There have been 5 cases of viral hemorrhagic fever (Marburg and Lassa) brought in to the US from people traveling back from Africa. They were all treated in hospital with no outbreaks to the general population. The African countries affected by Ebola are poor and, the population unfortunately largely superstitious and uneducated. This is why AIDs spread throughout the subcontinent, because the culture didn't support the use of condoms as prevention. In the US we take for granted clean hospitals, trained doctors, nurses and ancillary staff, sterilized equipment and enough protective supplies to ensure no one is infected. Even classrooms like mine are equipped with rubber gloves and medical sanitizer.
That's not how it is in Africa which is why medical teams like Doctors Without Borders and others are there, bringing their own supplies. They're overwhelmed by this latest outbreak mainly because of substandard healthcare plus a populace that is resistant to seeking medical help and deals with cases at home causing even more preventable infections. To be honest, just going about my daily life, I'd be more concerned with something that's spread in my area by mosquito like West Nile Virus, or airborne like influenza than I would with coming into contact with an infected person's bodily fluids.
The only good, if you want to call it that, coming out of this sad situation is that the death of the leading Ebola specialist in Sierra Leone has caused WHO to wake the fuck up and declare a crisis which should have been done years ago after the first outbreak. Now maybe more research money will be spent on hemorrhagic fever with an outcome in the form of a treatment regimen or vaccine. Frightening as it may seem to be treating the doctor in Emory, the progress of his disease and the success of his treatment will be part of research in understanding and managing Ebola.
I come from a city with a high percentage of expatriots working abroad, mostly in the oil industry, many of whom are in, have been in, or are returning to Africa as part of their work schedule. I communicate with them regularly, and they seems pretty unimpressed by the whole Ebola situation.
General consensus seems to be that from what they can tell the place is a complete shithole, where sanitation and hygiene is largely of only peripheral concern to the locals.
Jings Crivvens writes, "I am in Angola just now and during our safety meeting yesterday we were given info about it. Basically if you catch it, there is only a 10% chance you will survive. Its classed as low risk to us Expats due to the way you can catch it, but its still a bit worrying. The main ways to catch it as mentioned above is by coming to contact of bodily fluids of someone who has the disease. But also from the dead. A culture here in Africa is the locals kiss and cuddle their loved ones when they have died. And that's where a high % of them have caught the disease as its still very active after death. Also if you eat bush meat as a lot of bats and monkeys have the disease as well. So they consider expats to be at low risk, as generally we automatically wash our hands etc. all the time. And less chance of us eating bush meat, well not knowingly eat it. I will be glad to leave here on Wednesday, then will watch the news at home to see if it spreads. A few of us here have said if when at home they see it spread to Angola, no chance we flying back."
Redstar says, "I've been to both Lagos and Luanda...they are disease ridden hell holes best avoided... "
Cheesepipes explains, "It's another bullet in the chamber for those who like ebony love. Not only are they Aids ridden but the bat eating bitches now have the power to make you bleed to death out your anus. "
Wise words, Mr Cheesepipes.
Cheesepipes spends a lot of time in Africa, splitting his time between oil-related work and having sex with local prostitutes.
Bluto 10 had this to say. "I dinna eat gristle and krbaba for nothin mi Good for the heart. Eat dust and live like gwinerh and Chris,what's you're arteries training against?"
Bluto 10 is quite often drunk and posts from various bars in the Netherlands, as seems to be the case here.
Point being, if a bunch of drunken, whoremongering roustabouts with zero sexual morals and a penchant for 'going native' aren't overly concerned about the risks then the rest of us probably shouldn't be either.
I guess that was my point anyway.
I really can't remember.
