That's hard to believe.
  Relative: It's true! I read it in the paper.
  So I went to the paper and found out that she had it hopelessly garbled. TEN percent of bats SUBMITTED FOR TESTING had positive SCREENING tests.
  
  --
  Post may contain irony: discontinue use if experiencing mood swings, nausea or elevated blood pressure.
World War Z by jdwoods · 2014-07-23 22:35 · Score: 0

Virii mutate, and do so rapidly (which is why every year there is a new crop of flu virii to fight). If Ebola mutates to add something like an uncontrollable murderous rage in a non-trivial percentage of the infected then we have the potential for World War Z. This is a scenario that rivals the old cold war for scary.

--
-- Jeff Woods
1. Re:World War Z by Anonymous Coward · 2014-07-23 22:44 · Score: 0
  
  Sounds good to me. I don't want to die a painful hideous diseased death, but it would be worth it, to know the whole world was was blinking out of existence along with me.
2. Re:World War Z by Anonymous Coward · 2014-07-23 22:48 · Score: 4, Interesting
  
  Except people who get viruses die when they are shot. You don't even have to shoot them in the head. And real people don't cooperate in a herd like manner to climb walls even when they're NOT infected with some disease.
  And real viruses have incubation periods long enough that you don't have scenarios where if Brad Pitt doesn't lop your arm off 5 seconds after your hand is bitten you instantly turn into a bloodthirsty rage zombie with a 100% infection rate when you bite someone else.
  Could an ebola outbreak be bad? Sure, but don't just make shit up.
3. Re:World War Z by KingOfBLASH · 2014-07-23 23:04 · Score: 1
  
  The nice thing about ebola is it's not airborne, you need to actually touch someone's fluids to get ebola. So, it's completely avoidable, as opposed to airborne pathogens.
4. Re:World War Z by mlush · 2014-07-23 23:14 · Score: 1
  
  Not completly avoidable, you could touch something that someone with ebola has touched, your only seven(ish) handshakes away from a victim, lets hope it stays that way.
5. Re:World War Z by will_die · 2014-07-23 23:31 · Score: 1
  
  Not the case. Reston virus, an ebola strain was airborne, and research labs from various countries, include USA and Canada have shown that ariborne ebola can be found.
  However there are no reports that this strain is airborne, or at least the governments of the world are not letting that information out in fear of all the problems that would bring........
6. Re:World War Z by msauve · 2014-07-24 01:15 · Score: 2
  
  What's a "virii?" The plural of virus is viruses. Even if it took the latin form (and it certainly doesn't), it would be viri, not virii.
  
  --
  "National Security is the chief cause of national insecurity." - Celine's First Law
7. Re:World War Z by mspohr · 2014-07-24 02:45 · Score: 1
  
  Can't really avoid it since you can get it from touching surfaces contaminated with the virus. Think of an airplane seat or a public shop or any public place. You can wall yourself up at home but what happens when you run out of food?
  
  --
  I don't read your sig. Why are you reading mine?
8. Re:World War Z by Will.Woodhull · 2014-07-24 02:50 · Score: 1
  
  Right. Just like bubonic plague isn't airborne--- until it mutates into pneumonic plague.
  Ebola is a rapidly changing virus. Rather like the flu in that respects. That its initial symptoms are indistinguishable from the flu yet the victim is already contagious is a nasty touch.
  
  --
  Will
9. Re:World War Z by Sir_Eptishous · 2014-07-24 03:11 · Score: 1
  
  The Virii were an ancient Roman noble family,
  One of their descendents still roams free...
  
  --
  We play the game with the bravery of being out of range
10. Re:World War Z by chihowa · 2014-07-24 04:09 · Score: 2
  
  Viri, the plural of vir (man), means 'men'.
  
