Watching the resurgence of Ebola Zaire...
It has jumped from Guinea...Macenta, Gueckedou, and Kissidougou...then to the capital (Conakry) leaving dead bodies in its wake...has hit the Liberian and Sierra Leone borders...and now a possibly infected passenger and his family have arrived in Canada on a flight- and are quarantined.
I am far from an alarmist...never stockpiled Tamiflu when the Avian Flu scare hit...Didn't run through the streets yelling "Bird Flu...Bird Flu" but this...
This scares the HELL out of me.
This isn't the "spread only by infected blood products" of HIV (...requiring direct blood to open wound blood exposure or transfusion- and still difficult to acquire...)
This is spread through all the infected's bodily fluids including sweat. And one of the distinguishing characteristics in the early stages is high fever. Pretty effective vector method when you think about it. It can also live on surfaces that have been contaminated with the same. From March 21st to March 25th to virus has travelled through the fore-mentioned regions...and now very possibly made the leap to another Continent.
The CDC gives us the following helpful hints:
| Avoid contact with the bodily fluids (blood, feces, urine, vomit, sweat , in fact - any fluid, etc.)
of infected people. Medical personnel should note the following advice
from the CDC's recently updated "Management of Patients with Suspected
Viral Hemorrhagic Fever -- United States":
"Because most ill persons
undergoing pre-hospital evaluation and transport are in the early stages
of disease and would not be expected to have symptoms that increase
the likelihood of contact with infectious body fluids (e.g. sweat, vomiting,
diarrhea, or hemorrhage), universal precautions are generally
sufficient. If a patient has respiratory symptoms (e.g., cough or
rhinitis), face shields or surgical masks and eye protection (e.g.,
goggles or eyeglasses with side shields) should be worn by caregivers to
prevent droplet contact."
Some "universal precautions" are detailed in the next section:
"Patients in a hospital
outpatient or inpatient setting should be placed in a private room. A
negative pressure room is not required during the early stages of
illness, but should be considered at the time of hospitalization to
avoid the need for subsequent transfer of the patient. Non-essential
staff and visitors should be restricted from entering the room.
Caretakers should use barrier precautions to prevent skin or mucous
membrane exposure to blood and other body fluids, secretions, and
excretions. All persons entering the patient's room should wear gloves
and gowns to prevent contact with items or environmental surfaces that
may be soiled. In addition, face shields or surgical masks and eye
protection (e.g., goggles or eyeglasses with side shields) should be
worn by persons coming within approximately 3 feet of the patient to
prevent contact with blood, other body fluids, secretions (including
respiratory droplets), or excretions."
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| Feeling fairly alarmed, yet? | |||||||||||||||||
Richard Preston's Non-Fiction "Hot Zone" and be prepared to lose some sleep.
The very characteristic that has kept it contained on the Dark Continent has been the transmission speed and the 90% mortality rate. In short...in a small village it burns itself out quickly by killing most of the population. Dropped into a large metropolis...it could be devastating. The pandemic they have been predicting for years.
So feeling a bit like "Chicken Little" this morning...and hoping like hell they are wrong about the flight-passenger from Liberia to Canada.
Update:
Canada Rules out Suspected Case of Ebola
Canadian officials investigating a man suspected of having contracted
Ebola during a visit to West Africa say it has been determined he does
not have the virus.
Cailin Rodgers, a spokeswoman for Canada's health minister, said Tuesday
lab testing confirmed the individual hospitalized with symptoms of a
hemorrhagic fever does not have Ebola.
She says there are no confirmed cases of Ebola in Canada.
The man remains seriously ill and is being kept in isolation in a Saskatchewan hospital.
And then we all breathed OUT again...
