(INTELLIHUB) — One university study shows that more than 50% of people are people willing to pay for an Ebola vaccine after the 2014 West African outbreak was highly publicized by western media causing a contagion scare.
A recent piece published by EurekAlert gives the details:
George Mason University researchers conducted a study during the height of the epidemic and found that a majority of participants (59.7 percent) would pay at least $1 for an Ebola Vaccine. Those who were willing to pay at least $1 had typically traveled internationally in the last 12 months, were interested in getting an Ebola vaccine, and believed that the U.S. government should spend money to control Ebola and assume worldwide leadership in confronting emerging epidemics.
The nationally representative survey of U.S. adults was published in January in Human Vaccines and Immunotherapeutics. It included questions on Ebola-related knowledge, attitudes, and behaviors as well as background information (e.g., demographics, international travel) to test for indicators of willingness to pay for a vaccine.
Dr. Julia Painter, an assistant professor in Mason’s Department of Global and Community Health (GCH) led the study with support from assistant professor Dr. Michael von Fricken; graduate student Suyane Viana de O. Mesquita (now an alumna of the Master of Public Health program); and professor Dr. Ralph J. DiClemente from Emory University.
“We believe this is the first study to assess willingness to pay for an Ebola vaccine in the United States,” Painter explains. “This is important because previous studies conducted in West Africa are not generalizable to the U.S. population. Once developed, a licensed vaccine against Ebola “We were unsure of what to expect. The actual risk of Ebola infection among the general U.S. population was low, which could have led to lack of willingness so spend money on a vaccine. On the other hand, the outbreak garnered extensive media coverage, leading to a national contagion of fear. This fear could have driven people to be willing to pay for a vaccine.”
The professor’s statements are profound and will likely one day become a reality.
Will the powers-that-be release the Ebola virus onto the U.S. populace in order to sell hundreds-of-millions of vaccines?
Will the powers-that-be release the #EbolaVirus onto the U.S. populace in order to sell hundreds-of-millions of vaccines? #contagion
According to a World Health Organization doctor, a global pandemic is imminent, and no one will be prepared for it when it hits. Dr. Tedros Adhanom, director-general for WHO, has said that the next outbreak that will hit us will be a “terrible” one, causing a large death all over the world.
“Humanity is more vulnerable in the face of epidemics because we are much more connected and we travel around much more quickly than before,” said WHO specialist in infectious diseases Dr. Sylvie Brand. “We know that it is coming, but we have no way of stopping it,” said Brand. According to Dr. Tedros, the flu is extremely dangerous to everyone living on the planet. This fear was also promoted by experts at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland last month.
“This is not some future nightmare scenario. A devastating epidemic could start in any country at any time and kill millions of people because we are still not prepared. The world remains vulnerable. We do not know where and when the next global pandemic will occur, but we know it will take a terrible toll both on human life and on the economy,” said Dr. Tedros.
“Hidden underneath this fear-mongering message of a global pandemic is a far more sinister W.H.O. agenda,” warns Mike Adams, the Health Ranger, publisher of Medicine.news. “The real agenda is a global push for blind, fear-based acceptance of unsafe, unproven vaccines that will be rolled out alongside the next global pandemic,” Adams warns. “Fear circumvents rational thinking, which is why the vaccine-pharma cartels routinely turn to irrational fear propaganda to demand absolute and unquestioning acceptance of risky medical interventions that should always be scrutinized for safety and efficacy.” –Natural News
The pipes of hospitals carrying away the infections of the sick are bound to be quite disturbing places. But scientists dared to snoop around in them anyway and found that they can fuel superbugs.
Even when the sinks, faucets, bedrails and countertops of patients’ rooms are largely free of germs that resist modern medicines, the genetic building blocks for antibiotic resistance intermingle freely in the pipes connected to those rooms, according to a study published Tuesday in the journal mBio. That DNA can give superbugs the power to defeat modern medicines and threaten the lives of patients. –LA Times
The DNA scientists were able to swab from the inside of the pipes showed that these little organisms have the power to become vast medicine-resistant superbugs that could wipe out a lot of people. The study began back in 2012 after a severely ill woman carried a bacterial infection into a New York health care center.
In 2012, a team of sleuths at the National Institutes of Health’s Clinical Care Center broke new ground in the effort to rout a deadly antibiotic-resistant infection that sickened at least 17 patients — and killed six — during the summer of 2011. Using whole-genome sequencing for the first time in such an investigation, the team identified the culprit: a super-potent strain of Klebsiellapneumoniae bacteria carried into the center by a seriously ill woman from New York.
