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Ebola virus outbreak

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  • Registered Users Posts: 8,277 ✭✭✭ceadaoin.


    Jake1 wrote: »
    where did you read this? any link handy

    The source is a Macedonian news site. I've found reddit to be a good source of information and quick translation of articles. Here is the link to the thread on reddit about this suspected case.

    http://www.reddit.com/r/ebola/comments/2irvwf/british_man_dies_of_disease_in_macedonia/?sort=new


  • Registered Users Posts: 1,809 ✭✭✭ProfessorPlum


    To add, the fact that we are hearing about a lot of possible cases means that cities and governments are taking the threat seriously and reacting to possible cases. That can only be a good thing.


  • Registered Users Posts: 8,449 ✭✭✭Call Me Jimmy


    #RespectEbola2014


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 16,391 ✭✭✭✭mikom


    Seriously are you cancelling your fecking holidays over this?

    Nope.
    Just booked 2 weeks in Africa.
    Flying out with Malaysian Airlines.


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 2,571 ✭✭✭0byme75341jo28


    mikom wrote: »
    Nope.
    Just booked 2 weeks in Africa.
    Flying out with Malaysian Airlines.

    You mad f*cker. :D


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  • Closed Accounts Posts: 974 ✭✭✭realweirdo


    mikom wrote: »
    Nope.
    Just booked 2 weeks in Africa.
    Flying out with Malaysian Airlines.

    Refuelling in Damascus?


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 16,391 ✭✭✭✭mikom


    You mad f*cker. :D

    Gonna get to the hotel and order the biggest ebola soup you ever saw.


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 3,516 ✭✭✭wazky


    Handy way to smuggle a few cigs back though, which security guard at Dublin Airport is going to give me a through search after I've just arrived back from West Africa.


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 1,906 ✭✭✭Streetwalker


    Putinovsky wrote: »
    What I find odd are the people who are poking fun at those who believe this is going to turn into a serious crisis. Some here would have you believe that this is minor issue that will pass, I don't think any world leaders, health organizations, monetary institutions etc. are treating this the same way. The World Bank will be giving nearly a billion euros, America are sending over 4,000 troops to Sierra Leone, there are regular crisis meetings being held with world leaders. This is an absolutely huge issue yet some posters would have you believe that this a nothing issue

    Stock market is way down today in NY because of it. If those guys are worried we all should be. A lot of people are in complete denial including some posters on here.


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 974 ✭✭✭realweirdo


    Probably the best way to avoid it is to move somewhere really isolated, with few connections, most likely a remote island. Somewhere like Greenland, or else Siberia, which though not an island is remote all the same. After humanity dies out, the few survivors can begin all over again.


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  • Registered Users Posts: 1,073 ✭✭✭littlemac1980


    realweirdo wrote: »
    Probably the best way to avoid it is to move somewhere really isolated, with few connections, most likely a remote island. Somewhere like Greenland, or else Siberia, which though not an island is remote all the same. After humanity dies out, the few survivors can begin all over again.

    Or Leitrim


  • Banned (with Prison Access) Posts: 3,257 ✭✭✭Peist2007


    I am looking forward to reading some of these posts in say January. I bet some of the hype clowns will have closed their accounts!

    Having read through the last few pages of this thread, there is only one clown in here my little scallion ;)


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 974 ✭✭✭realweirdo


    Or Leitrim

    Or Leitrim! :)


  • Registered Users Posts: 18,996 ✭✭✭✭gozunda


    Or Leitrim

    Leitrim is only a myth (according to Dustin) ... ;)


  • Registered Users Posts: 25,069 ✭✭✭✭My name is URL


    Sclosages wrote: »
    There are vaccinations against malaria and TB. Diarrhoea is not a disease, but a symptom.

    There are 'vaccines' for seasonal influenza too, but 100,000's die from it each year in the developed world. I'd be willing to bet that even if there was a significant outbreak, in a couple of large cities, the numbers wouldn't get close to how many succumb to flu. Even in the most ebola affected of areas.

    As well as being one of the deadliest viruses, it is one of the most self-limiting too.


  • Banned (with Prison Access) Posts: 3,257 ✭✭✭Peist2007


    I was thinking in some ways it could be a good thing that there were basic errors almost made immediately. Total vigilance will now hopefully be the mantra across the world. Medical workers will now know that half-assedness will lead to infection. That could mean new cases are minimised and the disease gets the respect it deserves and slows down.


  • Registered Users Posts: 11,205 ✭✭✭✭hmmm


    The key thing we can do to fight this is by launching an awareness campaign where we all dump a bucket of blood over our heads.


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 2,957 ✭✭✭miss no stars


    The inability to read statistical information in general is shocking.

    "Ebola has an R number of only 2, compared with HIV which has an R number of 4"

    Sure, but half the people with Ebola die from it fairly quickly after contracting it. People with HIV tend to live years (and presently decades) after contracting it.

    I think that it's safe to say that makes Ebola HIGHLY contagious.

