Why is the government saying so little about Ebola and prevention?

[Markbnj]

That doesn't mean that EBOV can't be transmitted but some of the fearful don't seem to get the last bit.

Agreed that is important. It effects the possibility that infectious persons could leave it behind on a surface or something. But why focus on that? Look at the list of bodily fluids they found it in. More importantly, another way of reading the report is as a statement about how critical it is that infectious people be isolated in a proper facility. This is a disease with a 50-70% mortality rate, and people may be symptomatic for days or weeks before it progresses to the point where they seek medical attention. That will be the default behavior for most people. It would be my default behavior. I hate to go to the doctor. If I lived in Dallas and didn't know any better and got sick I would do what I always do which is ignore it until it gets better.

For me that's the big issue. If you lived in Dallas and had any chance at all of coming into contact this guy, or someone he came into contact with, and got sick tomorrow would you go right to the hospital? I assume not. I wouldn't.

 

[Red Squirrel]

I think the government really does not know what to do, and they're just overwhelmed by this. There seems to be very little in place, if anything, to prevent it from spreading in North America. No flight bans, no 10 day quarantine for people who come from infected countries. Nothing.

If nothing is done soon it will get bad. It just takes one crazy person to go around spreading it on purpose. There's a few people right now who are infected and the neighbors have to wear a hazmat suits just to go put the garbage out. It only takes a few people to spread something like this. I wont say that I'm worried about it, but I am concerned the government does not seem to be taking it as seriously as it should. Heck, they take the flu more seriously, and this is way more dangerous than the flu.

 

[videogames101]

I think the government really does not know what to do, and they're just overwhelmed by this. There seems to be very little in place, if anything, to prevent it from spreading in North America. No flight bans, no 10 day quarantine for people who come from infected countries. Nothing.

If nothing is done soon it will get bad. It just takes one crazy person to go around spreading it on purpose. There's a few people right now who are infected and the neighbors have to wear a hazmat suits just to go put the garbage out. It only takes a few people to spread something like this. I wont say that I'm worried about it, but I am concerned the government does not seem to be taking it as seriously as it should. Heck, they take the flu more seriously, and this is way more dangerous than the flu.

Am I the only one who comes into almost no contact with other people, much their fluids, on a regular basis? =/

Turns out introversion has its advantages.

 

[MongGrel]

Am I the only one who comes into almost no contact with other people, much their fluids, on a regular basis? =/

You do every day if you used a touchpad for credit/debit transactions, a public restroom, things of that nature regardless of if you care to admit otherwise or not.

Used to be a thing about catching VD off a toilet seat years ago was a passing joke thing, with this and someone active, you actually could.

 

[videogames101]

You do every day if you used a touchpad for credit/debit transactions, a public restroom, things of that nature regardless of if you care to admit otherwise or not.

Used to be a thing about catching VD off a toilet seat years ago was a passing joke thing, with this and someone active, you actually could.

Whether I care to admit it? Now that sounds like mongering :thumbsdown:

I'm not sure if you've read much about Ebola, but reading about the virus myself I've concluded that it's not much of a danger for a first world nation with any sort of sanitation habits. But feel free to make your own conclusions, and go shit in the woods or something.

 

[Red Squirrel]

You do every day if you used a touchpad for credit/debit transactions, a public restroom, things of that nature regardless of if you care to admit otherwise or not.

Used to be a thing about catching VD off a toilet seat years ago was a passing joke thing, with this and someone active, you actually could.

Yep pretty much. There are people even in 1st world countries who do not wash their hands after going to the bathroom for example. D:

 

[Markbnj]

You do every day if you used a touchpad for credit/debit transactions, a public restroom, things of that nature regardless of if you care to admit otherwise or not.

Used to be a thing about catching VD off a toilet seat years ago was a passing joke thing, with this and someone active, you actually could.

That report that Hayabusa linked seems to imply that chances of transmission from environmental surfaces is pretty low. But there are plenty of venues in which humans are in much closer contact. Think of kids and schools, or restaurants (my daughter waits tables in a Buffalo Wild Wings), or gyms. I realize that some people think this sort of speculation is just fear mongering, but when the debate is always polarized between people who think it will spread like wildfire and people who think it won't spread at all everything gets distorted.

