5 ms·

That includes the USA, right?

Pxtl 12y ago
I honestly have no idea. I really hope we don't have to find out.
natrius 12y ago
If Ebola sticks with its current mode of transmission, stopping it is straightforward. Isolate patients, find their recent contacts, isolate them. Rinse[1] and repeat. It's easy to track down contacts in the western world: credit cards, post-paid mobile phones, formal employment, etc. It's hard to do so in developing world slums. The entire developing world might be incapacitated by the Ebola epidemic. The western world, not so much. [1] with bleach
- awakened 12y ago
  How do you track all the contacts from a million infected people?
  - jonknee 12y ago
    There are no infected people in the USA. If there is a case here you ferociously follow the contacts of the first case(s).
  - trose 12y ago
    The NSA has already shown this to be relatively trivial. Don't think for a second the government wouldn't harness that knowledge in an emergency situation such as an Ebola outbreak within the US.
    - anigbrowl 12y ago
      The NSA is excellent at tracking communication contacts that establish the existence of relationships (notwithstanding the potential of false positives). And this would also work for tracking someone driving around in a car running errands in specific places. But if someone arrives in a US city unwittingly carrying Ebola and gets on a crowded bus or subway car, that's not so easy to track. Likewise if the person goes to a nightclub or other crowded place. Suppose it's a returning American who attends a baseball or football game - the NSA may well be able to ID almost everyone who attended the event, but trying to screen/isolate tens of thousands of people who might have come in contact with an infected individual wandering around a stadium is easier said than done.
      - natrius 12y ago
        Crowded places aren't currently a significant source of Ebola infections.
        anigbrowl 12y ago
        That could change in short order - don't you remember the Liberian guy who turned up in Lagos? If he had traveled a few days earlier he would still have been infectious but might not have been identified as such on arrival. http://news.yahoo.com/liberian-ebola-symptoms-dies-nigeria-official-132822550.html http://news.yahoo.com/liberian-ebola-symptoms-dies-nigeria-o...
      - wcfields 12y ago
        They can track your location via a cell phone that nearly everyone carry's with them at all times. If an infection does come over, then expect people the laud the NSA's spying because it'll be the thing that makes it possible to identify, target, and quarantine.
    - angersock 12y ago
      I like the way you think--what a wonderful opportunity this presents for these agencies to justify their existence and methods!
- nickthemagicman 12y ago
  This is what Ive been saying all along. First world countries are fine...ATM. However, the more people that are infected, the more chance of Ebola mutating some novel route of infection. I.e. in the worst case....airborne. Then it becomes a serious issue in the first world. An apocalyptic issue...
durkie 12y ago
No, it doesn't. I know a lot of people that work day-in-day-out on ebola at the CDC. The US (and many countries) are totally equipped to handle ebola and you really don't need special facilities to do it.
- FollowSteph3 12y ago
  So how come we can't stop the seasonal stomach flu ;) it's not as easy as they make it out to be and I for one don't want to test this hypothesis...
  - Pxtl 12y ago
    We can't stop the seasonal stomach flu because the stakes are low enough that we aren't handing out hand-sanitizer on every street corner and obsessively quarantining every gastroenteritis sufferer and every person with whom they ever interacted.
  - durkie 12y ago
    flu is airborne. ebola isn't, and no one that i know of at the cdc is seriously considering the possibility that it will become airborne.
    - Pxtl 12y ago
      Stomach flu isn't flu. Stomach flu is a misnomer, referring to gastroenteritis, a symptom of a stomach bug - generally a virus, but not influenza (the flu). It's relevant because the infectious mechanism of stomach bugs is similar to Ebola - the disease spreads by people interacting with sufferers' copious vomit and diarrhea.
adventured 12y ago
The US is on the short list of countries that in fact do not need to fear ebola much at all.
jostmey 12y ago
The USA is probably the best place to be. According to the news, Ebola spreads through direct, close contact. My opinion is that people in the US live somewhat isolated lives, which would make it hard for a disease like Ebola to flourish.

