First case of Ebola in the US

[ishii]

Can we trust anyone from this ‘You can keep your own doctor’ regime?

No, we cannot trust anyone from this regime. And regime it is. 2016 can’t come soon enough.

Ishii

 

[jen_fla]

Today at work was discussing with colleagues about how the media is “sunnily” reporting that Ebola is not transmitted through the air. It is. We are biologists and we are aghast at what is being said on the news. Just because it’s not a “respiratory” virus does not mean that you cannot become infected by the virus passing through the air and onto you.

The following may make some a bit queasy, but it illustrates my points.

What is smell? Smell is “taste from a distance”. Essentially, when you smell something, it is because molecules/particles from the item you are smelling are IN your nose. Just think about some of the infectious bodily fluids we are talking about here. Smell is a form of contact, on the molecular level.

So maybe the virus is not EXHALED from the lungs/respiratory tract - but bodily fluids are teeming with Ebola particles. Those fluids/secretions can be aerosolized and then inhaled by another person - and that other person becomes infected.

Gross, yes, but are you aware of the toxic plume which is churned up by a toilet that flushes? Small droplets in the plume would contain more than enough Ebola particles (it only takes 1 to 10 Ebola virus particles) to make someone sick. I think you can get the picture.

And so, since my mind has been fixated on this, it has taken to thinking about apartment living. I’ve lived in about 5 different apartments in my life.

My question has to do with the ventilation between apartment units. Is there common ventilation? How about venting the bathroom to the outside (bathroom fan)? A few decades ago in Sverdlovsk, Russia, about 100 people were killed by weaponized anthrax when a crew failed to replace a filter for an exhaust fan. I hope that if I’m thinking about this stuff, that the CDC is thinking about it. Could there have been transfer of infectious particles through the ventilation system in the apartment building?

Not only that, but what about the drain/waste/vent system in the building. Were there any sewage backups into other apartments? I’ll be fixated on this stuff until we know for sure that the officials have contained the virus for sure.

Right now, my mind won’t shut down thinking about this. I’m sorry to say that I think the 4 people who were with Eric in the apartment are living on borrowed time right now. I believe that they are 100% infected, and I’m sorry for them. I’m also concerned about the children that he came into contact with. I’d put that at 50/50 that they will be OK.

And no one knows for sure exactly when a patient becomes infectious. It’s a biological system. There is a RANGE. It’s not like flipping a light switch.

I’m sorry that the NBC cameraman has become infected - but - maybe if others in the news crew become infected the media will cut the nonsense and tell the truth - people CAN be infected via the air - you do NOT have to touch vomitus/diarrhea/sweat/saliva/blood directly to become sick.

And if you still don’t believe me, ask yourself WHY all the aid workers are wearing space suits and respirators. Nope, nope - not airborne in the least.

I read the military infected monkeys with Ebola Zaire and had control monkeys across the room and they became infected. The Ebola Reston virus which so far doesn’t seem to harm humans, (fatal to monkeys) is known to infect monkeys and humans via the air. From what I’ve read they are very similar viruses with some minor mystery that makes one fatal to humans.

Like I heard someone say before, it is possible the CDC is lying to us by ommission in order that we don’t panic. The technicality might be that airborne is classified differently than aerosolized, but I really don’t know the difference. Could you explain that? Your posts are really good reading so thank you for making them.

Also as to the ventilation, most states require separate hvac ventilation for each unit, however the sewage lines might share ventilation pipes. I agree in that those poor people living with him most likely are infected, along with the paramedics as well.

I keep thinking about his first trip to the hospital. The woman brought his sweaty blanket into the waiting room and placed it on a chair. He then had his temperature taken and the cap with saliva was thrown where? How many people had their blood pressure taken with the same cuff?

 

[TigerKitty]

I read the military infected monkeys with Ebola Zaire and had control monkeys across the room and they became infected. The Ebola Reston virus which so far doesn’t seem to harm humans, (fatal to monkeys) is known to infect monkeys and humans via the air. From what I’ve read they are very similar viruses with some minor mystery that makes one fatal to humans.

Like I heard someone say before, it is possible the CDC is lying to us by ommission in order that we don’t panic. The technicality might be that airborne is classified differently than aerosolized, but I really don’t know the difference. Could you explain that? Your posts are really good reading so thank you for making them.

Also as to the ventilation, most states require separate hvac ventilation for each unit, however the sewage lines might share ventilation pipes. I agree in that those poor people living with him most likely are infected, along with the paramedics as well.

I keep thinking about his first trip to the hospital. The woman brought his sweaty blanket into the waiting room and placed it on a chair. He then had his temperature taken and the cap with saliva was thrown where? How many people had their blood pressure taken with the same cuff?

Interesting thoughts, Jen.

