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July 31st, 2012
09:15 AM ET
Could the Ebola outbreak spread to the U.S.?Sixteen people have died so far from the Ebola outbreak that began earlier this month in Western Uganda. According to the World Health Organization, the first case is believed to be from the Nyanswiga village in Nyamarunda, a sub-county of the Kibaale district of Uganda. So far, 36 suspected cases have been reported, WHO spokesman Tariq Jasarevic said Tuesday. Nine of the deaths are reported to have occurred in one household; a health official who was treating one of the patients also died. Unfortunately family members and health officials - those caring for the already sickened - are the most likely to be infected as well. When was Ebola first discovered? The Ebola virus was first detected in 1976 in the central African nation of Zaire (now the Democratic Republic of the Congo). The virus is named after a river in that country, where the first outbreak of the disease was found. There are five species of Ebola viruses, all named after the areas they were found in: Zaire, Sudan, Cote d'Ivoire, Bundibugyo and Reston, according to the WHO. (There can be different strains of Ebola within each species). So far only the Reston species of Ebola has been found to infect humans and not cause serious illness or death. What are the symptoms of Ebola and is there a cure? Initial symptoms of Ebola can be mistaken for other illnesses like the flu because they can be very similar: sudden high fever, joint and muscle pain and sore throat. But Ebola victims then often get bloody diarrhea and/or start vomiting, followed by rashes, red eyes, and internal and external bleeding (bloody nose or gums). Early reports from this outbreak suggest more patients were suffering from vomiting and diarrhea than visible external bleeding. But health officials caution that information about this outbreak is still very scattered and the investigation has just begun. There is no treatment for Ebola and no vaccine. All doctors can do is provide patients with supportive care, like replenishing fluids and electrolytes, keeping their blood pressure and oxygen levels in check and treating any infections that might occur, according to the Centers for Disease Control. There's a lot that's not known about this disease, but researchers suspect that "patients who die usually have not developed a significant immune response to the virus at the time of death," according to a CDC fact sheet. How does it spread? Researchers do not know what the natural reservoir of the Ebola virus is. But they have found its cousin virus - Marburg, which also causes hemorrhagic fever - in fruit bats in Africa. While there are no known cases of a human being directly infected with Ebola by a bat, sources tell CNN, there are two documented cases of humans being infected with the Marburg virus after being in a cave full of fruit bats. However, researchers believe humans are infected either by handling of dead or alive infected animals (like chimpanzees, gorillas and forest antelopes), or by being in direct close contact with someone who is sick with or has already died from Ebola. The virus can be found in bodily fluids like blood, urine, diarrhea and saliva, so direct contact with these fluids from infected humans or animals, can lead to the transmission. People can also become infected by coming into contact bodily secretions found on needles, scalpels, soiled clothes and linens. Can Ebola be contained? Once an outbreak has been identified, the transmission of the virus can be prevented, if proper precautions are taken. Avoiding contact with body fluids from someone sickened with Ebola is key. That means wearing proper personal protection equipment like gloves, gowns, masks and eye protection. Hospitals will also set up isolation wards to isolate Ebola patients from other patients. Officials tell CNN that while those caring for the actively sick need to wear PPE (personal protection equipment), someone walking through a village where a patient was sick wouldn't need to wear a mask because the virus isn't airborne. Could this outbreak spread to the U.S. or other distant countries? Experts think it's unlikely the current outbreak would spread to the United States. While the only example of transmission of Ebola in the United States came with the importation of research monkeys (no humans were sickened), there was a situation four years ago where two tourists traveling in Uganda were infected with Marburg hemorrhagic fever. Both patients returned to their home countries, according to the CDC. One survived and the other died, but nobody else was infected because proper protections were taken during treatment. When is an outbreak considered 'finished'? The incubation period for Ebola is two to 21 days, according to the WHO. Health officials tell CNN an outbreak is considered to be over following two incubation periods after the last person becomes ill - a total of 42 days.
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Ebola is pretty virulent, but it knocks you down so fast that it's difficult to spread it very far. Influenza is a much more accomplished killer.
That's because except for Reston most forms of ebola are not aerosolized, where the flu is. And there have been forms of the flu that were hemoragic, while most aren't.
URBAN EBOLA WILL BE UNSTOPPABLE.
