This was written in august before the current case of Ebola in the United
Sates but it compares Ebola to other diseases which spread more easily.
http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/aug/05/ebola-worrying-disease
quote
Far more worrying are diseases that spread exponentially: if one infected
person spreads the disease to two or more on average, the illness spreads
far quicker and is a much more worrying prospect, even if mortality is
considerably lower.
The 800-plus deaths from Ebola in Africa so far this year are indisputably
tragic, but it is important to keep a sense of proportion – other
infectious diseases are far, far deadlier.
Since the Ebola outbreak began in February, around 300,000 people have
died from
malaria http://www.who.int/mediacentre/factsheets/fs094/en/, while
tuberculosis http://www.who.int/mediacentre/factsheets/fs104/en/ has
likely claimed over 600,000 lives. Ebola might have our attention, but it’s
not even close to being the biggest problem in Africa right now. Even Lassa
fever http://www.who.int/csr/disease/lassafever/en/, which shares many of
the terrifying symptoms of Ebola (including bleeding from the eyelids),
kills many more than Ebola – and frequently finds its way to the US
http://www.cdc.gov/media/releases/2014/p0404-lassa-fever.html.
The most real effect for millions of people reading about Ebola will be
fear and stigma. During the Sars outbreak of 2003, Asian-Americans became
the targets of just that, with public health hotlines inundated with calls
from Americans worried about “buying Asian merchandise”, “living near
Asians”, “going to school with Asians”, and more.
In the coming months, almost none of us will catch the Ebola virus. Many of
us, though, will get fevers, headaches, shivers and more.
As planes get grounded, communities are stigmatised, and mildly sick people
fear for their lives, it’s worth reflecting what the biggest threat to our
collective wellbeing is: rare tropical diseases, or our terrible coverage
of them.
Harry
On Fri, Oct 3, 2014 at 5:25 PM, hohlr...@gmail.com hohlr...@gmail.com
wrote:
In the movie Contagion, large public arenas are converted into triage
and containment facilities.
- Reply message -
From: Axil Axil janap...@gmail.com
To: vortex-l vortex-l@eskimo.com
Subject: [Vo]:Off Topic: Flu Season
Date: Fri, Oct 3, 2014 2:44 PM
