Sierra Leone hunts Ebola patient kidnapped in Freetown

[muriel_volestrangler]

Source: BBC

A hunt has been launched in Sierra Leone's capital, Freetown, for a woman with Ebola who was forcibly removed from hospital by her relatives.

Radio stations around the country are appealing for help to find the 32-year-old who is being described as a "risk to all".

She is the first Freetown resident to have tested positive for the virus.
...
Sidi Yahya Tunis, a spokesperson for Sierra Leone's ministry of health, said the King Harman Road Hospital was stormed by the Ebola patient's family on Thursday.

The BBC's Umaru Fofona in Freetown said the woman, who is an apprentice hairdresser, is a resident of the densely populated area of Wellington in the east of the city.

Read more: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-28485041

---

Wow, that's the kind of things that could kill dozens - if we're lucky.

[Berlin Expat]

1. The stuff that

apocalyptic films are made of.

From this story: http://in.reuters.com/article/2014/07/25/us-health-ebola-africa-idINKBN0FU1DB20140725?feedType=RSS&feedName=health&utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=twitter&dlvrit=309303

notice the last paragraph, which sent a small shiver down my spine.

On Thursday authorities in Nigeria announced that they were testing a Liberian man for Ebola after he collapsed upon arrival at an airport in Lagos, the country's commercial capital and a mega-city of 21 million people.

Imagine someone with Ebola, contagious, on an airplane bound for a major international transit hub, where his fellow passengers will subsequently go on to board other airplanes bound for destinations throughout the world.

Needless to say, I'm hoping this chap just had a touch of food poisoning or a bad case of the cold.

[muriel_volestrangler]

2. That man has died in Lagos - listed as 'suspected Ebola' in the BBC article

And he travelled via Lome, the capital of Togo, just to add to the possible contacts: http://www.ndtv.com/article/world/nigeria-fears-as-man-falls-ill-with-ebola-like-symptoms-564648

[Berlin Expat]

3. Not good. I don't know about you,

but I've seen this movie quite a few times, granted, under different titles.

It usually doesn't end well.

[muriel_volestrangler]

9. Now confirmed as Ebola

See http://www.democraticunderground.com/1014855886

[lexx21]

5. Ebola is spread via fluid contact and is not an airborne contagion.

Vector. The natural reservoir for Ebola is unknown. Epidemiologists have tested bats, monkeys, spiders and ticks for the virus, but have not been able to acquire definitive data. Common factors indicate that the natural reservoir is part of rural Africa, and CDC tests have shown that 10% of all Asian and African monkeys have antibodies to filoviruses. However, because the virus is as pathogenic in nonhuman primates as it is in humans, it is highly unlikely that monkeys themselves are a reservoir. It is speculated that persistent mammalian infection may help maintain the virus in nature, but that the natural reservoir is more likely to be a long-lived arthropod associated with the monkeys.

Secondary spread of the disease is via contact with infected persons or contact with blood, secretions, or excretions of infected persons. However, contact between viremic persons results in infection rates of approximately 10% ---such contact is not an efficient form of viral transmission. Infection via contact during the incubation period is rare. In contrast, nosocomial transmission is extremely dangerous. In all epidemics, nosocomial transmission, via contaminated syringes or needles, was responsible for a significant number of deaths.

In a small number of cases of the Zaire and Sudan strains, patients did not have contact with the blood or body fluids of other viremic patients. In these few cases, it is possible that the patients contracted the virus via aerosol transmission. Although the Zaire and Sudan strains are not usually passed from human to human by aerosol, the Reston strain is transmitted via small-particle aerosol between monkeys and from monkeys to humans. In addition, Ebola Zaire and Marburg virus have been isolated from the alveoli of infected monkeys.

Viruses can persist in injection equipment, multidose medicine vials, or in dried material. The virus can also continue to be shed in the patient's semen for 3 or 4 months after symptoms disappear. In one case, the virus was isolated from the anterior chamber fluid of a uveitis patient.

[onecent]

6. It certainly can be spread by airborne...see this...

http://www.cdc.gov/vhf/ebola/pdf/fact-sheet.pdf

There are different kinds of ebola and this one is suspected to be one of the airborne.

[lexx21]

7. And it said that it has been shown..

that it can spread through airborne contamination in the RESEARCH environment, it has not been documented among humans in a real world setting.

Also, one of the sub types - Ebola Reston - which is the variety thought to be airborne has not caused the disease in humans, but only simian to simian.

You might want to read the entire text instead of just skimming over it and taking that parts that make you freak out. If you are on a plane then you should be far more worried that someone on that flight has activeTB rather than some person sitting several rows back having ebola.

[onecent]

10. Ooops my bad! n/t

[Hugabear]

16. If it was truly an airborne pathogen, I suspect that we'd be seeing MUCH higher numbers

Yes, this is the worst outbreak of Ebola in recorded history. However, we need to remember that these are very populated areas. If the virus was truly able to spread by air, then we should be seeing something of almost apocalyptic proportions.

[KinMd]

13. Going to have "walkers" in Sierra Leone

[Aerows]

4. Frightening! n/t

[FreedRadical]

8. That's not going to end well.

[dembotoz]

11. you see in the movies all these guys running around in the space suits

doesn't sound like they ship enough of them to africa

god bless the courage of those folks fighting to contain this nightmare

[muriel_volestrangler]

12. Indeed - the chief doctor in the Sierra Leone fight has caught it himself

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-28439941

Still alive, as far as I can tell from the latest reports.

[muriel_volestrangler]

14. Ebola outbreak: Sierra Leone escaped patient dies

A Sierra Leone woman who fled hospital after testing positive for the Ebola virus has died after turning herself in, health officials have told the BBC.

Her family had forcibly removed her from a public hospital on Thursday.
...
Both she and her parents - who are suspected of having the virus - had been taken to Ebola treatment centres in the east of the country, health ministry spokesman Sidi Yahya Tunis told the BBC.

The woman had been one of dozens of people who tested positive but were unaccounted for, the BBC's Umaru Fofana reports from the capital, Freetown.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-28505061

[librechik]

15. wow.I think I'm going to be sick.

no, really.