The microbe, they discovered, was probably traveling between rooms after lodging in sinks and drains. Some were ripped out and others were sanitized in an extensive eradication effort. –LA Times
The study itself came to the following conclusion:
Carbapenemase-producing organisms (CPOs) are a global concern because of the morbidity and mortality associated with these resistant Gram-negative bacteria. Horizontal plasmid transfer spreads the resistance mechanism to new bacteria, and understanding the plasmid ecology of the hospital environment can assist in the design of control strategies to prevent nosocomial infections. A 5-year genomic and epidemiological survey was undertaken to study the CPOs in the patient-accessible environment, as well as in the plumbing system removed from the patient. This comprehensive survey revealed a vast, unappreciated reservoir of CPOs in wastewater, which was in contrast to the low positivity rate in both the patient population and the patient-accessible environment. While there were few patient-environmental isolate associations, there were plasmid backbones common to both populations. These results are relevant to all hospitals for which CPO colonization may not yet be defined through extensive surveillance.-American Society for Microbiology
During the study, all of the samples drawn from the piping system leading from the ICU tested positive for bacterial plasmids that confer resistance to carbapenems. And so did all seven samples drawn from wastewater samples taken from two external manholes associated with the NIH Clinical Center.
It has been 100 years since the Spanish flu infected 500 million people around the globe and wiped out an estimated 20 million to 50 million of them. (source)
And here we are, potentially on the cusp of another influenza pandemic. H3N2, or the “Australian flu” is making the rounds this year and has spread to the UK, among other countries. This map from the UK Sun shows the spread – and the potential for a pandemic.
This flu is particularly deadly. 745 people died from it in Australia in late 2017.
The NHS says that Australian flu symptoms have rapid onset:
a sudden fever – a temperature of 38C or above
aching body
feeling tired or exhausted
dry, chesty cough
a sore throat
a headache
difficulty sleeping
loss of appetite
diarrhea or tummy pain
nausea and being sick
The symptoms are similar for children, but they can also have ear pain and lethargy.
As well, the “Japanese Flu” and the “French Flu” are two other strains that are running rampant, although their symptoms aren’t as severe as those of the Aussie H3N2. The Japanese Flu, also known as the Yamagata flu, is less serious but far more contagious. The French Flu is H1N1 and has been deadly for some sufferers.
The United States is having a bad year also.
Here in the US, an epidemic is rapidly becoming deadly and overwhelming hospitals.
Here’s the CDC’s map of the flu’s spread throughout the US as of the last day of 2017.
80% of the cases in the US are H3N2, although our media doesn’t seem to be calling it the Australian flu, like the British media is. As usual, although this year’s flu vaccination does NOT protect against the H3N2 strain, “experts” are still urging everyone to get a shot anyone. (Despite the fact that some numbers say it is only 10% effective.)
We can learn a lot from history.
Whether or not the Australian flu will be the “big one” that wipes out a large percentage of the population like the Spanish flu of 1918 remains to be seen. But there is a great deal we can learn from the history of pandemics that can help us to be better prepared. That outbreak killed more Americans last century than all the wars combined. A mass grave was recently uncovered in Pennsylvania that contained the remains of impoverished victims.
The Spanish flu was the H1N1 virus and was so rapidly virulent that it could kill victims in a day.
This excellent documentary is an in-depth look at the influenza outbreak that took place 100 years ago.
What can you do about the flu?
There’s no way to predict whether this will be our generation’s “Flu of 1918” or not, but the best plan is to be prepared. Pandemics have a way of growing quietly then shocking people with their virulence. It’s definitely something to watch.
Social isolation and handwashing are the best preventatives against the flu. Obviously, social isolation is not possible for adults who have to go to work and children who must attend school.
The following resources can help you to potentially prevent contracting the flu or to be better prepared, especially in the event that this year’s strain turns into a pandemic.
As health officials warn that this year’s flu season could be one of the worst we’ve seen in recent history, they also have stated the vaccine is less than 10% effective.
The vaccine that the health officials are pushing on people is only 10% effective against this year’s probable troublsome flu strain too. According to the World Health Organization, the United States typically sees 140,000 to 710,000 influenza-related hospitalizations and 12,000 to 56,000 deaths each year. The very young, very old, and people with existing medical conditions are most at risk.
According to Quartz, the annual flu vaccine development process begins several months before each flu season. When developing a new vaccine, researchers meet at the World Health Organization to identify the strains of the influenza virus they think will infect people in the northern hemisphere. Their findings are based on what made people sick in the southern hemisphere’s most recent flu season. This approach usually still provides mediocre protection (40% to 60%) from the flu.
But it’s a compounding problem because so many are getting vaccinated without understanding what’s in the vaccine, or that their risks of contracting the flu in later years are higher than those who have never been vaccinated. It is, however, very easy to follow the money trail:
With all the evidence pointing toward not getting the shot this year, government agencies and most doctors still suggest that everyone get the flu shot – even though it’s effectiveness isn’t even worth mentioning and the toxic ingredients do more harm to the body than good.
