Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

WHO Declares Ebola Outbreak An International Emergency

Posted by Unknown on from the we're-all-gonna-die dept.

mdsolar (1045926) writes with news that, with the Ebola outbreak growing out of control, the WHO has declared an international health emergency. From the article: With cases rapidly mounting in four West African countries, the World Health Organization (WHO) today declared the Ebola outbreak a Public Health Emergency of International Concern (PHEIC), a designation that allows the agency to issue recommendations for travel restrictions but also sends a strong message that more resources need to be mobilized to bring the viral disease under control. ... This is only the third time the health agency has issued a PHEIC declaration since the new International Health Regulations (IHR), a global agreement on the control of diseases, were adopted in 2005. The previous two instances were in 2009, for the H1N1 influenza pandemic, and in May for the resurgence of polio.

183 comments

  1. First.... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0, Offtopic

    ...infection

    1. Re:First.... by jriding · · Score: 4, Funny

      Too late to become a prepper?

      --
      love the taste, hate the texture
    2. Re:First.... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      The same thing will happen that happens every other time there's some outbreak "emergency": Nothing.

    3. Re:First.... by i+kan+reed · · Score: 5, Insightful

      I like preppers, they rarely, if ever, actually understand the consequences of social collapse, and falsely view increased individualism as the primary consequence of major institutional failure.

      They don't consider the social structures that arise in post-governmental situations. The importance of community connectivity increases with importance as rigid social structures fail. You want a local warlord, a gang, a tribe, or some other primitive power structure, if you want to survive in a "lawless" world.

    4. Re:First.... by i+kan+reed · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Well, in this case, hundreds of people have already died, but, sure that's "nothing". Nothing is going to happen in the US, thanks in part to large scale international public health planning of exactly this sort.

    5. Re:First.... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0, Insightful

      you mean all those plastic coffins the DHS invested in a couple years back right? :)

    6. Re:First.... by fuzzyfuzzyfungus · · Score: 4, Insightful

      The same thing will happen that happens every other time there's some outbreak "emergency": Nothing.

      That's exactly the goal: ensure that as many people as possible continue to have nothing happen to them, rather than exciting hemorrhagic fever or Quarantine Zone.

    7. Re:First.... by Scottingham · · Score: 1

      Yep, pretty much. Still though, I'll keep my 357 on my hip while I help out my local neighborhood 'tribe' fend off the Palinistas from the countryside.

    8. Re:First.... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0, Interesting

      I think you falsely view prepper's as that naive. They are not trying to be individuals, they are trying to be PREPARED to individually survive, if necessary. This will, in fact, increase a prepper's social status since they can a) not be a burden on others in a group b) help others in a group and c) be viewed as intelligent, forward thinking, etc.

      You falsely believe that simply being part of a close knit group means that the other members of the group will help you. If no one in the group "prepped" or has assets then you lose. If you are counting on someone else in your social circle to "prep" for you then you are just implicitly prepping while calling preppers idiots.

      If you carefully select your social group to include gun smiths, chemists, farmers, etc so that you have access to everything you need then you are still a prepper, just a different kind. If you think 50 accountant friends is going to help you then, good luck.

    9. Re:First.... by shadowrat · · Score: 5, Funny

      I like preppers, they rarely, if ever, actually understand the consequences of social collapse, and falsely view increased individualism as the primary consequence of major institutional failure.

      They don't consider the social structures that arise in post-governmental situations. The importance of community connectivity increases with importance as rigid social structures fail. You want a local warlord, a gang, a tribe, or some other primitive power structure, if you want to survive in a "lawless" world.

      Oh sure, grouping up provides an immediate boost to strength, but It'll only last for so long. This australian case study from 1985 http://tinyurl.com/h4otx proved that such a social structure is only as strong as it's weakest link. A stronger individual will always appear in time and take your group apart. It's pretty much proven as the same results were witnessed in 2 previous studies. I hear they are going to run it again. I expect the same outcome.

      Heres a similar sociological study demonstrating the feasibility of individual survival. It's not as targeted at catastrophic social collapse, but i think it's safe to extrapolate. http://tinyurl.com/3xpd3n

    10. Re:First.... by jeffmflanagan · · Score: 1

      It's never to late to go insane.

    11. Re:First.... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      50 accountant friends, taxi, airport, 747, plane ticket, full body check, and diplomacy to make travel safe to my destination.

    12. Re:First.... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I like preppers, they rarely, if ever, actually understand the consequences of social collapse, and falsely view increased individualism as the primary consequence of major institutional failure.

      They don't consider the social structures that arise in post-governmental situations. The importance of community connectivity increases with importance as rigid social structures fail. You want a local warlord, a gang, a tribe, or some other primitive power structure, if you want to survive in a "lawless" world.

      Oh sure, grouping up provides an immediate boost to strength, but It'll only last for so long. This australian case study from 1985 http://tinyurl.com/h4otx proved that such a social structure is only as strong as it's weakest link. A stronger individual will always appear in time and take your group apart. It's pretty much proven as the same results were witnessed in 2 previous studies. I hear they are going to run it again. I expect the same outcome.

      Heres a similar sociological study demonstrating the feasibility of individual survival. It's not as targeted at catastrophic social collapse, but i think it's safe to extrapolate. http://tinyurl.com/3xpd3n

      Links to Mad Max and Rambo? Shouldn't this be tagged funny?

    13. Re:First.... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Many more than that die all the time from completely different causes. Most of it is due to the lack of good medical help in this case.

      If you think that, in a world where there are 7 billion humans, hundreds of people dying is something, then your line needs to be redrawn.

    14. Re:First.... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      When I clicked on those links I was rooting for them to be one of those movies.... Though I would have picked Road Warrior... I also can not wait for the new one. Dont care its the wrong guy. I just want more Max.

    15. Re:First.... by horm · · Score: 1

      Best post ever.

    16. Re:First.... by shadowrat · · Score: 1

      Thanks! I was hoping people would enjoy it! I feel like i really bettered the world today!

    17. Re:First.... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Nice try. You don't own a gun.

    18. Re:First.... by Kjella · · Score: 2

      Post-collapse, sure. During the actual collapse though we'll have tons of people in utter desperation who are short on water, food, firewood and all the basic essentials for survival and has absolutely nothing to lose and who'll totally overwhelm what nature can provide. The first wave of power structures will be all about stealing what other people have, totally unsustainable but sure to cause great grief until they run out of easy targets or run into a bigger pack.

      A good example is nuclear holocaust - it's not about the ones killed directly, after an all-out nuclear war global temperatures would drop 10-35C. Can you imagine the massive crop failures world wide we'd have? Billions would starve. And even if you could grow crops, they'd take months of defending in the field so little would in practice be even less. Game would be wiped out, lakes fished empty, survival today before worrying about tomorrow.

