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

[KC native]

Originally Posted by DaFace

I read an interesting article a while back that was examining whether you could hypothetically prosecute parents who don't vaccinate their kids if they end up starting a mini-outbreak of a disease and it ends up killing someone else's kid. In summary, it's not as far-fetched as you might think.

[/tangent]

I don't think it's far fetched.

My wife caught chicken pox as an adult because Fort Worth's school district used to allow parents to get religious waivers for vaccinations super easy. Well, after a mini-outbreak of chicken pox in a couple schools the waivers became tougher to get.

My wife was substitute teaching at the time and that's how we learned about how easy the waivers were to obtain. After some substantial bitching about the lost wages and the mini-outbreak, the waiver policy changed within a school year (apparently we weren't the only ones bitching).

Shit pissed me off that assholes were sending their unvaccinated kids to school because they're ****ing morons and didn't believe in vaccines or believed shit like BigDaddy.

[Donger]

Originally Posted by BIG_DADDY

Dude, you were here during that when they were releasing the numbers and nobody had it so they quit testing for it. When asked why they did that they said because they already knew it was a pandemic which made no sense at all. Over 60 million means 1 in 5 Americans had it. At that time on ChiefsPlanet the only person that claimed to have it was Dane but they never tested him. Are you kidding me right now? You lived through this? Did one in five people you know claim to have swine flu because I didn't know anyone who tested positive for it until Aries who just said it now.

I remember that it was a pretty nasty flu season that year, yes. That 60 million figure is just an estimate, because not everyone who likely contracted it went to the doctor/hospital to get it verified.

It's commonly accepted that between 5 and 20% of the population gets influenza EVERY year, so no, I don't find the figure that outrageous.

Now, why do you think CDC would lie about the numbers?

[BIG_DADDY]

Originally Posted by Donger

I remember that it was a pretty nasty flu season that year, yes. That 60 million figure is just an estimate, because not everyone who likely contracted it went to the doctor/hospital to get it verified.

It's commonly accepted that between 5 and 20% of the population gets influenza EVERY year, so no, I don't find the figure that outrageous.

Now, why do you think CDC would lie about the numbers?

People got sick but it wasn't swine flu. Tests were coming back negative so they quit testing. If you can't remember that, I can't help you. Hell, I even posted the video of the media jacking them up about the pandemic and the numbers being so low. Those were the CDC's own numbers that were dramatically changed after the fact.
As far as the commonly accepted percentage, I have no idea. I don't get vaccinated and I have had it twice in 52 years. Maybe I am just lucky. My wife has had it once. My kid has never had it. How many times have you?

[Donger]

Originally Posted by BIG_DADDY

People got sick but it wasn't swine flu. Tests were coming back negative so they quit testing. If you can't remember that, I can't help you. Hell, I even posted the video of the media jacking them up about the pandemic and the numbers being so low. Those were the CDC's own numbers that were dramatically changed after the fact.
As far as the commonly accepted percentage, I have no idea. I don't get vaccinated and I have had it twice in 52 years. Maybe I am just lucky. My wife has had it once. My kid has never had it. How many times have you?

2009 H1N1 Individual Case Counts

Why did CDC stop reporting confirmed and probable 2009 H1N1 flu cases?

Individual case counts were kept early during the 2009 H1N1 outbreak when the 2009 H1N1 virus first emerged. As the outbreak expanded and became more widespread, individual case counts become increasingly impractical and not representative of the true extent of the outbreak. This is because only a small proportion of persons with respiratory illness are actually tested and confirmed for influenza (including 2009 H1N1) so the true benefit of keeping track of these numbers is questionable. In addition, the extensive spread of 2009 H1N1 flu within the United States made it extremely resource-intensive for states to count individual cases. On July 24, 2009, CDC discontinued reporting of individual cases of 2009 H1N1, but continued to track hospitalizations and deaths.