Make sure to be well-informed when making decesions for yourself or your family when it comes to the flu and this year’s vaccine.
Scarlet fever cases are now at 50-year-high sparking concerns for researchers, as they are baffled as to how “Victorian-era” diseases are making a comeback.
The disease has been on the rise since 2014, and researchers are failing to find the cause.
Scarlet fever hit its highest level in England for 50 years, with more than 17,000 cases reported in 2016 according to research in the Lancet. The infection is most common in children under the age of 10 and although highly contagious (being spread easily with a cough) is easily cured with a round of antibiotics. But that, in and of itself, raises concerns of the disease becoming resistant to antibiotics, creating a global pandemic.
Doctors are urging the public to be aware of symptoms, which include a rosy rash, and seek help from their doctor. Data for 2017 suggests the rate of infection may be falling, but experts remain cautious, saying it is “too early to tell.” Normally, first world nations have a better chance of handling an outbreak such as this, but England is on the verge of losing control over this scarlet fever outbreak.
A joint investigation by public health authorities from across England and Wales found that the incidence of scarlet fever tripled between 2013 and 2014, rising from 4,700 cases to 15,637 cases. In 2016, there were 19,206 reported cases, the highest level since 1967. The majority of the outbreaks were in England.
“We are concerned – it’s quite a dramatic rise,” said Dr. Theresa Lamagni, head of streptococcal surveillance at Public Health England, who led the study.
“We’ve always seen cases of scarlet fever – it’s just the scale in the past has been much lower than the last few years.”
Dr. Lamagni described the soaring number of cases of scarlet fever as “baffling”, adding that no underlying causes had been identified. She stressed that the individual cases of the disease are “not any more serious than previously – it’s just a question of scale.”
Scarlet fever was a common cause of death in the Victorian era but had largely been in decline since the introduction of antibiotics. As with any bacterial infection, prompt treatment remains essential to prevent both the spread of the disease and the risk of further complications such as pneumonia and liver damage. Anyone diagnosed with scarlet fever is advised to stay at home until at least 24 hours after the start of treatment to avoid passing on the infection.
There is no vaccine against the disease and all cases must be reported by doctors to the local health authority.Molecular genetic testing has ruled out a newly emerged strain of the infection. Additionally, there has not been any suggestion that the disease has become resistant to the penicillin normally used to treat it – yet.
Medical officials are sounding the alarm that this year’s flu season could be a bad one. Although it’s early, they have already noticed that the vaccine created is going to be mostly ineffective.
According to CNN, last year’s seasonal flu vaccine effectiveness was just 42%. The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimated those results. That’s better than other years’ vaccines too. Even if vaccinated, people had very little protection against the flu anyway and it’s causing concern.
Each year before flu season begins, a vaccine is made based on whichever virus strains are expected to circulate. The selected seed strains are distributed to vaccine manufacturers, which produce their formulations and make them available to healthcare professionals before the season begins. During the 2015-16 season, vaccine effectiveness was 47%, but for the 2014-15 season, effectiveness was just 19%, according to the CDC. While the overall effectiveness of last season’s vaccine was 42%, it was only 34% effective against the H3N2 viruses that dominated the season.
The limited effectiveness in last year’s vaccine was due to a mutation that occurred in the influenza A (H3N2) vaccine strain, according to a study published Monday in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. This vaccine mutation resulted from an egg-based manufacturing process commonly used today. And this year’s vaccine is also far less than perfect, said Scott Hensley, author of the new study and an associate professor at the University of Pennsylvania. Add to that, he said, “this could end up being a pretty bad flu season.”
Although it’s too early to speculate which viruses will become dominant in the United States over the course of the coming flu season, Hensley said, “but it’s starting to look like it will be H3 viruses.” H3 viruses are influenza A viruses. “There are the A group of viruses and the B groups,” said Dr. William Schaffner, an infectious disease specialist at Vanderbilt University. “The A groups are the ones that usually are responsible for large epidemics … whereas the B flu strains usually smolder along. They always cause illness — it can be just as severe as the A strains — but they don’t produce large outbreaks.”
Making a better vaccine isn’t going to happen soon either. “Most of the infrastructure to produce vaccines in the US is based on chicken eggs,” Hensley said. There are good reasons for this, including the fact that egg-based propagation allows manufacturers to quickly produce large quantities of vaccine. Though egg adaptations have always been a problem, beginning last year, it had become a “huge problem,” he said. “As soon as you try to grow this virus in eggs, within a few hours, the virus will acquire this kind of mutation.”
This is not an easy problem to fix, he said. To produce vaccines in cells means “a very expensive process for companies to just change their overall manufacturing process,” Hensley explained. “You can’t really do that on the drop of a dime.”