      Preppers expect to survive the initial chaos by bugging out, locking down and basically waiting it out in a bunker for a year or two. Personally I think it sounds like a rather good plan, once the initial dust has settled there'll be plenty of time to come out of hiding and try to find allies and barter supplies. Sure some 1% may be "winners" and warlords and such, but 9% are probably serfs and 90% dead and that's mostly a lottery.

      --
      Live today, because you never know what tomorrow brings
    19. Re:First.... by i+kan+reed · · Score: 1

      I just want to restate your argument so you can see how stupid it is:

      "People die from other causes, therefore people should not concern themselves with this cause, ever"

    20. Re:First.... by Electricity+Likes+Me · · Score: 1

      During a collapse the number of people who are desperate - by definition - is a lot bigger then those who have everything they need. Guess who's going down first? It's not going to be the guy who tries to supply them with things, it's going to be the guy with the lights on who keeps shooting at everyone near his property. An active threat to everyone.

    21. Re:First.... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Nope, I own a handmade device capable of throwing tungsten slugs @ 1/4th the speed of light. Who needs an old style chemical weapon?

    22. Re:First.... by fredprado · · Score: 1

      Desperate people are all but organized. The guy who has things and cannot defend himself is the first to die, even if he is trying to help everyone. Those that can defend themselves are likely to last or to the the among the last to die.

    23. Re:First.... by Ralph+Wiggam · · Score: 1

      You make living in a bunker for two years sound so simple and easy.

    24. Re:First.... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Nah all the infected are going to recuperate at Donald trumps house as he symbolizes the Brave heroic American ideal.

    25. Re:First.... by narcc · · Score: 2

      This will, in fact, increase a prepper's social status since they can a) not be a burden on others in a group b) help others in a group and c) be viewed as intelligent, forward thinking, etc.

      "Just wait until the world as we know it ends! Then they'll HAVE to like me! And, my boss, he'll need to listen to ME for a change!"

      --
      Required reading for internet skeptics
    26. Re:First.... by toddestan · · Score: 1

      It's not. That's why you have to be...uhh....prepared

    27. Re:First.... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Yep, pretty much. Still though, I'll keep my 357 on my hip while I help out my local neighborhood 'tribe' fend off the Palinistas from the countryside.

      Hi, just wondering, but do you double tap when shooting a person to death, or does just a single bullet to the brain suffice for you?
      Also, what do you use as your finishing shot? Do you just shoot in the heart to ensure he/she is properly dead, or do you put an extra round into their face point blank?

    28. Re:First.... by Electricity+Likes+Me · · Score: 2

      Here's the problem: there's a difference between desperate and starving. You can go a long time without food if you were previously well-nourished - upto 3 weeks or so with no real problems. Which means you have a long time to realize you're in trouble, rally your allies etc.

      People think that people turn on each other at the drop of dime - but they don't. The first thing desperate people do is forge alliances they might otherwise not consider, and then go looking for a solution to their common problem. They might eventually fall to infighting, but so goes the entirety of human civilization. We are fundamentally a tribal species, if we weren't then there wouldn't be a civilization to fall in the first place.

      And it's not like this is a particularly difficult benefit to sell to people either: if someone's stockpiled enough food for a year, and there's 10 of you, then you have enough food for over a month if you knock over their hamlet. Heck, you can sell this idea to people who might be morally opposed, because you can leave them enough food for a month, and reasonably expect to knock over another hamlet before that time is up.

      The economics and history support the only sensible conclusion: people who go it alone die out. The Mongol horde wasn't so much a horde as one of the most well-organized and powerful empires for its time, it only seemed like a horde because every village was happy to sell out its neighbors and hope they would be passed over. And the exact same problem applies to survivalists: they think the way they do, because they've misunderstood some very important things about the human condition. Worse, they think they're smarter then everyone else which means they're constantly underestimating potential allies and actual enemies.

    29. Re:First.... by Intrepid+imaginaut · · Score: 1

      If the global temperature dropped that much crop failures would be the least of peoples' worries. The sudden reappearance of 10km thick glaciers over much of the northern hemisphere would be a little more pressing.

    30. Re:First.... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      No, it's, "People die en masse from other causes, this cause hasn't killed that many people, and we've seen exaggeration after exaggeration about outbreaks like this before and nothing really came of them."

      So yeah, some people in countries without decent medical help will die, and that's bad, but I'm tired of the exaggerations.

    31. Re:First.... by fredprado · · Score: 1

      Nice theory, unfortunately it is completely removed from reality. Your nice ideas of cooperation and civilization only apply when resources are plentiful and the social structure is in place. In extreme situations where food is scarce and the social structure has collapsed only the strongest survive, and those are likely to be those that are most aggressive, well armed and trained for combat. A single person well armed and well trained can slaughter a whole lot of people. A well trained and coordinated group can slaughter thousands and take everything they want from them.

    32. Re:First.... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I don't know, because I've never had to do it. And I hope it never comes to it. And no, I'm not going to now spend the time to think about how I would do it, because I really don't want to think about it until I absolutely have to.

      But that doesn't mean I'm not going to be prepared.

  2. Re:who? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    They're an English band.

  3. who? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0, Offtopic

    What is the name of the organization that the clear pandemic

    WHO!

    Third-base

  4. The infection the 'right-sizes' the human race by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0, Troll

    The human race population is out of control, and it is simply a matter of time before nature corrects the situation. Take a cross-country flight and marvel at how 90% of the land mass now is infested with human activity. It probably is the largest animal infestation that the planet has ever seen - and it cannot end well.

    1. Re:The infection the 'right-sizes' the human race by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0, Funny

      Let's hope you're corrected first!

    2. Re:The infection the 'right-sizes' the human race by Z00L00K · · Score: 1, Troll

      I think that it's as insightful as it can be. There are too many humans around. We do see Ebola which is bad and is propagated through contact which means that it's not very contagious. Hand us something that's at least as deadly as Ebola, contagious as the common cold and with an incubation time of several weeks and you have a "winner".

      --
      If builders built buildings the way programmers wrote programs, then the first woodpecker would destroy civilization.
    3. Re:The infection the 'right-sizes' the human race by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Informative

      Ebola has an incubation time of about two to three weeks, after which the symptoms appear. Death follows in two weeks after this, unless the patient survives. The virus can be contagious up to seven weeks after the patient has been cured, depending of the type of contagion.

