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Merged So Ebola's back......

This guy is really pissing me off:




Sorry it's in Spanish. The title is "Ebola Can Be Cured".

This clown is supposed to be some sort of a hero because he alleges persecution by big transnational corporations, yada, yada, yada (probably not true) because he's an advocate for natural cures (in particular, he claims that Stevia plants, which apparently he sells, cure diabetes). In this video he claims you can cure ebola with chlorine dioxide (something advocated in all sorts of quack cures by others), with colloidal silver and with bitter cola (Garcinia kola) as, supposedly administered by traditional healers who he also endorses.
 
From The Lancet.
With more than 3000 deaths since the first case was confirmed in March, 2014, and after months of slow, fragmented responses, the international community has recognised Ebola as a public health emergency of international concern and a clear threat to global health security. It is the subject of a high-level UN Security Council resolution, and has triggered the creation of a UN Mission for Ebola Emergency Response. Despite these efforts, Ebola is staying ahead of efforts to contain it. In such a situation, although it is understandable to focus on urgent actions, it would be a mistake not to reflect on how we arrived at this situation and what we need to do to prevent it from happening again.
The International Health Regulations (IHR) represent the system designed to prevent national public health emergencies from becoming international crises. WHO's historic responsibility has been to control the spread of disease. The IHR were adopted in 1969 (IHR 1969) and focused on smallpox, plague, cholera, and yellow fever. In 1995, in the wake of plague in India and Ebola in DR Congo, a resolution was passed in the World Health Assembly (WHA) to revise and update the IHR. In the late 1990s a new way of working within WHO was created to detect and respond to infectious disease outbreaks using sources of information other than countries as prescribed under the IHR, and creating a network of over 120 partners to respond—called the Global Outbreak Alert and Response Network. The severe acute respiratory syndrome epidemic in 2003 gave great impetus to the revision process. In 2005, a revised IHR (IHR 2005) was adopted by the WHA, to come into force in 2007. The IHR 2005 are not limited to any specific diseases and they oblige countries to notify WHO of “events that may constitute a public health emergency of international concern” and to develop “core public health capacities”. They also offered flexibility to countries to develop core capacities by 2012, with a possible 2-year extension. Although all WHO member states have agreed to the IHR principles, countries were left to self-report their progress on core capacity development, such as surveillance, diagnostic, and containment demands.
With no additional financing in place and no proper accountability mechanism to ensure independent monitoring, this laudable vision has become a huge missed opportunity. Today, every person newly infected with Ebola reminds us of this lost opportunity. Whereas most developed countries certainly have the capacities to implement such a framework, many low-income and middle-income countries, and especially fragile states, do not. It was only on Aug 8, after a meeting of the International Health Regulations Emergency Committee, that WHO declared the outbreak a “public health emergency of international concern”. Such delays have probably enabled the outbreak to spread rapidly.
Several commentators have questioned the capability of WHO to address international threats, such as Ebola. Acknowledging gaps in global governance, and with its distinctive interest in global security, the USA has taken the lead and launched its Global Health Security Agenda earlier this year “to accelerate progress toward a world safe and secure from infectious disease threats and to promote global health security as an international security priority”. On Sept 26, a meeting took place in the White House to discuss the implementation of this new security agenda, together with the delivery of commitments to assist west Africa.
In view of the seriousness of the crisis, US leadership should be welcomed. However, the US Government is not a multilateral health agency. The final responsibility to prevent the international spread of disease rests with WHO and its IHR. But WHO has been poorly served by its member states and governing bodies. Member states have failed to invest in WHO to ensure the agency has full capacity to address its global mandate. And WHO's Executive Board and WHA failed utterly to keep the promise they made in 2005 to scale-up attention and investment in crucial surveillance and reporting systems so necessary to prevent the kind of epidemic that is Ebola today.
Two priorities stand out. First, an urgent donor conference must be convened to discuss the implications of the Ebola epidemic and the international community's failure to invest in the IHR. That conference must end with substantial financial commitments to strengthen delivery of core IHR public health capacities. Second, a robust mechanism must be put in place to guarantee independent monitoring and review of country implementation of the IHR. Self-reporting is an unreliable way to protect the world's peoples from new and dangerous epidemics.
 
The Lancer has started a resource centre for Ebola related information. Link.

