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Ebola in the News

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#1 Iyouboushi

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Posted 29 July 2014 - 02:20 PM

Is Ebola coming to Britain? UK health officials issue warning to doctors as outbreak fears grow

Is Ebola coming to Britain? UK health officials issue warning to doctors as outbreak fears grow

 

Public health experts have issued urgent warnings to British doctors and border officials to watch for signs of the Ebola virus arriving in the UK.

 

It comes after an infected man in Liberia was allowed to fly from disease-affected West African country to the major international travel hub of Lagos, Nigeria.

 

Experts from Public Health England (PHE) are meeting with representatives from the UK Border Agency and individual airports to make sure they are aware of the signs to look for and what to do if "the worst happens".

 

The disease, which can be fatal in as many as 90 per cent of cases, causes both internal and external bleeding and has no cure, has now killed more than 670 people across Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone.

 

Questions remain as to how Patrick Sawyer, whose sister had just died from Ebola and who had started presenting symptoms, was allowed to board multiple international flights.

 

Vomiting and suffering from diarrhoea, he flew from Liberia, had a stopover in Ghana, changed planes in Togo and then died in Nigeria – and experts say he could have passed on the disease to anyone sat near him or who used the same toilet on one of the planes.

 

Dr Brian McCloskey, director of global health at PHE, said his team had been briefing David Cameron on the status of the Ebola virus, which he described as the most "acute health emergency" currently facing Britain.

 

He told The Independent: "We have been talking to all levels of Government, including the Prime Minister's office, on the West Africa situation.

 

"When these things start to escalate we work with everybody to ensure they are aware of what needs to happen."

 

The UK's international airport staff were also being briefed on what they need to do if they suspect a passenger to be carrying Ebola, Dr McCloskey said.

 

And in the last couple of weeks PHE has used its national medical alert system to advise all UK doctors to "remain vigilant for unexplained illness in those who have visited the affected area".

 

Professor David Heymann, head of the Centre on Global Health Security at Chatham House, London and the chairman of Public Health England, was critical that an Ebola victim had been allowed to fly out of the affected zone.

 

He told The Independent: “There has been a lack of international cooperation as to the recommendations of what needs to be done [to stop the disease spreading] – and much greater collaboration is needed.

 

“But at the same time its false to say that border controls can stop infections from spreading – you can be not showing symptoms or even travel when you have symptoms and keep them hidden, as has happened with doctors in the past.”

 

Professor Heymann, who worked as an epidemics expert in sub-Saharan Africa during the first ever Ebola outbreaks in the 1970s and '80s, said this would not be the first time the virus had reached a major European aviation hub.

 

But he said the UK was "well-prepared" to deal with new infectious diseases - right down "from the Prime Minister to local authorities".

 

"We should be watching out for this, as we should be watching out for all emerging infections. The UK and other EU countries are on constant alert, and many exercises are carried out to know what to do if Ebola does emerge. The UK has prepared for this scenario."

 

Dr McCloskey said that because it is not respiratory and airborne, the risk of Ebola being passed on within the confines of a plane were not "on the same scale as pandemic flu".

 

In the case of Mr Sawyer, someone would have had to get his vomit or saliva on a sore, cut or in their eyes - or come into contact with his bodily fluids after using the same toilet - in order for the disease to be passed on.

 

But he added that people needed to be aware of the "worst case scenario" where several people ended up landing in Britain having contracted the virus.
In that case, he said, we would still be unlikely to suffer an outbreak on the same scale as Sierra Leone, Liberia or Guinea because of established containment and contact tracing systems - isolating anyone who may pass the disease on further.

 

“This is easily the biggest Ebola outbreak we have ever seen,” Dr McCloskey nonetheless warned. “And it is clearly not yet under control.”

 

:ughh:

 

The chance of catching Ebola here in the states seems rather low at the moment, so we shouldn't panic yet buuuuuuuuut we should keep a watchful eye on this. Ebola has been in the news a lot lately (at least looking through the news of the last few days). Thankfully it isn't as contagious as the flu but it's still something to keep an eye on..


