eaglechild:


Typical.

arewarepublic:

Is there any harm in accepting the truth?

EkoIle1:

The first line of defense is always prevention, not the other way around.

You ever heard the phrase.

Treatment without prevention is simply unsustainable or Prevention is better than cure?

You don't expose 170 million people or the rest of the world to ebola because you have medicine to treat them.

Mass infection ruins the society and way of life, it ruins the economy and alters your society with long and steep recovery.

That sounds like penny wise, pounds foolish...

thegoodjoehunt3: I did not say we should not prevent it. But, we must use a preventive means that will work.

It would have been even more helpful, if we had aided the effected countries to prevent the spread that closing our borders.

EkoIle1:


You said Closing our borders, screening of passengers with Fever will not help. Meaning we should not prevent it and instead rely more on medicine for treatment when in fact the primary and the most responsible thing to do is prevention to start with.

Btw, how do you suggest we aid or should have helped the affected countries?

naptu2:

Once again you refuse to answer the question. Was there anything preventing the government of Nigeria from imposing restrictions on people from Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone from entering Nigeria since April? See below.

EkoIle1:


Only morons like you don't demand accountability from the people you pay to work for you. You dolts really think you owe them your first and last breath and you deserve death just because...

In fact, who do you blame for governmental failures in Nigeria? The man from the moon?

What a dumbo..

naptu2: Now I'm going to show you what serious countries (that are thousands of miles away) do.

See, I've seen those guidelines before and as he said the threat level was increased on August 1st. So what happened before August 1st

(I also want to remind you that an infrared camera would have detected Mr Sawyer because he had already started showing symptoms before he got to Nigeria, but he was refusing treatment because he wanted to attend the meeting in Calabar).

EkoIle1:


Because he's the president of Nigeria and he swore under oath to protect Nigerians.

You demand accountability from the people you hire and pay to work for you when they don't do their job as promised.. .

[size=14pt]Asia on Alert for Ebola Outbreak[/size]

July 31, 2014 7:37 AMSteve Herman

The largest known outbreak of the lethal Ebola virus in West Africa is prompting authorities as far away as Asia to take preventive measures, although scientists say a global spread of the disease is unlikely.

[size=13pt]At South Korea's Incheon International airport, a major hub for air travel in Asia, quarantine inspections of arriving passengers are being enhanced.[/size]

Screening passengers

[size=13pt]Authorities say all passengers are being recorded by an infrared camera to detect fevers.

South Korea Foreign Ministry spokesperson Han Hye-jin says this is being done because Ebola is becoming a big concern. She says the South Korean government, in association with health authorities, is paying attention and carefully determining if additional measures are needed.

The country's Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says it established an Ebola task force in April and is prepared for possible infections in South Korea.[/size]

Citizens urged to avoid affected countries

It is also urging South Koreans not to visit the affected African countries.

Australia is also cautioning against travel to Guinea, Sierra Leone and Liberia. Australia's chief medical officer, Chris Baggoley, says the possibility of Ebola arriving there is "very low." But all border protection agencies are on alert for possible symptoms in people arriving by air or sea.

Dr. Nicholas Day, director of the Mahidol Oxford Tropical Medicine Research Unit in Bangkok, says these enhanced port screenings, implemented in Asia during previous swine and bird flu scares, are no panacea."It hasn't really, to my knowledge, been conclusively proven that it's an effective public health measure. It makes people feel happier that something is being done. But remember that people with flu, for example, don't have to be symptomatic when they come through. If you're screening using an infrared camera for temperature detection it doesn't necessarily pick up people who are infected. The same is true for Ebola," said Day.

Incubation: 2 - 21 days

The incubation period of the Ebola virus is between two and 21 days, during which time an infected person might not show any signs of infection.

In Hong Kong, the Center for Health Protection says public hospitals will begin to report and test all those who developed fever who, within the past 21 days, traveled to the three affected African countries. Although there are no direct flights from west Africa to Hong Kong, the city's health minister, Dr. Ko Wing-man, expresses concern that infections could still enter the region via a plane flight.

