Ebola (1976- ) is a disease that has killed nearly 5,000 so far in 2014 in the West African countries of Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea. It broke out in December 2013 right near where the three countries meet. It is by far the worst Ebola outbreak ever. There is no cure. It kills 70% to 90% of those who get sick.
As of late October 2014, it seems to be coming under control: the number who die each week is falling. There are no longer bodies lying in the streets of Monrovia.
In Nigeria, Ebola arrived on July 20th in Lagos, a huge city with millions of poor people without good health care. Nigeria was able to stamp out the disease. So was Senegal.
In the US, Ebola has been big news. One man in Dallas died, Thomas Eric Duncan of Liberia. Two of his nurses got the virus but now are fine. It seems they were not properly trained. As of October 15th, 85% of nurses have no Ebola training, 76% of hospitals have no Ebola policy. In Dallas, dark-skinned people who sound African have been turned away from eating at restaurants and so on.
Since there is no cure, the main way to fight Ebola is to keep it from spreading.
Most people get Ebola by taking care of the sick. It does not travel through the air like the common cold. You get it from the blood, sweat, vomit or diarrhoea of someone sick, especially if you do not wash your hands and then touch your eyes, nose, mouth or a break in your skin. Soap, alcohol, bleach and fire kill it.
You can also get it when you wash, touch or kiss the dead, as is common for funerals in the affected part of Africa.
Most get sick in 8 to 10 days, but it can take as few as 2 or as many as 21.
- At first you have a fever, a severe headache, muscle or joint pain and feel very tired. It seems like a flu, but it builds up more slowly and is much worse.
- Three to six days later you become weak, start to vomit and have diarrhoea. Blood comes from your eyes, nose, ears and mouth.
No one knows for sure, but it seems that between outbreaks Ebola lives in fruit bats, like Hypsignathus monstrosus (pictured).
Ebola could change so that it travels through the air, but that is extremely unlikely: no virus has ever been known to make such a change.
So far no one has ever got sick twice. Some do not even get sick once despite having the virus. That means some people have a natural defence against Ebola. Doctors can use their blood serum to help others.
ZMapp is the closest thing to a cure so far: in two studies on monkeys it lowered the death rate to 50% and 43%. It has not yet been fully tested on humans, but of the first seven patients to receive it, five have lived. At first it was given only to White people even though most Ebola sufferers were Black.
Thanks to Sharina for suggesting this post.
See also:
- Donate: Red Cross
- nurse – the thread has comments on Ebola
- swine flu
- List of posts by body count
Dear God i read that the villagers ate the fruit bats for meat. EWWW!
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What does the start date of 1976 mean? Was that the first case? Or when it was described?
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@ ByTheirStrangeFruit
The first known case.
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Thanks for this post Abagond. I know a lot of people are confused right now with this Ebola hysteria. Most of what you see on the news is just fear-porn. I think it’s important that people educate themselves about this “epidemic”. I would like your followers to watch this video by T. West. I think this will help people become less confused.
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No one knows for sure, but it seems that between outbreaks Ebola lives in fruit bats, like Hypsignathus monstrosus (pictured).
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Don’t forget the white man has been “tampering” with various forms of hemmorrhagic virus since the early 60 in an attempt to make a weapon out of it.
He got sloppy in Marburg Germany and many people because aware of what he was up to:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marburg_virus
You guys can watch the bats and the monkeys AND the “negroes” all you want; but I got my eye on the white man,
the stink eye to be exact.
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Hmmmmmmmm………
http://www.liberianobserver.com/security/breaking-formaldeyde-water-allegedly-causing-ebola-symptoms
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Another good link worth checking out.
http://vaccineresistancemovement.org/?page_id=11240
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[…] Ebola (1976- ) is a disease that has killed nearly 5,000 so far in 2014 in the West African countries of Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea. It broke out in December 2013 right near where the three countries meet. It is by far the worst Ebola outbreak ever. There is no cure. It kills 70% to 90% of those who get sick.- Click through to read more – […]
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If Nigeria stamped out Ebola, why not consider their treatment method as best for blacks/browns/Africans? Why continue chasing ZMapps that is known to be ineffective cure for the black/brown race?
