The ebola panic

[sophie]

For Gods sake people this is America not freaking Gabon! It's not airborne, it's not a zombie virus and you cant catch it from looking at someone.

It's spreads like that in Africa because it's not sanitary there. The health care workers are out of PPE most of the time, people touch dead bodies with their bare hands and hand washing is rare.

The 90% fatality rate is if it's untreated basically you have a 90% chance of dying if you're on your own in the Congo not in a hospital in a first world country.

People are not dying in the streets in Dallas thats just the fear mongering media trying to get people to click on a link. Ebolas been here since JULY!

Wash your hands and dont touch bodily fluids and you'll be fine. Use common sense and stop using science fiction as examples.

[HYHYBT]

A 55% death rate when treated is scary enough.

[sophie]

The 55% is in field hospitals, which considering the conditions is fairly good. In a real hospital the rate would be less than 25%, one young woman nursed her mother,father and sister back to health on her own.

But I'm from Africa I'm used to this crap.

[TheHuckster]

Ebola spreads through bodily fluids, specifically a bodily-fluid-to-oral route. This makes one think "just how could someone catch something like that so easily?"

Well, norovirus, also known as stomach flu, is spread via the fecal-oral route, and have spread like wildfire in schools and cruise ships.

The average American, and indeed the average American from Dallas shouldn't be panicking yet... but that doesn't mean professionals should let their guard down. We absolutely need to quarantine anyone who has the illness to prevent it from spreading into something that we do really need to worry about.

The 55% is in field hospitals, which considering the conditions is fairly good. In a real hospital the rate would be less than 25%, one young woman nursed her mother,father and sister back to health on her own.

Well, if it's easy for you to be comfortable with taking 1 out of 4 odds of dying if you get the disease, don't expect others to.

[sophie]

I'm not saying it's not a big deal. But people are losing their minds over it. Reddit is overreaction city right now. They just need to realize this isnt the Congo the conditions are different.

I'm not comfortable with a 1in4 risk but it's not 90% and spreading misinformation does damage like a person here that drank bleach to attempt to kill an infection she didn't even have.

When I say I'm used to this crap, I mean I used to taking precautions, like ironing your underwear to prevent larvae in your skin and things most people wouldn't think of.

[sophie]

And good news:

Lamivudine,HIV drug, can cure patients in as little as 2 days if given before the 5th day of symptoms.

[Greenday]

Ebola spreads through bodily fluids, specifically a bodily-fluid-to-oral route. This makes one think "just how could someone catch something like that so easily?"

Quite easily. People touch their faces TONS throughout the entire day.

Also, this is the first time I've seen someone use the acronym PPE outside of work. Awesome.

[TheHuckster]

Quite easily. People touch their faces TONS throughout the entire day.

At first I thought you wrote feces.

After rereading this, I feel much relieved.

But, yes, this is among the most common transmission methods for illnesses that are very common place, including flu, which people often associate with "airborne" transmission.

[AccountingDrone]

Hm, let me see ... the dude was sprung from the hospital for 2 days before someone noticed he might have ebola. When he left the house to go to the hospital he was vomiting inside and outside the house. And now the family has police stationed outside their apartment to forcibly keep them under quarantine because they willfully broke quarantine ...

Remind me again how safe the locals to that hospital and jackass are again?

[BlaqueKatt]

Remind me again how safe the locals to that hospital and jackass are again?

this covers why the health people aren't panicking-the R-naught is similar to that of HepC.

how contagious is ebola?

[D_Yeti_Esquire]

The problem with that graphic is it suggest that something that (ok, let's give Western medicine the benefit of the doubt and guess a 30% instead of 55% fatality rate) is that fatal is more communicable than Hep C which most people have heard about.

Ebola has three things that freak people the hell out. It incubates over a long period meaning it can get around easily. It has the ability to hang around in necrotic tissue for a really, really, really long time. And people don't know the victims until it's confirmed. So there really isn't much of a defense unless you're going to go around in a bubble suit until it all passes over.

I have a problem with both sides honestly. No, Ebola probably won't smash through North America like a freight train, but it is legitimate to be concerned that world governments are capable of containing something this potentially fatal when they've been unwilling thus far to really get involved in the areas where this is a problem until recently. Because of that, Dallas and DC (potentially) were only a matter of time.

[AccountingDrone]

this covers why the health people aren't panicking-the R-naught is similar to that of HepC.

how contagious is ebola?

Honestly? If I were a resident of that complex where he *vomited* in the parking lot and it sat uncleaned up for several days, I would be walking into the nearest hotel, telling then I had been exposed to Ebola infected biowaste products, demanding internal to the hospital quarentine and charging the cost to both the hospital that neglected to hold onto the jackass, and the local health department for dropping the ball, and then for good measure I would charge the asshole and the co-residents of his apartment with assault. He is *worse* than Typhoid Mary, in her defense the germ theory hadn't caught up with common education and she was the first asymptomatic illness that was deadly and contagious and they had no real education in the issue, they currently KNOW that people are contagious even if they are not expressing the disease directly however the asshole VOMITED IN THE PARKING LOT, shall I repeat myself? HE VOMITED IN THE PARKING LOT AND IT WAS NOT CLEANED UP. How does one get exposed to ebola? Through contact with biowaste products. What is vomit? Biowaste product. So, hwo many people were actually exposed to VOMIT IN THE PARKING LOT?

[HYHYBT]

Well, that depends. How many people, on seeing vomit on the ground, are going to touch it?

[crashhelmet]

Honestly? If I were a resident of that complex where he *vomited* in the parking lot and it sat uncleaned up for several days, I would be walking into the nearest hotel, telling then I had been exposed to Ebola infected biowaste products, demanding internal to the hospital quarentine and charging the cost to both the hospital that neglected to hold onto the jackass, and the local health department for dropping the ball, and then for good measure I would charge the asshole and the co-residents of his apartment with assault. He is *worse* than Typhoid Mary, in her defense the germ theory hadn't caught up with common education and she was the first asymptomatic illness that was deadly and contagious and they had no real education in the issue, they currently KNOW that people are contagious even if they are not expressing the disease directly however the asshole VOMITED IN THE PARKING LOT, shall I repeat myself? HE VOMITED IN THE PARKING LOT AND IT WAS NOT CLEANED UP. How does one get exposed to ebola? Through contact with biowaste products. What is vomit? Biowaste product. So, hwo many people were actually exposed to VOMIT IN THE PARKING LOT?

You said it yourself. One must make contact with the infected substance to be at risk of catching it.From there, you'll need to get it into your system somehow. Either through your blood, stomach, or mucous membranes. Simply seeing the puke, or even standing/walking by it, will not cause infection.

[tabbyblack13]

He apparently told the hospital that he had been in a country with Ebola but no one in the hospital made any connection . He also lied on his airport survey by stating that he hadn't been in contact with anyone that had Ebola. He helped a woman to the hospital that later died of Ebola.

If you don't have contact with anyone or anything contaminated then you should be fine. Clorine beach is one of the most effective way to kill this virus and to stop the spread on objects. Even in Africa I've heard that churches are not shaking hands or doing communion. Then they wash there hands with bleach water. People are learning but there are still a lot of distrust in officials in Africa so it's harder to get people to do the right thing.