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[Joe Shlabotnik]

Complete and total non-issue as a public health concern and I hope this greatly improves their odds.

Also I'm too lazy but I'd really like to cross-reference this and the other Ebola thread with the flu vaccine threads.

 

[Alebrije]

Wait, we don't have cures for any viruses?

I'm not being funny, if that's true I probably just learned something really well-known.

No they aren't. , you should read about how a virus works inside a host. Virus are amazing things not even cataloged as a life form once it activates.

 

[fredrancour]

Wait, we don't have cures for any viruses?

I'm not being funny, if that's true I probably just learned something really well-known.

There are some drugs that drastically slow their abilities to grow but for the most part, the procedure for viruses is "manage the symptoms until the immune system does the killing" or "manage the symptoms to minimize pain until the patient passes." There are no drugs that kill them outright, not even something as mundane as the common cold.

 

[studyguy]

Why is there still such a thing as a 'Missionary' in 2014?

Spoiler

I'm a missionary nightly more like it, gotta preach my love

As far as the issue at hand is concerned, the CDC bringing some Ebola infected individuals doesn't worry me. This isn't some Hollywood film yo.

 

[speculawyer]

Why is there still such a thing as a 'Missionary' in 2014?

Good question. We have radio, TV, and internet everywhere. Not much reason for missionaries.

But I guess the objective is to "buy" converts with food, medical care, and trinkets.

 

[adj_noun]

I hereby leave my body to whatever science remains in the aftermath of the Great Plague. May you use it for research or sustenance, whichever seems most pressing at the time.

 

[Cyber Caesar]

Hopefully they respond to that infected blood transfusion treatment. If I had problems breathing or felt extreme pain I'd say give me the transfusion.

 

[Brakke]

Good. If there's a good chance I'd die, I'd like to die at home.

 

[terrisus]

Yes but for Ebola there is no cure. Flu is airborne but you can be cured by it with antibiotics.

Breaking news: Message Board poster cures Influenza!

 

[QuicheFontaine]

There are some drugs that drastically slow their abilities to grow but for the most part, the procedure for viruses is "manage the symptoms until the immune system does the killing" or "manage the symptoms to minimize pain until the patient passes." There are no drugs that kill them outright, not even something as mundane as the common cold.

I can't believe what I'm hearing here. What has medical science been doing all this time?

If our immune system kills them, then just come up with a drug that does what our immune system does. That's just simple logic. Or how about blasting them with radiation or something? That's another idea right there.

Honestly, I'm feeling really let down by medicine right now.

 

[Brakke]

I can't believe what I'm hearing here. What has medical science been doing all this time?

If our immune system kills them, then just come up with a drug that does what our immune system does. That's just simple logic. Or how about blasting them with radiation or something? That's another idea right there.

Honestly, I'm feeling really let down by medicine right now.

 

[Gully State]

I can't believe what I'm hearing here. What has medical science been doing all this time?

If our immune system kills them, then just come up with a drug that does what our immune system does. That's just simple logic. Or how about blasting them with radiation or something? That's another idea right there.

Honestly, I'm feeling really let down by medicine right now.

B/c there's no one chemical compound that can mimic complex interactions between a myriad of biological macromolecules and cells and to suggest so is absolutely ludicrous. Your immune system is a complex system.

And blasting your body with radiation risks damage to your own cells more than the actual viral particles.

 

[onken]

Yes but for Ebola there is no cure. Flu is airborne but you can be cured by it with antibiotics. At this moment it's the biggest outbreak since the 70's. But i will post this because in the other thread it was explained why this is happening.

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-28610112

So yeah there is a big concern. It doesn't have a chance in US or EU. Still it's terrfying how a virus like that can kill you in matter of time.

Holy shit.

 

[Tarkus]

I work at one of the labs at Emory, and some of my coworkers were worried* because the CDC fucked up big time with anthrax a couple months ago.

http://www.cnn.com/2014/06/19/health/cdc-possible-anthrax-exposure/

*not that worried mind you

I start orientation in the building directly adjacent to the hospital on Monday. I have to admit that I'm a little concerned, but not really worried. I imagine there will some major craziness on campus early next week when the patients arrive and are transported. I'll be sure to snap some pics if I see any 28 Days Later shit.

I saw a specials sign out front of a restaurant up the street from the CDC that said "Don't worry, no Ebola here." Haha

 

[ValkyrUser]

While I agree with these facts the situation is a little different. Those countries aren't highly mobile societies like Europe and the US are. Why even introduce the possibility of the risk?

Because they're human and still alive. If their fate is to die then they should be allowed to so in their home country. The facility they're being transferred to seems to be built to quarantine these type of virus/diseases. Sounds like there shouldn't be any problems.

