Ebola round 2

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krichardson

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Re starting a closed thread are we?...
 

skjl47

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Hello; Technically it is alrerady here but contained at Atlanta.
That it will show up in the general population is a fair bet. The how will make some difference. An infected person showing visible symptoms will likely be noticed and picked out quickly. That will allow the quick round up of people who may have been in contact.

Perhaps a person who has the virus but is not yet symptomatic is the worst case. That individual might be in the general population for some time and make a lot of contacts.

I did some searching a few days ago about mutation rates of a virus. I believe ebola is an RNA virus. The RNA type virus is known to mutate at a fair rate due to replication methods. One study suggested that for some reason ebola has not mutated quite as fast as an RNA might. There are several strains already.

One promising thing I found is that ebola may not mutate too quickly to being truly airborne. Something about a basic change in a protective coating that now allows it to dry out quickly in air.

If my Biology background is not too far out of date it is my understanding that once a virus makes the jump to a new species, it then can become more prone to infect that species. The more people the virus passes thru then the easier it can become to infect the next person and so on.

I also found a study citing that infected males can shed virus in reproductive fluids for as much as 61 days.
 

brich999

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Im not too concerned myself considering almost 1000 people have died which makes the odds roughly 1:7,252,000 considering people in the world who died of ebola to people in the world but I do find it highly amusing how so many people can be driven to extreme fear over seemingly small things. Average deaths per year from the flu are about 23,000 over the last 3 decades.

Ofcourse this may mutate to zombie virus and take over the world in which case ill eat my words. And your brains.
 
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convict360

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On the news last night, they were discussing using experimental drugs to treat it etc, and that the american patients were showing recovery.

My cynical and rather dry sense of humour immediately wondered how it could be an incurable virus until two Americans got it.

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Pharaoh

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I was thinking that at first too, but mine was about it being a wise choice to bring the Americans back home. This one is about Ebola in general.
This can stay open for now, but be warned that the politics need to stay out of it.

(Comment not aimed at you)
 

skjl47

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Im not too concerned myself considering almost 1000 people have died which makes the odds roughly 1:7,252,000 considering people in the world who died of ebola to people in the world but I do find it highly amusing how so many people can be driven to extreme fear over seemingly small things. Average deaths per year from the flu are about 23,000 over the last 3 decades.

Ofcourse this may mutate to zombie virus and take over the world in which case ill eat my words. And your brains.
Hello; This is an interesting way to look at the situation. The odds will likely be a bit more skewed depending on where you are and how many people you actually have regular contact with. I live alone in a rural area and only have rare physical contact with others. back when I was still teaching the story was quite different.

Having worked in public schools for over 30 years I observed that most do not have a good grasp the hygene practices necessary to prevent catching an infectious disease.
 
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