Ebola.Should we be worried?

breakstuff

I was watching the news last night when one of my kids asked me if it would spread over here and how does it kill people.After putting his mind at ease by telling him were totally safe over here it got me thinking,given the recent events in the US and Spain should we be worried?

Are we getting the full facts from the media? Maybe they're blowing it up to deflect attention from other matters or maybe they're under playing it so as not to cause panic.They are telling us there's been around 4000 deaths in Western Africa but some people who have been to the region are reporting many,many more.

What happens if it gets so out of control in Africa that it will be impossible to contain?

I wouldn't say I was scared yet but I think the next six months could be very testing times.

Jalapeno

It's the start of the Zombie Apocalypse !

DiscoStu

Ebola? Pah.

It's Man Ebola you have to worry about.

Phil_aka_Pip

Once it's got loose it would be difficult to contain. We hope that the Spanish manage to contain theirs.

Although it is transmitted by physical contact (allegedly) I wouldn't like to say that you couldn't get it from someone who sneezes on you or coughs at you from close range (eg on a tightly packed bus or tube train carriage). Think of all the pubs, hotels, sandwich bars etc where low-paid staff handle food and may do so while feeling slightly off but not ill enough to stay away from work, then next week it turns out they're got ebola. In the meantime they've infected a lot of customers. The tiny wiggly things will have a field day.

Phil_aka_Pip

Jalapeno said:

It's the start of the Zombie Apocalypse !

Which of the 4 horsemen is it? Plague or Pestilence?

Drew_TNBD

Let me ask you a question: Do you play with blood and/or poo often??

VimFuego

the problem isn't ebola per se (though it is nasty) it's the knock on effects. Our healthcare system isn't designed to work when something major happens (local systems struggle even with contained events like major motorway incidents), if you all of a sudden have 100's of people turning up at A&E or their GPs with ebola like symptoms (and these are pretty non specific) then it places huge strain on the system. The care is (as I understand it) not particularly technical (seems to be keep the patient hydrated and clean) but the precautions the care givers have to take are onerous and time consuming. As we saw in Spain, even in a 1st world nation taking these precautions, things go wrong. You may have health care workers refusing to come into work. I personally don't think this is our dinosaur killer event, but it could play havoc with the economy (would you like to get on a crowded bus or train if you thought someone with ebola may be on there) and our healthcare system.

breakstuff

Drew_fx said:

Let me ask you a question: Do you play with blood and/or poo often??

One of my favourite pastimes. I get what you're saying Drew though.

Drew_TNBD

VimFuego said:

the problem isn't ebola per se (though it is nasty) it's the knock on effects. Our healthcare system isn't designed to work when something major happens (local systems struggle even with contained events like major motorway incidents), if you all of a sudden have 100's of people turning up at A&E or their GPs with ebola like symptoms (and these are pretty non specific) then it places huge strain on the system. The care is (as I understand it) not particularly technical (seems to be keep the patient hydrated and clean) but the precautions the care givers have to take are onerous and time consuming. As we saw in Spain, even in a 1st world nation taking these precautions, things go wrong. You may have health care workers refusing to come into work. I personally don't think this is our dinosaur killer event, but it could play havoc with the economy (would you like to get on a crowded bus or train if you thought someone with ebola may be on there) and our healthcare system.

You've been playing too much Theme Hospital.

VimFuego

not quite sure what that's even supposed to mean

Phil_aka_Pip

Drew_fx said:

Let me ask you a question: Do you play with blood and/or poo often??

Did the Africans who have already got it get it by playing with blood or poo?

frankus

no they were on the tube and someone coughed into their hand and then put their hand on the rail and two stops later a secretary got on who touched the bit with the lurgy and shazaam another African got Ebola.

Of course Africans don't play with poo or blood. Okay granted they don't have Transformers or Xbox to play with and families traditionally prepare and bury their own dead but all Africans know not to have cuts, poo or sweat if they're close to death from ebola... of course kids today don't have the same standards as they used to in other times... and their bowels slacken on death lettign out the bloody digested stomach and any poo as well - really it's the decline of society that's to blame... the older dead Africans I've known had concrete bumholes .. no chance of slipping a pinky up there.

Should we be worried - here's a really easy way of testing that: does being worried have any benefits?

RobDavies

We've got a brilliant record on border control so nothing to worry about, I'm sure.

equalsql

 

RobDavies said:

We've got a brilliant record on border control so nothing to worry about, I'm sure.

True... as long as you've got one of these:

TTony

frankus said:

Should we be worried - here's a really easy way of testing that: does being worried have any benefits?

Yes, obviously.

If being worried about the risks of catching Ebola stops just one person from going to Africa on a playing-with-blood-and-poo holiday, then being worried has had a benefit.

not_the_dj

Hazmat suits will be all the rage this winter 

:-SS

ICBM

Since Theresa May is in charge of the government department on the sharp end of stopping people with Ebola getting into the country, expect some pointless knee-jerk statements to show how strong and determined we are to defeat this menace, and then shortly afterwards we all die.

chillidoggy

Theresa May is hot.

Phil_aka_Pip

chillidoggy said:

Theresa May is hot.

She hasn't got red hair. Or do you know something I don't?

chillidoggy

No, but she's got the whole dominatrix thing going on. Well, in my fantasies, she has, anyway.

Drew_TNBD

She looks like a baddy from a comic book.