The Hot Zone

[Jason Rayes]

*snip*

You actually bring up some good points, indeed the outbreak in Africa IS so bad because of location. Lack of sanitation, lack of education, fear of the UN, lack of amenities due to countries being run by tinpot dictators. If this outbreak was in a first world country people would be all over it and it wouldn't be an issue. You are right, tough decisions will need to be made. More on this below.

freaking its shit over the swine flu.

Bird flu didn't kill me, swine flu didn't kill me and mad cow disease didn't kill me.

I'll worry if I catch it, there is nothing I can do about it and going into a panic about something that's more than likely never going to happen is pointless.

You see, the assumption here is that the WHO were wrong and failed. The fact is that due to the WHO warning action was swift and decisive. Symptomatic people were curtailed and quarantined. If you show any signs you you were not allowed to fly and into quarantine you went. Hell if you landed at an airport here with a sniffle you went into quarantine. Neither swine or bird flu ever became a thing because action was taken. It wasn't a failure by WHO, it was a success.

The same with mad cow disease. Now its a bit different in that you cant catch it from anything airborne, you have eat infected meat. The UK and Europe where the outbreak was immediately responded by shutting down any farm even suspected of it and all cattle were put down. The UK beef industry alone took years to recover. Here in Australia it was two years before we could buy meat products from the UK and Europe and at the time all imported products were removed from store shelves and destroyed. In this case government action was so swift and decisive that it could almost count as a scorched earth policy. Once again its not that Mad Cow disease was no threat, its just a threat that was met head on and neutralized.

Notice a trend though? All this stuff happened in or near first world countries and action was swift and decisive. I have no doubt that if the Ebola outbreak was closer to home, shit would get done.

My worry with Africa is that once it reaches a certain tipping point, that's when shit gets real. If it gets to bad it WILL spread outside Africa. While I do have faith it can be contained in more developed countries, if it reaches that point a hell of a lot of people are going to die.

Ideally I'd like to see the kind of reaction we saw for swine/bird fly and mad cow disease. It can be done, we've seen it. I guess that was my point with the thread in the first place.

 

[Gennadios]

Ehhhh...

Ebola would not be a problem in the west. For the most part we trust our medical professionals, and we're so scared of death that we give our corpses a very wide berth.

It's spreading in Africa because they're terrified, prefer to be sick while surrounded with family rather than in seclusion, and can't keep their hands off their dead.

Not to mention the whole lack of medical infrastructure.

It's one of those things where the cultural values are very much to blame for the epidemic. It'll sort itself one way or the other.

 

[Jason Rayes]

Ehhhh...

Ebola would not be a problem in the west. For the most part we trust our medical professionals, and we're so scared of death that we give our corpses a very wide berth.

It's spreading in Africa because they're terrified, prefer to be sick while surrounded with family rather than in seclusion, and can't keep their hands off their dead.

Not to mention the whole lack of medical infrastructure.

It's one of those things where the cultural values are very much to blame for the epidemic. It'll sort itself one way or the other.

See my response above

 

[Gennadios]

See my response above

The thing is, Ebola's symptoms are far easier to catch than Mad Cow disease and it's not as virulent as any of the fancy new Flues.

It can be foiled with the basic contact precautions that every modern hospital has as standard policy.

It's about as contagious as scabies. How many non-homeless people in the developed world have scabies?

 

[Jason Rayes]

See my response above

The thing is, Ebola's symptoms are far easier to catch than Mad Cow disease and it's not as virulent as any of the fancy new Flues.

It can be foiled with the basic contact precautions that every modern hospital has as standard policy.

It's about as contagious as scabies. How many non-homeless people in the developed world have scabies?

A repulsive but hilarious example

 

[Vault101]

But then I also remember the WHO freaking its shit over the swine flu.

swine flu was only a risk to the young and elderly....if I recall

Not to dismiss anyone's fears, but you might want to look at the socio/cultural reason for the spread of the disease. In a 1st world country like the UK or the US, a quarantine is going to be somewhat easy to maintain should it spread to here. We know how to handle the bodies, we would have the right faculty, and so forth. However, because of how the society has shaped much of Africa, this isn't as easy there.
.

not to mention last night on the news I saw video footage of an ebola patient who had escaped and wandered into a local market in search of food...he had to be wrestled down by guys in hazmat suits....aside from possible negligence apparently patients weren't getting fed

..yeah pretty grim stuff