Thursday, October 30, 2014

Ebola Poll: Can Bodily Fluids be Airborne?

The general public is told by government officials and healthcare professionals that Ebola is not an airborne transferable disease, and that it can only be transferred via bodily fluids by intimate contact with an infected person — but only AFTER they begin showing symptoms (such as fever.)

But yet, even though we're told that Ebola can not be transferred via "airborne bodily fluids" being discharged from living beings, Ebola can be transferred by contact with non-living infected surfaces — such as clothing (etc.) The general public wonders, "How can that be?"

Or can Ebola only be transferred in the same way as the AIDS virus — through intimate contact — such as sexual contact, kissing, blood transfers or ingesting someone's tear drops? This is all very confusing.

Trained healthcare professionals (who know the risks) can become infected while wearing special suits, but regular citizens on the street are told they have nothing to fear if someone else is infected with Ebola until they get a "fever". Otherwise, we're told it's perfectly safe if an infected person sits on an airplane, rides through the subway and visits a restaurant; and that only by way of "intimate contact" — and only then AFTER an infected person actually has a fever — can anyone else be infected.

If it can, how long does the Ebola virus live outside a host (animal or human) body? And if it does, and an infected person vomits in a public bathroom, how long will that room be infected and remain a dangerous room to use? (Because we assume that the virus can live outside the host body in vomit and other "bodily fluids".)

If the period between "contact and incubation" is the maximum of 21 days, and healthcare workers who have been to West Africa realize this; then why do they object to a 3-week quarantine period when they know that there is still a slight chance that they could infect their loved ones with a deadly disease after returning home? Is it because of a 3-week loss in pay? If so, then maybe a law should be passed to pay these people while they are quarantined.

Why does that nurse in Maine (who returned from Africa after treating Ebola patients) object to a 21-day quarantine (saying she doesn't have a fever), even after a doctor who returned from Africa after treating Ebola patients developed a fever only AFTER being out in the public on the subway, bowling ally and zoo. Obama, siding with the nurse, stood with other doctors at a press conference who had just returned from Africa after treating Ebola patients. But yet, soldiers (who don't treat Ebola patients) are to be quarantined for 21 days after returning from Africa. (Mixed signals...mixed signals...mixed signals.)

So, we're told that Ebola can't be passed by casual contact or nearness to an infected person unless they have open cuts on their body and an infected person is oozing with bodily fluids and comes in physical contact with someone's open wound, or has sex with them --- but only AFTER they exhibit symptoms of infection. Otherwise, they have to come in physical contact with infected people when they're very sick, near-dead or dead.

But yet, infected people cannot infect anyone else with a sneeze or cough because that's "airborne" — and Ebola is not an airborne transferable disease.

All of this confusion can only be described as a riddle, wrapped in a mystery, inside an enigma. This poll (at Goggle Docs) should be completed by government officials and healthcare professionals, and well as by the general public.

* NOTE: After voting in the poll, scroll back up the page (which then will be showing green space) and look for the link "See previous responses" to see the poll results.

6 comments:

  1. Ebola appears to be slowing in Liberia:
    http://www.cnbc.com/id/102134529

    But that link to CNBC doesn’t say WHY the cases are “slowing” in Liberia. What exactly are they doing? Mass quarantines? Or because of a changing behavior of its citizens ... and if so, what behavior (less contact with infected people — such as family members attempting to care for the stricken or assisting in their burials? )

    The experts say Ebola isn’t transmitted by being near an infected person (or by coughs or sneezes, because it isn’t airborne), until the infected person begins showing symptoms (such as fever); but until any symptoms are first detected, they could still be carrying the virus.

    So, unless a healthcare worker from West Africa “self-reports” a fever (or other symptoms), they should be free to go to malls, airports, restaurants (etc.) until they actually feel sick and get a blood test confirming that they have the virus?

