Ebola outbreak warning to fellow Africans

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• TENDENCY VICTOR OBI 11 years ago

  Yea,in addition my brethren without been told.We are all humans possesing acumen and inttect along with human ability.Why can we advise ourselves ???Or does it mean we doesn't know what is good and what is bad all because of ...
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  Yea,in addition my brethren without been told.We are all humans possesing acumen and inttect along with human ability.Why can we advise ourselves ???Or does it mean we doesn't know what is good and what is bad all because of money and the so called tradition.

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• Mahmoud 11 years ago

  The Black man is not capable of managing his own affairs.

  The Black man is not capable of managing his own affairs.

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• Braimah 11 years ago

  Maybe you are not, but the rest of us are.

  Maybe you are not, but the rest of us are.

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• insight to the bone 11 years ago

  Everybody is complaining bitterly but very few dare speak the truth . We shall never move forward until the undeclared war against the Akans, discrimination of the majority and anti Akan propaganda hate agenda is resolved. ...
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  Everybody is complaining bitterly but very few dare speak the truth . We shall never move forward until the undeclared war against the Akans, discrimination of the majority and anti Akan propaganda hate agenda is resolved. One must fight fire with fire , war with war not kisses or playing ignorant to the reality . the northerners , ewes , Muslims and other traitors of the Akan interest are systematically destroying the future of the Akans . There is no democracy or govt of the people and by the people but the slow establishment of the caliphate of pepeni murderers using a system of corrupt govt that makes irrelevant all institutions of state in the form of a Saudi style monarchy of mahama and his brothers . Despite our huge potential and the fact that any true patriotic nationalist govt can definitely turn the economy around in less than 6 months , we are bogged down in this situation of undeclared war of the ayigbe and pepeni mafia who have hijacked all institutes of state . only a bloody revolution will set us free . everything we have predicted over the past few years has come to pass and there is more evil to come until we stand up accept that we are at war and must fight back. Even Obama now realizes this caliphate is a serious threat to mankind's peace and unity . All religions are from God but over time the devil ensures the good is interpreted by the wicked and used to cause harm , the righteous know religion is meant to ensure unity and goodwill amongst men not pain and suffering or discrimination. On one hand we have the mafia ndc killing our people's future and around the corner nana chooses as his closest allies northerners who will continue the agenda of hate , wait for the clarion call for freedom and spare none of these criminals in the political oligarchy of corruption and evil . JJ and his ayigbe criminals started this process and God will continue to punish us with hardships and pestilences if we do not stand up

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• kwami ninson 11 years ago

  Very good article. But will people take heed of
  of these simple steps. I am tired of being the butt of jokes from the rest of the world and being a pariah anywhere I travel. Lets all pull together and defeat this virus. Gha ...
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  Very good article. But will people take heed of
  of these simple steps. I am tired of being the butt of jokes from the rest of the world and being a pariah anywhere I travel. Lets all pull together and defeat this virus. Ghanaian leaders should take your recommendations seriously.

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• Pelicles 11 years ago

  I know some will rubbish my comments but that is the "truth". This virus is being tested to see its potency. It is man-made like HIV which we were made to believe that it originated from monkeys, bats etc.
  
  To those of us ...
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  I know some will rubbish my comments but that is the "truth". This virus is being tested to see its potency. It is man-made like HIV which we were made to believe that it originated from monkeys, bats etc.
  
  To those of us who do not know, laboratory animals whose bodies had gone through all tests, are at times, released into our forest. Who knows what is in their system and when they interacts with our locals animals, whatever they have, have entered our food chain. Africans have been eaten animals etc, since when and why are we being told that these animals are dangerous? Can someone tell me the last time he/she heard of someone who have had some strange disease upon eaten a bat, monkey, grass-cutter, rat, antelope etc?
  
  Whatever precaution or preparedness we have should not be overlooked but, we should use commonsense to make some analysis and to come to a specific conclusion.
  
  There are people who have something sinister against some innocent people somewhere who are just minding their business. Ebola is man-made and I will stand by it no matter what. What is a biological weapon?

