Ebola Outbreak in Uganda

Status
Not open for further replies.

blankslate

Diamond Member
Jun 16, 2008
8,581
472
126
http://www.cnn.com/2012/07/29/world/africa/uganda-ebola-virus/index.html

(CNN) -- Ugandan authorities did not initially detect an Ebola outbreak because patients weren't showing typical symptoms of the lethal virus, the nation's health minister told CNN Sunday. Patients had fevers and were vomiting, but did not show other typical symptoms like hemorrhaging, Health Minister Dr. Christine Ondoa said.
A team from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention was on the way to Uganda to provide laboratory support to officials dealing with the virus, which health authorities say has left at least 14 people dead in the east African nation this month.
A medic who was treating victims is among the dead, Ondoa said.
Officials are trying to determine the extent of the outbreak, CDC spokesman Tom Skinner said Sunday.
About five people from the Atlanta-based centers were expected to join a group of CDC staffers who are permanently based in Uganda, Skinner said.
"These outbreaks have a tendency to sort of stamp themselves out, if you will, if we can get in and sort of stop the chain of transmission," he said.
Ondoa described the Ebola-Sudan strain detected as "mild" compared to other types of Ebola, noting that victims' lives can be saved with intervention.
A total of 20 cases of the virus have been recorded, officials said Saturday.


This is a pretty scary virus. Hopefully it never becomes contagious by air.
 

PokerGuy

Lifer
Jul 2, 2005
13,650
201
101
Definitely scary stuff. Hopefully it stays contained and doesn't mutate into something that spreads further.
 

Skyclad1uhm1

Lifer
Aug 10, 2001
11,383
87
91
Imagine a terrorist going there to get himself infected and then flying to a major European or US city.
 

a777pilot

Diamond Member
Apr 26, 2011
4,261
21
81
Ebola does NOT make for a good biological weapon at this time. It needs modification. Why? It kills too quickly.
 

blankslate

Diamond Member
Jun 16, 2008
8,581
472
126
Ebola does NOT make for a good biological weapon at this time. It needs modification. Why? It kills too quickly.

Mutation is a modification that can happen without human intervention.

It could happen. Which is why outbreaks are worth watching. If one starts and doesn't seem to burn out then uh oh...
 

a777pilot

Diamond Member
Apr 26, 2011
4,261
21
81
Mutation is a modification that can happen without human intervention.

It could happen. Which is why outbreaks are worth watching. If one starts and doesn't seem to burn out then uh oh...

I agree but I bet there are many countries working on human modifications.
 

Skyclad1uhm1

Lifer
Aug 10, 2001
11,383
87
91
Ebola does NOT make for a good biological weapon at this time. It needs modification. Why? It kills too quickly.

For a terrorist it doesn't need to be a great weapon though. Imagine someone infecting several people on the airport after arrival. Before they are tracked down they may have infected others already. If it leaks out that someone did infect people with Ebola and that they don't know where all those people are the resulting panic would be huge.
 

werepossum

Elite Member
Jul 10, 2006
29,873
463
126
Mutation is a modification that can happen without human intervention.

It could happen. Which is why outbreaks are worth watching. If one starts and doesn't seem to burn out then uh oh...
Like the Black Plague, that over the course of the fourteenth century mutated to something much less virulent even to people never previously exposed to it.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.