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When this latest outbreak happened, I remember hearing the head of the Woorld Health Organization say that they weren’t getting involved because they wanted Africa to manage the problem themsselves. After the Eric Duncan incident, everyone’s involved.
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[…] Ebola (1976- ) is a disease that has killed nearly 5,000 so far in 2014 in the West African countries of Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea. It broke out in December 2013 right near where the three countries meet. It is by far the worst Ebola outbreak ever. There is no cure. It kills 70% to 90% of those who get sick.- Click through to read more – […]
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[…] Ebola (1976- ) is a disease that has killed nearly 5,000 so far in 2014 in the West African countries of Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea. It broke out in December 2013 right near where the three countries meet. It is by far the worst Ebola outbreak ever. There is no cure. It kills 70% to 90% of those who get sick. – Click through to read more – […]
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“…Since there is no cure, the main way to fight Ebola is to keep it from spreading…
I think this about typifies the amount of dis-information that there is about this manufactured bio-weaponized virus and many others. This is just so NOT TRUE! – Research Nano Silver!
A very detailed and factual account for anyone who wants to really understand what the Ebola crisis is all about can be found in the following article and video
The video analysis is the most extensive and cross-referenced research I’ve seen to date on the purpose of Ebola. Its 1/2 hour long but if you want to fully understand and know the full FACTS behind the Ebola virus and any supposed vaccine then watch it all before commenting in ignorance….
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Anne
Exactly. The virus is not new, but it became front page news simply because someone brought it to US soil.
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@Kushite Prince and Kwamla
Thank you both for the additional information. It is much appreciated.
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Sharinair 🙂
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@ Mary Burrell?
I come from a ‘Bush’ culture myself and am kind of offended at that reaction of yours. Bats, less any type of diseases, are perfectly nutritious and make for a hearty meal.
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Some are even vegetarians.
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@TeddyBearSniffer
I wish not to speak for Mary, but try not to be offended. It may simply be something she is not use to being considered food or even healthy.
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@ sharinalr
Rats raised on a farm are as tasty as farmed guinea pigs which is becoming more and more acceptable rodent to dine on around the world. Bats are rodents too. I think farmed bats can be consumed but would take an expert level of monitoring to ensure safe harvesting procedures.
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@TeddyBearSniffer: Bon Apetite.
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@sharinalr: Thanks.
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Possum is the sorriest meat I ever ate; that and carp.
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“Possum is the sorriest meat I ever ate…”
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
Speaking of possum
Say *Hi* to Jeb, Ellie Mae, Granny, Jethro, Ms. Hathaway and Mr. Drysdale.
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And this thread just got derailed. Maybe agabond can create a gourmet section for those who need to brag about their exotic tastes.
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This is why we need more funding for science and medical research instead of continuous cutting those areas, and redistributing those funds to military spending and corporate welfare.
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OFF TOPIC: Food, unless it can be directly tied to Ebola.
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I wonder what makes them think that Bats are the ebola carrier?
@ Mary Burrell
🙂 anytime.
@Nicholas
I agree more research needs to be done, but I have to really wonder if more research has not been done already and it is simply hidden from the public.
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sharinalr
I wonder what makes them think that Bats are the ebola carrier?
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What color are they?
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@sharinalr
You’re very welcome. I do what I can to open the minds of others. I think sharing information is very important nowadays. There is a lot of lies in the mainstream media. They are experts in dis-information. They want to confuse the masses. Confusion is the enemy to revolution.
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@Kwamla
Thank you for that site brother! Great information! I’ve never seen that site before. I’ll have to tell others about it. Much appreciated!