Very little sounds more unsettling than the risk of catching “the plague” but most of us think this is just something that was around during the Middle Ages because of poor hygiene. Unfortunately, that’s incorrect, and to prove it, there is an epidemic of the pneumonic plague in Madagascar right now.
We all remember reading about The Black Death during history lessons in school. It was a horrific pandemic that nearly wiped out Europe, killing a disputed number of people that ranges between 50 million and 100 million. Also known as the pneumonic plague, here is a quick video to get you up to speed on your medieval history.
It’s bad and it’s reminiscent of the Liberian Ebola outbreak in 2013, that alarmingly made its way to American soil. The New York Times reported on the situation in Madagascar:
Since August, the country has reported over 200 infections and 33 deaths.
The outbreak is beginning to resemble the early stages of the West African Ebola crisis in 2014: a lethal disease normally confined to sparsely populated rural areas has reached crowded cities and is spreading in a highly transmissible form.
Schools, universities and other public buildings have closed so they can be sprayed to kill fleas, which may carry the infection. The government has forbidden large public gatherings, including sporting events and concerts.
Fears that the outbreak could spread to other countries are rising.
Late last month, plague struck a basketball tournament for teams from Indian Ocean countries, killing a coach from the Seychelles and infecting another from South Africa. The players are being monitored, Malagasy health authorities told the W.H.O.
Madagascar typically has about 400 cases of plague each year between September and April, but they are usually focused in the nation’s central highlands and spread by fleas living on rats in rice-growing areas. This outbreak is unusually worrying because most new cases are in cities and are pneumonic plague, the form transmitted by coughing. (source)
Madagascar is a large island of 224,533 square miles off the coast of southeastern Africa. It has a population of more than 25 million people in an area that is approximately twice the size of the state of Arizona.
In comparison, Arizona has just over 6 million people, so as you can see, Madagascar is densely populated.
The biggest city on the island is Antananarivo, which has a population of 1,391,433, and concerningly, Patient Zero of the current outbreak traveled through the city by public transit, causing great concern of the possible ramifications.
The Madagascar outbreak started in August, when a 31-year-old man originally thought to have malaria traveled by bush taxi from the central highlands to his home in the coastal city of Toamasina, passing through the capital, Antananarivo.
He died en route and “a large cluster of infections” broke out among his contacts, according to a W.H.O. update issued Oct. 4. Those contacts passed it on to others.
Plague was not confirmed until blood samples collected from a 47-year-old woman who died on Sept. 11 in an Antananarivo hospital of what appeared to be pneumonia were tested at Madagascar’s branch of the Pasteur Institute. The samples came up positive on a rapid test for plague. (source)
Hasn’t Madagascar dealt with the plague before?
Madagascar is no stranger to the plague, with about 400 cases every year, but this time around, it’s the pneumonic plague, which is far more contagious and deadly.
…the majority of cases are of pneumonic plague, which affects the lungs and is transmitted through coughing. It is considered to be the most deadly form of the disease and can be fatal within 24 hours.
The less deadly bubonic plague is often spread by rodents fleeing forest fires. Humans usually become ill after being bitten by infected fleas.
Public gatherings have been banned in response to the latest outbreak.
A specialised hospital in the capital Antananarivo is struggling to cope with the influx of ill people, local media reported, with long queues outside for face masks and medicine.
This year urban areas have been affected, a development that has worried aid agencies in a country not renowned for a robust healthcare system. (source)
Of course, with urban areas comes public transportation, and even more alarmingly for the rest of the world, an international airport. There has already been at least one documented case of pneumonic plague leaving the island, causing Air Seychelles to halt service to Madagascar:
“Following the advice and request of the Public Health Authority of Seychelles concerning the plague epidemic in Madagascar, Air Seychelles will temporarily suspend its services between Seychelles and Madagascar from Sunday 8 October 2017.”
This is the content of the official communiqué of Air Seychelles which will no longer serve Madagascar from tomorrow 08 October 2017.
It is certain that the Seychelles authorities did not appreciate the death of the Seychellois basketball coach in Madagascar following a pulmonary plague he contracted on the spot during the basketball tournament in Antananarivo. It was only after this unfortunate death that the Malagasy authorities took action and began a thorough awareness campaign. (source)
Aside from this, I could find no other travel restrictions to or from Madagascar.
What is the plague?
There are three types of plague: bubonic plague, septicemic plague, and pneumonic plague.
Bubonic plague is spread via infected fleas and small animals. It can result from bites or exposure to the body fluids of dead, plague-infected animals. It can enter through the skin by a flea bite and travel to the lymph system. Treatment with antibiotics must occur within the first 24 hours of symptoms. The mortality rate for those treated ranges from 1-15%, but for untreated patients, ranges from 40-60%.
