Ebola spreads due Bushmeat, monkeys and mistakes

Stumbled across a Vice document which shows some features why Ebola spreads in Liberia.

As we need a source of protein and in Africa there isnt so much farmed livestock Ebola spreads due handling and eating bushmeat ( rodents monkeys etc. ). Liberian goverment has forbidden bushmeat but no one really cares what its saying.

Also unsafe funerals cause a threat as people washes their deceased ones and even brushes their teeth and there is no safety measures taken.

At the same time, MSF said, a lack of understanding has meant people continue to prepare corpses and attend funerals of Ebola victims, leaving them vulnerable to the disease, transmitted by touching victims or through bodily fluids.

Civil society groups, governments and religious authorities have also failed to acknowledge the scale of the epidemic and as a result few prominent figures are promoting the fight against the disease, the statement said. "The epidemic is out of control," said Bart Janssens, MSF director of operations. "With the appearance of new sites in Guinea, Sierra Leone and Liberia, there is a real risk of it spreading to other areas."

"Ebola is no longer a public health issue limited to Guinea: it is affecting the whole of West Africa," said Janssens, urging WHO, affected countries and their neighbours to deploy more resources especially trained medical staff.

Reuters
UN News

Seems like there is no out from it.. people still need to eat.

a reply to: dollukka

Again, the unnecessary human habit of meat-eating creates destruction and illness. The cause of so much disease and trauma, eating the bodies of other animals filters their benign germs and viruses into the human genome, paving the way for such things as Ebola to take hold, spread, and destroy.

a reply to: Aleister

I agree.

Plus, the production of meat is posing a serious toll on worldwide resources - how many starving people could be fed if we'd give them the vegetables instead of wasting it to bulls, cows, pigs, ect? And the water?

There is another video in Reuters about Ebola and funerals..
Ebola
Sure everyone wants to bury their love ones in decent way so what we see at 1.05 is not the way it should be handled...

a reply to: swanne

Significant amounts of land on this planet cannot be used to raise crops. Forbidding animal flesh would actually cause more starvation.

The whole 'crops to feed animals' is only an issue in the rich countries. The rest of the world raises meat on un-farmable land. If you want to say that we should be sending our grain to feed people in other countries, my response is why should we be responsible for their huge overpopulation issues?

Humans evolved eating a diet where 2/3 of the calories came from flesh.

a reply to: swanne

We still need a source for protein, vegetables as alone is not really source for that, there are some which do have protein like peas, nuts and dairy products but when we look at the area where Ebola spreads those sources are not much available to all. Area which are most hard hit with the disease are slums and poor country sides.

originally posted by: Aleister
a reply to: dollukka

Again, the unnecessary human habit of meat-eating creates destruction and illness. The cause of so much disease and trauma, eating the bodies of other animals filters their benign germs and viruses into the human genome, paving the way for such things as Ebola to take hold, spread, and destroy.

Some nutrients humans need CANNOT be sourced from vegetables, PETA is lying when they say omega three oils can be found in vegetable form, they are not the same kind we can use.

Humans started eating meat before the split with chimps, so as far back as 10 million years. Throughout the evolution of the homo genus meat has been a major source of calories, and in modern humans hunter gatherers typical get 2/3 of their calories from flesh, and yes I can produce research that shows this.

The reason diseases from animals become a problem is actually a result of the agriculture that allows us to live in such huge numbers so packed in together. Hunter gatherers get sick sometimes from killed animals, but the diseases only affect a few people due to a lack of opportunity for the diseases to spread, and at worst they can disband for a few weeks until the disease burns itself out due to a lack of new victims. These big spreading contagions are down to our huge numbers, and you don't see evidence of them in hunter gatherers of pre neolithic humans.

a reply to: dollukka

Basically it's spreading because the people are uneducated and won't deal with the infected or dead in a hygienic way. Sad really, but there's nothing we can do. I suspect we wouldn't have nearly the level of fatalities or infections in the developed world from it. It's not airborne, so it's containable.

I suspect as soon as it looks like it might get into a rich country money will be found for vaccine research. There's never been enough reason to work on one before (to few at risk and they have no money to pay for it anyway). They've already started on one for the chimps, although what that says about us as a species IDK.
www.newscientist.com...

There is now hope: on Monday researchers announced that an experimental Ebola vaccine for chimps is safe and induces a strong immune response. The vaccine, based on a surface protein from the Ebola virus, had already been shown to protect monkeys.

a reply to: dollukka

The original source of Ebola is still a mystery. Index cases (first cases) may be due to "bush meat" but that has yet to be proven, I think. In that case monkeys would only be carriers themselves, not a "source".

I can tell you that the quarantine procedures in the Vice video are scary looking. A sheet across a door of a "lab" is not going to contain the virus.

The transmission of Ebola occurs from person to person. Contact with infected people, not just from "eating bushmeat".

This outbreak is not over. Over 500 cases are being reported now. And its Zaire variant. Particularly nasty. The continued spread of the disease is due to other factors.

Major challenges faced by all partners in the efforts to control the outbreak include its wide geographic spread, weak health-care infrastructures, and community mistrust and resistance.

CDC

I like Vice but they didn't do their homework on this one. They do disclaim it in the beginning though, "might be".

a reply to: dollukka

A great video! 'Beats the Hell outta evening TV news and even NPR's indepth features.

a reply to: dollukka

Kinda what Iv been sating since this latest outbreak began..

a reply to: Aleister

a reply to: swanne


Im going to eat a extra steak tonight in honor you veggies.

In fact il get a third and fed it to my evil carnivorous kitty.

So, I have to know ... how are the Bedouin people supposed to live off a plant only diet? Or maybe the Tuareg? Or the Mongolian herdsmen? Or the Inuit and other Arctic tribes? The fact of the matter is that without animal protein and other animal sourced food, there would be very large places where human habitation would be impossible. I realize that the most radical greens can only see this as a plus, but it comes at odds with their other arguments that we should live in harmony with our world. These people had to live in balance with their environments or they wouldn't survive.

As harsh as it sounds, disease is a part of living in harmony with our environment, even diseases as horrible as ebola.

You can no more avoid disease entirely than you can construct the perfect Utopian lifestyle by trying to force everyone to live in a way that is unnatural to the species. If you don't believe me, do a little check into our dentition versus the dentition of other true herbivores. We are supposed to use both plant and animal sources in our diets. We're supposed to eat whatever we can.

Now, if you don't mind, I'm going to go out with my family, enjoy a Storytime at Barnes & Noble and eat a killer scampi pizza at the pizzeria across the street.

It is common in parts of Africa to eat meat raw. This is just asking for it. I'm not a vegetarian, but I prefer my monkey brains cooked.

a reply to: dollukka

Very dangerous if you consider meat illegally being bought over to Countries like the UK for example... if meat goes unchecked, well we do get problems.

I can only hope that the outbreak is contained.

originally posted by: ketsuko
....As harsh as it sounds, disease is a part of living in harmony with our environment, even diseases as horrible as ebola.

You can no more avoid disease entirely than you can construct the perfect Utopian lifestyle by trying to force everyone to live in a way that is unnatural to the species. If you don't believe me, do a little check into our dentition versus the dentition of other true herbivores. We are supposed to use both plant and animal sources in our diets. We're supposed to eat whatever we can. ....

Worth repeating. S&


Also, seems clear that diseases serve to bring us into better harmony with our environment (by infecting us with adaptations to environmental change).

Although the title of this thread is "Ebola spreads due Bushmeat, monkeys and mistakes" the video shows this is a maybe and not definite.