Ebola

S

SENSEI

New member
this was sent to me in an email from a friend in Idaho
it has nothing to do with C-Dory but is a sad state of affair in our country

After reading this letter to the editor I think you might agree with me that this very bright veterinarian should have been appointed to be the head of Ebola control in this country rather than the democrat politician that Obama appointed.

The present Ebola crisis in the world is frightening. I have submitted the following letter to the editor of the Lewiston Idaho Morning Tribune:

Editor, Lewiston Morning Tribune:

If I wish to import a horse into the United States from Liberia or any African country other than Morocco, the horse needs to undergo a 60 day quarantine period at a USDA approved quarantine facility prior to mingling with the general population of horses in this country. Africa has a disease called African Horse Sickness that does not exist in the US; this is the way we have kept it out of this country. African Horse Sickness does not cause disease in people, only horses; our government has determined that it would be devastating to the US horse industry if it were to come here.

The United States (and virtually all other countries) require a myriad of tests and often quarantine prior to bringing in a foreign animal.

I can’t legally cross state lines in the United States with a horse or cow without a health certificate signed by a USDA accredited veterinarian stating that the animal has been inspected and found free of infectious disease. In most cases blood tests are also required. In fact I can’t legally cross the Snake River and ride my horse in Washington without a health certificate and a negative blood test for Equine Infectious Anemia.

I’m not complaining; the United States of America, the States of Idaho and Washington as well as the other 48 states take the health of our livestock very seriously, and we have a very good record at keeping foreign animal diseases out of our country. I am happy to do my part to maintain biosecurity in our animal population.


If I am a resident of Liberia incubating Ebola, to enter the United States all I need to do is present a valid visa, and lie when asked if I have been exposed to Ebola. Within hours (no quarantine required) I can be walking the streets of any city in the United States.


I feel very fortunate to live in a country that values our animals so highly.

David A. Rustebakke, DVM



 
USDA regulations for importing equines can be found on their Veterinary Services, Import/Export websiteExternal Web Site Icon.

If the horse is not known to carry any diseases transmissible to humans, no CDC regulations would apply. However, the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) requires various periods of quarantine depending on the country of origin of the horse. In countries with prevalent screwworm, the quarantine period is 7 days. Horses coming from countries with African horse sickness are quarantined for 60 days.

http://www.cdc.gov/animalimportation/br ... ltous.html


USDA
http://www.aphis.usda.gov/wps/portal/ap ... portexport
APHIS plays a vital role in ensuring the free flow of agricultural trade by keeping U.S. agricultural industries free from pests and diseases and certifying that the millions of U.S. agricultural and food products shipped to markets abroad meet the importing countries' entry requirements. APHIS makes sure that all imported agricultural products shipped to the United States from abroad meet the Agency's entry requirements to exclude pests and diseases of agriculture.

APHIS also keeps export markets open for American agricultural products by working to eliminate unjustified sanitary or phytosanitary (SPS) barriers - that is, concerns involving plant and animal health - raised by U.S. trading partners. APHIS' team of technical experts, based in the United States and abroad, includes scientists, veterinarians, pathologists, and entomologists that advocate on behalf of U.S. agriculture. They build relationships with their agricultural health and regulatory counterparts in other countries and use scientific principles to make the case for American agricultural exports, explaining to foreign officials why U.S. commodities are safe to import. APHIS played a direct role in opening new markets and retaining and expanding existing market access for U.S. agricultural products worth billions of dollars annually.

What are you IMPORTING into the United States?

Food and Agricultural Products (Factsheet)
This factsheet is available in Amharic, Arabic, Burmese, Simplified Chinese, Traditional Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Lao, Polish, Russian, Spanish, Vietnamese >> more.
Animal or Animal Product
State Regulations and Import Requirements
Organism and Vectors
Organism and Soil
Plants or Plant Products
View Electronic Manuals
This web site contains an alphabetized list of Plant Protection and Quarantine manuals in electronic format
Veterinary Service Forms
 
I encourage all to view the NIH video

A ban would discourage volunteers from joining the fight against Ebola and make it harder to bring the epidemic under control, the surest way to protect this country from imported cases.
 
Sometimes it is necessary in any activity; business, government, war, disciplining children, to have a chill-out time to re-think and assess. The call for a temporary ban on commercial transport of people in infected areas is a common sense approach. It is a temporary ban while our government and institutions can stop and think this whole issue through. As in the case of war, you may need to stop the enemy from advancing to give you time to figure out how to beat them back. So it is with infectious disease. Take a time out, keep all of the risk factors in-place, then think through what is reasonable to do.

