ebola, anyone else mildly terrified?
Discussion
2013BRM said:
QuantumTokoloshi said:
The person is diagnosed and quarantined, no problem there. The worry is someone not knowing they have the disease, walking around London for a few days before getting the full symptoms, spreading it around.
It isn't contagious until the symptoms present, ie you're coughing up your spleen. I am pretty sure that the levels of protection this person is under and the quality of care will be second to none
Ebola is really not that easy to catch. Western healthcare should reduce the mortality rate substantially.
9mm said:
Must be a remarkably important or well connected health worker to get flown back in an RAF jet.
Who needs health insurance?
Not necessarily, a friend was severely injured in a bombing in Egypt - he was medivaced first to the US military base for emergency treatment, then flew at the pleasure of the RAF back to the UK as soon as he was ready, in order to continue treatment here. Who needs health insurance?
Also, brother in law had a stroke in Vietnam (expat) - no health insurance. Foreign Office arranged private flights including specialist nurses, for him to pay back 'once he's working and able to'. As if that's likely after a fairly debilitating stroke at 55...
It happens all the time to those that truly need it. However, I can imagine why it's not widely publicised. We do look after our citizens worldwide, even if Dave-who's-lost-his-passport-in-Ibeefa doesn't think so!
Sway said:
9mm said:
Must be a remarkably important or well connected health worker to get flown back in an RAF jet.
Who needs health insurance?
Not necessarily, a friend was severely injured in a bombing in Egypt - he was medivaced first to the US military base for emergency treatment, then flew at the pleasure of the RAF back to the UK as soon as he was ready, in order to continue treatment here. Who needs health insurance?
Also, brother in law had a stroke in Vietnam (expat) - no health insurance. Foreign Office arranged private flights including specialist nurses, for him to pay back 'once he's working and able to'. As if that's likely after a fairly debilitating stroke at 55...
It happens all the time to those that truly need it. However, I can imagine why it's not widely publicised. We do look after our citizens worldwide, even if Dave-who's-lost-his-passport-in-Ibeefa doesn't think so!
BrabusMog said:
Sway said:
9mm said:
Must be a remarkably important or well connected health worker to get flown back in an RAF jet.
Who needs health insurance?
Not necessarily, a friend was severely injured in a bombing in Egypt - he was medivaced first to the US military base for emergency treatment, then flew at the pleasure of the RAF back to the UK as soon as he was ready, in order to continue treatment here. Who needs health insurance?
Also, brother in law had a stroke in Vietnam (expat) - no health insurance. Foreign Office arranged private flights including specialist nurses, for him to pay back 'once he's working and able to'. As if that's likely after a fairly debilitating stroke at 55...
It happens all the time to those that truly need it. However, I can imagine why it's not widely publicised. We do look after our citizens worldwide, even if Dave-who's-lost-his-passport-in-Ibeefa doesn't think so!
I'm surprised it happened though - you do fairly frequently hear of appeals to get the feckless home. Perhaps the FO step in if the country doesn't have a recognised good health service? Also we do send warships to evacuate ex-pats from countries where there are sudden security issues.
9mm said:
Must be a remarkably important or well connected health worker to get flown back in an RAF jet.
Who needs health insurance?
Not at all. The RAF is responsible for transporting highly infectious patients.Who needs health insurance?
They have a specialised team dedicated for it:
http://www.raf.mod.uk/PMRAFNS/organisation/airtran...
Chebble said:
I find it remarkable that, despite Ebola being in the press at the moment, with seemingly every news story explaining what the virus is and how spreads from host to host, people still have uninformed opinions that are spectacularly wide of the mark.
True, but, in the recent past we've also had widespread scares over MRSA, C. Diff, SARS, H2N1, etc etc which did actually kill people in this advanced western country.Introducing - by choice - another scary disease seems counter-intuitive, but it's the sort of thing that's been done behind closed doors before.
Luckily we don't have a problem with things like bovine TB or Foot and Mouth Disease escaping from laboratories...and a free press that is most reluctant to ramp up concerns...
Chebble said:
I find it remarkable that, despite Ebola being in the press at the moment, with seemingly every news story explaining what the virus is and how spreads from host to host, people still have uninformed opinions that are spectacularly wide of the mark.
