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Mysterious and deadly, Ebola reaches far beyond Africa: Thai opinion

webfact

By webfact
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webfact Grand Master Member

webfact

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OVERDRIVE
Mysterious and deadly, Ebola reaches far beyond Africa
Thanong Khanthong

BANGKOK: -- The death toll from the latest outbreak of Ebola now stands at 932, with more than 1,700 cases reported. This reflects the high mortality rate of a deadly virus that has resurfaced in most serious epidemic of its kind in recorded history.

The World Health Organisation reports that over the past two days, the rates of Ebola deaths and cases have exploded by 48 and 108 times respectively - evidence that the growth of the epidemic in West Africa is becoming exponential. Nigeria is the latest to ask for drugs from the US to treat the disease. And now Ebola has claimed the life of a person in Saudi Arabia.

That Ebola is something the whole world should be concerned about is no longer in doubt. Now, the challenge is to forge collective measures to prevent its spread. Mystery still surrounds the deadly virus. Is it curable? Is there a drug to treat it? Is there a vaccine to prevent it?

Some reports suggest the pharmaceutical industry is not interested in producing drugs to fight Ebola because the virus only affects Africans.

The epicentre of the latest outbreak is Western Africa, with the majority of cases discovered in Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea. Western researchers have been working on Ebola for decades. The question is, how did this outbreak - which threatens to go global - happen this time.

Many of us will recall a 1995 film titled "Outbreak", starring Dustin Hoffman. It depicted an epidemic of a virus similar to Ebola, which spread from Zaire to America. Dramas like these are supposed to tell fictitious stories. But as it turned out, a couple of months later, an Ebola outbreak did take place in Zaire, warranting a front-cover story in the Newsweek edition of May 1995.

Last month, the Ministry of Health and Sanitation in Sierra Leone issued a statement via Facebook that researchers from Tulane University had been asked to "stop Ebola testing during the current Ebola outbreak". What does this mean? Tulane University has been a centre of Ebola research for at least a decade. Scientists there are looking into fever viruses' potential as bioweapons. Now, suddenly, we have an unexplained outbreak of Ebola in the outside world.

At the same time, the Navy Times in the US reports that the US military has been interested in studying Ebola as a potential biological weapon for decades: "Filoviruses like Ebola have been of interest to the Pentagon since the late 1970s mainly because Ebola and its fellow viruses have high mortality rates - in the current outbreak, roughly 60 per cent to 72 per cent of those who have contracted the disease have died - and its stable nature in aerosol makes it attractive as a potential biological weapon."

Even more bizarre is the fact that the US Centre for Disease and Control Prevention (CDC) actually owns the patent on a strain of Ebola virus. The patent, known as Ebobun and numbered CA2741523A1, was awarded to the centre in 2010. The question is, why is the CDC in the business of owning an Ebola virus?

President Obama has signed an executive order to allow health officials in the US to deal with the Ebola epidemic decisively by holding those suspected of having contracted the virus at detention centres.

Is the Ebola epidemic for real? It seems so.

Source: http://www.nationmultimedia.com/opinion/Mysterious-and-deadly-Ebola-reaches-far-beyond-Afr-30240481.html

[thenation]2014-08-08[/thenation]

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Payboy Diamond Member

Payboy

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Mystery still surrounds the deadly virus. Is it curable? Is there a drug to treat it? Is there a vaccine to prevent it?

 

 

Perhaps a journalist could find out by asking someone knowledgable in the medical profession?

Edited by Payboy
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jamhar Gold Member

jamhar

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Just don't have sex, kiss or swap bodily fluids with Africans it's not rocket science.

 

 

or breath the same air, or anyone that has,

or anyone that been in contact with anyone that has,

(store clerks, house cleaners, taxi drivers, hotel staff, airline food prep staff, the list goes on and on)

......

......

 

you could always live in a cocoon. w00t.gif

Edited by jamhar
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rhythmworx Gold Member

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Just don't have sex, kiss or swap bodily fluids with Africans it's not rocket science.

 

 

or breath the same air, or anyone that has,

or anyone that been in contact with anyone that has,

(store clerks, house cleaners, taxi drivers, hotel staff, airline food prep staff, the list goes on and on)

......

......

 

you could always live in a cocoon. w00t.gif

 

 

It doesn't spread like that no need to stay indoors.

