…If diseases as serious as Ebola can be transferred to people as far away as 3-4 feet and we can make the assumption that something like secondary contact can transfer it as well, how screwed are we?
I started thinking about this as I purchased a drink at the gas station. Guy freshly home from Liberia is feeling down. Stops at the gas station on the way home to get something to drink and some cold medicine. He grabs the same product I do but decides he doesn’t want it and puts it back. He pays with some change and sneezes near the cashier get particulate on the cashier and on the counter. I come in, pick up the product he handled, put in on the counter he sneezed on, then get the same change back that he had in his pocket and hands from the cashier who has also been contaminated…I’m dead. What’s that 3-4 chances of transmission in a couple minutes?
I’m going to go wash my hands…again…shit I need to wipe my keyboard down too…crap and my mouse, mouse pad…damn it!
You might wanna just carry some purell with you… Wait… does that kill Ebola?? Now I’m not sure.
But honestly… you have a real concern. I just think we can’t blow it out of proportion. Yet.
Ebola is transmitted by contact with fluids from an infected person, it is not an airborne virus ( at this time, mutations are always possible ).
With proper containment and treatment of the infected and corpses it would be reasonable easy to contain. However, most of North West Africa are festering sh!tholes with limited ability to contain the infected.
Worry if it becomes transmissible airborne ( like the cold or the flu ), then we’re well and truly farked, but it may kill people too fast and not be that big a problem.
But hey, 7 billion heading to 50 billion by the end of the century, a serious pandemic or two might help…
Ebola is transmitted by contact with fluids from an infected person, it is not an airborne virus
This only means that it won’t float around in the air. If a person wipes their nose and touches something and then you touch it…you got it. While many other diseases are “Air born” I would guess that the majority of them are transferred via “Bodily fluid”. Sneezes, drippy noses, sweating, coughs etc etc all “Transfer fluids”.
With proper containment and treatment of the infected and corpses it would be reasonable easy to contain.
Then how do they have a possible second patient that only came in contact with the first patient and why does the CDC say they “Would want to know” if you came with in 3-4 feet of the infected person? If this is “Transferred by bodily fluids” then live people have those as well, no?
Worry if it becomes transmissible airborne ( like the cold or the flu ), then we’re well and truly farked, but it may kill people too fast and not be that big a problem.
If someone sneezes on you they are not transmitting the flu via “Airborne” they are transmitting it via body fluids. Yes you CAN get these other diseases via air born, but again, at least I believe, most of them are transmitted via fluids. Why do you think those snotty, dirty, slobbery little monsters we call kids are always sick and why do you think the parents get it first after them? Bodily fluids, not air born.
You are at more risk driving to work than you are from ebola.
You are not at risk from ebola( unless of course you are in west Africa and are treating the sick or burying the dead ).
What this really says is “You are not at a high risk to catch Ebola in the US, RIGHT NOW”. I can agree with this and most of this was “Tongue in cheek”…especially since I would probably welcome the sweet release of death from this relentlessness god forsaken life…but I digress.
Why aren’t you getting your panties in a wad over traffic deaths and smoking? ( or heart disease, diabetes, cancer)
Because the odds of dying from any of things do not RAPIDLY change. Today the odds of me dying on the way to work are not only known but will be pretty much unchanged five years from now, in fact the odds will be better that I survive, probably, due to better automotive technology. OTOH the odds of me dieing from Ebola are very low to near non existent, RIGHT NOW. However if these two people infect 10, who infect 10 each, who infect 10 each. In a year my odds of me getting Ebola will be VERY HIGH.
I know how to not die when driving, I don’t really know how to live my life and not die from Ebola. If in fact you can catch Ebola in the same manner as the flu, some dude handles my drink at the gas station, then I really don’t want to wait until there is a complete epidemic to start figuring out how to not let that happen…I’m hoping the options are greater then “Become a recluse”.
Doesn’t transfer by bodily fluids mean it still has to get into your body through some an open wound or mucous? I.e if you touch a drink at the 7-11 with snot from an ebola patient on it and you don’t have any cuts on your hand and then you wash your hands before picking your nose and ingesting it then you should be fine right?
So just stop picking your nose and wash your hands before you ingest anything should help.
So how small/resistant is the Ebola virus. I am asking with thoughts of people who get exposed yet take a few days to become symptomatic bht still spend a day or two puking and pooping then flushing bodily fluids containing the virus into the public water supply.
