this is what made for TV movies are made of

The other day, after reading a prior article on this outbreak, that was the first thing I commented on, that the healthworkers must be terrified (although brave) having to deal with this disease face-to-face with the infected patients. Most of us would likely prefer to run the other way, out of fear.

Witchcraft, magic, and bush meat. Wow.

I wish 'em luck.

hey Shirley...if you stopped opening your mouth and letting your biggited thoughts spill out the world would be a better place!!!

Amazing how sensationalism gets our attention. This exotic disease is no big whoop. It occassionally has sporadic outbreaks in tropical areas, a few people die in grusome ways, and thats it. Lots of other scary diseases out there killing, and flu kills much much more every year. And war? Lets not even TALK about all the death and destruction THAT causes. A couple of drone strikes on a village in Afghanistan is more lethal than an ebola outbreak. Its not just terrorists that get killed - innocent bystanders are being killed by the dozen. Yet we aren't freaking out about that... ebola schmebola. Heck - even garden-variety staph aureus infections kill thousands of us every year, and that little bacteria is likely on you, your keyboard, your desk RIGHT NOW.

Ebola... feh.

Could be a catastrophe of Biblical proportions. Isolate at all costs. Don't like the idea that travel restrictions have not been imposed. Hopefully Hillary will be strip searched, sprayed with bug poison, and totally checked out before she can return.

StrengthInNumbers

Amazing how sensationalism gets our attention. This exotic disease is no big whoop.

We've been very lucky for the past 50+ years and sooner or later the luck will run out. Ebola and all of it's family members( Viral hemorrhagic fever) have stayed where they originate mainly because they kill their hosts so quickly. It "burned out" because it killed its hosts before they can spread it too fare afield. In under a week they go from healthy, to sick, to bleeding from all orifices, to dead.

Prior to the advent of worldwide jet travel, the disease could not "get out" before the host was visibly strickened and unable to travel. Maybe you have missed it, but for the past 50 years or so we have been able to get completely around the world in under 3 days. You can come in contact with a lot of people on a crowded 787 in time to make them carriers too before you start showing visible symptoms. I have a nephew that is a research physician that teaches at Emory and does work for the CDC in Atlanta who describes that is the true nightmare scenario.

IMO, It's only a matter of tame before we get to experience a real life version of Dustin Hoffman's and Renee Russo's "Outbreak with travel like it exists now.

@ Midwife...Outbreak wasn't a made for TV movie. That's about as real as a loose strain can get, albeit the classic Hollywood theatrics. Fortunately, it hasn't happened yet and, hopefully, it never will. I pray for these people. Ebola is possibly the worst illness you can get...I can't imagine what it must be like.

These people must have balls of steel to do this kind of work... hats off to these brave folks...

If terrorist hit the u.s. with a direct biological attack in a heavily populated area that is exactly what you will get.

she or he should find another planet

What a terrible disease. I wonder why nature comes up with these terrible illnesses. I think the only reason this disease has not spread around the world is because it kills so damn fast. Surprisingly the r naught for Ebola is only 1.83. Thanks heaven it doesn't have the r naught of the measles, which is 18.

Whats the benefit to "imag[ing] the horror?" Why not imagine there being enough funds to investigate, treat and eradicate this disease?

Agree with Tim

HarleMan,

"Imagine this being weaponized and sprayed over a large metropolitan area like New York?"

I'm sure some evil genius somewhere (probably employed by al-Qaeda) is hard at work trying to figure out a way to do just what you imagine.

To bad the outbreak was in Uganda and not Iran. It might have saved us a lot of trouble!

I don't think even a terrorist would be that stupid because if you let loose something like this is New York this wouldn't just affect New York it would be spread to the world no country would not be affected it would be like that movie contagion scary stuff gives me chills just thinking about it.

jenny thomas,

"I don't think even a terrorist would be that stupid because if you let loose something like this is New York this wouldn't just affect New York it would be spread to the world no country would not be affected it would be like that movie contagion scary stuff gives me chills just thinking about it."