  --
  If you want a vision of the future, imagine a youtube comments section scrolling - forever.
11. Re:World War Z by Megol · 2014-07-24 04:12 · Score: 1
  
  It was also not infectious to people. And some even think the airborne aspect as suspect given the locales and condition of those same locales, shit flinging moneys can transfer things through air but that isn't normally called airborne. ;)
  Given the extremely few virus particles needed that mechanism could even explain the transfer between rooms, infected particulate can transfer surprisingly far.
  Note that this assumes the information of the air circulation system being unfiltered and that doors between rooms were kept open to try to cool the complex down are correct. That assumption could be wrong.
12. Re:World War Z by rubycodez · 2014-07-24 04:16 · Score: 1
  
  So many of them would be Viriii ?
13. Re:World War Z by Algae_94 · 2014-07-24 06:41 · Score: 1
  
  This is a scenario that rivals the old cold war for scary.
  Except the cold war had a real possibility of MAD. Some sort of zombie rage Ebola strain is a figment of your imagination.
14. Re:World War Z by Anonymous Coward · 2014-07-24 09:33 · Score: 0
  
  Virii
  Stopped reading right there.
Effective communication by Anonymous Coward · 2014-07-23 22:40 · Score: 0

Who was the sad f*ck who decided to make up a confusing three letter acronym for Ebola?
1. Re:Effective communication by Anne+Thwacks · 2014-07-23 23:11 · Score: 1
  
  Probably someone who lives near the river Ebola who was tired of the stigma of being associated with a hideous disease. Not that I support the said TLA, but just guessing.
  
  --
  Sent from my ASR33 using ASCII
2. Re:Effective communication by bill_mcgonigle · 2014-07-24 00:19 · Score: 2
  
  Who was the sad f*ck who decided to make up a confusing three letter acronym for Ebola?
  But "ebola" has three syllables and "EVD" only has three.
  
  --
  My God, it's Full of Source!
  OUTSIDE_IP=$(dig +short my.ip @outsideip.net)
3. Re:Effective communication by Sockatume · 2014-07-24 00:32 · Score: 3, Informative
  
  There are five viruses that cause EVD, only one of which is actually called "ebola".
  
  --
  No kidding!!! What do you say at this point?
4. Re:Effective communication by Anonymous Coward · 2014-07-24 03:08 · Score: 0
  
  it was Jake, from state farm.
  He not only sounds hideous, but he's a real a**hole.
Scale? by Anonymous Coward · 2014-07-23 22:41 · Score: 0

OK, it's a nasty disease, and the victims are worthy of sympathy.
But in terms of significance in the global population, syphilis kills and cripples more people annually in the developing world than the over-hyped Ebola ever has since it's discovery. As Bugs Bunny might well ask, :"What's all the hubbub, bub?"
1. Re:Scale? by Anonymous Coward · 2014-07-23 23:04 · Score: 0
  
  syphilis kills and cripples more people annually [...] "What's all the hubbub, bub?"
  compare slow progressing sexually treatable disease
  with ~80% mortality fast bleed-out disaster?
  get back in the womb, critter
  your brain is not fully developed yet
2. Re:Scale? by Dr_Barnowl · 2014-07-23 23:27 · Score: 1
  
  Seems to be working just fine...
  Syphilis does better, as a disease, than Ebola for the same reasons you win at Pandemic-type games - the slow progression, the low-profile.
  Ebola doesn't spread nearly as much, because it's non-airborne and rapidly fatal to a large number of people who contract it. This is why it stays confined to the butt-end of civilization.
  Syphilis does more harm overall because it has numbers in it's favour.
  People tend to focus more on Ebola because of the high mortaility rate. It has a couple of pretty horrible "What if?"s - principally, what if it goes airborne? I'm not sure a virus with such a high mortaility rate that's been around so long would actually ever go airborne though - from an evolutionary perspective it's a terrible combination.
  A virus with high mortaility and rapid spread will rapidly kill all susceptible individuals within it's catchment area, so it's likely that such things have never really gotten off the evolutionary drawing board. The last thing that came close was the Spanish Flu, which was a more fatal mutation of a fairly innocuous airborne pathogen, rather than a more mobile mutation of something unpleasantly fatal like Ebola.
  Of course, the above is true of a pre-air-travel world, because rapid spread would kill off everything in the travel radius - because the travel radius was dictated by walking pace, or driving pace... or the speed of ocean liners. In this day and age, it would be much easier for such a thing to have a serious impact.
3. Re:Scale? by bev_tech_rob · 2014-07-23 23:35 · Score: 1
  
  syphilis kills and cripples more people annually [...] "What's all the hubbub, bub?"
  compare slow progressing sexually treatable disease with ~80% mortality fast bleed-out disaster? get back in the womb, critter your brain is not fully developed yet
  Or their mother's basement, whichever is more convenient....
  
