Ebola Outbreak Discussion

[Morphine Prince 109,683]

DAKAR, Senegal (AP)  Deep in the forests of southern Guinea, the first victims fell ill with high fevers. People assumed it was the perennial killer malaria and had no reason to fear touching the bodies, as is the custom in traditional funerals.Some desperate relatives brought their loved ones to the distant capital in search of better medical care, unknowingly spreading what ultimately was discovered to be Ebola, one of the world's most deadly diseases.

Ebola, a hemorrhagic fever that can cause its victims to bleed from the ears and nose, had never before been seen in this part of West Africa where medical clinics are few and far between. The disease has turned up in at least two other countries  Liberia and Sierra Leone  and 539 deaths have been attributed to the outbreak that is now the largest on record.The key to halting Ebola is isolating the sick, but fear and panic have sent some patients into hiding, complicating efforts to stop its spread. Ebola has reached the capitals of all three countries, and the World Health Organization reported 44 new cases including 21 deaths on Friday.

There has been "a gross misjudgment across the board in gauging the severity and scale of damage the current Ebola outbreak can unleash," the aid group Plan International warned earlier this month."There are no cases from outside Africa to date. The threat of it spreading though is very much there," said Dr. Unni Krishnan, head of disaster preparedness and response for the aid group.

Preachers are calling for divine intervention, and panicked residents in remote areas have on multiple occasions attacked the very health workers sent to help them. In one town in Sierra Leone, residents partially burned down a treatment center over fears that the d--gs given to victims were actually causing the disease.Activists are trying to spread awareness in the countryside where literacy is low, even through a song penned about Ebola.

"It has no cure, but it can be prevented; let us fight it together. Let's protect ourselves, our families and our nation," sings the chorus."Do not touch people with the signs of Ebola," sings musician and activist Juli Endee. "Don't eat bush meat. Don't play with monkey and baboons. Plums that bats have bitten or half-eaten, don't eat them."

Guinea first notified WHO about the emergence of Ebola in March and soon after cases were reported in neighboring Liberia. Two months later there were hopes that the outbreak was waning, but then people began falling ill in Sierra Leone.Doctors Without Borders says it fears the number of patients now being treated in Sierra Leone could be "just the tip of the iceberg." Nearly 40 were reported in a single village in the country's east.

"We're under massive time pressure: The longer it takes to find and follow up with people who have come in contact with sick people, the more difficult it will be to control the outbreak," said Anja Wolz, emergency coordinator for the group, also referred to by its French name Medecins Sans Frontieres.This Ebola virus is a new strain and did not spread to West Africa from previous outbreaks in Uganda and Congo, researchers say. Many believe it is linked to the human consumption of bats carrying the virus. Many of those who have fallen ill in the current outbreak are family members of victims and the health workers who treated them.

There is no cure and no vaccine for Ebola, and those who have survived managed to do so only by receiving rehydration and other supportive treatment. Ebola's high fatality rate means many of those brought to health clinics have been merely kept as comfortable as possible in quarantine as they await death. As a result, some families have been afraid to take sick loved ones to the clinics."Let this warning go out: Anyone found or reported to be holding suspected Ebola cases in homes or prayer houses can be prosecuted under the law of Liberia," President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf stated recently.

Her comments came just days after Sierra Leone issued a similar warning, saying some patients had discharged themselves from the hospital and had gone into hiding.At the airport in Guinea's capital, departing passengers must undergo temperature screening, and those with a fever are pulled aside for further evaluation. Still, the stigma of Ebola follows Guineans well outside the region.

"The police treated us like we were aliens. They said they didn't want us in their country because of the disease affecting Guinea," says Tafsir Sow, a businessman who was briefly detained at the airport in Casablanca, Morocco before continuing on to Paris. "I had tears in my eyes."Still, WHO health officials are hopeful they will be able to get the situation under control in the next several weeks. A recent conference in the capital of Ghana brought together health authorities from across the affected areas, and the countries agreed on a common approach to fight Ebola.