I think what you say is true, but doesn't that apply to the whole concept of biological warfare in general? Yet it hasn't stopped the nations from stokpiling biological weapons.

Highway Star

To bad the outbreak was in Uganda and not Iran. It might have saved us a lot of trouble!

How does the death of innocent people save us a lot of trouble?

Ol_Doc

CDC is just more government control. Let the market regulate it.

I admit your statement leaves me at a loss. Are you saying that the CDC should not be involved? Are you saying that this is a situation that doesn't matter since it's not on U.S. soil? What are you saying?

Please explain.

I admit your statement leaves me at a loss. Are you saying that the CDC should not be involved? Are you saying that this is a situation that doesn't matter since it's not on U.S. soil? What are you saying?

Please explain.

I too find ole doc's post strangely puzzling & would like an explanation.

Imagine this being weaponized and sprayed over a large metropolitan area like New York? You can only imagine the horror.

That possibility is very, very, very unlikely because it kills too quickly... This is because that the nature of how Ebola kills will prevent that... It's a real killer, but it kills to quickly to allow it to spread like swine flu can. Then there is the problem of how it spreads, bodily fluid transfer... That is rather hard to weaponize.

I believe OL_Doc was being sarcastic and venting some frustration. He/she is highlighting the importance of government agencies and their role in our safety and well being.

Ok, let's not "Imagine the horror" of this happening in any other crowded place and instead imagine the outbreak being stopped, nobody else becoming infected and a quick and easy recovery for those who have already become infected! Now that's something to imagine. Especially since we bring to us what we meditate on.

It is hard to know with posts like OL_Doc made. There are many people who really do believe that the CDC is part of a conspiracy to take away their freedoms, such as the freedom to not immunize their children. As ridiculous as it seems, there are many crazy people in this country and it is legitimate to wonder if Ol_Doc is one of them.

I always been partial to the movie "Outbreak" over "Contagion". Got to love it when the government just drops a firebomb to kill the ebola virus.

jumping,

"There are many people who really do believe that the CDC is part of a conspiracy to take away their freedoms, such as the freedom to not immunize their children"

I'm sure there are such people. But I think that anyone who is so obsessed with freedom should go live alone in a forest, jungle, or desert somewhere, totally isolated from the rest of the human race, because that is the only way they are ever going to find total freedom. You are never totally free as long as you are part of a society. Every society has rules and standards that all members are expected to follow. But they are free to leave our society if freedom means that much to them. We have no "Berlin Wall" preventing them from leaving.

The article is a bit sensationalized and does not explain the disease process well at all. (And the idiots who love to take this sort of thing and run with it was out in force."

Ebola (actually five different viruses) is not actually all that dangerous in a First World country. People who make it into a modern hospital have a death rate approaching zero. In fact only one person has ever contracted the disease in a modern hospital and died was a nurse in South Africa and she had issues with diabetes and ended up dead from diabetic complications.

If a person gets to a modern hospital, they are put in isolation and given supportive therapy (hydration, breathing support, etc) and antibiotics to prevent secondary infections. While the disease process is not pretty, supportive therapy is all that is required. Just keep the person alive until their own immune system whips the disease.

The danger is in central African countries where public health spending is minimal, often less than a dollar a year per person. These people are served only by distant clinics that are understaffed and undertrained. And even these clinics are effective at stopping the secondary spread of the disease.

Were ebola to "get loose" in a major metropolitan area in this country, the infected would be quarantined, their families and other contacts isolated and the death rate would be less than 5%, comparable to the death rate from a "normal" influenza outbreak.

The main reason why no one would ever consider "weaponizing" ebola is that it would be much more likely to kill the posessers than the targets. Mostly biological weapons tend to be diseased that have a high death rate, but for which excellent vaccines exist. The hope is not so much killing individuals as interrupting herd immunity to the point that vaccines are not fully effective.