[Donger]

Originally Posted by BIG_DADDY

As far as the commonly accepted percentage, I have no idea. I don't get vaccinated and I have had it twice in 52 years. Maybe I am just lucky. My wife has had it once. My kid has never had it. How many times have you?

I don't get the flu vaccine and never have. I've gotten it probably three times in my life, but can only assume, as I've never been tested positive.

[Pitt Gorilla]

Originally Posted by BIG_DADDY

Dude, you were here during that when they were releasing the numbers and nobody had it so they quit testing for it. When asked why they did that they said because they already knew it was a pandemic which made no sense at all. Over 60 million means 1 in 5 Americans had it. At that time on ChiefsPlanet the only person that claimed to have it was Dane but they never tested him. Are you kidding me right now? You lived through this? Did one in five people you know claim to have swine flu because I didn't know anyone who tested positive for it until Aries who just said it now.

We had 3 confirmed cases of H1N1 in our little family.

[BIG_DADDY]

Originally Posted by Donger

2009 H1N1 Individual Case Counts

Why did CDC stop reporting confirmed and probable 2009 H1N1 flu cases?

Individual case counts were kept early during the 2009 H1N1 outbreak when the 2009 H1N1 virus first emerged. As the outbreak expanded and became more widespread, individual case counts become increasingly impractical and not representative of the true extent of the outbreak. This is because only a small proportion of persons with respiratory illness are actually tested and confirmed for influenza (including 2009 H1N1) so the true benefit of keeping track of these numbers is questionable. In addition, the extensive spread of 2009 H1N1 flu within the United States made it extremely resource-intensive for states to count individual cases. On July 24, 2009, CDC discontinued reporting of individual cases of 2009 H1N1, but continued to track hospitalizations and deaths.

They quit testing for it so of course they quit reporting on confirmed cases. It was because they were coming back negative. I can't go back and remember that for you dude.

It's not like there haven't been endless CDC scandals. At the end of the day I don't care. I am not like these scaredy-cats with major control issues. If people are scared and like vaccines knock yourself out, just don't tell me what to do.

[KC native]

Originally Posted by Pitt Gorilla

We had 3 confirmed cases of H1N1 in our little family.

Your anecdotes mean less than BigDaddy's anecdotes because he didn't know of anyone that got H1N1.

[KC native]

Originally Posted by BIG_DADDY

It's not like there haven't been endless CDC scandals. At the end of the day I don't care. I am not like these scaredy-cats with major control issues. If people are scared and like vaccines knock yourself out, just don't tell me what to do.

Unless the subject is gay adoption, then you're all about control.

hypocritical idiot is hypocritical.

[Chiefspants]

I would just like to chime in to say that my ex-girlfriend did, in fact, catch the swine flu.

[Donger]

Originally Posted by BIG_DADDY

They quit testing for it so of course they quit reporting on confirmed cases. It was because they were coming back negative. I can't go back and remember that for you dude.

It's not like there haven't been endless CDC scandals. At the end of the day I don't care. I am not like these scaredy-cats with major control issues. If people are scared and like vaccines knock yourself out, just don't tell me what to do.

Do you dispute that over 250,000 American people were admitted to a hospital with H1N1 during that outbreak?

[BIG_DADDY]

Originally Posted by Donger

Do you dispute that over 250,000 American people were admitted to a hospital with H1N1 during that outbreak?

No, I don't have the resources or time to research it. My only points were that IMO the CDC has no credibility because of the endless scandals. My other point was that swine flu was never the pandemic it was made out to be. Once that was being confirmed they quit testing. That is all.

[DaFace]

Interesting context:

[Mizzou_8541]

Originally Posted by BIG_DADDY

The CDC is completely full of shit. I don't believe anything they say. They estimated over 60 million people got H1N1 after they dropped testing because the pandemic wasn't happening. Do you even know a single person that got it?

Yeah, I got it. It was like a bad case of the flu. Four-ish days later, I was good to go.

[DaFace]