The New York Giants are briefing their players on the Ebola virus in advance of the team’s trip to Dallas for Sunday’s game against the Cowboys.

Giants team medical personnel were briefed on the disease and then provided information to the players via email this week, with instructions to contact team medical personnel with any questions they might have. There have been three confirmed cases of the disease in Dallas, but for the most part the Giants do not seem overly concerned.

“I’m not worried about myself or the team,” quarterback Eli Manning said. “With what we’re doing and where we’re staying, I think we’ll be fine.”

The team is well aware of the disease and has been following the national coverage, so it is a part of the players’ consciousness as they prepare for their road trip.

“I think guys might think twice if they were planning to bring their wives or their families with them on a trip like this, because why take a chance?” cornerback Prince Amukamara said. “But I think the team is doing a good job making sure we have all of the information we need.”

Source: ESPN

The post New York Giants brief players on Ebola before trip to Dallas appeared first on Ebola.com.

Ebola Virus Disease is a serious, normally deadly ailment, with its death rate above 90%. The disease afflicts humans as well as animals like primates and a certain species of bats. In the current crisis that has enfolded West Africa; substantial cases have been traced to human-to-human transference. Infections are ascribable to direct handling via ruptured skin or mucous peripheral layer or other body fluids and secretions of contaminated persons. Health experts are poised to be exposed and infected if they handle patients without proper shielding wear or failing on counter measures.
It is unsafe to care for persons who have been afflicted with the ailment. One should visit a hospital right away if you suspect you have been infected or another person. Nevertheless, individuals who handle patients should have undergone appropriate training, elimination and disposing dead bodies, essential equipment like gloves and gowns for treatment, and details on the correct steps that facilitate militating against transmittance and infections to other persons.
Besides, transmission has taken place in scenarios where persons not properly equipped have sought to dispose dead bodies in funerals rituals. Ceremonies where mourners have directly handled dead bodies of infected people have contributed to debilitating suffused infections. Patients who have succumbed to the Ebola virus should be handled with effective protective wear, gloves and ought to be buried instantaneously. WHO recommends that they should be dealt with by expertise case management professionals, aptly equipped to dispose dead bodies.
People are contagious if their bodily fluids have the virus embedded. Subsequently, infected people should undergo meticulous monitoring from health experts and subjected to laboratory assessment to make sure the virus is not in their bodies before leaving quarantine areas. As long as medical officers have given a positive nod the patient is not affected, they are no longer a threat. However, men may still communicate the virus as it survives in semen for up to three months. Discernibly, a male patient should have protected sex or abstain altogether for up to seven weeks. Another way is contacting animals that are infected with Ebola and may lead to inexorable human-to-human transmission.
The most vulnerable persons against the backdrop of an Ebola epidemic include health-workers, people proximate to infected victims and mourners who handle dead bodies in the course of burial ceremonies. Exposure to the viral disease may be countered via the use of preventive measures in isolated settings.
The patent symptoms intimating infection include starting of fever, overly weakness, headaches muscle pain, and sores in the throat. Next the patient may vomit, diarrhea, diminishing the function of the kidney and liver, and bleeding internally or externally. Laboratory determination encompasses diminished white blood cells, low platelet count and elevation of liver enzymes. The virus takes from two to twenty-one days to incubate and morph to the aforesaid symptoms. The patients are communicable upon the onset of symptoms. However, they pose no threat during the incubation time. Similarly, unverified claims and hype are only poised to worsen a fatal situation, Ebola Virus Disease contamination may only be ascertained via laboratory tests.

The post Why the global alarm about Ebola? appeared first on Ebola.com.

Unlike the common ailments that afflict human beings like flu or measles, Ebola’s transmission does not occur through the air. The disease is transferred if there is direct contact with various bodily fluids of an infected patient. Direct contact denotes fluids touching eyes, wounds, cut, opened skin or mouth, the disease is neither airborne nor does it spread by liquids like water. In this vein, the body fluids which spread Ebola’s virus include various secretions like saliva, urine semen, sweat, stool, mucus, breast milk, and breast milk.

Handshakes     

Shaking hands with a patient would unleash minimal risks; however, body fluids may exacerbate the conditions. Skin contact is not solely risky devoid of fluids. Patients become contagious if they are sick with symptoms. And at that juncture, the patients are hardly outdoors as they are very sick.