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• Pelicles 11 years ago

  As we speak, the US has an experimental drug known as ZMapp or something and it is being used on the doctors who were flown from Africa. Now, the question is, how did the US get the drug if they do not know anything about Eb ...
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  As we speak, the US has an experimental drug known as ZMapp or something and it is being used on the doctors who were flown from Africa. Now, the question is, how did the US get the drug if they do not know anything about Ebola? Who heard Obama saying that he does not approve that drug to be used in Africa as it is in its experimental stages? African will always be at the receiving end because we do not "think outside the box" and that is very dangerous.

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• SARPONG 11 years ago

  Pelicles, you might be right about this virus being biological weapon manufactured in some laboratories somewhere but the question as how USA has an experimental drug is that, this is not the first time ebola cases have been ...
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  Pelicles, you might be right about this virus being biological weapon manufactured in some laboratories somewhere but the question as how USA has an experimental drug is that, this is not the first time ebola cases have been reported though the first time in West Africa and have affected a lot of people.
  
  This is the fourteenth time ebola outbreak has been reported since the first outbreak in 1976 in Democratic republic of Congo and Sudan.. Congo has seen its outbreak about four times since 1976 and the country that has lost more people to Ebola deaths, about 500 people.
  
  The name ebola came from Congo . The first ebola victim came from a village near a river called ebola and that is how ebola came about.
  
  I do agree with you that an infected animal or animals might have been introduced to the bush for experimental purposes. Since 1976, not counting the two Doctors infected and are at Emory University hospital in Atlanta, 8 Americans have been infected and none has died, interesting, huh?

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• Tekonline.org 11 years ago

  Zmapp is only one of various investigational therapies that have proven somewhat effective in nonhuman primates. Below is an excerpt from the Lancet review paper:
  
  "With regard to RNA-based treatments, strategies to interfe ...
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  Zmapp is only one of various investigational therapies that have proven somewhat effective in nonhuman primates. Below is an excerpt from the Lancet review paper:
  
  "With regard to RNA-based treatments, strategies to interfere with transcription and replication include the use of antisense oligonucleotides or RNA interference. The approaches are promising on the basis of efficacy in rodents and non-human primates infected with Zaire Ebola virus. RNA interference and antisense oligonucleotide-based approaches might be limited by the sequences for a particular Ebola virus species, which might not be known at the early stages of an outbreak. Additionally, these therapies are currently delivered intravenously, which might present logistical challenges in remote outbreak settings.
  
  Treatment of the coagulation abnormalities recorded in Ebola virus infections should be considered. The nematode-derived anticoagulation protein rNAPc2 has shown 33% efficacy in the treatment of non-human primates infected with Zaire Ebola virus. D-dimer formation has been identified as an early event during Ebola virus infection in non-human primates and could be used as a marker for treatment. Because rNAPc2 targets signalling mainly through the extrinsic blood coagulation pathway, additional benefits might be gained with inhibitors of factor X, thus targeting the most common pathway of the extrinsic and intrinsic blood coagulation pathways. Additional substitution of protein C might be beneficial by activation of one of the crucial anticoagulant mechanisms in blood. Results from a study showed that treatment of rhesus monkeys infected with Zaire Ebola virus with recombinant human activated protein C resulted in some protection of the animals, which is consistent with survival recorded with rNAPc2. All these drugs have been approved for different applications in man and could be easily and safely used in emergencies.
  
  Recombinant vaccines against Ebola virus based on vesicular stomatitis virus have shown remarkable usefulness when given as a postexposure treatment against Ebola haemorrhagic fever in non-human primates infected with Zaire Ebola virus and Sudan Ebola virus. In a laboratory event, a recombinant vesicular stomatitis virus expressing the Zaire Ebola virus glycoprotein was given to a woman shortly after exposure with Zaire Ebola virus. The patient developed fever, headache, and myalgia hours after injection, which was successfully controlled with analgesics and antipyretics. Other adverse effects were not reported, but whether the treatment was effective or the patient never got infected with the virus remains uncertain. As with RNA-based treatments, postexposure vaccination with vaccines based on vesicular stomatitis virus will need some knowledge of the species involved since little cross-protection seems to exist between the various Ebola virus species.
  