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#2 Iyouboushi

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Posted 29 July 2014 - 02:26 PM

Might as well just use this thread for an Ebola megathread instead of making tons of other posts..

 

Uncontrollable Ebola Outbreak Spreads to Fourth African Country

Uncontrollable Ebola Outbreak Spreads to Fourth African Country

 

The relentless Ebola outbreak in West Africa has intensified over the weekend, permeating borders and placing several nations on red alert.

 

The disease reached Nigeria on Saturday, when a Liberian official died shortly after landing in Lagos airport. Though his ability to board the plane while sick is worrisome for officials, the first goal for health workers is to contain the disease. If Ebola were to spread in the cramped, heavily populated city of Lagos, it would mean one more major disaster the region can't afford, said Nigerian Health Minister Onyebuchi Chukwu.

 

In response, Chukwu told the Associated Press, all other passengers on the official's flight have been traced and tracked, and that the country has placed added surveillance at "all ports of entry in Nigeria, including airports, seaports, and land borders." The city has also shut down the hospital where the official had been taken after landing.

 

More than 1,500 miles away, a Sierra Leone woman who had fled the hospital after testing positive for the virus died after turning herself in Saturday, becoming the first registered Ebola case in the country's capital city of Freetown. The city is particularly vulnerable, as it houses no laboratories or treatment centers for the disease.

 

To make matters worse, street protests have broken out across the country over the government's handling of the outbreak, including one in Kenema on Friday that erupted into violence as angry crowds threatened to burn down the Ebola hospital, forcing police to fire tear gas at the protestors.

 

As previously reported, the disease has also infected Sierra Leone's top Ebola doctor. However, the country's chief medical officer Brima Kargbo told reporters Sunday that he was "fairly stable and responding well to treatment."

 

In Liberia, however, one of its leading Ebola doctors has died after three weeks battling the virus. Samuel Brisbane, a one-time medical adviser to former Liberian President Charles Taylor, has become the first Liberian doctor to die in the outbreak.

 

The news of his death broke Saturday, the same day as the country's national day of independence. Liberia President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf has ordered new anti-Ebola measures in the wake of the spread, closing all but three land border crossings, restricting public gatherings, and establishing quarantined communities.

 

"No doubt, the Ebola virus is a national health problem," she said. "And as we have also begun to see, it attacks our way of life, with serious economic and social consequences."

 

The situation has grown more dire over the course of the month, as health workers have arrived to quell the spread, only to be placed at serious risk of contracting the disease, which spreads through bodily fluids and can take up to 21 days to incubate before showing symptoms. In fact, the first Americans to become infected—both cases confirmed over the weekend—are health workers.

 

The first, Nancy Writebol, was working with the Christian Serving in Mission in Monrovia, Liberia. The second, Kent Brantley, was a medical director for Samaritan Purse, a group working in conjunction with Christian Serving that established an Ebola case management center in Monrovia. Both have been isolated.

 

"It's been a shock to everyone on our team to have two of our players get pounded with the disease," Ken Isaacs, of Samaritan's Purse, told the AP.

 

The disease kills up to 90 percent of those infected and has no known cure, making eradication efforts particularly difficult. The only preventative measure has been to contain the disease by isolating victims and raising awareness—and even then, the thin supply of health workers and doctors in the region have not been enough to get ahead of the spread.

 

Thus, the efforts have largely fallen on the World Health Organization, which has the resources to attempt a large-scale tracking effort of all transmissions of the disease. The group has sent teams to Nigeria and Togo—where the Nigerian official's plane had also landed before going to Lagos—and has dispatched Luis Sambo, its regional director for Africa, on a fact finding mission in Guinea, Liberia, and Sierra Leone.

 

"He observed that the outbreak is beyond each national health sector alone and urged the governments of the affected countries to mobilize and involve all sectors, including civil society and communities, in the response," the WHO said in a statement.

 

The outbreak is believed to have originated from Guinea, where the first cases were confirmed in March. The disease, according to the WHO's last count, has killed at least 672 people in 1,201 cases—the largest outbreak ever recorded. By country, 129 people have been killed in Liberia, 224 in Sierra Leone, and 319 in Guinea.