Septicemic plague is the rarest form of plague and is nearly always fatal without treatment. It attacks the bloodstream. Treatment must begin immediately after symptoms have shown or it will be too late. It is transmitted from flea bites, rodent bites, or mammal bites from infected creatures.
In septicemic plague, bacterial endotoxins cause disseminated intravascular coagulation (DIC), where tiny blood clots form throughout the body, commonly resulting in localised ischemic necrosis, tissue death from lack of circulation and perfusion.
DIC results in depletion of the body’s clotting resources, so that it can no longer control bleeding. Consequently, the unclotted blood bleeds into the skin and other organs, leading to red or black patchy rash and to hematemesis (vomiting blood) or hemoptysis (spitting blood). The rash may cause bumps on the skin that look somewhat like insect bites, usually red, sometimes white in the center. (source)
As awful as the other two versions sound, the pneumonic plague is the most contagious and worrisome. It causes a severe lung infection that is often confused with pneumonia, delaying essential treatment. It can be spread via rodents and flea bites.but also from the sputum of those infected. It can become completely airborne, making it far more difficult to avoid infection.
It must be treated within 24 hours or is nearly always fatal. People who have been exposed to pneumonic plague can be treated prophylactically with antibiotics.
What can be done to treat the plague?
The World Health Organization has sent over a million doses of antibiotics and has protective gear on the way. There are also other measures in place as reported by the BBC.
The authorities have also banned prison visits in the two worst affected areas to prevent the spread of the disease.
The risk of contamination is high in overcrowded and unsanitary jails…
Public gatherings have been banned in response to the latest outbreak.
A specialised hospital in the capital Antananarivo is struggling to cope with the influx of ill people, local media reported, with long queues outside for face masks and medicine.
This year urban areas have been affected, a development that has worried aid agencies in a country not renowned for a robust healthcare system…
On 30 September, Prime Minister Olivier Mahafaly Solonandrasana in a televised statement announced that all public gatherings would be banned in Antananarivo to prevent the spread of the disease following the death of the basketball coach.
In addition to school closures across the country, authorities on 5 October ordered the closure of the country’s two main universities in the eastern port of Toamasina and Antananarivo for disinfection purposes. Sports events have also been cancelled.
There have been concerted efforts to set up rat traps and spray insecticides in several neighbourhoods to prevent the spread of the disease. The government has also established a toll-free number to report any new cases. (source)
The local government is also cracking down on anyone who spreads information that is not in line with the national Ministry of Health.
The Ministry of Health in addition has also taken measures against social media users who it accuses of spreading “false news” on the disease to create panic. A Facebook user was arrested and investigated on 3 October for publishing a report which did not correspond to the toll given by the ministry. (source)
That’s unsettling, isn’t it?
Should we be worried?
At this point, we have no new cases of pneumonic plague in the United States. It has happened before, as one example, when there was an outbreak caused by an infected dog in Colorado in 2015 that then turned into human-to-human transmission. (source) A few months ago, fleas in Arizona were discovered to be carrying the plague. (source)
If untreated, people still can die from the plague, which in the United States occurs in the wild, primarily in rural parts of western states, at a rate of about 10 to 15 cases per year, according to the CDC. Most of the naturally occurring cases are bubonic plague, which can bring on pneumonic plague if left untreated and a person’s lungs become infected.
However, the disease is completely treatable with modern antibiotics if it is diagnosed early.
Worldwide, the World Health Organization reports 1,000 to 3,000 cases of plague each year.
Most infections in the United States have occurred after disposing of squirrels or mice that died from the infection or traveling in an area where infected rodents live. Health officials recommend staying away animals that are lethargic or appear sick. (source)
At this time, we have absolutely no documentation of this bout from Madagascar affecting the United States.
But that doesn’t mean it’s impossible. Never forget that people thought Ebola wouldn’t make it to our shores and it did. The reason it didn’t turn into a full-blown pandemic had absolutely nothing to do with a slipshod official response, either. Read this to learn just how easily an epidemic on foreign shores can turn into a pandemic that affects the whole world.
While the plague is not difficult to treat with antibiotics if caught quickly, one thing that concerns me is the overuse of antibiotics in the United States. They simply don’t work as well for us these days because of near constant exposure from meat and dairy products.
Think of it like a tropical storm, hundreds of miles out to sea. We have no idea if it will reach our shores or how strong it will be, but it’s important to be watchful and ready in case it heads our way. Don’t panic, but be ready to take action to protect your family.
Remember the soothing words of the World Health Organization about the Ebola outbreak in the Congo?
Don’t worry, they said. It’s in a remote village that doesn’t even have real roads, they said.
Except, the problem is, now people are fleeing from that village in fear of the virus.
KINSHASA, Democratic Republic of Congo – Ebola drove Kevin Balenge, his wife and three children to get to this capital city as fast as they could to try to outrun a suspected new outbreak.