    A practicing physician and an expert on communicable disease DID go to the airport, the subway and the zoo --- and it turns out he did have Ebola. So his advise would be:

    “It’s ok that I go out among people if I’m infected with Ebola, so long as I don’t suspect (or know) I’m infected because I don’t feel ill. So in the mean time, until I get a fever or experience other symptoms, it’s safe for my wife and children to have contact with me. And I can sneeze and cough on them too, and I won’t have worry. Only AFTER I get a fever, will I stay away from my family.”

    ReplyDelete
  2. Ebola cures" Big Pharma? Obama?

    Through trade talks, meetings with foreign governments and negotiations with multiple U.N. bodies, the Obama administration has aggressively pursued policies that prevent poor countries from accessing low-cost generic versions of expensive name-brand medications, despite persistent calls from Doctors Without Borders for the White House to reverse course.

    http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/10/29/obama-doctors-without-borders_n_6068634.html

    * Expect a lot more BIG PHARMA GREED with the TPP trade agreement if that ever goes through.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Malaria kills 1.5 million a year, but barely gets any press. So basically, all the “news” we’ve been hearing about Ebola (every minute of every day on the 24/7 news cycles) is not really “news” at all. So why all the fuss already? Why won’t the media just stop reporting on the subject? Why won’t all the politicians just shut up? It seems that it mostly THEM that is driving all the scare, fear and panic. Why isn’t this story going away if so few people get the virus and it’s so very hard to get infected with the virus? Is “Ebola” just another distraction from all the other BS that’s going on behind our backs, in dark alleys and behind closed doors in the early morning hours?

    ReplyDelete
  4. Due to the subject of agonizing coverage from Africa and panic measures from governments, the real threat from Ebola is hard to assess. It has been around since the 1970s, and was eventually contained each time, including in the Democratic Republic of Congo earlier this year. If governments really thought it so terrifying they would issue a temporary ban on air travel which is almost all non-essential. But when fear is in the air and politicians want to seem in control, who can tell?

    The one sure pandemic is fear. In 1997 we were told that bird flu could kill 2 billion people worldwide. In 1999 scientists screamed that the illness BSE/CJD (Mad Cow Disease) could kill a million people. It peaked at 28 deaths in Europe and is down to two a year. The SARS outbreak of 2003 was asserted by one expert as having “a 25% chance of killing tens of millions”. The press headlined SARS as “a plague worse than AIDS”. Just how many died from SARS last year? Certainly not millions, not even a dozen.

    The recent flus classed as H1N1 and H5N1 seem to arrive as regularly as grasshoppers in the summer. All were eagerly labeled pandemics by scientists, apparently to make millions of dollars in drug purchases. In 2006, bird flu was declared “the first pandemic of the 21st century”. The World Health Organization, dominated by big pharmaceutical advisers, issued a statement that “one in four could die”. They did not.

    Health scares are classics of the politics of fear. After a while they lose all force, except to distort medical priorities. Hundreds may die of hospital-caught infections while administrators panic over bird flu. But what are we to do? As with fear of terrorism, crime, poverty or common illness, we have to rely on authority to advise and warn us. When authority has a vested interest in alarmism, anarchy reigns. We are at the mercy of the lobbyist, the spin doctor and the headline writer.

    So, what is the bottom line?...

    "When the world is in chaos, it is the U.S. (not China) that dominates economically."


    Do you remember this news story?

    http://articles.latimes.com/1997/dec/14/news/mn-64128

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. "New, Lethal Flu May Stem From 'Chicken Ebola'"

      That's news to me...Thanks for the very informative comment!

      Delete
  5. Arthur Delaney:

    "The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is very sensitive to how people read their stuff. This week I noticed them editing their website to remove and replace information about how Ebola can be transmitted through droplets. The original information didn't seem wrong, but CDC might have been concerned that the New York Post and others were screaming about Ebola doorknobs."

    http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/10/30/cdc-ebola_n_6078072.html

    ReplyDelete