    4. Re:The infection the 'right-sizes' the human race by scubamage · · Score: 1, Troll

      I'll get rated down for this, but I agree with you. People don't want to look at a lot of hard facts. We currently have about 7.046 billion people alive (based on 2012 numbers). Our global human population is increasing by approximately 1.1% annually, which means we will double to 14 billion people in 63 years (following the rule of 72). Nearly about 870 million people are currently suffering from chronic malnourishment. 780 million lack ready access to water. Realistically, do we think logistical changes to provide food and water for another 7 billion people are possible in the next 63 years? Another 14 billion in 128 years? Another 28 billion in 193 years? Worse, some countries see growth rates as high as 1.8%, which would shorten that doubling rate to about 40 years. Exponential growth is a bitch. While ebola is no where near a nice way to go, a pandemic that wipes out a significant portion of the world may be preferable to experiencing water and food wars that will occur if we aren't able to institute logistics to provide for the constant influx of mouths to feed. Otherwise, we are going to be looking at global population controls within our childrens' or our grandchildrens' lifetimes.

    5. Re:The infection the 'right-sizes' the human race by bruce_the_loon · · Score: 1

      You are failing to take into account the steady decline in the global birth rate since the mid 1980s. While we are at 1.1% now, we were over 2% in the 60s and have steadily dropped from 1.6% in 1990 and will go under 1% by 2020 and hit 0.5% by 2050 at the current rates. The current prediction for an extra 2 billion is 30 years time and to reach a peak of 11 billion in the early 22nd century before beginning to drop off.

      The driving forces behind 3+ children were lack of basic education, religious beliefs and poverty. As the information evolves, the first two factors are fast disappearing. People are fast gaining an understanding of the growth issues globally and are adjusting their behaviors because of that understanding.

      What may require intervention are the farming processes and the distribution of foods. The calorie requirements in developed countries have dropped because of the less manual labour nature of the economies, but the calorie consumption has increased dramatically. That is something that should be rectified both for the health of the population and to increase the availability of food in areas where needed. Easy access to higher density cultivars and reversion to soil management techniques from previous centuries is also essential. This might need a breaking of the business models of food, fertilizer and seed companies, but we don't like Monsanto anyway, don't we.

      There is a growth issue and a food/water issue, but it isn't an exponential issue.

      --
      Trying to become famous by taking photos. Visit my homepage please.
    6. Re:The infection the 'right-sizes' the human race by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      You are failing to take into account the steady decline in the global birth rate since the mid 1980s. While we are at 1.1% now, we were over 2% in the 60s and have steadily dropped from 1.6% in 1990 and will go under 1% by 2020 and hit 0.5% by 2050 at the current rates. The current prediction for an extra 2 billion is 30 years time and to reach a peak of 11 billion in the early 22nd century before beginning to drop off. Oh, well carry on then. 11 billion, won't stress the planet out at all. Hell, I think we should start popping out more kids, cuz maybe 12 billion would be pretty cool and all.

      I seriously doubt that we are going to make the transition from today's roughtly 7.252 billion to 11 billion.

      Unless we go all Arrakis, and don still suits and all, and eat tank grow algae, after killing off all the other life forms.

  5. Americans flown to U.S. to prevent spread by NemoinSpace · · Score: 0, Troll

    /*head explodes.
    In other news, Pelosi continues to study the American Healthcare Act. (not really)

    1. Re:Americans flown to U.S. to prevent spread by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Not to prevent spread, but to get better treatment.

      What does this have to do with Nancy Pelosi?

      Have you been diagnosed? I think you might be a right-wing lunatic, and that there's probably nothing in your head to explode.

  6. Re:who? by Ravaldy · · Score: 0

    More garbage comments from an anonymous coward.

  7. WHO Declares Ebola Outbreak An International Emerg by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0, Interesting

    ... after latest research showed that it could affect white folks as well.

  8. Re:who? by Z00L00K · · Score: 3, Funny

    They need Doctor Who...

    --
    If builders built buildings the way programmers wrote programs, then the first woodpecker would destroy civilization.
  9. Unavoidable by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

    1. Maintain humanity under 500,000,000 in perpetual balance with nature. ...
    10. Be not a cancer on the earth — Leave room for nature — Leave room for nature.

    1. Re:Unavoidable by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/G...

    2. Re:Unavoidable by ultranova · · Score: 1

      Maintain humanity under 500,000,000 in perpetual balance with nature.

      Putting the implied mass murder and ironclad tyranny aside for a moment, it's impossible to live in perpetual balance with nature, since nature is not static. Nor did low world population prevent Smallpox or the Black Death from appearing; indeed, diseases like Ebola typically emerge in regions that are less developed and thus "closer to nature", according to this kind of hippy bullshit.

      Be not a cancer on the earth â" Leave room for nature â" Leave room for nature.

      And that's another thing. We, like every dominant species before us, are part of nature. Yes, our emergence is causing a massive upheaval, where some species lose and some win big time, but that's just business as usual. This whole "humanity is cancer" meme is simply arrogant drivel.

      There is, however, one difference between us and the previous dominant species: since we're capable of sapient thought, with us in charge life has a chance to survive the looming specter of Sun's death.

      --

      Forget magic. Any technology distinguishable from divine power is insufficiently advanced.

  10. Re:who? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Indeed. http://www.bbc.com/news/102355... http://www.independent.co.uk/n...

  11. Re:who? by i+kan+reed · · Score: 4, Insightful

    I like that someone modded him up, as if flu vaccines don't substantially lower fatality rate among at-risk populations, such as young children, the elderly, and those with compromised immune systems.

    Just because catching flu doesn't tend to kill healthy adults, they just write-off the rest of the world in the perfect mixture of selfishness and ignorance, all the while acting smugly superior about the conspiracy only they can see.

  12. keep calm everyone.... by ganjadude · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Ebola, while a horrible deadly disease is not the doom and gloom its being made out to be for anyone not living in a 3rd world country., and even for those living in 3rd world countries for that matter. more people die in 1 month from the flu in africa (over 5 K from the last article i saw ) than they die from ebola last year. to put it in prospective, less than 1000 people died from it last year.

    Unless you are literally playing in a sick persons bodily fluids, the risk is almost 0

    --
    have you seen my sig? there are many others like it but none that are the same
    1. Re:keep calm everyone.... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      So the nearly 1800 people infected so far were literally playing in a sick person's bodily fluids?
      What do you think goes on in West Africa?

    2. Re:keep calm everyone.... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      How do you explain the doctors and nurses who have been infected ? Playing with a sick person fluids while they knew it is highly likely to kill them ? Get a clue.

    3. Re:keep calm everyone.... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      less than 1000 deaths were REPORTED, people are fleeing the scene, doctors included.
      how accurate a picture can such a summation be?

    4. Re:keep calm everyone.... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

      They haven't ingrained with germ theory since they were toddlers. Their funeral rites often include hand-washing and kissing the deceased.

