Let’s look at the facts:
- This disease is currently killing about 71% of those who catch it.
- There is no cure, no efficacious treatment.
- It has an incubation period of up to three weeks.
- The virus can persist outside the human body for up to a week.
- The number of cases is rising exponentially. Doubling roughly every 20 days.
- Around 4,500 notified dead. Real figure may be double. (WHO says X2.5).
- Over 240 of the dead were health workers, who were taking reasonable precautions.
- Medical workers using full Hazmat procedures are catching the disease in the first world.
- Disease can be spread by airborne droplets (coughing, sneezing) but not by aerosol like Influenza.
- It takes just one individual virus to infect a person. One sneeze could contain millions.
- The virus is mutating (they all do) and will become more virulent.
- CDC have predicted up to 1.4 million infections in Liberia and Sierra Leone alone.
So lets look at a scenario. A Liberian person caught the disease two weeks ago and shortly afterwards flew to Brussels. A week ago he still had no symptoms and traveled to London on the Eurostar. Today he became contagious and traveled on the London Underground (who are not on strike today) during the journey he sneezed several times, the droplets from which were breathed in by 10 people. Many droplets landed on an elevator handrail where they will persist for a week, infecting people who use that elevator.
Similar scenarios to this are definitely happening around the world right now. We can’t see anything and we don’t know anything. We as a worldwide community are a very long way behind this disease, our pitiful efforts have had little impact on its spread. We have no credible plans to contain it. Looking at the maths the current number of people who have this disease and who are walking around without realising is in the many thousands.
This epidemic began in December 2013 in Guinea and has grown steadily ever since. Its exponential nature making its current impact seem very sudden. We should have put in place firewalls a long time ago. As it is we still largely have global freedom of movement. And this disease gets around in people.
Obviously the time has come for us to barricade ourselves inside our homes. But this would be an over-reaction and our society would grind to a halt. So what can we do? Probably the best thing is to buy and use Byotrol on our hands. This will kill 100% of the virus (many gels don’t) and it persists, killing the virus you pick up. It is the best known tool for the job.
Postscript. When I published this article some people cast aspersions about the stated facts. They did not think to use Google to check before displaying their ignorance. So I have now added links to the science for all the facts. Those with a genuine intellectual curiosity will find that these links also lead to far more additional information than I have room for in this short article.
Permalink
I’ve heard contrasting reports. Some say Ebola can only survive a few hours outside a host (why it is so hard to test on) with others claiming it can last up to 4-7 days
Permalink
Harry. There are now links to the science.
Permalink
Silly, hysterical BS. If cities like Lagos and Port Harcourt in Nigeria (now ebola free) can smother ebola infections to NIL, I’m not sure what people are worried about. Locate contacts of infected people, isolate, watch. Repeat, repeat. Disease is done in 2 months.
Then fight the f*cking disease at the source. Get some dollars, equipment, and people out to Liberia, Guinea, Sierra Leone and FIX this shit.
Permalink
JD I have now added links to all the facts.
Permalink
The R0 value of Ebola is currently running between 1.4 to 1.7 your article suggests Ebola has an R0 value of between 10 and 20 which is similar to measles and 5 times that of flu. You article is wrong.
Permalink
RTB. My article only reports the SCIENCE. Everything I say has a clickable link which goes through to the proven SCIENCE. I am not making anything up, but only presenting the best, proven, scientific facts.
Permalink
As usual, Bruce Everiss writes complete and utter crap.
The expert in every subject.
Muted Goodbye.
Permalink
Your article disingenuously takes the most extreme observations about Ebola, and conflates them into some sort of fantasy doomsday scenario. Even in the most primitive healthcare systems the R0 for Ebola is barely touching 2 (which is very bad I admit). However your scenario suggests an R0 in a developed country reaching 5 to 10 times that seen in West Africa.