“We can’t stay here because there are no hospitals, and once you get the virus you simply die,” said Balenge, from Bas-Uele province in the north of the country, about 51 hours away from Kinshasa.
“Residents are still not aware of the virus and they do not know the precautions (to take),” he added. “Very many people are going to die here.”
…
“Staying here is like trying to play with death,” he said. “Ebola gives no second chance and I can’t risk it. If I can save myself, I will try to do so.”(source)
Now, we don’t know if this family of five has been infected or not, but the spread through Lakiti has increased exponentially. Let’s think about this.
They traveled for 51 hours.
They clearly made stops along the way in public places like gas stations, restaurants, maybe motels. They would have paid for the products and services, giving money to people who would, in turn, be in physical contact with other travelers.
In Kinshasa, there are many opportunities for even further transit, and fairly easily.
It’s whereN’Djili International Airport is served by Kenya Airways, Air Zimbabwe, South African Airways, Ethiopian Airlines, Brussels Airlines, Air France and Turkish Airlines, to name just a few. Where a person can fly to anywhere else in the world. Where a person could hop on a train or a boat at one of the countries largest ports and leave the country.
Because of the ease of transit, this original family wouldn’t need to be the ones leaving the country. They could stay right where they are and infect a person who is there visiting and who will soon get on a plane or a train or a boat and take the virus with them.
You see where I’m going with this. It’s like watching the movie Contagion, except this is real. This is how easily a localized epidemic can turn into a global pandemic. (Which is, of course, redundant, since pandemic means it has spread across the world.)
The World Health Organization is currently trying to track down 125 people whom they believe may have contracted the virus. In the past few weeks, three people have died and 20 have been confirmed to be sick with Ebola as the illness gains a foothold. This is only an estimate, as officials are not yet on the scene because of the difficulty of transportation and telecommunications.
But could the 125 people be difficult to find because they already left the area?
Relatives of families who work and stay in the capital, Kinshasa, have been making arrangements for their families in the north to join them to avoid contracting the virus.
Dressed in a black coat over his tracksuit, Roland Bashala, 38, called his wife who has been staying in the north near the border.
“I need her to come tomorrow with our children so that I don’t lose them all,” he said. “Ebola is very dangerous and it can spread throughout the region.” (source)
There are no precautions in highly populated areas
Nearly 3000 refugees have recently landed in the highly populated Northern Congo area due to violence in the Central African Republic, any of whom could have been exposed or could possibly be ill. Ebola has an incubation period of 2 to 21 days. (source)
And there are no precautions in place.
“Ebola could spread throughout the country if the government doesn’t take precautions by screening anyone who enters the city,” said Devina Katobu, a doctor in Kinshasa. “Already people are living in fear, and are still moving from one place to another to seek safe haven. I think they might be spreading the virus. The international community should move quickly to save this country from the epidemic.” (source)
With anything this deadly, whether it is Ebola, or as a reader commented, SARS, H1N1, MERS, or an Avian flu, the ease of travel and slow responses mean that these things can turn into pandemics. Adding panic to the mix is like throwing gasoline on a fire. They could even evolve into something along the lines of the Spanish Influenza in 1918, which killed an estimated 100 million people – and this happened wellbefore we all began jet-setting all over the place just for fun.
What you need to be doing
While it’s not time to panic, it’s time to prepare.
If you aren’t prepared to go into lockdown with your family, you need to do some prepping. If you wait until it actually hits American shores, you’ll be competing for resources. The last time that Ebola threatened the United States, I had to dig through the internet for suppliers who still had things like Tyvek suit and nitrile gloves, and as I dug deeper, the prices went up. Go here to learn how to prep for Ebola and find a downloadable list of pandemic preparedness supplies. Then, take action. You may only need to fill in a few gaps. None of these things would be a waste of money – there are other situations in which they could be useful.
And, as the saying goes, better to have them and not need them, than need them and not have them.
Remember the soothing words of the World Health Organization about the Ebola outbreak in the Congo?
Don’t worry, they said. It’s in a remote village that doesn’t even have real roads, they said.
Except, the problem is, now people are fleeing from that village in fear of the virus.
KINSHASA, Democratic Republic of Congo – Ebola drove Kevin Balenge, his wife and three children to get to this capital city as fast as they could to try to outrun a suspected new outbreak.
“We can’t stay here because there are no hospitals, and once you get the virus you simply die,” said Balenge, from Bas-Uele province in the north of the country, about 51 hours away from Kinshasa.
“Residents are still not aware of the virus and they do not know the precautions (to take),” he added. “Very many people are going to die here.”
…
“Staying here is like trying to play with death,” he said. “Ebola gives no second chance and I can’t risk it. If I can save myself, I will try to do so.”(source)
Now, we don’t know if this family of five has been infected or not, but the spread through Lakiti has increased exponentially. Let’s think about this.
