Re: Deadly Ebola Virus

[Rogue]

^^^ Yes healthworkers seem to be paying a huge price and toll in this outbreak.

Time for an Update:

Ebola virus: Liberia, Sierra Leone, Guinea, Nigeria, and Senegal’s grisly reality as virus hits West Africa
SEPTEMBER 02, 2014 4:28PM

INFECTED items are burnt, bodies are buried, schools are closed and flights are empty.

The deadly Ebola epidemic raging across Africa shows no signs of abating, with 3000 cases reported and 1500 deaths across five countries.

The World Health Organisation predicts there will be 20,000 cases and another six months before it is brought under control.

The grisly reality of Ebola’s epidemic

So far, the outbreak has hit Guinea, Liberia, Sierra Leone and Nigeria with the first case reported in Senegal this week. A suspected case in Sweden was negative.

Yesterday nurses at Liberia’s biggest hospital — the epicentre for the epidemic — went on strike to demand better pay and equipment.

The decision is in response to the fact one tenth of those who have died from the disease are health workers who haven’t been given proper protective clothing.

A spokesman for the group said they won’t return until they are given hazmat style suits to guard against the virus — which is transmitted via bodily fluids and has a fatality rate of up to 90 per cent.

“From the beginning of the Ebola outbreak we have not had any protective equipment to work with. As result, so many doctors got infected by the virus. We have to stay home until we get the PPEs,” John Tugbeh said.

Infected people are left to die in the street, often stigmatised by the disease. Liberia has denied permission for crews to embark from seaports into the country until the outbreak is under control.

A prolonged shutdown will seriously affect the country’s ability to respond to the disease.

But Mr Tugbeh said in order to risk their lives, the nurses need proper equipment and pay.

Efforts to prevent the disease have focused on hygiene and educating people about how it spreads.

The epidemic has affected all facets of life across Africa since it reportedly started with a 2-year-old child in Guinea.

In Liberia, civil servants and non-essential workers have been ordered to stay home for a second month to stop the virus spreading.

A large slum was locked down in a 10-day quarantine which affected 75,000 people. Schools are also closed.
Thousands celebrate after their slum was released from lockdown.

Thousands celebrate after their slum was released from lockdown. Being confined meant many people didn’t have access to food or freshwater.

Sports trips have been cancelled while Ivory Coast has been warned it will be expelled from the African Cup of Nations if they don’t host Sierra Leone in a qualifying match. The country has refused entry to players from the Ebola hit country.

Saudi Arabia has stopped granting visas to workers from Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone and airlines have cancelled international flights to the region.

Meanwhile scientists are racing for a cure and it’s a case of act first, think later when it comes to drugs that could be used to fight it.

One drug that has been used with success is ZMapp, taken by two US missionary workers who contracted the disease while working in West Africa and were flown to the US to recover.

Last week, scientists reported 18 monkeys infected with a different strain of Ebola and given the drug recovered, although it hasn’t been officially determined safe for human use.

Despite this, all available stocks have been shipped to Africa. But even if it does work, the process of growing it on tobacco leaves is slow, and there is little hope enough can be made in time.

The supply of the one drug that has proven effective has been exhausted. Tobacco plants grow to create the ZMapp drug. Meanwhile other vaccine candidates are in trail phase.

Japanese company Fujifilm is also trying to help. It has been producing flu drug Avigan which scientists think could help combat Ebola.

So far, the two American doctors who received treatment in the US have recovered while another Liberian doctor and a Spanish priest have died. Another two medical staff have been flown to London and are still being treated.

Airports around the world remain on high alert for sick travellers with signs of the disease.

In Africa, members of the World Health Organisation have been asked to avoid large gathering that could facilitate the spread of the disease.

For most people, there is nothing do to but wait.
http://www.news.com.au/lifestyle/real-life/ebola-virus-liberia-sierra-leone-guinea-nigeria-and-senegals-grisly-reality-as-virus-hits-west-africa/story-fnixwvgh-1227045245820

[Rockhopper]

Ebola Mutating...

By comparing their data to the Guinean sequence data, Goba's team confirmed that Ebola was probably imported to Sierra Leone by 12 people who attended the funeral in Guinea, and that the West African outbreak originated in a single event in which the virus passed from an animal into a person. Further comparisons suggest that the virus that caused the outbreak separated from those that caused past Ebola outbreaks about 10 years ago. It had accumulated more than 395 mutations between that time and June, when the researchers collected the last samples included in today's analysis.

The virus amassed 50 mutations during its first month, the researchers found. They say there is no sign that any of these mutations have contributed to the unprecedented size of the outbreak by changing the characteristics of the Ebola virus — for instance, its ability to spread from person to person or to kill infected patients. But others are eager to examine these questions.

From Here.

Tim.

[Lenzabi]

Yes, when the village of Ebola (where the first recorded outbreak gave the name), it was 100% lethal, a few years later on, it was 80% lethal, now it is 70% lethal, which means it is learning how to move around better by lessening it's lethality, so hosts can move around more and spread it.

