Researcher dies after giving herself ebola virus

[gitreel]

From the Odd news section. This woman was stupid enough to inject herself with ebola virus.
http://news.excite.com/odd/article/id/405662|oddlyenough|05-26-2004::11:29|reuters.html

[SLK001]

Stupid? No, careless, maybe. As the article says, it was an ACCIDENT. Or did you not read it?

It is facilities like this that are feverishly looking for a vaccine for virii like Ebola. When Ebola breaks out of Africa, it will wreck havoc with the population of the entire world. Right now, Ebola kills 90% of the people it touches.

For you people in Reolinda, 90% means that 9 out of 10 people will die once infected by this virus.

[gitreel]

That is why they usually use lab rats or monkees or something. Never inject yourself with it.

[Cobra]

Well, to be fair she accidentally pricked her finger with the needle. If she was being careful then it shouldn't have happened, but I can tell you that hours of concentrating in a hot, stuffy lab and trying not to make a mistake is really difficult.

I've managed to do some stupid things such as potentially inhaling an aerosol of E. coli - I vortexed it without a lid... I didn't get ill, but I got a real shouting at by the supervisors.

Cobra

[Cobra]

For you people in Reolinda, 90% means that 9 out of 10 people will die once infected by this virus.

I don't understand... How does it know to infect only 10 people?

[Capmaster]

Stupid? No, careless, maybe. As the article says, it was an ACCIDENT. Or did you not read it?

It is facilities like this that are feverishly looking for a vaccine for virii like Ebola. When Ebola breaks out of Africa, it will wreck havoc with the population of the entire world. Right now, Ebola kills 90% of the people it touches.

For you people in Reolinda, 90% means that 9 out of 10 people will die once infected by this virus.

Check your facts SLK. True ebola has a high mortality rate, but it's not nearly as scary as AIDS.

Ebola will never wreak havoc with the entire world because it's not an efficient virus. It kills its host too quickly to spread very far. Check the stats on all past outbreaks ...they've been very limited in the geographic region they affect. Usually just a town or two. Even when the ebola Reston outbreak occurred in Virginia, it was very limited and over quickly.

[Cobra]

Ebola will never wreak havoc with the entire world because it's not an efficient virus. It kills its host too quickly to spread very far.

I agree completely with Capmaster on this one. AIDS is something we should be worrying about more than isolated incidents of Ebola.

Cobra

[flaninacupboard]

and note it didn't say "inject" it said "prick"

she didn't push the plunger just nicked herself on the needle.

[SLK001]

I know that today, Ebola kills rapidly (it is like a fire that burns faster than it can get fuel). And, I don't know if it is an RNA or a DNA virus. It only has to mutate a tiny bit, so that it takes a month to kill rather than a week, to create a problem for us humans (and you too, Capmaster!).

We still haven't found the host creature for the Ebola virus, but we do know that it has made to jump to humans successfully. What happens if it also makes the jump to mosquitos - or fleas?

[flaninacupboard]

What happens if it also makes the jump to mosquitos - or fleas?

Then there's going to be a lot of pissed off tramps!

[teegee420]

You guys would be surprised how easy it is to accidently prick yourself with a needle. I drew blood for years and it happened to me a couple of times.

[edsmith77]

Capmaster,
Do not think for a minute that the Reston outbreak was not scary. It was.!! Having lived and worked in that area, it certainly had my attention.

[Cobra]

The past couple of times I have been to give blood (ever three or four months, can't remember how often the law permits me to give in the UK) they've had needles with a plastic sheath that springs down when they withdraw it, covering the needle. This is a great invention for the service - it's safer for the nurses to work with donors.

I asked a lady once if she'd ever pricked herself and she said she had - twice in the six years she'd been doing it.

Just thought that'd be interesting.

Cobra

[Capmaster]

Capmaster,
Do not think for a minute that the Reston outbreak was not scary. It was.!! Having lived and worked in that area, it certainly had my attention.

