Ebola Outbreak in Nigeria Appears to Be Contained

[pinto]

Source: NY Times

With quick and coordinated action by some of its top doctors, Nigeria, Africa’s most populous country, appears to have contained its first Ebola outbreak, the United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Tuesday.

As the epidemic rages out of control in three nations a few hundred miles away, Nigeria is the only country to have an outbreak with hundreds of potential victims in a city with vast, teeming slums and yet to beat it back.

“For those who say it’s hopeless, this is an antidote — you can control Ebola,” said Dr. Thomas R. Frieden, director of the C.D.C.

<snip>

Nigeria’s outbreak grew from a single airport case, while in the three other countries (Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone) the disease smoldered for months in remote rain-forest provinces and spread widely before a serious response was mounted.

Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2014/10/01/health/ebola-outbreak-in-nigeria-appears-to-be-over.html?_r=0

[logosoco]

1. This is good to hear.

Unfortunately there is now a confirmed case in Texas!

I guess the medical community is learning a lot from this!

[951-Riverside]

2. I don't trust any news coming from Nigeria

...for all I know they could be withholding or under reporting infection rates to save their own butts.

Its like how Iran and Saudi Arabia completely ignores the AIDS epidemic.

[theHandpuppet]

3. Totally agree with you

Add to that the fact that Nigeria has Africa's most robust economy, thanks to OIL EXPORTS. They're not going to risk torpedoing that industry from fear of an ebola outbreak. We don't import much oil from Nigeria but Europe does.

[longship]

4. We will see.

But I will bet that you are wrong. There is no advantage for Nigeria to do that. Ebola is so quickly and universally deadly that there is no way a government could sweep its spread under the rug. Untreated, 90% die within a week. Even with treatment -- there is no cure -- about 50% die.

Again, that is not something one could hide.

However, luckily Ebola is not easily transmitted. If one has the necessary medical infrastructure which is alert -- apparently both absent in West Africa, for religious and political reasons -- Ebola cannot get a foothold.

That's why I am not at all concerned about cases which somehow manage to travel to our shores.

[pinto]

5. Agree. (nt)