Ebola - media & society

There have been only three confirmed cases (and one death) of Ebola in the United States, but a related condition is spreading faster than a California wildfire. Americans nationwide are showing signs of an epidemic of fear, all too reminiscent of the stigmatization, dread of contagion, and moral panic of the early years of the HIV/AIDS epidemic.
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Early on in the AIDS epidemic, this kind of anxiety quickly morphed into panic: HIV-infected kids such as Ryan White were banned from schools; employees were fired simply because they were suspected of having AIDS; Washington, D.C., police officers raided a gay bar wearing gloves, face masks and bulletproof vests to protect themselves from what was described then as a “lethal threat.”

Underscoring these latest fears, the term “Fearbola” has quickly made its way into the lexicon, thanks largely to comic Seth Myers, whose segment on “the irrational fear of catching Ebola” went viral last week. Explained a fake doctor in the segment: “It is very easy to contract. Just five minutes of exposure to CNN or Fox News and you might have Fearbola.”

In Ebola fear, a familiar whiff of paranoia

A good article about Ebola, media, and society in the WaPo

CDC: You Can Give—But Can’t Get—Ebola on a Bus

Sunday marks 21 days since Thomas Eric Duncan, who contracted Ebola in Liberia and then flew to the United States, was admitted to Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital Dallas. Officials have been monitoring 48 people potentially exposed to Duncan prior to his hospitalization, his fiancee among them. The incubation period of Ebola, from infection to symptoms, is generally considered to be between two and 21 days. So far, none of these people has shown signs of Ebola disease.

Teresa Romero Ramos, 44, has tested negative for Ebola for the first time since being hospitalised nearly two weeks ago, Spain’s special committee on Ebola said in a statement. The results suggest that she is now clear of all traces of the virus, but authorities noted she would be tested again in the coming hours to confirm the result.

For those of us following this issue, I think it's important to hear from all sides, including Thomas Eric Duncan's. Obviously, he's no longer on this earth to defend himself, but in his place, his nephew, Josephus Weeks, has published an op-ed about his uncle.

Articles pulled from the news and other sources and fact-checked by Equipped.org members by identifying and linking the source of the information in the article. Related to the media coverage of the outbreak and how organizations, institutions and individuals are responding.

..The National Institutes of Health (NIH) is looking to stockpile a year’s worth of personal protective equipment (PPE) in order to prepare for an expected disruption to the supply chain due to an “emergency” event. ...

Looks like the NIH is responding by stockpiling...

Does not seem unusual or alarming to me. Not like reading about the Social Security Administration soliciting bids for 174,000 rounds of .357 Sig hollow point ammo.

Health Minister Ousmane Kone made the announcement on Malian television, saying that the patient was a 2-year-old girl who had come from neighboring Guinea, where the Ebola epidemic began last December.

Cremation violates Liberians' values and cultural practices and the order has so disturbed people in the west African nation that the sick are often kept at home and, if they die, are secretly buried, increasing the risk of more infections...The order came after people in neighborhoods of the capital resisted burials of hundreds of Ebola victims near their homes.

the casualty figures for ebola that are reported from W. Africa are lowball estimates ... probably by a factor of 2-3.

Been reading various references lately about the press unofficially agreeing to stop reporting on suspected Ebola cases, just confirmed ones,

DALLAS — This city, the first to grapple with Ebola in the United States and the near panic and quarantines the spread of the virus set off, put its Ebola fears behind on Friday. The last person being monitored for symptoms of the disease was expected to be cleared by officials later in the day.

That person — a hospital worker who handled medical waste on Oct. 17 — was part of the final group of people undergoing twice-daily checks in the Dallas region for 21 days, the longest-known incubation period for the disease. The 16 people were all health care workers who had possible contact either with two nurses infected with Ebola at Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital in Dallas, with their blood, body fluids or specimens, or with potentially contaminated surfaces or medical waste.

Fifteen of the 16 people were cleared Thursday night, and the last person was scheduled to be cleared about 5 p.m. Friday, after the second and final temperature check of the day to make sure there is no fever. More than 40 other people who had direct or indirect contact with the original Ebola patient in Dallas, Thomas Eric Duncan, 42, were taken off the monitoring list in late October. Mr. Duncan was found to have Ebola after traveling to Dallas from Liberia in September. He died on Oct. 8.

A total of 177 people were monitored in the Dallas region, with only three cases of Ebola confirmed, in Mr. Duncan and in two nurses who treated him, Nina Pham and Amber Joy Vinson. Both nurses have recovered and were declared Ebola-free. About 200 passengers who flew on one of two flights Ms. Vinson took between Dallas and Cleveland before she was given the Ebola diagnosis also underwent monitoring. All have been cleared by state officials.

Experience to date in the US seems to indicate that the CDC and MSF (Doctors Without Borders) has been right all along. You are highly unlikely to get Ebola from someone who is in the early, pre-symptomatic stages of infection. So far the only people who been infected with ebola from another, were the two nurses in Dallas who were treating Mr. Duncan, when he was in an advanced stage of the disease. Even those who lived in the same apartment with him when he was starting to get sick have not become infected.

So far the only people who been infected with ebola from another, were the two nurses in Dallas who were treating Mr. Duncan, when he was in an advanced stage of the disease.

And I have heard that suspected Ebola cases are teleported to Scotland and fed to the Loch Ness monster on every full moon.