Ebola, what you're not being told

[Walkabout]

reminds me of the last big hoof and mouth outbreak in the UK and Europe. I was still working for Meat/Livestock inspection for the state of Illinois. False alarms popped everyday for months, the Chicken Little syndrome [ the sky is falling ] . In the end there there were NO cases in the USA ! there are real threats of disease here , but I'm not worried about Ebola as of yet !

[Earthnut]

Good news ~

2 American Ebola patients released from hospital

https://news.yahoo.com/hospital-discuss-discharge-ebola-patients-100148319.html

[Earthnut]

Experimental Ebola Drug's Role in Americans' Recoveries Remains Unclear ~

https://gma.yahoo.com/experimental-ebola-drugs-role-americans-recoveries-remains-unclear-184043795--abc-news-wellness.html

How doctors know an Ebola patient is no longer contagious ~

https://news.yahoo.com/doctors-know-ebola-patient-no-011736617.html

Nigeria confirms 2 new Ebola cases

https://news.yahoo.com/nigeria-confirms-2-ebola-cases-114318752.html

ABUJA, Nigeria (AP) — Two new cases of Ebola have emerged in Nigeria and, in an alarming development, they are outside the group of caregivers who treated an airline passenger who arrived with Ebola and died, Health Minister Onyebuchi Chukwu said Friday...........

[Earthnut]

https://www.yahoo.com/health/why-more-women-are-dying-in-the-ebola-outbreak-95476080612.html

Why More Women Than Men Are Dying in the Ebola Outbreak

Keith Mulvihill

Aug 22, 2014

As news continues to pour in about the devastating outbreak of Ebola in West Africa, it is being reported that more women than men are succumbing to the deadly virus.

The Liberian government, for example, has announced that 75 percent of the country’s Ebola deaths have been of women. And the Washington Post reported last week that when you include Guinea and Sierra Leone along with Liberia, women make up 55 to 60 percent of the deceased.

The biggest driving force behind the gender difference in the death rate comes from cultural aspects of affected communities, according to Pritish K. Tosh, M.D., an infectious disease specialist with the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota.

In West Africa, for instance, “women tend to be the primary caregivers when other family members are ill,” he noted. “These women are more likely to be exposed to vomit or feces of an infected family member, which may explain why we are seeing more women with the infection,” he said, nothing that transmission within the community is related to direct contact with blood and other bodily fluids of people who are acutely ill.

Tosh also emphasized that there is not a biological difference at play, meaning women are not at more risk compared with men, given a specific exposure.

The disproportionate Ebola death rates between men and women shouldn’t come as a surprise in light of past research. “Differences in exposure between males and females have been shown to be important factors in transmission of [Ebola],” according to a 2007 World Health Organization (WHO) document. “Therefore, it is important to understand the gender roles and responsibilities that affect exposure in the local area.”

In Liberia, for example, “If a man is sick, the woman can easily bathe him, but the man cannot do so,” Marpue Spear, executive director of the Women’s NGO Secretariat of Liberia, told Foreign Policy this week. “Traditionally, women will take care of the men as compared to them taking care of the women.”

Another 2007 WHO report, “Gender, Health and Malaria,” highlights the fact that gender differences may be seen in other infectious diseases, not just Ebola. As for how to approach a solution, the document, which focuses on malaria, suggests that “education sessions should be developed alongside treatment, with messages targeted at different groups including mothers, pregnant women, men, fathers, male and female adolescents, and schoolchildren. These sessions could focus not only on early recognition of malaria, but also encourage prevention, more equitable household decision-making and the sharing of care-giving activities.”

In general, infectious disease outbreaks are thwarted by tried-and-true public health practices such as identifying the sick and isolating them so that other people are not infected, explained Tosh. “In general this comes down to basic education of people so they can reduce any activities that put them at risk of getting infected — and this tends to hold true for many outbreaks that affect human populations.”

[Walkabout]

Traditionally women are also lower on the social ladder. They get the leftovers while men are 'first in line' . The sexual revolution is still a long way off in 3rd world countries.

[Libby]

Yes, and women are more likely to be doing the cooking and the washing with potentially infected water supplies.

Edited to add: Ebola isn't transmitted via infected water, but other infections are. And that lowers the immune system.

[Libby]

A British nurse is being flown back to the UK having contracted Ebola.

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A British national who contracted the Ebola virus in Sierra Leone is being flown back to the UK on an RAF jet, the UK's Department of Health has said.

The healthcare worker is being flown to London's RAF Northolt in a specially-equipped C-17 aircraft and will be transported to an isolation unit at the Royal Free Hospital in north London.

The Briton is "not currently seriously unwell", a DoH spokesman said.

Health officials have stressed the risk to the UK remains "very low".

The DoH said the decision to return the patient to the UK was taken following "clinical advice".

Prof John Watson, DoH deputy chief medical officer, said they would be taken in a specially-adapted ambulance to a high level isolation unit - the only unit of its kind in the UK.

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[Earthnut]

'Perfect storm' for Ebola to spread, says virus pioneer

(Peter Piot is the Belgian scientist who co-discovered the virus in 1976. A very interesting read.)

https://news.yahoo.com/perfect-storm-ebola-spread-says-virus-pioneer-114203396.html

AND

Liberia: Doctor given experimental Ebola drug dies

https://news.yahoo.com/liberia-doctor-given-experimental-ebola-drug-dies-122526967.html

[Walkabout]

it will be a long time if ever to irradicate this disease.

[Earthnut]

Walkabout, I tend to lean towards the "if ever."

3rd doctor dies from Ebola in Sierra Leone

https://news.yahoo.com/3rd-doctor-dies-ebola-sierra-leone-123717637.html

The article states that this Ebola has killed over 1,400 people so far across West Africa. And, this statement struck a cord ~

"The international surge of health workers is extremely important and if something happens, if health workers get infected and it scares off other international health workers from coming, we will be in dire straits," said Christy Feig, director of WHO communications.

and this one ~ "...there are only two doctors per 100,000 people in Sierra Leone, and 245 doctors per 100,000 in the U S."