Ebola now in the States : (

[BeachyKeen]

I don't see any other threads on this so far, sorry if there is already one.
So this afternoon/evening, it was announced there is the first case of diagnosed-in the-States Ebola.
Story here in the bbc link
From my understanding, the only risk is direct contact with the body fluids, at this point.
I do worry that with more and more opportunities, there will be a higher chance that the virus mutates to become air born.
Is this making anyone else nervous?

New mutations are usually pretty unsuccessful.
And many are often needed for major changes in an organism.

Becoming airborne would probably require a completely new protein coat that would make the virus resistant to lack of water. I doubt it will happen easily.

It will be very easy for single individuals to reach the US and Europe with the virus undetected. But our health systems are used to rapidly tracking down sources of infection and people who have been in close contact with ill people. That is how SARS was fairly easily contained, for example.
And they have had a nice trial run with the last flu scare.
At those times some people thought that the WHO exaggerated in the danger and in the force of the response. This time, there's another head and it has become less centralised. It allowed Ebola to spread more in Africa than it has before. But lessons have been learnt and even other African countries are preparing themselves to receive infected travellers.

link to info about being air born

I am very glad the other countries are getting ready. Also, that more is being done to bring in more health care workers/set up clinics/food drops. I really, really, do feel great compassion for the people suffering from this.

These days it's not uncommon that a pathogen crosses to another continent. It's surprising when it doesn't.

And there is such a thing as an incubation period. We can't put all air travellers in quarantine because of Ebola.

That's not airborne transmission, that's contact transmission (bodily fluid exchange). And that's if it was the route of transmission.

The confusion in this case was that the man went to an emergency department with non-specific symptoms. He told the triage that he had been to Liberia, but did not mention it to anyone else - including the doctor who sent him home.

They are aware of this, now. They will put into place procedures which ensure that this information is recorded, whomever it is passed on to. They will probably also mandate all healthcare staff to enquire about recent overseas travel, and they'll publicise the case so that patients know to mention it more than once, too.

The 18 people who may have been exposed have been identified, and quarantined. A few are school children, the rest seem to be friends and family. They'll be carefully monitored now, and treated as soon as possible if they do have the disease.

It's been dealt with okay. Not fantastically, but okay. It's contained, possible patients have been identified, treatment has began.

I wouldn't worry about it becoming airborne, either. It tends to be scare-mongering for headlines...everyone is a bit bored of ebola now, so link clicks on ebola headlines decrease. So they write more dramatic ones, about how it could transport on a stray cat/the titanic/spread through the air, so that people click. You've had some brilliant explanations of why this is highly, highly unlikely here.

I'd pick something else to worry about.

Sorry, didn't really finish that thought... That kind of transmission (via fluid droplets in air) is not the way true airborne viruses like flu spread.

The link shows exactly that "they demonstrated that the virus was transmitted from pigs to monkeys without any direct contact between them".
Humans are not necessarily pigs or monkeys.
But there may be a real danger if pigs can transmit the virus, which will change the models for control of the disease in Africa. Less so in the US or Europe, as not many of us live in close proximity to pigs.

Thank you everyone who is contributing different ideas. It is good to hear from so many points of view, and from different backgrounds.

For the record, I am not the panic-grab the anti bac- omg kind of person.
I am happy for my kids, now teens, to take lots of chances, be independent. I was never, ever a helicopter parent. In general, I am a take things as they come sort of person.

For some reason, this is the one thing getting to me. I wish I could "pick something else to worry about" it has never worked like that for me.

But the virus was carried via fluid droplets (if that was the transmission mode), which doesn't constitute being airborne and doesn't make Ebola like flu. The fluid droplets can't travel far and you'd need to be in very close proximity for a period of time to be at risk. I'm trying to find out the experimental setup at the moment.

But there may be a real danger if pigs can transmit the virus, which will change the models for control of the disease in Africa
These were experimentally-infected pigs. They are not natural hosts of EBOV in Africa, and it's not clear they can be infected during an outbreak. I shall continue to read....

I think we will have more cases like this but I'm massively reassured by the fact they seem to have stamped it out in Nigeria despite less than optimal conditions.

Pigs = swine flu - we were told (when the 1st case of swine flu came to Scotland that (panic, run about screaming) it was CLOSER THAN EVER!!!! actually, here in the south of England, it was closer when was in France!!!
Panic when 50% of Britons have Ebola (maybe they'll ban spitting in public then!)

Despite me being completely calm about this, if even 0.5% of people in Britain had ebola, I'd be somewhat concerned. (But that would be around 32,000 people)

Anyone noticed that there is a separate Ebola outbreak in DRC?

There always was the risk that a traveller from an outbreak country could be incubating the disease and become symptomatic in some other part of the world, and possibly transmit the infection. But if it happens in a place with good public health systems (tracking and monitoring contacts, proper isolation hospitals) the disease simply won't take hold.

It's most likely to happen in countries which are supplying HCPs (so yes, it could be UK). It's vital that anyone who has visited an outbreak area reports for testing immediately if they start a fever within 3 weeks of return.

It's way off mutating into airbourne. And to take hold, it requires a host population (probably fruit bats) from which it might pass to other species. That's not going to happen from an isolated traveller case.

I have noticed that. It has been going for nearly a month now I think.
You don't see much mention of it either, I don't know why.

Ebola Reston is a strain of ebola which is airborne. It spread to monkeys in various rooms of a facility housing monkeys for testing. Luckily it doesn't seem to be dangerous to humans. The handlers who were infected showed no symptoms. So airborne ebola has already happened.

I thought Reston does not have airbourne transmission naturally, and it had only done so that one under experiment conditions. Have I misunderstood, or somehow missed an important bit?

Its a different strain I think Lweji.

Ebola Reston has been debated a lot in articles I've read in the past and I dont think there are any definitive conclusions that can be drawn.

Yes, it is a separate outbreak.

Does that mean the outbreak in the SRC is a different strain of Ebola, or are they both the same type with bad timing?

DRC, not S, sorry

They are both Ebola Zaire - but they are different clades and unrelated. the DRC has had 7 known outbreaks in its history and its just unfortunate timing.

5 new cases an hour in Sierra Leone