It is not speculation that it is able to spread not only through the contact route. There are three likely candidates for the route of transmission: airborne, droplet, or fomites. The suspicion was that it could spread between animals without physical contact in the 1976 Reston outbreak, and then confirmation of this came in a 2012 Canadian study between pigs and monkeys. The exact mode of this non contact transmission is not definitely known as yet.
QuantumTokoloshi said:
Chebble said:
I find it remarkable that, despite Ebola being in the press at the moment, with seemingly every news story explaining what the virus is and how spreads from host to host, people still have uninformed opinions that are spectacularly wide of the mark.
It is not speculation that it is able to spread not only through the contact route. There are three likely candidates for the route of transmission: airborne, droplet, or fomites. The suspicion was that it could spread between animals without physical contact in the 1976 Reston outbreak, and then confirmation of this came in a 2012 Canadian study between pigs and monkeys. The exact mode of this non contact transmission is not definitely known as yet.
Edited by Rocksteadyeddie on Wednesday 27th August 09:15
BrabusMog said:
If it's spread by bodily fluids how the hell would a volunteer treating a patient get it?
Ebola haemorrhagic fever - do you really need that explaining? The body fluids become filled with the virus, which then begin to seep out of the body via the orifices. Treating a patient is going to involve cleaning the fluids off them, or they'd be lying in their own filth for days. They'll be coughing up all sorts too. That said, it's not that easy to catch, but in Africa with terrible care standards, lack of equipment and only very basic contagion control, it can spread.All the people who are doom mongering and worrying about there being an outbreak at home will be terrified to know that the virus has been handled in labs around the UK for years, and at least one person has had a needle stick injury while handling it, resulting in a stay under quarantine conditions while they were observed and tested to see if the virus would take hold or not, so this isn't the first time there has been a risk of an outbreak here. Of course, that risk is almost absolutely nil. The bloke who does have it and is being handled appropriately and receiving care isn't the risk, the biggest risk I'd have thought, would be African nationals travelling back to the UK from affected areas, especially since they are less likely to seek proper care and help if they are sick once returning to the UK.
Mastodon2 said:
...
All the people who are doom mongering and worrying about there being an outbreak at home will be terrified to know that the virus has been handled in labs around the UK for years, and at least one person has had a needle stick injury while handling it
...
"In labs" being the operative phrase. All the people who are doom mongering and worrying about there being an outbreak at home will be terrified to know that the virus has been handled in labs around the UK for years, and at least one person has had a needle stick injury while handling it
...
What concerns the doom mongers is what happens if someone who has recently been to that part of West Africa returns home & whilst in transit or once here they then start to become symptomatic & the virus begins to be spread amongst the very high density UK populace.
Does not seem pie in the sky unlikely, in my opinion.
So it seems if you're not malnourished and dehydrated and come from a country with any sort of healthcare system chances of survival are high ?
Makes it pretty much the same as any other disease.. In that it only kills people in poor countries with no healthcare system. What's the big deal with Ebola?
Makes it pretty much the same as any other disease.. In that it only kills people in poor countries with no healthcare system. What's the big deal with Ebola?
There has yet to be an outbreak of Ebola in a First World country, so it is impossible to say what would happen based on data so far.
I would suspect the infection rate in the UK to be incredibly high & rapidly widespread due to population density & mobility, but also the survival rate to be far higher than has been observed in Africa.
I would suspect the infection rate in the UK to be incredibly high & rapidly widespread due to population density & mobility, but also the survival rate to be far higher than has been observed in Africa.
Edited by zygalski on Wednesday 27th August 19:27
zygalski said:
Mastodon2 said:
...
All the people who are doom mongering and worrying about there being an outbreak at home will be terrified to know that the virus has been handled in labs around the UK for years, and at least one person has had a needle stick injury while handling it
...
"In labs" being the operative phrase. All the people who are doom mongering and worrying about there being an outbreak at home will be terrified to know that the virus has been handled in labs around the UK for years, and at least one person has had a needle stick injury while handling it
...
What concerns the doom mongers is what happens if someone who has recently been to that part of West Africa returns home & whilst in transit or once here they then start to become symptomatic & the virus begins to be spread amongst the very high density UK populace.
Does not seem pie in the sky unlikely, in my opinion.
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