Ebola

[bisbee]

If it's that hard to catch and no significant threat Why move the patient under Police escort out of one hospital to another one the other end of the country? What happens when the limited number of "oxygen tents" are full? I think we are being kept in the dark somewhat!

 

[stolzy]

Because if you do get infected then you usually die.
If someone is showing symptoms they are infective, if not then they're not infective.

Avoid exchanging fluids with people who are bleeding from the eyes and you should be OK.

 

[morty]

viruses can mutate and evolve and as such can be totally unpredictable like the stolzy virus that is infecting this thread

 

[stolzy]

viruses can mutate and evolve and as such can be totally unpredictable like the stolzy virus that is infecting this thread

True some can. Which is why you should be afraid of the flu virus and not Ebola. Filoviruses like ebola are not transmitted by the airborne route nor are they likely to mutate into viruses that can.

 

[bisbee]

My Mother's Great Grandma was the only one of 13 children in her family to survive the Spanish Flu Which killed more people than the First World War

http://www.archives.gov/exhibits/influenza-epidemic/

 

[morty]

my sister had a bad case of athletes foot once.I hear thats pretty contagious.

 

[Blackal]

my sister had a bad case of athletes foot once.I hear thats pretty contagious.

Your parents made that up - to stop you kissing her..........

Al

 

[gerarddwatts]

I won a bottle of Emva Cream on an ebola once at a cub fund raiser.....

 

[morty]

Your parents made that up - to stop you kissing her..........

Al

mmmm have you seen the hendersons and bigfoot????? she was pretty hairy or was it sloth out of the goonies???

 

[Paul90]

Avoid exchanging fluids with people who are bleeding from the eyes and you should be OK.

So if these volunteers were all trained and dressed head to toe in protective gear how do they get infected ?
There is always a risk, even if very small. The NHS can't cope with a few people turning up with sickness / squits so if we do get a few Ebola cases it will be a true clusterfuck.

NHS employes should not be in the front line. They should be training locals to look after their own.
And they shouldn't be allowed to come back to the uk until proven clear of infection - anything less is negligence / incompetence.

Paul

 

[Decster]

..........


And they shouldn't be allowed to come back to the uk until proven clear of infection - anything less is negligence / incompetence.

Paul

so how long after leaving an Ebola infected area should one be quarantined and where?

Will the quarantine become infected by someone? Then those in quarantine must go elsewhere for a period of quarantine? Where does it end?

 

[stolzy]

So if these volunteers were all trained and dressed head to toe in protective gear how do they get infected ?
There is always a risk, even if very small. The NHS can't cope with a few people turning up with sickness / squits so if we do get a few Ebola cases it will be a true clusterfuck.

NHS employes should not be in the front line. They should be training locals to look after their own.
And they shouldn't be allowed to come back to the uk until proven clear of infection - anything less is negligence / incompetence.

Paul

The risk is indeed small - infinitesimal. So why be so worried. Worry about a big risk.

 

[stolzy]

So if these volunteers were all trained and dressed head to toe in protective gear how do they get infected ?
There is always a risk, even if very small. The NHS can't cope with a few people turning up with sickness / squits so if we do get a few Ebola cases it will be a true clusterfuck.

NHS employes should not be in the front line. They should be training locals to look after their own.
And they shouldn't be allowed to come back to the uk until proven clear of infection - anything less is negligence / incompetence.

Paul

The risk is indeed small - infinitesimal. So why be so worried. Worry about a big risk.

 

[Paul90]

The risk is indeed small - infinitesimal. So why be so worried. Worry about a big risk.

The way risk management normally works is that you have to consider both the likelihood (in this case accepted as very small) and the consequences (Ebola outbreak in the UK, impossible for our NHS to deal with and thousands may die).

Yes, you should be worried more about things that are quite likely to happen and also have massive consequences.
But that doesn't mean you ignore the less likely if the consequences are huge.

I'm not sure about how you personally define infinitesimal - but we have what, less than 1000 volunteers out there and within a few months one is infected, despite all the training and protective gear.

A simple quarantine programme would cost peanuts compared to the grief it could save.
How much are we spending on flood defences and how many people are likely to die if we didn't say 5 or 10 ?
If it was up to me I might divert a little of the funds.

The UK seem more worried about a few IS fighters getting back into the country than they are about people infected with Ebola.

 

[stolzy]

The precautions have to be commensurate with the risk. Seems to me we have it about right.

 

[Paul90]

Well, I'm glad you have such faith in the combined effectiveness of our politicians and health care professionals.

Given the mess the country and its health services are in, I don't have such confidence that suddenly they have got it spot on, whereas for the last few decades their success seems somewhat limited.

 

[MEDICMAN]

Don't suppose she caught it on purpose.

A more considered view might be that ts better that courageous people go and help contain ebola than let it spread further in Africa and then offer a significant threat to us.

My thoughts exactly. I would rather we go and sort it out over there than (if left untreated and uncontested) wait for it to come over here!

A few years ago we had mass panic over the swine flu epidemic. We were running around day and night like blue bottomed flies to any, and every, I'll informed person who sneezed of had an unexplained headache and thought they must have it. I was even called to some people who just had bloody hangovers!

If this disease were to get into the general populous over here I dread to think how on earth we'd cope. S'truth, we're struggling to cope now.

Likewise, I don't want my loved ones worrying about such consequences, which is why I'm all packed ready to go tomorrow for my pre-deployment training, prior to flying to Freetown on the 10th.

If I get the chance I'll send you an personal eyewitness update on exactly how things are over there..... maybe even the odd piccy if I can.

MM

 

[flatdog]

Medicman, take me hat off to you, I wouldn't go anywhere near the place.
FFS be careful out there.

 

[stolzy]

The sort of person that should make us proud to be British.

 

[Rigormortis]

Fucking do gooders make me sick. If they want to go gallivanting abroad helping people, good and well. But don't be bringing that shit back here.

Are you human or just of German descent?