Ebola virus suspected after death of man in Donegal who returned from Sierra Leone

[theHandpuppet]

Source: The Belfast Telegraph (NI)

By Eilish O’Regan – 21 August 2014

A full-scale health probe is underway in Donegal into the death of a man who may have contracted the deadly Ebola virus, health authorities have confirmed.

The body of the deceased man has been placed in isolation in Letterkenny hospital after showing possible symptoms of the killer virus.

The man, who is in his 40s, returned home from Sierra Leone two weeks ago. Before his death, he was being treated for malaria.

A source said the man's body was found this morning and no suspicion of Ebola arose until his death occurred....


Read more: http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/local-national/republic-of-ireland/ebola-virus-suspected-after-death-of-man-in-donegal-who-returned-from-sierra-leone-30526939.html

---

Lordy, I hope he wasn't carrying the Ebola virus -- he'd been home for two weeks before his death.

[EEO]

1. How we have avoided a pandemic for so long is beyond me.

[Nitram]

24. Because the virus is fare less contagious...

...and far less lethal than is being widely reported. Particularly in any country where the health infrastructure is more advanced than it is in West Africa. In West Africa, the disease spreads rapidly in clinics because of un-sterile conditions, re-use of needles etc.

[EEO]

27. Indeed, though my comment was not limited to Ebola.

[theHandpuppet]

2. Another article with more detail

From the Irish Times
Thu, Aug 21, 2014

Tests are being carried out for the Ebola virus and isolation procedures have been put in place after the death of a man in Co Donegal.

It is understood the deceased had been working in Sierra Leone and that a number of colleagues had contracted the virus there. He was found dead late last night and taken to Letterkenny General Hospital, it is understood.

While the cause of death is unknown the HSE is carrying out tests to see whether it was due to exposure to Ebola.

It is believed the suspected victim, named locally as Dessie Quinn, from the Doorin area, outside Mountcharles, Co Donegal, was a father of one aged 43. He is thought to have been living with his partner in Dublin but was visiting his large family in Co Donegal when he was taken ill....

MORE at http://www.irishtimes.com/news/health/tests-under-way-for-ebola-following-donegal-death-1.1904073

[cosmicone]

3. People from Liberia and Sierra Leone

should have been quarantined at the get go. Proper public health practices require it. Quarantine all air travellers for 14 days and then let them travel if they are not sick.

Why put the whole world at risk?

[theHandpuppet]

4. Totally agree

I was astounded this man had not been quarantined, considering he had just come from Sierra Leone after being treated for a suspected case of "malaria". Inexcusably irresponsible!

[redwitch]

5. So how fast an they make the drug that cured American doctor?

I hope it is very, very fast!

[magical thyme]

10. it will prbably take many months to get it into production

It was in testing phases, so was being hand made a few doses at a time. They already used up all they had on Brantly, Writebol, the Spanish doctor and 3 Liberian doctors.

[Ecumenist]

6. I agree with everything except the quarantine because the incubation could be as long as 22 days

I say, to be safe, 24 days.

[McCamy Taylor]

7. My suspicion is that anyone from the industrialized world who gets sick in West Africa will

immediately get on a plane and will tell the authorities "No, I am not sick at all" in order to get home, because we all know that Ebola is only 50% fatal and getting expert care--i.e. having a lab to monitor your chemistry, check your blood counts, give you platelets etc can mean the difference between survival and death.

Countries need to be willing to bring home any of their own citizens and treat them in a safe isolated hospital---otherwise all their own citizens who may be infected will sneak home and possibly expose lots of other people on the way.

[cosmicone]

8. Ebola is almost 90% fatal -- especially the W African strains

Only Bundibugyo strain is 50% fatal

[Marrah_G]

32. That is 90% with little or substandard medical care.

The current outbreak is around 2/3rds fatal when you mix in those who get good care, those with substandard care and those with no care at all.

[Nitram]

9. Calm down, people, the Ebola virus is not highly contageous.

It requires the exchange of bodily fluids, and is very unlikely to spread rapidly. The fact that this guy went undiagnosed means his doctors could have been exposed to the virus IF THEY FAILED TO FOLLOW BASIC PROCEDURE. No doctor since AIDS appeared is likely to expose his or herself to a patient's blood or saliva.

[LisaL]

11. What are you talking about?

Here is the results of one guy with Ebola flying to Nigeria. Five people are already dead. How is it not highly contagious again?

