Ebola crisis vastly underestimated, says WHO

[Omaha Steve]

Source: BBC

The scale of the Ebola outbreak appears to be "vastly underestimated", the UN's health agency says, as the death toll from the disease reaches 1,069.

The World Health Organization said its staff had seen evidence that the numbers of reported cases and deaths do not reflect the scale of the crisis.

It said in a statement that "extraordinary measures" were needed.

The outbreak began in Guinea in February and has since spread to Liberia, Sierra Leone and Nigeria.

FULL story at link.



The WHO says the international response to the outbreak needs to be scaled up



Read more: http://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-28798542

[dixiegrrrrl]

1. Are they saying there are MORE than than the reported deaths and infections?

The way the death numbers are ratcheting up is a bit chilling.

[magical thyme]

3. Yes.

There are a lot of sick and dead unaccounted for, due to people fearing the hospital, caring for and burying their own without reporting. And now fearing quarantine, so bodies are dumped into the street. In the last couple weeks, from what I've read, it's really gone medieval.

[lunasun]

5. Also people in Africa are complaining not enough is being done by the various governments

To contain the virus . They are wondering even if the west will step up with funding , & research now if it is already too far out of the box now

[cstanleytech]

11. Only way its going to be contained I suspect is if no one

who becomes infected hides out, until that behavior stops its going to take alot longer to stop the spread regardless of what the west does or does not do.

[TwilightGardener]

10. Hard to imagine all the family caregivers who were exposed and are now mixing

with the general public. Scary stuff.

[magical thyme]

16. they don't for long because they succomb as well

Which is why, as long as it was in remote areas, it was self-contained.

It's the fact that it has appeared in more densely populated areas that is making it of such concern.

[merrily]

2. Just before going on vacation,

Stewart kind of mocked those who had even mentioned that a patient was being tested for it in New York, even though they also reported it had turned out he didn't have it. I don't remember the whole ebola segment, but the theme seemed to be much ado about nothing.

I understand he does only fake news, but I wonder what the point of that segment was. Maybe only that, in his view, USians (who stay in the US) are not likely to contract ebola?

[magical thyme]

4. a nurse that tended to Sawyer violated the quarantine orders

and traveled to another Nigerian city, where she fell ill.

So now they are afraid she has spread in further within Nigeria.

[lunasun]

7. The airlines has still not contacted all who flew with him last I read

Many split ,as in left in a hurry , before the possibility of quarantine or being detained at the airport when he fell sick and they realized they would be held to be interviewed
Unlikely they had enough contact to acquire but again it would be another possible source of unreported illness if they do get it and want to avoid quarantine

[840high]

8. What happened to her?

[magical thyme]

17. what I read is that she was shipped back to the original hospital

and is there now. And they are trying to track down all the people she came into contact while traveling.

[840high]

18. Thank you.

[Warpy]

9. That's why they need lock and key type quarantine

Sadly, this is why the Black Death spread so quickly throughout Europe, people thought they could outrun the disease once they'd been exposed, and exposed many other people until they fell ill. That nurse knew better. She panicked. Most people will panic.

[littlemissmartypants]

6. DUH. eom

[riderinthestorm]

12. Tragic. K&R nt

[Thor_MN]

13. One can travel quite a distance in three weeks.

[littlemissmartypants]

14. WHO was late to the party.

I posted my concerns about this getting out of hand weeks ago. Imagine if there is ONE infected victim in NYC right now, in the street protests taking place in

Crowds gathered at locations across the city — Union Square, Times Square, Harlem, Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn and Jamaica, Queens — for a National Moment of Silence in support of demonstrators in Ferguson, Mo.

Oops.

[grahamhgreen]

15. Yup