One interesting article is this one: Controlling Ebola: next steps
The Ebola epidemic is paradoxical: it is out of control yet readily controllable. The key to epidemic control is rapid diagnosis, isolation, and treatment of infected individuals. This approach was used in past Ebola outbreaks through contact tracing, in which anyone exposed to a person with Ebola was monitored, tested if they developed symptoms, and, if positive, securely transported to a health facility for treatment. Moreover, while 60—90% of untreated patients with Ebola die, effective medical care could reduce this rate to below 30%. This strategic approach was not taken in time during the present Ebola outbreak in west Africa. According to estimates from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, about 60% of all Ebola infections in west Africa remain undiagnosed in the community with the potential for hundreds of thousands of cases by mid-2015. Infected individuals become contagious when they begin to show symptoms. Without effective isolation, each Ebola patient is estimated to transmit the virus to around 1·8 additional people, leading to the exponential growth of infections with a doubling time of around 20 days. Control strategies based on rapid diagnosis, patient isolation, and treatment, can reduce the transmission to well under one additional person per infected case, thereby rapidly containing the epidemic.
Click to expand...
 
The case of the Briton who died in Macedonia, supposedly of Ebola, which was being given significant publicity, now appears to have been a false alarm.
 
One way to prevent the spread from Africa.
Go to Africa... and STAY THERE!
No returns by any means.
No snail mail. No packages.
No airplanes, boats, tunnels... coming back.
e-mail only!
 
Monketey Ghost said:
I've been concerned that ignorant people will take out their fears on the Liberian community there.
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It's a valid and realistic concern. I'm not sure why you think such a response would be restricted to Liberians, though.

ETA: If anything like this happens (and I hope you are wrong), the targets will be anyone with dark skin who looks African. Have no doubt about it.
 
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From a different forum, but I think worth posting here:

bmforre said:
Madrid health boss is continue to blame those under him.
He is reported to have stated that
You don’t need a masters’ degree to explain to someone how you should put on or take off a [protective suit] (talking to the hosts of the Ana Rosa show) But some people have a greater ability to learn than others.
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This expressed attitude will not help with present problem that
Nursing staff resign from their posts to avoid treating Ebola cases.
Carlos III Hospital in Madrid, the health center where Ebola victim Teresa Romero is being treated, is having to draft in extra staff given that nurses are refusing to work with cases – or suspected cases – of the virus, claiming that safety conditions are not adequate.
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Fear increased by
ER doctor who treated Ebola victim taken into isolation for monitoring
after working in conditions of very unsatisfactory safety:
it was not until 5pm that he donned the highest-level protective suit available in the hospital – a suit that, what’s more, was not his size, leaving his bare skin exposed.
“At all times the sleeves were too short,” the doctor wrote in a report. The document, to which EL PAÍS has had access, covers all of the events of those 16 hours and was sent to his superiors.
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Much more at links.

I'm tempted to label this health boss behaviour apparatchicanery. Not good in any situation, potentially damaging now.

Meantime Condition of Spanish nursing assistant with Ebola virus worsens
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I see the difficulty that medically advanced countries like Spain, the USA and Australia are having containing just one or a handful of cases.

And it fills me with dread that, almost inevitably, we shall soon see outbreaks in India, or some other densely populated country with many poor people and less advanced health care systems.

Once that happens, it will be almost impossible to prevent worldwide spread, barring mass inoculations (and assuming vaccine is by then available in sufficient quantity).
 
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We have that wide expanse of water separating us from the sources, but...
enterprising people will offer rides to the Promised Land for the teeming masses.
Tighten up them borders!
 
ceptimus said:
I see the difficulty that medically advanced countries like Spain, the USA and Australia are having containing just one or a handful of cases.
Click to expand...

I can't vouch for Spain, but the U.S. is doing pretty well in containing it. The first and only case so far could have been handled better, but it seems to have been an effective wake up call. There is no doubt that the American health care system is currently alert and prepared for any new cases.
 
Off topic, but every time I see this thread title, I hear the words:

Ebola's back and there's gonna be trouble...
 
crescent said:
I can't vouch for Spain, but the U.S. is doing pretty well in containing it. The first and only case so far could have been handled better, but it seems to have been an effective wake up call. There is no doubt that the American health care system is currently alert and prepared for any new cases which will be treated overseas where contacted.
Click to expand...
.
ftfy
We have to hope that bringing an ebola victim from there to here has been seen as a very stupid thing to do!
 
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