Ebola (NO political discussion please)

[Krav]

C D C

Center
For
Disease
And
Confusion

 

[Charr]

Here's an article outlining how the flu virus changes:

http://www.flu.gov/about_the_flu/virus_changes/

Antigenic Shift 1
A duck or other aquatic bird passes a bird flu strain to an intermediate host such as a chicken or pig.

A person passes a human strain of influenza A to the same chicken or pig.

When the viruses infect the same cell, the genes from the bird strain mix with genes from the human strain, making a new strain.

The new strain can spread from the intermediate host to humans.

...................

Sure sounds like they can (and do) infect the same cells to me. Or maybe flu.gov has it all wrong.

It is entirely possible (and probable) that Ebola will mutate. All viruses do. Who's to say Ebola couldn't mutate and become more transmissible by combining with something else?

Ah, yes, you do have a valid point in regards to intermediate and shared hosts, sorry. Still, the likelyhood of it happening is low because even in thee intrmediary and shared hosts that Ebola has with other viruses, they infect largely different cells, and they are very different viruses.

The reason Influenza A and the bird flu were able to mingle and mutate is because they are extremely similar in actual compostion, perticularly in the RNA strand that is carried inside each virus, allowing one to mingle with another in the same celular necleus. Ebola effects different cell types than Influenza A, and most other airborne viruses, and has a vastly different RNA composition, so genetic intermingling is very unlikely.

Where you are correct is the fact that all viruses do mutate, and the Ebola eventually will at some point, but there are many factors to affect the mutation of viruses and the propogation of mutated strains. Viruses mutate every second, but well over 99.999% of those mutations fail, and do not properly develope to spread. In order for a virus to mutate to the point that we will become aware of it and it becomes a significant threat, it must be more affective that the previous stain of the virus. In the case of Ebola, this is highly unlikely, though admitadely the chances of efficient mutation are increased by the environment that Ebola is currently spreading in, where it is fairly easy for it to spread, and it has minimal reistence from medical science.

Influenza-type viruses are dangerous because they can mutate so effeciently with one-another, but it is not a good idea to consider Ebola similar to Influenze-type viruses. The Ebola virus is a completely different type of virus than Influenza A, and they have an extremly low chance of ever intermingling, much less creating anything that could become an effective strain.

Ebola is capable of becoming more transmissable, but the chances of that are kept low because of the TYPE of virus that Ebola is. Concerns like this are good to have, but in order to fully understand this issue, you really need to know more about virology, which is a pretty uncommon subject for most people to study. I studied it for a year, and honestly not much after that, but I do know enough to try and help out as much as I can, especially since Ebola was one of the viruses that I studied somewhat heavily because upfront it looks terrifying. Once I started to do more research, I basically learned that, while Ebola is a dangerous virus, it can be managed, and it can be contained, especially in first-world countries.

I undertsand where everyone's concern comes from in this, but for now this is not a really drastic threat to our society in general, but it does still pose a threat, and steps do need to be taken to ensure that it does not become one. In the countries that lack any sanitation or proper medical care, like those effected by Ebola right now, it is a disatrous and extremely dangerous disease, and I cannot say how that will play out. Honestly, this may have to be one of the diseases that dies out because it manages to kill the majority of the people who easily conract it. It is a truly grim and grotesque way for it to be resolved, but it may become the reality that a very large number of people in Africa will end up dying from Ebola before the disease starts to disapear again because of lack of viable hosts.

C D C

Center
For
Disease
And
Confusion

I really wish the CDC was handling this situation better in terms of informing the public at the very least. It should not be the general media who updates us on an issue like this, but the group whose responsibility it is to keep us safe from diseases and give us the information. If this is too political, I am sorry, but media makes money from garnering viewership, and they largely do that via panic, so I feel that the CDC needs to take better control of this situation and distribute more accurate information as much as possible in easily-accessed media outlets, so as to minimize the panic induced by people listening to general media such as the news.

 

[bandaidman]

Ebola appears not to be that infectious until patients develop multi system organ failure. They have copious vomiting and bloody diarrhea and those secretions are highly infectious. It does not appear to be airborne at all.

Most cases of health care worker infections appear to be due to inadequate PPE (personal protective equipment) or inoculation from removing contaminated PPE.

Initial CDC recs regarding PPE clearly sub optimal. The WHO and MSF recs are much better.

The stigmatization of health care workers who got infected is unfortunate. Every single one is a volunteer who cared for very ill people. Good luck finding more such volunteers if there is a bigger outbreak in the US

Personally, I am much more concerned about MERS and multi-drug resistant TB

 

[Charr]

Ebola appears not to be that infectious until patients develop multi system organ failure. They have copious vomiting and bloody diarrhea and those secretions are highly infectious. It does not appear to be airborne at all.

Most cases of health care worker infections appear to be due to inadequate PPE (personal protective equipment) or inoculation from removing contaminated PPE.

Initial CDC recs regarding PPE clearly sub optimal. The WHO and MSF recs are much better.

The stigmatization of health care workers who got infected is unfortunate. Every single one is a volunteer who cared for very ill people. Good luck finding more such volunteers if there is a bigger outbreak in the US

Personally, I am much more concerned about MERS and multi-drug resistant TB

I think this is spot-on. I'm fairly sure any health-care pofesionals invloved here are following the regulations as they should, but the regulations themselves need to be improved. Just recently, the CDC increased the requirements for protective clothing when dealing with Ebola so that no exposed skin could be allowed, whereas before there were allowances for some exposed skin (which there shouldn't have been in the beginning).

The point at which Ebola is most dangerous is the secondary symptoms, but this is also usually when most people recognize that they have the disease and either attempt to do something about it if they are aware of the correct medical care required, or they start to panic and end up spreading the disease further in the cases of a large part of the population in poorer countries affected right now.

Also, MERS and multi-drug resistant TB...yeah, you want to talk about scary diseases...

I'm going to sound like a broken record here, but Ebola shouldn't be a serious threat in first-world countries with effecient health-care. This is why the disease hasn't really spread outside of Africa to any severe degree yet.