Doctors Aren't Sure How To Stop Africa's Deadliest Ebola Outbreak

[ScienceRocks]

Doctors Aren't Sure How To Stop Africa's Deadliest Ebola Outbreak
Doctors Aren't Sure How To Stop Africa's Deadliest Ebola Outbreak : Shots - Health News : NPR

When an Ebola outbreak lasts for months and continues to show up in new cities, health officials take notice.

That's exactly what's happening in West Africa. An outbreak that started in Guinea last February has surged in the past few weeks. It's now the deadliest outbreak since the virus was first detected in 1976.

More than 500 cases have been reported in three West African countries, and the death toll has risen to 337, the World Health Organization Wednesday. That's up from 208 cases reported two weeks ago, a 60 percent spike.

"There are many villages in the eastern part of Sierra Leone that are basically devastated," virologist of Tulane University NPR's Jason Beaubien. "We walked into one village ... and we found 25 corpses. One house with seven people, all in one family, were dead.

"It's a very serious situation there," adds Garry, who just returned to the U.S. from West Africa. "This is about as bad as it [an Ebola outbreak] gets."

Ebola often kills around two-thirds of the people it infects. And it kills quickly, sometimes within days, sometimes within weeks. That actually makes outbreaks relatively easy to stop, says , of the University of Texas Medical Branch.

"Typically an outbreak starts in Central Africa," Geisbert says. "The WHO goes in and quarantines the area and within a few months, they've contained the outbreak."

But the pattern is different in West Africa, Geisbert says. The virus continues to pop up in new locations. It has swept through Guinea, jumped across the border into Sierra Leone and most recently, seven people in Liberia's capital, — a dense metropolitan area with nearly a million people.

Why has Ebola been so hard to stop in West Africa? No one is sure, Geisbert says. But there are probably several issues.

This is a very serious ebola outbreak. This is a virus that kills 60% of the people that it hits...

 

[ScienceRocks]

West Africa's Ebola Death Toll Rises to 337

An Ebola outbreak continues to spread in three West African countries, with more than 330 deaths reported, the World Health Organization said Wednesday.

Health officials have struggled to contain what is one of the deadliest recorded outbreaks of Ebola. Most of the cases and deaths have been in Guinea, where the outbreak is believed to have begun.

In an update published on its website Wednesday, the U.N. health agency said that more than 500 suspected or confirmed cases of the virus have been recorded. It said 337 reported deaths have been linked to the virus.

West Africa's Ebola Death Toll Rises to 337 - ABC News

 

[ScienceRocks]

64% kill rate
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Ebola_outbreaks

 

[westwall]

Doctors Aren't Sure How To Stop Africa's Deadliest Ebola Outbreak
Doctors Aren't Sure How To Stop Africa's Deadliest Ebola Outbreak : Shots - Health News : NPR

When an Ebola outbreak lasts for months and continues to show up in new cities, health officials take notice.

That's exactly what's happening in West Africa. An outbreak that started in Guinea last February has surged in the past few weeks. It's now the deadliest outbreak since the virus was first detected in 1976.

More than 500 cases have been reported in three West African countries, and the death toll has risen to 337, the World Health Organization Wednesday. That's up from 208 cases reported two weeks ago, a 60 percent spike.

"There are many villages in the eastern part of Sierra Leone that are basically devastated," virologist of Tulane University NPR's Jason Beaubien. "We walked into one village ... and we found 25 corpses. One house with seven people, all in one family, were dead.

"It's a very serious situation there," adds Garry, who just returned to the U.S. from West Africa. "This is about as bad as it [an Ebola outbreak] gets."

Ebola often kills around two-thirds of the people it infects. And it kills quickly, sometimes within days, sometimes within weeks. That actually makes outbreaks relatively easy to stop, says , of the University of Texas Medical Branch.

"Typically an outbreak starts in Central Africa," Geisbert says. "The WHO goes in and quarantines the area and within a few months, they've contained the outbreak."

But the pattern is different in West Africa, Geisbert says. The virus continues to pop up in new locations. It has swept through Guinea, jumped across the border into Sierra Leone and most recently, seven people in Liberia's capital, — a dense metropolitan area with nearly a million people.

Why has Ebola been so hard to stop in West Africa? No one is sure, Geisbert says. But there are probably several issues.

This is a very serious ebola outbreak. This is a virus that kills 60% of the people that it hits...

Which one is it? There are two strains, one is Ebola Zaire and the other is Ebola Sudan. One has a 90% kill rate but I can't remember which is which. The problem they have is most African burial rituals entail washing of the body and that spreads the virus. The best way to combat it is a quarantine. It burns itself out fairly quickly if that is done.

I don't think they've ever determined what the reservoir for the virus is.

 

[ScienceRocks]

Wikepedia says it is zebov
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Ebola_outbreaks


Zaire Ebola Virus (ZEBOV)

You're right about containing this and it will go away.

 

[westwall]

Wikepedia says it is zebov
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Ebola_outbreaks


Zaire Ebola Virus (ZEBOV)

You're right about containing this and it will go away.

That's how you deal with all hemorrhagic fevers. Lassa, Marburg, etc.

 

[Dont Taz Me Bro]

Maybe if we spent more money on science, education, and infrastructure we could get rid of all the Africans.

 

[ScienceRocks]

Maybe they'd be better off if they did that?