Surfaces

If you touch a surface that was in contact with a patient, contamination depends on the duration. The virus only survives few hours on surfaces, once it is desiccated, it is dead. Nevertheless, you can kill the virus using home-based bleach or organic sanitizers. On the other hand, if in body fluids, the viruses may stay alive at normal temperature while semen enables it to survive for a few months.

Coughs and Sneezes

First and foremost, if the victim is symptomatic, chances of viral transmission through a cough or sneeze are heightened. If they literally sneeze on an uninfected person, the contagion is communicable. Finally, the fluids in the cough like mucus and saliva if they land on eyes, nose, mouth or wounds; it is transmittable at that point. Coughs and sneezes do not suffice as symptomatic indications of the disease. Health experts have predicated the virus is wimpy and is poised to die if outside the body like the HIV/AIDS virus.

Animals and Organisms

Unlike the anopheles mosquito that spreads malaria, the virus does not have a microorganism that furthers or spreads it. However, various species like bats alongside monkeys have been identified as potential carriers.

Health Care Workers

Hospitals and quarantine areas where the patients of Ebola are restricted may pose a threat to the workers. Thus, needles and tools contaminated with the virus may suffuse the contagion, meticulous approach is imperative for doctors, nurses and co-workers in these settings. To keep the virus at bay, hospital staff should wear masks, protect eyes and gloves.

Medical equipment ought to be sterilized painstaking before re-use. Similarly, if not properly disposed, the virus can be communicable and amplify the outbreak.

Erstwhile Patients

When a patient infected with Ebola has convalesced fully, they cannot transfer the virus. Nevertheless, health experts have discovered the virus survives in semen for up to three months. Discernibly, abstaining from sex for not less than three months is recommended. Nevertheless, where abstinence is impossible, condoms are crucial to militate against spreading Ebola viruses.

In the view of the probable modes of transmission, body fluids of infected persons when in contact with uninfected people are the principal cause.

The post How is Ebola transmitted? appeared first on Ebola.com.

Since the WHO declared an international crises caused by Ebola Virus Disease, governments have embarked on measures to preempt the contagiousness of the epidemic. The goal is to ensure that the world is not decimated by this deadly disease. The patients have been secluded in Europe and substantially in Africa for monitoring symptoms of the lethal virus. The outbreak has left thousands of casualties on the global scale. In the meanwhile, authorities have launched border screening at airports against the demise of Thomas Duncan (Eric), the first victim to be diagnosed positively with the Ebola virus outside the African Continent. He originated from Liberia and subsequently diagnosed with the disease upon arrival in Dallas.

Airports have stepped up measures to screen passengers from West Africa in countries that have been identified as hotspots struck with the epidemic. The footing comes midst skepticism of the negligent refusal by the hospital in Texas where he went to seek cure, this lack of expeditiousness for two days cost the expatriate his life while exposing other persons to the virus. It was not until one week that his apartment was painstakingly cleaned while medical officers lost track of one man who was suspected to have contracted the virus.

The spread of Ebola virus is only possible where there is an unequivocal national blueprint or protocol for the virus, states that are perspicaciously prepared have an inclination of containing the epidemic before conditions have exacerbated. Though screening at border points is imperative, this can be insufficient given the stakes. In the interim, three additional persons are undergoing monitoring in a hospital in Madrid for Ebola symptoms; they are alongside others being monitored in Spain.

In the US and Spain, the governments have set up quarantine areas where patients are monitored. Victims transmit the virus through various body fluids like semen, saliva, mucus, blood and openings on the body. Nevertheless, one may also be exposed to contracting the disease if they handle a contaminated animal. So far, the poignant cases that have sparked foreign intervention in West Africa have left a death toll of above forty expatriated hitherto. Liberia has been hardly hit, with more than 2,000 people dead and many others confirmed to be already infected.

In the neighboring Brazil, the health ministry admitted they were monitoring a patient though did not test positive for the virus. The man had left Guinea on 19^th September, 2014. He was secluded in a quarantine situated in Rio de Janeiro but was not released after the first test and was subjected to another test with a negative result. In the foregoing, the deadly nature of the virus is poised to make things worse as hyping and unverified claim may confuse potential patients. Knowing the facts on the disease has been prioritized for everyone; this is done as to enable victims to undertake apt counter measures.

Unlike antecedent cases, the outburst that began in West Africa has spread worries internationally as new discoveries are being made under the hotbeds of the lethal virus. The disease symptoms include fever, vomiting, rashes, anti-peristalsis, breathing difficulties and hemorrhagic signs. The signs are not however a positive confirmation, it requires expert evaluation for a positive conclusion to be arrived.