Technically airborne refers to virus particles being exhaled from the respiratory tract by someone infected. I think they are using this as a technicality in this case…

Oh, no, about the blanket - reminder of the small pox laced blankets given to our native American population. What a shame. Yes, blankets can transmit disease.

I didn’t know that about Ebola Reston. I did read the Hot Zone, but that was a LONG time ago. I wonder if the Reston strain could then be used as a vaccine for the current outbreak strain - sort of how cowpox was used as a vaccine against smallpox. A quick PubMed search pulled up a paper that said researchers tracked the difference in pathogenicity between Reston and Zaire to a glycoprotein (essentially a protein with some sugars attached to it) that was made differently between these two strains of the virus. I could only see the abstract as the full articles were by purchase. I might get these in the library at work on Monday, though.

 

[jen_fla]

Interesting thoughts, Jen.

Technically airborne refers to virus particles being exhaled from the respiratory tract by someone infected. I think they are using this as a technicality in this case…

Oh, no, about the blanket - reminder of the small pox laced blankets given to our native American population. What a shame. Yes, blankets can transmit disease.

I didn’t know that about Ebola Reston. I did read the Hot Zone, but that was a LONG time ago. I wonder if the Reston strain could then be used as a vaccine for the current outbreak strain - sort of how cowpox was used as a vaccine against smallpox. A quick PubMed search pulled up a paper that said researchers tracked the difference in pathogenicity between Reston and Zaire to a glycoprotein (essentially a protein with some sugars attached to it) that was made differently between these two strains of the virus. I could only see the abstract as the full articles were by purchase. I might get these in the library at work on Monday, though.

I think Reston was identified in 1990 and 24 years is a long time to study, but then again maybe in the world of research that is just a blink of an eye. I wouldn’t know. Let’s hope someone is working on your idea.

I read the Hot Zone! Very informative. Couldn’t put it down. When I compare how the military handled Marburgh and Ebola in the book to the power washing vomit incident of today, my head just goes dizzy and I wonder if this is all a dream. How could the CDC allow that? The UV rays might have killed what was on the surface of the vomit, but what about the layers underneath? Sorry if this is grossing people out, but now I’m really going to get graphic. There is a very good chance he was throwing up blood with clots in it. Wouldn’t the inside of the clots be protected from the UV rays?

And thank you for explaining airborne. The monkeys with the Reston Ebola were infecting monkeys in other rooms as the particles were passing through the HVAC ducts. To me that is airborne, but maybe technically since it was their fecal, blood or saliva particles floating around, they will say that’s not airborne. Not airborne because it was the particles transmitting and not the monkey blowing his breath into the ducts. Do I have this right?

 

[Path_Finder]

Sneezing, that’s bodily fluids and that’s not necessarily airborne, just contact.

So they say, by January, the way ebola increases, there could be over a million exposed they said on the news.

I think some depictions of ebola even say bleeding eyes, so pretty bad. I guess it can often be treated. We will see. And there are promising vaccines being made.

 

[RGCheek]

Oh, no, about the blanket - reminder of the small pox laced blankets given to our native American population. What a shame.

You do know that is a myth invented by Ward Churchill, right?

quod.lib.umich.edu/p/plag/5240451.0001.009?rgn=main;view=fulltext

Ward Churchill tells a shocking tale of war crimes committed by the U.S. Army at Fort Clark against the Mandan Indians in 1837. Fort Clark stood perched on a windswept bluff overlooking the Missouri River, in what is today North Dakota. Churchill reports that in early 1837, the commander of Fort Clark ordered a boatload of blankets shipped from a military smallpox infirmary in St. Louis. When the shipment arrived at Fort Clark on June 20, U.S. Army officers requested a parlay with Mandan Indians who lived next to the fort. At the parlay, army officers distributed the smallpox-infested blankets as gifts. When the Indians began to show signs of the illness, U.S. Army doctors did not impose quarantine, but instead told the Indians to scatter, so that the disease would become more widespread and kill more Indians. Meanwhile, the fort authorities hoarded smallpox vaccine in their storeroom, instead of using it to inoculate the Indians.
Every aspect of Churchill’s tale is fabricated. Between 1994 and 2003, Ward Churchill published at least six different versions of this accusation against the U.S. Army. While the Mandans and other Indians of the Upper Plains did suffer horribly from a smallpox epidemic in 1837, Churchill presents no evidence whatsoever to indicate that the infection was anything but accidental, or that the U.S. Army was in any way involved. Fort Clark was a privately owned fur trading outpost, not a military base, and there were no U.S. troops in the vicinity. The closest U.S. military unit was an eight hundred mile march away at Fort Leavenworth.