If they want to contain the disease they have to use a low dosage of liguid chlorine dioxide an make it spray mist in the area, it doesnt take much so keep the dosages low so it wont hurt the plant and animal life, there only needs 5 to 10 mg of chlorine dioxide per 1/5 cup of water, if you spray it in a mist in the air it will destroy the virus within 3 seconds, but the resources that are required might be hard to come by in that region, and if they spray it they need to be out of the way and do not breath it in, a little bit you will be alright if you breathe too much you die

@GodsPhantom,

God has been "talking" to you again, I see. But as usual he is wrong. First of all, diluted bleach is effective ONLY on hard inantimate surfaces and is useful only when prepared in an exact less than 20 minutes in advance. Even diuluted bleach, however would simply kill most of the animal and plant life if used the way you suggest.

The disease is in the bodies of mammals, including people. Fruit bats are the likely primary vector, both spreading it directly by contact to both apes and people and in partially eating fruit that is then dropped to the forest floor and eaten by apes and monkeys. The primates are hunted for food (called "bush meat.") It is then transmitted from human to human through contact and bodily fluids.

Such a mist would eventually stop the virus, but by killing plants and animals, including humans, that might harbor it.

Kind of a goofy idea at best, but I notice that nowhere di you say that you came up with this on ytour very own. You should be careful. Someone might decide you know what you are talking about and be harmed as a result.

This has actually already happened, but it did not result in a major outbreak. As I understood it, around the mid 1990s, an American tourist went to go visit some cave paintings in the area, and brought back Ebola with him. Apparently, he was fortuneate enough that his body was holding back the virus, and nobody else got sick.

I just sat through a talk where they discussed making the Ebola vaccine part of a Rabies and Botulism vaccine. Since those vaccines are relatively common (and cheap), throughing in Ebola Vaccine is sorta like a bonus. They have just completed successfully testing the vaccine on mice.

Really? I had not heard about the vaccine tests. This might be the time for limited human trials. Do they have a time span for effectiveness yet?

Can you imagine an infected, transmittable patient on a jet coming into JFK or LAX that doesn't have an immune system made of steel?

Promises, promises...

Ebola is a 'hot virus'; a pandemic is highly unlikely.

Disease knows no political party.

Johnny N.

Thanks alot you loser Kennedy's for the Immigration change that brings third world people here within days of being in a mud hut !!! America thanks you , you LIBERAL Democrats !!

It won't be people from a mud hut that spreads it internationally, it will be international trade. It will come in on a business flight or a freighter crew. But I guess you can blame liberals if you want. By the way, let's get rid of the CDC, just another socialist govment agency interfering with free trade. Let the free market regulate itself. I'm sure that will stop the next pandemic...you bleeding idiot!

Steve,

"Ebola or H1N1"

You've got the right virus, but the wrong name. H1N1 is the name of the Swine Flu.

You's guys are excellent consumers of propaganda...

I bet you believe the new H1N1 numbers that 500,000 people died in the 2009 H1N1 outbreak, too. LMAO.

Yeah abunch of idiots. While H1N1 was no cake walk I would take it again over Ebola anyday. It was basically a nasty flue although the viral pneumonia/pulmonary edema from it sucked something bad and even worse due to being on(actually going off a week or so before) warfarin(Coumadin). You know something isn't right when you cough up a mouth full of blood, not some spots but mouths full. Problem is that it did kill many but most of them already had a comprimised immune system and or very young and very old

Perhaps it could be spread by a shipment of clothes or African made scarves,During the "Great Plague" in London the virus was sent in a wedding dress to a village in Derbyshire, where most of the villagers died, the last major medical disaster was the Spanish Flu, killed millions and in those days travel took days and weeks not hours.The human race is getting too big I think there will be a natural Cull, some time but the question is when?

@diatribe,

No one has ever said that the H1N1 2012 virus killed 500,000 people. "The H1N1 influenza virus probably killed about 284,500 people worldwide, compared with 18,500 deaths reported to the World Health Organization, researchers from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention wrote in the journal Lancet Infectious Diseases today (June 12, 2012). More than half the deaths may have been in southeast Asia and Africa, compared with 12 percent of officially reported fatalities, the authors wrote."

