So we’ve been hearing a LOT about this Ebola thing for a while now, and every day, it seems like the problem escalates. How worried should you really be? What can you do about it? What should you be doing now?
James wrote an article several days ago about this topic called Ebola fear grips the world – here’s why you don’t need to freak out. I’ve been watching the news and reading sites about it but I never really sat down and looked at the problem until now. I wasn’t going to cover it at all except I think I need to put another perspective into what was already written.
Not to say that James is wrong in what he said, because he’s not. I just think that there’s a lot more information that you need to know to make an informed decision – and I do think that it’s about time you took some common-sense precautions. If the world gets its act together in West Africa and gets this thing under control then the worst case is that you know a little bit more about pandemics and you have some preparations in place that you could use for other emergencies if they come up. If they don’t get it under control, then you’ll be better-prepared to deal with it.
You may have read the Washington Post article recently where I was “quoted.” – How ‘survivalists’ in America are planning their escape from Ebola apocalypse — right now. What was left out of that interview was that I was stating that even if Ebola breaks out in the US, it’s still highly unlikely it would affect you personally. If it gets so bad that we have an unchecked outbreak like in Africa, your biggest threat would then be the people freaking out as well as grocery stores and basic services being disrupted. If you don’t have supplies then and be able to protect them, you’re at the mercy of the masses of scared people. Other quotes were dug out of older articles and put in. Don’t get me wrong, I still think a gun is the best protection against a bad guy with a gun. I just didn’t put it the way he made it seem.
Let’s move on.
One of the things that I’ve done around the world for the US Government is what’s called a Threat Vulnerability Assessment, or TVA for short. It’s a realistic analysis of what personnel could be facing in likely scenarios as well as worst-case scenarios. It’s something that the embassy or combatant commanders can pull out on a given facility that outlines things like the threat of terrorist threat, criminal threat, and medical threat.
To generalize things, it looks at at the relevant threats to the facility, looks at the vulnerabilities that the facility has to those threats, and suggests courses of action to reduce the risks of those threats. That’s what I’m gonna do here.We’re gonna look at the threat of Ebola and what you can do to mitigate that threat to your family.
I do believe that this has the possibility to become a credible threat, but I also believe that you can do a LOT to mitigate this threat. If you’ve been reading my blog for a while, you know that I don’t get all in a huff about things very much – even things that I believe are likely to happen in the near future. I think this one though is important enough that I sit down and explain it so you know what the world is facing and what you can do about it.
What is the Ebola virus?
According to the World Health Organization, here are some facts about the virus:
Key facts
- Ebola virus disease (EVD), formerly known as Ebola haemorrhagic fever, is a severe, often fatal illness in humans.
- EVD outbreaks have a case fatality rate of up to 90%.
- EVD outbreaks occur primarily in remote villages in Central and West Africa, near tropical rainforests.
- The virus is transmitted to people from wild animals and spreads in the human population through human-to-human transmission.
- Fruit bats of the Pteropodidae family are considered to be the natural host of the Ebola virus.
- Severely ill patients require intensive supportive care. No licensed specific treatment or vaccine is available for use in people or animals.
Transmission
Ebola is introduced into the human population through close contact with the blood, secretions, organs or other bodily fluids of infected animals. In Africa, infection has been documented through the handling of infected chimpanzees, gorillas, fruit bats, monkeys, forest antelope and porcupines found ill or dead or in the rainforest.Ebola then spreads in the community through human-to-human transmission, with infection resulting from direct contact (through broken skin or mucous membranes) with the blood, secretions, organs or other bodily fluids of infected people, and indirect contact with environments contaminated with such fluids. Burial ceremonies in which mourners have direct contact with the body of the deceased person can also play a role in the transmission of Ebola. Men who have recovered from the disease can still transmit the virus through their semen for up to 7 weeks after recovery from illness.
How do you catch Ebola?
According to the World Health Organization, Ebola is not contagious until someone shows symptoms:
The incubation period, or the time interval from infection to onset of symptoms, is from 2 to 21 days. The patients become contagious once they begin to show symptoms. They are not contagious during the incubation period.
What are the symptoms of Ebola?
According to Humanillness.com:
About 5 to 10 days after infection, people with Ebola get a fever, headache, and body aches. Frequently there is nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, cough, chest pain, and sore throat. Often there is sensitivity to light, swollen lymph glands, rash, as well as other symptoms. Patients also begin excessive bleeding where injections are given. During the second week of infection, people with Ebola may get better, but often they develop severe bleeding from many parts of the body. If this occurs, then the patient will probably not survive.
The CDC lists the symptoms of Ebola Zaire as:
- headache
- fever
- sore throat
- muscle aches
- joint pain
- general malaise and weakness
Followed by:
- skin rash
- red eyes
- diarrhea
- vomiting
- hiccoughs
- internal and external bleeding in some patients
How is Ebola spread?
According to the WHO:
Ebola is introduced into the human population through close contact with the blood, secretions, organs or other bodily fluids of infected animals. In Africa, infection has been documented through the handling of infected chimpanzees, gorillas, fruit bats, monkeys, forest antelope and porcupines found ill or dead or in the rainforest.Ebola then spreads in the community through human-to-human transmission, with infection resulting from direct contact (through broken skin or mucous membranes) with the blood, secretions, organs or other bodily fluids of infected people, and indirect contact with environments contaminated with such fluids. Burial ceremonies in which mourners have direct contact with the body of the deceased person can also play a role in the transmission of Ebola. Men who have recovered from the disease can still transmit the virus through their semen for up to 7 weeks after recovery from illness.
The other thing about the virus is that currently, there is no treatment yet. They’re doing testing on some people but nothing that’s been proven to work yet. Dr. Thomas Frieden, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said of the current possibility of a vaccine or a cure,
“I don’t want any false hopes out there,”“Right now we don’t know if they work, and we can’t, as far as we know, have them in any significant numbers.”
Pretty scary stuff, right?
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