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One of the weird things about this Ebola thing is that, the virus first broke simultaneous in 2 German cities and in former Yugoslavia in bio-warfare laboratories in 1967, where many lab-workers in the city of Marburg died. hence the name Marburg virus. That was long before the outbreak in the remote village of Yambuku in the DRC. But weird enough, instead of actually name it, with a neutral name like filovirus, what it actually is, or to name it after the place where it first appeared. The mainstream (aka white) media and authorized voices speak of Ebola. A river near the place, where it appeared in 1976.So now the disease is not widely known by the name Filovirus, Marburg virus , Frankfurt virus or Yugoslavia virus, but as Ebola. Because they want to associate the virus with the huge continent Africa. This kind of attitude does not just stop with this Filovirus, there is also this worm. It first appeared in Medina, in the middle east. But they managed to give it the name guinea-worm, where it appeared much later. There is also another virus, Filovirus-like that appeared in south-east Europe and Asia minor. Instead of just calling it Crimea-virus , they managed to call it : Crimea-Congo virus. Unbelievable. but, hey, who cares, Africa is such an awful place right? Always after the Motto : associate the continent Africa with disease, especially the most scary ones.
The second thing that is weird, is that at the outbreak in 1976 in former Zaire aka DRC, a cure has been created, and it was successfully used to save a British lab-worker, who catch the virus. But not the apparently subhumans that were dying in Congo. And since then, nobody ever talks about this cure. The chorus is: there is no cure.
The virus seems always to appear “mysteriously” always in very remote, rural places.
African forest animals, that have been renamed “bushmeat”, for the circumstance, have been blamed. you know, in Africa there can be no forest. But just “bushes”, always this colonial-demeaning register. I think the choice of words here is not a coincidence.
The problem is that, African forests have been thoroughly searched, but no sign of the natural carrier. Because viruses generally have a natural carrier, but in this case? never found.
second problem: the animals, who have been blamed for the virus ( usual suspect: monkey, gorilla etc…) don´t carry the virus naturally. They suffer the same symptom as the humans and die terribly like humans.
Then came the Savior: the Bats.
Third problem: Experiments have been made on Bats. When they are injected with the virus, the “natural-carriers” manage to COMPLETELY eliminate the virus from their bodies in matter of days if not hours. But this weird thing here is that this is never publicly stressed. So the truth is that, the natural Host has never been found on the continent, but when you hear the medias, you´ll think that the nasty “African bushmeat” is responsible for Ebola. And that Africans because they eat ” savage bushmeat” and not the civilized, processed, hormone-filled, GMO-nourrished meat are responsible for the spread of Ebola. They are so dumb right? How can they live in their savage, dangerous continent and eat “bushmeat” for millions of years now , since Modern men appeared there, and not see that they are spreading “Ebola”?
I won´t do any speculation about, who, why and if this virus is manufactured, but i saw how this thing was used to again stigmatized a whole continent , the second biggest on earth, a skin color, and how the implicit racism, the fear-porn took over and that is unacceptable, Even the WHO did it.
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Great comments leo; but in fairness, the African continent has some peculiar characteristics that make its flora and fauna very diverse and unique.
I wouldn’t be surprised if its virus and bacterial were just as diverse and unique?
Indeed, the very fact that some of the African environment has the same temperature as the human body may function to promote more adaption and variability not seen anywhere else?
Things like ebola may have been what kept the white man out of Africa for centuries.
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Leo @ One of the weird things about this Ebola thing is that, the virus first broke simultaneous in 2 German cities and in former Yugoslavia in bio-warfare laboratories in 1967, where many lab-workers in the city of Marburg died. hence the name Marburg virus.
Linda says,
Leo, you are spot on — a natural virus with no known “natural” reservoirs (carriers), has to make anyone go “hmmm”
and as usual, Africa ends up
as the free scientific testing groundgetting blamed for the origination of yet another “rare” diseasesort of reminds me of HIV– no accurate real history about its origination or transmission to humans — eating “bush” meat somehow transferred African primate SIV over to gay men but no one else?? (monkeys get blamed for everything_and make great test subjects), seems to have come out of thin air
and initially only infected a certain “group” of people — unlike the European bubonic plague or the flu virus, which did not and don’t discriminate
speaking of diseases that we’ve never seen before:
Right now in Jamaica, we are also dealing with the chikungunya virus — normally shouldn’t kill anyone, just makes them feel really weak, flu-like symptoms, and severe joint pain
and it has spread like wildfire throughout the Caribbean
http://www.caribjournal.com/2014/10/14/jamaica-in-national-emergency-due-to-chikungunya-virus-outbreak/
mosquitoes are being blamed as the natural carriers but once again, this disease seems to have popped out of thin air.