I wasn't trying to minimize the seriousness of the Reston outbreak at all. Ebola is probably the scariest thing you could catch ...bleeding out like that If it had happened where I work, I would be out of the door so fast I'd pass myself coming in

My point was that ebola never could be a sustained epidemic because the "trail" of exposure would be extremely short and quarantine would be easier than with virii that are more successful, like AIDS. The only way ebola could ever be a global threat is if it were used as a terrorist weapon and simultaneously used in thousands of cities. As far as the context of this thread ("when ebola breaks out of Africa"), I don't think it would ever get far enough. That one isolated case in England had folks worried, but it burned itself out like all the other outbreaks. Thank God ebola doesn't lie dormant for years while staying contagious, else we might all be dead by now.

Another scary-ass virus(?) is the prions. Rabies is another that is probably one of the worst in our history in terms of fatalities.

[indolikaa]

You guys would be surprised how easy it is to accidently prick yourself with a needle. I drew blood for years and it happened to me a couple of times.

EMTs in Arizona are not allowed to insert IV lines until they've completed an IVC course approved by the State. When I was finishing up my EMT license, they brought in some Paramedic candidates who need to practice their IV skills on some unsuspecting patients.

IV lines don't bother me at all, so I let 'em have at it. One girl was very nervous about the whole thing, and in the process of trying to stick my vein she shot the catheter through the vein and into her thumb. She was so focused on the vien she didn't notice her thumb was right there (you could drive a ******* London bus through the veins on the back of my hand, so why she was worried I don't know).

[flaninacupboard]

a London bus? been to London?

[indolikaa]

a London bus? been to London?

The big, red, double-decker buses. The Burger King restaurants in Albuquerque owned one when I was growing up.

[run s:\indolikaa\diaries\fubar-stories\burgerking79.txt]

My parents rented the Burger King bus for my 8th birthday. Three days before the party was scheduled, I came down with a hideous case of stomach flu that kept me in bed for almost two weeks. But I found enough strength to make the party. Only barfed once, on the upper level of the bus.

Me and 30 of my closest friends partied at the Burger King on Wyoming and Indian School (Capmaster will know where that's at). Everybody had a good time but me. Eating when you have the flu is a stupid idea, but when you're 8 years old you just want to be like all the other kids, right?

My wife remembers that party like it was yesterday. She's had a crush on me ever since.

[VCDHunter]

Rabies is another that is probably one of the worst in our history in terms of fatalities.

Yup - and that ******* big dog that carries it is scary

What happens if it also makes the jump to mosquitos - or fleas?

It'll only bother Cap if it makes the jump to vinyl

[Capmaster]

Rabies is another that is probably one of the worst in our history in terms of fatalities.

Yup - and that ******* big dog that carries it is scary

What happens if it also makes the jump to mosquitos - or fleas?

It'll only bother Cap if it makes the jump to vinyl

Something else for me to worry about

BTW VCD - Did you find the original hobo pic or did you have to clone out the extra stuff from another pic?

[VCDHunter]

BTW VCD - Did you find the original hobo pic or did you have to clone out the extra stuff from another pic?

The original - I'd already posted it in tests but couldn't get the damm thing in my sig. I'm to posting pics what curryman is to quoting

Just noticed your original avatar in the hobo sig - nice

[Capmaster]

BTW VCD - Did you find the original hobo pic or did you have to clone out the extra stuff from another pic?

The original - I'd already posted it in tests but couldn't get the damm thing in my sig. I'm to posting pics what curryman is to quoting

Just noticed your original avatar in the hobo sig - nice

Heh heh. Curryman does have his troubles with that. At least your issue with sig pics isn't as obvious as his.

I was glad to be able to keep the pissed kitty and the current one. Those two are my favorites

Glad you got the pic thing straightened out.

[rallynavvie]

The ebola virus does kill quickly, albeit horrifically painful. However in a modern environment the Ebola M-something (the airborne strain) could cause a LOT of damage because of our easy transportation. The first symptoms don't show themselves for a couple days sometimes and then it's curtains. Imagine what would happen if an outbreak were to occur in a highly populated area like Bangladesh or Tokyo. At least Africa doesn't have as high a population density in most cases so outbreaks can be isolated.

One of the Jack Ryan novels by Tom Clancy had terrorists using the Ebola virus on the US. His novels scare me in ways I didn't think possible

[Capmaster]

Here's a good link for ebola information:

http://www.cdc.gov/ncidod/dvrd/spb/mnpages/dispages/ebola.htm

It doesn't appear to have an airborne transmission mode.
Here is a quote:

People can be exposed to Ebola virus from direct contact with the blood and/or secretions of an infected person. Thus, the virus is often spread through families and friends because they come in close contact with such secretions when caring for infected persons. People can also be exposed to Ebola virus through contact with objects, such as needles, that have been contaminated with infected secretions.

