Ebola - is it time to implement the Zombie Plan?

[seagull70]

Even DH who is usually the voice of reason is now starting to look a bit

It's looking as if we will almost certainly have cases in the UK.

Is it too soon to start freaking out?

There seem to be daiy threads on this!

The main effort needs to be in the affected countries, to bring it under control with significant progress needed in the next month.

Ypu might want to consider donating to MSF or any other NGO active there. Or if you have relevant skills, volunteering.

The risk of a traveller bringi ebola to other countries has been around for some months now, and it's happened twice (Nigeria and USA) and the public health measures in both places have rapidly identified contacts. Isn't Nigeria officially ebola free now?

You would have to be very unlucky to be a close contact of an early symptomatic Ebola patient. Yes, it could happen, just as you could get other (rather more readily transmissible) diseases such as lassa fever or resistant TB. Ebola has a high death rate, which is one of the reasons it is feared.

I'm worried about it as well especially since one of the 4 hospitals isnt that far from me.

Yes I've got my shelter buried under my lawn, supplies stocked up and my OFRS ready to go.

We have an ebola section now, to keep threads on this together.

At the risk of sounding really po-face, I feel uneasy about linking zombie plans (which tend to be light hearted) with a disease that is killing thousands in west africa.

As meditrina says, one thing we can do that is really useful is to donate to one of the organisations working over there. Another thing that is useful is to make sure that anyone who is eligible for a flu jab has one, to reduce the burden on emergency services as much as possible, and even for perhaps others to think about getting one privately (note the latter half of that sentence is not official advice). If we do get a case or two - the last thing the nhs will need is to be inundated with calls from people who have flu but think they may have somehow accidentally contracted ebola.

Agreed oybbk.I love a good zombie plan more than I should, but real people are suffering and dying from ebola in their 1000's....

I am a little concerned with the news that the Spanish womans dog has been pts.Either there's some worrying overreaction, or, if domestic animals may act as hosts, things could be very serious indeed.

Apologies for any offence caused, I agree that (in hindsight) my thread title was a little crass.

MNHQ - happy for this thread to go 'poof' :)

"Either there's some worrying overreaction, or, if domestic animals may act as hosts, things could be very serious indeed."

Yes other species can carry Ebola; that's been known for a long time.

Edith I know fruit bats are carriers -I didn't realise domestic animals could carry it though?

Here's a study(published by CDC) which shows Ebola in pet dogs in villages in a previous outbreak area.

No-one knows how likely it is that a dog would transmit it to a human (and I can't think of an ethical way to investigate that) so the 'safe' advice is to treat them as a potential source of infection if in close contact.

Evening all. We're going to move this to our new 'Ebola' boards in just a moment.

We have an Ebola board?!

Yes, new a couple of days ago (OYBBK's idea)?

There were a lot of threads, so it made sense to put them together.

Starting to worry now it officially has a MN board!

It's not intended to worry, it's inevitable that there will be lots of threads and it's easier for people to find facts and helpful stuff if it's together.

More explanation here :)