They traveled for 51 hours.
They clearly made stops along the way in public places like gas stations, restaurants, maybe motels. They would have paid for the products and services, giving money to people who would, in turn, be in physical contact with other travelers.
In Kinshasa, there are many opportunities for even further transit, and fairly easily.
It’s whereN’Djili International Airport is served by Kenya Airways, Air Zimbabwe, South African Airways, Ethiopian Airlines, Brussels Airlines, Air France and Turkish Airlines, to name just a few. Where a person can fly to anywhere else in the world. Where a person could hop on a train or a boat at one of the countries largest ports and leave the country.
Because of the ease of transit, this original family wouldn’t need to be the ones leaving the country. They could stay right where they are and infect a person who is there visiting and who will soon get on a plane or a train or a boat and take the virus with them.
You see where I’m going with this. It’s like watching the movie Contagion, except this is real. This is how easily a localized epidemic can turn into a global pandemic. (Which is, of course, redundant, since pandemic means it has spread across the world.)
The World Health Organization is currently trying to track down 125 people whom they believe may have contracted the virus. In the past few weeks, three people have died and 20 have been confirmed to be sick with Ebola as the illness gains a foothold. This is only an estimate, as officials are not yet on the scene because of the difficulty of transportation and telecommunications.
But could the 125 people be difficult to find because they already left the area?
Relatives of families who work and stay in the capital, Kinshasa, have been making arrangements for their families in the north to join them to avoid contracting the virus.
Dressed in a black coat over his tracksuit, Roland Bashala, 38, called his wife who has been staying in the north near the border.
“I need her to come tomorrow with our children so that I don’t lose them all,” he said. “Ebola is very dangerous and it can spread throughout the region.” (source)
There are no precautions in highly populated areas
Nearly 3000 refugees have recently landed in the highly populated Northern Congo area due to violence in the Central African Republic, any of whom could have been exposed or could possibly be ill. Ebola has an incubation period of 2 to 21 days. (source)
And there are no precautions in place.
“Ebola could spread throughout the country if the government doesn’t take precautions by screening anyone who enters the city,” said Devina Katobu, a doctor in Kinshasa. “Already people are living in fear, and are still moving from one place to another to seek safe haven. I think they might be spreading the virus. The international community should move quickly to save this country from the epidemic.” (source)
With anything this deadly, whether it is Ebola, or as a reader commented, SARS, H1N1, MERS, or an Avian flu, the ease of travel and slow responses mean that these things can turn into pandemics. Adding panic to the mix is like throwing gasoline on a fire. They could even evolve into something along the lines of the Spanish Influenza in 1918, which killed an estimated 100 million people – and this happened wellbefore we all began jet-setting all over the place just for fun.
What you need to be doing
While it’s not time to panic, it’s time to prepare.
If you aren’t prepared to go into lockdown with your family, you need to do some prepping. If you wait until it actually hits American shores, you’ll be competing for resources. The last time that Ebola threatened the United States, I had to dig through the internet for suppliers who still had things like Tyvek suit and nitrile gloves, and as I dug deeper, the prices went up. Go here to learn how to prep for Ebola and find a downloadable list of pandemic preparedness supplies. Then, take action. You may only need to fill in a few gaps. None of these things would be a waste of money – there are other situations in which they could be useful.
And, as the saying goes, better to have them and not need them, than need them and not have them.
Last week three suspected Ebola infections were detected in a remote region of the Congo. Since then, World Health Organization officials have been scrambling to contain the virus.
Their efforts appear to have failed.
The contagion continues to spread, and though it’s nowhere near the 11,000 people who were infected during the outbreak in 2014, the infection rate has spiked over 800% in just the last seven days, with at least nine new cases reported in the last 24 hours:
The number of suspected cases of Ebola has risen to 29 from nine in less than a week in an isolated part of Democratic Republic of Congo, where three people have died from the disease since April 22, the World Health Organization said on Thursday.
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The risk from the outbreak is “high at the national level,” the W.H.O. said, because the disease was so severe and was spreading in a remote area in northeastern Congo with “suboptimal surveillance” and limited access to health care.
“Risk at the regional level is moderate due to the proximity of international borders and the recent influx of refugees from Central African Republic,” the organization said, but it nonetheless described the global risk as low because the area is so remote. (NY Times)
The 2014 outbreak likewise started in a remote region of Africa, but containment efforts were ineffective and the virus eventually spread to the United States and Europe.
***
According to W.H.O., about 400 people have come into contact with the 29 people infected and officials are attempting to track them down for monitoring.
