Ebola

[Steve Walker]

It's a fair point, though, that an obscure virus which has mostly only ever killed a few thousand poor Africans is not likely to get much research spend - especially when such work would mean that we would be more likely to see an accidentally infected lab worker than a natural case.

 

Pharma don't see any money in it. NGOs see far more pressing health issues for their £. The only people really interested in it are those governments which are worried it might be used to attack soldiers or civilians - what research has been done into antivirals or vaccines has been funded by the US government.

[Ken L]

A little over 900 deaths on 06 August and now, 12 days later it's over 1,200 with dire hints that the death toll is being massively underreported.

With this weeks insanity in West Point where blood stained mattresses and linen from confirmed Ebola sufferers were looted from a hospital, it looks like there's about to be an explosion of cases in one of Liberia's worst slums.

 

Nigeria may or may not have dodged a bullet. The 12 people confirmed to have contracted the virus all had contact with Patrick Sawyer but there are reports of another case unconnected with Sawyer that has been confirmed by blood test.

 

Meanwhile, I was told yesterday that a mates doctor girlfriend is about to ship out to Africa with MSF.

[Ken L]

Brace yourself Dave. They're about to fly the first British Ebola patient into the country.

[chesters1]

Sickening the mindset of the scum that are supposed to care for the welfare of the country if its shipped back ,still think the turnstiles should only turn outward ,if you go through them you deserve everything you get .

[Ken L]

I can see it now, you and Donald Trump as best buddies.

[chesters1]

If god existed he and his wig would die in agony on his frickin golf course ,no problem with his view if only he stayed in america himself and not blighted scotland

[Vagabond]

If you take anything from its "natural" place and put it somewhere else, it is a statistical certainty that sooner or later it will escape or be stolen, however rigorously you imprison and guard it - and however earnestly the powers-that-be insist that there is "no risk"

 

Applies to Prisoners of War, mink, valuable oil paintings by Monet, Himalayan Balsam, wild boar, errant schoolboys in detention, The Crown Jewels, Tyrannosaurus rex, and anything else you may think of, including of course the ebola virus.

[Ken L]

It's certainly breaking out in Africa, with DR Congo confirming cases and new cases cropping up in Nigeria.

I don't think we're going to need any terrorist nutjobs on this one. It's spreading exponentially and I have a horrible feeling that the numbers dying in two or three months will shock the world.

Meanwhile, our universities are preparing to welcome hundreds of students from the affected area.

[chesters1]

not just unis but "colleges" as well, going by experience some never turn up for their course some only attend breifly ,if thats normal throughout the country then theres hundreds (thousands?) of "students" disapearing into the massses every year.

a great number come on forged papers so we dont know who they are and only know where they came from where they caught the plane from (not where they originaly come from) or if by coach or train only where they got on it.

you have more chance of detecting those with ebola in the countries with it i doubt theres any screening at the border once they get here.

ofcourse if they are not doing courses then they are working most probably with many others in sweatshop conditions and in multi occupancy rooms ideal for infecting others ,i am lucky i never caught TB i used to train students to make pcb's in a very confined area i think mr ebola would thrive in those conditions.

going by our one trip to inverness on the overnight coach 75% of the passengers were foreign in that sweaty trip we both ended up with colds luckily nothing worse!

theres lots of places this disease could be passed on once it arrives (the underground is ideal it should do well in london i bet the mps dont visit again)

nothing to worry about though i am sure the government is buying lots of doses of useless junk from that nice mr rumsfeld as we speak,i expect the process of crossing out the "flu" bit in tamiflu and writing in tamiebola in marker pen is already in process

Edited August 24, 2014 by chesters1

[Ken L]

This is astonishing.

 

Near as I can see, that's an unsealed plastic sided gurney and the porters have no masks, no goggles, no suits, bare arms and possibly, not even gloves.