Nosocomial transmission refers to the spread of a disease within a health-care setting, such as a clinic or hospital. It occurs frequently during Ebola HF outbreaks. It includes both types of transmission described above.

[Doramius]

Here's an interesting fact. Ebola, like HIV, cannot sustain for long outside a body. It has to transfer quickly in order to be sustained. It doesn't take much of it to cause a serious illness. There are a couple of google links on this. The reason they are doing studies on it is to find a cure or supressant and to see if it will mutate. That worries me a bit, but so far it hasn't mutated in the experiments they've run. Funny thing, the common cold virus hasn't mutated either. The Flu has mutated a lot though. See, this is the kind of stuff we should be putting charity money in. The only reason we need to save the Migrant speckled 2-toed snail in Madagascar is to use it for Ebola testing. Heck, we could use diseased Mad Cows for the testing, too. It would be nice to know if the cow would die faster or if it just cancels the 2 deadly toxins out. You never know.

[Capmaster]

Here's an interesting fact. Ebola, like HIV, cannot sustain for long outside a body. It has to transfer quickly in order to be sustained. It doesn't take much of it to cause a serious illness. There are a couple of google links on this. The reason they are doing studies on it is to find a cure or supressant and to see if it will mutate. That worries me a bit, but so far it hasn't mutated in the experiments they've run. Funny thing, the common cold virus hasn't mutated either. The Flu has mutated a lot though. See, this is the kind of stuff we should be putting charity money in. The only reason we need to save the Migrant speckled 2-toed snail in Madagascar is to use it for Ebola testing. Heck, we could use diseased Mad Cows for the testing, too. It would be nice to know if the cow would die faster or if it just cancels the 2 deadly toxins out. You never know.

An interesting bug is a prion from the same family as the mad cow disease. It's called Kuru and it's transmitted through funerary cannibalism rituals. In the '50s and '60s they had many cases in the New Guinea highlands where they eat the brains of their dead for religious reasons. Once the practice was banned, Kuru became a thing of the past.

It's wierd because it's not really a virus and it's not bacteria - the only two traditional methods of infection. It's an aberrant protein particle that behaves as if infectious. Very interesting reading if you have an afternoon to kill and want to do some research on the web

[flaninacupboard]

prion illnesses scare the crap out of me. the death toll from CJD (human variant BSE [mad cow disease]) is over 250 in the UK, all stemming from beef eaten in the 1980's, and there's new cases cropping up all the time. lays dormant for two decades and then you just DIE. shit.....

[Capmaster]

prion illnesses scare the crap out of me. the death toll from CJD (human variant BSE [mad cow disease]) is over 250 in the UK, all stemming from beef eaten in the 1980's, and there's new cases cropping up all the time. lays dormant for two decades and then you just DIE. shit.....

Yeah, and the way you die - going slowly insane until you fall asleep and never wake up

A guy on my floor herre at work is married to an English girl and her mother died from vCJD over there. I'm just surprised we haven't had an outbreak here, with all the money-saving techniques that farmers use to try to stave off poverty.

[flaninacupboard]

I'm just surprised we haven't had an outbreak here, with all the money-saving techniques that farmers use to try to stave off poverty.

Nah, you'll all die of heart attacks because of mcDonalds meals first

The other scary thing of course is that it's been detected on "sterile" medical instruments Anyone whose had a blood transfusion can be in trouble too

[Doramius]

Well you're not getting much protein from beef out west. It doesn't stay in the system long enough to let the blood collect it. Personally, I don't think meat should make a person crap like he's got a High pressure hose jammed in his A**.

[SLK001]

Another thing about prions, is that standard sterilization techniques (autoclaving) DOESN'T destroy them (I didn't say KILL, because they are not alive - just proteins). And, cooking doesn't destroy them, either (rather rugged little bastards, aren't they!).

But then, they only effect a small portion of the exposed population (if you were in GB in the 1980's and ate beef regularly, then you were most likely exposed). But still, death is gradual.