Ebola.

[TheLovelyBoots]

I'm quite nervous. AIBU?

[roundandround51]

If you live in West Africa - YANBU
If you live elsewhere - YABU

[londonrach]

Abit at the moment unless you live in west Africa.

[TheLovelyBoots]

There was a man with ebola vomiting on a flight to Lagos. The most populous country in Africa.

I wonder what has happened to the people who were directly surrounding him (and dealing with his vomit).

[PostmanPatAlwaysRingsTwice]

Don't worry

[TheLovelyBoots]

City, not country.

[WeBelieveInLove]

They've been tracked down and are monitored according to the news.

[Iownathreeinchferrari]

Updated by BBC 3 hours ago. Flights into sierra leone and Liberia stopped. Nigeria has red alert on all entry points into the country.

[AuntieStella]

That "Don't Worry" link is actually a bit worrying.

What it is saying is that you can be totally asymptomatic for up to about 21 days before you show a fever and become infectious. So people could enter a third country, and infect people there (though it requires close contact). It says it is quite possible that there could be clusters of cases in the US, but that it would not become an epidemic because they have good public health surveillance and good bio containment; so once spotted they could take quite draconian steps to isolate patients and to identify (and isolate?) contacts.

So, it's a long way from "we're all going to die" but far from impossible that there will be unlucky clusters in any location.

[SistersOfPercy]

There was a game on Android and Apple phones a while back called Plague Inc. It was wholly fascinating and centered around you creating a virus and deciding where would be best to release it.
It was highly praised by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention because it raised awareness of disease and its path.

Since I played it, and successfully wiped out the planet with a disease I planted in Africa within 6 months I have to say I have a lot more interest now when stories like this come on the news. Yes, Plague Inc is a game, but its also a rather frightening insight into how things like this take hold.

[HauntedNoddyCar]

It's the 'If ebola gets on a plane ...' thing isn't it?

Well on the one hand it's worrying that it keeps on spreading but there's no actual point in worrying. It won't make any difference yet.

[HauntedNoddyCar]

It's the 'If ebola gets on a plane ...' thing isn't it?

Well on the one hand it's worrying that it keeps on spreading but there's no actual point in worrying. It won't make any difference yet.

[TheLovelyBoots]

I read more about it today. They say it's not easily transmitted by walking by someone - it's not airborne, you have to come in contact with bodily fluids. But someone vomiting on a plane is incredibly worrying, I should think.

[TheLovelyBoots]

It's got a nice ring, hasn't it?

[TheLovelyBoots]

Candida.

[BadgersNadgers]

Why are you nervous? Were you on the plane with him?

[AuntieStella]

(I thought Yersinia and Escherischia would make good names for twins).

[choochootrain1]

Currently YABU

If it continues to spread and reaches any more countries then in a few weeks/months, at that point - no.

We were all meant to die of bird flu/swine flu in recent years, sadly some did. Most didn't. There are plenty of other viruses you're far more likely to encounter atm - if you want to worry I would pick one of those.

[backinthebox]

Not all flights into Liberia have been stopped. I would know this as a pilot who flies commercial airliners regularly into Liberia. There are a lot of things for pilots to be worried about at the moment (air raid sirens going off in the middle of the night in the crew hotel in Israel, which warring countries are less likely to have ground to air missiles and how to pick our way between them, etc) but by far the biggest worldwide worry that we have at the moment is Ebola. Our crew hotel in Liberia is only a few hundred yards away from the main outbreak treatment centre. It will only take one person with Ebola to get on a flight to the UK to let the cat out of the bag. The man who made it into Nigeria by air collapsed at the airport - as someone who flies into airports all around the world I can tell you that even large African airports are still quaintly small compared to, say, Heathrow, or Schipol, or Frankfurt. The idea that someone with Ebola could find themselves in the passport control queue at one of these airports, vomiting (and bear in mind that this scenario has already happened albeit at a small airport) is frankly terrifying.

Also, patients are not being tracked down and monitored. This is precisely the main problem in west Africa atm. People are superstitious and if they find themselves with symptoms they are going into hiding as they fear being taken away to the treatment centre never to be seen again. The fact that they are being cared for and buried in secret, without decent infection control, is exactly why the outbreak has managed to carry on for so long there. Liberia and Sierra Leone are very primitive places, and it is difficult to educate the population and even more difficult to get them to act on any information they are given.

Sitting in Britain I am not worried that I am going to catch Ebola here at the moment. But if flights between Liberia, Sierra Leone and Europe continue, it is only a matter of time. And I AM worried about that.

[Ilovenewts]

Germany have agreed to accept a patient with Ebola for treatment [[http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/germany/10998367/Ebola-Germany-accepts-infected-patient-for-treatment.html here]]

[ThatBloodyWoman]

I am watching the news about the ebola outbreak and I really feel concerned for the people in that region.

Its not all about us, and whether it gets to us.
The
It's about real people living under a real threat.And I am so grateful that my family are here.

[KnittedJimmyChoos]

backinthebox Tue 29-Jul-14 17:30:34

brilliant post, thank you!!!

[TheLovelyBoots]

My understanding is that the passengers on the flight to Lagos are not quarantined, but rather under supervision. This to me is a bit bonkers.