ebola outbreak- is it time to head for the hills?

[mud]

weren't people freaking out about ebola some 20 years ago, and then we realized that it is not that kind of danger to us? Did everyone just forget?

Got distracted by the killer bees.

[BmillsSkier]

Come on man, Chimps don't drink Hawaiian Punch.

Try saying that out loud in most parts of your fair metro area. Forward us your funeral directions.

[old goat]

[QUOTE=neufox47;4287332
I was trying to ask my nurse practitioner GF what would happen if the 1918 flu hit today. There would clearly be way more sick than hospital beds. Do they pick and choose patients to try to save? Who gets a ventilator? She didn't have a good answer.
.[/QUOTE]
Hopefully if another Spanish flu hits there will be a vaccine for it, if the drug companies haven't gotten out of the vaccine business altogether to devote their energies to making ED drugs. Vaccination isn't perfect of course--could miss the deadly strain, some people don't develop antibodies, lots of people think vaccines are some kind of evil plot (shocking how many doctors and nurses refuse flu vaccin), but it would likely prevent a disaster like 1918. Of course there are plenty of other evil viruses out there that we don't have vaccines for, just waiting for the right circumstances to wipe us out.
There is a precedent for rationing life saving care--in the early days of dialysis in the early 60's there were not enough machines to treat all kidney failure patients and dialysis centers had panels which decided who got dialysis on the basis of "social worth"--things like age, employment status, dependents, and, i'm sure, money. A lot has changed since then; it's not hard to predict how Americans would react to such triage today. Competition for scarce resources still goes on today on a limited basis. I've had patients kicked out of the ICU because someone sicker needed the bed. I never had anyone die as a result, but I can recall one patient who deteriorated and had to go back to the ICU. In this case the triage was on the basis of medical need, not social worth. My guess is that if triage were to be done today it would be done as it is in mass casualties and on the battlefield--care for those most likely to survive with treatment and likely to die without. Can you imagine what would happen if a 60 year old was taken off a ventilator and allowed to die so that a 30 year old could be treated? Congress would have to act quickly to pass a law establishing criteria and protecting doctors and hospitals from lawsuits. Can you imagine Congress acting quickly? (Now that I think of it, Ebola is probably Obama's fault.)

[ill-advised strategy]

That chart was way off. I just ran the numbers again and this is what I came up with:

[MagnificentUnicorn]

That chart was way off. I just ran the numbers again and this is what I came up with:

That looks like.... a giant johnson!

[Moeghoul]

That looks like.... a giant johnson!

Speak of a huge dick..............

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/0...n_5646424.html

Donald Trump Says Ebola Doctors 'Must Suffer The Consequences'

[iceman]

Speak of a huge dick..............

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/0...n_5646424.html

Donald Trump Says Ebola Doctors 'Must Suffer The Consequences'

Well that's obviously crazy, but, from that article:


"Dr. Kent Brantly, the American doctor stricken with ebola in Africa, returned to the U.S. on Saturday, and is said to be improving as he receives treatment at Atlanta's Emory University Hospital.

His assistant, missionary Nancy Writebol, also contracted the disease while working with patients suffering from ebola. She's expected to be flown to the U.S. later this week.

Both were in Liberia, working for Samaritan's Purse, an evangelical Christian relief organization."

Wait, we got a couple evangelicals out of here and we're letting them back in??!?? Fuck that.

[PNWbrit]

Wait, we got a couple evangelicals out of here and we're letting them back in??!?? Fuck that.

There's a missionary position gag in there somewhere.

[Moeghoul]

Well that's obviously crazy, but, from that article:


"Dr. Kent Brantly, the American doctor stricken with ebola in Africa, returned to the U.S. on Saturday, and is said to be improving as he receives treatment at Atlanta's Emory University Hospital.

His assistant, missionary Nancy Writebol, also contracted the disease while working with patients suffering from ebola. She's expected to be flown to the U.S. later this week.

Both were in Liberia, working for Samaritan's Purse, an evangelical Christian relief organization."

Wait, we got a couple evangelicals out of here and we're letting them back in??!?? Fuck that.

Faith healing apparently wasn't working out.

[CantDog]

Unfortunately I think we are going to see a new US case reported soon.

Though would be a fun time to go to the ER complaining of horrible stomach issues and saying you just got back from a mission trip in West Africa.

[old goat]

I'm as non religious as they come but I have huge respect for missionary docs. Friend of mine was a missionary surgeon in Goma in Congo. Goma is the epicenter of the ongoing civil war--as dangerous a place as any in the world. He lived there full time after residency until his kids were high school age, after which he went back 3 months/year, mainly training local health care workers, continuing after retirement and after a heart attack, until he finally had to quit this year. He and his hospitals were respected enough that all the fighters left him alone.

I hope there's a horrible disease out there that targets people with comb-overs.

[My Pet Powder Goat]

Unfortunately I think we are going to see a new US case reported soon.

who the hell knows. could be nothing....

But when I heard on CNN that "the test could take 24 to 48hrs to come back" I just shook my head, and know they're gonna beat this poor horse non-stop for the next couple days.

[powpig]

Who knew the cure for Ebola could be so simple?

Chain smoking of course.

Scientists stumble across the obvious treatment for Ebola: tobacco

[Mofro261]

Who knew the cure for Ebola could be so simple?

Chain smoking of course.

Scientists stumble across the obvious treatment for Ebola: tobacco

you'd have to go smokeless and ingest it... combustion denatures the mAB's unfortunately.

GMO doesn't sound so scary when you are bleeding out your eyes.

