Thread: Meanwhile, in West Africa, Ebola works quietly away.

Some organisation, hopefully, Bob [ this mob are bloody champions

The medical charity Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) is working with the World Health Organization and the Guinea Ministry of Health. It has four isolation facilities in Guinea and more than 300 international and local staff.



BBC News - Ebola: WHO calls emergency talks on outbreak

The trouble is Ebola is unheard of in West Africa so there was no organised approach to stop the spread.

I agree it's alarming how this has gone on for several months.

I have been through 3 outbreaks in Uganda. They there know what to do. All roads to major centres are closed, all travelling public are checked before being allowed to travel into cities.

Shaking of hands stops and the overseas medical agencies fly in mobile test centres and isolation units.

I understand it comes from bats which infect livestock/bushmeat and off it goes.

A moving experience driving past the isolation tents thinking about what's going on inside.

They need to get on top of this before it gets to a large city.

It creates mass fear, I can attest to that. Did not allow my family back into UG from Australia (on holiday) until the authorities said the worst was over.

Cheers Jerry

Originally Posted by Road Stone

The trouble is Ebola is unheard of in West Africa so there was no organised approach to stop the spread.

Cheers Jerry

Jerry, that in itself has alarm bells ringing for me. So, Ebola has spread to the other side of Africa. Does any one really know how this disease could do that? Would it be by human movement, I don't know the gestation period for the disease, but surely bats wouldn't carry it that far. Do the locals eat the bats? For such a terrible disease, we seem to know little about it, Bob

Ebola virus disease - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Fruit bats. Ebola, Hendra virus. Wonder if they are related. The people we bought our house off, she from Vietnam, he from New Caledonia, told us they used to trap the fruit bats in our area by putting nets in the banana trees, then prepare them but cutting out a major vein , & bleeding the bat out, then cook & eat them. You'd have to be hungry, IMO. Bob

Hendra is not thought to related to Ebola. It, along with the Nipah virus, are said to be the only two members of the genus Henipavirus of the family Paramyxoviridae.

Hendra virus: Australian Veterinary Association

However, the same article does associate Hendra as a distant relative of measles.

Daughter is registered to capture native bats for study and research purposes - lots of health risks associated with bats.

Originally Posted by bob10

Jerry, that in itself has alarm bells ringing for me. So, Ebola has spread to the other side of Africa. Does any one really know how this disease could do that? Would it be by human movement, I don't know the gestation period for the disease, but surely bats wouldn't carry it that far. Do the locals eat the bats? For such a terrible disease, we seem to know little about it, Bob

Yes I think it must have been a carrier travelling from Central Africa or the DRC.

In 2006, October, we had and outbreak in Western Uganda. It took a few weeks for the realisation to set in but they traced the start back to a Dutch tourist who had visited a cave. They had been hit by a bat that caused a scratch. This person had then mixed with villagers and so on.
That person died.....in Holland, so you can imagine the scramble to find everybody sitting close to him on the plane!

I think it killed about 40 odd people, the later outbreaks killed a lot more.

There are different strains of Ebola. Some are not as deadly as others but there is no cure. You liquefy internally.

Jerry

Originally Posted by Road Stone

Yes I think it must have been a carrier travelling from Central Africa or the DRC.

In 2006, October, we had and outbreak in Western Uganda. It took a few weeks for the realisation to set in but they traced the start back to a Dutch tourist who had visited a cave. They had been hit by a bat that caused a scratch. This person had then mixed with villagers and so on.
That person died.....in Holland, so you can imagine the scramble to find everybody sitting close to him on the plane!

I think it killed about 40 odd people, the later outbreaks killed a lot more.

There are different strains of Ebola. Some are not as deadly as others but there is no cure. You liquefy internally.

Jerry

Bloody hell, Terry, this could travel the World, in a short time. Shades of 12 monkeys. And I thought it was all fantasy. Bob