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#3 Iyouboushi

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Posted 02 August 2014 - 07:27 AM

We might want to start freaking out a little.

 

Ebola patients headed for treatment in US are sparking outbreak fears

Ebola patients headed for treatment in US are sparking outbreak fears

 

When a plane took off from Georgia to meet two American missionaries fighting to survive Ebola hemorrhagic fever in West Africa, social media in the United States lit up with fearful reactions.

 

Many posts called for keeping the infected patients out of the country.

 

The medical charter flight that departed Cartersville on Thursday could bring Nancy Writebol or Dr. Kent Brantly back to a treatment facility around the corner from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta.

 

Their conditions are worsening, says faith-based charity Samaritan’s Purse, which the two work with.

 

Their best chance to survive is to get back to the United States, says virologist Dr. Charles Chiu from the University of California San Francisco.

 

If the plane returns with them lying in the microbial containment system erected in its bay, it will be the first known time that someone infected with Ebola has crossed into the United States.

 

Vast conspiracy

 

That news echoed back in a wave of concern ranging from worry to Hollywood “Outbreak” scenarios and conspiracy theories.

 

“As much as I respect the Samaritan’s Purse workers with Ebola, I really don’t want it anywhere near the US,” a user posted to Twitter under the hashtag #EbolaOutbreak.

 

“Atlanta is 6 hours away & I know at least 2 people there. How many degrees of separation are between you and #ebola?” another asked
.
Articles and Facebook pages have popped up claiming to reveal secrets about Ebola readers are not supposed to know — to protect clandestine interests.

 

On the website of conspiracy talker Alex Jones, who has long purported that the CDC could unleash a pandemic, and the government would react by instituting authoritarian rule, the news has been a feast of fodder.

 

“Feds would exercise draconian emergency powers if Ebola hits U.S.,” a headline read on infowars.com.

 

Practically inevitable

 

But the arrival of people infected with Ebola is virtually inevitable, with the proliferation of daily international air travel, many experts have said.

 

It takes a while for symptoms to break out, so an infected person can get onto a plane feeling fine then fall ill after landing.

 

It is conceivable that an infected passenger has landed the country before. There has already been one known close call.

 

American Patrick Sawyer died in Nigeria of Ebola before he could make it back to Minnesota.

 

He worked in Liberia and was in a plane to Lagos, when he became violently ill and was taken to a hospital.

 

If an infection were detected, Western healthcare professionals would quickly contain patients and quell the possible spread of the virus, which, though very deadly, is fortunately not very contagious.

 

Spreads slowly

 

Its rate of spread pales when compared to the flu — even though the current outbreak in Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone is the worst in recorded history, according to World Health Organization.

 

There have been more than 1,300 known cases, says Doctors Without Borders, since the outbreak began about five months ago. More than 700 people have died.

 

The virus has spread through some of the world’s most impoverished communities with no knowledge or means to fight or prevent it on their own.

 

By contrast, between 5% and 20% of Americans contract a flu every year, according to flu.gov. That works out to 15 – 62 million people, despite flu shots and widespread education on how to avoid it.

 

To contract Ebola, one has to come into direct contact with a sick patient’s bodily fluids: things like saliva, excrement, blood.

 

Ebola’s symptoms start out like those of many diseases, including common flus, with headaches, fever, nausea, diarrhea but progress to abdominal pain and bleeding.

 

“That’s usually the blood loss and the fluid loss results in organ failure, which is how most patients actually succumb to the disease,” Chiu said.

 

Virtually impossible

 

As inevitable as it is that some infected person will land within our borders, experts say it is equally unlikely that Writebol or Brantley would trigger an outbreak here, if they make it home.

 

“The risk of secondary transmission — for them to actually infect other health care workers here in the United States or other people in the United States — the risk is very, very low,” Chiu said.

 

The isolative pod aboard the Gulfstream jet is called an Aeromedical Biological Containment System and looks like a tent. It contains multiple layers of isolation to prevent the patient from coming into contact with anyone — including caregivers inside the pod.

