outbreak! (ebola, sars, coronavirus, etc)

wanna c&p that on every damn facebook post I see for the next week

be my guest

i have total confidence in the medical system to properly handle any other arising cases. that said, i am still illogically terrified

Sick Burn I saw on FB:

Don't worry about Ebola spreading in Dallas. The Cowboys have shown us that people in Dallas can't catch anything.

Ebola spreads by physical contact with bodily secretions and fluids. That makes it easier to contain in a place like the USA or Europe, where there are lots of medical facilities and a patient's recent contacts can be quickly discovered and tracked down.

Even so, if ebola strongly establishes itself in Africa, with a reservoir of infected people who keep the virus continuously viable and circulating, then not only will massive numbers of africans die, but ebola will keep leaping to other parts of the world, including the USA and Europe. It can be compared to sparks thrown out from a wildfire, which land on tinder and start other fires away from the main fire. You can put out many of these small satellite fires, but it is hard to extinguish all of them, and the more new places that start burning the harder the firestorm is to keep contained.

That's a good analogy. I really wish international focus between the Ebola outbreak and ISIL was better divided.

run for the hills imo

*not the hills of West Africa, tho*

http://i.imgur.com/LHm72Rq.png

ugh goddamned parody accounts :(

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/10/02/world/africa/ebola-spreading-in-west-africa.html

this is a very difficult article to read

apparently the problem is not money but organization and time

Oh jeez:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/10/02/texas-ebola_n_5919522.html

at what point is it ok for me to start panicking?

supposed to go to the state fair this weekend and have resolved not to touch any surfaces and to bathe myself in hand sanitizer after it is all over.

the panic is hilarious. Especially from folks who drive on the streets of Dallas. You should be much more afraid of north Texas drivers than ebola.

until there is an effective vaccine I consider ebola as a threat, but in the USA it is a long term threat, which gives the researchers plenty of time to develop that vaccine.

truly despicable imo for rand paul, a physician, to be saying things like this to score political points

http://www.cbsnews.com/news/sen-rand-paul-sounds-ebola-alarm/

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/10/02/world/africa/ebola-spreading-in-west-africa.html

this is a very difficult article to read

apparently the problem is not money but organization and time

― I dunno. (amateurist), Wednesday, October 1, 2014 7:27 PM (Yesterday

disorganization and lack of preparedness (not to mention distrust of medical authorities, belief in traditional healing, etc) are consequences of poverty, though. this was from a few weeks ago but i think it's a good primer

http://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMp1409494

First, Guinea, Sierra Leone, and Liberia are resource-poor countries already coping with major health challenges, such as malaria and other endemic diseases, some of which may be confused with EVD. Next, their borders are porous, and movement between countries is constant. Health care infrastructure is inadequate, and health workers and essential supplies including personal protective equipment are scarce. Traditional practices, such as bathing of corpses before burial, have facilitated transmission. The epidemic has spread to cities, which complicates tracing of contacts. Finally, decades of conflict have left the populations distrustful of governing officials and authority figures such as health professionals. Add to these problems a rapidly spreading virus with a high mortality rate, and the scope of the challenge becomes clear

rand paul, a physician

He's an ophthalmologist without board certification so this is something of a stretch, but yeah obv his statements are fear mongering nonsense.

does anyone know what's the hard libertarian faithful take on institutions like the cdc?

viruses are information that wants to be free?

It seems to be under control in Nigeria! Good news!

Slate: Spread of Ebola Appears to Have Been Stopped in Nigeria

Meanwhile, local health workers paid 18,500 face-to-face visits to repeatedly take the temperatures of nearly 900 people who had contact with them. The last confirmed case was detected on Aug. 31, and virtually all contacts have passed the 21-day incubation period without falling ill.

wow, don't think i knew about paul's board certification controversy before this, that's pretty messed up. at any rate tho he's still a physician and should know better

context:

http://www.npr.org/blogs/health/2014/10/02/352983774/no-seriously-how-contagious-is-ebola?utm_source=facebook.com&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=npr&utm_term=nprnews&utm_content=202402

how about this madness

http://www.thecommonsenseshow.com/2014/09/04/illegal-immigrant-related-pandemic-diseases-are-appearing-in-the-us/

http://www.americanthinker.com/2014/09/the_invasion_of_enterovirus_evd68.html

meanwhile in dallas officials seem to be handling things well

from cnn.com

Cleanup delayed
As concerns grow over how many people he may have exposed to the deadly virus, a plan to sanitize the apartment was delayed late Thursday.
Brad Smith of the Cleaning Guys, the company hired to sanitize the apartment, said they do not have the proper permits to transport hazardous waste on Texas highways.
Smith said authorities sent them away late Thursday before they entered the apartment and told them to come back with proper permits. It's unclear how long that will take.
"The permit is being processed through DOT (Department of Transportation) because it is a special permit," Smith said.
"This is a unique situation. Once awarded our hazmat teams will be allowed back inside to do their jobs."

CNN: Dr. Irwin Redlener, a professor at Columbia University's school of public health, called the handling of the quarantine "hair raising."