    5. Re:keep calm everyone.... by Solandri · · Score: 5, Informative

      Unless you are literally playing in a sick persons bodily fluids, the risk is almost 0

      As I said last time this topic came up, the fear is not that Ebola will spread by people playing in each others' bodily fluids. The fear is that it'll spread beyond a containment zone in Africa, then mutate into a form which can be spread through the air. That's what happens to the various strains of flu. It usually starts off in a form which jumps from animals to man via direct contact. That limits it to farmers and people who work directly with animals (e.g. butchers, cooks in restaurants). But then mutates into a form which spreads easily via the air, which is when it becomes a pandemic.

      Of course Ebola is very different from the flu. It may be very difficult or impossible for Ebola to mutate into a form which can survive long enough in water droplets that sick people cough/sneeze into the air. But we don't know that. Given how deadly the disease is (50%-90% fatality rate, vs about 15% for the Spanish Flu that killed more people than WWI), it's a stupid assumption to make. That's why the international health agencies are assuming the worst-case and handling it as if it was going to mutate into something communicable via the air.

    6. Re:keep calm everyone.... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Informative

      Terrible sanitation, including drinking from the same water supply in which people bathe and defecate? There are few places in the affected region where one can turn on the tap and get municipal water, you know. That's why simply installing hand-washing stations with soap and relatively clean water has routinely made such a huge impact on the spread of Ebola and other gut-wrenching illnesses over there.

      If you're going to be a pedantic ass, you really should make an attempt to have a passing familiarity with the subject.

    7. Re:keep calm everyone.... by Gavagai80 · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Playing with sick people's fluids is the job description of a doctor or nurse.

      --
      This space intentionally left blank
    8. Re:keep calm everyone.... by ganjadude · · Score: 1

      their JOB is to play with the sick persons fluids, get a clue of course doctors and nurses will be more likely to get it over others.

      --
      have you seen my sig? there are many others like it but none that are the same
    9. Re:keep calm everyone.... by jafac · · Score: 2

      I think this is panic, mainly because experts are afraid of some mythical nightmare scenario where it gets into a large city and overwhelms the medical infrastructure's ability to cope, and it infects millions.

      I think it remains to be seen whether such a scenario would actually play-out that way, or whether other factors would intervene. We've seen situations in history, like Black Plague, and the Spanish Flu, where they did, indeed balloon up beyond anyone's expectations - one wonders whether that will happen with Ebola, which is harder to transmit human-to-human than flu or plague. But I think that health officials don't want to be blamed for any political/social/economic fallout that results. A major African city or region becoming impacted like this would likely bring on war or genocide on a massive scale, because of the general nature of the region. But there are a TON of what-if's in these assumptions. It really just comes down to nervous officials, IMO.

      --

      These are my friends, See how they glisten. See this one shine, how he smiles in the light.
    10. Re:keep calm everyone.... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Funny

      Hello good sir.

      I represent Reynolds Consumer Products, LLC. I believe we have a wide array of products you may be interested in. You may find our Heavy Duty foil especially useful.

      Thank you and have a nice day.

    11. Re:keep calm everyone.... by ganjadude · · Score: 1

      fair enough of an argument, I in no way intended to say there was not a problem, I just dont want to see americans freak out over something that they are less likely of getting than they are of winning the lotto

      --
      have you seen my sig? there are many others like it but none that are the same
    12. Re:keep calm everyone.... by angel'o'sphere · · Score: 3, Informative

      Why do you invent bullshit, like this: The fear is that it'll spread beyond a containment zone in Africa, then mutate into a form which can be spread through the air.
      That is your fear because you have no clue.
      Why don't you ... for fuck sake ... if it concerns you so much that you even fear it, read a few articles about Flu and another few articles about Ebola?

      It is completely impossible. Ebola is a Filovirus, Flu is a Orthomyxoviridae. The most important difference is, Flu has a 'hull' around its genome. Ebola is a blank RNA strand without any protection.

      Regardless how it mutates it will always die in seconds or minutes outside of s human body.

      I really don't get why people like you spread such a nonsense fear. You are payed by some pharma lobby planning to sell the upcoming vaccines/treatments?

      WTF, the knowledge how this stuff works is not rocket science (and even rocket science is a rather simple topic) ... can't be so hard to simply read about it.

      --
      Cost free eBook I read (by iBook/Kobo/Amazon/ObookO/Gutenberg etc.): "The Green Odyssey" by Philip Jose Farmer.
    13. Re:keep calm everyone.... by linebackn · · Score: 4, Informative

      Ebola, while a horrible deadly disease is not the doom and gloom its being made out to be

      You wouldn't know that listening to the idiotic TV news. They seriously have been playing it as if everyone in the US is at grave risk of dropping dead from this.

      The threats made against that second infected doctor being brought back to the US were almost certainly a direct result of the media's irresponsible reporting.

      Despite all their condescending scaremongering, there is simply zero realistic risk to the US general public.

    14. Re:keep calm everyone.... by Andy+Dodd · · Score: 1

      That's a crude way of wording typical funeral rites over there, which apparently involve washing the deceased by hand.

      --
      retrorocket.o not found, launch anyway?
    15. Re:keep calm everyone.... by gstoddart · · Score: 2, Interesting

      Setting aside the specific mechanics of the virus ...

      Are you making the claim there is no way that Ebola could mutate into something which could spread more readily than it does now?

      I'm pretty sure there's probably more people currently infected than at any point in history -- because historically it's spread in a small community and then died out, no?

      Having is spread further outside of Africa doesn't seem all that impossible -- what with modern air travel and the like, you could end up with a huge amount of infected people.

      Whether or not it could become purely airborne, it could still spread much further than it ever has, and, it can still mutate and do whatever these things do when that happens.

      Hemorrhagic fevers are scary, because who wants to bleed to death through every orifice in your body as your organs turn to goo?

      Regardless how it mutates it will always die in seconds or minutes outside of s human body.

      And, you can say with 100% certainty it could never either mutate into something which can exceed these constraints, or cross mojonate with something which can? Like a hemorrhagic flu?

      You can rule out every conceivable and fanciful mechanism with absolute certainty?

      Or, can you say it hasn't happened yet?

      These are actual honest questions, because I know fsck all about epidemiology ... I just also know that the things which want to kill us have a remarkable tendency to become much harder to kill.

      And people who say "that could never happen" have been wrong in the past. Quite often, actually.

      --
      Lost at C:>. Found at C.
    16. Re: keep calm everyone.... by Type44Q · · Score: 1

      It's a good thing they haven't read Stranger in a Strange Land. :p

    17. Re:keep calm everyone.... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      So you're saying there's a CHANCE?!