I agree that the Doctors Without Borders organization is phenomenal and for them to walk into this willingly is a whole other kind of extraordinary, but I do have to disagree with your statement about Ebola living in the ground. No one knows right now where this virus hides and that's part of the problem. They have suspicions but that's about it.

They believe that animals are carriers... virus' do go to ground... via feces...and are picked up by animals feeding in an area... that is why animals are not always sick. There are so many of them out there. This particular virus is common only to this area.

Actually, the viral resevoir is primates. Its no mystery, since viruses require a way to replicate in order to survive. Viruses are by their nature HIGHLY specific, and can only infect and replicate themselves in particular types of cells.

The reason you don't see a mass die out of primates is because the virus enters a state known as the "Lysogenic cycle". Essentially, the virus incorporates its own genetic information into the Host's DNA. During this time, there is "none" of the virus left in it's physical form. Until the conditions are right, the virus hangs out in the form of DNA. When the animal becomes sick or stressed, the virus might revert to the "Lytic cycle", where the virus replicates and destroys cells (literally popping the cells). This is when it begins to infect people.

While its possible it is in the ground dormant, its more likely that it is hiding out inside primates that it has not yet made sick.

There is an initiative out there to give vaccines to primates to help reduce the viral spread, but animal rights people keep interfering. Personally, i think if they love the animals so much, they should let them get the vaccine so they don't die awful, excruciating deaths.

CAB4 - I read they also were wondering about bats, but had not conclusively found it yet. I knew they were looking at primates, but I wasn't aware they had pinpointed the virus absolutely - do they have any specific primates or all primates are potential carriers?

My mind is blown away! WOW! Cab4... I truly hope you call and contact the WHO..... as they are still going through every animal on the continent... trying to figure out where the link is! It is amazing that you have the info!

I wouldn't go so far as contacting the WHO, they probably know WAY more about it than I do. I suspect it is just that the more detailed information about viruses and how they function is just not common knowledge.

Too be fair, it IS possible that other organisms harbor the virus, but again, it will likely be something very specific. What is interesting, is that considering how lethal the virus can be (between 30-90% mortality, depending on which type of ebola one is infected with), you would think that any animal that it infects would die in large numbers.

I suspect the reason they are going through every animal is because they suspect somewhere there is an animal that is infected with the virus (probably a primate), but is able to naturally fight the virus. Understanding the molecular processes involved would be invaluable in fighting the virus.

However, Ebola in the context of its environment is probably not easy research. While we have translated the Ebola genome, and we know its genes, and what they do, and have discovered some cells and proteins that the virus will bind with, we don't know nearly as much about the organisms in uganda.

For example, I could probably easily find the human proteins that the Virus binds with in order to invade a cell through google, and then find it's sequence through NCBI's BLAST search engine (a tool that searches a HUGE database of DNA and Protein sequences). I could then search for every gene in the database that matched the human gene associated with the virus gaining entry to the cell. Any organism with a similar genetic or protein sequence will show up high on the search list, and that could give real clues as to which organisms are holding the virus.

However, this only works if the organism's genome is known as part of the database. Whats more, just because you have a gene in you genome, doesn't mean that it will ever be expressed. You would have to study the gene EXPRESSION in the different tissue types of different organisms to see which organisms might have cells compatible with the virus.

I highly doubt we have all of this information on the different species of animals that live in Uganda and other areas that Ebola has originated from. These animals are not easily studied, for a variety of practical and political reasons (for example, you can't really keep a gorilla in the lab and then sacrafice it as part of scientific test. no one would allow that).

this is why the WHO is out there gathering the basic research. Until we shed more light on the animals that harbor the virus, we will not really have a complete understanding of how it persists.

Its one of those situations where we know so much, yet all of that doesn't scratch the surface of what is truly out there.

