you guys worried about Ebola?

I am. Im in the ems profession.

I don't understand it enough to form an opinion. I've heard it is hard to spread, you pretty much have to be coughed directly on or ingest someone's fluids. I've heard it is a big issue in some areas of Africa because of living conditions and people not understanding what to do around sick people. So, I don't know if its something that could really sweep the nation or not. I'm definitely keeping a close eye on the news.

As much as I am for the rapture... Not at all.

There isn't a lot of a reason to worry.

It only spreads if you have symptoms and it takes up to 20 days to show symptoms. So if you know you've been exposed you can be isolated pretty easily and start receiving medical attention.

Just don't watch Contagion any time soon.

Not really, but if the way the case in Texas has been handled then maybe I should be.

come on! you can be the .02% of humanity that survives, and either sign up with cool guy Randall Flagg, or that boring goody two-shoes ninny Mother Abigail *scoffs*

The reason it spreads so rapidly in Africa is a combination of poor service infrastructure, lack of resources to deal with the issue, and a lack of proper hygiene practises. The infection rate has somewhat stabilized due to educating the public on how to reduce risk of infection and the incredible work of the WHO, but the cases will continue to rise unless the virus is isolated and contained. The worst case scenario is the blockading of countries. The western world has more than enough resources to prevent an ebola outbreak at home.

The security threat is in African countries becoming more destabalized which can lead to a myriad of political and economic disasters that will have a knock on effect for the rest of the world. If it spreads across the continent to countries with lithium mines and it begins to effect lithium stocks there is a very real threat of large scale wars. For generations mining companies have funded, raised, and torn dowm different political groups while wrestling for control of the lithium. Lithium is the most valuable resource on the planet, and Africa has quite a lot of it. It is used in almost every single electronic device you own, and vast quantities are bought by the military industrial complex. Lockheed's new fusion reactors will be using an isotope derived from lithium as part of its fuel source. Very bad things will happen if the supply is significantly disrupted.

I am not too worried about the western world. They have the resources to contain an outbreak. But if africa as a continent becomes destabalized even more than it already is in many places... it is really bad news. The rate of infection will dramatically spike from here out. The WHO has estimates ranging from 1 - 2 million cases by January. The international community needs to throw everything they can at this problem.

@ripelivejam: I am the garbage can man.

Honestly surprised they did not transport the original patient to a facility that is built to handle this type of infection (emory or nebraska medical center). Would have possiblly reduced the spread to health care workers.

I'm a paramedic, not worried. If they're coughing, don't be afraid to slap an n95 mask on them. It won't prevent your treatment, and they know as well as anyone that they're sick.

The short answer is: Yes. But maybe not for the reasons you may think.

Ebola is only contagious once it becomes symptomatic. Even then, transmission only occurs through contact between bodily fluids. It is for this reason that the primary way that people get Ebola is through being a health worker or being a caregiver of someone who is showing symptoms.

Should you be worried about being on flights? No. Airplanes have very good filtration systems and once again, Ebola can't go airborne.

Will a large Ebola outbreak ever happen in an industrialized country? No. Any country with strong and numerous healthcare institutions would be able to easily and effectively contain the spread of Ebola.

The reason why Ebola has killed thousands of people is because when Ebola cases began popping up in West Africa, many healthcare workers came in contact with these patients the same way they treated people with the flu, malaria, and many other common diseases that have similar symptoms. Couple this with the fact that countries like Liberia and Sierra Leone have weak governments and little to no healthcare/communication infrastructure - then you have the tragedy that is Ebola today. These countries are suffering from more than just a deadly infectious disease, they are going through social and political unrest - further hampering efforts to contain the outbreak.

Ebola is adding to the heightened anxiety and political instability of the world today - and it doesn't look like it's getting better any time soon.

@athadam: Excellent point. I tell anyone who will listen that Ebola isn't going to be an issue in the US (especially when Texas Presbyterian is shaken down by the CDC after their failures), but a lot of people are CONVINCED that it's airborne, that the CDC is lying (to what end?). It's another conspiracy theory that increasingly more people in the US are buying into. That is the threat ebola poses to the modernized world. Fear and paranoia can make mountains out of mole hills.

