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How Nigeria Stopped Ebola
HughPickens.com writes Pamela Engel writes that Americans need only look to Nigeria to calm their fears about an Ebola outbreak in the US. Nigeria is much closer to the West Africa outbreak than the US is, yet even after Ebola entered the country in the most terrifying way possible — via a visibly sick passenger on a commercial flight — officials successfully shut down the disease and prevented widespread transmission. If there are still no new cases on October 20, the World Health Organization will officially declare the country "Ebola-free." Here's how Nigeria did it.
The first person to bring Ebola to Nigeria was Patrick Sawyer, who left a hospital in Liberia against the wishes of the medical staff and flew to Nigeria. Once Sawyer arrived, it became obvious that he was ill when he passed out in the Lagos airport, and he was taken to a hospital in the densely packed city of 20 million. Once the country's first Ebola case was confirmed, Port Health Services in Nigeria started a process called contact tracing to limit the spread of the disease and created an emergency operations center to coordinate and oversee the national response. Health officials used a variety of resources, including phone records and flight manifests, to track down nearly 900 people who might have been exposed to the virus via Sawyer or the people he infected. As soon as people developed symptoms suggestive of Ebola, they were isolated in Ebola treatment facilities. Without waiting to see whether a "suspected" case tested positive, Nigeria's contact tracing team tracked down everyone who had had contact with that patient since the onset of symptoms making a staggering 18,500 face-to-face visits.
The US has many of these same procedures in place for containing Ebola, making the risk of an outbreak here very low. Contact tracing is exactly what is happening in Dallas right now; if any one of Thomas Eric Duncan's contacts shows symptoms, that person will be immediately isolated and tested. "That experience shows us that even in the case in Nigeria, when we found out later in the timeline that this patient had Ebola, that Nigeria was able to identify contacts, institute strict infection control procedures and basically bring their outbreak to a close," says Dr. Tom Inglesby. "They did a good job in and of themselves. They worked closely with the U.S. CDC. If we can succeed in Nigeria I do believe we will stop it here."
The first person to bring Ebola to Nigeria was Patrick Sawyer, who left a hospital in Liberia against the wishes of the medical staff and flew to Nigeria. Once Sawyer arrived, it became obvious that he was ill when he passed out in the Lagos airport, and he was taken to a hospital in the densely packed city of 20 million. Once the country's first Ebola case was confirmed, Port Health Services in Nigeria started a process called contact tracing to limit the spread of the disease and created an emergency operations center to coordinate and oversee the national response. Health officials used a variety of resources, including phone records and flight manifests, to track down nearly 900 people who might have been exposed to the virus via Sawyer or the people he infected. As soon as people developed symptoms suggestive of Ebola, they were isolated in Ebola treatment facilities. Without waiting to see whether a "suspected" case tested positive, Nigeria's contact tracing team tracked down everyone who had had contact with that patient since the onset of symptoms making a staggering 18,500 face-to-face visits.
The US has many of these same procedures in place for containing Ebola, making the risk of an outbreak here very low. Contact tracing is exactly what is happening in Dallas right now; if any one of Thomas Eric Duncan's contacts shows symptoms, that person will be immediately isolated and tested. "That experience shows us that even in the case in Nigeria, when we found out later in the timeline that this patient had Ebola, that Nigeria was able to identify contacts, institute strict infection control procedures and basically bring their outbreak to a close," says Dr. Tom Inglesby. "They did a good job in and of themselves. They worked closely with the U.S. CDC. If we can succeed in Nigeria I do believe we will stop it here."
But it's not just one case, it's 19, all of whom appear to have been prevented from spreading the disease to the wider population.
Just wait. W. African countries have been dealing with it for many months and only recently has the number risen high enough to make significance. Chances are Nigeria will be stricken too, the infection rate isn't slowing down in the other countries . The number of infections doubles every 16 days in Guinea, every 24 days in Liberia, and every 30 days in Sierra Leone.
http://www.forbes.com/sites/jvchamary/2014/10/13/ebola-trends/
The difference is that you can live with an HIV infection nowadays provided you are treated early and continuously, whereas there is a 50-90% chance of dying from Ebola.
This disease can spread from surface contact with contaminated fluids (which Ebola victims tend to leak profusely). Indoors, even dried fluids can remain infectious for hours. All it takes is to touch the fluids and then touch your eyes or mouth (which you do all the time) Something like the NYC subway provides very good conditions for spread, once the first sick people take a few trips
Stop spreading FUD.
You cannot get it that way.
Saliva does not count. You need to ingest Blood/Vomit to catch it.
By the time they are sick enough to be leaking that stuff, they would be in the hospital in this country.
In Africa they are much more used to going about their day while deathly ill. That's the problem.
The only people truly at risk in this country are Healthcare workers.
Yes, you absolutely can get it that way.
From the CDC:
"blood or body fluids (including but not limited to urine, saliva, sweat, feces, vomit, breast milk, and semen) of a person who is sick with Ebola
objects (like needles and syringes) that have been contaminated with the virus
infected animals
Ebola is not spread through the air or by water, or in general, by food. However, in Africa, Ebola may be spread as a result of handling bushmeat (wild animals hunted for food) and contact with infected bats. There is no evidence that mosquitos or other insects can transmit Ebola virus. Only mammals (for example, humans, bats, monkeys, and apes) have shown the ability to become infected with and spread Ebola virus"
The problem in Africa is any fold. People lying and saying the people their to help are causing it. People spreading rumors that the people their to help are harvesting organs, The tradition of kissing the dead, the habit of not going to the doctor. Africans being target by peddlers of SCAMSs(Supplement, Complementary, Alternative Medicines). All of that is possible with exceedingly high levels of illiteracy, and a high belief in woo.
The Kruger Dunning explains most post on
The Texas case just exposes (again) the fallacy that the US has the best healthcare in the world.
This hospital made too many amateur mistakes to count:
- Sent the guy home with antibiotics when he presented with a fever after travel to Ebola infected area.
- Did not institute full isolation protocol until three days after he was admitted (thus exposing nurses and other patients to the disease).
- Did not follow CDC protocol even after confirmed Ebola.
I don't read your sig. Why are you reading mine?