I.e if you touch a drink at the 7-11 with snot from an ebola patient on it and you don’t have any cuts on your hand and then you wash your hands before picking your nose and ingesting it then you should be fine right?
I would assume this is the case but let’s think about what I would have to do in order to completely protect myself from this.
I touch the drink, I touch the money both of which have been contaminated. Everything the drink or money touches will also potentially be contaminated, I’m sure to a diminishing degree every transfer but I do not know how much. In order to not contaminate my care I would have to A) wash my hands B) Sterilize the Drink and C) steralize the money all before entering the vehicle. That’s not going to happen with out some sort of fancy on the go bio cleaning device, that would of course be contaminated the second I touched it prior to sanitizing my hands.
In reality I put the money in my pants pocket/wallet, contaminating them both. I go to my car get in and put the drink in the drink holder, contaminating the drink holder, car door handles in and out, steering wheel and anything else I touch in the car which is probably several things.
Even if I’m careful to not touch my face…or pick my nose, which is a HUGE problem especially in traffic with someone staring at me, by the time I get to a place which seems feasible to sterilize these items and wash my hands I have contaminated everything I’ve touched, door handles, faucet handles etc etc etc.
We don’t even think about this stuff for things like the flu because, well most flu’s have a fairly low rate of death among healthy individuals that get infected, with a few exceptions. So you take “General precautions” like washing your hands that drops the rate a bit and if you get the flu you stay at home a few days and feel like crap…you typically don’t die or even end up in the hospital.
**I am asking with thoughts of people who get exposed yet take a few days to become symptomatic bht still spend a day or two puking and pooping then flushing bodily fluids containing the virus into the public water supply. **
From THIS article
“At that time, the patient presented with low-grade fever and abdominal pain. His condition did not warrant admission. He also was not exhibiting symptoms specific to Ebola," Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital Dallas said in a statement Wednesday. "The patient returned via ambulance on Sunday, September 28, at which time EMS had already identified potential need for isolation. The hospital followed all suggested CDC protocols at that time. Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital Dallas’ staff is thoroughly trained in infection control procedures and protocols.”
I have no idea about going into the water supply but we have a case here where the patient went to the hospital, told them he was recently in Africa and they sent him home. He was “Out and about” for four days interacting with people. Apparently one of whom is potentially showing symptoms and includes contact with a few school aged children…whom are great spreaders of disease.
I’m not attempting to be a panic inciter and frankly I’m not really worried about it myself, but I do see potential for there to be some major issues. According to the article they know he came in contact with ~18 people, he clearly flew back with the virus which means he was in airplanes and airports. Hopefully he was not showing symptoms at the time of his travels but if he was, we really have no idea how many people he has come in contact with.
Again, I’m not to worried about it but the potential is most certainly there and why we do not have some travel restrictions until the outbreak is under control over seas is beyond me.
So how small/resistant is the Ebola virus. I am asking with thoughts of people who get exposed yet take a few days to become symptomatic bht still spend a day or two puking and pooping then flushing bodily fluids containing the virus into the public water supply.
Ebola is only transmittable while the carrier is sick (showing signs). So the folks on the plane with this patient were fine. The people in the DR office on his first visit who sent him home are not.
The death toll in Africa is 3800. More people got shot in Chicago last weekend.
Well played sir, well played.
And more seriously, I’d wager an order of magnitude more people died from malaria in Africa over the same time period.
And that is probably true but how many people died from Malaria in the US from contact from malaria IN the US? Furthermore you basically have to get bit by a mosquito or injected with someones blood that has malaria in order to get it, can’t get it like you can the flu or apparently Ebola.
Ebola is only transmittable while the carrier is sick (showing signs)
Do we know he was not sick on the plane? I’ve not heard either way, just curious. Furthermore where did he get it and how do we know he did not track his infection source along with him onto the plane?
I’m fairly confident the CDC are asking and investigating all this, I just think we tend to get a tad comfortable with the “It can’t possibly happen here” mentality without really knowing how it does or could happen. I would certainly not expect public officials to come out and be 100% truthful about all the possibilities. If it’s a 1% chance it can still happen, but saying that makes people act crazy so public officials tend to not be 100% honest…I think my eyes are bleeding for some reason…