All I am saying is that if there is any potential for the infection to spread beyond the control of CDC, i.e. any chance that someone they don't know about has it, then people should be warned about what to look for, what behaviors to avoid, etc. Hell half of it is just good sense anyway.

 

[MongGrel]

I'm not sure if you've read much about Ebola

I've read a lot about it since I started a thread about it here last June.


http://forums.anandtech.com/showthread.php?t=2388578&highlight=

But nite. I'm off to bed.

 

[Crono]

Data for United States (CDC - 2010):

Number of deaths for leading causes of death:
Heart disease: 596,577
Cancer: 576,691
Chronic lower respiratory diseases: 142,943
Stroke (cerebrovascular diseases): 128,932
Accidents (unintentional injuries): 126,438
Alzheimer's disease: 84,974
Diabetes: 73,831
Influenza and Pneumonia: 53,826
Nephritis, nephrotic syndrome, and nephrosis: 45,591
Intentional self-harm (suicide): 39,518

Number of Americans to die from Ebola since discovered in 1976: 1

Number of Americans who died in the 1918 flu pandemic: 188,000 – 337,000

Total number worldwide dead from Ebola since 1976: a few thousand (hard to find exact number range including latest outbreak)

While newspapers, news stations, and websites are scaring you to drum up readership/viewership, people at risk from dying from the flu may not even be informed as much by the media about the flu shot or that influenza is historically a much bigger killer than Ebola. Instead we are treated to headlines like this (admittedly an older front page from a known waste of paper, but still representative):

 

[Rakehellion]

You do every day if you used a touchpad for credit/debit transactions, a public restroom, things of that nature regardless of if you care to admit otherwise or not.

Used to be a thing about catching VD off a toilet seat years ago was a passing joke thing, with this and someone active, you actually could.

You can't get VD from a toilet seat. Probably not even if you lick it.

 

[Markbnj]

While newspapers, news stations, and websites are scaring you to drum up readership/viewership, people at risk from dying from the flu may not even be informed as much by the media about the flu shot or that influenza is historically a much bigger killer than Ebola.

The media doesn't talk about it because it is normal and not sensational enough for them. Around here a fair amount of public outreach is done to educate people about flu season and where shots can be had.

 

[DAGTA]

You can't get VD from a toilet seat. Probably not even if you lick it.

Yes, you can. It's rare, but it has happened. Crabs probably being the best example.

 

[feralkid]

Yes, you can. It's rare, but it has happened. Crabs probably being the best example.

Or the worst example, since they are lice, which are parasitic insects, not a disease.






.

 

[M0oG0oGaiPan]

i think the prevention is not to roll around in the fluids of someone that has ebola. I think you're also supposed to avoid eating bush meat.

 

[Muse]

They don't want people to be alarmed, they don't want anybody reacting to a situation that hasn't developed.

I did hear something interesting on college radio last week to the effect that experts have said that there's a possibility that the ebola virus will mutate to a form that is transmissible by air. If that happens watch out.

 

[massmedia]

Note saliva breaks down virus quickly but some here think anyone in the presence of an active case is at risk. No.

I'm afraid this conclusion is not supported by the paper you linked. first, the authors knew better to claim this because they don't have evidence for this. their study was not designed in a way that could possibly test this. What the authors did do is include some hand waiving conjecture (also known as a guess) to propose a hipshot way to explain the difference between saliva samples with "culturable" virus vs saliva samples with ebola RNAs bot no culturable virus.

a cursory glance at their methods reveals how badly their saliva samples were stored in light of their results:

All specimens were placed into sterile cryovials and stored at ambient temperature (∼25°C–30°C) in the isolation ward for the rest of the day (typically ⩽6 h) before being stored in liquid nitrogen at the field laboratory established for the outbreak.

as we all know, saliva contains highly effective enzymes for breaking down food. storing live virus for 6 hours at RT in active salivary enzymes is not informative on a infection mode of coughing on someone in the vacinity of someone nearby and then having them swallow that spit. i count about 5-10 seconds for that process vs the 6 hours digesting on a countertop at RT.

alternatively cough into hand, grab doornob at 7-11, next guy grabs doorknob and 2minutes later is eating some junkfood with that hand. whee is the 6 hours?

virus constantly being shed into saliva.
saliva constantly digesting virus.
now if they had frozen those saliva samples at timepoints (10 sec, 20 sec, 30 sec, 45 sec, 1min, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 15, 20, 25, 30, 45 min... 1 hr, 1.5 hr...etc)... if they had done this experiment then we could saysomething about stability in saliva.

indeed their paper and comment in the discussion section would suggest that this experiment should be done. easy paper.