KAMPALA HAS OPEN SEWERS
IT WILL SPREAD LIKE CHOLERA BUT WITH A 90+ % FATALITY RATE DUE TO SUPPORT SYSTEMS BEING OVERWHELMED BY NUMBERS OF PATIENTS.
IF YOU BELIEVE IN GOD, PRAY. IF YOU DON'T BELIEVE IN GOD, START BELIEVING.
What good advice... everyone should believe in a God that has created ebola.
Charles, you're very paranoid. There are Epidemiologists far more capable than all our heads combined, who are identifying all potential threats in this situation. I doubt that a man named Charles who comments on CNN website is the only intelligible person to figure out the whole "open sewer" idea. The health workers are very aware of the sewer systems in Kampala as they have dealt with Ebola in this area and many other for the past several decades. The only SAVIOR in this situation is containment and educating people in and around the area to stave off the propulsion of the virus. Education and Containment have continuously been saviors in Ebola outbreaks, not divine intervention. I say you stop watching Outbreak the movie and read an epidemiology book. You sound curious enough to be able to find real answers. I get the concern, but this isn't a hollywood movie, it's real life. We don't need to be on our knees praying, we need to get educated and support the individuals fighting on the front lines of a disease outbreak like Ebola. There are good people risking their lives to contain this disease and only with support, meaning money, will they be able to do their jobs correctly and reduce risk of infection.
Hardly spreads in backwards Africa, so why would it spread in USA.
Because your healthcare is one of the most backwards in the whole world. Get over yourselves americans.
Thats why people who can afford it travel to the USA for their own healthcare right? Get a clue, it's not about quality of healthcare, its about affordability of healthcare..
Because if voter suppression doesn't work the GOP would have to recur to 'other' means.
Disease isn't political. It could spread more rapidly in the US than remote parts of Africa because of denser populations. If an infected person were to travel to populous areas the risks increase. It may not be airborne, but it is still dangerous if not contained.
i argee with you we wont
STFU with the politics in here. This story has got absolutely nothing to do with it.
CNN is hoping and praying the virus would spread to the US. What a story that would make. I'm surprised they don't send some dumb intern to Africa to contract it and bring it back to the US on purpose just for the headline.
Cynical much? What a dumb thing to write!
Hillary Clinton is in Uganda. I think I would have postponed my trip
One comment says "Hardly spreads in backwards Africa, so why would it spread in USA." The response to that is that there is better and quicker travel here. That helps a disease spread. In places where there is less travel, disease spreads more slowly and may burn out before it has the opportunity to infect large numbers. So, being "backwards" is actually better in terms of the spread of an untreatable virus.
The telephone brought with it an unforeseen drawback: it's a principal spreader of many contagious viruses. The telephone has been linked with the flu epidemic of 1918. Our modernized world now also has other gadgets that can transfer miniscule amounts of body fluid between people, such as computer keyboards, remote controls, ATM's/POS machines, and gas pumps, to name just a few. Additionally, enclosed ventilation systems (such as in buildings, trains/subways, buses and airplanes) are ideal for airborne viruses. With all these possible means of transmission, and given that viruses are often contagious even before symptoms show up (making confinement impossible), our world is really an epidemic of something waiting to happen.
Ebola is not airbone. you have to get in contact with fluids. There are lot more disease which are dangerous for the US.
There are undoubtably people who will not catch Ebola – biochemistry not agreeable to the virus.Epidemics of Bubonic plague probably stopped, because it killed all who would catch it and die within a day of symptons starting.. (17th cent.). Syphilis evolved into a more chronic form because it took all those who died within weeks,not decades.
Ebola would not spread very far in the United States due to our medical practices including hand washing, and when there is an unknown illness, wearing gloves and often a mask by a healthcare professional. We also don't share medical equipment without putting it through an autoclave.
The writer is probably incorrect regarding there being no treatment. As I recall, there was an unintentional exposure to Marburg in a laboratory a few years ago. The lab worker was administered interferon and survived. As Marburg and Ebola are both filoviruses, there is a real possibility that interferon would work when given shortly after exposure.
There was a member of the CDC that thought he got infected by a dirty needle stick while treating a patient in africa. He went back to his tent gave himself an experimental treatment, and drank a bottle of 12 year old scotch. He didn't come down with ebola, and said that 12 year old scotch is the cure. I read it in Richard Preston's book The Hot Zone.
