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Merged So Ebola's back......

Skeptic Ginger said:
I cannot imagine they are using an attenuated virus or even any of the RNA (it's an RNA virus, not a DNA virus). It's enveloped so it's more likely GSK is using a single protein from the surface of the virus. Your immune system then recognizes the surface protein and sends antibodies to attach to it. The antibodies in turn send out chemical signals for the phagocytes to come and swallow the antigen-antibody complex.
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Thanks for the explanation!


catsmate1 said:
The toll among the health workers in general has been awful.
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Yes.
More than 1,900 people have now died in West Africa's Ebola outbreak, the World Health Organization (WHO) says.

There have been 3,500 confirmed or probable cases in Guinea, Sierra Leone and Liberia.
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http://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-29055041
 
The Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo has been determined to be a different strain from the main West African epidemic.
There is no updated death toll, the WHO still say "over 1,900" with 1,844 deaths laboratory confirmed as from Ebola. 240 health workers have been infected, with over 120 deaths.
 
ApolloGnomon said:
Uh, wot?
"Already, the Center for Disease Control of the United States has brought into the country the experimental Zmapp drug, which has been used on two doctors, but reportedly they did not survive."
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still the comments are good at the moment.
 
The fourth US national infected with Ebola has arrived at Emory hospital in Atlanta, the third patient to be treated there.
Meanwhile the death toll has risen to 2,296.
 
I'm confused about the "patients given ZMAPP didn't survive" comment. I thought they did.

I find it interesting the CT rumor in Liberia is EBOLA health care workers are just plotting to steal blood. I've seen this same conspiracy crop up when HIV testing was offered in some localities.

And IIRC I think it was also an issue when Nat Geo researchers were tracking human migration out of Africa.

I will be watching the Frontline episode on the epidemic tonight.
 
catsmate1 said:
The fourth US national infected with Ebola has arrived at Emory hospital in Atlanta, the third patient to be treated there.
Meanwhile the death toll has risen to 2,296.
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Seeing the three patients that are already here kind of dispels the image in my mind of liquifying organs and bleeding from the eyes. I have no doubt these people suffer serious organ damage and coag/bleeding problems. But I'm wondering if the disease can also present more mundanely.
 
Skeptic Ginger said:
Seeing the three patients that are already here kind of dispels the image in my mind of liquifying organs and bleeding from the eyes. I have no doubt these people suffer serious organ damage and coag/bleeding problems. But I'm wondering if the disease can also present more mundanely.
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See http://scienceblogs.com/aetiology/2007/12/30/whats-it-like-to-work-an-ebola/:
Armand: As for the disease, it is not as bloody and dramatic as in the movies or books. The patients mostly look sick and weak. If there is blood, it is not a lot, usually in the vomit or diarrhea, occasionally from the gums or nose.
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Frontline did a good job. They addressed the problems with myth and CT beliefs getting in the way of isolation and contract tracing. They followed a woman who got infected by caring for her dying father in law. Her husband got sick soon after but their 4 kids didn't. The woman recovered, the husband died.

Vomiting appeared to be a bigger problem than bleeding.

The isolation center was set up like a village with restricted access to everything.
 
Death toll now 2,432 with the WHO stating that new cases of infection are occurring too rapidly to be properly managed.
Cuba has announced that it's sending 165 medical staff to assist in the outbreak.
 
Skeptic Ginger said:
I cannot imagine they are using an attenuated virus or even any of the RNA (it's an RNA virus, not a DNA virus). It's enveloped so it's more likely GSK is using a single protein from the surface of the virus. Your immune system then recognizes the surface protein and sends antibodies to attach to it. The antibodies in turn send out chemical signals for the phagocytes to come and swallow the antigen-antibody complex.
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The antibodies bind to the surface antigen on the wild type virus and thereby block attachment to the cell receptor and prevent infection. The antibodies might directly kill the virus by complement fixation, although I'm not sure this has been established. It's virus neutralising antibodies not phagocytosis.
 
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Capsid said:
The antibodies bind to the surface antigen on the wild type virus and thereby block attachment to the cell receptor and prevent infection. The antibodies might directly kill the virus by complement fixation, although I'm not sure this has been established. It's virus neutralising antibodies not phagocytosis.
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Thank you for the correction of my correction. :)
 
From http://www.nytimes.com/2014/09/13/world/africa/us-scientists-see-long-fight-against-ebola.html

U.S. Scientists See Long Fight Against Ebola

By DENISE GRADYSEPT. 12, 2014

The deadly Ebola outbreak sweeping across three countries in West Africa is likely to last 12 to 18 months more, much longer than anticipated, and could infect hundreds of thousands of people before it is brought under control, say scientists mapping its spread for the federal government.

“We hope we’re wrong,” said Bryan Lewis, an epidemiologist at the Virginia Bioinformatics Institute at Virginia Tech.

Both the time the model says it will take to control the epidemic and the number of cases it forecasts far exceed estimates by the World Health Organization, which said last month that it hoped to control the outbreak within nine months and predicted 20,000 total cases by that time. The organization is sticking by its estimates, a W.H.O. spokesman said Friday.
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I posted this in the other thread but I should have put it here so I've moved it.
Underestimated and Ignored, Growing Ebola Epidemic Requires Unprecedented Global Mobilization
AMY GOODMAN: What would that mobilization look like?

LAURIE GARRETT: Well, look, a hell of a lot more than what we’re doing. I mean, first of all, let’s back up. You know, supposedly, the United States military is building a 25-bed hospital in Monrovia for the care of infected healthcare workers. Supposedly, the British government is building a 68-bed hospital in Freetown, Sierra Leone, for care of healthcare workers and the acutely infected. Supposedly, France is sending 40 people—we’re not even sure what exact skill set they have. But all of this, I say "supposedly," because a commitment on paper does not equal rapid action. I was at the Department of Defense last week, and it turns out, to mobilize a 25-bed facility—by the way, unstaffed; they’re not going to staff it, but they’ll be there, there will be beds—that takes 50 days—five-oh. So we’ll be well into October before that facility is even there. And as fast as hospital beds are being erected, whether it’s just a cot in a tent or what it may be, they’re overfull, and they’re turning people away outside. So, the nature of the response is so far behind the virus, so far behind the scale of need, that it’s almost impossible to quantify how we really do need to respond.
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I suspect we'll see ~10,000 fatalities, about four times the current toll.
 
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