  Human convalescent blood or serum has been used for passive immunisation to treat patients naturally infected or non-human primates experimentally infected with Ebola virus, but the success is controversial. In vitro, neutralising monoclonal antibodies specific for the glycoprotein of Ebola virus generated from different species, including man, showed protective and therapeutic properties in rodents. However, antibody treatment with equine immunoglobulin against Ebola virus, with polyclonal whole blood from rhesus monkeys immune against Ebola virus, or with a recombinant human monoclonal antibody did not protect non-human primates from lethal infection with Ebola virus. Although no definite therapeutic conclusion can be drawn from the studies done so far, data suggest the value, in principle, of passively acquired antibodies in reduction of the viral burden during infection. Thus, antibody therapy, perhaps in combination with other pharmaceutical agents, might be beneficial (table).
  
  In view of the severe and rapid progression of Ebola haemorrhagic fever, no one therapy is likely to be sufficiently potent, which strongly favours combination therapy as the best choice. A suitable strategy might be to slow down virus replication and disease progression and to allow innate and adaptive immune responses to overcome infection. This idea is supported by data showing that viraemia lower than 1×104·5 pfu/mL of blood is strongly associated with survival of patients and non-human primates infected experimentally".

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• CITIZEN ONE 11 years ago

  Along your same line of reasoning, I have also questioned why we as Black people are such failures, and I have concluded that we are actually "white man made". White people captured some monkeys and trained them well enough t ...
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  Along your same line of reasoning, I have also questioned why we as Black people are such failures, and I have concluded that we are actually "white man made". White people captured some monkeys and trained them well enough to act and look human like them, unfortunately so much went wrong, and Pelicles and his species became the result.
  
  Go to the mountain dwellers of North America and investigate the kinds of diseases they contract because of their wild jungle-like lifestyles. If you want to eat bats, pound fufu with a huge log whose tip remains wet and infected with all sorts of parasites over the years, don't blame white people when you look like shit, and make babies in modern life who look even shittier than you. Some of us Ghanaians look like we were defecated nor birthed, because we have an irresponsible and primitive tradition.
  
  Long before this Ebola and Cholera, I have called for the abolishing of open market places, closure of all tro-tro stations and taxi ramps. These are the hot spots of deadly sins! If you can' heed my advise, then bear the consequences. We need massive population controls across the continent, and if common sense has failed us, our governments have failed us, then only the wrath of God can redeem us (me).

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• Concerned 11 years ago

  Idiot
  Did you ask yourself the same questions being asked. What was your answer

  Idiot
  Did you ask yourself the same questions being asked. What was your answer

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• Pelicles 11 years ago

  And when was the last time you heard someone getting sick from eating fufu with that pounding stick? You are an ignorant Ape. Foolish man. Think like a human and understand that while you have open mind, someone somewhere hav ...
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  And when was the last time you heard someone getting sick from eating fufu with that pounding stick? You are an ignorant Ape. Foolish man. Think like a human and understand that while you have open mind, someone somewhere have something sinister against.
  
  When former president was leaving office, he called four black men all in the 70s and apologize to them because they were being used as "guinea pig". Yes, US citizens and why don't you think something worse than that can happen to someone living in a remote village or whatever in Africa? Are you sane or just plain idiot? When HIV showed its ugly head, we were made to believe that it originated from Africa and the idiots among us believe it.

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• Dede 11 years ago

  yes. u are very right

  yes. u are very right

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• KWASI IN EUROPE 11 years ago

  The virus is not man-made. The whites have a drug against Ebola because they always think in advance. Africans sleep after eating a big bowl of fufu. ZMapp was made by the Americans and the Icon Genetics of Germany.

  The virus is not man-made. The whites have a drug against Ebola because they always think in advance. Africans sleep after eating a big bowl of fufu. ZMapp was made by the Americans and the Icon Genetics of Germany.