In telling his fantastic tale, Churchill has fabricated incidents that never occurred and individuals who never existed. Churchill falsified the sources that he cited in support of his tale, and repeatedly concealed evidence in his possession that disconfirms his version of events.

en.metapedia.org/wiki/Smallpox_blankets_hoax

The very first claim that the United States distributed “smallpox-infested blankets” to Indian tribes originated in Ward Churchill’s (born October 2, 1947) book Indians Are Us?. This book was not first published until 1994. The claim has been debunked by scholars.[2][3]

In at least six different essays, Churchill alleged that the United States Army deliberately distributed smallpox-infected blankets to the Mandan Indians at Fort Clark in 1837 to spark a smallpox pandemic, and that hundreds of thousands of Indians died of smallpox as a consequence. Other scholars who have studied this episode agree that smallpox killed many Indians in this time frame, but deny that there is any evidence to support Churchill’s allegations of deliberate genocide by means of smallpox blankets. They also charge Churchill with exaggerating the death toll and with falsifying the sources he cites in support of his claims. Professor Thomas Brown wrote in the journal Plagiary that, “Every aspect of Churchill’s tale is fabricated.”[4] …
Additionally, the committee found Churchill guilty of serious research misconduct in his claims that John Smith initiated a smallpox epidemic against Wampanoag Indians when he visited New England in 1614. The committee found that the source Churchill cited for his claim (Manitou and Providence: Europeans, Indians, and the Making of New England, 1500–1643 by Neal Salisbury) actually gave evidence contrary to his claim, namely that Smith viewed the Indians as a potential source of labor to be exploited militarily (rather than exterminated) and that the epidemic did not break out until at least eighteen months after Smith had left the area. Based on these and other inconsistencies, the committee determined that Churchill had fabricated this event and cited sources in a misleading way.[9]

Churchill has also published other false claims, such as in two articles published in the 1990s, University of New Mexico where he repeatedly published false claims about the General Allotment Act, attributing a “blood quantum” standard of Indianness to the Allotment Act.[10][11]

There are so many lies being told by professors today that I wouldn’t trust them if they said the sky was blue.

 

[jen_fla]

Someone posted a similar link regarding this, but I wanted to add it to this thread just in case x years from now someone wanted to follow the progression of the first case of Ebola in America all in one place.

Passenger from Liberia was showing possible Ebola symptoms while on a plane from Brussels to Newark, NJ. At least the CDC is on this one in full blown biosafety gear.

7online.com/health/cdc-investigating-possible-ebola-scare-on-newark-flight-/336774/

I’ve read they are taking the temperatures of passengers coming from hot zones, but that tylenol or ibuprofen could mask the fever temporarily.

 

[TigerKitty]

Newark passenger had been cleared,at least that’s the last report I’ve seen.

Remember, you can be sure to trust the information you get on tv and the internet, too. Much more credible than the drivel one would get from a scholar or an academician.

 

[jen_fla]

All I know is Dr Kent Brently came down with a fever and symptoms and they tested him and he came back negative. Later he tested positive for Ebola, so hopefully the guy from the Brussels flight is truly negative as we now know early tests can give false results.

 

[ringil]

We were hoping to see the Holy Land. That won’t happen anytime soon.

Napa Valley was looking good…never been there. Then the earthquake.

Ebola with-out borders spells stay-cations.

I really see this as overacting to what is going on.

Ebola is transferred via bodily fluids and even IF- under the most remote chance someone with ebola (disease only transfers with symptomatic) was on your plane you would have to come into contact with blood, saliva, or feces.

You would be more likely to be a plane crash than contract ebola on a plane.

I see a need for people to be afraid. It makes life more interesting and even adds a bit of excitement- the media knows this.

 

[Path_Finder]

Over a million exposed persons by January. Very disconcerting hardly “exciting”.

 

[GaryTaylor]

The better to be safe than sorry theory turned into we think we can we manage the crisis with American exceptionalism while the current events of its handling clearly indicate otherwise. I don’t find it exciting, I find it predictable with the current administration and alarming.

 

[Path_Finder]

There is a new book arguing that the Black Plague in the Middle Ages was in fact an Ebola-like virus, this certainly is probably wrong but certainly every plague in man’s history was at a stage at one time where it was rare. The thing is is we don’t want to see it common.

Ebola has been written about for a long time but the cases were rare and so it did not present a threat.

Duncan says, “If you look at the way it spreads, it was spreading at a rate of around 30 miles in two to three days. Bubonic plague moves at a pace of around 100 yards a year.”

This is the danger, if the contagion gets a foothold, it’s off to the races.

Perhaps some people might dismiss ebola’s dangers when they think “Oh, it’s just affecting those backwards African Nations”, we need to care about our brothers and sisters.