The workers in this nasty disease are dedicated people who will be just as happy to be flying on controlled charter flights in and out of country. It will not reduce the number of folks who were willing to go there in the first place. They are special people!

It is a temporary action, temporary, and is a smart thing to do. Now one is harmed by a temporary restriction of commercial travel between those infected countries. The medical community says, "fist do no harm." Meaning remove the clear and immediate risks, then work on the mitigating care. Stated another way; First do no harm to the U.S., then worry about mitigating the threat elsewhere.

Now, back to "simply messing about in boats."
 
i'm actually in africa right now, tanzania specifically. The amount of media fear mongering on this subject is obscene. No one here is half as worried as many of those stateside. Don't touch dead bodies or sick bodies, don't eat bats and that's all I have to do to not get ebola...which begs the question what i'm going to do in my off time now? :(
 
One thing I have NOT seen is information about the test for Ebola. Is it expensive? Is it difficult to obtain? How long does it take to get results? Is it accurate?

They seem to be reluctant to use it so something must be difficult about it.

Charlie
 
I would not call it expensive, provides same day results and very accurate . It take a proprietary instrument and kits but instrument can run other assays from company. (Yamaha parts for a Yamaha OB, cant use Honda parts).



CDC uses real time PCR polymerase chain reaction test along with other tests. I estimate it takes 2 hours from start to finish and if all of controls (many as 7 or more) to pass to test completion. I cant estimate the overall cost but guess $50 to $100. Too many factors . Over the weekend FDA approved Bioire realtime PCR which same day results as EUA
see
Ebola Virus EUA Information
http://www.fda.gov/EmergencyPreparednes ... .htm#ebola


It detects the Zaire strain causing this outbreak



It is been around for a while but not as an off the shelf FDA approved for clinical and public labs to use as required by law. Now we can. The instrument costs est $45K (technically I can only state estimate or list prices) and each test cost I dont know, I seen wild prices been reported from $500 to $1200 per test.!!! crazy numbers Biofire is part of a larger company called bioMerieux and expect will offer discounted pricing.

The test is completed in a plastic material pouch and everything is self contained in the pouch. When I first demo the system several years ago, I thought the pouch was a toy and demo mockup bc it was brand new. the company was selling to military and switched to clinical or medical use. silly me. Easy is made and no high quality plastic cartridge needed requiring a high end plastic company to made carts to very high tolerances. It is easy to setup and machine is too. It takes a laptop to run and instrument is about size of a chartplotter, Google Biofire or check youtube, Many labs use their respiratory syndrome illness panel which detects multiple targets (bacteria, viruses, etc) at the same time. It is a game changer and improves patient outcomes. Docs love it , lab loves it and patients goes home quicker (best case scenario)

Instrument is portable and I could use it on a boat or car but repeat specimen handling requires a special room, a lot of PPE and biological safety cabinet used in clinical labs. Military has portable labs with safety systems in place
 
" ... though this study of the 1995 outbreak shows that Of 173 household contacts of the primary cases, 28 (16%) developed EHF.
“The surviving members of 27 households in which someone had been infected with Ebola virus were interviewed in order to define the modes of transmission of Ebola hemorrhagic fever (EHF). Of 173 household contacts of the primary cases, 28 (16%) developed EHF. All secondary cases had direct physical contact with the ill person (rate ratio [RR], undefined; P < .001), and among those with direct contact, exposure to body fluids conferred additional risk (RR, 3.6; 95% confidence interval [CI], 1.9-6.8). After adjusting for direct contact and exposure to body fluids, adult family members, those who touched the cadaver, and those who were exposed during the late hospital phase were at additional risk. None of the 78 household members who had no physical contact with the case during the clinical illness were infected (upper 95% CI, 4%). EHF is transmitted principally by direct physical contact with an ill person or their body fluids during the later stages of illness."

Pasted from <http://www.sciencebasedmedicine.org/ebola-outbreaks-science-versus-fear-mongering-and-quackery/> August 5, 2014 1:42am.

Based on this I would be willing to volunteer at an intake facility at any airport or medical facility dealing with ebola. I would not want to work without protective gear for someone vomiting or with diarrhea.
 
