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

[rabblerouser]

Originally Posted by Mr. Laz

not until recently and even then the screening process sounds pretty weak.


"Do you have a fever?"
"NO"
"Do you feel sick?"
"No"
"Have you been in contact with anyone with Ebola?"
"No"
"Ok, welcome to the U.S."


pathetic ... anyone coming to the U.S. who has visit Africe within the incubation time should be quarantined until proven they don't have it. Period.

Anyone brought to the U.S. for treatment should be taken to a isolated physicality that specializes in dealing with communicably diseases, not just sprinkled around the U.S. near their home town and near huge population centers.

This is not hair on fire panic talking ... it's common sense.

This idea that nobody will catch it in the U.S. has already turned out to be bullshit. I forget who said it but they INSISTED that there was absolutely no threat here in the U.S.

The people trying to play it off as media propaganda or panic by the small-minded are being naive or stupid.

The chance that even a small breakout could happen is simply not worth the risk.

I'm just saying, my chances of being beheaded or infected have increased exponentially over the past 6 years.

[Rausch]

Ebola isn't something you control.

It's something you quarantine...

[Mr. Laz]

Originally Posted by rabblerouser

I'm just saying...my chances of becoming infected or beheaded have increased exponentially over the last 6 years.

Originally Posted by rabblerouser

I'm just saying, my chances of being beheaded or infected have increased exponentially over the past 6 years.

You just Q'ed yourself, dumb ass.

people insisted that it was perfectly safe to bring Ebola into the U.S. because the united state is far too advanced to ever have it be a problem like a '3rd world shit hole like Africa'.

Well ... you were wrong.

But hey, don't let that stop your snarkey,asshole mouth from spouting off more bullshit that will turn out to be wrong.

Director of the CDC(or his boss) has screwed this up and should quit.

[Donger]

Originally Posted by Mr. Laz

people insisted that it was perfectly safe to bring Ebola into the U.S. because the united state is far too advanced to ever have it be a problem like a '3rd world shit hole like Africa'.

Well ... you were wrong.

I still insist that, and I'm right. You can tell because we don't have an outbreak here.

[Rausch]

Originally Posted by Donger

I still insist that, and I'm right. You can tell because we don't have an outbreak here.

Yet...

[Skyy God]

Originally Posted by Mr. Laz

not until recently and even then the screening process sounds pretty weak.


"Do you have a fever?"
"NO"
"Do you feel sick?"
"No"
"Have you been in contact with anyone with Ebola?"
"No"
"Ok, welcome to the U.S."


pathetic ... anyone coming to the U.S. who has visited Africa within the incubation time should be quarantined until proven they don't have it. Period.

That's not the screening procedure, ftr.

[Rausch]

Originally Posted by Cave Johnson

That's not the screening procedure, ftr.

No, they screen you for having a temperature and then ask those dumb ass questions...

[Mr. Laz]

Originally Posted by Donger

I still insist that, and I'm right. You can tell because we don't have an outbreak here.

apparently they were going house-to-house to verify lack of contact with the nurse THAT CAUGHT EBOLA IN THE U.S. to make sure someone else hadn't caught it.

That is one small step from having an outbreak.

If that nurse had had a quickie with the mailman or something recently it could turn into an outbreak very quickly. Already closer than you thought it would ... but you keep splitting hairs to try to win the argument like you normally do.

[Donger]

Originally Posted by Mr. Laz

apparently they were going house-to-house to verify lack of contact with the nurse THAT CAUGHT EBOLA IN THE U.S. to make sure someone else hadn't caught it.

That is one small step from having an outbreak.

If that nurse had had a quickie with the mailman or something recently it could turn into an outbreak very quickly. Already closer than you thought it would ... but you keep splitting hairs to try to win the argument like you normally do.

It wouldn't surprise me if we end up with a dozen or so cases here, sure.

Now, compare that with what you said above.

[Mr. Laz]

Originally Posted by Rausch

No, they screen you for having a temperature and then ask those dumb ass questions...

and you know that most people are going to lie about the questions.

they don't think they have it and don't want to be bothered

or

survival instinct kicks in and they think they have it but want to get into the U.S. for better treatment and don't give a shit about anything else

[Mr. Laz]

Originally Posted by Donger

It wouldn't surprise me if we end up with a dozen or so cases here, sure.

Now, compare that with what you said above.

so a dozen of cases and several deaths don't matter?

what if one of those cases/deaths is somebody you care about?

[ThaVirus]

"Survival instinct kicks in"

Calm your tits, Laz

[Skyy God]

Originally Posted by ThaVirus

"Survival instinct kicks in"

Calm your tits, Laz

Dude's in a soccer mom-esque tizzy..... appeals to calm, rational thought aren't going to work.

[Eleazar]

Originally Posted by Donger

I still insist that, and I'm right. You can tell because we don't have an outbreak here.

The fact that we don't have an outbreak at present does not mean we should forego common sense precautions.

[Donger]

Originally Posted by Mr. Laz

so a dozen of cases and several deaths don't matter?

what if one of those cases/deaths is somebody you care about?

I didn't say it wouldn't "matter." I said that wouldn't be what you said is happening.