There is the “close the border” discussion, I don’t think the CDC chief was really talking about borders with Canada and Mexico, read his words but what is true is I think people from Sierra Leone, Liberia and Guinea have probably tried to cross at the Southern Border as people from many nations have tried to cross at the Southern border, there are now signs at the Southern border in Chinese affirming the possibility of different nationalities coming across. Human-smuggling as well. I had heard this, can one imagine if you actually had an ebola victim trying to cross over and becoming sick somewhere along the way of their immigration? It sounds possible.

 

[Path_Finder]

Sierra Leone is said to have 5 new cases an hour now, that is for a population of around 6 million. Okay, Sierra Leone probably has an infrastructure and environment conducive to the spread much moreso than in the USA, however, if we in the USA ever got this kind of rate of contamination, I think it would be around 250 an hour in comparison.

Nigeria reportedly is beating the disease back, this is great news for a country of cerca 175 million. A heroic battle.

 

[Beautiful]

I read that western African workers are starting the process of migrating for seasonal work at this time. Infiltration of the virus will further spread in coming months as the borders remain porous. This increases the likelihood of populating the affliction in Africa and elsewhere.

We should all be watching closely.

 

[7_Sorrows]

Over a million exposed persons by January. Very disconcerting hardly “exciting”.

Right now the death toll is around 3400 which would mean about 7000 people infected. This is October. How can that many people be exposed by the end of January?

 

[seekerz]

I really see this as overacting to what is going on.

Ebola is transferred via bodily fluids and even IF- under the most remote chance someone with ebola (disease only transfers with symptomatic) was on your plane you would have to come into contact with blood, saliva, or feces.

You would be more likely to be a plane crash than contract ebola on a plane.

I see a need for people to be afraid. It makes life more interesting and even adds a bit of excitement- the media knows this.

I don’t subscribe to the hysteria being whipped up, but the CDC and other experts are not helping things either, with all the missteps and questionable assurances of things they can’t possibly be sure of. For example, how can they determine that people are ** not** infectious, versus say, travelling early in their infective period and masking their symptoms by taking a fever reducer or anti-diarrhea medication? Also, why do they dismiss airplane travel as being low-risk without making a single mention of those cramped, easily contaminated bathrooms?

Ebola will not likely be more deadly here than the flu is, but spread it will if those in charge continue to speak from their infectious diseases books rather than from the realities on the ground.

 

[7_Sorrows]

I don’t subscribe to the hysteria being whipped up, but the CDC and other experts are not helping things either, with all the missteps and questionable assurances of things they can’t possibly be sure of. For example, how can they determine that people are ** not** infectious, versus say, travelling early in their infective period and masking their symptoms by taking a fever reducer or anti-diarrhea medication? Also, why do they dismiss airplane travel as being low-risk without making a single mention of those cramped, easily contaminated bathrooms?

Ebola will not likely be more deadly here than the flu is, but spread it will if those in charge continue to speak from their infectious diseases books rather than from the realities on the ground.

You make an excellent point- the realities on the ground.
I just want them to be upfront and honest with me.
Don’t try to paint things in a different light.

 

[Vanny]

I don’t subscribe to the hysteria being whipped up, but the CDC and other experts are not helping things either, with all the missteps and questionable assurances of things they can’t possibly be sure of. For example, how can they determine that people are ** not** infectious, versus say, travelling early in their infective period and masking their symptoms by taking a fever reducer or anti-diarrhea medication? Also, why do they dismiss airplane travel as being low-risk without making a single mention of those cramped, easily contaminated bathrooms?

Ebola will not likely be more deadly here than the flu is, but spread it will if those in charge continue to speak from their infectious diseases books rather than from the realities on the ground.

Your point about airplane travel and the bathrooms is excellent
Never thought of it in quite that way.
I don’t think we need to panic and we now have a patient zero that we know of and his path from Liberia to Dallas so how worried we need to get will be determined by who else if anyone becomes infected. Definetely the people sharing the apartment with him are high risk and I hope they don’t get sick but I’m glad they’re isolated. A little disconcerting that they apparently did not heed the first warning to stay in their apartment and continued to go out and send their children to school. I really hope it goes no farther than this patient zero.

 

[GaryTaylor]

For example, how can they determine that people are not infectious, versus say, travelling early in their infective period and masking their symptoms by taking a fever reducer or anti-diarrhea medication?

Or how do you know they don’t become mildly symptomatic after boarding? Mildly symptomatic in the early stage means your spreading a deadly virus and no one knows they have it, or how they got it, and we don’t where its going from there?

Then add the honor system to the equation.

A little disconcerting that they apparently did not heed the first warning to stay in their apartment and continued to go out and send their children to school. I really hope it goes no farther than this patient zero.

Not hard to see how the exponential growth occurs, and we have been doing “alright” but it certainly can get out of hand quick too.