Poverty does not create illness. Hundreds of Billions have been poured into Africa over the last 100 years, and there is scarcely any improvement in economics. Or health. Send all of your money you want to, Joe, but I don't recommend it. There are better ways to improve your economy than breeding like rabbits, fomenting tribal warfare and ignoring long established sanitary practices. Have you ever been to Africa? Don't go. You will be sorry. 50 years of the peace corps, and every other well meaning organization has done little to alleviate the poverty, sanitation, starvation, rampant rape and mutilation of children, abandonment of children, aids, cholera. They sort of had malaria under control until DDT was banned, and now it is rampant again.

These people can not be helped. Not until they resolve to help themselves. Which they won't. Even if the "leaders" of these nations didn't steal every nickel and valuable thing sent to help them, they would not make 1 iota of progress. It's like alcoholism, Joe...you have to want to get better, or there's nothing Dr. Phil can do to help you.

seek help asap,your a sick man.

I agree with you Steve 100%! But, I will add, keep those diseases in Africa. Don't let them leave the continent!

You guys still don't get it. There is no over there anymore, with the advent of jets and international air travel, you can be out in the deep bush in Uganda at 12:00 am then be in New York the next day walking the streets, easy. We all live on one planet now, for better or worse, so remember if you read about some obscure place on our planet that is in trouble, don't think of it as an isolated event, and don't ask "for Whom the bells tolls, because it tolls for thee".

Momof4 - Where do you think all the doctors and virologists come from that are currently on scene? Most of them are international - CDC is United States, Doctors Without Borders is international, WHO is international. It's already been brought into the US - Google Reston Va Ebola outbreak and see what you find. We got lucky that time, but we may not be so lucky next time.

Maybe a little help is just a drop in the bucket. And maybe... 20 years later, a child that was saved becomes a great leader. An artist. A doctor. A nobel prize winner. Almost worth skipping a dinner in a resturant, isn't it?

Obviously, Steve and momof4, genocide is the answer, whether it be direct or tacit. I hope someday you both realize how utterly dim it is to blame the African continent's cultural degeneration on Africans. It doesn't appear to be worth the time it would take to explain the nature of destruction wrought by now-defunct colonialism, and further, the current neo-colonialism... Nor would time be well-spent explaining the relationship between said cultural pressures and birth/death rates...I recommend books; history or even some decent historically-based fiction. There are plenty available.

Study human history and you will find that humans are in a lot of ways like rats. Give them enough food and they will continue to multiply up to the point that they begin to run out then watch what happens. We in the US are just lucky to be the biggest rats on the block.

Diatribe,

Even thinking to recommend books to dolts like those two is a waste of your time. People like that would rather remain ignorant b/c it takes less brain power for them to formulate such an asinine conclusion. These are the people with whom we live and share 21% oxygen. Luckily stupidity can physically manifest as well via dumb decision making on their part.

I think the best thing for us to do is to use our energy to nominate both of them for future Darwin awards b/c surely they are both simple minded (read "beyond slow and intellectually challenged") enough to eventually do something dumb enough to make the human race that much smarter by the sheer fact that they will no longer be apart of it.

In the mean time, while filling out our nominations we should just simply sit back and laugh...b/c hey...laughing burns calories...and thus we can at least claim we directly benefited from this pseudo-interaction with them.

I was think the same thing. Bye.

You do know ebola is a natural occurance. The "Island" you live on could have it. But then agan at least it would be contained.

Centrist - I'm not very political either way, but I am NOT a Hilary fan for oh, so many reasons. I thought the same kind of thoughts when I read where she was right now. You can believe that woman is sweating bullets every time she shakes hands or someone in the room sneezes.

I never wished death on anyone but that little voice inside me said maybe she will come back and give it to everyone in the white house (all the politicians) and we can start all new .

Witchcraft, magic, bushmeat and Hilary Clinton!

What a deadly combination. Where ever that woman goes, death and disease follow her like her shadow!

and you would vist the sick Hawkeyes? Just like jesus told you to?
Perhaps you should also read "He who is without sin should cast the first stone."

