Started By
Message
Ebola virus has been mutating as it's spreading
Posted on 8/28/14 at 1:36 pm
Posted on 8/28/14 at 1:36 pm
quote:
The Ebola virus sweeping through West Africa has mutated repeatedly during the current outbreak, a fact that could hinder diagnosis and treatment of the devastating disease, according to scientists who have genetically sequenced the virus in scores of victims.
The findings, published Thursday in the journal Science, also offer new insights into the origins of the largest and most deadly Ebola outbreak in history, which has killed more than 1,500 people in four countries and shows few signs of slowing
quote:
Thursday’s study also details hundreds of genetic mutations that make the current Ebola outbreak different from any in the past. Some of those changes have the potential to affect the accuracy of diagnostic tests or the effectiveness of vaccines and treatments under development for the disease.
LINK
Posted on 8/28/14 at 1:39 pm to Alahunter
Ebola STACKED.
SEC fricked.
SEC fricked.
Posted on 8/28/14 at 1:45 pm to Alahunter
It came mutated this time to begin with from what I understand. Other outbreaks burned themselves out with a 90% fatality rate. This one isn't killing as efficiently but it's in a more populated area and they mutate quickly on shear numbers of reproduction.
The good news is that it's scary enough that everyone is working on stopping it who is able. The bad news is it is killing thousands and might just get out of Africa somewhere horrible like Indochina.
The good news is that it's scary enough that everyone is working on stopping it who is able. The bad news is it is killing thousands and might just get out of Africa somewhere horrible like Indochina.
Posted on 8/28/14 at 2:45 pm to Alahunter
Until touching each others' bodily fluids becomes a regular thing in America, we'll be okay. Not to blithely generalize but cleanliness standards in Africa aren't what they are here.
This isn't an airborne disease. You have to actually touch an Ebola victim's bodily fluids to get it. Just makes me wonder what those Africans are up to that it's spreading so quickly.
This isn't an airborne disease. You have to actually touch an Ebola victim's bodily fluids to get it. Just makes me wonder what those Africans are up to that it's spreading so quickly.
Posted on 8/28/14 at 2:51 pm to polydorr
It concerns me that it is spread through sweat and saliva though. I mean, what if an infected person sneezes or coughs in your face?
Posted on 8/28/14 at 2:52 pm to UMTigerRebel
you die.
I would bubbe up your children if I were you.
I would bubbe up your children if I were you.
This post was edited on 8/28/14 at 2:53 pm
Posted on 8/28/14 at 2:52 pm to UMTigerRebel
They've said that they believed it was airborne.
quote:
Many people have been mis-informed regarding human to human transmission of Ebola. The Canadian Health Dept. States that airborne transmission of Ebola is strongly suspected and the CDC admits that Ebola can be transmitted in situations where there is no physical contact between people, i.e.: via airborne inhalation into the lungs or into the eyes where individuals are separated by 3 feet. That helps explain why 81 doctors, nurses and other healthcare workers have died in West Africa to date
Ronald R. Cherry, MD, is a board-certified specialist in lung disease who is in the full-time practice of medicine in Sweetwater, Tennessee
This post was edited on 8/28/14 at 2:56 pm
Posted on 8/28/14 at 2:55 pm to Alahunter
quote:
They've said that they believed it was airborne.
We all gonna die.
Posted on 8/28/14 at 2:56 pm to UMTigerRebel
A CDC advisory entitled Interim Guidance about Ebola Virus Infection for Airline Flight Crews, Cleaning Personnel, and Cargo Personnel reveals that the federal agency is concerned about airborne contamination.
The advisory urges airline staff to provide surgical masks to potential Ebola victims in order “to reduce the number of droplets expelled into the air by talking, sneezing, or coughing.” (emphasis mine).
The CDC is also directing airline cleaning personnel to, “not use compressed air, which might spread infectious material through the air.” (emphasis mine).
The CDC’s concern about the Ebola virus being spread via the air is understandable in light of a 2012 experiment conducted by Canadian scientists which proved that, “the ebola virus could be transmitted by air between species.”
Researchers demonstrated that the virus could be transmitted from pigs to monkeys without any direct contact by placing the two animals in pens separated only by a wire barrier. After eight days, some of the monkeys were found to have symptoms of Ebola likely as a result of “inhaling large aerosol droplets produced from the respiratory tracts of the pigs.”