  --
  You're messin' with my Zen Thing, man.....
4. Re:Scale? by Anonymous Coward · 2014-07-24 00:28 · Score: 1
  
  Sorry, as a religious evolutionist, you fail. Evolution doesn't work that way. You new age scientists (MBA's) really ought to study your Catechism more.
  If the universe was so smart, I would have expected to see more hydrogen based life.
  Seriously though, we've got to help these people. I've done my part by writing on Slashdot. I can only pray that enough people will join together, urging somebody else to do something before it's too late.
5. Re:Scale? by Anonymous Coward · 2014-07-24 00:40 · Score: 0
  
  A virus with high mortaility and rapid spread will rapidly kill all susceptible individuals within it's catchment area, so it's likely that such things have never really gotten off the evolutionary drawing board.
  Sweating sickness
6. Re:Scale? by Rashdot · 2014-07-24 01:11 · Score: 1
  
  get back in the womb, critter your brain is not fully developed yet
  
  Or their mother's basement, whichever is more convenient....
  Mother's basement as a convenient replacement for the womb. There's a joke in there somewhere...
  
  --
  This is not the sig you're looking for.
7. Re:Scale? by mspohr · 2014-07-24 02:47 · Score: 1
  
  Ebola has an incubation period of 21 days which is plenty of time for symptom free people to travel anywhere in the world.
  
  --
  I don't read your sig. Why are you reading mine?
8. Re:Scale? by BergZ · 2014-07-24 02:55 · Score: 1
  
  "A virus with high mortaility and rapid spread will rapidly kill all susceptible individuals within it's catchment area, so it's likely that such things have never really gotten off the evolutionary drawing board."
  Generally speaking I agree, but only when the virus is lethal to all susceptible individuals.
  If the virus is non-lethal to some susceptible individuals then those individuals could become carriers (a reservoir where the virus can continue reproduce but does not kill its host). Carriers are how a virus can have a high mortaility and rapid spread without becoming an evolutionary dead-end.
  
  In the case of Ebola I have heard that it is suspected that fruit bats are carriers. If it is true that fruit bats are Ebola carriers then I think that means Ebola has some susceptible individuals (humans) where it is highly lethal and some susceptible individuals (fruit bats) where it is non-lethal.
  
  --
  Warning: This sig is not thread safe. For more information see Slashdot's sig policy.
9. Re:Scale? by _anomaly_ · 2014-07-24 03:56 · Score: 2
  
  I think it's the infection rate that is all the hubbub, to put it lightly. 67 new cases and 19 deaths in the span of 3 days (July 15-17)?
  Then, posted not long ago, an update: 45 new cases and 28 deaths from July 18-20.
  
  --
  "I have no special gift, I am only passionately curious." - Albert Einstein
10. Re:Scale? by pspahn · 2014-07-24 05:57 · Score: 1
  
  compare slow progressing sexually treatable disease
  Do, go on ...
  
  --
  Someone flopped a steamer in the gene pool.
Re:Sexually treatable? by Anonymous Coward · 2014-07-23 23:20 · Score: 0

Who's brain isn't developed? lmao
Dammit by Anonymous Coward · 2014-07-23 23:31 · Score: 0

I wish it started in Madagascar.
1. Re:Dammit by GTRacer · 2014-07-24 01:20 · Score: 2
  
  But that won't stop them making another sequel to the "zoo animals on safari" movie!
  
  --
  Defending IP by destroying access to it? That makes sense, RIAA/MPAA. Go to the corner until you can play nice!
2. Re:Dammit by Megol · 2014-07-24 04:15 · Score: 1
  
  Why? They would just close their borders and contain it from spreading.
Risk of mutation to something worse? by swb · 2014-07-23 23:52 · Score: 1

I am not a virologist or an epidemiologist (nor do I play one on TV) but I always seem to remember the risk of a larger pandemic from Ebola or other similar severe hemorrhagic fevers was reduced due to the nature of these illnesses having a rapid onset and severity which limits the ability of infected people to be ambulatory and infect other people.
What I wonder and maybe worry about is a long-term low-grade outbreak leading to mutations which increase the amount of time the infected might be able to spread the illness. I don't know how likely this is, but it seems kind of a scary idea.
1. Re:Risk of mutation to something worse? by Trepidity · 2014-07-24 00:07 · Score: 1
  
  Low percentage of asymptomatic cases is also a factor slowing the spread: almost everyone who has an Ebola virus infection develops a serious illness, so there are few (possibly no) asymptomatic carriers who could unwittingly spread it.
  