The natural order of things has been been altered/ manipulated for some time now. The question is... how long can we keep it up?

I agree, if the warlike, greedy, inhumane and just generally "bad" are eliminated, its worth losing a lot of the good people along with it. Nature does a pretty good job of selection, until a species wills itself out of the cycle, like we have. I'd venture about 85% of the population is -pretty scummy, myself included. I don't know too many saints. I just feel sorry for the innocent children. Rest of us can just go to Sheol, for all I care.

( Unfortunately, it won't be God doing it. We are pretty good at killing ourselves off, don't ya think?)

Here in the states, diseases we had long eradicated, small pox, tuberculosis, Polo, Whooping Cough, scarlet and rheumatic fevers and a host of others are making a come back. Thanks in large part to illegal aliens from countries where they are still rampant.

Actually, thanks in whole part to people refusing to accept vaccinations for most of these diseases.

Scarlet fever, smallpox, and TB are not part of the standard vaccine schedule.

Actually, the only case in which a disease has been "eradicated" from a geographic area is in the case of rabies in G. Britain, which is an island. That does not, however, preclude the possible reintroduction at any time.

There is a very large potential that the acellular pertussis vaccine doesn't work, and an equally large potential that the vast majority of "pertussis" cases in the US (which are rarely lab-confirmed, by the way) are actually parapertussis, a different strain of bacteria for which there is NO vaccine. Measles, which had been a stable virus with little mutation for a long time, is now suspected of having mutated thus rendering the vaccine less effective. Natural selection is a bitch, eh?

Those of us who remain unvaccinated, have either contracted these diseases, or have developed natural immunity due to exposure without infection. This does not mean that we are "carriers," but that we generally have antibodies for said diseases and thus are relatively unaffected as a population during an outbreak.

Hmmm... Is it possible that there is a correlation between increased poverty and the increase of infectious disease? There was a definite correlation between decreases in poverty and decreases in infectious disease. Why would it not work the other way?

Byron, are you aware that pertussis toxin is one of the most dangerous toxic agents known to man? It is used to induce encephalitic myelitis (septic meningitis) in rats for the purpose of experimentation. Read: it is useful i lab experiments BECAUSE it causes inflammation of the brain and meninges. Doctors (and I know this from experience) will lie to your face and tell you that there is no pertussis toxin in the Tdap/DTap vaccines. The product notes from the manufacturers state otherwise. I guess you never questioned why you are asked to sign a liability waiver before you are vaccinated.

Furthermore, yes, people die from diseases, for a lot of reasons that are not always specifically related to the disease itself. It is tragic when people die, children and adults, because we care about them. My parents and grandparents have related to me that while childhood dieases are indeed unpleasant, the incidence of death and permanent injury was not as extreme as pharma propaganda would have us all believe. Nearly everyone had these diseases and very rarely did anyone die.

WTF does this thread have to do with Ebola, again?

A few facts. Tuberculosis was NEVER eliminated, not from anywhere in the united states. It was reduced, yes, but never eliminated.

Small Pox only exists in two laboratories in the world in highly guarded tiny containers. One is in the US, the other in Russia. There has not been a case of small pox for about 30 years.

Scarlet Fever (caused by the Strep bacteria) is strep throat with a rash. There has never been a vaccination for it. The strep bacteria that most people get now is weaker than what circulated 100 years ago.

There IS a vaccination for a specific type of tuberculosis, but it is really only effective in very young children. That's why even most adults travelling to areas of the world with higher rates of TB are not vaccinated. Nor was my sister, who worked for 3 years with the homeless population in my city-where there is a larger percentage of TB cases ever vaccinated for it. She once asked about any possibilities and was told that it wouldn't work anyways. That is one reason why it is not part of the vaccination schedule.

The whooping cough vaccination is not necessarily effective. Back in 1994, I was four years old, had been fully vaccinated, as was my eight-year-old sister. AND the neighbourhood children. Yet, there was an outbreak, and we all got sick. At least I don't have to get vaccinated again for it...