<3 cnn.com

EBOLA IN DC & MARYLAND

UNNECESSARY IRONIC ALL-CAPS HAVE INFECTED ILX

Let me know when DC ebola fatalities exceeds http://mpdc.dc.gov/page/traffic-fatalities

RIP Thomas Eric Duncan

My office sent out an Ebola advisory note to everyone today advising that we don't travel to countries with outbreaks. Thanks for the tip guys! I guess I should reconsider that vacation to Liberia.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00O4ADBA8

mmhmm

I mean, ebola is transmitted through fluid contact, so it might, or it might just make you a prepper

How long can ebola just hang out on surfaces and remain contagious?

Also, have any of the usual right wing subjects started calling him Barack Ebola?

http://www.dailydot.com/lol/obola-explained

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/By-n99jIMAESe_o.jpg

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/10/13/us/texas-health-worker-tests-positive-for-ebola.html

yup

Are ebola patients always protected by dancing police officers?

http://static01.nyt.com/images/2014/10/13/us/13ebola1-web/13ebola1-web-articleLarge.jpg

that's like a mile from where i used to live. ebola pls

Plane grounded at lax for over two hours now bc a passenger is displaying flu-like symptoms and has had contact w someone from Africa. A twitter user @gingerhazing is one of those stuck on the plane and is livetweeting it

twitter user and up and comic comics artist! Not to diminish her ebola paranoia liveblogging contributions

Yes after posting that I swiped left on her profile and found that out. lol at how out of touch with my own field I am.

All clear I guess-- moral: do not barf in public if you or people around you have anywhere you need to be anytime soon

boy, do some people really mistrust the federal government

and/or racist

stop me if you've heard this one

"they're doing it on purpose to seize power during a crisis"

or this one

"obama's endangering american lives because he identifies with africans more than americans"

oy.

i wonder if someone at the hospital didn't follow protocol, or if the protocols were lacking. either way: scary. feel terrible for the nurse.

the hospital claims she was, but they've been pretty disgustingly dishonest about a few things already so it's hard to take their word for it. i think i read something earlier today that said the CDC was disputing that this was the case. (and not to get too realpolitik, but i found it pretty shocking that the CDC would call out the hospital like that so quickly.)

that said it should be understood that caring for patients with ebola is not risk-free and that adherence to guidelines minimizes the risks of transmission but does not eliminate them. viruses are small and can thwart event the best-laid plans. even removing protective gear can be hazardous -- in fact it's thought that this is where a large part of the danger lies, in exposing oneself while taking off contaminated PPE

Michigan is ground central as far as reported cases, but the reporting is only rolled up after a couple weeks, I think?

Illinois has some cases so my friend who just finished chemotherapy for a digestive cancer wasn't going to chance eating unheated food when I was there briefly over the weekend. He's got enough going on

now it's looking like Taco Bell lettuce is the smoking gun

no. from a farmer friend:

"It’s wild that I keep seeing people place blame on Taco Bell for the Cyclospora outbreak. Taco Bell was one of the rare “heroes” in all of this, voluntarily pulling product and whistleblowing themselves in lieu of still having anything resembling a functioning CDC. Taylor farms is to blame. Solely. When it’s not them it’s one of the other mega farms in Selinas California that use slave labor with no facilities, deplorable working conditions, and no desire to make it better in any way. They don’t have to, they have an army of lawyers to bail them out when they get busted making whole populations sick. Remember with everything you buy what kind of system you’re supporting"

yeah, I should've said it's the lettuce, not Taco Bell.. and that lettuce came from Taylor Farms

Taco Bell was just the first major company to lock down publicly and blaming them for the outbreak is wacky when they were just a company that stepped up. Some real Spanish flu syndrome

East of Eden 2 - Electric Poopooloo

so now they're saying that maybe the parasite was not from Taylor Farms? And they don't really know where it started

this is what happens when you guy federal agencies

*gut*

It's funny, early last week a few friends on Facebook (ones who are sharing posts with intros like "a friend wrote this" only for it to turn out, after I'd googled a phrase, to be written by Rebecca Solnit and unattributed) shared heads-up about Taylors Farm being the source, so I was almost surprised when it turned out to be true (but now maybe not?).

they still think it's lettuce, just not sure whose lettuce: While the Food and Drug Administration has confirmed that a positive test result linked to samples of Taylor Farms-branded shredded lettuce sourced from central Mexico was instead a false positive, the investigation remains focused on the produce.

An ex of mine had some bad lettuce on a chicken sandwich from a chain called The Habit - this was in 2017. She ended up in the Stanford Univ hospital with organ shutdown and all that... the CDC did an investigation. She was eventually cured with a drug that cost $900,000 but it was considered experimental so she didn't have to pay for it. It was gnarly, food poisoning is no joke

worst food poisoning i ever had was from a side salad at an Ethiopian restaurant five blocks from my house.

went hospital then too, was in not great shape, but they just fed me electrolytes and said to rest for a few days after a night in obs

probably started multiple places since this isn't an uncommon pathogen. small outbreaks popping up making it hard to pinpoint the main one, if it exists

I'm terrified of buying my boxed arugula. Should I be?

arugula is often grown in greenhouses, so you are better off with that than mainstream lettuce. also, it's a pretty hearty green so you can also give it a good rinsing.

worst food poisoning i ever had was from a side salad at an Ethiopian restaurant five blocks from my house.

unless there was an outbreak and this was deemed the culprit, in my experience, the last thing someone ate, or thereabouts, is what gets blamed. the incubation for cyclospora can be up to 14 days!

outdoor miner, everyone else with me got sick too