Ebola will not be a problem in the US

[Oceander]

Ebola will not be a problem in the US

By Dr. Manny Alvarez
Published August 01, 2014
FoxNews.com

It’s part of the Hippocratic Oath that all doctors must take: “I will use treatment to help the sick according to my ability and judgment…”

That oath became an urgent reality recently in the form of Dr. Kent Brantly, a doctor fighting for his life as he suffers the devastating effects of the Ebola virus – and one of two Americans to contract the disease while working in a medical facility in Liberia.

Brantly, who was working with humanitarian group Samaritan’s Purse, was offered treatment with an experimental serum, but there was one caveat: They only had enough for one patient. That’s when he decided to pass on the on the opportunity to potentially save his own life so that his gravely ill colleague, Nancy Writebol, might have a chance at survival – a truly selfless act in my book.

“In many cases, you can use serum [from] previously infected people if they were to survive,” Dr. Jean Patterson, chair of the department of virology and immunology at Texas Biomedical Research Institute in San Antonio told FoxNews.com. “My guess is it was serum from a survivor that developed antibodies to the infections. These are risky things to, you wouldn’t do this lightly. There are safety issues with regard to that, and it’s not something that people are going to do without a lot of hesitation.”

According to Franklin Graham, president of Samaritan’s Purse, Brantly later received a unit of blood from a 14-year-old Ebola survivor, whose family said is alive today in large part because of the noble doctor’s care.

Both Brantly and Writebol are said to be in stable but grave condition as the humanitarian organization they were working with finalizes arrangements to bring them back to the U.S. for treatment. It’s been confirmed that of them will be treated at Emory University Hospital in Atlanta, Ga., but the hospital said it could not identify the patient because of privacy laws.

Ebola in America?

It will be the first time Ebola comes to the U.S., which has many Americans worried.

But Patterson—whose lab has worked with both government agencies and medical institutions to develop therapies and vaccines against pathogens that can cause lethal outbreaks since 2001—said there’s no cause for concern. She added that exhaustion and a resource-diminished environment in Liberia could be the cause behind the transmission of the virus from infected patients to health workers like Brantly and Writebol.

“…You don’t have all the infrastructure we have here in the U.S., it’s  very difficult to maintain all the standards,” she said. “There have been scenarios that were developed by the Army many years ago with the possibility of an American citizen developing a deadly disease.” 

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) echoed Patterson’s words on Thursday, assuring reporters during a press conference that U.S. hospitals are equipped to deal with treating an Ebola patient. 

“We will not have significant spread of Ebola even if we have an Ebola patient here,” Dr. Tom Frieden, CDC director told reporters. “Any hospital with [an intensive care unit] has capacity to isolate patients, [there is] nothing particularly special about isolating an Ebola patient.”

A vaccine in the works

When Brantly and Writebol arrive in the U.S., their treatment will mostly consist of managing the symptoms and avoiding dehydration.

Despite the fact that the Ebola virus has been around for many years, there is currently no cure for the disease.  Patterson said part of the reason is a shortage of BSL-4 labs that are approved to handle filoviruses such as Ebola, which cause hemorrhagic fever and are highly fatal.

“…Ebola is considered a potential biological weapon, it’s a select agent. You need a special laboratory – special space to protect the laboratory workers,” she said. “There are very few places you can actually do experiments with it.”

But because Patterson’s lab is an approved BSL-4 facility, she and her team have been working with the Department of Defense and the National Institutes of Health to develop a vaccine for Ebola.

“All of the vaccines that are being looked at have been looked at for other viruses as well,” she said. “I would hope within the next several years that we would have identified a good [vaccine platform]– there are several that are being utilized right now … but there’s been no safety testing on them at this point.”

No matter where we are with treatment, the words of Patterson and the CDC ring true: Don’t panic. Like Brantly did himself, we must remember that we should help those in need to the best of our ability – and the truth is, we are well-equipped to deal with these isolated cases of Ebola when Brantly and Writebol arrive in American hospitals.  So take the time that you may spend worrying, and say a little prayer for their healing. 

Dr. Manny Alvarez serves as Fox News Channel's Senior Managing Editor for Health News. Prior to this position, Alvarez was a FNC medical contributor.
Follow Dr. Manny on Facebook.

