Ebola death toll climbs in Congo

[Locut0s]

Source: ABC News

The death toll from the Ebola virus has doubled within a week in the Democratic Republic of Congo, and the outbreak may continue spreading, the World Health Organization cautioned on Thursday.

The Ministry of Health has confirmed 18 deaths among 41 cases of the highly contagious virus.

“Up to 90 percent of those who are infected may die,” said Tarik Jasarevic, a spokesman for the World Health Organization in Geneva, Switzerland. “That’s why every outbreak is serious.”

Read more: http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/health/2012/09/13/ebola-death-toll-climbs-in-congo/

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I've always had a fascination with new and emerging diseases. This isn't a threat the the west though. The disease isn't airborne and kills its victims too fast to spread widely or quickly.

[Mnemosyne]

1. Horrible disease. Have you read 'The Plague Makers' by Jeff Fisher?

Frightening book, one of the scariest I have ever read, besides 'The Hot Zone'.

[Locut0s]

3. Hmm. Will keep that one in mind. The Hot Zone scarred the shit out of me. nt

[Ilsa]

5. The Coming Plague made me want to

Avoid public places. The movie Contagion was serious stuff, too, as was The Hot Zone.

These are events that can tear down a healthy economy.

[Mnemosyne]

9. Omg, I screwed up and listed the wrong book, this one is the one I meant to endorse. lol

I read so many back then that I mixed it up! Read both, The Coming Plague was the one that terrified me.

Can't read those anymore, too many nightmares.

[Mnemosyne]

10. Ilsa's post lists the book I was trying to recommend. Read too many. nt

[Marrah_G]

8. I'll check that one out

[Mnemosyne]

11. I recced wrong book above. Ilsa listed the correct on - The Coming Plague. If The Hot Zone scared

you, this one is worse.

[Marrah_G]

13. Yikes, I can't imagine anything scarier!!

[Mnemosyne]

15. Seriously the stuff of nightmares. nt

[AllyCat]

2. Jeez, what a dreadful disease. Those poor people and their families.

I did not read the Fisher book. Read "Hot Zone" of course, as it occurred at a lab connected with a company I used to work for.

[Marrah_G]

7. scariest book I've ever read

[jonthebru]

4. Viral diseases...

are intriguing.
HIV transfers in a narrow window, body fluids but not perspiration or airborne. HIV has a long incubation and infectious period years in fact, with no symptoms visible for a long time.
Ebola works quickly it can be transmitted through the air, through perspiration and incubates quickly. It is obvious that the infected person is sick as there is bleeding through orifices all within a few days, then the individual dies.

Looking at them as a life force the various viruses have very different missions. Ironically, HIV would have a wider effect because of the time element which also makes it easier to control and treat in a culture.
Ebola in its rapid effect is observed more easily and in a Western Culture could be controlled simply by isolation. In the epidemic area, the preparation of the dead for burial has caused entire families to die in this epidemic. The culture must either adjust or die, amazing actually. Ebola could be used as a terrorist attack if a group were infected and placed in a large crowd passing on the disease simply by coughing and sneezing.

[Marrah_G]

6. This is the scariest organism on the planet

If it ever goes airborne we are in trouble.

It went airborne in monkeys in a quarantine building near DC... if it had been a version that could jump to humans...OMFG...

I recently read "Hot Spots" and it scared the crap out of me.

The men and women at the CDC who work in level 4 labs have nerves of steel.

[Mnemosyne]

12. I always hope Level 4 workers are very, very sane. nt

[Ilsa]

14. Yeah, a 90% mortality rate could wipe us out.

And the gaps in occupations could conceivably finish us off.