Chief medical officer

[PerryGunn]

my point was that both viruses are transmitted by bodily fluids, to think that HIV is spread just through sexual intercourse is a tad naive, but the relatively quick period between being infected, becoming contagious and the actual symptoms of ebola mean that it is just more efficient at being transferred from host to host.

Ebola is already adapting to human hosts! During the previous ebola outbreaks infected people died faster and the mortality rate was up around 90%, the current outbreak has a lower mortality rate than earlier outbreaks and the infected are surviving longer - it's of no 'benefit'* to the virus to make its host show symptoms and die too quickly, it 'needs'* them to survive for a reasonable amount of time to maximise its spread. Successful virus evolve strategies that maximise their reproductive potential.

*I know these are anthropomorphic concepts, but I can't remember all the genetic fitness buzzwords that I learnt at university

According to a study published in Science in late August by Stephen K. Gire of Harvard and a long list of co-authors, the virus in West Africa seems to have diverged from its lineage in Central Africa just within the past decade

The genetic study by Gire and his colleagues (five of whom were dead of Ebola by the time their study appeared) found 341 mutations as of late August, some of which are significant enough to change the bug's functional identity. The higher the case count in West Africa goes, the more chances for further mutations, and therefore the greater possibility that the virus might adapt somehow to become more transmissible-perhaps by becoming less pathogenic, sickening or killing its victims more slowly and thereby leaving them more time to infect others.

That's why, the Gire group wrote, we need to stop this thing everywhere as soon as possible. Future spillovers of Ebola are bound to occur, but those freshly emerged strains of the virus, direct from the reservoir host, won't contain any adaptive mutations that the West Africa strain is acquiring now.

We need to terminate Ebola 2014 before the virus learns too much about us.

 

[Number5]

Propaganda...
The news reported the confirmed case in Scotland but assured people on the same flight or who may have been in contact with the person, not to worry as contracting the disease is highly unlikely.

Then why the hell did she get a NINE vehicle convoy to London with all the Blues flashing ????

 

[ronk]

Then why the hell did she get a NINE vehicle convoy to London with all the Blues flashing ????

Probably just in case the infected lady has to pass within five miles of any of the great and good of the land.
Or is that the cynic in me?

 

[Carol M]

Even just one person dying from this (and other) horrible disease is one too many, so scare mongering or not, I still think returning health care workers etc should be quarantined.
If it was one of your nearest and dearest who caught it off someone it would be a different matter I think.

And kill all the bats.

 

[ronk]

Even just one person dying from this (and other) horrible disease is one too many, so scare mongering or not, I still think returning health care workers etc should be quarantined.
If it was one of your nearest and dearest who caught it off someone it would be a different matter I think.

And kill all the bats.

Can't argue with that!
Happy new year etc

 

[sp3ctre]

Not sure if you know the veracity of that map but it's not accurate. 'Ebola' is named after the Ebola river area where it was first identified 2000km away in the Congo. The Marburg virus which is a related to Ebola and does the same job, popped up in outbreaks since the 60's in Kenya, S Africa Russia and Marburg in Germany where it was named. A nasty outbreak of Ebola (Reston strain) did go airborne in a monkey holding facility in Reston Virginia in 1989. That was contained but staff were infected and developed antibodies, but for reasons unknown did not develop the full disease. Hence the medical officer's words are strictly speaking accurate but time will tell if full Ebola will go airborne.

The image was more aimed at the "I wouldn't go anywhere near someone from Africa" comment... Some people have no idea how big Africa is!

 

[exdos]

And kill all the bats.

And then there'll be more insect borne infections...

 

[Jasey]

Not sure if you know the veracity of that map but it's not accurate. 'Ebola' is named after the Ebola river area where it was first identified 2000km away in the Congo. The Marburg virus which is a related to Ebola and does the same job, popped up in outbreaks since the 60's in Kenya, S Africa Russia and Marburg in Germany where it was named. A nasty outbreak of Ebola (Reston strain) did go airborne in a monkey holding facility in Reston Virginia in 1989. That was contained but staff were infected and developed antibodies, but for reasons unknown did not develop the full disease. Hence the medical officer's words are strictly speaking accurate but time will tell if full Ebola will go airborne.

The image was more aimed at the "I wouldn't go anywhere near someone from Africa" comment... Some people have no idea how big Africa is!

100% of Ebola victims (since the start of time) have come from Africa (or had contact with someone from Africa).

The current outbreak is from West Africa - Previous ones have been in central Africa.

If I see some Africa spewing up blood at the airport I'll be giving them a wide berth - you can rush up and check their passports