American doctor in Liberia tests positive for Ebola virus

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American doctor in Liberia tests positive for Ebola virus
http://www.foxnews.com/health/2014/07/27/american-doctor-in-liberia-tests-positive-for-ebola-virus/

An American doctor working in the African country of Liberia has tested positive for the deadly Ebola virus, an aid organization said Saturday.

Samaritan's Purse, based in North Carolina, said in a statement that Dr. Kent Brantly was being treated at an isolation center in a hospital in Monrovia, Liberia's capital. Brantly is the medical director for the aid organization's case management center in the city.

Brantly, 33, has been working with Samaritan's Purse in Liberia since October 2013 as part of the charity's post-residency program for doctors, group spokeswoman Melissa Strickland told The Associated Press. The organization's website says he had worked as a family practice physician in Fort Worth, Texas.


There is an Ebola epidemic that has affected four African nations, Guinea, Liberia, Sierra Leone, and a case in Nigeria. This is the largest Ebola epidemic known.
 
And a different doctor who caught it just died recently from it.
Ebola has an extremely high death rate.
 
I really hope this doesn't spread overseas.

I remember learning about Ebola.. I remember hear that it makes you bleeding out of your eyes, nose, ears and even out of your pores. I've been terrified ever since.
 
I am heartbroken. I remember in the early 80's being terrified when my husband worked with AIDS patients, but like he said "Who else? I'll be alright. Someone has to care for them". This is when the nation was in a total panic and didn't know how it spread. Unfortunately, Ebola is a million times worse. The people involved are selfless heroes who truly care. God bless them all over there and I hope they find a treatment and cure to eradicate it. But prions are difficult, if not impossible, to kill. Bleach, burning and burying are all they can do for the victims who succumb.
 
I am heartbroken. I remember in the early 80's being terrified when my husband worked with AIDS patients, but like he said "Who else? I'll be alright. Someone has to care for them". This is when the nation was in a total panic and didn't know how it spread. Unfortunately, Ebola is a million times worse. The people involved are selfless heroes who truly care. God bless them all over there and I hope they find a treatment and cure to eradicate it. But prions are difficult, if not impossible, to kill. Bleach, burning and burying are all they can do for the victims who succumb.

Ebola is a viral disease.
"Ebola HF is caused by infection with a virus of the family Filoviridae, genus Ebolavirus. When infection occurs, symptoms usually begin abruptly. The first Ebolavirus species was discovered in 1976 in what is now the Democratic Republic of the Congo near the Ebola River. Since then, outbreaks have appeared sporadically."

http://www.cdc.gov/vhf/ebola/
 
I really hope this doesn't spread overseas.

I remember learning about Ebola.. I remember hear that it makes you bleeding out of your eyes, nose, ears and even out of your pores. I've been terrified ever since.

It could spread. For one, the American doctor's family came here to US before he got sick. How many other people are in that area and then are traveling around? I hope people from the Ebola stricken areas are watched closely for any symptoms.
 
First I ever heard of Ebola was 1995 the movie Outbreak with Dustin Hoffman, in the movie the disease was called mobota. All the news articles at the time scared the heck out of me. Now thinking about it again IMO if it ever comes to the US there would be wide spread panic. I'm not in the medical field but It is interesting how some diseases die down then flare back up or jump from animals to humans. Jmo

ciao
 
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/07/28/world/africa/ebola-epidemic-west-africa-guinea.html?_r=0

KOLO BENGOU, Guinea — Eight youths, some armed with slingshots and machetes, stood warily alongside a rutted dirt road at an opening in the high reeds, the path to the village of Kolo Bengou. The deadly Ebola virus is believed to have infected several people in the village, and the youths were blocking the path to prevent health workers from entering.

“We don’t want any visitors,” said their leader, Faya Iroundouno, 17, president of Kolo Bengou’s youth league. “We don’t want any contact with anyone.” The others nodded in agreement and fiddled with their slingshots.

Singling out the international aid group Doctors Without Borders, Mr. Iroundouno continued, “Wherever those people have passed, the communities have been hit by illness.”

Health workers here say they are now battling two enemies: the unprecedented Ebola epidemic, which has killed more than 660 people in four countries since it was first detected in March, and fear, which has produced growing hostility toward outside help. On Friday alone, health authorities in Guinea confirmed 14 new cases of the disease."

More at link
 
After reading the links I'm confused, is it spread through touching the person and or bodily fluids only? Can it be caught if the person coughed or sneezed into the air? With some villages rejecting health workers the outcome looks grim. Jmo

ciao
 
After reading the links I'm confused, is it spread through touching the person and or bodily fluids only? Can it be caught if the person coughed or sneezed into the air? With some villages rejecting health workers the outcome looks grim. Jmo

ciao


Transmission

"Ebola is introduced into the human population through close contact with the blood, secretions, organs or other bodily fluids of infected animals. In Africa, infection has been documented through the handling of infected chimpanzees, gorillas, fruit bats, monkeys, forest antelope and porcupines found ill or dead or in the rainforest.

Ebola then spreads in the community through human-to-human transmission, with infection resulting from direct contact (through broken skin or mucous membranes) with the blood, secretions, organs or other bodily fluids of infected people, and indirect contact with environments contaminated with such fluids. Burial ceremonies in which mourners have direct contact with the body of the deceased person can also play a role in the transmission of Ebola. Men who have recovered from the disease can still transmit the virus through their semen for up to 7 weeks after recovery from illness."

http://www.who.int/mediacentre/factsheets/fs103/en/
 
I remember working in a hospital, St Charles, in Central London in the mid 80s and reading a protocol for dealing with an Ebola outbreak. It terrified me and I hope that it doesn't start spreading
 
After reading the links I'm confused, is it spread through touching the person and or bodily fluids only? Can it be caught if the person coughed or sneezed into the air? With some villages rejecting health workers the outcome looks grim. Jmo

ciao

They did experiments with monkeys and the virus can travel in droplets of liquid, so if person coughed or sneezed, somebody standing next to him/her can presumably catch it. The doctor who got sick, his family cambe back in US before he got sick, but they are not quarantined (even though incubation period could be up to 21 days). Just read about this doctor infected with Ebola, apparently he is not doing well. I hope it doesn't spread here.
 
i believe a person who is showing syptoms is contagious, but not during incubation period, still i would quarantine myself if i had been in contact,,jmo
 
www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-...green-light-experts-warn-global-pandemic.html

Sad and horrible way to die ! These pictures are beyond gruesome --- poor victims !
I'm feeling like it probably is airborne, if you can catch it from someone sneezing by you !
On another note, I've heard of this disease before, and I thought it had been eradicated or had died out ? Wonder what caused this virus to spring back to life ?
 

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