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Dasekel Senior Member

Dasekel

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<script type='text/javascript'>window.mod_pagespeed_start = Number(new Date());</script>

 

 

Mystery still surrounds the deadly virus. Is it curable? Is there a drug to treat it? Is there a vaccine to prevent it?

 

 

Perhaps a journalist could find out by asking someone knowledgable in the medical profession?

 

 

There is not yet any vaccine or treatment to cure the disease. There seems to be experimental drugs available that are not yet  approved by any Drug Administration Agency. The only treatment is to reduce symptoms, if possible and to prevent the spread of the disease to other patients or staff. But as we have seen, even with all those Personal Protective Equipment, some mistake while taking the PPE off and the virus can infect the medical staff, too. For medical workers dealing with Ebola patients (or other highly infectious diseases such as previously with SARS) are like a soldier at the front in a very dangerous position.

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bkkjames Star Member

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In Delhi now

 

http://www.ibtimes.co.uk/ebola-scare-indian-delhi-watch-symptoms-1460264

 

A Delhi resident who arrived from Ghana on a flight is being watched closely for symptoms of Ebola after WHO alerted Indian authorities that his co-passenger had tested positive.

 

 

only a matter of time for it to arrive elsewhere including you know where..

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bkk_mike Platinum Member

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Disease being used as a war weapon is super scary ! I hope it is never allowed to happen.

 

You should check your history. It's already happened.

 

From the bodies of plague victims being catapulted into cities under siege in the middle ages, to Japanese experiments on Chinese during WW2.

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Tao Diver Senior Member

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I had to smile when an American reporter was asking the guy from the hospital that was to look after the Ebola victim that was recently flown there what assurances he could give that the disease would not escape. He said all measures had been taken to ensure that it couldn't. He was then reminded that that was exactly what they said when the first Aids victim was flown there. 

It has laid dormant for a long time now and I find it funny that it has now suddenly reemerged as it has. 

It wont take long for it to hit the UK as the Lefty / Socialist hand wringers will prevent pre testing of people arriving from Africa in case it infringes their precious human rights even if that is at the safety of the whole country.

Nobody should be allowed to leave until they have been cleared. I remember the film only too well to imagine it for real.

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bkk_mike Platinum Member

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I had to smile when an American reporter was asking the guy from the hospital that was to look after the Ebola victim that was recently flown there what assurances he could give that the disease would not escape. He said all measures had been taken to ensure that it couldn't. He was then reminded that that was exactly what they said when the first Aids victim was flown there. 

It has laid dormant for a long time now and I find it funny that it has now suddenly reemerged as it has. 

It wont take long for it to hit the UK as the Lefty / Socialist hand wringers will prevent pre testing of people arriving from Africa in case it infringes their precious human rights even if that is at the safety of the whole country.

Nobody should be allowed to leave until they have been cleared. I remember the film only too well to imagine it for real.

 

Sorry, but why are you making up stuff about AIDS?

 

That wasn't even discovered until they realised that lots of men in San Francisco had started dying from diseases that aren't normally deadly. Well after any patient zero could have been isolated.

 

As for the re-emergence, lots of diseases can have carriers in species other than humans. There's a reason swine flu and bird flu got their names.

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Scott Star Member

Scott

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It's questionable to compare Ebola and HIV, other than both being viruses, they don't have much in common.   HIV takes many, many years to develop into AIDS, thus allowing for the unknown (and sometimes known) transmission to many people via sex or blood transfusions.   Ebola strikes quickly and death is relatively quick.   This is the reason that Ebola usually burns itself out rather quickly.  

 

The question now is, why hasn't this outbreak burnt out?   Has it burnt out in some geographical areas or is it still spreading?   Is the rate of spread increasing and if so, how fast?

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MJP Diamond Member

MJP

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Israeli in Guinea: Ebola epidemic is spinning out of control

 

Villagers are fleeing as if it were a civil war, which increases the disease’s spread, Eyal Reinich says.

 

“Entire villages have been wiped out,” he said. “You come to villages and only find bodies. You don’t know if all the inhabitants died or if some simply fled. It’s a virus with a 90-percent death risk in these regions and we don’t know what condition the people who have fled are in.”

 

http://www.haaretz.com/life/science-medicine/.premium-1.609526

Edited by MJP
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