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

[Predarat]

Originally Posted by BWillie

I think anybody with peanut allergies and stuff that have to carry around an epinephrine needle should just give it up. Life was trying to weed them out long ago but modern medicine has helped them keep surviving. If a peanut kills you, should you even still be here?

I am going to print this out and put it on the windshield of this crazy lady at my parents church. And a snickers bar. She has a peanut allergy kid and she freaks out if anybody brings anything with peanuts into the church. Its not like they are trying to feed it to her kid. Get a ****ing bubble, folks.

[Skyy God]

Originally Posted by displacedinMN

Ebola victim was set to visit Minnesota

http://kstp.com/article/12303/?vid=5247046&v=1

Well that's no good.

Also, lol at Coon Rapids.

[Skyy God]

Originally Posted by Donger

My wife has developed a penis allergy. Is there any modern medicinal cure?

Divorce.

[Hog's Gone Fishin]

Here are five things you should know about this virulent and often deadly infection:

What is Ebola?

Ebola, officially known as Ebola hemorrhagic fever, is a severe disease caused by the Ebola virus that was first recognized in Africa in 1976.

Early symptoms can include fever, headache, joint and muscle aches, sore throat and weakness, followed by diarrhea, vomiting and stomach pain, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. In some cases, the disease causes rashes, red eyes, hiccups and internal and external bleeding, the CDC says.

Up to 90 percent of people who are infected with Ebola die from it, according to the National Institutes of Health.

Outbreaks have occurred in African countries, including the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Gabon, Sudan, the Ivory Coast, Uganda and the Republic of the Congo, the CDC says.

How is it transmitted?

Humans are not the natural hosts of the Ebola virus, and it's believed that the first person in any outbreak became infected through contact with an infected animal, the CDC says. Animals that are reported to have spread disease to humans include chimpanzees, gorillas, forest antelopes and cynomolgus monkeys, according to the World Health Organization. Once one person has become infected, the disease can spread from person to person through contact with the blood, saliva, mucus or other secretions. In the countries where Ebola has occurred, the disease is frequently spread in health care settings to workers who have had contact with patients and do not wear protective clothing or masks, the CDC says. Re-use of contaminated needles can also spread the disease.

Researchers still do not know where Ebola naturally resides. Studies have shown bats can be infected with the virus and survive without symptoms of disease, according to the WHO. Some have speculated bats play a role in maintaining the virus in nature, the WHO says.

Has there ever been an outbreak in the United States?

Ebola has not caused disease in the United States. In 1990, several researchers in Virginia and Texas became infected with a type of Ebola virus from contact with imported monkeys, the CDC says. However, the type of Ebola in these cases, now called Ebola-Reston, did not cause symptoms in humans, although it was fatal in monkeys.

Is there a cure?

No. Patients with Ebola are treated with supportive therapy, which includes balancing their fluids, maintaining their oxygen levels and blood pressure, and treating them for any complicating infections, the CDC says.

[Eleazar]

Originally Posted by Cave Johnson

Divorce.

That seems to cause at least short term obsession with them.

[Bwana]

Originally Posted by Donger

My wife has developed a penis allergy. Is there any modern medicinal cure?

The UPS man?

[Fairplay]

It will open up more jobs and get people working.

[Rain Man]

Originally Posted by Donger

My wife has developed a penis allergy. Is there any modern medicinal cure?

There is, but it involves a very large injection from a specialist in the field.

[Rain Man]

Originally Posted by Fairplay

It will open up more jobs and get people working.

As an aside, I read that people became notably taller during the Black Plague. There were enough fewer people that everyone was able to eat more meat, and it actually manifested itself over a couple of generations in greater height. Then the population recovered and everyone got smaller again.

[TribalElder]

They are bringing a US patient infected with Ebola back to Atlanta for treatment

The stupidest shit I could imagine has now happened :suicide:

[New World Order]

Originally Posted by GordonGekko

If Ebola becomes airborne, that's game.

It's not an airborne virus, thank god.

What are they going to do with the doctor that was infected? There isn't a cure is there? Is the guy just going to lay in a hospital bed, isolated from others until he dies?

[Bowser]

I thought this was about the guy that posts here. I feel better now.

[Ebolapox]

Originally Posted by Cave Johnson

How do we know you're not Ebola??

....... yeah........

[Ebolapox]

Originally Posted by Bowser

I thought this was about the guy that posts here. I feel better now.

Spoiler!

I'm good, man. Find out the sex of my first baby tomorrow

[Bowser]

Originally Posted by Ebolapox

Spoiler!

I'm good, man. Find out the sex of my first baby tomorrow

(figured that would scare you our into the open . Awesome news, btw. Prepare to have your world permanently rocked, in a good way)