Posted for fair use and discussion.
http://www.thebigwobble.org/2015/01...4-and-what-we-might.html?utm_source=BP_recent
Monday, 5 January 2015
Ebola in numbers 2014 and what we might expect for 2015
"A group of children playing near a tree nesting site for infected bats is to blame for the worst Ebola outbreak in history, a study has suggested.
Published in EMBO Molecular Medicine, experts have said the most likely culprit for the Ebola outbreak, which has currently led to 7,904 deaths, are free-tailed bats – not fruit bats as had previously been believed.
Transmission occurs from bites and scratches, and contact with bodily fluids, tissue, and excrement. On 26 December 2013, Ebola was identified in Emile Ouamouno, a toddler from the remote Guinean village of Meliandou."
On March 14th 2014 what was thought to be a new disease was reported in district of Macenta in Guinea, killing 8 people with several others contaminated.
Symptoms "manifested by anal and nasal bleeding." Seemed at the time to resemble Lassa Fever.
By March 22nd it had spread from Guinea to Sierra Leone killing 59 people and the disease was announced as Ebola.
After a rapid fire increase in cases since March 2014 and an explosion of deaths, injecting fear all around the world the Ebola virus appeared to slow down in November and it tended to drop out of the spotlight, however in December the virus accelerated again and is once again causing panic among experts!
In a disturbing twist: Reports that Islamic State militants in Mosul have contracted Ebola swirled though Iraqi media sources last Wednesday reported here.
World Health Organization officials said they haven't confirmed the cases, but the organization has reached out to offer assistance.
Three outlets reported that Ebola showed up at a hospital in Mosul, a city 250 miles north of Baghdad that's been under ISIS control since June 2014.
The reports, however, have perpetuated mostly in pro-government and Kurdish media.
"We have no official notification from [the Iraqi government] that it is Ebola," Christy Feig, WHO's director of communications told Mashable.
Feig added that WHO is in the process of reaching out to government officials in Iraq to see if they need help investigating the cases, a task that could be a challenge, given the restrictions that would come with operating in ISIS-controlled territory.
It's unclear if any disease experts or doctors in Mosul are even able to test for the Ebola virus.
A Kurdish official, who was convinced the cases are Ebola, told the Kurdish media outlet Xendan that the militants' symptoms were similar to those of the Ebola virus.
However, Ebola symptoms -- nausea and vomiting, diarrhoea, bleeding and bruising -- are also similar to those associated with a number of other diseases, including malaria,
Lassa fever, yellow fever viruses and the Marburg virus.
If ISIS members have the virus a global pandemic has to be a possibility, it would be used as a biological weapon against the West and with little or no border control in Europe and an almost non existent border between the US and Mexico this scenario doesn't bare thinking about.
As we move on into 2015, Avian Flu, the deadly virus is on the rise.. killing humans, thousands of seals, hundreds of thousands of birds!
With the culling of hundreds of thousands of birds in the UK, Holland Germany and Italy in November and China Korea the US and Canada in December, the avian flu threat has not gone away, it is increasing and has experts worried who say it is not if, the virus will mutate and strike but rather, when!
Gary Walton
2014 Ebola outbreaks
Related
http://www.thebigwobble.org/2015/01...4-and-what-we-might.html?utm_source=BP_recent
Monday, 5 January 2015
Ebola in numbers 2014 and what we might expect for 2015
"A group of children playing near a tree nesting site for infected bats is to blame for the worst Ebola outbreak in history, a study has suggested.
Published in EMBO Molecular Medicine, experts have said the most likely culprit for the Ebola outbreak, which has currently led to 7,904 deaths, are free-tailed bats – not fruit bats as had previously been believed.
Transmission occurs from bites and scratches, and contact with bodily fluids, tissue, and excrement. On 26 December 2013, Ebola was identified in Emile Ouamouno, a toddler from the remote Guinean village of Meliandou."
On March 14th 2014 what was thought to be a new disease was reported in district of Macenta in Guinea, killing 8 people with several others contaminated.
Symptoms "manifested by anal and nasal bleeding." Seemed at the time to resemble Lassa Fever.
By March 22nd it had spread from Guinea to Sierra Leone killing 59 people and the disease was announced as Ebola.
After a rapid fire increase in cases since March 2014 and an explosion of deaths, injecting fear all around the world the Ebola virus appeared to slow down in November and it tended to drop out of the spotlight, however in December the virus accelerated again and is once again causing panic among experts!
In a disturbing twist: Reports that Islamic State militants in Mosul have contracted Ebola swirled though Iraqi media sources last Wednesday reported here.
World Health Organization officials said they haven't confirmed the cases, but the organization has reached out to offer assistance.
Three outlets reported that Ebola showed up at a hospital in Mosul, a city 250 miles north of Baghdad that's been under ISIS control since June 2014.
The reports, however, have perpetuated mostly in pro-government and Kurdish media.
"We have no official notification from [the Iraqi government] that it is Ebola," Christy Feig, WHO's director of communications told Mashable.
Feig added that WHO is in the process of reaching out to government officials in Iraq to see if they need help investigating the cases, a task that could be a challenge, given the restrictions that would come with operating in ISIS-controlled territory.
It's unclear if any disease experts or doctors in Mosul are even able to test for the Ebola virus.
A Kurdish official, who was convinced the cases are Ebola, told the Kurdish media outlet Xendan that the militants' symptoms were similar to those of the Ebola virus.
However, Ebola symptoms -- nausea and vomiting, diarrhoea, bleeding and bruising -- are also similar to those associated with a number of other diseases, including malaria,
Lassa fever, yellow fever viruses and the Marburg virus.
If ISIS members have the virus a global pandemic has to be a possibility, it would be used as a biological weapon against the West and with little or no border control in Europe and an almost non existent border between the US and Mexico this scenario doesn't bare thinking about.
As we move on into 2015, Avian Flu, the deadly virus is on the rise.. killing humans, thousands of seals, hundreds of thousands of birds!
With the culling of hundreds of thousands of birds in the UK, Holland Germany and Italy in November and China Korea the US and Canada in December, the avian flu threat has not gone away, it is increasing and has experts worried who say it is not if, the virus will mutate and strike but rather, when!
Gary Walton
2014 Ebola outbreaks
Related