Ebola Outbreak

[BlueBearBoots]

Was looking into this a bit today and it seems the fatality ratio is 30-40% lower with this strain than with previous ones, could lessen the impact.

I read the complete opposite - but I did see this re the treatment they are giving to the 2 americans -

"Both Brantly and Writebol have been given the experimental drug ZMapp, which had not been tested on humans nor has it undergone any clinical trials.
Doctors say it's too early to tell whether ZMapp is effective.
The CDC says it's not likely the drug will become available for patients in West Africa. The product is still in an experimental stage, and the manufacturer reports that there is a very limited supply, so it cannot be purchased and is not available for general use," the CDC said.

 

[Wio Gumflapdinand]

Ebola, whilst being a terrible disease/plague - has been around for a long time.

Media scaremongerers will have you believe the end is nigh.

They'll move on eventually, onto another version of the flu again probably.

Wouldn't call 40 years a long time in the history of this planet, and the disease usually never gets outside the village it originates from...so I would say this situation is a first as for once it is thriving.... and at the moment certainly winning. If those countries which are at the frontline of this outbreak (which are fragile as it is) break in to anarchy through this all hell could break loose and this could get very bloody serious fast

 

[mcmanus]

Bloody hell. Just seen a Spanish bloke who has contracted it and has gone home the doctors looked like spacemen taking him off the plane.

They are taking it really seriously in Nigeria as well. Passengers getting off planes have a device pointed at their palm by masked airport workers that checks their temperature. Any one with a high one has to get checked out.

 

[BlueBearBoots]

Bloody hell. Just seen a Spanish bloke who has contracted it and has gone home the doctors looked like spacemen taking him off the plane.

They are taking it really seriously in Nigeria as well. Passengers getting off planes have a device pointed at their palm by masked airport workers that checks their temperature. Any one with a high one has to get checked out.

It is serious McManus, if anyone sneezes on you be afraid very afraid

 

[aguero93:20]

Bloody hell. Just seen a Spanish bloke who has contracted it and has gone home the doctors looked like spacemen taking him off the plane.

They are taking it really seriously in Nigeria as well. Passengers getting off planes have a device pointed at their palm by masked airport workers that checks their temperature. Any one with a high one has to get checked out.

It is serious McManus, if anyone sneezes on you be afraid very afraid

Just don't have any physical contact with anyone and disinfect everything that may have been touched by anyone else before you touch it. Of course, Sod's law would then dictate that you'd get hit by a bus but....

 

[stonerblue]

Little bit more serious than some of the smart arses proudly mocked at the start of the thread isn't it.

Yeah but Damocles told me not to worry so i'm not.

death toll tripled since the start of this thread.

 

[BlueBearBoots]

WHO -

"6 August 2014 -- Next week, WHO will convene medical ethicists to explore the use of experimental treatment in the ongoing Ebola outbreak in West Africa. Currently there is no registered medicine or vaccine against the virus, but there are several experimental options under development. The recent treatment of 2 health workers with experimental medicine has raised questions about whether medicine that has never been tested and shown to be safe in people should be used in the outbreak and, given the limited medicine available, if it is used, who should receive it."


Surely if you have a virus that results in almost certain death the least of your worries would be whether or not the medicine has gone through the correct testing and regulation?

I say just try everything you've got.

 

[RandomJ]

WHO -

"6 August 2014 -- Next week, WHO will convene medical ethicists to explore the use of experimental treatment in the ongoing Ebola outbreak in West Africa. Currently there is no registered medicine or vaccine against the virus, but there are several experimental options under development. The recent treatment of 2 health workers with experimental medicine has raised questions about whether medicine that has never been tested and shown to be safe in people should be used in the outbreak and, given the limited medicine available, if it is used, who should receive it."


Surely if you have a virus that results in almost certain death the least of your worries would be whether or not the medicine has gone through the correct testing and regulation?

I say just try everything you've got.

There's a reason medicines need to be tested. For all they know this cure could mutate the virus making it able to be spread through the air making things a million times worse.

 

[BlueBearBoots]

WHO -

"6 August 2014 -- Next week, WHO will convene medical ethicists to explore the use of experimental treatment in the ongoing Ebola outbreak in West Africa. Currently there is no registered medicine or vaccine against the virus, but there are several experimental options under development. The recent treatment of 2 health workers with experimental medicine has raised questions about whether medicine that has never been tested and shown to be safe in people should be used in the outbreak and, given the limited medicine available, if it is used, who should receive it."


Surely if you have a virus that results in almost certain death the least of your worries would be whether or not the medicine has gone through the correct testing and regulation?

I say just try everything you've got.

There's a reason medicines need to be tested. For all they know this cure could mutate the virus making it able to be spread through the air making things a million times worse.

oh right, thanks.

Latest -

"The World Health Organisation has declared the current ebola epidemic in West Africa an international health emergency".

 

[drthingy]

Ill be worried if this is still the case in two weeks.