 

Upon arrival in Atlanta, the patient would be transferred to a special isolation room at Emory University that is separate from patient areas.

 

At least one of the missionaries is to be brought to Emory, hospital officials told CNN’s Dr. Sanjay Gupta.

 

Healing the healers

 

Brantly and Writebol came down with Ebola while working to save the lives of sick patients in Liberia.

 

There is no cure for it. But caregivers can nurse the ill in hopes they will survive, while the body’s immune system fights the disease. The treatment success rate in the current outbreak is around 45%.

 

Medical workers in Liberia, who are caring for the missionaries, gave Writebol an experimental serum this week. There was only one dose available, and her colleague, Dr. Brantly, insisted she receive it, Samaritan’s Purse said.

 

Brantly was given a blood from a patient whose life he had helped to save.

 

If time is merciful, the best possible treatment in the United States could save the life of one of the heroic aid workers.

 

The fight against Ebola

 

There is currently no vaccine available to prevent Ebola’s spread, but one is in the works.

 

The National Institutes of Health announced it will begin testing an experimental Ebola vaccine in people as early as September. Tests on primates have already been successful.

 

The NIH announcement came the same day as the CDC issued a Level 3 alert for Guinea, Liberia, and Sierra Leone, warning against any nonessential travel to the region.

 

As of now, the outbreak has been confined to West Africa, but it is getting worse there. Although infections are dropping off in Guinea, they are on the rise in Liberia and Sierra Leone.

 

As infection accelerates, some aid groups are pulling out to protect their own.

 

Dr. Thomas Frieden, director of the CDC, said that even in a best-case scenario, it could take three to six months to stem the epidemic in West Africa.


~James~
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#4 Iyouboushi

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Posted 02 August 2014 - 07:35 AM

Ebola crisis: Virus spreading too fast, says WHO

Ebola crisis: Virus spreading too fast, says WHO

 

The Ebola outbreak in West Africa is spreading faster than efforts to control it, World Health Organization (WHO) head Margaret Chan has said.

 

She told a summit of regional leaders that failure to contain Ebola could be "catastrophic" in terms of lives lost.

 

But she said the virus, which has claimed 728 lives in Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone since February, could be stopped if well managed.
Ebola kills up to 90% of those infected.

 

It spreads by contact with infected blood, bodily fluids, organs - or contaminated environments. Patients have a better chance of survival if they receive early treatment.

 

Initial flu-like symptoms can lead to external haemorrhaging from the eyes and gums, and internal bleeding that can lead to organ failure.

 

A US relief agency says it will repatriate two of its American staff who have contracted the virus in Liberia.

 

They are believed to be the first Ebola patients ever to be treated in the US.

 

Hundreds of US Peace Corps volunteers have already been evacuated from the West African countries.

 

Separately, US President Barack Obama announced that delegates from affected countries attending a US-Africa conference in Washington next week would be screened.

 

"Folks who are coming from these countries that have even a marginal risk, or an infinitesimal risk of having been exposed in some fashion, we're making sure we're doing screening," he said.

 

Friday's summit should provide the kind of international co-operation needed to fight Ebola but the battle against the virus will be won or lost at the local level. An over-attentive family member, a careless moment while burying a victim, a slip-up by medical staff coping with stress and heat - a single small mistake in basic hygiene can allow the virus to slip from one human host to another.

 

The basic techniques for stopping Ebola are well known. The problem is applying them. Since the virus was first identified in 1976, there have been dozens of outbreaks and all of them have been contained. Experts point to these successes as evidence that this latest threat can be overcome too.

 

But working against them are suspicions among local people and the unavoidable fact that this is an extremely poor part of the world, much of it still reeling from conflict. Deploying the right equipment in properly trained hands is always going to be a struggle, one that is now extremely urgent.

 

Dr Chan met the leaders of Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone to launch a new $100m (£59m) Ebola response plan.

 

The plan includes funding the deployment of hundreds more health care workers to affected countries.

 

"This meeting must mark a turning point in the outbreak response," Dr Chan said at the summit in Guinea's capital, Conakry.