      Get a grip, man.

    18. Re:keep calm everyone.... by div_2n · · Score: 1

      Funny enough I think "panic" is _exactly_ what frightens the crap out of governments of heavily populated and prosperous countries. Citizens acting irrationally and taking evasive actions that craters economies -- that's the stuff apocalyptic books are made of. The entire world could change in a matter of months if this hit a few major cities in America, Europe, Russia and other major nations.

      People don't panic _as much_ about flu pandemics because of lower death rates and healthy folks typically only having a few days of not so great experiences but otherwise being OK. But a 50%+ death rate? That's the kind of thing that makes lots of people do very dumb things.

    19. Re:keep calm everyone.... by ganjadude · · Score: 1

      exactly

      --
      have you seen my sig? there are many others like it but none that are the same
    20. Re:keep calm everyone.... by gstoddart · · Score: 1

      So you're saying there's a CHANCE?!

      No, I'm freely admitting my ignorance, and rejecting the categorical claim that it could never, under any circumstances, mutate into a form which spreads further and faster than it does now.

      Get a grip, man.

      That's it? That's the most you have to add to this?

      No wonder you posted as AC.

      --
      Lost at C:>. Found at C.
    21. Re:keep calm everyone.... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Informative

      You're wrong. Like, really wrong. Ebola isn't a blank RNA strand (ignoring the fact that "blank RNA" doesn't make any sense - in order for it to be RNA, it has to have bases in it, which means it encodes information; you meant bare, probably, but even that is wrong). It has a protein-based envelope around it, as well as a small lipid bilayer. Seriously, that took less than a minute to look up. If it was just RNA, the normal RNAses in your body would make it a non-issue.

      I also really enjoy how you make fun of someone for not reading about it when you clearly didn't do any research.

    22. Re:keep calm everyone.... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      You are sooo cocky. Just wait until someone gets both of them and they merge into Ebolu or Flubola or something. (It all depends on which one is inside and which one is outside, I think.)

      You think a blank RNA strand is bad? Just wait until the normal flu gets its dirty hands on it and scribbles down '+Spanish Flu'.

      (and even rocket science is a rather simple topic)

      I see...we have someone who has played KSP AND Pandemic. In the real world, kid, you're going to have to watch out for both weather and birds while doing rocketry as well as Flubola.

    23. Re:keep calm everyone.... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      they are playing too much pandemic/plague inc.

    24. Re:keep calm everyone.... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Diseases don't want to kill us. Not everything needs to be thought of as "the enemy."

    25. Re:keep calm everyone.... by moke · · Score: 4, Informative

      Ebola Reston is a Filovirus and it is airborne (deadly to monkeys but harmless to humans), so it's not that far fetched.

    26. Re:keep calm everyone.... by harl · · Score: 0

      If you admit your ignorance how can you reject the claim?

      --
      I find being offended by me offensive.
    27. Re:keep calm everyone.... by Electricity+Likes+Me · · Score: 2

      Actually the problem with people panicking is they tend to do the stupidest possible thing en masse. Ebola infection in a city - quick, cram on the buses and flee! Congregate in public places to stockpile supplies! Like 90% of the things people would try are the exact things which turn a mild, containable outbreak into a large one.

    28. Re:keep calm everyone.... by Andrio · · Score: 1

      Ebola mutating to be airborne is a terrifying concept. Basically it'll be a real life Captain Trips.

      --
      The Internet King? I wonder if he could provide faster nudity.
    29. Re:keep calm everyone.... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Germ theory isn't complicated. Any adult of average intelligence should be able to grasp the concept in less than a day. There is no good reason they don't understand it. This ebola outbreak is the result of stupidity, nothing more. It's a good thing.

    30. Re:keep calm everyone.... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      WTF, the knowledge how this stuff works is not rocket science (and even rocket science is a rather simple topic) ... can't be so hard to simply read about it.

      Being that ebola is a medical issue, I'd say it is tangentially more related to brain surgery rather than rocket science

    31. Re:keep calm everyone.... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      nice try, Jeff Goldblum.

    32. Re:keep calm everyone.... by schrall · · Score: 1

      Except that Ebola can actually survive out of his host and stay infectious at ambient temperature for a few days.

    33. Re:keep calm everyone.... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      So the nearly 1800 people infected so far were literally playing in a sick person's bodily fluids? What do you think goes on in West Africa?

      Posting AC to avoid burning mod points..

      Yes, in the affected areas, the corpses of loved ones are ritually washed. Turns out to be a fine way to spread Ebola.

    34. Re:keep calm everyone.... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      There is no point in saying a claim has validity without proof. Especially a claim as flimsy as "this might happen". A monkey might fly out of your ass, but with complete ignorance, I can reject the claim it will occur FOR CERTAIN. You have selective perception.

    35. Re:keep calm everyone.... by Znork · · Score: 1

      From reading a few articles on the conditions there it seems that it's because they're one or two doctors or nurses in a ward with several dozen patients puking, shitting, pissing, bleeding and falling out of beds and spreading contamination _everywhere_.

      Fair enough. I can see why no hazmat gear and protective procedures in the world will protect you over a longer period under those conditions.

    36. Re:keep calm everyone.... by gstoddart · · Score: 1

      If you admit your ignorance how can you reject the claim?

      Because, all categorical statements are wrong, or incomplete.

      Including the above.

      --
      Lost at C:>. Found at C.
    37. Re:keep calm everyone.... by angel'o'sphere · · Score: 1

      Yes, most of your 'fear of mutation' arguments can be dismissed right away.

      The disease infects slowly, so, it takes a while that people realize, there is an out break.

      The only concrete fear/sound concern is: people are infected roughly 2 weeks until the illness manifests.

      Hence there are extreme chances that an infected person reaches a country outside of africa. Hence all outbreak regions are closed off.

      However the topic was about bringing an infected american into a hospital in america. People suddenly shout: what if the virus becomes 'airborn'?? (Panic!!oneoneeleven!)

      Sorry, that idea is simply retarded!

      If you would know anything about epidemics you would not ask all those questions, but would calm down people and explain to them what the fundamental differences between Ebola and Flu viruses are!

      --
      Cost free eBook I read (by iBook/Kobo/Amazon/ObookO/Gutenberg etc.): "The Green Odyssey" by Philip Jose Farmer.
    38. Re:keep calm everyone.... by Reziac · · Score: 1

      https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...

      Since it's already happened in one form, it's not only not far-fetched, it's more likely than not, and we can't say what its effects would be (perhaps benign, perhaps even more lethal). So, yeah, by all means keep the damn thing contained as best we can.

