Uh oh. Panic. Run around. Clean your rifle.

New mystery unknown illness kills several that attended a funeral in Liberia.

http://www.cnn.com/2017/05/01/...lness-who/index.html

(CNN)An unexplained illness has claimed the lives of 12 people in Liberia since April 23, the World Health Organization reported Monday. Twenty-one people have fallen ill, including an unknown number of children, and three remain hospitalized at Francis Grant Hospital in Sinoe County.
Symptoms of the illness include headache, diarrhea, vomiting and confusion, according to Fadela Chaib, a spokeswoman for the WHO. Health officials immediately tested the victims for Ebola, yellow fever and Lassa fever, but they were all ruled out.
Most of the ill attended a funeral for a Christian leader in Greenville on April 22.

"April 25, we got a call from the Sinoe County health team about a series of unexplained deaths," said Sorbor George, communication director for Liberia's Ministry of Health, adding that samples have been sent to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta.
According to Tom Skinner, a spokesman for the CDC, "timing of the events, duration between disease onset and death, higher case fatality among children are all suggestive of ingestion or exposure to a contaminant." Still, the CDC remains vigilant for other possible causes.
Several cases have tested positive for malaria and have been treated accordingly, Skinner said. He added that a CDC team is in Liberia and working closely with the government to provide additional support.
According to George, "We are still not aware of what killed them." Liberian health care providers are conducting new tests and are now "relying on the international community to help determine what the illness may be."

"We don't want to be specific as to the funeral being the reason for the death. We are still investigating and putting our acts together to know what happened," George said.
George said health officials should be receiving test results from the CDC in a week or two.
The ages of those who died could could not be confirmed.
People came to the funeral from six counties. Some of the victims died in the hospital in Sinoe County, a four-hour drive southeast of the capital city, Monrovia. One person died in a hospital in Monrovia. Four people have been discharged from the hospital.

Those currently hospitalized have stabilized, and their status is improving, according to Tarik Jasarevic, a spokesman for the WHO, adding that "safe and dignified burial" has been conducted for eight of those who died.
Response measures include isolation and hospital staff wearing personal protective equipment, as during the Ebola crisis, Jasarevic explained.
Liberia, along with Guinea and Sierra Leone, had been at the epicenter of the global outbreak of that disease, which infected roughly 28,600 people and killed more than 11,300 in those three countries beginning in 2013. The WHO declared Liberia free of active Ebola transmission in June 2016.

Having taken samples from the dead, Chaib said scientists "will be looking of course for other hemorrhagic fevers and for bacteria, if there was any common exposure to water contamination or food contamination."
With an ongoing epidemiological investigation, health officials are continuing to search for active cases while tracing contacts, Jasarevic said. The WHO is also consulting with community leaders from the affected communities and mobilizing social networks to encourage people to go to the hospital if they feel sick.

E-faux-la

They seem to have tested for, and ruled out Ebola. And the victims seem to be recovering.

Who knows what it is. Africa is a petri dish for new diseases.

quote:

...US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta.

What moron thought it was a good idea to put a lab that tests some of the most contagious and deadly diseases in the world in a hot humid, large metropolitan city like Atlanta? The middle of NV or UT desert would seem to make much more sense.

Well, you guys now what I think about this stuff.

You know what I have a huge fear of severe weather since moving south. Tornados scare the bejezzus out of me and I have a fair amount of anxiety and see every severe storm as one giant hand of God ready squash all in its way. I realize this level of anixety about this is silly.

So why do I mention that?

Da' Bola or other African disease dujour doesn't even put my give a damner in test mode.

If those people would start handling their dead like first world countries a lot of their issues would go away.

How can you sleep when all of Africa is in peril?

Ehhhh we'll still have Europe.

quote:

Originally posted by parabellum:
How can you sleep when all of Africa is in peril?

Usually I start out on my right side, but shortly after I fluff the pillow and flip it to the cooler side and settle down on my left side. A/C set at 70, ceiling fan on medium.

The not-ebola is gonna kill us all.

I was just thinking it was time for another pandemic to fret about.

quote:

Originally posted by BBMW:
They seem to have tested for, and ruled out Ebola. And the victims seem to be recovering.

Who knows what it is. Africa is a petri dish for new diseases.

If wikipedia is right, there are 5 RNA families that cause various hemorrhagic fevers. Some are high mortality like Ebola and some are low mortality like Dengue.

I'm not going to start freaking out until they give it a scary sounding name.

quote:

Originally posted by cslinger:
You know what I have a huge fear of severe weather since moving south. Tornados scare the bejezzus out of me and I have a fair amount of anxiety and see every severe storm as one giant hand of God ready squash all in its way. I realize this level of anixety about this is silly.
.....

You shouldn't be anxious. Once you accept that everything from North Dakota to Texas funnels (ha-ha!) into Tennessee you will realize that you're not paranoid and that the Hand of God really IS out to squish you like a bug.

There, see? Nothing to be anxious about once you realize that someone really is out to get you. Especially the Hand of God.

Have I helped?

Cryptosporidiosis or Dysentery.

Gee thanks. That just fills my heart with cheer and girds my loins with courage.

Is it just me or do all these superbugs seem to get kick stared from Africa?

quote:

Originally posted by jcsabolt2:

quote:

...US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta.

What moron thought it was a good idea to put a lab that tests some of the most contagious and deadly diseases in the world in a hot humid, large metropolitan city like Atlanta? The middle of NV or UT desert would seem to make much more sense.

Well its predecessor agency was started in 1942 when the population was only 300K and the metro area was well under a Million. The old Malaria Control in War Areas was set up because there was still problems in the South with that and other "tropical" diseases. I assume bureaucratic inertia took hold when the CDC was formed from the MCWA in the immediate post war era.
Also I assume we keep say our weapons in isolated areas but need to keep the research and "cures" close to the infrastructure needed for transportation and logistics. Plus you need to be able to attract talent, and not every endeavor is a Manhattan Project.
But yes living so close to the scientist in a white lab coat standing at a podium stating "there is no reason for alarm"(just before the zombies crash the press conference) is a minus.

quote:

Originally posted by parabellum:
How can you sleep when all of Africa is in peril?

Ya just don't lead 'me as mu... Oh, wait...

quote:

Originally posted by chongosuerte:
Usually I start out on my right side, but shortly after I fluff the pillow and flip it to the cooler side and settle down on my left side. A/C set at 70, ceiling fan on medium.

Yep.
Cool side of the pillow....

I ain't 'fraid of the Nobola.

quote:

Originally posted by CQB60:
Is it just me or do all these superbugs seem to get kick stared from Africa?

They're probably the only ones that kiss their dead before burial, while the body is leaking disease out of every pore.