^^ Ok, that's a bit of a stretch don't ya think?
@ powersoak
A Pox on thee! A Plague on both your houses! Um... you do know I mean suetffd toys, don't you?A friend whose initials were VD used to refer to VD (not herself, of course) as "the gift that keeps on giving." Maybe these toys are what she had in mind.
I agree with Mabel. It is so lethal it doesn't have time to spread and infect others. If the virus ever mutates and learns to kill slowly, and/or becomes airborne transmissible, watch out.
Ebola Reston is airborne, and so far, the only version of the string viruses that is airborne. Luckily for us, this virus that made it to the U.S. sickened and proved fatal only to monkeys and not humans, although humans were infected with it. You've heard the expression "dodged a bullet"? This was more like dodging a nuclear weapon.
not surprised when it comes from a crowd of squatters livin an eating where they crap and carlessly throw trash. another example of over population of an area that cant sustain its filth drive thru pittsburgh an most other inner city nieghborhoods. it wont be long before it spreads here or some strain similar comes about. thanks alot Abe lincoln.
Scott, in just a few short sentences you have shown that you are both incredibly misinformed and incredibly racist, not to mention lacking in basic grammar skills. Way to go!
Wow, Scott... racist much?
Sheeesh..........
Oh dear Scott, your sister didn't breast feed you this morning did she?
Scott! Love you in that band, End Apathy!
Moron.
Any relatively new disease such as this one has the potential to spread unreported. And with no "significant immune response to the virus", this disease could become a very large silent killer.
It's gestation is quick and kills quickly reducing the chance of it spreading. The problem stated in the article is that the change or hiding of symptoms in this case may make isolating the victims more difficult which could lead to a greater spread of the disease.
"Could the Ebola outbreak spread to the U.S.?" Yes, it could, if we don't do a better job of health screening for African immigrants.
Health screening. That's funny, considering our "open border" policy to the south...
My Space for family and freinds. I can`t figure Twitter out. I got an account once and couldn`t figure out why I would want to know where people thousands of miles away were going to dinner much receive pictures. Even more puzzling was why they would want that info on me! I couldn`t get off fast enough!
Another possible 'gift' from Africa....like AIDS
I believe you have that backwards since AIDS was a gift from whites to Africans. Sort of like syphillis which was given to Blacks in this country, Some of you racist whites need to give it up since daily it is proven just how racist whites are. Not all whites! Just the illiterates
This is for lib; how about chimpanzees of the subspecies Pan troglodytes troglodytes, which lives in the forests of the Central African nations of Cameroon, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, Republic of Congo (or Congo-Brazzaville), and Central African Republic as the origin of HIV/AIDS etc.
Lib...we didn't give you AIDS or Syph...but thanks for playing, dumba$$. I wonder what kind of diseases we could identify by studying you.
That's not nice. Million people sick. That could happen anywhere. That could happen to us million people in danger children , adults, elderly people. Sounds un hearted. They are all human beings. We could get it before them and that doesn't mean that thanks to us we have a new disease. God Bless All Of Them and Us.
Nice comment Kevin. LOL
That's not nice POD. You can not laugh at that. People in disgrace. it s not a joke. A lot of innocent people and children dying. It could be us. Lord have mercy on them and us.
That's just ignorance. When we grow up we develop a different point of view as we mature.
I just watched "Contagion" this weekend. Now I freak out when one of my coworkers sneeze.
I Fear that the main possibility of transmission of the virus is these villagers having sex, also known as beastiality. This is the most dangerous of STDs, and when these brutes have intercourse, they are endangering there already fragile health
Oh my. Ignorant, racist, poor grammar skills, lacking basic biology knowledge. Let me guess, Dianne, you are neither a Mensa student, nor even a high school graduate.
You are white, poor, had kids before age 20, and an avid church goer.
So, how close am I?
The 'hunter' theory (look it up):
The most commonly accepted theory is that of the 'hunter'. In this scenario, SIVcpz was transferred to humans as a result of chimps being killed and eaten or their blood getting into cuts or wounds on the hunter. Normally the hunter's body would have fought off SIV, but on a few occasions it adapted itself within its new human host and became HIV-1. The fact that there were several different early strains of HIV, each with a slightly different genetic make-up (the most common of which was HIV-1 group M), would support this theory: every time it passed from a chimpanzee to a man, it would have developed in a slightly different way within his body, and thus produced a slightly different strain.