 

[massmedia]

^ tablet keyboard typos

 

[DrPizza]

I think the government really does not know what to do, and they're just overwhelmed by this. There seems to be very little in place, if anything, to prevent it from spreading in North America. No flight bans, no 10 day quarantine for people who come from infected countries. Nothing.

If nothing is done soon it will get bad. It just takes one crazy person to go around spreading it on purpose. There's a few people right now who are infected and the neighbors have to wear a hazmat suits just to go put the garbage out. It only takes a few people to spread something like this. I wont say that I'm worried about it, but I am concerned the government does not seem to be taking it as seriously as it should. Heck, they take the flu more seriously, and this is way more dangerous than the flu.

A LOT is being done in the background. My wife's been very busy with all sorts things related to preparedness "just in case." Apparently, she's the first person on the call list if there's a suspected case in our area or hospital or something. (Hence my tongue in cheek joke a couple weeks ago about "I hope she doesn't bring it home to me!") As far as I'm aware, she's been in conference calls with the CDC, conference calls with NYS Dept of Health, had to do an emergency online conference call on a Saturday while we were on vacation way back in August, etc. There's a ton of stuff going on in the background.

And, I'm going to guess at the moment that those doing all the work don't have time for silly reporters questions who haven't even read the background research. There are, apparently, reporters who are trying to get the big scoop, who are doing little more than interfering at this point. (I know some specifics about this, but would rather not post them.)

Further, and this is just sheer wild speculation that has no basis on information that I've been privy to; in the current state of the world, do you really want organizations, such as terrorist organizations, to know every last little detail of our preparedness?

 

[KeithP]

If they are not 100% certain, then early messaging could be critical. So they must in fact be 100% certain, because otherwise why would you not default in favor of early action?

Because you would incite panic in a large enough segment of the population that medical resources would be quickly overwhelmed by people that think they have ebola rendering timely and adequate care for real issues impossible. Panic, even a mild form such as you are exhibiting, in large numbers creates too much of a strain on resources.

There is plenty of information out there if people are interested. Not to mention the general hygiene PSAs that come out this time of year for flu, colds, etc.

-KeithP

 

[Rakehellion]

So they must in fact be 100% certain, because otherwise why would you not default in favor of early action?

Nothing is 100% certain.

 

[DrPizza]

alternatively cough into hand, grab doornob at 7-11, next guy grabs doorknob and 2minutes later is eating some junkfood with that hand. whee is the 6 hours?

The next six hours is spent in saliva of person #2, and in the stomach acid of person #2. I'm losing track of papers, I think it was one linked in this thread, but didn't one of the papers conclude, "ebola does NOT appear to be spread [by sneezing]. We're not sure why."

Given the current situation, why should they, at this point, be wasting researcher's time figuring out why it's not spread via sneezing? Shouldn't they be focused on methods of transmission?

Further, why does it seem you're attempting to fear monger on this issue? The above, unless I'm mistaken, seems to be an attempt by you to pass doubt onto people about what's being done.

 

[Rakehellion]

You're all going to die of Ebola.

 

[Rakehellion]

And swine flu.
And avian flu.
And mad cow disease.
And MRSA.
And SARS.
And the flesh-eating virus.

 

[KeithTalent]

At this point, it's still early and acting like this is a significant problem will make it worse.

This. I'm sure they are doing stuff behind the scenes, but going public with a lot of it would probably just make people go nutty.

KT

 

[dmcowen674]

there is way more than 3 cases. for certain legal reasons i cannot say where when or who, but i am allowed to say that there are a lot more than 3.

Look at all the sheeple in here that believe there is only one.