
African Ebola outbreak shows no sign of slowing - timr
http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2014/04/23/the-african-ebola-outbreak-that-shows-no-sign-of-slowing/?tid=hpModule_04941f10-8a79-11e2-98d9-3012c1cd8d1e
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unspecified
About two weeks ago, NPR mentioned two things that make this outbreak more
worrying:

1\. Cases in 2 countries with suspected cases in 2 more [1]

2\. Cases in a capital city of 2M+ people

[http://www.npr.org/blogs/health/2014/04/08/300509073/the-
ebo...](http://www.npr.org/blogs/health/2014/04/08/300509073/the-ebola-
outbreak-three-weeks-in-dire-but-not-hopeless)

[1] thanks nbouscal

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nbouscal
One thing that is important to know is that there actually are not any
confirmed cases in Sierra Leone [1] or Mali. There were many suspected cases
in both countries, but all of them have tested false so far. So for now, at
least, it is only active in Guinea and Liberia.

[1]: One clarification is that two people from Sierra Leone died from EVD
while they were in Guinea, and their bodies were repatriated to Sierra Leone
and buried there. Sierra Leone has since banned repatriation of bodies to
mitigate the risk of it spreading through this vector.

Source:
[http://www.who.int/csr/don/archive/disease/ebola/en/](http://www.who.int/csr/don/archive/disease/ebola/en/)

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jnbiche
The problem with all the epidemiological response protocols to Ebola is that
so many are based on laboratory tests and not clinical symptoms (which are
admittedly complex since they can mimic other more common African hemorrhagic
diseases like hantavirus).

Normally, that's a highly accurate way to diagnose confirmed cases, but in
this instance, these same lab tests were highly misleading, since the genome
of the Ebola virus responsible for this outbreak had shifted so much that it
can not be detected by some of the lab assays used by regional labs. This
discrepancy may have even prolonged the outbreak.

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Fomite
Hantavirus is not only not more common, but not so much a disease in Africa.

Africa is full of hemorrhagic diseases: Lassa Fever, Marburg, or Dengue
Hemorrhagic Fever. But not so much Hantavirus.

~~~
jnbiche
You're correct. I was thinking of Lassa when I wrote Hantavirus. Of course,
Hantavirus was responsible for the "Four Corners" virus in N. America, and
more commonly in S. America, if I recall correctly.

It's been over a decade since I worked in infectious disease epi, and even
then not in tropical diseases, so I'm lucky to remember anything at all.

But my point stands: Africa is full of hemorrhagic fevers, which makes
symptomatic diagnosis of Ebola difficult.

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ChuckMcM
So what killed (or squelched) previous outbreaks?

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Xylakant
As deadly as Ebola is for the individual patient, it's somewhat easily
containable compared to other infections: It spreads via blood or other body
fluids, it's not airborne or transmitted via touch. From what I've read
somewhat prolonged exposure is required - so pretty basic hospital equipment
is sufficient as long as you can keep the patients isolated. Previous
outbreaks were contained by isolating the patients and giving them the best
care possible until either all perished or overcame the disease.

It's a gruesome sickness but it doesn't have the potential to hop like SARS
etc. do.

~~~
timr
Not really sure why people keep repeating this.

If it were _" easily containable compared to other infections"_, the doctors
and nurses who treat the patients wouldn't have to wear full biohazard gear or
use isolation wards. They'd simply pop on some gloves and a mask.

This strain of Ebola isn't airborne, but it's plenty virulent -- it spreads
through contact with nearly every bodily fluid. Get some on your hands and
touch your face (which we all do, hundreds of times a day), and you're in
trouble.

~~~
mayneack
Wearing bio-hazard gear is more a function of the mortality rate than anything
else. Sure, it's easier to transmit than HIV (where the extremely long
asymptomatic phase facilitates transmission), but it's not as easy as the flu.
If the flu had an 80% mortality rate, you'd get bio-hazard suits for that too.

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freyfogle
Want to help from? Please get involved with the Humanitarian OpenStreetMap
team: [http://hot.openstreetmap.org](http://hot.openstreetmap.org)

Many of the areas are very badly mapped which makes responding difficult. You
can help create up to date maps by tracing aerial imagery:
[http://hot.openstreetmap.org/projects/guinea_ebola_epidemic](http://hot.openstreetmap.org/projects/guinea_ebola_epidemic)

Here's how to get started: [http://hot.openstreetmap.org/get-
involved](http://hot.openstreetmap.org/get-involved)

thanks

~~~
jaakkoh
While the Ebola response mapping jobs are in pretty good shape there are other
open tasks where there is plenty of unmapped territory.

With an OSM account you can see the full list at
[http://tasks.hotosm.org](http://tasks.hotosm.org) . E.g.
[http://tasks.hotosm.org/job/468](http://tasks.hotosm.org/job/468) is
completely undone (albeit 3 squares are being worked on as I write this) and
[http://tasks.hotosm.org/job/467](http://tasks.hotosm.org/job/467) has just 3
squares done (with 2 being worked on). Both of these two tasks are linked to
US State Department's Humanitarian Information Unit's MapGive program, which
BTW has nice video intros/tutorials to getting started with OSM
([http://mapgive.state.gov](http://mapgive.state.gov)).

If you have any questions you can ask at HOT email list
[https://lists.openstreetmap.org/listinfo/hot](https://lists.openstreetmap.org/listinfo/hot),
Twitter [http://twitter.com/hotosm](http://twitter.com/hotosm) or FB page
[https://www.facebook.com/hotosm](https://www.facebook.com/hotosm) \-- or IRC
(OFTC #hot) [http://wiki.osm.org/IRC](http://wiki.osm.org/IRC)

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joshu
Has Madagascar closed its ports?

~~~
nnq
Dis everybody really enjoy Plague Inc. that much? Don't tell me you also paid
for on iphone or spent some on they in-app-purchases on android :))

~~~
omnibrain
That may a reference to Pandemic II. It looks like Plague Inc. is a clone of
this flash game, made for Android.