(I was scheduled to travel there last week but did not go because 3 of my relatives had returned and got sick with it — not one of them knows how they caught it. All 3 were in Kingston and a few relatives that were in mosquito-heavy “bush” region, did not get sick)
The Caribbean doesn’t have any history with this disease and it’s not natural to the islands.
no one knows where it truly comes from but of course, Africa is being blamed.
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Marburg virus is not ebola, though it is similar type.
What makes me wonder is this: US send 3000 soldiers to help combat ebola in Africa? Same time Cuba send doctors and nurses. Whats wrong with the picture?
And then again: the traditional methods of quaratine etc. have worked in the past as ebola is very fast. It kills the victims in days and symptoms appear in just days. So it is easy to detect and isolate, as the locals “wiz doctors” and “medicine men” did for who know how long in the past.
If there was an ebola out break somewhere that village was closed: no one came in and no one left. The houses where in the village where there was ebola outbreak were also isolated in the village, no one came out and no one went in. Food was given to the door form where from the people inside took it.
In a week those carrying virus had either died or survived. All the dead and all those buildings where there had been ebola were burned to the ground. That was it.
This used to be the local native method. So why 3000 US soldiers?
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@ kushite Prince….You are welcome 😊!
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@sam
You stated something very interesting. Why 3000 soldiers?
@ Linda
I never thought about the HIV virus. I guess overtime I got use to it being here and never questioned it except when younger. The myth was that some man had sex with a monkey and it spread. Though as the talk of Ebola has come up, I have to wonder what is it’s origin as well as the origin of chikungunya virus .
@ Leo
Very well stated and good point.
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Funny. America didn’t care about Ebola until white people started getting it.
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Rubbish Brothawolf. All kinds of fiction writing for example has a major outbreak of Ebola as a plot point. The fact is that not much of anyone cared about Ebola for real until a major outbreak occurred. I’m sure you dropped everything to combat Ebola, for example.
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@ Joshua
“The fact is that not much of anyone cared about Ebola for real until a major outbreak occurred.”— You do realize that these “major” outbreaks have been occurring for sometime now. So do explain to me why now it is all of a sudden front page news? Why is every news station and news paper saturated with the Ebola virus? The reality of the matter is that America did not care until it came to America. It was no longer the virus in “uncivilized” Africa that could never touch the “almighty” western society. People who lived through it and dealt with it did care, so just because people in Western civilization did not care does not mean that “not much of anyone” cared.
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What MAJOR outbreaks, on the scale we are seeing now, have occurred in the past? There have been isolated outbreaks, but nothing that was international in scope – even regionally.
If you are complaining because people in the Americas are as self-focused as every other culture in the world, that is correct, but it has little to do with Ebola per se.
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I think the generalizations leave a lot to be desired.
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Joshua
“What MAJOR outbreaks, on the scale we are seeing now, have occurred in the past?”—Your definition of a major outbreak centering around the deaths of today does not make outbreaks of the past any less major. Plus I clearly said “major” outbreaks have been occurring for sometime now. The quotations around the major is quite significant.
“but nothing that was international in scope – even regionally.”—You mean international in that nothing that made it to America? You do realize that in the past the virus has been reported in not only the USA, but England, Philippines, and Russia. The difference is reported low or no fatality at those times. Because of no deaths it was not a big deal.
“If you are complaining because people in the Americas are as self-focused as every other culture in the world, that is correct, but it has little to do with Ebola per se.”—I am not complaining at all. Just pointing out the naked truth, but does pointing out what every other culture does negate that truth of what America is doing? I think not so it was a bit pointless for you to mention. As far as whether or not it has to do with Ebola, I never said it did and nor did anyone else as I am sure we all can think of several self-centered moves by America.
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RIP to Dr.Martin Salia of Sierra Leon this is so sad this man seemed like such a loving and caring man.
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helpful information about Ebola disease……..
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