Post: #26

(07-02-2014 11:34 PM)rekruler Wrote:  

(07-02-2014 07:53 PM)Mentavious Wrote:  There are 4 stages of Biosafety Level when it comes to research labs/hospitals

Level 1.
Your basic college or hospital is at this stage. Dealing with non-pathologic bacteria and some viruses. For those who took mid level biology classes in college this is basically it. For some who did not this all hospitals are at this level. These infections have a cure and are very hard to contract via respiration.

Level 2.
Include small pox, many of the sexual transmitted diseases, the cold virus, and some others that can still be cured. Again..most are hard to contact via respiration. Test are done in a vacuumed hood.

Level 3
A big step up between Level 2 and 3 exist. Mostly because these diseases can directly lead to human death but a cure does exist for them. SARS, West Nile, Yellow Fever, Rabies are some to be named. These are the labs you see in movies where the scientist work in protective gear.

Level 4.
Another big jump. Remember the movie Outbreak (for those in America) with Dennis Hoffman. Many of these viruses can be contracted via respiration, so therefore a suit with an independent oxygen system is needed. Many of these diseases have no cure and the majority of them are fatal. There are only a handful of these and many work with just one agent. Ebola and many other hemorragic diseases are included in this group.

Here in the US it really has not been talked about. As Vicious has stated the fatality rate can be 50% but can go as high as 90% depending on the strain. You'll find that the newest strains are more deadly then others. It's a virus that causes hemorrhaging from all parts of the bodies. This include the lungs and other important body parts. Most people die due to dehydration caused by the destruction of the gastric and renal systems. There in lies the viruses best attack, the bleeding the virus causes is extreme. 90 percent of hospitals are not trained to handle such a deadly disease (Let alone Africa) so that is why you hear many health officials getting sick and transmitting the disease.

Fortunately or unfortunately, it does kill very quickly, spreading the disease needs direct contact, ingestion of fluids, and the incubation period is very quick.

I just hope they can find a way to contain this virus and hopefully it will extinguish itself.

Dude, the smallpox is definitely NOT handled by Level 2 facilities, in fact it's not handled at all. It's a lethal, highly infectious disease that has been completely eradicated decades ago, meaning there is absolutely no resistance to it among the current world population. This is the shit that wiped out the Native Americans, except that in this day and age the whole world is Native American. The smallpox virus exists in only two locations: a lab in the US and one in Russia. These labs are, if anything, Level 4s on steroids.

The Ebola is some epic shit. It's basically a Hollywood disease, a virus that kills in such an inexorable and brutal way that you'd think it was created by a highly imaginative screenplay writer rather than nature. The whole family of hemorrhagic fevers is pretty damn fascinating. The names are epic too: Ebola, the Marburg Virus, Lassa Fever, etc.

Good catch, replace that with measles.

Post: #27

(07-03-2014 06:10 AM)Mentavious Wrote:  

(07-02-2014 11:34 PM)rekruler Wrote:  

(07-02-2014 07:53 PM)Mentavious Wrote:  There are 4 stages of Biosafety Level when it comes to research labs/hospitals

Level 1.
Your basic college or hospital is at this stage. Dealing with non-pathologic bacteria and some viruses. For those who took mid level biology classes in college this is basically it. For some who did not this all hospitals are at this level. These infections have a cure and are very hard to contract via respiration.

Level 2.
Include small pox, many of the sexual transmitted diseases, the cold virus, and some others that can still be cured. Again..most are hard to contact via respiration. Test are done in a vacuumed hood.

Level 3
A big step up between Level 2 and 3 exist. Mostly because these diseases can directly lead to human death but a cure does exist for them. SARS, West Nile, Yellow Fever, Rabies are some to be named. These are the labs you see in movies where the scientist work in protective gear.

Level 4.
Another big jump. Remember the movie Outbreak (for those in America) with Dennis Hoffman. Many of these viruses can be contracted via respiration, so therefore a suit with an independent oxygen system is needed. Many of these diseases have no cure and the majority of them are fatal. There are only a handful of these and many work with just one agent. Ebola and many other hemorragic diseases are included in this group.

Here in the US it really has not been talked about. As Vicious has stated the fatality rate can be 50% but can go as high as 90% depending on the strain. You'll find that the newest strains are more deadly then others. It's a virus that causes hemorrhaging from all parts of the bodies. This include the lungs and other important body parts. Most people die due to dehydration caused by the destruction of the gastric and renal systems. There in lies the viruses best attack, the bleeding the virus causes is extreme. 90 percent of hospitals are not trained to handle such a deadly disease (Let alone Africa) so that is why you hear many health officials getting sick and transmitting the disease.

Fortunately or unfortunately, it does kill very quickly, spreading the disease needs direct contact, ingestion of fluids, and the incubation period is very quick.