Protective gear has been dispatched to health workers and a mobile lab is being constructed and then deployed to the area. Immediate repairs to air strips and telecommunications are also being carried out. The first six months of the operation are expected to cost $10 million…
…
With the help of the UN, the first search teams, led by the DRC’s Ministry of Health, flew into Likati yesterday. Their immediate priority is to follow the 400 plus contacts of the suspected Ebola cases. (U.N. News Centre)
With international travel via airports, trains and cars available throughout the region, a single infected individual on an airplane could infect scores of others, who in turn could infect scores more.
The following Ebola model from Yaneer Bar-Yam, who has successfully simulated and predicted such events as the rise of the Arab Spring, shows how an Ebola contagion may look.
The above model is based on Ebola’s current infection rates and doesn’t take into account its possible evolution as it spreads from human-to-human.
According to scientists, the 2014 strain began hyper-evolving, to the point that had it not been contained and continued to spread through human contact, it could have gone airborne, making it as easy to catch as a common cold.
In response to this unprecedented threat, US government officials began preparing for mass casualties, reportedly going so far as to develop plans for Community Care Centers where infected individuals, or those suspected of infections, would be detained indefinitely.
The concern, of course, was that a virus with a 90% fatality rate after infection would make its way to local American communities. As Tess Pennington notes in her Pandemic Preparedness Guide, once it’s within 50 miles of where you live, it’s time to worry and take immediate steps to isolate your family from the threat, because most people won’t realize how serious of a situation they are in:
Looking back at the Black Plague, those living in high populated areas were hit hardest by this pandemic. The Black Death is estimated to have killed 30–60 percent of Europe’s population. Given our vast array of transportation systems, modern society causes infectious disease to spread far more rapidly compared to any other time in recorded history; and because pandemics are fast moving, vaccinations would be useless. Further, in regards to the world’s transportation system, the morbidity rate in a future pandemic could result in millions seeking medical care at the same time thus overwhelming hospitals and emergency departments.
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When an outbreak occurs, many will remain in a state of denial about any approaching epidemics. Simply put, most people believe themselves to be invincible to negative situations and do not like the idea change of any kind. They will remain in this state until they realize they are unable to deny it to themselves any longer. Being prepared before the mass come out of their daze will ensure that you are better prepared before the hoards run to the store to stock up.
Perhaps containment procedures being implemented in the Congo by W.H.O. will be more effective this time around than they were in 2014.
But what if they’re not? What if the virus mutates and goes airborne?
(INTELLIHUB) — World Health Organization officials have declared a new Ebola epidemic in the Republic of Congo Friday after three people have died.
At least one of those three people were confirmed to have the deadly virus.
On Friday the W.H.O. tweeted: “On 11 May 2017, the Min of Health of the Democratic Republic of the Congo notified WHO & partners of a lab-confirmed case of #Ebola#DRC.”
On 11 May 2017, the Min of Health of the Democratic Republic of the Congo notified WHO & partners of a lab-confirmed case of #Ebola#DRC
MUNICH — Recent advances in technology make bioterrorism a greater threat than nuclear warfare – one that could rapidly wipe out 30 million of even hundreds of millions of people around the world, billionaire Bill Gates says.
And the U.S. and other countries, he says, are not prepared.
Speaking to The Telegraph newspaper prior to a conference in German, Gates said it would be possible for terrorists to create a bioweapon that can kill more people than would nuclear weapons.
“It doesn’t take much biology expertise nowadays to assemble a smallpox virus,” Gates said. “Biology is making it way easier to create these things.”
Developments in genetic engineering would make it possible for terrorists to engineer a virus capable of creating a pandemic, Gates said.
“With nuclear weapons, you’d think you would probably stop after killing 100 million. Smallpox won’t stop,” he said. “Because the population is naïve, and there are no real preparations. That, if it got out and spread, would be a larger number.”
Bioterrorism can kill far more people than natural epidemics, he said.
“Intentionally caused epidemics, bioterrorism, would be the largest of all,” he said.
It also is possible to reengineer the common flu virus to create a deadly influenza strain capable of causing a pandemic, Gates said. He believes that such a pandemic would spread like wildfire.
He told conference attendees, “Whether it occurs by a quirk of nature or at the hand of a terrorist, epidemiologists say a fast-moving airborne pathogen could kill more than 30 million people in less than a year. And they say there is a reasonable probability the world will experience such an outbreak in the next 10 to 15 years.”
Do you think the U.S. is prepared for a pandemic? Share your thoughts in the section below:
Shepard Ambellas is an opinion journalist, analyst, and the founder and editor-in-chief of Intellihub News & Politics (Intellihub.com). Shepard is also known for producing Shade: The Motion Picture (2013) and appearing on Travel Channel’s America Declassified (2013). Shepard is a regular contributor to Infowars. Shepard is the leading journalist covering the Las Vegas Massacre, logging over 1100+ hours, 160+ reports, during his ongoing investigation. Read more from Shep’s World. Follow Shep on Facebook. Subscribe to Shep’s YouTube channel.
