Ebola concerns

[noideawottoget]

i read this earlier and it worries me
www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/ebola-outbreak-britain-50-chance-4385728

is it really that likely? i dont generally keep up with newspapers and such so i dont know if the mirror is reliable or not

Incubation is up to 21 days, but it seems to become infectious only as it becomes symptomatic.

The people to worry about right now are those in the affected areas. Answering the urgent call for aid now could make all the difference to them.

nausea, vomiting, diarrhoea (possibly bloody), rash, chest pain, cough, stomach pains, etc

but if you have those symptoms in the UK and you haven't recently travelled to an area of ebola outbreak chances are it is something else

in terms of focusing one's anxieties it is a much better use of time considering those who are currently at high risk of contracting ebola right now than of potential (and currently negligible) risks to people living in the UK

The reason a mass outbreak in the uK is less likely than in africa is that once you are infectious with ebola you are seriously ill pretty quickly and so probably hospitalised. You are far less likely to be be riding on the underground or touching the rail on an escalator and passing it on that way.

In the countries where it has been a massive problem those who are ill are more likely to be at home.

ok. thanks guys

I think if Nigeria can contain it, and AFAIK they are due to declare themselves virus free in the next few days, we have nothing to worry about.

I'd hope we would be slightly more on the ball than Dallas, though; that cock up was a bit

Honestly, try not to worry, you're an adult, you survived swine flu which was far more infectious.

With any infectious disease the only thing you can do is take sensible precautions and make sure you could cope if we were told to stay inside for a while (unlikely unless its airborne). I worked for a government body when swine flu was a concern and there were information circulars advising everyone to have three months worth of food etc just in case. IMO everyone would be better off if they had three months worth of supplies but I've not dashed out and topped up my stock cupboard because of ebola.

i did indeed survive swine flu, i had it.

THREE MONTHS?

i wouldn't have anywhere to put it!

under the bed, in the loft, in the garage. All in baked beans of course!

This probably isn't helping the OP…..

DH wishes I'd never done that job. I've had a stock cupboard obsession ever since!

Three months of baked beans might make you wish you'd succumbed early on

We almost certainly will be the occasional case here but as Stratters says look how Nigeria contained it, in much more difficult circumstances. Also look at how SARS was contained even though the outbreak went global. That was much more infectious and it was stopped in it's tracks. I think that we will quickly limit the impact of any case we get.

Donating to MSF is a really good idea - they are desperately short of even basic medication such as ibuprofen in places.

MSF donation page

BBC news reporting a Spanish nurse in Madrid, who cared for the Spanish priest who sadly died there, has tested positive in initial tests.

I have been pretty calm - am starting to wobble now.

Anyone willing to put this in perspective for me - please do.

Are you a nurse Emphatic?

Putting it into perspective, unless you are then you're unlikely to have direct contact with a patient.

My concern is that this is in a high tech Western hospital - presumably well prepared in advance for the arrival of an Ebola patient.

I am not a nurse, and have no fears about catching Ebola in my every day life. I do feel very much for front line staff - hence donations to MSF and Save The Children - but what I do think is the reassurances about the ability of western hospitals to prevent the spread may be called into question if this sadly proves true.

I thought it killed too quickly to become a pandemic in the same way Spanish Flu, for example, was.

I only worry when OhYouBadBadKitten starts to worry

what about people who work at airports like those in security who may have to frisk people?

are they more at risk do you think

to prevent the spread may be called into question if this sadly proves true

well in recent years our hospitals have become places to avoid unless you want to catch infection.

The nurse might have had contact with the priest before he was isolated, or not followed isolation rules, or might simply have been very unlucky BUT she has been tested early and won't have had a chance to start displaying symptoms and to infect a number of people. A lot of the problem in Africa is that people become ill in their homes and infect their families before they can be isolated, or are transported to hospital by taxi which then isn't disinfected before others use it, or are removed from clinics and taken home because their families are frightened and want to care for them in the traditional way. There's no early testing, no careful isolation, and far less public awareness of how to safely care for possible sufferers and get them safely to a treatment centre.

Did you know there's a growing community of ebola survivors in Africa who are helping doctors analyse what it is about them that allowed them to survive the disease? And that's just one of the avenues for treating and preventing this strain of ebola. There is hope :)

I think that the chance of a person with ebola arriving in the uk and developing symptoms whilst in the uk (like the man in the USA did) is extremely high. I think that the chance of any of us meeting this theoretical person is minute and the chance of us meeting and catching ebola from them is so small it is not even worth thinking about.

Sorry if this has been explained up thread but MSF is Medecins Sans Frontiers, a French medical aid organisation.
I think one ought always to be wary of all nasty bugs/bacteria in public areas, from common cold/sick bugs to worse; I'm no clean freak but I do wash my own and my children's hands first thing when we come into the house from shopping, stables, public transport, anywhere really. And avoid touching things in public toilets, supermarkets, buses, trains etc.
I don't think it's reasonable to get unduly worried about Ebola. Kids always have sick bugs and never more than at the start of the school year. I read a mildly hysterical thread on here a couple of nights ago along the lines of "my kid was sick and is now better, how odd". It's not odd, it's a perfectly normal kids vomiting bug. Grips required!!

From what I understand, the virus can only be detected in the blood after symptoms have started so the nurse in Spain would already be quite sick at this stage if they have confirmed the diagnosis. Hopefully she was isolated as soon as she started to feel unwell.

There is no need to panic yet, but the news outlets are very much downplaying how contagious this is IMO. Yes, it is spread through 'direct contact', but the CDC definition of that is within 3 feet of an infected person, you don't need to touch them to become infected. If someone vomits near you, you can breathe it in through aerosolized droplets. So it's not airborne like the flu but there is still a limited potential for it to spread through the air.