 

"Cases are occurring in rural areas which are difficult to access, but also in densely populated capital cities."

 

She said the outbreak was the deadliest and most widely spread, and had also demonstrated an ability to spread through air travel, unlike past outbreaks.

 

Separately, the Liberian government declared Friday a holiday to allow a huge sanitisation and chlorination exercise in government ministries and places of public gathering.

 

Information Minister Lewis Brown said "the intent is to let us come to the realisation that something is wrong and what is wrong is serious".

 

Up to 30 Commonwealth Games athletes from Sierra Leone, meanwhile, are considering extending their stay in Glasgow amid fears over the Ebola virus.

  • Symptoms include high fever, bleeding and central nervous system damage
  • Fatality rate can reach 90%
  • Incubation period is two to 21 days
  • There is no vaccine or cure
  • Supportive care such as rehydrating patients who have diarrhoea and vomiting can help recovery
  • Fruit bats are considered to be virus' natural host


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#5 Dead

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Posted 02 August 2014 - 04:09 PM

:ohdear: :flame: :psypop:


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#6 Iyouboushi

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Posted 02 August 2014 - 05:59 PM

This morning the guy was on a plane headed here. Well, he's arrived..

 

American physician with Ebola virus arrives in Atlanta for treatment

American physician with Ebola virus arrives in Atlanta for treatment

 

An American physician who fell ill with the deadly Ebola virus while treating others afflicted in West Africa was transferred amid high security Saturday to Emory University Hospital in Atlanta, according to the hospital.

 

The gray air ambulance carrying Dr. Kent Brantly landed at Dobbins Air Reserve Base outside Atlanta at about 11:30 a.m. EDT and was met by a specially outfitted ambulance, which whisked him to the hospital for treatment in an isolated ward.

 

Upon arrival at the hospital about 12:30 p.m., a person wearing white, hooded, protective gear helped another individual in protective gear out of the back of the ambulance and through a hospital backdoor, according to live footage of the arrival from WXIA-TV in Atlanta.

 

The ambulance left and TV news cameras did not capture anyone else exiting the vehicle, though it was unclear whether one of the individuals in protective gear was Brantly.

 

His dramatic journey was set in motion early this week, when Samaritan’s Purse, the aid agency Brantly was working with in West Africa, asked Emory to receive Brantly and another American aid worker who became infected, Nancy Writebol. His plane left Liberia overnight.

 

Emory, one of four facilities in the country that have an isolation chamber designed to care for highly contagious, critically ill patients, agreed to care for both the victims.

 

The hospital said in a statement that it expects Writebol would be transferred to the facility the week of Aug. 3. Writebol was working for SIM, a Christian aid group, when she fell ill.

 

“We thank God that they are alive and now have access to the best care in the world,” Franklin Graham, president of Samaritan’s Purse, said in a statement Saturday.

 

Officials have been working to prevent any public fears of Ebola spreading among the U.S. population, and at a news conference Friday, Dr. Bruce Ribner, an infectious disease specialist who oversees Emory’s isolation ward, said the precautions being taken virtually guaranteed there would be no secondary infections from Ebola in this country.

 

“The bottom line is, we have an inordinate amount of safety associated with this patient,” Ribner said when discussing the arrival of Brantly.

 

The Ebola outbreak has killed more than 720 people in West Africa and has a mortality rate of at least 60%. There is no cure or vaccine, but doctors at Emory say they are “cautiously optimistic” that with proper care and close monitoring they can successfully treat Brantly and Writebol.

 

On Friday the top health official with the United Nations pledged to release $100 million in funding to deploy hundreds of medical staffers to fight the virus.

 

“This outbreak is moving faster than our efforts to control it,” Dr. Margaret Chan, director-general of the World Health Organization, told leaders of four West African countries gathered in Conakry, the capital of Guinea, just north of Liberia. “If the situation continues to deteriorate, the consequences can be catastrophic in terms of lost lives but also severe socioeconomic disruption and a high risk of spread to other countries.”

