(small) Ebola outbreak in Uganda

Sun Yeti - October 7, 2022

https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-022-03192-8

tl:dr 64 people infected, 30 died, epidemic is 1 month old, different strain of ebola than the big epidemic in west africa 2013 to 2016. We’ve developed vaccines for this strain and tested them for safety, but we don’t know if they work or not and we don’t have many doses.

Hope to god it doesn’t spread. Hope at least one of the vaccines works. 

I really thought we dodged a bullet with the big epidemic some years back. At the time, I was very worried that if it spread out of the region in any meaningful numbers it would be impossible to stop and would kill tens of millions or more globally. Having seen just how badly our societies and governments have dealt with covid, I think the hazards were in retrospect, even worse.

Worth keeping an eye on.

7  

I love the people on this site. On any other prepping group the title would be “EBOLA OUTBREAK IN UGANDA!!! PREPARE NOW!” This definitely is something to watch out for and you aren’t making light of it, but it’s not something to panic about or insight fear.

From the article it says that Ebola has a death rate that has ranged from 25% to 90% in past outbreaks. That sure is a much higher rate than covid was.

Five previous outbreaks have occurred in Uganda in the past with the largest being 425 infection and 224 deaths. So they are aware of this as a constant threat and how to handle things quickly to prevent more spreading.

According to the CDC, Ebola is spread through bodily fluids into broken skin, eyes, nose, or mouth. So it should be easier to stay safe against than covid that was literally floating in the air all around us.

 

Came here to say just that. Covid is like 1,000,0000,000 times easier to get than Ebola. Hyperbole, but I think we are pretty well-versed at this point on how to not catch it due the last 2.5 years.

 

You’re probably right that we know a lot more now about how to control pandemics than we did a few years ago. But there is a big difference between knowing what we need to do and actually doing it.

I can envision all too well a large fraction of the population of this country going ‘eh, ebola’s probably all hype, how bad could it be?’ after like two weeks of ebola lockdowns. 

I’m glad it looks quite unlikely to come to that.

 

“According to the CDC, Ebola is spread through bodily fluids into broken skin, eyes, nose, or mouth. So it should be easier to stay safe against than covid that was literally floating in the air all around us.”

CDC and WHO made similar statements about COVID for roughly its first year. Many people still think COVID spreads via large cough droplets and via surfaces because the early messaging stuck. If there’s significant spread outside of Africa, I’ll be double checking the evidence on this claim just to be sure. It feels a bit early to be putting that effort in now, though.

The worst part about COVID is that so many people gave up and didn’t try to contain/suppress it. I still think, or at least hope, that people will take Ebola more seriously. That’s actually the main reason I think Ebola won’t go very far. It’s just too hard to ignore. We always had the tools to beat COVID. I’m fairly sure that those tools will be used for something like Ebola.

 

“CDC and WHO made similar statements about COVID for roughly its first year.”
That’s definitely true, but I’d put more faith in that statement simply because Ebola has spread for far longer than Covid – decades versus a few years.
That said, I absolutely see people thinking it’s no big deal and saying ‘it’s all hype’, ‘it’s not real’, ‘the government is lying’, etcetera should it get to that point. Hopefully the death rate and Ebola’s history would convince people that it needs to be taken seriously, but I honestly don’t see that happening.

 

Agree, Bed. The scientific community really knows Ebola. I also have some hope that the public would take it seriously, despite all the forces mitigating against that, just because it’s such an unusual and scary set of symptoms. Hemorrhagic fevers are both weird and gross— my understanding is that the later stages include bleeding from some unusual and alarming orifices, as well as under the skin and internally. I would guess “bleeding from the eyes and under your skin while having bloody diarrhea and vomiting blood” is easier to sell as really freaking serious than any infectious disease with the kind of respiratory symptoms that most of us experience annually due to cold and flu (e.g., Covid, flu variants).

 

“The good news is that clinical trials for these experimental vaccines and treatments are being organized at a breakneck pace, Kobinger says. Researchers hope to start trials later this month, which is in stark contrast to the more than eight months that it took before trials began during the large West African epidemic, he adds.”

I’m surprised at the speed they were able to get vaccines/treatments up and running and ready for human testing. Very impressive!
Also, thank you for not being a doomsday prepper in the way you explained the article. Far too many people do that imo.