I'm definitely conscious/cautious about it, but I'm not a fucking nut job like some people are. And I don't really expect it to become a full blown outbreak. Every year/couple of years this shit happens. Mass hysteria over a virus a country like the united states can easily handle. No ones gonna give a shit come Christmas.

No, because A I don't live in West Africa and B I'm not a stupid idiot who freaks out at every pandemic. A vaccine that will likely see a very high success rate amongst human patients has already been synthesized. The FLU still does and will continue to kill a fuck ton more people every year than Ebola sorry bros.

Edit: As a correction I should say I'm not worried about myself or people in countries that are outside of the danger zone. I am concerned for those people who have already been effected, but because I have no real medical skills there is little I can do other than donate to MSF.

I am perpetually worried that humanity will never get its shit together enough to be able to unite, pool our vast resources, and actually stop these mostly avoidable tragedies. Am I, as a young(ish) healthy guy living in Philly, worried about actually contracting ebola... not at all.

With skeptical ignorance, divisiveness, rejection of science/reason, and fear of the unknown seeming to rapidly increase the world over, I'm far more afraid of mass psychogenic illness and its potential societal impacts than I am of any actual disease.

This video is very illuminating, if not simultaneously depressing. (and don't worry, it won't actually hurt... unless you think it will.) ;)

Well no. I live in Finland, we have some pretty darn incredible health care stuff and we use a shitload of disinfectant across all trades and professions. I'm more worried of dying over the common cold than I am Ebola.

Hasn't killed me for the last 30 years, I don't expect it will any time soon.

One of the guys I work with was on a plane with the second nurse to get it. Twice. Both leaving Dallas and then coming back a few days later. Pretty shitty luck.

The CDC had to come tell him and told him to keep monitoring his temperature.

No, I'm not at all concerned about ebola except in a general empathetic way towards those who have it.

Unless they were playing ooky mouth in the planes bathroom I doubt he has anything to be concerned about.

I'd feel more relaxed about it if nurses who have had direct contact with Ebola stopped getting on fuckingplanes.

I mean how dumb do you have to be? I sympathise with the poor lady, but geez.

no not really, unless someone who is infected starts peeing on random strangers in the street, we will probably be fine.

Not particularly worried, more pissed off when I hear of aid workers who go out to help and then come back before getting any kind of all clear.

If you're coming back you should probably have to be in isolation for a week or two first to be safe. No point risking spreading it to other countries if it can be avoided.

nope, i'm more worried about the Polio-like virus paralyzing kids across the country.

NHS for life, yo. Thing about the health workers boarding planes is, as the symptoms take 20 days to materialise, that's a big time frame to consider and makes it real difficult to judge when to leave. Reality is, most will want out of the country at the earliest possible time so they can get back home. If they are infected, they can get treated in a more equipped hospital with better quarantines and conditions, rather than stay put in West Africa where conditions allow it to be so rampant.

...Yes and no.

I actually live in Texas, not too far from Dallas, and intellectually I know that unless this disease starts spreading like wildfire and it becomes dangerous to even go out in public I have like almost zero chance of getting it.

On the other hand, the primitive and paranoid part of my brain screams every time someone forces me into a handshake so that part is scared.

Nah

I currently live in Korea and I'm blissfully ignorant about Ebola.

Not worrying now, but will when those numbers start to increase.

maybe a little bit. mostly just frustrated about the awfully unfair state of african health.

I am not exceptionally worried, as I don't live in Western Africa.

I do live near Dallas, TX though, and I was at that hospital right before the Ebola patient came. So, that's quite odd.

But my concern is focused on the larger issue of stemming the outbreak in Africa. It is an absolute disaster, and while I may not be personally in any danger where I live, that doesn't change just how many lives it is damaging in Africa. That is what worries me. Doctors Without Borders has bore the brunt of this struggle, and the governments of the world must take on this burden to put an end to the humanitarian disaster before it deepens even further.

Am I worried that I'll catch Ebola? No.