The post Why is the world on alert for Ebola right now? appeared first on Ebola.com.

When is immediate medical intervention critical?

In case one has traveled from Ebola virus hit hotspots or touched a patient who exhibited symptoms of Ebola, it behooves summoning medical experts. Instantaneous medical intervention is crucial to enhancing the rate of endurance from the ailment. It is essential to counter suffusion of the virus and infectivity with prompt procedural response to a potential case.

Is there efficient curative treatment?

Direly ill patients need thorough supportive care. They are normally dehydrated necessitating replenishment with endovenous fluids or rehydration orally with liquids copious with electrolytes. There is no precise treatment approach hitherto. Nevertheless, some patients have been shown to overcome the illness with apt medical care. Quarantine is the most feasible solution as it undercuts the viral spread in twin ways, preventing and facilitating care for patients. At the moment there is no approved dose or vaccine for the Ebola Virus, aside from packages undergoing development and research.

Can health workers get contaminated with the disease?

Medical experts treating potential or confirmed patients are at the greatest risk of getting the communicable disease than secluded persons. In case of an epidemic, there are various counter measures that militate against the spread of the disease and shield workers in hospitals and quarantine zones. The procedural actions are regarded as essential and other extra precautions are based on evidence that can counter infections.

Is quarantine justifiable for confirmed Ebola patients?

Isolation is inevitable for patients suspected to host Ebola. If this is impossible, it requires assigning secluded zones while suspicious and verified cases ought to be approached separately. Access to the areas ought to be restricted, essential equipment ought to be prioritized to potential or confirmed Ebola Virus Diseases while non-medical civilians excluded from isolation areas.

Should visitors be allowed to handle or get proximity to patients?

Preventing visitor’s accessibility to victims who have contracted Ebola Virus Disease is critical. If this is impossible, access should be provided to persons required for the victim’s health and up-keep, for instance a parent to a sick kid.

Is hand sanitation imperative?

Hand hygiene is important and is a must-do for persons who have been in quarantine or isolated areas. Even if you have touched the body fluids of an infected person, sterilizing your hands keeps the virus at bay. This will suffice if your hands are soiled, with alcoholic hand sanitizers.

Are hypes about certain curative foods fallacious or tenable?

In tandem with WHO recommendations, persons with Ebola Virus Disease should be advised by health authorities. In spite of the absence of a proved cure stringent infection counter-measures, significant supportive care by trained medical staff through various infection neutralization procedures can heighten chances of survival.

Is it safe to fly to hotspots like West African states for a holiday, business or vacation?

If you find it necessary to move to the hotbeds of the virus, you may mitigate chances of infection by undertaking preventive measures. The critical question is whether you are exposed to the transmission modes. So long as you are not susceptible to the bodily fluids of infected patients, chances are you won’t get infected.

The post Ebola FAQs appeared first on Ebola.com.

Key facts

Ebola Virus Disease/EVD, antecedently regarded to as Ebola Hemorrhagic Fever is a dire, normally deadly ailment in humans. The virus is transmittable from person-to-person and wild animals to humans. Due to the lethal and contagious nature of the virus, community participation is core to ensure outbreaks are contained in time. Feasible Ebola-related epidemic control depends on adopting various means of interventions, including case management, scrutiny and surveillance and contact follow ups, proper laboratory services, innocuous burials and mobilization of the members of the community.

Timely supportive measures including rehydration, countering symptoms enhances survival. In the meanwhile, no licensed or concrete treatment has been empirically shown to negate or weaken the virus hitherto. Nevertheless, a wide spectrum of blood, immunologic and drug therapeutic diseases has been predicated. Likewise there are no approved Ebola vaccines though potential cohorts are undergoing assessment.

Background Information

The Ebola viruses lead to fatal, dire ailment that is normally macabre if left untreated. The virus first fulminated in 1976 where twin outbursts, a case in Sudan and the other in the DRC Congo. The latter case appeared in a hamlet adjacent to the Ebola River, from which the deadly ailment name was coined from.

Suffice to say, though the disease has had intermittent outbreaks in Africa with substantial death tolls skyrocketing in West Africa in 2014, health workers from the west have also been contaminated in the course of interventions. The case hitherto is the most severe and intricate since its discovery in 1976. The 2014 cases aforesaid have been multifarious with numerous deaths reported since then. The virus has since spilled over to adjoining states, beginning in Guinea then suffusing across borders to adjacent Sierra Leone, Nigeria, Senegal and Liberia.

