I don't want to panic anyone, but Ebola may be coming to a town near you

[Skyy God]

At least we won't have to slog through another 7-9 Chiefs season....

Now there are American casualties.

Not in Gaza, and not on the ill-fated Malaysian airliner. Now there are American casualties in another war very far away so maybe, goddammit, somebody should start paying more attention to it.

Kent Brantly, 33, an American doctor who has been working in Liberia since October for the North Carolina-based aid organization Samaritan's Purse, is receiving intensive medical treatment after he was infected with Ebola, according to a spokeswoman for the group. Melissa Strickland said Brantly, who is married and has two children, was talking with his doctors and working on his computer while being treated. A second U.S. citizen, Nancy Writebol, also has tested positive for Ebola, Samaritan's Purse said. Writebol is employed by mission group SIM in Liberia and was helping a joint SIM/Samaritan's Purse team treating Ebola patients in Monrovia. Writebol is married with two children, the organization said. "Both of them tonight are in stable condition," Ken Isaacs, Samaritan Purse's vice president of programs and government relations, said Sunday. "But they are not out of the woods yet."

That's some serious Damien-at-Molokai hero stuff right there, still being at your computer while you're being treated for one of the most vicious diseases on the planet. Other medical professionals, alas, are not as lucky.

A Liberian government official said Sunday that one of that country's highest-profile doctors has died in what the World Health Organization (WHO) calls the largest recorded outbreak of the disease...The first Liberian doctor to die of the disease was identified as Samuel Brisbane. He was working as a consultant with the internal medicine unit at the country's largest hospital, the John F. Kennedy Memorial Medical Center in Monrovia. Brisbane, who once was a medical adviser to former Liberian President Charles Taylor, was taken to a treatment center on the outskirts of the capital after falling ill with Ebola and died there, said Tolbert Nyenswah, an assistant health minister. He said another doctor who had been working in Liberia's central Bong County also was being treated for Ebola at the same center where Brisbane died. The situation "is getting more and more scary," Nyenswah said.

Yes, you could say that. The disease is now in both Nigeria and Liberia, and not in the backwater places any more, either, but in the capital cities. The ones with millions of people. And airports.

Over the weekend, health officials in Nigeria raced to stop the spread of Ebola after a man sick with the disease arrived on a flight in Lagos, Africa's largest city with 21 million people. He later died. The man's ability to board an international flight raised new fears that other passengers could carry the disease beyond Africa because of weak passenger inspection and the fact that Ebola's initial symptoms can resemble those of other illnesses. Isaacs said in an interview that "where it gets really scary" is that the disease, which was previously seen only "in very remote, small villages in Africa" is now being contracted by people in the capital cities of Liberia, Guinea and Sierra Leone. "Now the disease has been introduced into the big urban areas with millions of people," he said. "In the big cities, people can get on an airplane and fly out." Isaacs does not believe this outbreak his peaked. "I think the worst is yet to come," he said. "I hope I'm wrong."

Meanwhile, the local customs aren't helping a lot, either.

Koroma, 32, a resident of the densely populated Wellington district, had been admitted to an isolation ward while blood samples were tested for the virus, said Sidi Yahya Tunis, a health ministry spokesman. The results came back on Thursday. "The family of the patient stormed the hospital and forcefully removed her and took her away," Tunis said. "We are searching for her."

Jesus save us. I don't mean to sound like a cultural imperialist -- although I seriously doubt that the people in rural Sierra Leone are acting out of what they know about the Tuskegee experiments, or what happened in Guatemala in the 1940's -- but snatching an Ebola patient out of the hospital doesn't sound like a very good way to fight the disease, family networks notwithstanding. (The purloined patient eventually died.) This thing is one airplane flight away from being an international catastrophe, but there is no boom-boom, and without boom-boom, there is no news. However, you know, Americans are getting sick now. Hey, Wolf! Over here?

http://www.esquire.com/blogs/politic...Ebola_Outbreak

[BeeHo]

Originally Posted by BWillie

Im cancelling my god damned plane tickets to Miami in two weeks if this shit gets any worse. Or maybe I'll just wear gloves and one of those asian people masks.

i think those are just masks.

[cmh6476]

Originally Posted by LiveSteam

Who ok-ed this? Thats what I want to know

Obama. (I heard)

[Bearcat]

Spoiler!

[Mr. Laz]

Originally Posted by cmh6476

Obama. (I heard)

Heard from Rush Limbaugh?

[cmh6476]

Originally Posted by Mr. Laz

Heard from Rush Limbaugh?

nah I don't listen to him. I just thought that was supposed to be the canned response.

[BWillie]

Originally Posted by BeeHo

i think those are just masks.

Never seen anybody else just strolling around the airport in these things. Seems like a good idea now, actually.

[Bwana]

Originally Posted by saphojunkie

Bwana - what do I need to bring to be allowed inside the perimeter?

I'll have to think about that one and get back to you.

[tk13]

Originally Posted by ChiefsandO'sfan

Sick man who recently traveled to W. Africa is being tested for Ebola at Mount Sinai Hospital in NYC, hospital says. http://t.co/fCCNWIUwBH

— CNN Breaking News (@cnnbrk) August 4, 2014

See, to me this is legitimately 1000 times more scary than some guy they took a zillion precautions for and have isolated in a hospital that is prepped for this stuff, with a world class staff. Everyone's freaking out over the other guy... when the real concern should probably be the people flying back who don't know they have it. At this rate, it's going to happen.

[kepp]

Originally Posted by BWillie

Never seen anybody else just strolling around the airport in these things. Seems like a good idea now, actually.

Lots of people had them when we flew to Thailand earlier this summer.
Posted via Mobile Device

[kepp]

Originally Posted by tk13

See, to me this is legitimately 1000 times more scary than some guy they took a zillion precautions for and have isolated in a hospital that is prepped for this stuff, with a world class staff. Everyone's freaking out over the other guy... when the real concern should probably be the people flying back who don't know they have it. At this rate, it's going to happen.

Between bringing the two infected Americans back, no travel restrictions, and Obamas African "summit" or whatever it is, it will find its way.
Posted via Mobile Device

[KChiefsQT]

http://www.slate.com/articles/health...ach_emory.html

[Dayze]

I saw Ebola open for Megadeth in Fresno back in '97. they kicked ass.

[TimBone]

Originally Posted by Dayze

I saw Ebola open for Megadeth in Fresno back in '97. they kicked ass.

Kicking ass and taking names.


You can read those names in your newspapers obituary section every mroning.

[LoneWolf]

Originally Posted by BWillie

Im cancelling my god damned plane tickets to Miami in two weeks if this shit gets any worse. Or maybe I'll just wear gloves and one of those asian people masks.

How will that help? Is it to make you look creepy enough nobody wants to be near you?

[Eleazar]

Heard it's confirmed ebola