Jump to content

Recommended Posts

Ebola virus spreads to Uganda capital

 

Uganda’s president today warned that an outbreak of Ebola had now reached Kampala, the country’s capital and has banned all physical contact between Ugandans in desperate bid to stop the deadly virus’s spread.

Fourteen people have already died and as many as 26 more are feared to be carrying the disease, which kills nine out of ten people who become infected.

 

Yoweri Museveni, Uganda’s President, went on national television to tell people to avoid those who appeared to have Ebola symptoms, which include fever, headaches, diarrhoea and vomiting.

 

“I therefore appeal to you to be vigilant,” Mr Museveni said.

 

“When you contact each other physically, then Ebola spreads. Avoid shaking of hands. We discourage the shaking of hands because that can cause a contact through sweat which can cause problems. Do not take on burying somebody who has died from symptoms which look like Ebola.

 

“Avoid promiscuity because these sicknesses can also go through sex.”

 

The outbreak began almost a month ago in a village in western Uganda, but medical workers initially failed to diagnose the illness because it did not present typical symptoms.

 

Stephen Byaruhanga, health secretary of the Kibaale district, first hit by the disease, said cases of Ebola, at first concentrated in a single village, are now being reported across the region.

 

“It’s no longer just one village. There are many villages affected,” he said.

 

Scary stuff creeping into the news the last few days.

Only a matter of time one might imagine before something like this turns into a real global nightmare.

Link to post
Share on other sites
  • Replies 85
  • Created
  • Last Reply

Top Posters In This Topic

Top Posters In This Topic

Popular Posts

Hippo's are very dangerous in Australia.   They are usually a mere annoyance to be avoided, but once they get behind the wheel of a Pajero or Prado.................

One person gets on a plane in Kampala...
That really has been the only thing saving the world from a serious outbreak...not a whole heap of travel going on in the areas most effected.
Link to post
Share on other sites

Some international worker in there somehow gets infected.

Goes back home.

Mind boggles at how a tiny slip up or bit of very bad luck and this could.........

 

Link to post
Share on other sites
  • 1 year later...

Bit worrying

 

A US doctor working with ebola patients in Liberia has tested positive for the deadly virus.

 

The aid organisation Samaritan's Purse issued a news release on Saturday saying Dr Kent Brantly was being treated at a hospital in Monrovia, the capital. Brantly had been serving as medical director for the aid organisation's case management centre there.

 

Samaritan's Purse spokeswoman Melissa Strickland said Brantly's wife and children had been living with him in Africa, but were now in the US.

 

Brantly was quoted in a posting on the organisation's website earlier this year about efforts to maintain an isolation ward for patients.

 

"The hospital is taking great effort to be prepared," Brantly said. "In past ebola outbreaks, many of the casualties have been healthcare workers who contracted the disease through their work caring for infected individuals."

 

The disease has already killed 672 in four West African countries since the outbreak began earlier this year.

 

Last week a Liberian man died of ebola in Lagos, the first confirmed case in Africa's biggest city of 21 million people.

 

Nigerian health authorities, anxious to stop the spread of the disease, are concerned that the sick man had boarded an international flight.

 

They feared other passengers could take the disease beyond Africa due to weak inspection of passengers and the fact ebola's symptoms are similar to other diseases such as malaria and typhoid.

 

Officials in Togo, where the sick man's flight had a stopover, also went on high alert after learning that ebola could possibly have spread to a fifth country.

 

Link to post
Share on other sites
  • 2 months later...

The first case of the deadly Ebola virus diagnosed on US soil has been confirmed in Dallas, Texas.

Officials at Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital say the unidentified patient is being kept in isolation.

The man is thought to have contracted the virus in Liberia before travelling to the US nearly two weeks ago.

More than 3,000 people have already died of Ebola in West Africa and a small number of US aid workers have recovered after being flown to the US.

 

:doh:

Link to post
Share on other sites

Still amazes me how much press this all gets. Well over half a million people die each and every year in Africa from malaria alone. Supposedly it's up around one child dying every minute from Malaria in Africa. More people die each and every single day from AIDS in Africa than the total number that have died from Ebola so far in this current outbreak. This Ebola outbreak will barely represent even a minute blip on the huge death rates that already occur on that continent. And yet the media in the West seem insanely fascinated by Ebola.

Link to post
Share on other sites

The high media cover wouldn't be 'cos Johnson & Johnson, Pfizer, GlaxoSmithKlein, Bayer or any of the other corporate Nazi's are about to hit the markets with their new wonder "EBOVAC" vaccine now would it ?? :evilgrin:

Link to post
Share on other sites

Point is the amount of coverage of Ebola is staggering considering how very few people are killed by it compared to the other diseases running rampant throughout the African continent. I just don't get it.

Link to post
Share on other sites

Could it be the massive amount of coverage is because there is a chance Ebola could leave Africa in a big way. Aids/HIV is old news in the West. HIV can be kept in check, so not so many people dieing from it, and Malaria is very treatable, and easy to prevent if you take your anti malaria pills. Whereas Ebola is the boggy man of diseases, no real proven cure and big chance it could spread due to international travel.

Link to post
Share on other sites

It's never going to spread much in the west though as it doesn't spread easily. It only spreads in places like Africa because of the ignorance and superstitions of the people coupled with the lack of decent medical facilities. One thing for sure though is if we did start getting regular cases in the West they'd probably find a vaccine/cure pretty damned quick.

Link to post
Share on other sites

According to the CBC news, there is already a vaccine and treatment course that has been developed in Canada but they can't get the Canadian government to sign off on actually sending it to Africa to try it out. Not enough money to be made off of it I guess.

Link to post
Share on other sites

×
×
  • Create New...