[DasBlunt]

you'd have to go smokeless and ingest it... combustion denatures the mAB's unfortunately.

GMO doesn't sound so scary when you are bleeding out your eyes.

Hilarious and true. Untested on humans.....San Diego company.....

[digitaldeath]

Interesting fear tactic. Propaganda is strong these days.

[powpig]

you'd have to go smokeless and ingest it... combustion denatures the mAB's unfortunately.

Do you think Tomacco would do the trick?

[babybear]

Another good example of why Donald Trump is a giant douche.

Some key differences from the care and standards in our country vs in W Africa are the key to why it is not going to be the same scenario in the US as in sierra leone, liberia etc- we have adequate medical supplies to control the spread of viruses (for example a lot of med facilities in Africa don't even have enough basic things like rubber gloves) In Africa family members are usually expected to bring meals for patients in medical care - even supplying their own sterile syringes, gloves etc if there are not enough
.
People are also afraid of the foreign docs in their quarantine suits and quarantine wards and they're afraid to get med care when they first see symptoms bc they basically view it as a death sentence. So they start to get sick and infect the people around them before they go in for treatment. The virus is spread thru contact with bodily fluids- mostly vomit and diahhrea although sweat and saliva too- then a family member tries to clean it up, or clean up the sick person and and that's how you've gotten this rapid spread.
It's also tradition to clean and handle the dead bodies of deceases family members, which is only now finally being banned (they are requiring the cremation of bodies)
So there's a cliff notes version of why it's spreading so quickly in 2nd and 3rd world nations but how it would be unlikely to spread or become an epidemic here.
It's not spread via air and they have also noted that there have not been any mutations of the virus.
I also heard this morning on the news that they are expecting an ebola vaccine to be developed within a yr.

We have plenty of medical staff and supplies, our medical staff in the US have standards of practice to mitigate basic virus spread. You can bet your blue booty that those people at Emory are being meticulous now

[JimmyCarter]

Another good example of why Donald Trump is a giant douche.

Some key differences from the care and standards in our country vs in W Africa are the key to why it is not going to be the same scenario in the US as in sierra leone, liberia etc- we have adequate medical supplies to control the spread of viruses (for example a lot of med facilities in Africa don't even have enough basic things like rubber gloves) In Africa family members are usually expected to bring meals for patients in medical care - even supplying their own sterile syringes, gloves etc if there are not enough
.
People are also afraid of the foreign docs in their quarantine suits and quarantine wards and they're afraid to get med care when they first see symptoms bc they basically view it as a death sentence. So they start to get sick and infect the people around them before they go in for treatment. The virus is spread thru contact with bodily fluids- mostly vomit and diahhrea although sweat and saliva too- then a family member tries to clean it up, or clean up the sick person and and that's how you've gotten this rapid spread.
It's also tradition to clean and handle the dead bodies of deceases family members, which is only now finally being banned (they are requiring the cremation of bodies)
So there's a cliff notes version of why it's spreading so quickly in 2nd and 3rd world nations but how it would be unlikely to spread or become an epidemic here.
It's not spread via air and they have also noted that there have not been any mutations of the virus.
I also heard this morning on the news that they are expecting an ebola vaccine to be developed within a yr.

We have plenty of medical staff and supplies, our medical staff in the US have standards of practice to mitigate basic virus spread. You can bet your blue booty that those people at Emory are being meticulous now

Well yeah. Not eating bush meat helps us too.

[babybear]

Yea I totally stopped my amazon subscribe and save delivery of chilled monkey brains as soon as I heard about the outbreak

[IVplay]

I'm as non religious as they come but I have huge respect for missionary docs. Friend of mine was a missionary surgeon in Goma in Congo. Goma is the epicenter of the ongoing civil war--as dangerous a place as any in the world. He lived there full time after residency until his kids were high school age, after which he went back 3 months/year, mainly training local health care workers, continuing after retirement and after a heart attack, until he finally had to quit this year. He and his hospitals were respected enough that all the fighters left him alone.

I hope there's a horrible disease out there that targets people with comb-overs.

I'm as impartial to hair as they come but I have huge respect for comb overs. Friend of mine attended a high school in toronto sporting a comb over. I'm talking rexdale, pretty much a war zone. They respected him so much they made it so he didn't need to carry any of his valuable goods. He finally left after cleaning many toilets with his head. I hope there's a disease that kills people under 5 6.

[BmillsSkier]

Swung by the Emory Law library the other day and was impressed by the amount of camera crews set up that morning. (Emory Law is across the street from the hospital and Med Campus) Aside from that I didn't see too much consternation other than one guy who had a nonsensical sign about end times or some such shit. You'd think from the news here, and social 'media' that there was a massive uprising about these people being treated here.

I think most are used to having the CDC on campus for ever, and all the nasty bits it houses, that no real concern is evident around campus.

I'll be curious to see if any of this year's crop of really smart kids in Benzes choose to stay at home instead of start the school year in a couple weeks at their parent's insistence.

[old goat]

I'll be curious to see if any of this year's crop of really smart kids in Benzes choose to stay at home instead of start the school year in a couple weeks at their parent's insistence.

Bigger concern would be their kid dying from alcohol poisoning.

[babybear]

^^ yes haha totally

[powdork]

it's got a hold in lagos, nigeria now. the largest city in africa.
http://www.theguardian.com/world/201...e-nigeria-dies

Officials initially downplayed the risk of exposure, saying Sawyer had been immediately isolated when he collapsed on arrival at Lagos's bustling main airport two weeks ago.