  --
  10 PRINT CHR$(205.5+RND(1)); : GOTO 10
2. Re:Risk of mutation to something worse? by Will.Woodhull · 2014-07-24 03:18 · Score: 1
  
  From what I have read about ebola (EVD-- whatever), it has an incubation period of 21 days and its early symptoms are easily confused with the flu. Just about everywhere other than Antarctic research stations is within 21 days travel time of west Africa.
  Mecca is going to be an epidemiologist's nightmare this year. Lots of Muslims in west Africa, and some infected Boko Haram nuts might think that they were doing Allah's will in bringing the disease to impure muslims and infidels. Sort of like the way the USA gave smallpox to the American Indians through infected trade blankets.
  
  --
  Will
3. Re:Risk of mutation to something worse? by Trepidity · 2014-07-24 03:58 · Score: 1
  
  Well incubation period is somewhat different. Also an issue, but not the same one as asymptomatic carriers. Some viruses have completely asymptomatic carriers, who can harbor it for years without themselves being significantly affected, which makes long-distance spread a lot easier. Ebola doesn't seem to have that.
  Although Ebola does have a reservoir in rats, who carry it asymptomatically. No idea what the odds of it spreading via that route are.
  
  --
  10 PRINT CHR$(205.5+RND(1)); : GOTO 10
4. Re:Risk of mutation to something worse? by sjames · 2014-07-24 05:18 · Score: 1
  
  That is a typical course when a disease first crosses to human beings.The good news is that they also tend to become less deadly in the process.
Re:Sexually treatable? by Anonymous Coward · 2014-07-23 23:52 · Score: 1

Someone who can't tell who's from whose?
"Head doctor" now also a carrier. by splutty · 2014-07-24 00:44 · Score: 1

And I just read that the doctor that's treated 100+ of the Ebola victims has been infected as well.
3 other nurses have already succumbed to the disease.
The high mortality rate is probably what scares people the most, despite it actually not being that infective through normal pathways.

--
Coz eternity my friend, is a long *ing time.
1. Re:"Head doctor" now also a carrier. by SternisheFan · 2014-07-24 03:01 · Score: 1
  
  I know a hard working, idealistic young doctor from Long Island NY who went to Africa two weeks ago to try and help. He came back very disillusioned, stymied at every attempt to treat patients there by government officials. He told me his parents were very afraid he would become sick and didn't want him to go, but this man feels he has a higher calling to treat the sick, higher than making money. A good man who I'm proud to know.
2. Re:"Head doctor" now also a carrier. by Anonymous Coward · 2014-07-24 04:42 · Score: 0
  
  The high mortality rate is probably what scares people the most, despite it actually not being that infective through normal pathways.
  uh, the high mortality rate *AND* the extremely high "infective" rate through normal pathways. ebola is communicable through the air, which is the worst case scenario for a virus with this kind of mortality rate.
The only solution... by RoLi · 2014-07-24 00:56 · Score: -1, Troll

... let all ebola-infected people into Western countries, do not - ever - screen anybody for it (that would be racist), create a ribbon campaign for feeling good and kill the jobs of everybody who dares to disagree on that.
It worked great with AIDS, why shouldn't it work with Ebola?
1. Re:The only solution... by Sockatume · 2014-07-24 01:02 · Score: 4, Insightful
  
  From your sarcasm, I'm going to assume that you'd rather that AIDS was characterised as a disease of gay people and minorities who should therefore be ostracised, it wasn't spoken about, and where its very existence was denied?
  That's what happened in the 1980s and it caused the fucking problem in the first place.
  
  --
  No kidding!!! What do you say at this point?
2. Re:The only solution... by Anonymous Coward · 2014-07-24 01:51 · Score: 0
  
  You sound a little insane. Like maybe that you're so far gone that you're a Republican.
3. Re:The only solution... by RoLi · 2014-07-24 03:10 · Score: -1, Troll
  
  Who talked about ostracism? Oh, that was you.
  I also don't quite get it how you can mix up "screening for a disease" with "deny it's existence", isn't that the complete opposite?
  So who is talking about denying Ebola's existence - or if not that not doing anything about it? Oh, you again.
  100 years ago, screening for diseases was normal procedure for immigration in pretty much every country - especially if that disease was contagious.
  Yes that was before political correctness.
  Today we screen only for those "dangerous" soda bottles and creams that people like you think can be used to hijack a plane.
  But AIDS, Ebola, Thyphus? No problem, who cares that thousands or even millions will die of it?
4. Re:The only solution... by Megol · 2014-07-24 04:18 · Score: 1
  