Quarentine suspected cases

Hong Kong's health minister issued the warning following an emergency meeting held with specialists to discuss contingency plans should there be an outbreak there, some 13,000 kilometers from west Africa. Ko says, "suspected cases will be put into isolation as soon as they are identified."Hong Kong newspapers say 59 isolation wards are available at Princess Margaret Hospital for any suspected Ebola cases.The city has seen one scare, so far. A 39-year-old Hong Kong woman, who recently traveled to Kenya, was placed in isolation at Queen Elizabeth's hospital after vomiting and developing a fever. Hong Kong's Hospital Authority says she tested negative for the virus and has been released.

Health Minister: low public risk

Singapore's health ministry is urging the public there "not to be alarmed." It has issued a statement deeming Ebola to pose "a low public health risk to Singapore," in part because "there is low travel connectivity to West Africa where the current outbreak remains limited to."Singapore's Chiangi Airport is ranked the world's fifth busiest with more than 52 million passengers in 2013.Suvarnabhumi, just outside Bangkok, is one of the world's busiest airports with more than 30 million passengers passing through every year.

Thai officials say only 30 to 50 persons per week are believed to come from the countries with the current Ebola outbreak.So far, no special screenings for Ebola among incoming passengers are being implemented. But all hospitals in Thailand are being ordered to monitor patients for any related symptoms, particularly those who have traveled to the outbreak area.

Spreaded by direct contact with bodily fluids
Some airlines have suspended flights into the affected region. But health authorities say there is little risk of passengers contracting the virus on a flight from an infected person. Dr. Day, a tropical medicine researcher, explains Ebola is only spread through direct contact with blood, saliva and other bodily fluids."The reason why everyone is scared about this, and I think quite reasonably so, is that this is a particularly horrible disease. It's luckily quite difficult to transmit unless you're in actual physical contact with a patient. So with standard public health and clinical isolation, quarantine measures, it should be possible to contain any outbreak," said Day.

Since March, there have been more than 1,200 confirmed Ebola cases in West Africa. This is believed to be a new strain of the virus and nearly 700 of those infected in this worst-known outbreak have died.

Liberia is quarantining some communities, closing all schools and some markets while placing all non-essential government personnel on 30-day leave. Public gatherings have already been banned.

Sierra Leone's president, declaring a public health emergency on Thursday, called on security forces to enforce quarantine measures to prevent a further spread of infections.


No known cure

There is no known cure for Ebola. It was first recognized in Zaire (now the Democratic Republic of Congo) in 1976. There is no approved vaccine, but at least four are under development. Ebola is a hemorrhagic fever with a fatality rate in human of up to 90 percent. It primarily occurs in remote villages in central and western Africa, near tropical rain forests. The virus is transmitted to people from wild animals. Fruit bats are considered to be the virus' natural host.

Additional reporting by Youmi Kim in Seoul.

thegoodjoehunt3: The bodies like WHO and some NGO's battled to contain the spread of the virus for months before it came to Nigeria. If our government has taken their plight as a national problem, we should have supported them financially to get more equipments, facilities and staffs on ground to meticulously fight the spread.

thegoodjoehunt3: These are steps. But, a primary carrier might not have the fever and the infra red will not detect it.

EkoIle1:

And this would have prevented Sawyer from entering Nigeria with the virus and killing 2 Nigerians or made the Nigerian government put measures in place to protect Nigerians back in Nigeria or prevent the the Nigerian government from Lying to Nigerians back in April that they have vaccines and measures in place and that Nigeria was ready to fight EBOLA?

There's nothing wrong from helping the needy, but it doesn't mean you should leave your self and your citizens wide open and unprotected. This is exactly what your government did. They lied about their readiness and the fact that they have vaccines when in fact there's nothing like Ebola vaccine.