"These two new cases bring the total number of confirmed infections in Nigeria, including the traveler, to 14. Chukwu says five patients have died, five have recovered and four are being treated in Lagos."

http://abcnews.go.com/Health/wireStory/nigeria-confirms-ebola-cases-25081117

[Nitram]

13. LisaL, the spread of influenza, for example, is thousands of times faster

Ebola is hard to contract...and good infection-control practices can stop its spread. What's more, Ebola is much less contagious than many other more common diseases. The virus, much like HIV or hepatitis, is spread through blood or bodily fluids and is not airborne. http://www.webmd.com/news/20140806/ebola-virus-how-contagious

[LisaL]

16. I just told you how one guy managed to infect 11 people, 5 of whom already died.

And you keep telling me it's hard to contract?
Seriously?

[B2G]

19. Unlike AIDS,

The ebola virus is also present in urine, sweat, tears, vomit and feces.

Alot more ways to contract it.

[Sunlei]

28. flies spread disease

[Marrah_G]

33. Doesn't matter what you say

Ebola freaks people out on a very primal level. I even had an argument with a surgical tech who was convinced it was airborne due to some pig/monkey tests in Canada. No matter how many facts I gave him, it didn't matter.

Personally I am far more concerned about influenza and some of the new respitory illnesses.

The key is science and knowledge. Fear comes from the unknown.

[magical thyme]

12. This guy was walking around for some time and flew in close contact on a plane

while infected with whatever killed him. So there is serious cause for concern.

The first responders to the American who brought it to Nigeria were exposed, and have it. IIRC, people that sat next to him on the plane have shown symptoms.

Rabies doesn't infect easily either. It requires entry through an open wound or directly into your system. A few years ago, a boy in Texas found a bat in his bedroom. He and his family chased it back out the window. It brushed up against his chest, but as far as he or anybody else knew he wasn't bitten. He died of rabies within 3 weeks or so. We can have microcracks in our skin, so you don't even need to be bitten to get rabies. It can enter if your skin has a microscratch on it.

This patient was presumed to have TB. The PPEs for TB are not the same as the PPEs for Ebola.

I work in a hospital. Last year a nurse ran screaming out our ED. She was helping a patient across the room. Patient fainted and peed down her leg. That was an exposure.

Shit happens. You can follow all the basic procedures and still end up in trouble. PPE's are not perfect. I've had gloves tear apart when putting them on. On at least one occasion, I've seen stain soak through to the inside of a glove when making gram stains. If stain could soak through, so could a virus. Last night I performed an rapid HIV test on a "source." Somebody in the hospital had an accidental needlestick. When exhausted, I've caught myself trying to scratch an itch or wipe sweat from my face on my shoulder. Hell -- we are taught to cough or sneeze into our shoulder. I didn't sleep much at all Wednesday night, so was exhausted last night. Accidentally opened the pee centrifuge before it had stopped spinning.

[Nitram]

15. Everything you say is true, thyme, but it is also true that...

...there are diseases that are a great deal more lethal and more highly contagious. The likelihood of Ebola spreading in the U.S is very, very low.

[LisaL]

17. Which diseases?

Influenza doesn't have 60-90 % death rate.

[Nitram]

22. Neither does Ebola, contrary to widely-reported claims.

The true figure is probably closer to 40 to 60% (or eve lower), and that is in countries where health care infrastructure is more likely to spread the disease than stop it. Check out this SCIENTIFIC analysis:

http://www.virology.ws/2012/01/18/how-lethal-is-ebolavirus/

[magical thyme]

29. the point is the person in question was in the infectious stage, not "low dose"

as others have pointed out to you, the American who traveled to Liberia while infected spread the infection to multiple health care providers plus at least one passenger who was seated near him on the plane.

Furthermore:

"The results of one study revealed antibodies in 10% of individuals in non epidemic regions of Africa."

"A similar seroprevalence rate (9.5%) was reported in villages near Kikwit, DRC where an outbreak occurred in 1995."

"In addition, a 13.2% seroprevalence was detected in the Aka Pygmy population of Central African Republic."

10% antibodies in the general population would correlate with up to 90% fatality rate (in untreated patients who aren't "bought time" to develop the antibodies before their organs begin failing).

Furthermore, the current ~65% mortality rate currently being reported refers to known cases, many receiving at least some treatment. However, there are a large number of unreported cases, per WHO and MSF. They are hiding their sick, and now actually dumping their bodies when they die, in order to avoid the quarantine.

Plus as the number of cases is increasing, the disease outbreak is "outrunning" the statistics. Ie, on any given day right now there are more new, early stage cases that have yet to reach the final stage. It won't be until the last infected patient recovers or dies that there will be a more accurate number.

"No Ebola hemorrhagic fever cases were reported in these areas."

Which means they acquired antibodies, as expressed later in the article, by low dose exposure to Ebola through some unknown means such as fruit.

