Ebola worst case example occurs in Mali, Imam traveled from Guinea with unrecognized Ebola symptoms, 256 identified contacts being monitored, US or other highly populated country incident could set off chain reaction

“Sooner or later someone in the US will come in contact with Ebola contagion & go undetected. They will then infect many others.”…Citizen Wells

“Barack Obama is endangering the children of the US and now our troops. Where is the outrage?”…Citizen Wells

“You can see that these doctors, who are highly trained people, got themselves infected,”
“So sending troops into an area, if they’re dealing one-on-one with a patient, they’re not going to be able to protect themselves very well. It’s not easy to [prevent transmission], because you get tired and you get careless and you make some simple mistakes. All it takes is one virus particle.”…Dr. Lee Hieb, former president of the Association of American Physicians and Surgeons

This is what I have been concerned about.

All it takes is one person with Ebola whose symptoms are not recognized in time and travel to a populated area.

That one incident could set off a chain reaction that could potentially be unstoppable.

There are 2 extremes of reactions to this.

Panic and denial.

Much of what I observe is closer to denial.

From Reuters November 14, 2014.

“Mali tries to trace 343 contacts in second Ebola wave”

“Mali is trying to trace as many as 343 people linked to confirmed and probable Ebola victims in an effort to control its second Ebola outbreak, health officials said on Friday.

An initial batch of contacts linked to a 2-year-old from Guinea who died of Ebola last month were close to the end of their 21-day quarantine period when Mali confirmed a second, separate batch of cases this week.

There have been at least four more confirmed Ebola cases in this second episode, all linked to an imam who entered Mali from neighboring Guinea and died late last month with Ebola-like symptoms that were not recognized. Three of these have died so far.

Samba Sow, the head of Mali’s Ebola response, said on state television two more suspected cases were being tested.

Malian Health Ministry spokesman Marakatie Daou said a woman who had helped wash the imam’s body died on Thursday at the Gabriel Toure Hospital in Mali’s capital, Bamako.

Daou said an initial Ebola test result for the woman was positive, making her the fourth clinically confirmed Malian case, although further analysis would be carried out abroad.

Mali’s government said on Friday afternoon 256 contacts had been identified and would be monitored.

A spokeswoman for the World Health Organization said the number of contacts that needed monitoring had risen to 343 by Friday evening, underscoring the scale of the task health workers have in containing the second wave of cases.

Reuters journalists outside the Nenecarre mosque in Bamako’s Djikoroni Para neighborhood, where the imam’s body was washed, said four health workers in protective gear entered the mosque to disinfect it but no effort was made to stop people from entering for Friday prayers.”

Read more:

http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/11/14/us-health-ebola-mali-idUSKCN0IY19A20141114