I just hope they can find a way to contain this virus and hopefully it will extinguish itself.

Dude, the smallpox is definitely NOT handled by Level 2 facilities, in fact it's not handled at all. It's a lethal, highly infectious disease that has been completely eradicated decades ago, meaning there is absolutely no resistance to it among the current world population. This is the shit that wiped out the Native Americans, except that in this day and age the whole world is Native American. The smallpox virus exists in only two locations: a lab in the US and one in Russia. These labs are, if anything, Level 4s on steroids.

The Ebola is some epic shit. It's basically a Hollywood disease, a virus that kills in such an inexorable and brutal way that you'd think it was created by a highly imaginative screenplay writer rather than nature. The whole family of hemorrhagic fevers is pretty damn fascinating. The names are epic too: Ebola, the Marburg Virus, Lassa Fever, etc.

Good catch, replace that with measles.

My personal fav in bold. Kills more people annually than Ebola but Ebola has the higher mortality rate (50-90% vs 10-25%)

Fun fact: only one person has ever survived Rabies after the onset of symptoms. Otherwise once symptoms show it's 99.999999999% fatal

Post: #28

(07-03-2014 06:27 AM)Mentavious Wrote:  Fun fact: only one person has ever survived Rabies after the onset of symptoms. Otherwise once symptoms show it's 99.999999999% fatal

A young girl in Wisconsin IIRC.

Don't recall what, if any, lingering effects she may have.

Post: #29

I'll say it again and the news here has alluded to it too, ebola has come about because of the stupidity of Africans. It was not engineered by any government organisation, it's a local virus and hopefully it gets eradicated or stays in africa.

Post: #30

(07-03-2014 03:32 AM)berserk Wrote:  I just hope no one from that area gets on a plane to the west.

yeah I doubt that the people affected by this disease can afford to travel. This is probably affecting africans who live in remote or poorer areas, I don't think africans with money are getting this disease and if they do, they will likely die before they board on the plane.

Post: #31

(07-03-2014 06:46 AM)bojangles Wrote:  I'll say it again and the news here has alluded to it too, ebola has come about because of the stupidity of Africans.

In what way?

Post: #32

(07-03-2014 06:46 AM)bojangles Wrote:  I'll say it again and the news here has alluded to it too, ebola has come about because of the stupidity of Africans. It was not engineered by any government organisation, it's a local virus and hopefully it gets eradicated or stays in africa.

You really need some Goodwin point right here.

Post: #33

I watched some science fiction program where the ebola virus was engineered with the common cold and thus wiped out the population.

Are these two capable of evolving into each other? I'm no bio scientist but if they share the same genetic code is it possible?

Post: #34

Clancy concocted a terroristic aerosol ebola delivery system in one of his books that I read years ago.

Was interesting even as fiction.

Post: #35

(07-03-2014 08:41 AM)Hotwheels Wrote:  Clancy concocted a terroristic aerosol ebola delivery system in one of his books that I read years ago.

Was interesting even as fiction.

The guy who wrote the Dune books, Frank Herbert, also wrote a book about a scientist whose wife and kids are killed by terrorists, The White Plague, and who engineers a plague that only kills women.

That kind of thing is fully possible now, and the technology is only going to get cheaper and more accessible.

Post: #36

(07-03-2014 08:27 AM)Foolsgo1d Wrote:  Are these two capable of evolving into each other? I'm no bio scientist but if they share the same genetic code is it possible?

They are of completely different make up. They can't "cross breed". While it's not impossible that ebola could develop traits that make it as infectious as the common cold the likelihood is close to it.

Post: #37

You must understand that viruses can't reproduce without an actual living cell. The day a virus evolves to the point where it use another virus to combine RNA will most likely be because someone did it in a lab for use of bioterrorism or nature intended for humans to die that way.

Since there are a few types of viruses we should focus on Ebola. Ebola is an negative RNA virus with it's genetic matierial being very stable. In the simplest terms, Ebola attached to the animal cell and then releases it's mRNA into the cells cytoplasm. The mRNA is translated into a protein. These proteins stop the host cells DNA/RNA from reproducing which leads to the host cell copying the viral DNA and more viral Ebola. The cell then explode and the particles are released to infect other cells.

Post: #38

(07-03-2014 03:24 AM)Vicious Wrote:  

Quote:over a BILLION people live on the continent of Africa and 500 people have died.

330 million Americans and 5000-10,000 die a year from the flu... wake me up when the ebola wipes out 10,000 plus people

This is exactly the kind of fly-by analysis that keeps the western world comfortably numb to the reality of the matter.

The people that die from the flu are usually toddlers, elderly or people with reduced immune systems. The mortality rate is usually below 0,1% while being far more contagious than Ebola (flu is in most strains airborne).

