Hi folks! There is a lot of discussion about whether or not Ebola could mutate into a more easily transmittable form. Right now it requires contact with body fluids to be transmitted. Mutating into an airborne virus is very unlikely, but droplet transmission is more likely. Mutating into a more easily transmitted illness is a risk that grows with each new infection. The more time the virus spends in humans, the more opportunities it has to replicate itself, and it's sloppy at replicating - it makes errors, and if some of those errors turn out to help the virus become more communicable, we're in serious trouble.
President Obama today stated what many scientists have been saying the past few weeks. The earlier projections of 20,000 infections by the WHO are unrealistic. Tens to hundreds of thousands of people may be infected by the time this infection is controlled. This is a concern for us not so much as Ebola showing up as an epidemic on our doorsteps, but the cost for controlling the epidemic in order to prevent it from mutating to a more dangerous, more easily transmitted form.
There are also lessons about the reality of caring for the very ill which will help us prepare for a pandemic.
Here are links to more
President Obama today stated what many scientists have been saying the past few weeks. The earlier projections of 20,000 infections by the WHO are unrealistic. Tens to hundreds of thousands of people may be infected by the time this infection is controlled. This is a concern for us not so much as Ebola showing up as an epidemic on our doorsteps, but the cost for controlling the epidemic in order to prevent it from mutating to a more dangerous, more easily transmitted form.
There are also lessons about the reality of caring for the very ill which will help us prepare for a pandemic.
Here are links to more
That makes me very happy!
