8 more Ebola cases confirmed in Congo (17 in all)

8 more Ebola cases confirmed in Congo (17 in all)

news.yahoo.com

GENEVA - Eight more cases of Ebola have been identified in Congo, raising to 17 the number of people confirmed to have contracted the deadly illness, the World Health Organization said Tuesday.

The cases were confirmed by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta, WHO spokeswoman Fadela Chaib told reporters in Geneva.

The outbreak in Congo is the first major resurgence of Ebola in years.

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At least 170 have died in the last 4 months (but only 6 have been confirmed as Ebola) and that represetns a mojor upswing. This particular strain has over 80% mortality. It would be interesting to see if a modern facility would be able to knock that down some. massive transfusion, renal replacement therapy, and total support may be able to keep those alive. Not really an option where it usualy outbreaks, but from a clinical standpoitn it may give new insight into other more practical treatment options.

news.yahoo.com
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Ebola is an extremely scary virus, along with it's evil cousin Marburg. It is also pretty scary that attempts have been made to weaponize it. I can't remember where it was I was reading about that, I think I recall that the former Soviet Union was working a weaponized version of Marburg.

It has such a short time between infection and death that it doesn't spread very well, luckily. I think the incubation time is a couple of weeks, and death follows quickly and brutally. However in a weapon form I think it could be a disaster for human kind. If they were to modify it so that people didn't know they had it for a long time, and spread it everywhere.... lights out people.

If you want to read a terrifying book about it, read "The Hotzon" by Richard Preston I believe was the author.