Tracing Ebola’s Breakout to an African 2-Year-Old

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/08/10/world/africa/tracing-ebolas-breakout-to-an-african-2-year-old.html

by denzil_correa • 12 years ago

67 46 12 years ago

nytimes.com

pinar747• 12 years ago

How did the 2-year-old contract the virus in the first place?

Pxtl3• 12 years ago

The article makes it clear that this is the big question. Suspects are fruit bat poop and bush meat.

iaw2• 12 years ago

Wouldn't fruit bat poop be more likely? I mean, if it were bush meat I'd suspect it was prepared for the child in which case there would have been a second patient-zero. Whereas fruit bat poop can easily get into a 2 year-olds mouth without anyone noticing.

wilsonfiifi• 12 years ago

Contaminated vaccine?

Zaheer• 12 years ago

The last piece of the article is painful to read. Anyone know how we can contribute to supplies, etc to fight Ebola?

"A Desperate Call for Help

By June and July, Sierra Leone was becoming the center of the outbreak. At the government hospital in Kenema, Dr. Sheik Umar Khan was leading the efforts to treat patients and control the epidemic.

But he was desperate for supplies: chlorine for disinfection, gloves, goggles, protective suits, rudimentary sugar and salt solutions to fight dehydration and give patients a chance to survive. Early in July, he emailed friends and former medical school classmates in the United States, asking for their help and sending a spreadsheet listing what he needed, and what he had. Many of the lines in the “available” column were empty. One of his requests was for body bags: 3,000 adult, 2,000 child.

Before his friends could send the supplies, Dr. Khan contracted Ebola himself. He died on July 29."

cmrivers2• 12 years ago

Medecins Sans Frontiers (Doctors Without Borders) is an excellent choice. They have been integral to controlling several past Ebola outbreaks, and have been fighting this one since the beginning. They are almost entirely tapped out right now. http://www.msf.org

I can't vouch for them, but the Liberian Ministry of Health also has donation instructions: http://www.mohsw.gov.lr

ihodes• 12 years ago

Not sure why you say MSF is "almost entirely tapped out"—from MSF's website "Please note that Doctors Without Borders' response to the Ebola outbreak in West Africa is fully funded." Nevertheless, they're a pretty excellent charity to donate to (c.f. http://www.givewell.org/international/charities/doctors-with... and note they spend over 85% of funds on programs [~12% on fundraising, and ~1% on management]).

jhonovich• 12 years ago

"Unlike most previous outbreaks, which occurred in remote, localized spots, this one began in a border region where roads have been improved and people travel a lot. In this case, the disease was on the move before health officials even knew it had struck."

What if someone in a major US city got infected? How bad could it get? Could they even contain it at that point?

SoftwareMaven3• 12 years ago

The US has far better medical facilities, better supplies, better communication tools, better handling procedures for corpses and a society that doesn't stigmatize infectious diseases. Taken together, an outbreak here would look very different than an outbreak in Africa, even if a sick patient was dropped into Times Square.

Raticide• 12 years ago

But what if poor people in America get Ebola? They can't afford health care, so may end up hiding their illness to avoid the insane amounts of debt they would get themselves into.

maxerickson2• 12 years ago

It's likely easier to control in the U.S. where there are a lot of resources and people are less likely to engage in a lot of physical contact with the infected, and where trust of doctors is a lot higher.

There is also a much more extensive public health system that is alert to the risk of an infected person entering the country.

timr5• 12 years ago

People keep repeating this as if it were a definitive rebuttal of all fears, but this story gives a few great examples of why the confidence might be misplaced: when your primary diagnostic criterion is a fever (common; easily suppressed with OTC medication) and affirmative answer to the question "have you been to West Africa?", it doesn't really matter how good your public health system is -- it's a going to be a leaky early warning system.

If someone makes it through the airport screens and carries the virus into a city, the epidemiology could become overwhelming before we know an outbreak has begun. So yes, we have the advantage that we have real hospitals and good infection control, but we have the disadvantage that we have huge cities, high population density and lots of personal mobility.

jseliger• 12 years ago

How bad could it get

Not very, barring unexpected mutation: http://www.vox.com/2014/7/30/5948995/why-ebola-would-never-g...

basicplus2• 12 years ago

Nobody can be serious about containing this outbreak unless they stop the planes flying and close all borders.

NkVczPkybiXICG• 12 years ago

...or just move to Madagascar.

alukima• 12 years ago

Does the usage of African instead of Guinean bother anyone else? Africa is widely not recognized as a continent of distinct countries and this isn't helping. It's like referring to people from the U.S., Canada, and Mexico as North Americans.

zachrose• 12 years ago

Yeah, the mistake of referring to Africa as a single nation is unfortunately common in the U.S., made by everyone from from leading Republican politicians to, more sadly, Clayton Kershaw.

[1] http://www.africaisacontinent.com/common-mistake

[2] http://mlb.mlb.com/news/article.jsp?ymd=20101220&content_id=...

FollowSteph3• 12 years ago

Most people compare it to the flu but what about norovirus. It's spread in a versus similar way and pretty much everyone in the US has had it at one time or another...

IvyMike• 12 years ago

There are countries named Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Equatorial Guinea, Papua New Guinea, Guyana and French Guiana.

I think I'm pretty well traveled but even I have difficulty sorting these all out. So even though "Guinean" would be accurate, it would still cause some confusion.

Tracing Ebola’s Breakout to an African 2-Year-Old

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