And for your Dose of Ebola Happy News.

[MongGrel]

Thing like this still worries me they'll get away for real someday, but I guess would solve the population problem a bit.

Would be getting into 12 Monkeys range.

I thought this stuff was actually a bit harder to pass than it is, I guess you can contract it just from someone's sweat after looking into it a bit awhile back.

I knew it was fluid contact, but didn't know just sweat could do it.

Current Ebola Outbreak Is Now The Worst In History And 'Totally Out Of Control'

http://www.rr.com/articles/2014/06/...e-worst-in-history-and-totally-out-of-control

Not to sound too morbid, but a real threat of pretty much real life zombies on the way.

Don't touch em, they don't need to bite you.

 

[Printer Bandit]

wasn't ebola created in a lab somewhere?

 

[Paratus]

wasn't ebola created in a lab somewhere?

No. But an airborne version infected a medical primate facility in Virginia. Luckily it was asymptomatic in people.

http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reston_virus

 

[MongGrel]

Yeah, well this one having a 60% fatality rate atm and being able just be passed on from skin contact isn't making it look real pretty.

Oughta be locking down some airports I'd think at the least.

It wasn't created in a lab, but I believe the Soviet Union had a few people die in lab accidents playing around trying to develop it as a Biological Weapon once upon a time.

Adromeda Strain time, heh.

 

[Imp]

wasn't ebola created in a lab somewhere?

Absolutely... People of the country being affected were rioting because they thought the government or foreign doctors infected them, no?

 

[Jaepheth]

wasn't ebola created in a lab somewhere?

This whole planet is a petri dish of horrors

 

[MongGrel]

One nudge and I'll leave it alone, just because I think this could get ugly and needs some discussion.

 

[Ruptga]

The WHO isn't advising that people avoid travel or trade in the affected areas. Apparently they don't think this has much chance of spreading outside the currently affected areas.

 

[WelshBloke]

Yeah, well this one having a 60% fatality rate atm and being able just be passed on from skin contact isn't making it look real pretty.

On a positive note, it's so fucking deadly that it doesn't make a good candidate for the next pandemic.

If you've played "plague Inc" you'd know that you need to get your infectivity and vectors of infection up before you boost your lethality. And if you haven't played it you should.

 

[Phoenix86]

What's real estate in Madagascar like?

 

[Gibsons]

Can't say I'm that worried. Ebola is sort of self limiting. Sympathy for those effected, and a friend of a friend is probably in that region right now... but tuberculosis will kill thousands of times more people this year and next.

 

[Phoenix86]

The WHO isn't advising that people avoid travel or trade in the affected areas. Apparently they don't think this has much chance of spreading outside the currently affected areas.

Low incubation, high visibility, high lethality.

Way to blow your cover ebola.

 

[Hugo Drax]

More people die from choking every month than Ebola.

 

[SlickSnake]

Ebola is highly contagious in endemic populations who rarely (if ever) practice good personal hygiene like regularly bathing and proper hand washing before and after doing things that can spread pathogens such as food preparation and going to the bathroom.

Which is why airborne pathogens like tuberculosis strains that resist treatment will always be a far greater threat, since exposure to contaminated air on something like a train, bus, boat or plane will be far more likely to spread the diseases. While Ebola can also be spread in confined areas, you would need almost direct contact of some sort to spread it, like the person touching you or coughing in your face or leaving bodily fluids behind on surfaces you later touch.

 

[Ruptga]

^^ All true. I've read that they're having problems containing it because they're unable to convince people to adjust funerary traditions, etc, not because it's super contagious. I think what concerns most readers is the idea that a person over there could shake hands with someone infected, get on a plane, and bring a very deadly disease here. The fact of the matter is that's extremely unlikely, but it's still an unsettling idea.

 

[Gooberlx2]

Has Madagascar closed its ports? I don't worry until then.

 

[esquared]

No. But an airborne version infected a medical primate facility in Virginia. Luckily it was asymptomatic in people.

http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reston_virus

Read the book based in-part, on the Reston incident. I read it in the 90's.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Hot_Zone

It reads like a sci-fi book.

 

[SlickSnake]

And after thinking about this some, if it can be transmitted by sweat onto a surface, this might be transmissible on a contaminated toilet seat. Just something to think about when we are told repeatedly in the media how toilet seats are really safe to use if they look clean.

Cover or hover?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FFrbmYpvC4I]

 

[Printer Bandit]

what is the shelf life of sweat ebola? minutes?

 

[Ruptga]

And after thinking about this some, if it can be transmitted by sweat onto a surface, this might be transmissible on a contaminated toilet seat. Just something to think about when we are told repeatedly in the media how toilet seats are really safe to use if they look clean.

Cover or hover?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FFrbmYpvC4I]

 

[SlickSnake]

what is the shelf life of sweat ebola? minutes?

Now they know for bacteria and viruses like Ebola, it's longer than that, up to a week under the right conditions.

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10887180

Meningococcal bacteria can live outside body for a week

A study has challenged long-held beliefs about the survival of meningococcal bacteria outside the body, finding they can live for up to seven days.

In the most extensive study of its kind, researcher Claire Swain from the school of Biological Sciences at Victoria University in Wellington, spent 10 years researching different strains of the bacteria.

Previously it had been widely believed the bacteria could not survive for long periods outside the human body.

However, she found every strain tested could survive outside the body for periods of four hours to seven days, and environmental conditions were a key factor in bacteria survival rates.

The results highlighted the risk of contracting the disease through sharing things like drink bottles, glasses and cutlery, days after it had been infected.

"They may not even have to put the implement in their mouth to transfer the bacteria - sneezing on it might be enough,'' she said.
The relationship between temperature and humidity was important in the survival of bacteria, said Dr Swain.

"The New Zealand epidemic strain survived really well during winter and significantly worse during summer, which fits in with the seasonal epidemic rates of meningococcal disease in the western world.''

Dr Swain tested survival rates for a selection of strains on both plastic and glass, including the serogroup B strain which caused an epidemic in New Zealand in the 1990s and early 2000s.

She found the bacteria lasted significantly longer on glass than on plastic.
Dr Swain said her results show that different serogroups have different survival rates, but that was only one factor in their potency.

The findings were the first step towards identifying possible markers that could predict if a particular strain could be a strong survivor, and was therefore more likely to cause an epidemic.

 

[MongGrel]

More people die from choking every month than Ebola.

At the moment.

It actually does have a two week incubation period I guess, someone correct me if I'm wrong which is why there is a second wave and it's starting to get a bit more out of control than before.

I doubt it would be two weeks on anything, but things like that on doorknobs etc are a bit scarey to think about.

Got me, why I said it's a bit scarey.

 

[Gibsons]

Ebola is highly contagious in endemic populations who rarely (if ever) practice good personal hygiene like regularly bathing and proper hand washing before and after doing things that can spread pathogens such as food preparation and going to the bathroom.

It's not highly contagious.

Now they know for bacteria and viruses like Ebola, it's longer than that, up to a week under the right conditions.

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10887180

Viruses like Ebola? You mean other filoviruses? Which ones?

Not sure why you'd compare bacteria to ebola regarding extracellular survival.

 

[DCal430]

One thing that limits how far Ebola spreads is how fast it takes down its victims. It is only contagious during its symptomatic period. In this case the symptoms come hard and the victims are in no condition to spread anything.

 

[DCal430]

Makes me wonder though. What is worst infection with HIV or Ebola Zaire.