      This game video done by a friend is interesting from a modern-vectors standpoint:
      https://www.youtube.com/watch?...

      --
      ~REZ~ #43301. Who'd fake being me anyway?
    39. Re:keep calm everyone.... by Reziac · · Score: 1

      Same principle applied to the Newcastle outbreak on chicken farms (mostly small producers) a few years ago. Inspectors dashed madly from farm to farm checking for infected chickens, spreading the virus as they went. Smart farmers locked the gate (the inspection was voluntary) and saved their chickens. (Smarter ones vaccinated, but I don't know how good the vaccine is. Tho it's useful for treating distemper in dogs.)

      --
      ~REZ~ #43301. Who'd fake being me anyway?
    40. Re: keep calm everyone.... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      If you are going to be rude, please at least also be right. As an immunologist and microbiologist, I can tell you that both flu and Ebola have a complex layer of lipid and protein surrounding their genomes. As a biologist, I have also gained great respect for the power of evolution to alter the behavior of organisms. The larger the number of infected hosts, the more possibility for adaptation to occur. "Going airborn" is a bit fear mongery, but it is not outside the realm of possibility.
      On a different note, I don't appreciate you claiming my field is not rocket science, and then getting the basics wrong. Life forms are much more complex than rockets. Show them the respect they deserve.

    41. Re:keep calm everyone.... by will_die · · Score: 1

      Also researches in Canada, USA and Russia have found forms, in labs, of air borne ebola.

    42. Re:keep calm everyone.... by LienRag · · Score: 1

      Well, TL;DR Wikipedia explained it better than you did, but you both may have failed to take a new factor into account...
      From MSF claims it appears that local population have begun to consider that prophylactic measures are what causes Ebola, and so forbid medical teams to enter their villages.
      Considering that in the whole rainforest africa, at the core of social regulations and relations are witchcraft and poison (witchcraft for the theory, the social conception of causality, poison for the actual means of action), these beliefs are here to stay, especially in the countries where there were nearly no development and where the educational system have been destroyed - not counting a horrible civil war in Liberia and Sierra Leone.
      Without prophylaxy and with the local way of life, Ebola is here to stay: it's becoming endemic. And once it reaches the big cities's slums, it probably will not only stay but thrive.
      So, yes, it is now a very big health concern, even if as you said it wasn't before.

  13. Re:who? by linearZ · · Score: 2

    The same bunch, who profited massively from selling "flu vaccines" by stirring up a flu panic.

    Still waiting for that Ebola vaccine....

    This is nonsense. The WHO doesn't sell flu vaccines. It does purchase and distribute vaccines to places that can't afford them. Long live rock.

    Ebola is real if you live in one of the countries in Africa that has and Ebola outbreak. But for most of the rest of the world, "Worldwide Outbreak" sounds a bit like hyperbole. More like "Continent Wide Outbreak". But it is the WHO, not the CHO, so you get what you get.

    --
    Revolution is the opium of the intellectuals.
  14. Re:who? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Why would Ebola stop at the border of a country or that of a continent ? Please explain.

  15. E-bola by goombah99 · · Score: 4, Funny

    E-bola is so 1990. it should get with the times and be called iBola. Then everyone would wait in line to get it.

    --
    Some drink at the fountain of knowledge. Others just gargle.
    1. Re:E-bola by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      No wonder it's not very popular. It only has an installed user base of 1800. Netcraft says E-bola is dieing, and Micheal Dell says if he had it he'd liquidate.

    2. Re:E-bola by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Mean while in a secret microsft think tank they are plotting how to embrace and extend ebola

  16. Well, who would announce it? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    The article doesn't say.

  17. that's just stupid by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

    It seems you get your information about preppers from reality TV shows. The actual reality is much different. Take some time to read prepper blogs, they are all about community and tribe.

    1. Re:that's just stupid by i+kan+reed · · Score: 1

      Grade C Bullshit.

      I know it's a section on wikipedia but you can see the naive individualism oozing off almost, but not quite, every term.

    2. Re:that's just stupid by rubycodez · · Score: 1

      You are the one spewing BS. Read some actually preparedness forums, very different than the stereotypes between your ears.

    3. Re:that's just stupid by i+kan+reed · · Score: 1

      No, they're pretty much exactly as described. But thanks for making me waste time and suffer the posts of delusional idiots.

    4. Re:that's just stupid by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Try knowing some of the people that run and moderate those forums. They are mostly high school dropouts with very little actual skill in doing anything worthwhile, hence they are prepared to rob the weak when the shit goes down.

  18. Plague, Inc. by DoofusOfDeath · · Score: 5, Funny

    Am I the only one who views these things differently after playing a few hours of Plague, Inc?

    1. Re:Plague, Inc. by EmagGeek · · Score: 1

      No, you're not :)

      I've been addicted to that game for a long time. My favorite strategy is to do whatever it takes to keep the disease from producing symptoms, even at a great upfront cost. The key is to let it spread as far as possible before it mutates symptoms.

      Fun fun fun!

    2. Re:Plague, Inc. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Nope, you aren't the only one lol.

  19. Global Emergency? But What Color Code? by mtrachtenberg · · Score: 0, Flamebait

    The WHO has declared an emergency? Well, that's fine, but let's do it the Murkan way. Would you prefer "Hot Pink," "Schoolbus Yellow," or "Fire Engine Red." We badly need for our top world leaders to work out the colors for our color code. What are these world leaders wasting their time on, if we don't have color-coded posters for airports?

  20. PHEIC sounds like? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    An unfortunate acronym?
    I know someone who died of Ebola in the 90s, she was a nurse in South Africa, and it was quick, and tragic for her loved ones. Keep your immune system strong and avoid large gatherings until there's more information.

    1. Re: PHEIC sounds like? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Avoid large gatherings?

      Maybe we can turn this whole thing into a net positive by shutting down all organized spectator sports.

    2. Re:PHEIC sounds like? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Ebola is ultimately no worse than AIDS, and spreads by much the same vectors. There actually is an AIDS epidemic, so the things you're doing to not get AIDS will pretty much cover you here. Places in the world that have real problems with AIDS are places like West Africa, where ... oh, surprise.

    3. Re:PHEIC sounds like? by ddtmm · · Score: 2

      yes, unfortunate. This has now become now a PHEICal matter.

    4. Re: PHEIC sounds like? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Better yet -- maybe we should ban those idiotic conventions where geeks dress up like characters from comic books.

  21. It has nothing to do with Obama ... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    ... but it has everything to do with people eating bats

    The ebola virus was already inside the bats body and the bats were doing what they do, fly out of the caves to find food

    And them people just can't wait to catch the bats to eat ... and get infected with ebola, which infected more people around them, and so on ...