“Retroviral transfer from primates to hunters is still occurring even today”
An article published in The Lancet in 20044 , also shows how retroviral transfer from primates to hunters is still occurring even today. In a sample of 1099 individuals in Cameroon , they discovered ten (1%) were infected with SFV (Simian Foamy Virus), an illness which, like SIV, was previously thought only to infect primates. All these infections were believed to have been acquired through the butchering and consumption of monkey and ape meat. Discoveries such as this have led to calls for an outright ban on bushmeat hunting to prevent simian viruses being passed to humans
yes Todd, you are the picture of perfection...NOT! back to your bathhouse
having sex is bestiality? please tell me Dia -Rhea
I thought that was pretty funny. Nice one.
Humor takes the edge off.
String viruses take a couple of days before the infected person realizes the symptoms aren't the flu. All it would take would be a health care worker being exposed and getting on an airplane to a major city before they realize what they have. An outbreak of Ebola loses virulence with each transmission from person to person, and seems to burn out after just so many transmissions. In the African bush it can wipe out a community of a couple of hundred people because there isn't a high number of people concentrated in the area. In a place like New York City, instead of one infected person infecting three people, one infected person could and probably would infect hundreds of people and they in turn infect thousands. The resulting disaster would be unlike anything since the Black Death.
The spread of the disease has to do with race – the human race, which is generally disgusting, and when a human is sick, they cough all over everyone else! Please, cover your mouth with your arm, not your hand!, before you cough or sneeze, and wash your hands! Humans, quit being disgusting, and everyone will be a little bit healthier. Americans are just as disgusting as people in Africa. Quit stereotyping. We're all gross.
PRESS RELEASE
July 19, 2012, 8:31 a.m. EDT
Sarepta's Ebola Virus Drug Shows Survival in Primates Despite Delayed Treatment
Drug Shows 100% and 83% Survival When Administered 48-Hours and 96-Hours Post-Infection
Ebola and Marburg do not kill so quickly as to have kept them from appearing in the US at Reston and in Germany at Marburg and other non-african nations. The big deal would come from an airborne mutation. At the animal holding facility in Reston, Virginia the ebola did in fact mutate into an airborne form, but with the mutation it also became more selective in what it killed – in the Reston case all the monkeys in the facility died and yet those humans exposed and infected showed little ill effect. This strain is called Ebola Reston.
If it does spread here, and you refuse to get mandated health insurance because it infringes on your "rights", you should be denied access to assistance.
VINCE: [off-topic perhaps] What if, instead of insurance money, one's own (out-of-pocket) money is used to pay for treatment?
Another one of God's practical jokes on humans.
Yes, God does have a sense of humor. Just like when the Mets won the World Series.
Thankfully the virus kills so fast that is really has no chance to spread far and wide. Currently the virus burns itself out fast that it won't hit the US, that is until it mutates one day.
This mutation seems to kill slower. If it does that it can mutate and if the victim has a cold or flu could become airborne 🙁
And then zombies.
If this ever mutates and develops an ability to be spread airborne like the flu, we will look like the movie Contagion.
Ban travel out of the region until the outbreak quells. EBOLA would spread like wildfire in an area with modern transportation, people would spread it everywhere.
Read "The Coming Plague: Newly Emerging Diseases in a World Out of Balance". It was written in 1995 and is an interesting read.
Could Ebola spread to the U.S.? sure. Could CNN spread propaganda on Ebola faster? YOU BET!
Order is the dream of man whereas chaos is the law of the universe. This certainly leads one to believe that humans feel they will be in control in perpetuity, but the reality is that nature has the last word. If something can go wrong, it will.
The culture in America would propmote such a crisis. Not only can we travel great distances in short times but even when we do get ick and we know it, we still feel obligated to go to work. Miss a day of work and get blacklisted. I see it in my office all the time. A guy in the back will come in hacking up a lung and before you know it half the office is sick. We aren't nearly as smart as we like to think...
Yes it Can if you keep letting jungle people into our country.