Illiterates and incompetent people in government means needless deaths and mistakes..

naptu2: This is what they keep missing. Thermographic scanners will not detect ebola victims 100% of the time, but it will detect some ebola victims (that is those that already have the symptoms) and Mr Sawyer already had those symptoms, so it would have detected him.

Why not deploy them to the airport to detect the ones that it can detect?

They won't have deployed them now (like they have done) if it was completely useless.

thegoodjoehunt3: On that case, yes it would have worked. On the possibility of it entering, it would not have worked.

Yes, border control would help. I feel helping the fight against the spread generally would have been more effective.

naptu2:

What do you think of protective clothing and isolation units?

Would it have helped if the doctors, ambulance attendants, etc had protective clothing? Would it have prevented the doctor from contracting th disease?

Would it have helped if he had been taken straight to an isolation unit at the infectious diseases centre instead of First Consultants?

jomonic:

Yes agreed, you are very correct in your logic. But I wish we demanded for accountability from all former Nigerian leaders with the same intensity and darkest vehemence as we have done with GEJ and by all and sundry not just a select group who mischievously believe or find it very irksome that Nigeria is now under the management of an Ijaw president. If all Nigerians were united from the beginning in their pursuit for good governance our democracy would be at a very advanced stage today. The decay staring us in the face today came from our distant past. Gowon, Murtala, OBJ, Shagari, Buhari, IBB, Shonekan, Abacha, OBJ had messed up Nigeria before Yaradua / GEJ took over. Tell me a suitable alternative to GEJ today; I mean one who is ready to see all Nigerians as one. It is neither Tinubu, nor Buhari or any of their like. Power in their hands will only make some people happy but will not advance Nigeria one bit. They have tried before and failed. They will still fail again. We should stop looking for individuals who will make Nigeria good. There is no such person under our current system. We should rather seek to correct the system and then good leaders will emerge. This is the only way. Even Barack Obama will fail as a Nigerian president.

thegoodjoehunt3: No line is saying it is completely useless. The most effective strategy would have been to contain the spread at the source earlier. Just as earlier fever screening would have been helpful.

The Americans screening now would not be as effective as them curtailing the spread in Africa.

thegoodjoehunt3: On that case, yes it would have worked. On the possibility of it entering, it would not have worked.

Yes, border control would help. I feel helping the fight against the spread generally would have been more effective.

thegoodjoehunt3: I repeat, preventing the spread at the source would have been the most effective strategy. Not the only strategy.

EkoIle1:

Yes, helping Liberia and SL and while leaving your own people exposed like siting ducks sounds very proactive and responsible...

Are you joking or pulling my legs?

naptu2:

Exactly! That's my point.

So what measures did we take to help contain it in Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guines and what measures did we take to prevent it from spreading here?

That's the issue.

I completely agree with you that it's best to contain it over there, but the question is, what measures did we take to do both?

thegoodjoehunt3: Protecting it from spreading is a means of shielding and not exposing. If we had done that earlier, it would not spread the way it has.

No one is saying do not protect the people but the most effective step is the most critical.

naptu2:

Exactly! That's my point.

So what measures did we take to help contain it in Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guines and what measures did we take to prevent it from spreading here?

That's the issue.

I completely agree with you that it's best to contain it over there, but the question is, what measures did we take to do both?

thegoodjoehunt3: So now Fujifilm and Tekmira are in possession of experimental drugs for treating Ebola, our government should reach out to them now.

Support them financially. I believe that is why they are running to America to support them to perform their clinical trials.

Not only in Nigeria but the affected African countries.

naptu2:

I agree with this, but, as I told someone this morning, there are some challenged that we'll need to overcome (I call them the Trovan challenges).

1) They'll need assurances about the security of their drug.

2) They'll need waivers from the patients (in case something goes wrong).

3) We'll also need to be able to effectively monitor them (in case something goes wrong).