    If they would just stop eating those bats, the ebola will not have spread to the humans

    Incidentally the SARS virus which killed many some years ago was started when people eating a type of wild squirrel

    I do not know why people in this age still want to eat "wild thing" --- it is not that we do not have enough food to eat (at least West Africa and Asia are not facing wide spread famine at the moment), why the hell those people just can't leave the wildlife alone ??

    Why ?

    1. Re:It has nothing to do with Obama ... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      Perhaps their local Wal*Mart was out of farm raised, GMO-free bats.

  22. Re:Global Emergency? But What Color Code? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Trollish moron.

  23. Rigged statistics. by goombah99 · · Score: 3, Interesting

    more people die in 1 month from the flu in africa (over 5 K from the last article i saw ) than they die from ebola last year.

    But those people dieing of of the flue are often compromised in some other way, such as old age or malnutrition.

    you might as well say that more people in africa die of old age every day than all ebola deaths combined.

    The reason people fear ebola is that unlike old age, it spreads and attacks the healthy.

    Unless you are literally playing in a sick persons bodily fluids, the risk is almost 0

    the exact same exaggeration is true of flu. You catch flu by being in close proximity to someone with the flu or some a vector that can temporarily support the flu's transmission, just like ebola.

    --
    Some drink at the fountain of knowledge. Others just gargle.
    1. Re:Rigged statistics. by Maxo-Texas · · Score: 3, Interesting

      I think it's more about the fatality rate. 50-90% vs 2-3% for really virulent flu like in 2009.

      Even the spanish flu was about 15%.

      Plus choking isn't nearly as dramatic as bleeding blood out of every orafice and even the skin.

      --
      She was like chocolate when she drank... semi-sweet at first and then increasingly bitter.
    2. Re: Rigged statistics. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Bleeding what you say?

    3. Re:Rigged statistics. by Daetrin · · Score: 2

      I'm certainly not an epidemiologist, but i'm pretty sure there are fairly strong selective pressures for viruses and bacteria to become less deadly as they spread. In fact there is _some_ evidence that this is already taking place.

      As you say, the death rate is normally between 50 and 90%, but obviously that's comparing different outbreaks, not an average of all infections from Ebola ever. Some past outbreaks have been at the 90% rate but current reports seem to indicate that the death rate for this outbreak is around 60%. It doesn't seem to me that that's a coincidence. Killing anyone you infect quickly and bloodily is not a great long term survival strategy. If a disease kills 90% of the people it infects in a week and there's a mutation that only kills 80% of the people and takes two weeks, that mutation is going to spread a lot more effectively.

      To speak in an anthropomorphic way, every disease "wants" to become the next common cold or flu. Almost everyone catches it sooner or later, but very few of the hosts die statistically speaking.

      --
      This Space Intentionally Left Blank
  24. You can help out by AndrewBuck · · Score: 4, Interesting

    The Humanitarian OpenStreetMap Team (HOT) has been working with WHO, MSF, and Red Cross since the outbreak began in march to map roads and villages in the affected areas. These maps are used by medical teams to move people, medicine, and equipment around, as well as to do "contact tracing" of infected people to see who they might also have infected. The maps are crowdsourced and released under a copyleft license like wikipedia uses. If you want to help out you can check out a task to work on on the HOT task manager and help improve the maps these organizations are using to do their work. There are some instructional videos on the MapGive site run by the US State Department which has donated a bunch of imagery for us to better map the affected areas.

    Please take some time to learn how to help with this mapping and help these doctors do what they need to do.

    -AndrewBuck

    1. Re:You can help out by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Be sure to learn the definition of "road" and how ambiguous it becomes when you talk about villages, especially in third world countries.

    2. Re:You can help out by AndrewBuck · · Score: 4, Insightful

      We actually have a wiki page about that exact issue. We have worked on this quite a bit to work out the best way to tag the roads in Africa to handle the huge variety of what they have there. It really makes you appreciate the infrastructure that the developed world has when you see how difficult it would be to travel in these parts of the world.

      -AndrewBuck

    3. Re:You can help out by Bob+the+Super+Hamste · · Score: 2

      Thanks I will have to check that out, and probably dump a large number of hours into it. At least now I can put my OCDness with maps to good use instead of just mapping way too much of my home town, and trails in northern Minnesota.

      --
      Time to offend someone
    4. Re:You can help out by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      That's exactly what I meant. I don't live in a third world country, but I have lived in the "country" and I know what people call roads and it makes simple things, like calling an ambulance a very complex and sometimes dangerous operation.

  25. Why is everything gotta do with Israel ? by Taco+Cowboy · · Score: 4, Insightful

    If you think Israel is evil, okay, that's what you think, but please, this is /., not some Hamas fanboi club

    You wanna talk about Ebola, talk about Ebola. Why the need to drag Israel into this discussion ??

    --
    Muchas Gracias, Señor Edward Snowden !
    1. Re:Why is everything gotta do with Israel ? by Joey+Vegetables · · Score: 0

      So anyone not approving of the state of Israel shelling civilians is automatically a "Hamas fanboi"? That is the classic example of the fallacy of the excluded middle. People with any sense of compassion tend to be appalled at the suffering of innocent people regardless of their ethnicity, and people with any sense of history know that neither side is exclusively to blame.

      --

      Nonaggression works!
  26. Re:who? by i+kan+reed · · Score: 2

    Which is why you're not on a computer right now, but instead trying to secure a future by nakedly chasing down a cow and killing it with your bare hands.

  27. This is why by mdsolar · · Score: 1

    slashdot makes sense.

  28. What good timing by EmagGeek · · Score: 1

    The WHO's timing is impeccable. 5:15 on the dot.

    1. Re:What good timing by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      The ushers are sniffing.

  29. abbott and costello by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Who declared Ebola an epidemic.
    Who declared Ebola an epidemic?
    Exactly!

  30. continutity error, plz correct by Thud457 · · Score: 1

    Why not both?

    --

    the preceding comment is my own and in no way reflects the opinion of the Joint Chiefs of Staff

  31. Re:who? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Couldn't get through customs?

  32. Re:One Stone, Many Birds by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    yeah like new york, washington, and los angeles

    THAT Would really help humanity

  33. What's on first? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Wheres second.

  34. Re:One Stone, Many Birds by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    You're obviously a sociopath, possible a psychopath. It might be better if you kept your hate to yourself so as to not announce what you are or make the world a worse place by spreading your insanity to weak minded people.

  35. Re:who? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    What is the name of the organization that the clear pandemic

    WHO!

