The Ebola Virus

[whatmeworry]

Royal Melbourne is now running drills to be prepared in the unlikely event Ebola reaches Victoria.
Royal Melbourne prepares for Ebola virus cases

 

[Cynicor]

On the news this morning that a man has been hospitalised at the new(ish) Gold Coast University Hospital with suspected Ebola.

I hate the media's reporting on this.

It wasn't "suspected" ebola at all. They do the tests to be safe and ensure that it wasn't ebola, and even the sound bite they use with the story has a doctor saying the clinical symptoms don't match. Just like they probably tested for about 10 other disease at the same time. I bet they didn't say suspected hyponatraemia when running off a UEC...

It's the same way all pts with the flu from Bali get a dengue or malaria screen. You don't suspect them mostly, but you have to rule them out for public/patient safety.

Such media scaremongering.

 

[Deleted member 29185]

Such media scaremongering.

I note the link I provided has changed to "Man Cleared of Ebola"........a miracle!

From memory of the story, it was paramedics who first reported him as displaying (or complaining of) Ebola like symptoms. Wouldn't that fall loosely into the "suspected of" category. I can't remember if the GC Bulletin used the word suspected, that may have been me!

 

[RAM]

I hate the media's reporting on this.

It wasn't "suspected" ebola at all. They do the tests to be safe and ensure that it wasn't ebola, and even the sound bite they use with the story has a doctor saying the clinical symptoms don't match. Just like they probably tested for about 10 other disease at the same time. I bet they didn't say suspected hyponatraemia when running off a UEC...

It's the same way all pts with the flu from Bali get a dengue or malaria screen. You don't suspect them mostly, but you have to rule them out for public/patient safety.

Such media scaremongering.

No TB?
With all the resistant strains I'd have thought that would have been done.

 

[whatmeworry]

Ebola could be mutating.
Unstoppable: is Ebola mutating with unknown consequences before our eyes? | Sci-Tech | DW.DE | 10.09.2014

 

[k_sheep]

No TB?
With all the resistant strains I'd have thought that would have been done.

Harder to test for if the patient doesn't have a productive cough - the blood test currently available isn't any good in acute illness, so you have to rely on getting a sputum sample.

 

[NFF]

I hope it won't happen !
'Real risk' Ebola virus will mutate to become an AIRBORNE disease, expert warns  | Mail Online

 

[whatmeworry]

Ebola scare last week in Melbourne.

Last Friday a young child was suspected of having the deadly disease which activated the state's response plan for Ebola. Tests at the Royal Children's Hospital proved negative.
A one-year-old child from West Africa, who had returned to Australia early last week, was tested for Ebola at the Children's hospital after being initially treated at Frankston Hospital with diarrhoea-like symptoms on Friday night.

Read more: Ebola scare in Victoria
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[PLANT]

Melbourne is capital of sport and now Ebola sightings....
At least high alert taken by Canberra

 

[NFF]

Contagious Disease Surveillance | Virus Awareness | Flu Map | HealthMap

 

[whatmeworry]

First case of Ebola diagnosed in the USA.

Dallas: The United States has diagnosed its first case of the potentially deadly Ebola virus, a man who became infected in Liberia and travelled to Texas, US health officials say.

Read more: First Ebola case diagnosed in the United States
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[robd]

Glad I'm not in Texas at the moment. Wait a minute....

 

[blackcat20]

Fabulous, I'm off to Texas in three weeks...

 

[PLANT]

"Just buy a gun and shoot it"...spoken like a true texan!

 

[NFF]

Ebola scare: How clean are airline cabins? - LA Times

 

[Himeno]

First case of Ebola diagnosed in the USA.

Lots of paranoia and fear mongering over here at the moment.
I'd put any blame on that hospital in Dallas. For them to send him home after being told he had just been in Liberia, and then not to contact the CDC...
I've heard that the hospital in question isn't very good. I have a friend who went there a few years ago. They went to ER, got sent home before collapsing in the road outside. After being taken back inside, they spent 72 hours in a bed before a doctor saw them.

 

[PLANT]

Mask up! Mask up!

 

[notsure]

A Spanish nurse has contracted Ebola after caring for 2 Spanish missionaries that were evacuated back to Madrid for treatment. She is the first person to have contracted the disease outside of West Africa (at least during the current outbreak).

BBC News - Ebola outbreak: Spain investigates new case

It's probably safe to assume that something went wrong with the quarantine proceedures they had in place - unfortunately that would also mean up to 30 people (those involved in the care of the 2 missionaries) are at risk (plus anyone those people were in close contact with).

In other news a Norwegian doctor has been evacuated to Oslo after being infected while volunteering in the region....Hopefully the hospital in Oslo will have taken note of the Spanish incident, and will be extra cautious with their proceedures.

Thankfully Ebola isn't as easy to transmit as some in the media would have you believe, and it is mainly close family members and medical staff, who are at risk from an infected person, the main reason it has gotten so out of hand in West Africa is that the few quarantine centres have become full, and infected people are being sent home where they are being cared for by family and friends, who without any training or proper equiptment, are then exposed to the disease themselves, creating an exponential growth...putting futher strain on the limited health services in the region.

 

[tgh]

Thankfully Ebola isn't as easy to transmit as some in the media would have you believe, and it is mainly close family members and medical staff, who are at risk from an infected person, the main reason it has gotten so out of hand in West Africa is that the few quarantine centres have become full, and infected people are being sent home where they are being cared for by family and friends, who without any training or proper equiptment, are then exposed to the disease themselves, creating an exponential growth...putting futher strain on the limited health services in the region

Is it not the case that the huge resources required to isolate and treat.. quickly overwhelm the capacity of countries where the disease gets a toe hold.
Leads to…will the whole world be able to cope if the disease continues to spread in it's current form at the current rate ?
Leads to a very real possibility that the disease may , with the numerical successes so far , mutate a little and improve it's transmit-abilty to attract even more clientele.
Leads to .. panic…..and …...

 

[whatmeworry]

50 people that came in contact with the Spanish are now in quarantine.

Fresh reports of an Ebola scare at Cairns.

Queensland Health has confirmed a 57-year-old woman is being assessed in Cairns Hospital for the deadly Ebola virus.
Chief Health Officer Jeanette Young said the woman, Cairns nurse Sue-Ellen Kovack, recently returned from a month in Sierra Leone, where she has been working in a hospital treating Ebola victims.
Dr Young said the nurse had been in home quarantine since she returned home to Cairns on Tuesday.

Read more: Ebola scare: Woman in Cairns hospital
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