"When you have it spread, of course it's moving in the wrong direction," said Dr. Keiji Fukuda, WHO's assistant director-general for health security and environment. "You want to see the number of infections going down. So we really have to redouble our efforts. But saying that it's out of control makes it sound like there are no solutions. This is a virus for which there are very clear solutions."

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/ebola-crisis-west-africa-deepens-500-dead-104712391.html

A long read but very informative on this crisis! It's really sad and scary to think this could spread to other parts of the world.

[SonOfAphrodite 1,838]

We learned about this in school and I really hope is does not spread anymore

[VISION 52]

This is like the scariest disease ever :eww: :eww:

[MahoganySnitch 67]

I remember reading about ebola when I was a kid and being paranoid that I'd catch it.

 

The fact that this is a legitimate fear among some people in the world is saddening. 

[ryhanna 3,507]

Awful. Ebola is such a horrifying disease, I hope they manage to contain it.

[Lion Heart 15,041]

:( 

 

 

I first read about this back in April or May when the death count was in the eighties, and now it has passed 500 and is spreading. This is awful. 

[pink sushi 4,351]

What?!? I thought there situation had gotten under control!!!!! :ohno:

[Dayman 6,251]

A big reason why it's so lethal is because it's very hard to contract. Over in Africa it's not nearly as sanitary as the western world - so it spreads somewhat easily. If it were to evolve into an airborne disease it would actually reduce it would be quite less lethal. Remember - 500 over a couple of months in such a large area is a relatively small number. There are over 42,000 people in my small-ish town to put things in perspective.

[Echo 327]

I heard about this before it even went to 200 this is insane.

[teo 609]

 

Preachers are calling for divine intervention, and panicked residents in remote areas have on multiple occasions attacked the very health workers sent to help them. In one town in Sierra Leone, residents partially burned down a treatment center over fears that the d--gs given to victims were actually causing the disease.

What kind of medieval mess...

 

I hope they'll manage to stop it's spreading so no more people die. And most importantly keep it where it is.

[Stef 61,674]

 

 

The World Health Organisation (WHO) has declared West Africa's Ebola outbreak an international health emergency, and called for global "solidarity" in the fight to stop the spread of the virus which has now claimed close to a thousand lives.

Last night Nigeria, Africa's most populous country, became the latest to declare a state of emergency over Ebola, after four new cases emerged in just two days. President Goodluck Jonathan announced an emergency fund to combat the virus, which has infected 13 people in Nigeria since the first case at the end of July, killing two.

States of emergency have already been declared in Sierra Leone and Liberia, where the number of Ebola cases continues to rise. Margaret Chan, director general of WHO, inset, said that there was still potential for further international spread, and warned that the countries affected did not have the capacity to manage the outbreak alone.It is only the third time that WHO has declared a public health emergency of international concern, a high level of threat previously applied to the H1N1 "swine flu" outbreak in 2008, and the ongoing polio outbreak in Asia, Africa and the Middle East.According to the latest WHO figures, released yesterday, 961 people had been killed in the current Ebola outbreak, which is by far the worst since the virus was first identified in the 1970s. British expert Dr Ben Neuman, a virologist at the University of Reading, said that it was unlikely the virus could be stopped completely until "after Christmas". However, he said the declaration of an international emergency was "a big forward step"."This will make the vast resources of the United Nations such as funds, experts and equipment available to help stop Ebola," he said.

http://www.independent.ie/world-news/africa/ebola-plague-now-a-global-emergency-say-health-leaders-30494972.html

 

SO ****ING SCARED RN

[Chase 406]

         

[Sunny 12,753]

Oh god no :Cry:

[Stef 61,674]

         

I expected it tbh, thankfully I live in Ireland tho, we are usually lucky to miss epidemics 

[Dayman 6,251]

Well yeah, it's in mulitple countries in Africa. That makes it international.