Ebola on the other hand is indiscriminate in its reaping. By the time 10K people have died from it there's such a critical mass of people that carry the virus that only a nationwide quarantine (we're talking daily curfew, suspension of business hours) would restrict a disaster.

Yeah just like everything and everywhere else on the planet. No one gives a shit about anything unless it is within 1000 miles of where they live.

Especially a few hundred deaths from Ebola. I for one am far more worried about ISIS taking over the world.

Post: #39

Phew, if this shit goes violent, I'm retiring to my countryside hut which is basically in an isolated mountainous region with no electricity.

Post: #40

Read this today and thought of this thread:

Smallpox Vials discovered in US Storage Room

Post: #41

http://news.yahoo.com/ebola-virus-victim...54312.html

Ebola victim planned to fly to Minnesota in August, wife says

'Patrick was coming here. What if he still wasn't displaying symptoms yet and came?'

A former Minnesota resident infected with the Ebola virus who traveled from Liberia to Nigeria before he died from the disease had planned to visit family back in the United States next month.

Patrick Sawyer, a 40-year-old father of three, sparked a global health scare when it was discovered that he had transported the virus across borders in Africa, and news of his plans to travel back to the Minnesota town where his wife and children still live ratcheted up fears that the virus could spread to North America.

"Patrick could've easily come home with Ebola," Decontee Sawyer, his wife, told KSTP-TV. She lives in Coon Rapids, Minn., with the couple's three daughters. "Easy. Easy. It's close; it's at our front door. It knocked down my front door."

Patrick Sawyer, a Liberian national who moved from Minnesota to Liberia to work for the country's ministry of finance, collapsed in an airport in Lagos last week after showing symptoms of the disease. He died Friday in what health officials determined to be the first probable case of the Ebola virus in Nigeria.

Sawyer's death has rocked the West African community in Minnesota, home to the largest Liberian immigrant population in the United States.

"Everyone knows Patrick," Decontee Sawyer told KARE-TV. "It's hit everyone's front door, and they feel like they've lost a best friend and brother, and they are awake now."

Decontee said Patrick had been caring for his sister, who had fallen ill with what later turned out to be Ebola.

There have been 1,201 reported cases and 672 deaths from the virus in Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone since the recent Ebola outbreak began in March, according to the World Health Organization.

Post: #42

(07-03-2014 08:41 AM)Hotwheels Wrote:  Clancy concocted a terroristic aerosol ebola delivery system in one of his books that I read years ago.

Was interesting even as fiction.

You're talking about Rainbow Six, which was pretty damn good.

Anyway, I personally don't think Ebola has a high chance of spreading to the US. It's fluid transmitted and largely has rapid onset of symptoms. If it mutates to airborne, which is unlikely though possible, then we should get scared. The outbreak in Africa will burn out sooner than later. It's just a matter of not having more victims to infect.

Post: #43

I hope Ebola doesn't make its way to Australia, though with our fucktons of illegal immigrants coming in by boat, that may happen. If it does, the detention centres BETTER quarantine the Ebola host.

Post: #44

I'd rather they tackle Ebola in a lab located in the US than in some African shithole. I'm not one for hysteria but the more people a virus kills the more likely it becomes stronger over the long term.

The US is on another level when it comes to quarantine and if the worst comes then I'd like the US military to declare a quarantine zone rather than some tin pot general and his thugs.

Post: #45

(07-02-2014 08:36 PM)speakeasy Wrote:  Things like this are nature's way of keeping human population in check.

Mother nature always wins. As a human race we're at the mercy of nature.
Whether it be natural disasters, infectious diseases or animal predators. We always get an ego check letting us know we are only renting.

Post: #46

(07-02-2014 07:16 PM)Roosh Wrote:  It's the largest ebola outbreak ever: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Ebola_outbreaks

There is no treatment for it. They hook you up to an IV and that's it. That's not much better than getting infected with the plague in the 14th century.

Good news is that it's not that easy to get..

Quote:Human-to-human transmission occurs via direct contact with blood or bodily fluids from an infected person (including embalming of an infected dead person) or by contact with contaminated medical equipment such as needles

It's not transmitted through the air.

There seems to be evidence that this can spread through the air, at least for a limited amount of time and in a localized area.

http://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-20341423

Post: #47

Oh, looks like ebola is coming to America.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morni...e-it-home/

Post: #48

Time to buy a smalk box of N100 masks, just in case...

Post: #49

Looks like the Ebola virus is making a trip to the US: http://dailycaller.com/2014/08/01/for-th...n-the-u-s/

Post: #50

(07-02-2014 06:17 PM)Vicious Wrote:  If you haven't heard that it is currently having an outbreak in West Africa, then you'd be excused. The media has done very little to cover the current spread of the disease that Doctors without borders are calling "completely out of order".

It's hitting mainstream news now...

http://www.cnn.com/2014/08/01/health/ebo...index.html