Pxtl 12y ago

I honestly have no idea. I really hope we don't have to find out.

If Ebola sticks with its current mode of transmission, stopping it is straightforward. Isolate patients, find their recent contacts, isolate them. Rinse[1] and repeat. It's easy to track down contacts in the western world: credit cards, post-paid mobile phones, formal employment, etc. It's hard to do so in developing world slums. The entire developing world might be incapacitated by the Ebola epidemic. The western world, not so much. [1] with bleach

awakened 12y ago
How do you track all the contacts from a million infected people?
- jonknee 12y ago
  There are no infected people in the USA. If there is a case here you ferociously follow the contacts of the first case(s).
- trose 12y ago
  The NSA has already shown this to be relatively trivial. Don't think for a second the government wouldn't harness that knowledge in an emergency situation such as an Ebola outbreak within the US.
  - anigbrowl 12y ago
    The NSA is excellent at tracking communication contacts that establish the existence of relationships (notwithstanding the potential of false positives). And this would also work for tracking someone driving around in a car running errands in specific places. But if someone arrives in a US city unwittingly carrying Ebola and gets on a crowded bus or subway car, that's not so easy to track. Likewise if the person goes to a nightclub or other crowded place. Suppose it's a returning American who attends a baseball or football game - the NSA may well be able to ID almost everyone who attended the event, but trying to screen/isolate tens of thousands of people who might have come in contact with an infected individual wandering around a stadium is easier said than done.
    - natrius 12y ago
      Crowded places aren't currently a significant source of Ebola infections.
      - anigbrowl 12y ago
        That could change in short order - don't you remember the Liberian guy who turned up in Lagos? If he had traveled a few days earlier he would still have been infectious but might not have been identified as such on arrival. http://news.yahoo.com/liberian-ebola-symptoms-dies-nigeria-official-132822550.html http://news.yahoo.com/liberian-ebola-symptoms-dies-nigeria-o...
    - wcfields 12y ago
      They can track your location via a cell phone that nearly everyone carry's with them at all times. If an infection does come over, then expect people the laud the NSA's spying because it'll be the thing that makes it possible to identify, target, and quarantine.
  - angersock 12y ago
    I like the way you think--what a wonderful opportunity this presents for these agencies to justify their existence and methods!
nickthemagicman 12y ago
This is what Ive been saying all along. First world countries are fine...ATM. However, the more people that are infected, the more chance of Ebola mutating some novel route of infection. I.e. in the worst case....airborne. Then it becomes a serious issue in the first world. An apocalyptic issue...

durkie 12y ago

No, it doesn't. I know a lot of people that work day-in-day-out on ebola at the CDC. The US (and many countries) are totally equipped to handle ebola and you really don't need special facilities to do it.

FollowSteph3 12y ago
So how come we can't stop the seasonal stomach flu ;) it's not as easy as they make it out to be and I for one don't want to test this hypothesis...
- Pxtl 12y ago
  We can't stop the seasonal stomach flu because the stakes are low enough that we aren't handing out hand-sanitizer on every street corner and obsessively quarantining every gastroenteritis sufferer and every person with whom they ever interacted.
- durkie 12y ago
  flu is airborne. ebola isn't, and no one that i know of at the cdc is seriously considering the possibility that it will become airborne.
  - Pxtl 12y ago
    Stomach flu isn't flu. Stomach flu is a misnomer, referring to gastroenteritis, a symptom of a stomach bug - generally a virus, but not influenza (the flu). It's relevant because the infectious mechanism of stomach bugs is similar to Ebola - the disease spreads by people interacting with sufferers' copious vomit and diarrhea.

adventured 12y ago

The US is on the short list of countries that in fact do not need to fear ebola much at all.

jostmey 12y ago

The USA is probably the best place to be. According to the news, Ebola spreads through direct, close contact. My opinion is that people in the US live somewhat isolated lives, which would make it hard for a disease like Ebola to flourish.