General Chat

'Shaking hands' needs to be banned for a while at least during this current 'emergency'.

Come to think of it, I might just take a unilateral decision never to offer ‘the hand of peace’ again mainly because of the seemingly increasing number of the great unwashed/smelly individuals who seem compelled to travel on the same bus as me. A pungent cocktail of warm weather, stale sweat & all coated over by Lynx spray do nothing for my sensitive nose.

A nod & a grin from a distance should be adequate to acknowledge acquaintances.

Emma I also heard that the bodies were still infectious and a lot were left in the streets after death. They should be cremated.

Have I got this right or not, I heard that once someone
has died from Ebola the body is very contagious, if this is
the case why are the bodies being buried and not cremated?

Someone on the radio the other day mentioned EBOLA being used as a 'weapon of war'.

Those who are willing to activate a suicide bomb, for example, would probably have an equal enthusiasm for spreading the deadly EBOLA virus far & wide by any means possible.

In either instance, he or she will either certainly or most likely die in the process as will the innocent citizens.

Could this be the first case in the UK - the Times newspaper is reporting that a suspected Ebola patient is being kept in isolation at a London hospital, Public Health England said last night.

Doctors are awaiting the results of tests on the unnamed person to establish if they are carrying the virus -which would be the first case of Ebola diagnosed in Britain.

According to The Sun the patient was admitted to Kings College Hospital, North London, yesterday displaying symptoms of the disease.

A spokeswoman from Public Health England told the paper: “There is somwone at Kings College and a est has been carried out."

Not enough is being done no. Many people will not be honest look at the original American case it seems he lied on a form when he left the country. America was not ready for it and many would say they are still not ready but are hopefully learning as they stumble along - sending him home at first, not putting on the correct uniform for the first few hours to protect themselves, travelling on planes with a slight temperature etc.
Canada is hoping they have learnt their lessons in the past and so far we have had no confirmed cases...trouble is between the person getting to the hospital and the staff finding out they may be affected how many get exposed in that first hour or more for triage ???? Knee jerk reaction is to isolate the countries it is happening in right now how much urgent travel is actually happening from these countries that can't be done over the compter these days ?

Mayfield - what also concerned me, when it was announced that British squaddies were being sent out to help, was the unsubstantiated reports, that if any of them working in areas where the disease was prevalent becsme ill, they would not be flown home, they would be put in isolation over there - if, and I repeat, if these reports are true, would this also apply to any government minister who visited these areas ;-)

I feel sorry for the squaddies sent out to help, think I would rather take my chances in some trouble spot than that!

I lack British sangfroid to apply for an airport job like that.

Passenger screening for Ebola is to be extended to Manchester and Birmingham airports Public Health England says.

Staff at the two airports will begin checking passengers from at-risk countries next week.

Better late than never I suppose.

From near the end of ww1 into 1919 the world was struck by a vicious form of viral pneumonia. The symptoms were not all that different to those of ebola eg severe hemorrhaging. The reaction of the authorities was much the same then as now. It hit the UK very hard as the returning troops brought with them the disease to major cities.

Here is an American account which is food for thought.

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK22148/

UKGov has ordered a large number of protective suits for health workers ....
delivery is "urgent".

In the papre today by somebody who came into Heathrow yesterday. He said the checks appeared to be voluntary. He was from working in one of the worst areas and was only given a check when he volunteered. He said people off his flight were just walking through and not challenged. :-(

Health Secretary, Jeremy Hunt, said yesterday that 'The Ebola outbreak is becoming as serious as the Aids epidemic'.

I'm no expert on either matter but, from the little pieces I have read recently, I would have guessed that Ebola is potentially a lot worse & easier to spread than Aids every was. But, I suppose both can be contracted in the same physical transaction.

The fact that the UK is surrounded by water should be of some assistance in maintaining a level of security.

Most come through European airports so it is one of those things that the wonderful EU should be able to cope with if they had the "you know what's" to deal with.

Stop all but essential flights from the affected areas, Emergency aid workers etc.. only.
No tourists, people visiting relations businessmen or students admitted.

Since the start of history the most effective way to deal with any outbreak is isolation / quarantine. Prevention is better than cure!

The Mayor of London Boris Johnson has warned - that the government is at risk of promising "stuff that doesn't really make any sense" in its plans to prevent Ebola reaching the UK.

The Mayor indicated, that the screening of people arriving from Ebola-affected areas, which is due to start next week, was a "far from perfect solution".

He said "you cannot test everybody" and some infected people would get through, he also said that blood tests could not be done on every person arriving in the UK, and that temperature checks would not catch every case - because the virus had an incubation period of up to three weeks before symptoms start.

The Mayor, during an interview on the BBC's Andrew Marr Show, said that he had little doubt, that eventually, there will be a case of Ebola in this country and probably in this city - London.

During the last Foot & Mouth scare, I remember having to walk through a special spread of 'disinfected' straw at Holyhead port, both going out from & returning to Wales.

Extra measures were assessed for those passengers who worked in the farming trade.

According to the BBC this will be what the screening process will involve:-

Screening can involve taking people's temperatures to check whether they have a fever. This is one of the main symptoms of Ebola, but is also a symptom of many other infections.

As people go through screening "they may also be asked" questions to assess their risk including:

What countries have you travelled through and what are your onward travel plans?

Have you been near anyone who is unwell recently?

Have you been near or cared for anyone with confirmed Ebola virus disease?

Do you have a fever or headache?

Have you been vomiting or do you feel generally unwell?

Do you work in healthcare?

The government says "some people" will face assessment by medical staff but "the details of this remain unclear."

Travellers will also be given advice on what to do if they become unwell at a later stage.

Seems to me that all someone needs to do, to avoid being delayed, is to answer "NO" to most of these questions :-S

OFTG,

It's not the UK Border force staff that are doing the medical checks it's doctors and nurses that are doing them.(as I understood it from the news).

Does anyone else think that our own people who are going out to Sierra Leone should be in Quarantine for 6 weeks when they come back to the UK.???

If the Spanish Hospital had put the nurse in quarantine after she had nursed the 2 priests then there wouldn't have been all the panic in Spain.

All passengers should be screened no matter which airport the passengers fly into like we get loads of flights at Leeds and Bradfors airport from Europe.

I wonder, if the cuts and numerous changes over recent years, to those agencies responsible for enforcing UK border and immigration controls, will mean that there are not enough, suitably trained staff available, to carry out this screening?

Mr. Mainwaring