Marburg Outbreak Not Likely a Global Threat

[Inland]

http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=healthNews&storyID=8161648
An outbreak of deadly Marburg virus in Angola is probably not a global threat but international experts are working to bring it under control, the head of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said on Tuesday.

The hemorrhagic fever, a relative of the Ebola virus, has killed some 200 people and terrified people in Uige province, northeast of Angola's capital Luanda.
snip
"We're optimistic about this one," she said.

(Well, I feel so much better with "probably" and "optimistic" in the face of a disease that makes one bleed out through every single opening the body has.)

[CoffeeCat]

1. I really wish we could get solid information on...

...what's really going on with these illnesses.

How bad is it really?

Should we be concerned?

What precautions are being taken to prevent a global outbreak?

We hear about bird flu, and then all is quiet for a month.

What's truly going on?

[Spangle]

3. Bird flu is nothing compared to this monster

I would say that we should be concerned. I know I am. Like they said, they really don't know how many are truely infected. And a person who "might" be, Might run to get away from it. Thinking they are doing so to keep from getting infected. Then fly somewhere else where the doctors are not looking out for it. A whole new area would be in danger.

Just keep repeating that process....

If one case of this stuff gets to an international type city. Taking international type flights, etc. You can have this stuff spread all over the place.

[CottonBear]

2. If Ebola or Marburg become airborn

then we (humans)are toast.

:scared:

Read "The Hot Zone." You will be terrifed. This is all Mother Nature's revenge for our destruction of the environment. These viruses jump species to survive.

[Spangle]

4. Yep

Stephen King novels just don't hold a candle to the nightmares one ends up with after reading about those two killers.

[CoffeeCat]

5. I read "The Hot Zone"....

...and you are right, it was terrifying.

I read that book maybe 8 years ago, and I still remember some of the very graphic passages.

The way he described an Ebola death was unforgettable.

Yuck.

It's terrible that most people with Marbug probably have little access to good medical care of pain management. I'm sure they're suffering terribly.

The last news reports have the virus deaths increasing at pretty fast rates. Even though the death numbers are relatively low--220 or so--the toll keeps rising.

[nodehopper]

7. yes, they are dangerous viruses

but anthropomorphizing this into a "revenge" scenario and ascribing agenda to viruses in this way is inaccurate in terms of how evolution actually works.

[Media_Lies_Daily]

6. This virus is believed to have started in October 2004, but the....

...local medical community didn't make the diagnosis until January or February 2005. That means we have no idea how many people were infected or how far they may have traveled since October 2004. All of our data is from the point that the virus was correctly identified, not from the point in time that it emerged.

All we know for sure is that this strain of Marburg is 100% fatal...no survivors have been recorded to date.

This article is nothing but a tap-dance, pure and simple.