[Relic]

Baylor College of Medicine.

https://www.bcm.edu/departments/molecular-virology-and-microbiology/ebola

The Problem

Ebola virus is a class A bioterrorism agent, known to cause highly lethal hemorrhagic fever. The mortality rate can be as high as 90 percent. Because the Ebola virus is so hazardous, it is classified as a biosafety level 4 agent - the level assigned to the most dangerous agents known. Research using Ebola viruses requires facilities with the utmost levels of containment, strict controls on access, and highly trained personnel.

There is no cure for Ebola virus disease, no established drug therapy to treat Ebola infection, and no vaccine that can protect humans against Ebola. Scientists lack sufficient diagnostic tools to rapidly identify Ebola infections. Scientists also need a more thorough understanding about how the virus is transmitted and how it causes disease.
 Ebola is a threat not only to humans but also to our closest living relatives - the great apes. The western lowland gorilla populations have been decimated by Ebola to such an extent that they are now considered "critically endangered". About a third of the gorillas in protected areas have died from Ebola in the past 15 years. Scientists are concerned that their numbers may not be able to recover and fear that they could become extinct in as soon as a decade.

In addition to being classified as a potential bioterrorism agent, the risk of continued natural outbreaks or the further emergence of Ebola is a serious concern. As the human population grows, human contact with bats or Ebola-infected non-human primates increases. The discovery of the Reston subtype of Ebola virus in pigs introduces the additional possibility of transfer of Ebola virus to humans from pigs. Although the Reston subtype has not caused illness in humans to date, it is possible that the virus could become more dangerous after passage through pigs because they are ideal hosts in which viruses can mix and mutate.

Current Outbreak

As the emergence of Ebola virus in West Africa in 2014 demonstrates, Ebola continues to be a threat to humans. The latest outbreak of EVD has surpassed previous outbreaks to become the most deadly to date, with over 600 deaths and climbing. As of July 2014, it still has not been contained.

 The most recent Ebola outbreak is unprecedented for several reasons. First, it has occurred in a region of Africa in which Ebola has never before been detected. Second, it has spread rapidly and to both rural and urban areas. It has crossed borders to involve multiple regions in three different countries. Because it encompasses a much wider geographic area than in previous outbreaks, containment is vastly more difficult.

 It is a great challenge to the medical community in this impoverished area of the world to control the outbreak by identifying, quarantining, and providing medical care to infected individuals. Workers also need to educate a fearful population about the dangers of Ebola and the proper procedures needed to minimize further infections. Indeed, the health care workers themselves are at high risk of infection. The continued spread of Ebola within these countries, and beyond, is a serious concern.

[NavyCanDo]

Ebola is not a respecter of borders.  And my concern is not of these two American Aid workers that will be treated here. The precautions taken around them can be compared to the most top secret and secured labs of CDC. My concern lies in the hundreds of thousands of potential carriers coming over our borders each year, both legal and illegal.

[EC]

Ebola is not a respecter of borders.  And my concern is not of these two American Aid workers that will be treated here. The precautions taken around them can be compared to the most top secret and secured labs of CDC. My concern lies in the hundreds of thousands of potential carriers coming over our borders each year, both legal and illegal.

I'd add something to that concern.

It's a fairly rare disease. How many local doctors even know the early symptoms? Heck - most don't even know the early signs of TB anymore, it had become so vanishingly rare. You are infectious well before you start the obvious bleeding stage.

[Dexter]

I'd add something to that concern.

It's a fairly rare disease. How many local doctors even know the early symptoms? Heck - most don't even know the early signs of TB anymore, it had become so vanishingly rare. You are infectious well before you start the obvious bleeding stage.

Most doctors today will just Google your symptoms and go from there.

[EC]

Most doctors today will just Google your symptoms and go from there.

Is it just me or does your heart sink too when that happens? I know they can't know everything, but it is really worrying.

BTW - Your turn for rebuttal in the debate thread.

[Chieftain]

I'd add something to that concern.

It's a fairly rare disease. How many local doctors even know the early symptoms? Heck - most don't even know the early signs of TB anymore, it had become so vanishingly rare. You are infectious well before you start the obvious bleeding stage.

The Daily Mail had something about the proliferation of African "bush meat" that is being illegally brought into the country by minorities who consider it a delicacy.  Bush meat can be anything from gorilla, to monkey to lemur, or any other primate the smugglers can get their hands on, and just touching the infected meat is enough to spread the disease.  Just handling the wet wrappings it came in is enough.

But I'm sure Obama will be thinking hard on this while golfing this weekend.

 

[rangerrebew]

The NSA snooping on everyone is to keep us free from terrorists, too.