The Real Threat is not ISIS - Ebola

[mantra]

Airborne Ebola is a potential threat, far more than ISIS. What happens when the infection spreads to a place like Jakarta or Mexico City? or Delhi? Back in 1989 a different strain, Reston Ebola, did go airborne among monkeys at a quarantine station and they all had to be put down. The fucking U.N. which is generally good for nothing, may be the best chance if this were to happen. Liberia only has 250 doctors left and they can, do fuck all. West Africa needs to be quarantined, shut off from the rest of the world.

That is true, but we can't just leave the victims there to die without some help. Australia is denying our help which is upsetting the aid workers who can't get permission to travel there. Apparently we haven't got any quick evacuation plans, but why not make some. There are countries close by where we could airlift our aid workers to if there were problems.

Yes - airborne Ebola will present major problems in the future unless immediate action is taken. No-one seems to care - at least not in Australia.

We would rather spend a billion dollars to quash 30,000 terrorists who at present have infiltrated cities and will be almost impossible to target. For every IS terrorist taken out - a greater number of civilians will be killed alongside them.

[Black Orchid]

Anyone travelling from countries with the widest transmission should be quarantined and cleared before being able to board a flight.

Catching them after they land is like closing the gate after the horse has bolted.

[Lucas]

Anyone travelling from countries with the widest transmission should be quarantined and cleared before being able to board a flight.

Catching them after they land is like closing the gate after the horse has bolted.

Yes, you just have to shake your head at that don't you. Its like that border security show and they find grub infested food in their bags. They go you can't bring that in here but I am like, aren't they already in the country with these things all running around your desk. I could never understand that.

[Black Orchid]

By the time it becomes a big enough problem for airlines to black ban certain countries it will probably be too late for the rest of the world.

While some are saying that it is irresponsible to think that ebola can mutate and become airborne the simple fact remains that it is quite possible that this could happen.

"It's the single greatest concern I've ever had in my 40-year public health career," said Dr. Michael Osterholm, director of the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy at the University of Minnesota. "I can't imagine anything in my career -- and this includes HIV -- that would be more devastating to the world than a respiratory transmissible Ebola virus.

"Every time a new person gets Ebola, the virus gets another chance to mutate and develop new capabilities. Osterholm calls it "genetic roulette."

http://edition.cnn.com/2014/09/12/healt ... -airborne/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[Neferti]

According to an article on the ABC ...

Are there lessons for Australia from this story? Five or less travellers a day arrive in Victoria from Western Africa. In affected countries, Guinea, Sierra Leone, Liberia, Senegal and Nigeria more than 7000 people have developed Ebola Virus Disease (EVD) with almost 3500 deaths.

ONLY 5 or less A DAY? Don't panic, remember Pearl Harbor.

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2014-10-03/r ... ic/5788606

[Super Nova]

This is becoming serious. For all the issues going on in the world this one should have the world leaders highest attention.

if this gets out of control the human toll will be huge and the political landscape of the world changed forever.

If it gores to pot, I'll be on the first plane back to Australia and live with Yogi away from everyone.

A Spanish nurse has become the first person to test positive for ebola in Europe, raising the spectre of the deadly virus that has ravaged Africa spreading rapidly to Britain and other countries.

In the United States President Obama announced plans to step up the monitoring of passengers arriving there.

He criticised governments for not acting as “aggressively as they need to” when dealing with an outbreak.

He said: “Countries that think that they can sit on the sidelines and just let the United States do it, that will result in a less effective response, a less speedy response, and that means people will die.

“And it also means that the potential spread of the disease beyond these areas in West Africa becomes more imminent.”

http://www.thetimes.co.uk/tto/health/ne ... 229063.ece

[Rorschach]

EBOLA isn't airborne.

There was of course the movie OUTBREAK....

And yes the world will probably have to put some African Nations in Quarantine of some kind to get this under control.

[boxy]

To become a serious threat, it needs to change to either airborne transmission, or people need to be infectious before exhibiting symptoms.

[AiA in Atlanta]

Ebola is not airborne..only if your in the vicinity of a cough perhaps from an ebola infected person.

No, it isn't airborne yet.

This is a job for the U.N. not the United States, a country that is killing itself by intervening too often in all the wrong places. Sending 4000 soldiers? Building hospitals for caretakers of Ebola victims? Could this be a move to counter China who is becoming a dominant player there? Yes, George, this thread does belong in politics.

[mantra]

It looks like the US is the only country which seems concerned enough to take some action. The government is too busy concentrating on keeping us safe from terrorists to worry about a disease potentially wiping out half the country.

Airline passengers bound for US cities may face additional screening to detect signs of Ebola, the White House announced on Monday, as it stepped up efforts to prevent the disease entering the country.

Officials are “going to be working on protocols to do additional passenger screenings both at the source and here in the United States”, President Obama told reporters after a briefing with his advisers.

Though no details were given on how extra airport screening will be carried out, it is possible it will build on existing measures to look for signs of fever in travellers, possibly using infrared cameras to detect abnormal body temperatures.

Obama insisted that this and other existing measures he discussed with officials following the recent case in Dallas meant there was little chance of a serious outbreak in the US.

......

However, he criticised other countries for not doing enough to stop the spread of the disease in Africa.

“We have not seen other countries step up as aggressively as we need them to,” he said, pledging to apply more “pressure” on foreign governments to “make sure that they are doing everything that they can to join us in this effort”.


http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/o ... ies-obama