 

[Angelus Errare]

I can't believe what I'm hearing here. What has medical science been doing all this time?

If our immune system kills them, then just come up with a drug that does what our immune system does. That's just simple logic. Or how about blasting them with radiation or something? That's another idea right there.

Honestly, I'm feeling really let down by medicine right now.

I can't believe what I'm reading. I think school systems need a complete overhaul, dear god.

 

[smokeandmirrors]

If our immune system kills them, then just come up with a drug that does what our immune system does. That's just simple logic.

Why don't you start then and let us know how it goes for you.

 

[CDX]

Wait, we don't have cures for any viruses?

I'm not being funny, if that's true I probably just learned something really well-known.

The drug Sovaldi has been called a cure for Hepatitis C it has like a 90%-95% success rate.

 

[bomma_man]

“I wouldn’t be worried to sit next to someone with the Ebola virus on the Tube, as long as they don’t vomit on you or something,” Peter Piot told Agence France-Presse this week. Piot, the director of the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, was one of the two people who, in 1976, discovered Ebola. He then ran the United Nations’ AIDS program for more than a decade. “This is an infection that requires very close contact,” he said.

i'm not too worried

 

[steveovig]

I just don't understand what happens to people who don't die from this, if there is no cure. Does it eventually kill everyone infected with it or do people just live with it or what?

 

[Allforce]

Well we know this aint Hollywood and it'll be just fine, but lets spitball some worst-case scenarios here just for kicks!

- Plane crashes in rural America, first-responder units have no idea the importance and/or danger of the "cargo", become infected.

That's all I got. Everything else involves these two Ebola victims escaping the CDC and heading straight to a Walmart or Golden Corral.

 

[QuicheFontaine]

Why don't you start then and let us know how it goes for you.

Uh, I think I made it clear from my posts in this thread that I'm not a doctor. I don't think you want me developing drugs. I'm happy to come up with more ideas though.

The drug Sovaldi has been called a cure for Hepatitis C it has like a 90%-95% success rate.

Now this is pretty good.

 

[Raist]

Wait, we don't have cures for any viruses?

I'm not being funny, if that's true I probably just learned something really well-known.

Nope. Viruses are barely considered living organisms, so you can't really kill them, unlike bacterias and fungi. They're merely genetic material. They don't have metabolic pathways etc, they just highjack 99% of what they need from the host cells.

All you can do is slow down their replication so that the immune system can cope with the load and get rid of infected cells. Many viruses are capable of latency, which is an additional problem.

So the only thing we have is vaccines, to ensure that the immune system will quickly and efficiently get rid of infected cells in the early stages of infection. But no cure whatsoever, for any virus.

edit:

I can't believe what I'm hearing here. What has medical science been doing all this time?

If our immune system kills them, then just come up with a drug that does what our immune system does. That's just simple logic. Or how about blasting them with radiation or something? That's another idea right there.

Honestly, I'm feeling really let down by medicine right now.

Oh yeah, sorry about that. I guess we're just dumb fucks I guess.
Maybe you can explain how to blast viruses with radiation without frying your own DNA then.

 

[CornBurrito]

Uh, I think I made it clear from my posts in this thread that I'm not a doctor. I don't think you want me developing drugs. I'm happy to come up with more ideas though.



Now this is pretty good.

You can come up with all the ideas you want. Things aren't that simple though, and you're probably woefully uneducated about the complexities compared to the people working on developing and researching cures.

 

[CHusson91]

Well we know this aint Hollywood and it'll be just fine, but lets spitball some worst-case scenarios here just for kicks!

- Plane crashes in rural America, first-responder units have no idea the importance and/or danger of the "cargo", become infected.

That's all I got. Everything else involves these two Ebola victims escaping the CDC and heading straight to a Walmart or Golden Corral.

Such a classy post. This is clearly a topic that should be made fun of.

 

[RedShift]

I wouldn't worry about some massive outbreak in the US or EU killing you. Our healthcare systems can handle it and you can be sure they wouldn't be bringing these guys back to the US if there was a risk. The RAF apparently has similar plans to fly any Britons infected back home so it's pretty widely accepted as the best thing to do.

The thousands who will die in West Africa though, that's worth worrying about.

 

[QuicheFontaine]

Oh yeah, sorry about that. I guess we're just dumb fucks I guess.
Maybe you can explain how to blast viruses with radiation without frying your own DNA then.

Hey, I never said that. I said I felt let down that we haven't cracked this virus thing yet.

As for not frying your own DNA, I dunno. Use visible light, or something.

 

[RoKKeR]

Just watched the Nightly News report on this. Holy shit this is like something out of a science fiction movie. Crazy stuff, will be interesting to follow.

