Monday, July 07, 2014

Ebola Not A Hollywood Movie This Time

Events in Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone look like the stuff of a Hollywood or television thriller. This time its for real. At the moment the news has been very low key.



On July 7 news agencies reported a US citizen was being tested for the Ebola virus in Ghana, which has had no confirmed cases of the virus in the current West African outbreak. As of this posting the results are not in.
http://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-28192398





On July 4th Tom Geisbert, a microbiologist at the University of Texas, agrees that the risk of somebody coming from the affected area and causing a huge outbreak in North America or Europe is extremely low.

But on July 6th British Ebola outbreak: Doctors ordered to look out for deadly symptoms as killer virus hits UK. Although authorities in Britain didn't expect it to spread there they weren't taking any chances. You can get a really bad feeling that something isn't quite right in the British Isles.
http://metro.co.uk/2014/07/06/british-ebola-outbreak-doctors-order-to-look-out-for-deadly-symptoms-as-killer-virus-hits-uk-4789186/




But on July 7th Aid agencies such as the French organisation Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) suggest that the world quickly needs to wake up to what is unfolding. According to Bart Janssens, the director of operations for MSF, drastic action is required.
“The reality is clear that the epidemic is now in a second wave,” he said. “And for me, it is totally out of control.
There needs to be a real political commitment that this is a very big emergency,” he said. “Otherwise, it will continue to spread, and for sure, it will spread to more countries.”
http://www.irishexaminer.com/analysis/ebola-threat-no-less-than-terrifying-274485.html

Is this all the beginning of a larger and more horrifying pandemic? Let's hope not.

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