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WHO Declares Ebola Outbreak An International Emergency
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.
They haven't ingrained with germ theory since they were toddlers. Their funeral rites often include hand-washing and kissing the deceased.
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.
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.
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. ... 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?
That is your fear because you have no clue.
Why don't you
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.
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.
Ebola Reston is a Filovirus and it is airborne (deadly to monkeys but harmless to humans), so it's not that far fetched.