• Quick note - the problem with Youtube videos not embedding on the forum appears to have been fixed, thanks to ZiprHead. If you do still see problems let me know.

Merged So Ebola's back......

catsmate1 said:
Interesting thing, he was asymptomatic for six days and wandering around London before he got sick and sought medical attention.
Click to expand...

Is that the known latency period? I know that a lot is still not known about this illness. If they had a timeline of when he was infected, then it would be interesting to know when he would become able to infect others. Presumably, they tested his blood and saw that he had the virus.

Also, there is a concept of viral load and penetration with viral exposure. If you have a high initial viral exposure, you're going to have a worse initial disease. This is the difference between, say, someone directly sneezing in your face in the case of influenza, or walking into a room where someone has just sneezed. If you get 10M copies of the virus as the initial assault vs. 10K copies, you are likely to have a more intense and more severe initial phase of the disease. Make sense intuitively. There is more virus in your body replicating before your immune system revs up and catches up. Wonder if that is also at play with Ebola? If a lesser fatal version of the disease is associated with an initially lower viral load, that may bode well for development of a vaccine.

~Dr. Imago
 
Dr. Imago said:
Is that the known latency period? I know that a lot is still not known about this illness. If they had a timeline of when he was infected, then it would be interesting to know when he would become able to infect others. Presumably, they tested his blood and saw that he had the virus.
Click to expand...
This was in 1976, he was only the second "western" case of the disease, in fact (IIRC) it was still considered a Marburg variant.

I don't know about the latency period, I *believe* it's dependent on the circumstances. Platt stuck himself on 05NOV1975 and took appropriate action, attempted to squeeze out blood and stuck his thumb into a bleach solution. He wasn't even sure if he had punctured the skin.
Six days later he started feeling unwell (nauseous and exhausted, he compare it to a flu/hangover combination) with abdominal pain later. Sensibly he called a specialist in the London Hospital for Tropical Diseases and his colleagues at Porton and he was admitted immediately to an isolation unit. Even in an isolation room, with airlocks, he was then put in an isolator tent under negative air pressure. The dosed him with interferon and went looking for blood serum from a survivor to supply antibodies.
Four days after admission (while on interferon but before serum was available) Platt’s temperature spiked and he started vomiting. He was apparently quite lucid and expecting to die prepared his will and other paperwork quite calmly.
Over the next four days he vomited and suffered severe diarrhea; he also showed the spreading rash noted in the African cases. He displayed signs of secondary infections (including a fungal growth in his throat that prevented him swallowing or talking) and his doctors believed his immune system was crashing. During this time the blood serum had been prepared and administered (though it's actual effectiveness wasn't known)
Eight days after admission he showed signs of improvement, his vomiting and diarrhea had ended.
Day ten saw the fungal infection diminish and the rash also.
Over the next week the virus disappeared from Platt's blood, urine, and feces (though not, oddly, from his semen). He was de-isolated after twenty days and released a couple of weeks later, minus more than ten kilos of body weight and most of his hair.

Dr. Imago said:
Also, there is a concept of viral load and penetration with viral exposure. If you have a high initial viral exposure, you're going to have a worse initial disease. This is the difference between, say, someone directly sneezing in your face in the case of influenza, or walking into a room where someone has just sneezed. If you get 10M copies of the virus as the initial assault vs. 10K copies, you are likely to have a more intense and more severe initial phase of the disease. Make sense intuitively. There is more virus in your body replicating before your immune system revs up and catches up. Wonder if that is also at play with Ebola? If a lesser fatal version of the disease is associated with an initially lower viral load, that may bode well for development of a vaccine.

~Dr. Imago
Click to expand...
Exactly. Platt probably only got a tiny initial dose of the virus, which may have been reduced by the bleach. This along with excellent medical care, genetics and perhaps a mild strain saved him.
 
Bump. It's not going away, in fact it's getting worse. More than 500 dead and it's spreading to urban areas. Phrases like "out of control" are being used.

DN link.
The Guardian.
 
It never left. There have been small numbers of cases all along.

