Ebola epidemic may not end without developing vaccine, scientist warns
Source: Guardian (UK)
The Ebola epidemic, which is out of control in three countries and directly threatening 15 others, may not end until the world has a vaccine against the disease, according to one of the scientists who discovered the virus.
Professor Peter Piot, director of the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, said it would not have been difficult to contain the outbreak if those on the ground and the UN had acted promptly earlier this year. Something that is easy to control got completely out of hand, said Piot, who was part of a team that identified the causes of the first outbreak of Ebola in Zaire, now the Democratic Republic of Congo, in 1976 and helped bring it to an end.
The scale of the epidemic in Sierra Leone, Liberia and Guinea means that isolation, care and tracing and monitoring contacts, which have worked before, will not halt the spread. It may be that we have to wait for a vaccine to stop the epidemic, he said.
<SNIP>
He was speaking at a seminar in Oxford as the World Health Organisation (WHO) warned that 15 countries, neighbouring or trading with those where the epidemic is raging, were at risk. They are Ivory Coast, Guinea Bissau, Mali, Senegal, Benin, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Central African Republic, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Gambia, Ghana, Mauritania, Nigeria, South Sudan and Togo. Nigeria and Senegal have both succeeded in halting an outbreak. Nonetheless, Dr Isabelle Nuttall of the WHO said all needed to be better prepared. The objective is to stop the transmission from occurring in these countries. They may have a case but after one case we dont want more cases, she said at a briefing.
Read more: http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/oct/16/ebola-vaccine-peter-piot-west-africa-epidemic
Spitfire of ATJ
(32,723 posts)I keep visualizing the 1% thinking this could be beneficial in reducing the global population.
BobbyBoring
(1,965 posts)The wing nutters are calling it germ warfare! Obamas gonna kill us all!
The crazy never stops.
Spitfire of ATJ
(32,723 posts)It calls for maintaining the population at 500 million which would mean the elimination of over 6 billion people.
Ampersand Unicode
(503 posts)...also, personally I would rather we maintain the population at 0 million. Because 0 x 1,000,000 = 0.
Spitfire of ATJ
(32,723 posts)Some of the people who talk about the "New World Order" can't decide if it's coming from the Left or the Right (or BOTH) but by gum it's coming all right!
YOHABLO
(7,358 posts)Spitfire of ATJ
(32,723 posts)ballyhoo
(2,060 posts)saying more.
Spitfire of ATJ
(32,723 posts)ballyhoo
(2,060 posts)and I already started one this morning. Tired. You always do fine.
Spitfire of ATJ
(32,723 posts)angrychair
(8,694 posts)WTF...so tired of "all ebola all the time". All of these assholes freaking out about ebola didn't give a shit about the 2,109 people that died of heart disease yesterday. The 105 people that committed suicide yesterday. The 145 people that died of the Flu yesterday. That was just yesterday. It will kill the same number of people today. And tomorrow. And the day after. All more than ebola has killed in the US in over a month.
No nonstop, 24-hr coverage of thousands of teens that have committed suicide so far this year. Or hundreds that will die from the flu this year.
Fuck it...lets set our hair on fire, run around screaming "Ebola! Ebola! Run for you lives!!!" While our children decide to harm themselves or not...we slowly die of heart disease and our favorite Aunt lies in a hospital bed dying of the Flu. Yep, Ebola is the real worry....oh and its Obama's fault. BENGAZI!!!!!!
BelgianMadCow
(5,379 posts)and thought this dire yet localized assessment was enlightening.
YMMV
Spitfire of ATJ
(32,723 posts)Ampersand Unicode
(503 posts)Kinda like nobody really cared about AIDS until a heterosexual white teenager from Indiana died from it.
Suicide, however, is a personal choice. I don't want to see TV coverage of the number of women who've had abortions. If I'm going to watch coverage of suicide, I'm going to watch the PBS documentary about the brave young woman in Oregon choosing death with dignity, or the HBO movie "You Don't Know Jack" about good old St. Kevorkian de Muerte.
If anything, we need more coverage of death and dying so that Americans stop being so chicken shit about everything and come to realize that it's a natural part of the living process and not some diabolic evil spirit to be driven out with exorcisms. We need to confront reality and stop hiding in banal stupidity like Facebook, cat videos and Kardashian farts. Otherwise we end up fostering a bigger epidemic of ignorance and baseless paranoia. Kind of like Sarah's "death panels" BS that effectively shut down any valid and rational discussions of end-of-life/palliative care in health insurance and even as an issue to be dealt with in general.
Ebola is only an issue because of the same nativist mentality that shut down immigration in the early 20th century and even contributed to eugenics in the United States. Arrogant Americans who think "X can't happen here" but still fear that it might, and demand that steps be taken so that X won't happen here, because X shouldn't happen here. You'd be surprised the number of people who, just like they thought AIDS was a "gay disease" (many still do), think that Ebola is a "black disease" and that (yup) Obama is infecting people with it. They keep this shit up and we'll be back to the Tuskegee experiment all over again.
freshwest
(53,661 posts)The Tea Party will control all 3 branches in 2016 if people don't vote this year considering all the voter disenfranchisement and chaos they created since 2011.
There was a joke about scaring the baggers into not voting with this thing. No chance of that, this is put out to energize their base and put FUD in ours.
Ampersand Unicode
(503 posts)Or the U.S. to allow for an exception to the inoculation for "religious purposes."
AKA if your employer has a "sincerely held belief" that Ebola is God's wrath against the wicked, he doesn't have to cover the vaccine with employee health insurance.
Human stupidity is the one epidemic we'll never cure. Not surprisingly, it's at the root of why we'll never cure the others, either.
Marrah_G
(28,581 posts)He has had quite an amazing life and has done a great deal in the fight against AIDS.
YOHABLO
(7,358 posts)HIV became a cash cow for so many docs, and of course BigPharma. Not particularly the fervor behind an HIV vaccine that Ebola requires. This has a potential for wiping out the rich fat cats and economies all over the world.
TorchTheWitch
(11,065 posts)and they just started testing it in humans. Testing in animals was successful. It was just a day or so ago, but I can't recall anything more than that.