Way to make a world crisis a racial comment. Things like this take everyone working together to survive.

Hey Steve the dog man "FEAR" is a son of bitch ain't it.

All you African Americans who trace your ancestry to this region (not that many)...just think! If your relatives hadn't been taken to America to be slaves, you could be home in Ugunda right now. No, thank you! Stay here with us. voluntarily.

Or they could have immigrated to the US voluntarily, later. As free men and women.

But would Uganda be the way it is now? I hate when people say things like this, as if the only variable that matters is the person was taken away. Who knows how many future innovators were lost to the sea on those slave ships, or who were taken away and beaten into submission and never got a chance to shine? You can't say that just because conditions are bad now, it would still be bad if history took a different course.

Ahhh Gee Doc;

I would have thought it was pretty self explanatory.

But I'll simplify it for you, If you keep letting undocumented, untraceable third world aliens into the country, You will find yourself with wave after wave of killer diseases that you had long ago eradicated. Ergo, you could wind up down 1/3 to 2/3 your previous population. Unfortunately, pathogens aren't real discriminating. So along with the dregs who originally brought them here, a lot of other people will die along with them. We aren't equipped or supplied to handle multiple outbreaks, hwll, we aren't supplied for one even if we knew what it would be. So yeah, Nature will provide a solution to over population. Stay tuned for further updates.

Why bring religion into this? So uncertain of your science you resort to faith bashing? That is a sign of a small mind, after all. An others beliefs or not have nothing to do with the current discussion or any effect on you directly. So let's just leave bashing to the extremists, shall we?

Oh and the Dinosaurs didn't die out because of disease. Their demise can from an asteroid impact, then decreased sun light and cooling, Hypothermia then starvation, then disease may have intervened. But, life on this planet has demonstrated an uncanny ability to develop immunity to most of the pathogens in the environment.

Only the mutations have been able to kill in large numbers. And these mutations, (whether natural or engineered is a topic for another discussion), Seem to be a recent aberration in their history. A few show no pathology beyond the last 80 years or so, which to my mind is quite odd.

Listen, or rather read nitwit. A human being with Ebola or Smallpox cannot enter the USA and not be detectable for very long. The advance of the disease is so rapid that within hours after contact and the onset of symptoms, that person is rendered immobile. It is highly unlikely that an Ebola/Smallpox victim would survive the trip from Africa to even Europe without dying first. A person with full blown Ebola or Smallpox could not walk across the Mexican border. They'd die before doing so.

IF such an outbreak here in the Continental US ocurred, it would be very quickly diagnosed and appropriate steps taken to contain it.

Your ignorant comments serve no purpose but to engender unnecessary panic and hysteria.

I would have thought it was pretty self explanatory.

But I'll simplify it for you, If you keep letting undocumented, untraceable third world aliens into the country, You will find yourself with wave after wave of killer diseases that you had long ago eradicated.

I would have thought that it would be very obvious why this is a really stupid comment. But apparently not.

Undocumented 3rd world aliens do not come to the country in air-conditioned planes. They walk across the Arizona or other desert, swim across various rivers, and in general, survive grueling conditions to get here. Even healthy people who are not sufficiently fit die before getting here. Do you really think someone who is on his last legs with an Ebola infection is going to make it over the border?

We are seeing outbreaks of previously 'eradicated' diseases because we now have an anti-vaccination movement in the US.

I would think all of this would be perfectly obvious, but it seems some people insist on ignoring what is right in front of them.

The vaccination rate in the US is higher than ever. Do you work for a pharmaceutical company?

diatribe, unfortunately, what you say is not true. But don't let facts get in the way of your delusions!

We'll see how funny it is if it turns up in Europe or the U.S. because someone from Uganda flew in before the outbreak was recognized. You a less than 24 hours from most places in the world today. More than enough time to carry it far and wide. Global travel is a reality, or did you forget that?

U r an idiot!