Ebola virus disease - West Africa (79): Guinea, Nigeria prevention, drug testing 20140703.2586162
Ebola virus disease - West Africa (78): Guinea, Sierra Leone, Liberia 20140702.2583396
Ebola virus disease - West Africa (77): WHO, meeting, Sierra Leone, Liberia 20140701.2579682
Ebola virus disease - West Africa (74): CDC summary 20140626.2566502
Ebola virus disease - West Africa (73): WHO update, Sierra Leone 20140625.2566397
Ebola virus disease - West Africa (72): WHO update 20140624.2562337
Ebola virus disease - West Africa (71): Guinea, Sierra Leone, Nigeria serology 20140622.2558446
Ebola virus disease - West Africa (70): Sierra Leone, Liberia, travel advice 20140621.2556770
Ebola virus disease - West Africa (69): Guinea, Sierra Leone, region 20140621.2555351
Ebola virus disease - West Africa (68): Liberia, One Health approach 20140619.2553035
Ebola virus disease - West Africa (67): WHO update, Liberia, Sierra Leone 20140618.2550323
Ebola virus disease - West Africa (66): Liberia (Monrovia), Sierra Leone 20140617.2547352
Ebola virus disease - West Africa (63): Sierra Leone 20140613.2538970
Ebola virus disease - West Africa (62): Guinea, Gambia prepares 20140612.2536851
Ebola virus disease - West Africa (58): Sierra Leone, challenges 20140607.2526192
Ebola virus disease - West Africa (57): WHO update, challenges 20140607.2525234
Ebola virus disease - West Africa (56): Sierra Leone, Liberia, WHO 20140604.2518983
Ebola virus disease - West Africa (55): MSF report, Sierra Leone 20140603.2517388
Ebola virus disease - West Africa (54): WHO update, Sierra Leone 20140603.2515262
Ebola virus disease - West Africa (52): WHO update, Sierra Leone (Freetown) 20140530.2510209
Ebola virus disease - West Africa (50): Guinea (Conakry), WHO update 20140528.2505129
Ebola virus disease - West Africa (49): Sierra Leone, Nigeria, call for action 20140528.2503946
Ebola virus disease - West Africa (46): Guinea WHO update 20140526.2498287
Ebola virus disease - West Africa (45): Sierra Leone, new case 20140526.2498937
Ebola virus disease - West Africa (44): Guinea, new cases 20140525.2497408
Ebola virus disease - West Africa (42): WHO update 20140522.2491069
Ebola virus disease - West Africa (41): fatal 20140521.2489228
Ebola virus disease - West Africa (37): Sierra Leone preparedness 20140512.2467545
Ebola virus disease - West Africa (35): WHO, MSF, Senegal preparedness 20140509.2462239
Ebola virus disease - West Africa (33): WHO, global threat 20140503.2447967
Ebola virus disease - West Africa (31): Guinea, region 20140430.2441776
Ebola virus disease - West Africa (29): corrs. Guinea 20140428.2435643
Ebola virus disease - West Africa (26): WHO, MSF 20140424.2427963
Ebola virus disease - West Africa (24): Liberia, Zambia airport screening 20140422.2421188
Ebola virus disease - West Africa (23): Cote d'Ivoire, bushmeat ban 20140421.2419488
Ebola virus disease - West Africa (22): WHO, control 20140419.2416170
Ebola virus disease - West Africa (21): ECDC travel advice 20140419.2414770
Ebola virus disease - West Africa (20): WHO update, UNICEF 20140417.2412005
Ebola virus disease - West Africa (19): new strain, Guinea new cases, Mali NOT 20140417.2409996
Ebola virus disease - West Africa (18): survivors, more cases 20140416.2407657
Ebola virus disease - West Africa (17): Liberia, Sierra Leone, WHO, MSF, EU 20140414.2404280
Ebola virus disease - West Africa (16): Sierra Leone & Mali NOT, economy 20140413.2400734
Ebola virus disease - West Africa (15): Morocco, Ghana, Portugal all NOT 20140412.2399043
Ebola virus disease - West Africa (14): Morocco susp, virus stability 20140411.2396631
Ebola virus disease - West Africa (13): WHO, Mali susp, UNICEF 20140411.2395327
Ebola virus disease - West Africa (12): WHO, mapping 20140410.2393603
Ebola virus disease - West Africa (11): Guinea 20140409.2391500
Ebola virus disease - West Africa (08): WHO, miscellaneous reports 20140403.2379386
Ebola virus disease - West Africa (05): Guinea, Liberia, Sierra Leone WHO update 20140401.2373662
Ebola virus disease - West Africa (03): Liberia, timeline 20140331.2369368
Ebola virus disease - Guinea (04): WHO update, Conakry conf., alerts 20140328.2364547
Ebola virus disease - Liberia ex Guinea: susp. alert, RFI 20140326.2360265
Ebola virus disease - Guinea (03): WHO update, travel health advisories 20140326.2359361
Ebola virus disease - Guinea (02): bat eating banned 20140326.2359281
Ebola virus disease - West Africa: Guinea, Zaire ebolavirus suspected 20140322.2349865
Ebola - Sierra Leone: susp. alert, RFI 20140322.2349697
Undiagnosed viral hemorrhagic fever - Guinea (02): Ebola conf. 20140322.234969
.................................................jw/mj/dk
Click to expand...
 
