Ebola outbreak, and other potential epidemics

PS_RalphW · Post by **PS_RalphW** » 01 Oct 2014, 21:07

The guy did tell a nurse he had been to Liberia on his first visit to hospital. The message didn't get through to the medic who discharged him.

fifthcolumn · Post by **fifthcolumn** » 01 Oct 2014, 21:13

PS_RalphW wrote:The guy did tell a nurse he had been to Liberia on his first visit to hospital. The message didn't get through to the medic who discharged him.

Another reason why it's a useless question if the emergency staff aren't thinking about Ebola. I wonder if they will suspect ebola at all if the infected person is a white middle class American not done any traveling and the first symptom they present with is headache, fever and stomache. In the US, you will get people with no healthcare coverage go to emergency. In the UK they will go to their GP.

Another point to consider is this: most of those who are coming from Africa as students (I suspect the majority of visitors) will likely be taking public transport immediately after arriving.

fuzzy · Post by **fuzzy** » 01 Oct 2014, 21:15

read it and weep:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldne ... found.html

This sounds more like fawlty towers every minute.

And on a hilarious note that just about fits the pattern:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldne ... oning.html

UndercoverElephant · Post by **UndercoverElephant** » 01 Oct 2014, 21:20

PS_RalphW wrote:The guy did tell a nurse he had been to Liberia on his first visit to hospital. The message didn't get through to the medic who discharged him.

That defies belief.

Tarrel · Post by **Tarrel** » 01 Oct 2014, 21:36

UndercoverElephant wrote:
PS_RalphW wrote:The guy did tell a nurse he had been to Liberia on his first visit to hospital. The message didn't get through to the medic who discharged him.
That defies belief.

Maybe she thought it was a suburb of Dallas?

fifthcolumn · Post by **fifthcolumn** » 01 Oct 2014, 21:36

fuzzy wrote:read it and weep:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldne ... found.html

This sounds more like fawlty towers every minute.

And on a hilarious note that just about fits the pattern:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldne ... oning.html

Best fit is that the children are his nephews/nieces or second cousins or some form of family member.

snow hope · Post by **snow hope** » 01 Oct 2014, 22:55

Well at least the Mericans have got it all under control with their superior "western" facilities and health services.....

What a load of cobblers.
Faulty Towers doesn't have a patch on those baffoons.....

fifthcolumn · Post by **fifthcolumn** » 01 Oct 2014, 23:58

snow hope wrote: Faulty Towers doesn't have a patch on those baffoons.....

Baffins or Buffoons?

In other news, looks like the ebola case flew from somewhere in west africa to brussels, then to washington then to dallas.

All whilst not "infectious".

biffvernon · Post by **biffvernon** » 02 Oct 2014, 08:13

We can all do one little thing right now:

http://act.one.org/sign/ebola

This is a petition actually being promoted by the UK government ahead of the Ebola Donors' Conference to be held later today.

See https://www.gov.uk/government/news/defe ... conference
and
https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/s ... and_UK.pdf

Little John · Post by **Little John** » 02 Oct 2014, 09:27

fifthcolumn wrote:
snow hope wrote: Faulty Towers doesn't have a patch on those baffoons.....
Baffins or Buffoons?

In other news, looks like the ebola case flew from somewhere in west africa to brussels, then to washington then to dallas.

All whilst not "infectious".

All quite irrelevant since the border controls necessary to stop such international travel of potential vectors from seriously infected countries are against the internationalist principle of "no borders", you see. Ask Biff Vernon if you don't believe me. In any event, we shouldn't really be even discussing the issue of national borders and Ebola in the same thread as it is now verboten to do so and all posts relating to such discussions will be summarily deleted. Indeed, I wouldn't be surprised in the least to see that happen to this one.

UndercoverElephant · Post by **UndercoverElephant** » 02 Oct 2014, 10:01

fifthcolumn wrote:
snow hope wrote: Faulty Towers doesn't have a patch on those baffoons.....
Baffins or Buffoons?

In other news, looks like the ebola case flew from somewhere in west africa to brussels, then to washington then to dallas.

All whilst not "infectious".

Well, we're going to find out once and for good whether or not an ebola case showing no symptoms is infectious or not, aren't we? If cases turn up in Brussels or Washington - or somewhere else that isn't Dallas - then we're all in serious trouble.

nexus · Post by **nexus** » 02 Oct 2014, 10:20

Meanwhile over in Sierra Leone :

Ebola infecting five new people every hour in Sierra Leone, figures show
Save the Children warns that ‘terrifying rate’ of spread will overwhelm country’s fragile health system

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/o ... erra-leone

nexus · Post by **nexus** » 02 Oct 2014, 10:22

A heroic (and practical) story here:

It can be exhausting nursing a child through a nasty bout with the flu, so imagine how 22-year-old Fatu Kekula felt nursing her entire family through Ebola.

Her father. Her mother. Her sister. Her cousin. Fatu took care of them all, single-handedly feeding them, cleaning them and giving them medications.

And she did so with remarkable success. Three out of her four patients survived. That's a 25% death rate -- considerably better than the estimated Ebola death rate of 70%.

Fatu stayed healthy, which is noteworthy considering that more than 300 health care workers have become infected with Ebola, and she didn't even have personal protection equipment -- those white space suits and goggles used in Ebola treatment units.
Woman cares for her family with Ebola
This team picks up Ebola's dead
Ebola overwhelms new hospital in Liberia
Desperation grows in heart of Ebola zone

Instead Fatu, who's in her final year of nursing school, invented her own equipment. International aid workers heard about Fatu's "trash bag method" and are now teaching it to other West Africans who can't get into hospitals and don't have protective gear of their own.

Every day, several times a day for about two weeks, Fatu put trash bags over her socks and tied them in a knot over her calves. Then she put on a pair of rubber boots and then another set of trash bags over the boots.

She wrapped her hair in a pair of stockings and over that a trash bag. Next she donned a raincoat and four pairs of gloves on each hand, followed by a mask.

It was an arduous and time-consuming process, but Fatu was religious about it, never cutting corners.

http://edition.cnn.com/2014/09/25/healt ... index.html

Post by **adam2** » 02 Oct 2014, 10:44

Latest report here.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-29453755

Definatly out of control, 5 cases an hour in one country, total official death toll now well over 3,000.

biffvernon · Post by **biffvernon** » 02 Oct 2014, 11:28

stevecook172001 wrote:All quite irrelevant since the border controls necessary to stop such international travel of potential vectors from seriously infected countries are against the internationalist principle of "no borders", you see. Ask Biff Vernon if you don't believe me.

At the risk of going off on another tangent, I'm against pretty much all international air travel. It's not compatible with the zero-carbon future that climate change mitigation requires. With no planes, just the occasional balloon, the global spread of infectious diseases might be slowed.