Or, as not mentioned in the article, by exposure to a very similar protein through a noninfectious source. For example, we all acquire antibodies to blood type proteins of our non-type. (Eg, blood type A people acquire antibodies to type B protein through an unknown source, which is why cross-matching type A patient with a type B donor is fatal.)

That does not reduce the fatality rate. It suggests up to a 90% fatality rate for untreated patients who did not develop antibodies in advance.

Furthermore, if antibodies are acquired by very low dose exposure to fruit, using their example, only people who have eaten fruit from that area will have had the opportunity to develop antibodies.

What we also know in bloodbanking is that some people are quick to produce antibodies; others are not. So some patients start developing antibodies to various foreign proteins from their first transfusion and require specific antigen-free blood for subsequent transfusions. Others are transfused over and over and never develop antibodies to the foreign proteins they are exposed to.

[sendero]

14. Current human strains..

.... are contagious only by contact. But there are simian strains that infect airborne. People can get the simian strains but these strains don't CURRENTLY do much damage to humans (although they are lethal to monkeys).

I would be circumspect about claiming Ebola could not become a pandemic threat. One little mutation is all it might well take.

[Nitram]

18. There is no evidence that the Ebola virus tends to mutate rapidly like the flue virus.

Calm down people, Ebola is not a threat in the U.S. People are not contagious before they experience symptoms that will put them in bed. They are not going to be walking around spreading the virus.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/to-your-health/wp/2014/08/01/why-youre-not-going-to-get-ebola-in-the-u-s/

[sendero]

20. Yeah..

... I turn to the main stream media every time I want the facts. No thanks. I don't think ebola taking hold in the US is very likely, but it is going to give Africa a run for its money.

[LisaL]

21. So the American guy who flew to Nigeria did so while in his bed?

Obviously your statement is not true since at least some people are going to travel with the disease.

[Nitram]

23. And was he contagious while he was on the plane?

If he were, he'd be unlikely to stand up and walk about. Let's get off the Ann Coulter hysteria train.

[LisaL]

25. It would appear he already had symptoms before getting onto the plane.

"Patrick Sawyer, the Liberian man who brought the Ebola virus into Nigerian, looked "terribly ill" and might have known he was infected with the virus before traveling to Nigeria, the Liberian media is reporting."

http://allafrica.com/stories/201408071299.html

[Nitram]

30. I was responding to the contention above that

"This guy was walking around for some time and flew in close contact on a plane." If he was "terribly ill", it is unlikely he had any close contact on the plane except with the 1 or 2 people who sat next to him. Let's take a deep breath and get a grip.

[magical thyme]

31. epressing concern does not equal panic

Concerns are quite valid.

I agree that mutation is unlikely.

However, "not having evidence of airborne transmission in real world" does not equal "have proof transmission is not airborne."

The fact is that airborne transmission has proven to occur in laboratory conditions. It may be entirely possible in the real world. That people sitting *near* the American patient contracted the disease suggests it may be possible.

http://abcnews.go.com/Health/wireStory/nigeria-confirms-ebola-cases-25081117
Nigeria’s health ministry confirmed Friday two new cases of Ebola in the country, the first people to come down with the disease who didn’t have direct contact with an infected traveler who brought the virus into the country from nearby Liberia.

And now Nigeria has its first "secondary contact" cases
http://abcnews.go.com/Health/wireStory/nigeria-confirms-ebola-cases-25081117
The spouses of 2 medical workers who treated Sawyer are now confirmed cases. These are their 1st "secondary contacts."

[Nitram]

34. Expressing unlikely concerns encourages panic

I agree, there are many reasons for caution and preparation. But panic can cause more problems that the disease itself. Please read the posts and notice the erg e of hysteria in many comments.

[magical thyme]

35. some people are walking around on the verge of panic

looking for an excuse to push their panic button. That's not going to stop me from expressing concerns where I feel they are valid.

I am a lab tech, so deal with risks from pathogens every day on the job and have a rudimentary knowledge of microbiology, as well as a working knowledge of drawing blood, plating specs, running tests, maintaining the istruments we run tests on, and PPEs.

I see cause for concern with this outbreak. Africa is in big trouble, imo. If a case comes here, the country as a whole will be fine. Some random local people in the wrong place at the wrong time, not so much.

[Nitram]

36. I have been responding to posts that exaggerate the threat to the U.S., not Africa.

that's why I've repeatedly pointed out why conditions in Africa are better-suited to spread of the disease.

[WilliamPitt]

26. EBOLA VIRUS RULED OUT IN DONEGAL DEATH

http://www.irishtimes.com/news/health/ebola-virus-ruled-out-in-donegal-death-1.1904978