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• African Patriot 11 years ago

  Over 50 years ago, Kwame Nkrumah was trying to cultivate the African mind to ready the old culture for the changes and the challenges to the modern world. Ebola today but tomorrow it will be something else.Reactionary African ...
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  Over 50 years ago, Kwame Nkrumah was trying to cultivate the African mind to ready the old culture for the changes and the challenges to the modern world. Ebola today but tomorrow it will be something else.Reactionary Africans saw this ideological approach by Nkrumah to bring the African mind into the 20th century to analyze and respond to changes as totalitarian. Europeanns are ideological. All westerners respond to threats white world as a group. African culture and society must become militarized just like businesses are militarized. Nkrumah is more needed now than at independence. Otherwise stop all the complaining. Go back and fetch it.

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• SARPONG 11 years ago

  What has ebola got to do with Kwame Nkrumah? This foolish hero worshipping should stop right now. I bet Kwame Nkrumah would have found a cure for death too. Nkrumah destroyed the dream of one country, that is enough.

  What has ebola got to do with Kwame Nkrumah? This foolish hero worshipping should stop right now. I bet Kwame Nkrumah would have found a cure for death too. Nkrumah destroyed the dream of one country, that is enough.

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• SARPONG 11 years ago

  Some of you can read but don't understand what you read. Pelicles is sure ebola came from lab animals. The most important word to my response to Pelicles is "MIGHT" . It just means it is possible but not definite.
  
  I even ...
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  Some of you can read but don't understand what you read. Pelicles is sure ebola came from lab animals. The most important word to my response to Pelicles is "MIGHT" . It just means it is possible but not definite.
  
  I even gave Pelicles the synposis of ebola virus and why the Americans have a drug in testing stages and you are blabbing about Africans and fufu.
  
  Ebola in its previous flare ups was able to be contained because it flared up in small towns and villages that were easily quarantined to avoid it spreading. This time the first in West Africa, ebola is in the major cities with congested population and easy movement of people and it is going to be difficult to stop it anytime soon.

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• Kwame 11 years ago

  With the neglect over the years of good hygiene, perhaps now is the time to wash hands frequently... This Ebola stuff is acquired mainly from bodily fluids...Wash hands after handshakes, use of public washrooms etc

  With the neglect over the years of good hygiene, perhaps now is the time to wash hands frequently... This Ebola stuff is acquired mainly from bodily fluids...Wash hands after handshakes, use of public washrooms etc

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• ebo smith 11 years ago

  Accra IS FILTGand the Ga´S ARE filty PEOPLE;AND EWE PEOPLE;AND ASANTES;AND FANTES AND GHANAIANES ARE ALL FILTY EBOLA CHLOREA PEOPLE.true or not TRUE mr:MAHAMA

  Accra IS FILTGand the Ga´S ARE filty PEOPLE;AND EWE PEOPLE;AND ASANTES;AND FANTES AND GHANAIANES ARE ALL FILTY EBOLA CHLOREA PEOPLE.true or not TRUE mr:MAHAMA

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• Daniel 11 years ago

  What about your Fantes? Rawlings said the cats are even cleaner than the Fantes.

  What about your Fantes? Rawlings said the cats are even cleaner than the Fantes.

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• Tekonline.org 11 years ago

  Very useful article, Mercy.
  
  One clarification often missing from news reports is the exact routes of infections.
  As you stated,
  "...Reports say the Ebola, virus is transmitted through contact with blood or bodily fluids ...
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  Very useful article, Mercy.
  
  One clarification often missing from news reports is the exact routes of infections.
  As you stated,
  "...Reports say the Ebola, virus is transmitted through contact with blood or bodily fluids of an infected person. Health officials are warning people to not touch Ebola patients and to avoid burial rituals that require handling the body of an Ebola fatality..."
  
  One question is how the virus infects via the skin. Is it through the pores?
  
  Here are some details culled from a review paper in the The Lancet (CAPS are mine):
  
  "Ebola virus seems to enter the host through mucosal surfaces, BREAKS, and ABRASIONS in the skin, or by parenteral introduction.
  
  Most human infections in outbreaks seem to occur by direct contact with infected patients or cadavers.
  
  Infectious virus particles or viral RNA have been detected in semen, genital secretions, and in skin of infected patients; they have also been isolated from skin, body fluids, and nasal secretions of experimentally infected non-human primates.
  