 

Despite reassurances that the disease will be controlled on U.S. soil, some Atlantans said they were uncomfortable with the idea of Ebola patients being treated in their hometown.

 

“That worries me,” said Lisa Jackson as she waited for a bus near the hospital Friday. “They shouldn't even let them across the border.”

 

Even those who were more willing to welcome the ailing aid workers expressed some trepidation.

 

“If this is the only place they can get help, then sure, they should bring them here,” said Greg Hammock. But, he added, “Emory better be on top of their game.”

 

At the hospital's isolation ward, patients will be able to see visitors only through a plate-glass window and to speak to them via an intercom system. The hospital room has a telephone as well.

 

Each patient will be cared for by two nurses as well as infectious disease doctors and other specialists. All medical staffers who treat them will don masks, hoods, gloves and an outer shell over their clothing to protect them from vomit, saliva, mucus and other fluids that can spread the virus.

 

Patients infected with Ebola experience sudden fever, intense weakness, muscle pain, headaches, vomiting and diarrhea. As the disease progresses, it can cause kidney and liver failure as well as internal bleeding.


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#7 Dead

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Posted 02 August 2014 - 06:13 PM

Sounds like they're on it. Honestly if I were over there and got Ebola, I'd want to come home and be treated too. Can't really blame the guy. Although.. bringing Ebola to the US is no good.. He's got far better chances here than over there I think, and from what I've read it only transmits through bodily fluids... but... yeah. lol... Stay the heck away from Atlanta for now. This is how the Walking Dead Begins..


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#8 Iyouboushi

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Posted 02 August 2014 - 07:07 PM

True. I can't blame the guy for wanting to come back home to America..

 

I really hope they have it all contained. It's true that it's really only passed via the bodily fluids but it makes you wonder how these doctors (who are trained and KNOW THIS) are coming down with it. Thankfully it's not as contagious as the flu (yet, it could potentially evolve to that but hopefully not) but still something to keep an eye on about.


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#9 Dead

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Posted 02 August 2014 - 07:15 PM

Lol well given its never come to america and has a 90% mortality rate, I'd think the percentage has a lot to do with where it primarily is. I'd say if it were to outbreak here, it'd probably be far less fatal, as we have better sanitation and containment methods than other countries typically do.


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#10 Iyouboushi

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Posted 03 August 2014 - 01:07 PM

UN warns West Africans to stay away from fruit bats as Ebola spreads

UN warns West Africans to stay away from fruit bats as Ebola spreads

 

As the death toll from the world’s deadliest-ever Ebola outbreak surged past 600 in West Africa, the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) warned West Africans to stay away from certain popular wildlife species that are thought to carry the disease.

 

“We are not suggesting that people stop hunting altogether, which isn’t realistic,” FAO’s chief veterinary officer Juan Lubroth said in a release on Monday. “But communities need clear advice on the need not to touch dead animals or to sell or eat the meat of any animal that they find already dead. They should also avoid hunting animals that are sick or behaving strangely, as this is another red flag.”

 

Fruit bats are among the most notorious for spreading disease, according to the FAO. The U.N. organization said West Africa’s current epidemic, which has so far killed at least 604 people in Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone, was probably first transferred from an infected animal, and then began spreading between people. Ebola is transferred by direct contact with the blood or body of infected people or animals.

 

Fruit bats are often eaten dried, or as part of a soup in West Africa. Unlike other animals, they may show no signs of having been infected with Ebola, so the U.N. recommends that they be avoided altogether.

 

Several African governments have tried to ban the sales of bat and other meats because of their potential to carry disease, but medical pronouncements and medical professionals are often greeted with suspicion in rural parts of West Africa.

 

“There is a lot of mistrust to the extent that people are hiding patients rather than getting medical help, and it’s very difficult to control the disease in the midst of many myths and rumors,” said Katinka de Balogh, FAO’s veterinary public health officer.

 

In one past outbreak, Ebola, which can cause organ failure and internal bleeding, had a case fatality rate of 90 percent.

 

It's so weird to think that people have to be told not to eat roadkill (basically) or animals that are acting strangely. The education gap between our countries is enormous.


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