  Well in his defense he at least isn't posting as an AC...
5. Re:The only solution... by rubycodez · 2014-07-24 04:19 · Score: 1
  
  Statistically, AIDS is mostly a disease of gay people and minorities
6. Re:The only solution... by John+Bokma · 2014-07-24 04:37 · Score: 1
  
  When I migrated to NZ, back in 2000/2001 my blood was tested (for HIV, amongst other things) and an X-ray of my lungs was taken. However (!) I was already in the country for some time as a tourist...
  
  --
  
  Perl Programmer for hire
7. Re:The only solution... by Anonymous Coward · 2014-07-24 05:32 · Score: 0
  
  No, promiscuity is the biggest driver of STIs, as it's the sex in STI. That doesn't mean that we should show no compassion to those affected, but the fact that it's unhealthy behavior has been known and specifically warned against since ancient times. If you look at the records thereof, you will find that most mentions of it talk about how the people who engage in unsafe practices like that end up sick. Moreover, though this has been forgotten or ignored, that appears to be one of the primary *reasons* that people were averse to such behavior in the first place.
  But, as usual, people blame those who point out the problem.
8. Re:The only solution... by AK+Marc · 2014-07-24 08:51 · Score: 1
  
  When you only talk in sarcasm, you say nothing. Your opinion is only as valid as the justifications you can make for it. Apparently, that's nothing. So we'll treat your opinion with all the respect you deserve.
  
  --
  Learn to love Alaska
9. Re:The only solution... by AK+Marc · 2014-07-24 08:53 · Score: 1
  
  They don't want to keep the disease out. They want to keep people with TB out of the health care system. If you were diagnosed as a tourist, they'd throw you out. If you are diagnosed as a prospective migrant, they throw you out. If you are diagnosed as a resident, they treat you. It isn't about the disease, but the treatment costs.
  
  --
  Learn to love Alaska
10. Re:The only solution... by AK+Marc · 2014-07-24 08:54 · Score: 1
  
  Statistically, AIDS is mostly a disease of straight white people.
  
  --
  Learn to love Alaska
11. Re:The only solution... by rubycodez · 2014-07-24 09:07 · Score: 1
  
  the US government and the CDC disagrees with you http://aids.gov/hiv-aids-basic...
12. Re:The only solution... by John+Bokma · 2014-07-24 09:08 · Score: 1
  
  My daughter was born in NZ in a maternity center, we didn't have to pay a single thing. Back then we still had tourist state. So I don't think you're correct. But I have no idea how much TB treatment costs. In Mexico, where I live right now, in order to get married one has to be tested for HIV. I think that's a sane thing to do. No health tests where required for migration, if I recall correctly. Anyway, my point is: if you test immigrants only, it's pointless.
  
  --
  
  Perl Programmer for hire
13. Re:The only solution... by AK+Marc · 2014-07-24 09:13 · Score: 1
  
  Since then, they changed the rules to throw out pregnant tourists. The TB test may have started out as prevention at one point, but at this point in time, it's about costs only.
  
  --
  Learn to love Alaska
14. Re:The only solution... by AK+Marc · 2014-07-24 09:20 · Score: 1
  
  From your link:
  "MSM [gay males] accounted for 52% of all people living with HIV infection in 2009, the most recent year these data are available"[snip]"and 63% of all new infections"
  
  So it isn't hard to extrapolate and guess that some date before 2009, the "gay male" segment was below half (as now, it's almost exactly half), but the gay male segment grew faster than others recently to overtake it.
  
  The last time I had looked, straight people still lead the gay-male category, but it has been a few years. And its still more non-Black than Black, but it was more white than non-white when I last paid attention.
  
  I don't check the statistics on an annual basis to see what the trends are. None of those results affect my behavior.
  
  --
  Learn to love Alaska
15. Re:The only solution... by rubycodez · 2014-07-24 09:53 · Score: 1
  
  my statement was "gays and minorities", for example in the year 2000 that was over 60% of cases, most being in one or both groups
16. Re:The only solution... by John+Bokma · 2014-07-24 10:28 · Score: 1
  
  Clear, thanks for the clarification/correction. TBH, I was surpised that nothing had to be paid.
  