The results of the study led scientists to conclude that, “limited airborne transmission might be contributing to the spread of the disease in some parts of Africa,” although they cautioned against making comparisons to the airborne nature of the influenza virus.
In addition, the Public Health Agency of Canada’s official website states under a section entitled “mode of transmission,” that “airborne spread among humans is strongly suspected, although it has not yet been conclusively demonstrated.”
The advisory urges airline staff to provide surgical masks to potential Ebola victims in order “to reduce the number of droplets expelled into the air by talking, sneezing, or coughing.” (emphasis mine).
The CDC is also directing airline cleaning personnel to, “not use compressed air, which might spread infectious material through the air.” (emphasis mine).
The CDC’s concern about the Ebola virus being spread via the air is understandable in light of a 2012 experiment conducted by Canadian scientists which proved that, “the ebola virus could be transmitted by air between species.”
Researchers demonstrated that the virus could be transmitted from pigs to monkeys without any direct contact by placing the two animals in pens separated only by a wire barrier. After eight days, some of the monkeys were found to have symptoms of Ebola likely as a result of “inhaling large aerosol droplets produced from the respiratory tracts of the pigs.”
The results of the study led scientists to conclude that, “limited airborne transmission might be contributing to the spread of the disease in some parts of Africa,” although they cautioned against making comparisons to the airborne nature of the influenza virus.
In addition, the Public Health Agency of Canada’s official website states under a section entitled “mode of transmission,” that “airborne spread among humans is strongly suspected, although it has not yet been conclusively demonstrated.”
Posted on 8/28/14 at 3:04 pm to Alahunter
the walking dead is here, thanks obama
Posted on 8/28/14 at 3:08 pm to Alahunter
quote:
which has killed more than 1,500 people in four countries and shows few signs of slowing
in this time period, I wonder how many people died of aids, hunger, flu etc..., in the same region
Posted on 8/28/14 at 3:39 pm to NYCAuburn
quote:
in this time period, I wonder how many people died of aids, hunger, flu etc..., in the same region
Hell, how many have died from Malaria? If IRC, it kills over 300,000 in Africa every year.
Posted on 8/28/14 at 3:41 pm to AUCatfish
I think Sierra Leone has over a 20% infant mortality rate.
Not saying ebola isnt something to be concerned about, but its not like it has killed as many people as the flu, etc....
Not saying ebola isnt something to be concerned about, but its not like it has killed as many people as the flu, etc....
Posted on 8/28/14 at 3:50 pm to Duke
quote:
The good news is that it's scary enough that everyone is working on stopping it who is able.
Actually, this is a false assurance. I've been following the Ebola epidemic (soon to be a pandemic) with extreme interest via West African newspapers. Liberia has taken the insane measure of walling off the largest slum in Monrovia, West Point, in an attempt to contain Ebola. No one can enter or leave.
In effect, they have condemned 75,000 of Liberia's poorest to their fates. Live or die. No medical aid is being provided. Unwittingly, they have created the optimum conditions for the virus to adapt to an even more efficient killer.
Also, they are dumping Ebola victims in the St. Paul River, piling them up on vacant lots where dogs are eating them or just leaving them where people die. The fear and distrust by medical personnel is so great that very few are actually participating in any containment measures.
The panic is worst in Liberia, which is presently the hardest hit nation but it's growing in Sierra Leone and Guinea. The latter two countries are trying to prevent movement between districts within their own borders but it's a futile effort. Even national borders are so porous that people have simply switched to nighttime to travel anywhere they need to go.
In my opinion, the big threat to the world will come from Nigeria. It's the most populous nation in Africa and one of the most densely packed, especially in Lagos State. Nigeria's health system is only marginally better than Liberia's and they have lost control of the Ebola presence that was introduced by the visiting and infected Amero-Liberian doctor, Patrick Stewart, who died.
Ebola, like all mononegaviruses, will evolve quickly to maximize its advantage in a new environment. This one, a new strain that had never before been encountered, may already have made the jump to a species that is more easily spread between humans.
Additionally, another strain representing another outbreak, has popped up in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
This post was edited on 8/28/14 at 9:51 pm
Posted on 8/28/14 at 4:07 pm to Vols&Shaft83
Mark Richt has lost control of Africa.
Popular
Back to top
Follow SECRant for SEC Football News