[Mordae]

http://theeconomiccollapseblog.com/archives/16-apocalyptic-quotes-from-global-health-officials-about-this-horrific-ebola-epidemic

#1 Dr. Tom Frieden, the Director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention: "It is the world’s first Ebola epidemic, and it’s spiraling out of control. It’s bad now, and it’s going to get worse in the very near future. There is still a window of opportunity to tamp it down, but that window is closing. We really have to act now."

#2 Dr. Joanne Liu, the international president of Doctors Without Borders: "Riots are breaking out. Isolation centres are overwhelmed. Health workers on the frontline are becoming infected and are dying in shocking numbers."

#3 David Nabarro, senior United Nations system coordinator for Ebola disease: "This outbreak is moving ahead of efforts to control it."

#4 Dr. Bruce Aylward, WHO's assistant director-general for emergency operations: "This far outstrips any historic Ebola outbreak in numbers. The largest outbreak in the past was about 400 cases."

#5 Margaret Chan, the head of the World Health Organization: "...we hope to stop the transmission in six to nine months".

#6 Dr. Daniel Bausch, associate professor in the department of Tropical Medicine at Tulane University: "You have a very dangerous virus in three of the countries in the world that are least equipped to deal with it. The scale of this outbreak has just outstripped the resources. That’s why it’s become so big."

#7 Gayle Smith, senior director at the National Security Council: "This is not an African disease. This is a virus that is a threat to all humanity."

#8 Dr. Tom Frieden, the Director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention: "The level of outbreak is beyond anything we’ve seen—or even imagined."

#9 Vincent Martin, head of an FAO unit in Dakar: "This is different than every other Ebola situation we've ever had. It's spreading widely, throughout entire countries, through multiple countries, in cities and very fast."

#10 Dr. Richard Besser, health and medical editor for ABC News: "Emergency rooms are closed, many hospital wards are as well leaving people who are sick with heart disease, trauma, pregnancy complications, pneumonia, malaria and all the everyday health emergencies with nowhere to go."

#11 Bukar Tijani, the UN Food and Agricultural Organization regional representative for Africa: "Access to food has become a pressing concern for many people in the three affected countries and their neighbours."

#12 Keiji Fukuda, the WHO's assistant director-general for health security: "People are hungry in these communities. They don't know how they are going to get food."

#13 Dr. Daniel Bausch, associate professor in the department of Tropical Medicine at Tulane University: "This is for sure the worst situation I've ever seen."

#14 Dr. Tom Frieden, the Director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention: "I could not possibly overstate the need for an urgent response."

#15 Official WHO statement: "Staff at the outbreak sites see evidence that the numbers of reported cases and deaths vastly underestimate the magnitude of the outbreak."

#16 Dr. Joanne Liu, the international president of Doctors Without Borders: "It is impossible to keep up with the sheer number of infected people pouring into facilities. In Sierra Leone, infectious bodies are rotting in the streets."

[Rogue]

Oxford study predicts 15 more countries are at risk of Ebola exposure

http://theextinctionprotocol.wordpress.com/2014/09/09/oxford-study-predicts-15-more-countries-are-at-risk-of-ebola-exposure/

[Stirky]

First trials on Ebola vaccine start today in the UK. 60 volunteers are trailing the vaccine, with the first being vaccinated this afternoon. Not sure if I would like to trail it! But if they find a vaccine then they can put a stop on this awful disease.

[Rogue]

Okay, silly question, how will they know if it works?

[Rogue]

Okay, silly question, how will they know if it works?

[Kaere]

They'll expose the ones they vaccinated to the disease and then see if they get sick or not... take blood samples and see if the vaccinated body is battling the live virus the way it should. Those volunteers are getting paid HEAPS of cash.

[Rogue]

Really? Signing up for a death sentence.

[Kaere]

People do a lot of dodgy things when they need the cash...

[Stirky]

I used to know somebody that did medical trials, yes he got paid a lot, but he did get rather sick a few times too. I definitely wouldn't want to sign up for any of them, especially ebola. But although these people get paid and are motivated by the money, you have to admire them as without these people the would not be able to find out of the vaccines/drugs work. The volunteers do save lives, no doubt about it, and they are very brave.

[Agartha]

I also used to know this guy who used to do lots of medical trials for money, he was from Australia. When I met him he was this handsome, big, muscly lad..... a year later he was slim and a shadow of himself..... luckily he then decided to stop cause all that rubbish they were testing on him was really damaging him.

Those people that are going to try the ebola vaccine they are either desperate for cash or mad.

[Stirky]

But hopefully they will not go through it for vain and it will save lives.

The guy I new needed the money desperately too. The last time he did trails he ended up bloating up all over his body and had a really nasty infection, almost was the end of him. There was nothing of him to start with!!

[Lenzabi]

Interesting as I just starting watching "Survivors" on Netflix, different kind of disease, but similar worry in concept of the idea.

[Rogue]

[Kaere]

It's reached my city... one of the major emergency rooms was shut down this morning to deal with a "contagious blistering disease". They suspected it was ebola but have now ruled it out after tests... still!!

[Stirky]

Blimey Kaere, it certainly is scary stuff! Did they say what it was?

[Kaere]

Nope, not yet. They may not say what it is at all... I hope it's just chicken pox.

[Stirky]

Hopefully something like that

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