  --
  
  Perl Programmer for hire
17. Re:The only solution... by AK+Marc · 2014-07-24 11:20 · Score: 1
  
  Was the baby a citizen? I thought the rules were any legally-born child (not to an illegal entrant) was a citizen. And that was another reason they kicked them out more recently. But those rules also changed between your time here and mine. I just didn't follow too closely, as they didn't affect me.
  
  --
  Learn to love Alaska
18. Re:The only solution... by Anonymous Coward · 2014-07-25 06:00 · Score: 0
  
  The TB test may have started out as prevention at one point, but at this point in time, it's about costs only.
  Maybe, but the reason they're really getting anal regarding TB are the rather nasty resistant strains doing the rounds..harder to treat naturally means more expensive, so yes, costs are involved, but no-one wants aany mass TB outbreaks again if we can help it.
  I just wish our bloody government was as anal wrt screening as you Kiwis..
Boarders.. by rossdee · 2014-07-24 01:16 · Score: 1

Maybe he means the people who board the planes
Vaccine in the 2030's? by bill_mcgonigle · 2014-07-24 01:29 · Score: 1

The story I read before this one was about a malaria vaccine that was developed in the early 90's, was known to be effective by '97, and has been awaiting approval since then, while ten million people died from the disease.
Really, though, it was only ten million families who had to lose their loved ones - that's a small price to pay for the paperwork being in order.

--
My God, it's Full of Source!
OUTSIDE_IP=$(dig +short my.ip @outsideip.net)
1. Re:Vaccine in the 2030's? by mspohr · 2014-07-24 02:50 · Score: 1
  
  If you had actually read the article you reference, you would see that the delay in malaria vaccine is to to the fact that the many trials have been failures and even this latest version is not very effective for not very much time. The "paperwork" delay in this case is due to the fact that it doesn't work.
  
  --
  I don't read your sig. Why are you reading mine?
2. Re:Vaccine in the 2030's? by CrimsonAvenger · 2014-07-24 04:59 · Score: 3, Informative
  
  was known to be effective by '97
  From your link, it was known to have "great potential" by '97.
  Which is NOT the same as "known to be effective".
  
  --
  
  "I do not agree with what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it"
And you think you do? by Anonymous Coward · 2014-07-24 04:34 · Score: 0

Positive you don't know.
Idiots with bad habbits dying and other members of the same species elsewhere surviving to pass on their genes to their descendants is about as close to the definition of evolution as you can get in this situation.
1. Re:And you think you do? by Algae_94 · 2014-07-24 06:21 · Score: 1
  
  A lack of education about health care and a lack of access to healthcare for poor people is not a bad habit. Evolution will do nothing to fix that issue. About the most you'll get is a population that might eventually have a higher resistance to Ebola.
2. Re:And you think you do? by Anonymous Coward · 2014-07-24 13:17 · Score: 0
  
  How about you read a blurb from a book about genetics.
  2 different groups will have random mutations, if one group dies off and the other survives is by definition evolution. It matters not the reason for the dying, only that one group survived.
3. Re:And you think you do? by Anonymous Coward · 2014-07-24 13:30 · Score: 0
  
  A lack of education about health care and a lack of access to healthcare for poor people is not a bad habit. Evolution will do nothing to fix that issue.
  It matters not the reason for dying. Lack of education, lack of healthcare, superstitious beliefs, bad habits, religion.
  Evolution isn't about fixing things, it's about differences in genes that are passed on to your decendants. That can't happen if you're already dead.
  
  About the most you'll get is a population that might eventually have a higher resistance to Ebola.
  You could get anything, or nothing much. eye/hair/skin colour shorter/taller missshapen fingers. It's random and not always helpful/useful. If something has changed though, it's evolution all the same.
And you think you do? by Anonymous Coward · 2014-07-24 06:15 · Score: 0

LOL. Go read a book on genetics and get back to us when you understand how evolution works.
fortress Kamchatka by Thud457 · 2014-07-24 07:12 · Score: 1

still waiting for the President of Madagascar to shut down everything.

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the preceding comment is my own and in no way reflects the opinion of the Joint Chiefs of Staff
Zombie Apocalypse anyone? by almostadnsguy · 2014-07-24 09:10 · Score: 1

I'm ready are you?
you know by Anonymous Coward · 2014-07-24 12:01 · Score: 0

We need to do this. its time.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lO2-YxWkRxk