Is it a matter of better and more accessible medical personnel = more diagnosis than in the past?
 
No, it's just the normal cycle of outbreaks, control, low level activity and then another outbreak.

Current civil war in the area is contributing.
 
Last edited:
isn't it funny just how many viruses appear to be spread by bats?
 
casebro said:
It's not spread people-to-people is it? Except by Vampires? or anal sex?
Click to expand...
It's not airborne but highly infectious and transmitted through contact with blood or body fluids of someone infected, including the recently dead. Touching the tears of an infected person with a hand having broken skin, for example, has transmitted the virus.
It can be sexually transmitted, all bodily fluids harbour the virus.
 
It's more dangerous because it is a hemorrhagic fever -- that is, it makes you bleed, often from the mouth, eyes or ears. So the infected blood is getting out into the environment.
 
GnaGnaMan said:
WP has graphs continuously updated with WHO numbers.
Scariest data I ever saw.

Ebola_2014_outbreak._Temporal_evolution_of_cases_per_day

Temporal_evolution_of_the_2014_West_African_Ebola_outbreak

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2014_West_Africa_Ebola_outbreak

The longer it stays in humans and the more often it jumps person-to-person, the better adapted it becomes. I wonder what effect that will have.
Click to expand...
Exactly. There's already concern about transmission of Reston between pigs and humans (potentially opening up further mutations). And Reston may be transmissible by aerosol.
 
GnaGnaMan said:
... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2014_West_Africa_Ebola_outbreak

The longer it stays in humans and the more often it jumps person-to-person, the better adapted it becomes. I wonder what effect that will have.
Click to expand...
From the Wiki link:
Containment complications ...
As of June 2014, the outbreak was described as "totally out of control" by Doctors without Borders.[28]
Difficulties faced in attempting to contain the outbreak include the outbreak's multiple locations across country borders,[28] inadequate precautions taken by medical personnel,[29] funeral practices,[30] and "mistrust, apprehension and resistance to adopt recommended public health preventive measures",[31] including "freeing" suspected Ebola patients from isolation,[32] and suspicion that the disease is caused by witchcraft, or that doctors are killing patients.[33] There has also been an attack on aid workers who were hurrying to retrieve "freed" patients and did not explain to villagers who they were,[34] and the Red Cross were forced to suspend operations in Guinea after staff were threatened by a group of men armed with knives.[35]
Click to expand...


catsmate1 said:
Exactly. There's already concern about transmission of Reston between pigs and humans (potentially opening up further mutations). And Reston may be transmissible by aerosol.
Click to expand...
From catsmate's CDC link:
One of the five known Ebola virus species, Ebola-Reston virus, was discovered in 1989 as the cause of an outbreak of severe illness and death among non-human primates imported from the Philippines to a quarantine facility in Reston, Virginia. Ebola-Reston virus was later detected in ill non-human primates imported from the Philippines into the United States in 1990, into Italy in 1992, and into the US and the Philippines in 1996, as well as in the Philippine export facility itself. Infection with this virus can be fatal in non-human primates; however, the small number of confirmed human infections with Ebola-Reston in the U.S. and the Philippines did not result in clinically apparent disease, suggesting that the virus is less pathogenic than the other species of Ebola viruses.
Click to expand...


From the WHO:
Genus Ebolavirus is 1 of 3 members of the Filoviridae family (filovirus), along with genus Marburgvirus and genus Cuevavirus. Genus Ebolavirus comprises 5 distinct species:

Bundibugyo ebolavirus (BDBV)
Zaire ebolavirus (EBOV)
Reston ebolavirus (RESTV)
Sudan ebolavirus (SUDV)
Taï Forest ebolavirus (TAFV).

BDBV, EBOV, and SUDV have been associated with large EVD outbreaks in Africa, whereas RESTV and TAFV have not. The RESTV species, found in Philippines and the People’s Republic of China, can infect humans, but no illness or death in humans from this species has been reported to date.
Click to expand...

Good luck with this WHO recommendation:
Pig farms in Africa can play a role in the amplification of infection because of the presence of fruit bats on these farms. Appropriate biosecurity measures should be in place to limit transmission.
Click to expand...

There's an interesting table with the different fatality rates by species on the link. Sample sizes and no doubt inadequate data collection make the numbers less reliable but seeing the different outbreak history is interesting.
 
Last edited:
I wish the news reports didn't have to mention the witch-doctor aspect
where the disease is said to be caused by witches!
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Back
Top Bottom