Ailantha
  • Blog
  • About
  • Contact

The Coming Plague?

10/15/2014

2 Comments

 
Picture
    As I've said a time or maybe two before, I sometimes write with the idea that perhaps some future cyber-archivist or social historian might come across this blog and see it as a documentation of life and events at this time and place.
    And so, future researcher,  on this day, October 15, 2014, there is a great fear looming over the United States of a coming plague caused by a terrible virus that is ravaging Africa and has infected its first two victims here in our country.
    Ebola is the name of the virus and also of the horrific hemorrhagic fever it causes.  Ebola fever has a 50-90 percent mortality rate and there's no cure for it.
    For the past few weeks Ebola and it's lightning-swift spread across the African countries of Liberia and Sierra Leone has been front-page news and the top story in every news broadcast, every day, all day long; and then last week the news broke that a nurse at Texas Presbyterian Hospital of Dallas was infected while caring for an Ebola victim who came to this country from Liberia with the disease.  This morning a second  health care worker at Texas Presyterian  who also cared for the original Ebola patient was diagnosed with the infection. The plague has arrived.
    Or has it?
    It's true that hospitals all around the United States are now preparing for the Ebola invasion, and I've been as frightened as anyone about Ebola sweeping across our country like a scourge from the Middle-Ages.  I have horrible daymares about my husband, my children, my grandchildren, all my loved-ones being stricken with Ebola fever and of me having to watch them suffer, forbidden to go near them, helpless.
    I've had the feeling that as we all go with our normal, happy lives we're just waiting for the monster epidemic to hit.
    Or at least I did have that feeling until last night when I began trolling around the internet to find out more about Ebola than I'd been picking up from the news and all the fear-filled discussions with just about everybody I've had occasion to talk to.
       Here's what I found out:
        1. While Ebola is extremely infectious, in that it multiplies so greatly inside its host, it's not very contagious as viruses go. 
         2.  Ebola is not air-borne, you can't catch it like a cold or the flu, or from food or water or just from being around an infected person.  There's only one way to catch Ebola, and that's from direct contact with the bodily fluids of of an infected person.
          3.  Despite all the gossip, the chance of Ebola mutating into an air-borne virus is about zero.
          5.  Ebola is contagious only when the infected person has the symptoms.  So you can't catch Ebola from an infected person in the period before their symptoms show up.
          4.  A virus that is efficient at survival doesn't generally kill its host; it just hangs around in the host for a while, which gives the host the opportunity to come into contact with another hosts for the virus to jump to.  Ebola is not an efficient virus because it kills off its host, and kills it too quickly for the host to spread the virus around very much.
         6.  Because Ebola can only be spread by direct contact with the bodily fluids of a sick person and can't live long outside a host, it should be a fairly easy virus to contain.  It's virulence in Africa is due to the closeness with which people live and lack of health care in the big cities where the initial outbreaks began.

    And so my anxiety about an Ebola plague sweeping across the United States has been calmed, even though I know that only God who made all creatures great and microscopic and you, future archivist, know whether the United States ended up falling prey to the epidemic that has been so mercilessly afflicting our brothers and sisters in Africa.
    My fear has been replaced by the conviction that,  while we in the United States of course  need to be prepared for the arrival of Ebola in this country,  our nation needs to come together with every other nation and health organization on the planet to fight Ebola in Africa, its source .
    The United States is sending 3,000 troops to Liberia to provide support in battling the epidemic.          Finally a war I can condone.

References:
1.  "Scientists Rein In Fears of a Virus Whose Mysteries Tend To Invite Speculation", The New York Times, October 14, 2014
2.  "Five Reasons Why You Shouldn't Be Freaking Out About Catching Ebola,"  Jason Butler, Elite DAily, October 15, 2014
3.  "Ebola, The Dumb Virus", Chisom Ojukwu, March 29, 2014
4.  "The Hot Zone Questions, 21 Terms by mcrowley",  Quizlet, 2014
5. "U.S. Sending 3,000 Troops to Africa to Battle Ebola",  Military.com News, September 16, 2014

6.  610 WTVN news, October 15, 2014
       
   
 
   
   
   
    
   
   
   











2 Comments
Maria Reese
10/15/2014 05:41:03 am

Thanks for writing!! We are thinking along the same lines.....One thought though--"they" say it is not contagious, but now 2 nurses who have this same knowledge and were in suits/gloves/masks are sick in the most most advanced country on earth so I don't buy it!! I think it is more contagious than they are saying. But I am not sure what we can do about it, except that I am planning to get a couple of hazmat suits for the house before the price goes up too much.....

Reply
Patti
10/15/2014 10:35:17 am

Don't get hazmat suits, Honey, they pick up too many microbes. Get disposable paper gowns and gloves and masks. That's what the Ebola workers in Africa have worn for decades. And they dip their gloves in a bucket of bleach after treating patients, which the nurses in Dallas likewise didn't do. I'll send you a photo of what Claire's going to be wearing at Northwestern. Really, I wouldn't worry that much about ebola. I'd be more worried about the entero virus. Make sure those little princesses wash their hands all the time! Love, Mom

Reply



Leave a Reply.

    Picture
    "Hail Mary"
    by Patti Liszkay
    Buy it on Amazon:

    https://www.amzn.com/1684334888

    Picture
    "Equal And Opposite Reactions"
     by Patti Liszkay
    Buy it on Amazon:

    http://amzn.to/2xvcgRa
    or from
    The Book Loft
    of German Village,
    Columbus, Ohio
    Picture
    Or check it out at the Columbus Metropolitan Library
    Picture

    Archives

    February 2023
    January 2023
    December 2022
    November 2022
    October 2022
    September 2022
    August 2022
    July 2022
    June 2022
    May 2022
    April 2022
    March 2022
    February 2022
    January 2022
    December 2021
    November 2021
    October 2021
    September 2021
    August 2021
    July 2021
    June 2021
    May 2021
    April 2021
    March 2021
    February 2021
    January 2021
    December 2020
    November 2020
    October 2020
    September 2020
    August 2020
    July 2020
    June 2020
    May 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    January 2020
    December 2019
    November 2019
    October 2019
    September 2019
    August 2019
    July 2019
    June 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    July 2015
    June 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015
    February 2015
    January 2015
    December 2014
    November 2014
    October 2014
    September 2014
    August 2014
    July 2014
    June 2014
    May 2014
    April 2014
    March 2014
    February 2014
    January 2014
    December 2013

    RSS Feed

    I am a traveler just visiting this planet and reporting various and sundry observations,
    hopefully of interest to my fellow travelers.

    Categories

    All


























































































Proudly powered by Weebly