EBOLA has already spread to US. We call it the TEA PARTY.
Got that wrong, it called the Democratic Party.
UH OH, I think I hear Blue Oyster Cult.
Some good Ebola outbreak books include:
The Hot Zone by Richard Preston
The Cobra Event by Richard Preston (may not be Ebola, but similar type story)
Executive Orders (sequel to Debt of Honor for plot continuity) by Tom Clancy
Rainbow Six by Tom Clancy
I beleive one of the main reasons why it hasn't spread so much is that most outbreaks were in small villiages. However in this instance there was someone with a confirmed case in the capital of Kampur.... In 21 days who knows where this virus will be.....
Try getting into a buisenss school may be terrible, and you’re not even guaranteed a place in the consultant checked out you while your diploma. The statistics are alarming: Wall Street has lost 34,000 jobs, and that four percent of MBA graduates to highschool job security consulting buisenss last year (from twenty to four percent five years ago). but to establish a buisenss school of the first order that you might over-sized elevator to succeed in the summit itself.
Why not Marburg virus a related virus of Ebola was found in the German cities Marburg and Frankfurt and the Yugoslavian capital Belgrade in the 1960s.
I can't imaging the mnmeot you realise you've got an ebola laden needly sticking out of your thumb.Actually, I can imagine. But I won't repeat the words which would flow freely from my mouth.
Incompetence,corruption that has affected allthe healthcare services in the country exposed. Ugandans have been looting timber , minerals from the Congo un abeited and millions of people have died and suffered because oftheir selfish actions. I with ebolawouldstart killing all african dictators and their accomplices. Ebola, should spare the inocent and go after the big heads who have benefitted from th emisery of the congolese people. Good luck africa!
one things for sure,were all going to die one day. you can'nt run from it.and it will also be cold in february.
The only way to stop it from spreading is to kill it with fire before it spreads! http://outbreaks.globalincidentmap.com/home.php
just keep those people where they are and we"ll be just fine
Sounds like the movie Outbreak is coming to life!
Poi tutto il suo corpo, egli 猫 stato buttato volando.
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Be advised this is when the thinning of the herd begins. with all there so called safety measures in place the virus is going to get out. thru human error or a not to stable CDC worker or tech. Money for a potiental bioweapon on U.S. soil is going to be way to tempting for somebody. its bad enough the U.S. has this virus in various labs around the country for so called studys. I can go on about all the different ways this is going to south 0pen your eyes.
Though this article is two years old, from an outbreak of ebola in Uganda, the information is still largely current. The exception, of course, is that now we have a huge outbreak in West Africa, demonstrating that ebola spreads more easily than perhaps originally thought. Still, close contact with the sick seems to be required for transmission of the ebola virus. For the first time, air traffic is being restricted, and health inspections are made mandatory for those traveling in W. Africa, since scientists now know that those afflicted with the ebola virus can be contagious for three weeks before showing symptoms, and up to seven weeks after symptoms abate (assuming the patient survives). Mortality rates in W. Africa are above 50% overall.
The U.S. has opted to bring two aid workers with active ebola virus back to the U.S. for medical care and treatment in e special isolation ward at Emory U in Atlanta. It will be only the 2nd time active ebola virus exists in the U.S. (outside a secure CDC facility) and the 1st time in humans. Still, it is felt the doctor and health worker affected have a better chance of survival here than in Sierra Leone. A part of my mind sees this as a rational decision, while the rest of my mind screams, "No! Contain the virus locally no matter what the cost..." That is, however, irrational, as the outbreak has already claimed one of the leading experts on hemorrhagic fevers. The world needs to do whatever possible to interrupt this outbreak, support the affected, and help the region recover from this - in the hope that it will not happen again and again and again.
There have been several reports this has become an airborn virus it has mutated and in a lot of places there has been talk about over population as well as population control look at the times we are in in the u.s. at this time. Less population would mean more homes for those who are homeless at this time, more jobs, for the jobless at this time, less gov. assis such as ss, disabil., foodstamps, medicare, would something like this getting out be a plus to our government of course it would, has our government ever told us the truth about anything, of course they have not. Up to you what your thoughts are but I am being prepared for it staying out of large cities and keeping in touch with family and friends to see what they know for sure not what a news caster or our gov. wants us to hear.
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