The most seriously afflicted countries, Guinea, Liberia along Sierra Leone have inefficient health systems, devoid of manpower and infrastructural facilities, against the backdrop of incessant turmoil that had haunted these countries recently. This prompted the World Health Organization to declare an emergency situation at the international plane. Nevertheless, apart from the state-to-state transmissions across borders, an isolated case of the Ebola outburst was detected in the DRC Congo within Equateur.

The Ebola virus family taxon Filoviridae encompasses triple genera, viz. Ebolavirus, Marburgvirus, and Cuevavirus. So far, five species have been ramified including Tai Forest, Zaire, Reston, Bundibugyo and Sudan. The viruses have been ascribed with enormous outbursts in Africa; however, the species that has recently unleashed horrendous deaths is the Zaire species.

Supportive counter-rehydration including oral and intravenous fluids, intervention to treat symptoms has been predicated to enhance victim survival. There is hitherto no evidenced treatment offered for Ebola disease. Nevertheless, a wide spectrum of potential measures including blood packages, immunologic and drug therapies are undergoing evaluation.

It can be hard to make a distinction of EVD from various infectious ailments like malaria, fevers or meningitis along others. Diagnostic confirmations of the symptoms caused by the disease are attainable via a number of approaches, including electron microscopy, virus segregation by cellular culture, serum neutralization assessment, antigen-capture discovery tests, and immunosorbent assay of antibody-capture and RT-PCR assessment.

Samples extracted from infected persons are overly hazardous biologically; laboratory tests should only be undertaken midst optimal bio-containment conditions.

The post Key Ebola Facts appeared first on Ebola.com.

Ebola is a lethal disease that is communicable through humans and various animals, specifically a species of primates and bats. Once the virus contaminates the human body, its incubation time to the start of symptoms takes two to twenty one days. Humans are not contagious until the symptoms have bloomed.

Fore symptoms are the erratic onset of muscular pains, headaches, sore throat and fever fatigue. Next the patient starts to vomit, have diarrhea, internal or external bleeding, impaired kidney, rashes and liver malfunction. Laboratory results encompass diminished white blood cells and thrombocyte counts alongside heightened liver enzymes. Preempting Infections in Hospitals and Quarantine Settings Doctors and other medical assistants ought to undertake quintessential precautions when handling patients, despite any presumed pre-diagnosis. These encompass standard hand sanitization, respiratory hygiene, wearing shielding equipment, safe injections and protected burial practices.

Medical workers in interventions expatriated to hotspot areas ought to embrace holistic infection counter techniques to militate against touching with victim’s fluids or contaminated surfaces. If in proximate contact of victims afflicted with Ebola, medical officers must put on facial shield, masks and goggles, clean, anti-sterile lengthy-sleeved gowns and hand-wear gloves. In a similar vein, laboratory researchers are vulnerable to the Ebola virus. Thus, samples obtained from infected patients or animals for analysis of Ebola contamination ought to be dealt with by trained staff while processing in optimally equipped laboratories.

Pragmatic epidemic measures for control are founded on a wide array of interventions, viz. case organization, surveillance and trace of contacts, feasible laboratory services, sanitized burials and mobilizing communities. Societal engagement is imperative for success counter of outbreaks. Wakeup calls for awareness of biohazard risk factors related to Ebola and dissemination of information on the terminal ailment paired with protective techniques is effective to preempt human-to-human transmissions. In a similar vein, countering risks of animal-to-human communication, starting from touching contagious fruit bats or apes and consuming their meat is critical.

Animals must be handled with protective-wear like gloves and clothing. Thus, animal parts ought to be painstakingly cooked prior to consumption. Overcoming patients to uninfected persons spread is attainable if contact with bodily fluids is the hallmark of success. Appropriate protective wear must be provided to health workers and persons handling infectious victims in all settings.

You should clean your hands with organic fluids to keep the virus at bay. However, in case of an outbreak, there are counter-measures encompassing instantaneous and safe burials of victims who have succumbed to the ailment, pinpointing persons who have touched infected people, regulating the health of patients for twenty-one days, establishing quarantines to preempt transmissions, hygienic measures and keeping the environment clean. Supported care-rehydration including oral and bodily fluids, treating symptoms, heightens the survival chances of a victim.

At this juncture, there is no empirical treatment offered for EVD patients. Nevertheless, a wide spectrum of probable treatments encompassing blood packages, immune-based and drug therapeutic cure are undergoing analysis. Suffice to say, there are no approved vaccines provided, however, scientists have predicated twin potential vaccines going through cohort safety tests.