    Also, the inability to understand the consequences of a lower mortality rate is equally shocking. If 50% of people don't die, that means they are alive longer to pass it on to other people for longer. The real mutation danger with Ebola is not the rather unlikely scenario of it mutating to be transmissible through aerosols, but the mortality rate DROPPING. An outbreak where 90% of those infected die will actually self-contain itself fairly quickly. It'll burn out before more fuel can be added, if you will. But natural selection means that the virus will mutate towards a form that survives the longest and can have longer and longer person-to-person transmissions. From Ebola's perspective, it's not good if 90% of those you infect drop dead within 3 weeks. Whereas a mortality rate of say, 30%, that isn't quite so catastrophic to the host, means that the host will be "well" for longer, will be contagious and still in their community for longer, will allow for more transmission.


  • Registered Users Posts: 36,348 ✭✭✭✭LuckyLloyd


    The more I read the more I decide that travel bans need to be enforced. No travel out of the three affected countries; no travel to except for essential medical / military personnel


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 2,957 ✭✭✭miss no stars


    Also, for those going on about how influenza and AIDs kill more people every year. Sure, but we can currently contain Ebola. If we don't contain it, it will spread to levels where future containment is impossible and will certainly kill more people than influenza and AIDS. Right now, it's at a point where a "New AIDS" can be prevented, but it won't remain in that way for much longer. Those with the ability to do so must act now.


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  • Registered Users Posts: 719 ✭✭✭jsd1004


    Avian flu, swine flu, flu, aids,SARS, what are the odds this will be forgotten about in a year?


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 23,646 ✭✭✭✭qo2cj1dsne8y4k


    I haven't watched the news in months but wtf?! I'm watching it tonight. People dropping like flies, everywhere on high alert. Is this the new aids


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 974 ✭✭✭realweirdo


    The inability to read statistical information in general is shocking.

    "Ebola has an R number of only 2, compared with HIV which has an R number of 4"

    Sure, but half the people with Ebola die from it fairly quickly after contracting it. People with HIV tend to live years (and presently decades) after contracting it.

    I think that it's safe to say that makes Ebola HIGHLY contagious.

    Also, the inability to understand the consequences of a lower mortality rate is equally shocking. If 50% of people don't die, that means they are alive longer to pass it on to other people for longer. The real mutation danger with Ebola is not the rather unlikely scenario of it mutating to be transmissible through aerosols, but the mortality rate DROPPING. An outbreak where 90% of those infected die will actually self-contain itself fairly quickly. It'll burn out before more fuel can be added, if you will. But natural selection means that the virus will mutate towards a form that survives the longest and can have longer and longer person-to-person transmissions. From Ebola's perspective, it's not good if 90% of those you infect drop dead within 3 weeks. Whereas a mortality rate of say, 30%, that isn't quite so catastrophic to the host, means that the host will be "well" for longer, will be contagious and still in their community for longer, will allow for more transmission.

    Agreed Miss...the longer people live the more people they can potentially infect. Someone might survive it but pass it on to others who might die.

    As for the R number, I think it refers to over the lifetime of a person. So an infected HIV person could infect 4 over a number of decades. An ebola person could infect 2 over a number of days.

    In other words, the R number doesn't tell much. People cite it as a reason not to panic, but its meaningless in the case of ebola. The daily number of new cases and how fast it is spreading is more intuitive. And eventually a decision will have to be made to isolate West Africa from the rest of the world, whether people like it or not.


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 2,957 ✭✭✭miss no stars


    I haven't watched the news in months but wtf?! I'm watching it tonight. People dropping like flies, everywhere on high alert. Is this the new aids


    Not yet, but it might be if people don't take their heads out of the sand and recognize the threat that it poses instead of lolling back in their armchairs saying "sure flu kills more, be grand"


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 1,906 ✭✭✭Streetwalker


    jsd1004 wrote: »
    Avian flu, swine flu, flu, aids,SARS, what are the odds this will be forgotten about in a year?

    Who forgot about Aids?


  • Banned (with Prison Access) Posts: 3,257 ✭✭✭Peist2007




  • Registered Users Posts: 1,073 ✭✭✭littlemac1980


    jsd1004 wrote: »
    Avian flu, swine flu, flu, aids,SARS, what are the odds this will be forgotten about in a year?

    1 in 14


  • Registered Users Posts: 719 ✭✭✭jsd1004


    realweirdo wrote: »
    Agreed Miss...the longer people live the more people they can potentially infect. Someone might survive it but pass it on to others who might die.

    As for the R number, I think it refers to over the lifetime of a person. So an infected HIV person could infect 4 over a number of decades. An ebola person could infect 2 over a number of days.

    In other words, the R number doesn't tell much. People cite it as a reason not to panic, but its meaningless in the case of ebola. The daily number of new cases and how fast it is spreading is more intuitive. And eventually a decision will have to be made to isolate West Africa from the rest of the world, whether people like it or not.

    I love a bit of racism. We should should just isolate all sub Saharan Africas because they spread HIV as well. They don't use condoms like...as if we do..


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  • Posts: 6,025 ✭✭✭ [Deleted User]


    Peist2007 wrote: »
    Great news if true. Don't know why it is funny though?

    its not funny, the face was meant as a happy face, as in, happy the man does not have ebola

    here , have this :)


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