Am I worried that the world powers were content to sit back and let things go to hell in Africa, not lifting a finger until one of their own citizens got infected? Yes. Those first few weeks when things just got worse and worse and nobody outside of the WHO was doing anything were depressing.

not really. they're already working on a vaccine for it, so soon it'll be nonexistant in first world countries.

edit: World leaders don't have the ability to care for Africa's citizens. They haven't even solved all the problems in their own countries yet (homelessness etc). It's partially why nobody's really doing anything about N.Korea.

@hurricaneivan29: I don't think the mask is going to help as it's spread by bodily fluid. It's extremely problematic for ER/ED and clinics. We just had a case of someone coming back from Africa who had symptoms, we tested, everything was fine.

I don't know. The Onion's headline: "Experts: Ebola Vaccine At [sic] Least 50 White People Away." (I know it's satire).

Na, unless it became airborne somehow its not something that's just going to spread like smallpox or something, there already overplaying it on the news.

No.

Not really. I work in a hospital, so if a case turned up, there is a small chance I could be exposed to it.... but it's unlikely. And even if you get exposed to a patient with Ebola, you should be safe if you follow the safety rules in the Hospital and avoid contact with bodily secretions. Africa should be worried... but not people like me who live in Australia.

Not in the slightest, i work in IT in the middle of Glasgow, i am as far away from the outbreak as i could be and if for some reason it gets here i have 3 hospitals within an hour of this location.

Nope, not personally. It's very unlikely that it'll spread here in Norway. It can develop to be something truly awful in poorer African countries without a functional health care system though.

Just like everything else. Ebola's a 3rd world problem. No virus can spread far in 1st world countries nowadays, because if it kills the patient too quickly to spread, then it won't spread, and if it doesn't kill them quickly, then they can get to a hospital.

I'm not worried about a natural outbreak, no. We should have everything in place to be able to get out in front of it before it spreads.

What I am worried about - and welcome to crazy town, conspiracy street - is how desperate our government seems to be to rile us up. An Ebola epidemic would be a really surefire way to get the general public freaking out, so FEMA and Obama can swoop in and save the day.

I honestly don't believe that and hope it's not true, but it's got me paying attention to the news in a different way. It also doesn't help that everyone involved basically dropped the ball over and over again in the Texas situation.

To be fair, the CDC told her that was cool.

I feel like the USA is way to over confident at this point, I don't think there are many hospitals to deal with this.

well- i'm not worried about catching it, because ebola remains statistically a drop in the ocean compared to the other various ailments that kill thousands daily. but if it does get out into the general population in a significant way, i'm pretty much fucked as i work at a major nyc hospital and take 2 forms of mass transit everyday.

it is depressing though to see how manageable this thing should be, and how we (wealthy nations) are failing africa and failing at shutting it down in the USA.

to be honest man, i think this issue is more toxic than beneficial for obama. people who politicize this thing are out of their minds, but seeing as how the dallas response has been less-than-stellar, i think this can only (rightly or wrongly) hurt him. as soon as this thing got to US soil, it was radioactive for his administration. which is insane, because it was always destined to show up here.

i think the only ones that TRULY benefit from a freaked-out-on-virus population are Purell (and other big pharmas) and the daily news cycle (suddenly every outlet has a go-to story that plays on peoples ignorance and fear).

There are more people in the US who've died this year so far from being intentionally poisoned than from Ebola, so my plan is to catch Ebola to kill the inevitable assassins that are coming for me.

Well human beings are handling it so what could go wrong?
hah
Those stories out of Dallas are pretty concerning though.

As a virologist, there's currently little to no reason to fear Ebola anywhere outside of West Africa. Many salient points have already been brought up in this thread. The lack of proper use of personal protective equipment in Dallas is concerning, but the sequence of events that occurred there will no doubt help inform healthcare professionals around the world.

I'm afraid NOT to get Ebola. CNN and Fox News will talk about me all fucking day and I'll be famous.

I AM Ebola, the destroyer of worlds.

Nope, I'm not worried but I understand how people in medical and health services could be worried.

Right now the two infections in the US were from people who were caring for a man that was dying literally because he couldn't keep anything liquid inside his body. It wasn't the emergency room staff. It wasn't his girlfriend. It wasn't any of the people he ran into for days. It is easier to get SARS or Bird Flu or "Nerd Flu" than this.