 

[Tarkus]

Nope. Viruses are barely considered living organisms, so you can't really kill them, unlike bacterias and fungi. They're merely genetic material. They don't have metabolic pathways etc, they just highjack 99% of what they need from the host cells.

All you can do is slow down their replication so that the immune system can cope with the load and get rid of infected cells. Many viruses are capable of latency, which is an additional problem.

So the only thing we have is vaccines, to ensure that the immune system will quickly and efficiently get rid of infected cells in the early stages of infection. But no cure whatsoever, for any virus.

Some viruses have their own enzymes, proteins, and glycosides. Hell, the H in H1N1 stands for hemagglutnin 1 and the N for neuraminidase 1, both of virion origin and needed for the infection and release, respectively, of host cells. The flu drugs Tamiflu and Relenza work by inhibiting neuraminidase and preventing the escape of virions from infected cells. There are more treatments than vaccines and more are to come.

Another example, HIV provides it's own reverse transcriptase and integrase.

"High jacking 99%" is a little stretch in most cases, but I see your point.

 

[danwarb]

Hey, I never said that. I said I felt let down that we haven't cracked this virus thing yet.

As for not frying your own DNA, I dunno. Use visible light, or something.

We can at least prime the immune system with vaccines.


Is there and Ebola vaccine?

 

[Omega Ultimus]

Hey, I never said that. I said I felt let down that we haven't cracked this virus thing yet.

As for not frying your own DNA, I dunno. Use visible light, or something.

While many efforts to stop viruses have yet to pass beyond laboratory trials, UV irradiation has already found its way into many real world applications. UV irradiation works by bombarding viruses with ultraviolet light, the same light that causes humans to develop sunburns and skin cancer.

But while UV irradiation can be effective, it can also cause viruses to mutate and has the potential to damage healthy cells (as anyone who's suffered a sunburn can attest).

When radiation is used to kill cancerous tumors, they must be specifically focused on it, and even that is not enough to control its destructive affects on the surrounding tissue.

 

[Nivash]

I just don't understand what happens to people who don't die from this, if there is no cure. Does it eventually kill everyone infected with it or do people just live with it or what?

The people who survive are lucky enough to have the right combination of a sufficiently resilient constitution to weather the symptoms and an immune system geared just the right way to defeat the virus. The body can fight the virus, it's just that Ebola is so aggressive that most people simply lose. On the plus side, the winners are naturally immune to the virus for the rest of their lives afterwards.

This is the natural progression of most infections: you either beat the disease or you die. Medicine just rigs the game in your favor.

 

[Partial Gamification]

We can at least prime the immune system with vaccines.


Is there and Ebola vaccine?

not; tested, approved, and released.

No licensed vaccine for EVD is available. Several vaccines are being tested, but none are available for clinical use.

Severely ill patients require intensive supportive care. Patients are frequently dehydrated and require oral rehydration with solutions containing electrolytes or intravenous fluids.

No specific treatment is available. New drug therapies are being evaluated.
www.who.int/mediacentre/factsheets/fs103/en/

 

[ValkyrUser]

We can at least prime the immune system with vaccines.


Is there and Ebola vaccine?

Looks like they''ll be trialing a vaccine. (USATODAY) Doesn't matter if a bunch of idiots will claim it causes autism or cancer or some damn thing..

 

[ultraspank]

Goodbye USA ;.;7
Thanks for the music, the movies and neogaf.
We'll miss you.

 

[Raist]

Some viruses have their own enzymes, proteins, and glycosides. Hell, the H in H1N1 stands for hemaggluttnin 1 and the N for neuraminidase 1, both of virion origin and needed for the infection and release, respectively, of host cells. The flu drugs Tamiflu and Relenza work by inhibiting neuraminidase and preventing the escape of virions from infected cells. There are more treatments than vaccines and more are to come.

Another example, HIV provides it's own reverse transcriptase and integrase.

"High jacking 99%" is a little stretch in most cases, but I see your point.

It's not a stretch if you know how much of the metabolic pathways a virus hijacks, compared to the couple of enzymes it'll being itself (and HA is a structural protein, so you can't target it with a drug, other than promoting an antibody response to it). Targeting Pol isn't gonna cure anything once the virus is integrated, which happens pretty damn fast.

 

[Tarkus]

not; tested, approved, and released.

I best some testing shall soon take place, especially since one of the patients coming is a doctor. The FDA can fast track clinical trial processes if there is an emergent epidemiological situation. This happened with H1N1 ~5 years ago.

 

[sangreal]

mrsa will probably remain a bigger concern for this hospital than ebola

 

[FStop7]

Reading some of these posts, Jesus. Empathy is dead.

