Ebola

[Phobia]

Re: Ebola

But it can take up to 21 days for symptoms to appear. So if we wait for someone to show signs of Ebola, before putting them in quarantine, it could be too late.

Look, there is no "right" answer to this question or "right" way of handling this. And I understand that there are other diseases that are out there that are just as scary/deadly, if not more. But, we have a way of "controlling" this disease to an extent, so why no do so to prevent something terrible from happening???

.02

"Could" can be used literally everyday, every hour, and about everything. There "could" be a terrorist attack so we should we avoid tall buildings, there "could" be a biological/chemical attack so we should all go get gas masks of some sort, yadda yadda blah blah blah. The fact remains we can't act like over protective parents and play the what if game. We have to be logical and logically speaking we have done a FANTASTIC job with the current protocols.

Quarantining someone based on "maybe" is on par with not letting your kid ever drive a car because they "maybe" could kill them self or someone else. What about not letting someone buy a crock pot because "maybe" they could make a bomb. Currently the examples I mentioned have all done more damage than ebola and no one is begging to ban "possible" bomb making materials.

Sure the references I'm connecting this with are far from exact matches. I mean we are talking about a spreadable disease. I'm just trying to show the relation between fear and your freedoms. Fear is directly affecting these peoples freedoms based on a maybe.

I'm trying very hard to dodge the political side of this. I'll end with, it is a lot deeper than just stopping a disease. We are MERICA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[countryboy]

Re: Ebola

Read what I said again.

I did. But what I'm saying is that they may not show symptoms immediately. Therefore, I could see the argument for quarantining people that come back from treating infected patients.

[Fresh Tendrils]

Re: Ebola

I did. But what I'm saying is that they may not show symptoms immediately. Therefore, I could see the argument for quarantining people that come back from treating infected patients.

Not showing symptoms means you're not contagious.

[Brandon13]

Re: Ebola

Not showing symptoms means you're not contagious.

And we have the means to continually test and monitor the individual to ensure that they are remaining free of the virus and asymptomatic, and thus, not contagious.

[countryboy]

Re: Ebola

Not showing symptoms means you're not contagious.

Then why would the CDC say symptoms may not appear for 2-21 days?

[Brandon13]

Re: Ebola

Then why would the CDC say symptoms may not appear for 2-21 days?

Because that is the time period in which an infected individual would begin to display symptoms. Say an individual tests negative for the virus on day seven but develops the virus on day ten.

He could not possibly be contagious then until after the virus became detectable and he became symptomatic, sometime well after days 2-9.

[Burns11]

Re: Ebola

Then why would the CDC say symptoms may not appear for 2-21 days?

You can carry an infection without being contagious, ebola is only contagious if you are having symptoms. So for 2-21 days you can have ebola in you, just hanging out, you can't give it to anybody else and you have no symptoms.

[countryboy]

Re: Ebola

You can carry an infection without being contagious, ebola is only contagious if you are having symptoms. So for 2-21 days you can have ebola in you, just hanging out, you can't give it to anybody else and you have no symptoms.

I was asking a legit question, so not sure why the gif...

Anyways, legit question, so in those 2-21 days that you are carrying the virus, at anytime the symptoms could appear and you could be contagious???

I'm asking to understand not for arguments sake

[Fresh Tendrils]

Re: Ebola

You can be a carrier, but if aren't showing any symptoms then you aren't contagious and you won't test positive for Ebola.

[Brandon13]

Re: Ebola

Then why would the CDC say symptoms may not appear for 2-21 days?

You can be a carrier, but if aren't showing any symptoms then you aren't contagious and you won't test positive for Ebola.

There is actually a test available called the RT-PCR that can detect the virus in an individual's system up to two days prior to them displaying symptoms.

[BurghFan]

Re: Ebola

Then why would the CDC say symptoms may not appear for 2-21 days?

I was asking a legit question, so not sure why the gif...

Anyways, legit question, so in those 2-21 days that you are carrying the virus, at anytime the symptoms could appear and you could be contagious???

I'm asking to understand not for arguments sake

2-21 days is the incubation period for the virus meaning the amount of time needed for the virus to replicate to sufficient levels as to overwhelm the body's defenses and begin causing symptoms. Before the onset of symptoms, the virus will mostly be replicating within cells and either not present in bodily fluids or present at levels that are too low to pose a risk of transmission from casual contact.

There is actually a test available called the RT-PCR that can detect the virus in an individual's system up to two days prior to them displaying symptoms

To clarify, RT-PCR is actually a technique commonly used in laboratories to amplify nucleic acids (DNA, RNA) and not a specific test. Without going into too much detail, RT-PCR will selectively replicate viral RNA (the ebola virus uses RNA as its genetic material rather than DNA) without replicating the many host RNAs that will also be present in the blood sample. In this way, the amount of viral RNA can be amplified to a level such that it can reliably picked out and detected through one of several different techniques.

[wwharton]

Re: Ebola

So weird seeing Maine in the news like this. I was born in and currently reside in Bangor, and some people have been seriously freaking out about the whole situation, even though Fort Kent isn't really THAT close. Kind of surreal.

I'll keep my opinions on the matter to myself, but this story has been a big deal around here the last couple weeks.

I respect your desire to stay out of the pissing match, but it'd be great if you said more about the climate out there.

I think everyone is posting about fear of different levels of "what if" we were in a situation like that. Is being over informed helping people realize it's not as big of an issue as they may have otherwise thought? Are the people that may have otherwise argued that the risk isn't that big, now sweating a little more having this happen so close to home?

We've had people brought to us in Maryland, and it doesn't feel like many have even raised an eye brow. I'm sure it's a different feeling down in Texas.

[Cusefan]

Re: Ebola

Fear makes people act really dumb, dumb decisions are being made that will negatively affect how Americans can combat Ebola. The biggest weapon the US has against this disease are the brave medical personal that will go to Africa and treat people, when you make it difficult for them to return to a "normal" life stateside then less will enlist.

I understand monitoring people coming to the USA from Ebola effected countries but mandatory quarantine for doctors and nurses is insanity. I also find it utterly insane that people are essentially being told to quarantine themselves if they have been anywhere in Africa, even if they are 5000 miles away from any Ebola case.

[Steven78]

Re: Ebola

http://gawker.com/teacher-quits-ebola-fearing-school-demanding-isolation-1654408195

[Kearnzo]

Re: Ebola

I respect your desire to stay out of the pissing match, but it'd be great if you said more about the climate out there.

I think everyone is posting about fear of different levels of "what if" we were in a situation like that. Is being over informed helping people realize it's not as big of an issue as they may have otherwise thought? Are the people that may have otherwise argued that the risk isn't that big, now sweating a little more having this happen so close to home?

We've had people brought to us in Maryland, and it doesn't feel like many have even raised an eye brow. I'm sure it's a different feeling down in Texas.

Honestly, I think the response has been a little crazier than it would be elsewhere just due to the fact that nothing major really happens in Maine. At first people were freaking out, but that's died down a bit. Partially due to the elections I assume.

But yeah, the story was the lead on every local news program for over a week. It's still being covered, but not to the degree it was before.