    I DON'T KNOW

    Third-base

  36. WHO declares first.... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Funny

    Abbott: You have a disease outbreak in Africa.
    Costello: Then WHO declares it?
    Abbott: Naturally.
    Costello: Naturally.
    Abbott: Now you've got it.
    Costello: The outbreak is declared Naturally.
    Abbott: No, it is declared by Who!
    Costello: Naturally.
    Abbott: Well, that's it—say it that way.
    Costello: That's what I said.
    Abbott: You did not.

  37. Surprised no one has mentioned it... by scubamage · · Score: 1, Funny

    Madagascar has closed their ports.

    1. Re:Surprised no one has mentioned it... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Thank goodness. I really loved those animal scamps in the movies.

  38. Re:One Stone, Many Birds by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Wow, you sound like a candidate for extermination.

    Maybe we should round up you and your family and conduct some plague tests on you?

    God, what a pathetic asshole you are.

    I sincerely hope you have the opportunity to have a good chunk of your family wiped out by an infectious disease, couldn't happen to a nicer piece of shit.

  39. Re:who? by gstoddart · · Score: 4, Funny

    but instead trying to secure a future by nakedly chasing down a cow

    The judge said I wasn't allowed to do that anymore.

    Wait, what? Oh, never mind, forget I said anything.

    --
    Lost at C:>. Found at C.
  40. Actually... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    Heres a genetic study demonstrating the feasibility of mutation. It's targeted at catastrophic social collapse, and I think it's highly appropriate for this discussion. http://tinyurl.com/4ckyxw

  41. Another pandemic? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    So will a U.S based medical company whip up and sell some "cure" or "vaccine" this time around again, like they did for the H1N1 "pandemic"?

  42. Doom and Gloom by DarthVain · · Score: 1

    Sure more people might get the Flu and die, but they would eventually die from what? Dehydration? Suffocation?

    It isn't quite the same as getting the "Flesh Eating" disease having your tissue go necrotic and dying from either the above, organ failure or bleeding out due to lack of clotting. It also looks a hell of a lot scarier in the media.

    So yeah, while the numbers are not really there, any increase, even small increase compared to others, are taken as more alarming.

    You probably have a better chance of dying of getting hit by lighting while winning the lottery, but if the alternative is gruesome enough, it will be a big concern to folks.

    As has been pointed out, one of the problems Ebola has with becoming a horribly infectious disease is that it isn't airborne, it isn't likely (or possible) to mutate to become so, and because the death rate is so high (which is one of the scary parts), it is hard to transmit, as people tend to die before they can pass it on to anyone else. It is also only communicable once symptoms are showing, meaning it is more easily identifiable as well.

    1. Re:Doom and Gloom by Maxo-Texas · · Score: 1

      I wonder if a more dangerous vector would be a mutation that allowed it to have other carrier species. Something is carrying it now without dying. If some bird species got it without dying that could turn ugly.

      --
      She was like chocolate when she drank... semi-sweet at first and then increasingly bitter.
  43. Madagascar by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    This makes me want to move to Madagascar before they lock down their borders.

    1. Re:Madagascar by DoofusOfDeath · · Score: 2

      This makes me want to move to Madagascar before they lock down their borders.

      Screw that. I'm going to Greenland, and dreaming of large women.

    2. Re:Madagascar by Barny · · Score: 1

      Both their borders just closed, you are too late.

      --
      ...
      /me sighs
    3. Re:Madagascar by DoofusOfDeath · · Score: 1

      Yea, but if thou dost upgrade birds + rats + sheep to their second levels, another tile appears in between all of them (I forget what it's called).

      Anyway, that tile will occasionally lead to spontaneous animal-to-human infections, which gives you another crack at Greenland. At least with bacteria, iirc.

  44. Re: WHERE IS N844AA ? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    They're not being "cured" with any super-secret vaccine. There IS no cure for Ebola. It has to run its course, and having the very best medical care helps the patients to not succumb to its effects. If they survive long enough, they'll eventually get better, but they have to be kept alive in the meantime.

  45. Dr. Who? by excelsior_gr · · Score: 1

    Why are you calling him a WHO? I thought he was just "the doctor".

  46. Hmmm. by Bengie · · Score: 1

    It'll either die out as it kills too many people too quickly, or it is becoming less lethal.

  47. Re:who? by Belial6 · · Score: 1

    Well, until the US starts shipping actively infected individuals to densely populated cities inside the US. You know like what is happening now.

  48. Actual Data by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Informative

    For people who want to base opinions/conclusions on actual data, here's one chart of the progression trend as of Aug 8, tracked since beginning of July (data taken directly from WHO):

    http://bl.ocks.org/santanubasu/aa75ada045560ec4f4c8

    Time to move to Prepperville, USA? Not really.
    Global epidemic? Not at this point.
    Getting worse? Yup.
    Tapering off? Maybe, but the most recent data tends to get revised.

    So maybe this will get much worse, maybe it will peter out. Either way, whoever looks at the data will have the best take on what's really happening.

  49. Re: WHERE IS N844AA ? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    wow. I don't even.

    Investigational TKM-Ebola Therapeutic

    But I'm pretty sure whatever the CDC is pumping into those poor people is made up a ground thetans and deadly orgone radiation. Not Hido Takahashi's best work.

  50. Re:WHO Declares Ebola Outbreak An International Em by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    ... after latest research showed that it could affect white folks as well.

    Nigga PLEASE !

    We WANT the white devils to be infected so those of us with natural immunity can
    take over the world. Or at least so we can get free fried chicken.

  51. Re:Global Emergency? But What Color Code? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    But a Funny Murkan Trollish Moron.

  52. Re:Plague Inc by Barny · · Score: 1

    Too late, they closed their borders and... there goes Madagascar too.

    --
    ...
    /me sighs
  53. Prepping: Buy a big bottle of vitamin C? by Paul+Fernhout · · Score: 1

    Related suggestion: http://vitamincfoundation.org/...
    More: https://www.google.com/search?...
    And in connection with scurvy: https://www.google.com/search?...

    Would be good to have better software tools to try to make sense of all this often-conflicting health information...

    --
    A 21st century issue: the irony of technologies of abundance in the hands of those still thinking in terms of scarcity.
  54. The WHO by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    ....always reminds me of Horatio Cane!

  55. Re:who? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    No sir! I pay people to prepare what I need for me. And healthy happy peppy people with spunk (no wait, I hate spunk) are productive people. That's life in the big city.

  56. American Business For Sale by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Americans Number 1 Businesses For Sale, Connects The Buyer, Seller, Broker, Lender, and Franchise to Buy, Sell a Business On Bizworldusa.com.

  57. Fear Mongering by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    History repeats too often and too quickly, you guys need to read between the lines.

    Ebola is being used to distract the people from more important issues.