  Laboratory exposure through NEEDLESTICK and blood has been reported. Reuse of contaminated needles played an important part in the 1976 outbreaks of Ebola virus in Sudan and Zaire.
  
  Butchering of a chimpanzee for food was linked to outbreaks of Zaire Ebola virus in Gabon, and contact exposure was the probable route of transmission. Although proper cooking of foods should inactivate infectious Ebola virus, ingestion of contaminated food cannot wholly be ruled out as a possible route of exposure in natural infections. Notably, handling and consumption of freshly killed bats was associated with an outbreak of Zaire Ebola virus in DRC. Organ infectivity titres in non-human primates infected with Ebola virus are frequently in the range of 107 to 108 pfu/g; thus, exposure through the ORAL route could invariably be associated with very high infectious doses. In fact, Zaire Ebola virus is highly lethal when given orally to rhesus macaques.
  
  The role of aerosol transmission in outbreaks is unknown, but is thought to be rare.
  
  In human beings, the route of infection seems to affect the disease course and outcome. The mean incubation period for cases of Zaire Ebola virus infection known to be due to INJECTION is 6·3 days, versus 9·5 days for contact exposures. Moreover, the case-fatality rate in the 1976 outbreak of Zaire Ebola virus was 100% in cases associated with injection compared with about 80% in cases of known contact exposure. For non-human primates infected with Zaire Ebola virus, the disease course seems to progress faster in animals exposed by intramuscular or intraperitoneal injection than in animals exposed by aerosol droplets".

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• Okay 11 years ago

  Next time get your work well edited before posting too many errors.

  Next time get your work well edited before posting too many errors.

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• Kwami Ninson 11 years ago

  The outbreak. Of the Ebola virus shows the result of inept leadership in Africa. In 2014, we still have countries without simple infrastructure like good drinking water, electricity, and housing. Our health care system are de ...
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  The outbreak. Of the Ebola virus shows the result of inept leadership in Africa. In 2014, we still have countries without simple infrastructure like good drinking water, electricity, and housing. Our health care system are decrepit and the leaders are only interested in lining their pockets. Meanwhile, the citizens suffer and we have become the joke of the world.

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• Tekonline.org 11 years ago

  (Below is a more complete set of symptoms, as listed in the Kenyon College review paper):
  
  "One of the reasons that Ebola is so dangerous is that its symptoms are varied and appear quickly, yet resemble those of other virus ...
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  (Below is a more complete set of symptoms, as listed in the Kenyon College review paper):
  
  "One of the reasons that Ebola is so dangerous is that its symptoms are varied and appear quickly, yet resemble those of other viruses so much that the hemorrhagic fever is not rapidly diagnosed. Generally, the abrupt onset of symptoms follows an incubation period of 2-21 days and is characterized by high fever, chills and myalgia.
  
  Subsequent signs of infection indicate multisystem involvement and include gastrointestinal (nausea, vomiting, diarrhea), respiratory (chest pain, cough) and neurological (headache) manifestations. The unfortunate thing about these symptoms is that they are easily mistaken for malaria, typhoid fever, dysentery, influenza or various bacterial infections, all of which are far more common in regions where Ebola is prevalent, but also less fatal.
  
  After these initial symptoms, the fever often progresses to cause more serious ones: diarrhea, dark or bloody feces, vomiting blood, red eyes due to distention and hemorrhage of sclerotic arterioles, petechia (blood-filled skin rashes), maculopapular rash and purpura (rashes with skin discoloration).
  
  There is often gastrointestinal bleeding from the mouth and rectum, sometimes leading to the sloughing of the gut and venting from the anus. Internal and external hemorrhage (bleeding) from orifices, such as the nose and mouth, may also occur. As the virus progresses, bleeding in the brain can lead to severe depression, seizures and delirium.
  
  The span of time from onset of symptoms to death is usually between 6 and 16 days. By the second week of the infection, the patient will either experience a full recovery or undergo systemic multiorgan failure. Mortality rates are generally high, ranging from 50-90% depending on the specific strain. The cause of death is normally due to hypovolemic shock (severe loss of blood) or organ failure. While hemorrhages can be severe and have been the calling card of this virus, they are actually present in fewer than half of patients".

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