The stigma surrounding Ebola poses a serious obstacle to efforts to calibrate the outbreak in Liberia, Sierra Leone, Guinea and Nigeria. As Reuters reports, the scale of the world’s worst Ebola outbreak has been concealed by families hiding infected loved ones in their homes and the existence of “shadow zones” that medics cannot enter, according to the World Health Organization (WHO). “As Ebola has no cure, some believe infected loved ones will be more comfortable dying at home,” the WHO statement said, concluding rather ominously, “frankly, no one knows when this outbreak of Ebola will end.” As Reuters reports, The scale of the world’s worst Ebola outbreak has been concealed by families hiding infected loved ones in their homes and the existence of “shadow zones” […] Read More
Tag: Ebola
The official Ebola death toll is now at 932 with over 1,700 reported cases but as the WHO reports, in the last 48 hours, deaths and cases have exploded (48 and 108 respectively). As the charts below show, this epidemic is going exponential. What is perhaps most worrisome is, while playing down the threat in Nigeria (most especially Lagos – which the CDC Director is “deeply concerned” about), officials have formally asked the US for the experimental Ebola drug, which suggest things are far worse than the 3 deaths reported so far in Nigeria would suggest. Finally, as we warned yesterday, Saudi Arabia is suffering too as the main who was hospitalized yesterday with symptoms has died – the first reported casualty in the Arab […] Read More
Should we be alarmed that the CDC has received “several dozen calls” from hospitals around the country “about people who are ill after traveling in Africa”? As you will read about below, a lot more Ebola testing has been going on around the nation than we have been hearing about in the mainstream media. I can understand the need to keep people calm, but don’t we have a right to know what is really going on? And the media has also been very quiet about the fact that Ebola is now potentially spreading to even more countries. As you will read about below, a Liberian man just died from Ebola in Morocco, and a man that traveled to Saudi Arabia from Sierra Leone on Sunday […] Read More
What would a global pandemic look like for a disease that has no cure and that kills more than half of the people that it infects? Let’s hope that we don’t get to find out, but what we do know is that more than 100 health workers that were on the front lines of fighting this disease have ended up getting it themselves. The top health officials in the entire world are sounding the alarm and the phrase “out of control” is constantly being thrown around by professionals with decades of experience. So should average Americans be concerned about Ebola? If so, how bad could an Ebola outbreak in the U.S. potentially become? The following are 25 critical facts about this Ebola outbreak that every […] Read More
This morning I received an early call from a friend that informed me that a special meeting was held at the Pentagon about the outbreak of Ebola. In the briefing it was announced that two American patients infected with Ebola would be treated in Atlanta Georgia. Officials say the victims; Dr. Kent Brantly and Nancy Writebol are at Emory University Hospital in a special containment facility provided by the CDC. Sources told CNN that Brantly and Writebol are described as being in grave condition but are stable after their health worsened overnight. Many Americans see this as risky and are quick to believe that it may place the country in danger, but of course we are being told that doctors, nurses and staff are trained […] Read More
If the worst Ebola outbreak in recorded history reaches the United States, federal law permits “the apprehension and examination of any individual reasonably believed to be infected with a communicable disease”. These individuals can be “detained for such time and in such manner as may be reasonably necessary”. In other words, the federal government already has the authority to round people up against their will, take them to detention facilities and hold them there for as long as they feel it is “reasonably necessary”. In addition, as you will read about below, the federal government has the authority “to separate and restrict the movement of well persons who may have been exposed to a communicable disease to see if they become ill”. If you want to […] Read More
Jack Challem 12/04/96 The latest Ebola epidemic in Zaire may be over, but it’s probably only a matter of time before this supergerm returns – and still others emerge. The reason: Ebola and other deadly viruses, including the human immunodeficiency virus-1 (HIV-1), might be stimulated by deficiencies in the mineral selenium. And Zaire – where the Ebola and HIV-1 viruses first appeared – may be a viral “hot zone” because of low selenium levels in the soil and widespread selenium deficiencies among people living off that land. Too strange to be true? To the contrary, a similar connection has been established in China, where a common virus mutates into a dangerous form when it infects people deficient in selenium. Selenium, an essential mineral, functions as […] Read More