WHO investigating claims ISIS fighters have contracted Ebola

[davidn3600]

According to the World Health Organization (WHO), members of the Islamic State (ISIS) in Iraq are reportedly arriving in hospitals suffering with symptoms of the hemorrhagic fever Ebola.

The Daily Mail reported Friday that the health agency is investigating rumors that have been circulating for days that members of the shadowy group are falling ill with the disease in the ISIS-held city of Mosul.

WHO spokesman Christy Feig told the Mail that the agency is attempting to communicate with people inside Mosul in hopes of containing the disease before it begins to spread, if in fact it has somehow traveled from western Africa to the Middle Eastern state.
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For months, Ebola has ravaged parts of west Africa, killing thousands and infecting thousands more in Sierra Leone, Liberia and Guinea.

Now, an anonymous source claiming to speak from inside the hospital has told Iraqi news agency al Sabbah that foreign fighters coming to join the ISIS movement brought the disease with them.

http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2015/01/who-investigates-rumors-that-islamic-state-jihadists-in-iraq-are-being-struck-down-by-ebola/

[chillfactor]

1. don't mean to sound barbaric

but if anyone deserves to be taken down by this disease it is this group of murderers...

[Ex Lurker]

2. No sympathy for the fighters, but

most of the victims will be innocents. And with primitive public health services and no outside assistance, it will be nearly impossible to eradicate, and will eventually spread to other areas.

It could also be disinformation intended to discourage new recruits from going there. If so, it's damned clever.

[uppityperson]

4. Ebola does not respect politics or borders.

[SheilaT]

3. There is something that does not make sense here.

Have ISIS fighters recently been in Africa where Ebola is endemic? No? Really? Then how did any of them get this disease?

This is simply rumors, with no verification. Ebola is not that easy to get. And if none of the ISIS people have been where the disease is . . . well then how is it that any of them have it?

Oh, rumors. I understand. Let's wait for an actual verified report here.

I'm being reminded of the hysteria in this country a few months ago when that unfortunate man who had actually been in Africa, had actually been exposed to the disease, then came down with it. You'd have thought the entire country was now at risk.

And even if an ISIS fighter who somehow contracted this disease in Africa and then went off to the Middle East is sick, it's not very likely that fellow ISIS fighters have gotten this disease very quickly. Once again, it's not easy to contract. The likelihood of its spread beyond Africa in significant numbers is quite small.

This once again feels like fear-mongering.

[uppityperson]

5. so far only tabloids and breitbart are carrying this story. I hope it is fear mongering.

[SheilaT]

6. Yep. Back when we had the handful of cases of Ebola

in this country there were far too many here on DU willing to quarantine everyone who'd come from Africa, in complete ignorance of the exact danger from this disease. And the sketchy information in this piece doesn't even remotely match how Ebola is transmitted.

[uppityperson]

7. it is good who is checking it out though.

[pnwmom]

9. The article says that "foreign fighters" brought Ebola with them.

There have been reports of foreign fighter joining ISIS before now -- even from the west.

It isn't as hard to contract as you think it is. It's more contagious than HIV, for example, and less contagious than the flu.

[SheilaT]

11. That is just so vague, that I find it difficult to credit the story.

The foreign fighters in question would have to have come from Nigeria, Sierra Leone, or Guinea, and that quite recently given the 21 day incubation period, and how very sick people are not long after they start having symptoms.

While it is more contagious than HIV, like HIV, you have to be in pretty close contact with someone and exposed to their bodily fluids to get it. I have no idea what living conditions are like for ISIS fighters, but once someone is in the full throes of it, he's not going anywhere.

As terrible as Ebola is, fewer than half of those who've gotten it this time around have died. And that's even though in Africa many of the victims got little or no treatment, and still survived. Not that I think we can be cavalier about this disease, but an unconfirmed rumor is just that, an unconfirmed rumor.

[pnwmom]

13. Fewer than half survive it in places where the medical care is poor -- and that is true of ISIS-held

locations.

[davidn3600]

10. Unless ISIS was trying to use it as a weapon...

Is it conceivable that someone went to west Africa, intentionally took infectious material from an Ebola patient, and then intended to infect enemies with it back in the mid-east....but ended up infecting themselves?

[SheilaT]

12. As I understand it, the virus does not survive outside the body,

so taking infectious material -- and what would that be do you suppose? -- isn't a practical way to spread the disease.

[Shrike47]

8. I am dubious re: Ebola, given where they opporate. Let's see what shakes out.

[0rganism]

14. i really hope it doesn't spread to the civilian population

if it wasn't for the risk to innocents, i'd be rooting for the virus.