They put down horses with broken legs, but hopefully my orthopedist won't suddenly decide that's the model we should be following with human beings. I've lived in Africa for 20 years, including a couple of years in Liberia, and I currently live in the country which had the first known outbreak of Ebola (South Sudan). When I go home to the States on leave, I usually can only be gone for a few weeks, and I definitely know I don't want to be spending that time in un-necessary quarantine.

The thing is, I know quite a bit about Ebola. I'm a health care provider, and Ebola has been cropping up here in Africa for close to 40 years, so I've been following the disease for quite a while. And the truth is that Ebola is not that easy to catch. People who are afebrile and asymptomatic do not shed any virus at all. People in early stages of the disease (early fever) shed very little virus. The Doctor in New York who went bowling and rode the subway? You could have probably licked him without having to worry. It's not until they get quite sick with high fever, diarrhea, vomiting and severe fatigue that high levels of virus shedding occur, and believe me, at that point patients are unlikely to be out bowling.

The CDC has some very reasonable guidelines on who needs to be isolated or quarantined for Ebola, and people should follow them. Leave healthy people traveling from Africa alone.
 
Aiviq":lj73f5h1 said:
They put down horses with broken legs, but hopefully my orthopedist won't suddenly decide that's the model we should be following with human beings. I've lived in Africa for 20 years, including a couple of years in Liberia, and I currently live in the country which had the first known outbreak of Ebola (South Sudan). When I go home to the States on leave, I usually can only be gone for a few weeks, and I definitely know I don't want to be spending that time in un-necessary quarantine.

The thing is, I know quite a bit about Ebola. I'm a health care provider, and Ebola has been cropping up here in Africa for close to 40 years, so I've been following the disease for quite a while. And the truth is that Ebola is not that easy to catch. People who are afebrile and asymptomatic do not shed any virus at all. People in early stages of the disease (early fever) shed very little virus. The Doctor in New York who went bowling and rode the subway? You could have probably licked him without having to worry. It's not until they get quite sick with high fever, diarrhea, vomiting and severe fatigue that high levels of virus shedding occur, and believe me, at that point patients are unlikely to be out bowling.

The CDC has some very reasonable guidelines on who needs to be isolated or quarantined for Ebola, and people should follow them. Leave healthy people traveling from Africa alone.
Click to expand...

Yes, VERY useful, thanks much, explains a lot that has not been well publicized!

Charlie
 
Aiviq,

Thanks for what seems to be a very enlightened and understandable view re ebola. ...you have helped clear-up-my-mind a great deal.

I think the ebola issue comes atop a general malaise in America. We're scared. Domestically we have concerns about our Country - its 'direction, the economy, social issues, international issues, and myriad other factors seen as beyond our control. Now this (ebola).

Thanks. Your informed view Helps.

Best,
Casey&Mary
 
Casey":3saflpsg said:
Aiviq,

Thanks for what seems to be a very enlightened and understandable view re ebola. ...you have helped clear-up-my-mind a great deal.

I think the ebola issue comes atop a general malaise in America. We're scared. Domestically we have concerns about our Country - its 'direction, the economy, social issues, international issues, and myriad other factors seen as beyond our control. Now this (ebola).

Thanks. Your informed view Helps.

Best,
Casey&Mary
Click to expand...
I agree. But I have to ask why are we scared? We are still the country with the strongest military in the world (by far). We still have the best scientists. We still have a great form of government. I'm not scared at all. IMHO, there's a number of individuals out there who spend a great deal of time trying to keep us all in fear so that they can get re-elected and so we won't focus on the issues that really matter (like the influence of big money in politics). And of course when it comes to the media - fear and sensationalism sells.
 
The day after I get a little lump of pride from someone reminding me that we are the leaders for used C-Dory sales, another member - who also happens to have the coolest C-Dory ever that he bought used through our site - offers up the best perspective on this ebola stuff that I have read anywhere on any media platform. I love this place!
 
rogerbum":2k67ppan said:
...IMHO, there's a number of individuals out there who spend a great deal of time trying to keep us all in fear so that they can get re-elected and so we won't focus on the issues that really matter (like the influence of big money in politics). And of course when it comes to the media - fear and sensationalism sells.
Click to expand...

Absolutely. Fear and anger fire up the reptilian parts of the brain and are inimical to reason. Fear and anger aren't alone in making us stupid - advertisers know that bikini-clad models, no matter how unattainable, can induce men to buy a pickup truck. Newscasters and politicians know that scary stories and lurid pictures, no matter how remote, can make people ready for manipulation. I'd rather take my chances with bikinis and trucks.
 
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