 

[Little Green Yoda]

Since February there are about 1500 of confirmed cases of Ebola in three countries with a combined population of 22.000.000. Guys, don't look up how many people die of the flu every year.

If Ebola only killed patients who were elderly or immunosuppressed, I think people would be a little less worried. Mostly because most people that are wringing their hands over this don't fall into either of those categories.

 

[fredrancour]

I can't believe what I'm hearing here. What has medical science been doing all this time?

If our immune system kills them, then just come up with a drug that does what our immune system does. That's just simple logic. Or how about blasting them with radiation or something? That's another idea right there.

Honestly, I'm feeling really let down by medicine right now.

This is an oversimplification (probably shaped by my magic school bus memories from childhood, for better or worse), but here's what we got; White blood cells are what do the killing in our bodies.. They effectively do it by eating other cells. We don't have engineering on a tiny enough scale to build little robotic assassins to murder cells. We are stuck making attempts with chemicals that we can synthesize. Slowing down reproduction by messing with their enzymes is the best we've got.

The "food" viruses eat is effectively your cells. They get your cells to reproduce for them. That's really all they use as far as resources to propagate with. That denies us many avenues of attack. They are very, very simple compared to bacteria. Their simplicity means we don't have many "how to harm them" options.


As for what they have been doing, unfortunately there are so many ways a human body can be fucked up horribly that we have had many researchers working on this for lifetimes, and have cured many things, and still haven't fixed anywhere near all of it.

Bacteria can be killed more easily because they are just very, very tiny lifeforms. Things like viruses and prions operate under drastically different rules.

 

[TheJLC]

When the virus starts spreading...

Thanks Obama.

But seriously, it's a shame that the people trying to help stop the spread of Ebola got infected themselves. I hope they recover and can return to continue helping stop the spread.

Why is there still such a thing as a 'Missionary' in 2014?

Because not every part of the world has heard of Christianity or what Christianity is or other religions. Believe it or not, not every part of the world has access to electricity, radio, television, xbox, and PC. These missionaries are doing the work that many governments don't have the money to do. These missionaries, like many others were helping people in these regions with Ebola and got infected themselves.

 

[sangreal]

If Ebola only killed patients who were elderly or immunosuppressed, I think people would be a little less worried. Mostly because most people that are wringing their hands over this don't fall into either of those categories.

they probably dont fall in the categories of "close family members and friends" or "medical worker" either though

(or any other category likely to have the close contact w/ a victim required to contract the virus)

 

[littleworm]

I best some testing shall soon take place, especially since one of the patients coming is a doctor. The FDA can fast track clinical trial processes if there is an emergent epidemiological situation. This happened with H1N1 ~5 years ago.

Human trials for one possible vaccine can start as early as next month.

On the topic at hand though, I think it's a good thing they are bringing them back to the States. The risk of anything happening is extremely low, and hopefully they will be able to pull through and survive, and at the very least we can get a better understanding of how to manage the disease if it indeed did begin so spread in a western nation.

 

[Partial Gamification]

Reading some of these posts, Jesus. Empathy is dead.

It could have died with conversation when drive-by disapproval was introduced, I don't think so.

 

[Raist]

Hey, I never said that. I said I felt let down that we haven't cracked this virus thing yet.

As for not frying your own DNA, I dunno. Use visible light, or something.

A drug that needs to be activated by UVA sounds like a great plan.
This has zero application for viruses unless we're talking decontamination of stuff outside the body.

 

[Cloud Strife]

Why is there still such a thing as a 'Missionary' in 2014?

Let's not derail please.

 

[Partial Gamification]

A drug that needs to be activated by UVA sounds like a great plan.
This has zero application for viruses unless we're talking decontamination of stuff outside the body.

Who knows, maybe one day.

The ability to see through organs and even the entire body to visualize long-range connections between cells as well as fine-grained cellular structures has been a long-time dream of biologists. A study published by Cell Press July 31st in the journal Cell has now made that dream a reality, revealing simple methods for making opaque organs, bodies, and human tissue biopsies transparent, while keeping the cellular structures and connections intact. The protocols could pave the way for a better understanding of brain-body interactions, more accurate clinical diagnoses and disease monitoring, and a new generation of therapies for conditions ranging from autism to chronic pain.
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2014-07/cp-soa072414.php

 

[Hyun Sai]

It begins !

 

[QuicheFontaine]

A drug that needs to be activated by UVA sounds like a great plan.
This has zero application for viruses unless we're talking decontamination of stuff outside the body.

No, no, not activating a drug, using the radiation to kill the virus itself. If the virus is in the blood, you could take someone's blood out into a pipe, irradiate it and then run it back in.