The post How to control Ebola appeared first on Ebola.com.

Ebola is one of about 177 pathogens that are considered to be newly emerging diseases. These diseases are generally zoonotic diseases.  Animal diseases that have jumped species. A familiar example of a zoonotic disease is measles, which is derived from dog distemper.

For the past thirty years, forty-one previously unrecognized human infectious diseases have jumped from their normal animal hosts to human beings. This has frequently occurred in Africa, as human beings settle into new areas. Ebola is a member of a small, recently recognized family called filoviruses, named for the filamentous or threadlike appearance of the virus on electron microscopy.

Like all viruses, these are far too small to be seen with a regular microscope. The first recognized outbreak of a filovirus occurred in 1967, when there were thirty-one cases of a hemorrhagic disease in vaccine production workers in Marburg, Germany, who had contact with blood, organs, or cell cultures from a batch of imported African green monkeys from Uganda. Ebola first emerged in Africa in 1976 in three simultaneous outbreaks and was initially called green monkey fever.

The disease also devastated populations of chimpanzees and gorillas. More human outbreaks occurred – and then ended. Intrepid researchers trekked through the jungle trying to find out where the virus went between outbreaks.

In his best-selling book, Spillover: Animal Infections and the Next Human Pandemic, David Quammen details how scientists caught, killed, dissected, or took samples of blood and internal organs from more than one thousand animals, including 679 bats. The bats were identified as one important “reservoir.” In reservoir animals, the virus can proliferate and be shed without sickening or killing the animals.

Some animals domesticated by humans, notably pigs and dogs, can be infected with Ebola virus and serve as reservoir animals. Bats are especially important. These very diverse animals – of which there are more than a thousand species – have a long association with RNA viruses. They can disseminate a disease widely because they fly hundreds of miles in a season between their summer and winter roosting sites. Humans can be infected by contact with their droppings, or in the course of hunting and butchering them as a food source. For many Africans, “bush meat” is an important protein source.

The post Where Did The Ebola Virus Come From? appeared first on Ebola.com.

By now, it should be obvious that we cannot rely on this administration to keep Ebola out of our country. It has been unwilling to restrict air travelers from entering or to secure the open land border. The CDC is simply offering lame rationales to support administration policy. Its advice on infection control is inconsistent. Also it is based on categorical assertions that are unproved or demonstrably false. Hospitals are unprepared even by CDC standards.

Americans are at risk of exposure from foreign nationals who have been in West Africa, from Americans who have traveled there or been deployed there by our military, from medical workers who may have treated infected patients (knowingly or unknowingly), and from those who have come in contact with any of the above. A particularly ugly possibility is contact with a terrorist intent on infecting as many people as possible. Not only does law enforcement refuse to profile likely terrorists; alarmingly, some terrorists may be alienated Westerners with a name as common as “John Smith,” a middle-American accent, and inconspicuous dress, who acquired their ideology and training from the Internet.

We need to be increasingly careful in our social interactions, and watch for reports of diagnosed cases near our area. Is it safe to go to a hospital? Even without the Ebola threat, a hospital is increasingly a high-risk environment. As demonstrated by the SARS (severe acute respiratory syndrome) outbreak, hospitals can become major venues for contagious disease transmission.

In Canada 77 percent of probable SARS cases resulted from in-hospital exposures. In Taiwan, the director general of the health ministry stated that after the initial importation of SARS, almost 94 percent of SARS infections were transmitted within hospitals. Then there is the question of whether hospitals will even be available to you. Hospitals are already understaffed. If it takes 20 full-time staff to care for one Ebola patient, how many such patients would it take to disable (and bankrupt) the hospital? How many of the staff will decide to change jobs?

There is also the burden on the economy, and the disruptions in essential services if people self-quarantine instead of reporting to work. And what if other nations decide to impose restrictions on travel and commerce from the new Hot Zone of the United States? To avoid the dire effects of an uncontained outbreak here, we need unceasing activism to urge Congress to block a continuation of this administration’s disastrous policy. Some congressmen are asking some of the right questions, and author Alan Korwin suggests many more.

For example: Why didn’t president Obama seek out a broad coalition of troops before sending our soldiers to fight the Ebola virus? What was Obama’s basis for seeking to fight it unilaterally, deploying troops without congressional approval? Why exactly did he need an extra thousand troops to fight the virus, so soon after the first deployment? Is Russia or China sending in troops to fight the virus? When do our troops come home? Is there a rotation schedule? Do they have to be quarantined for twenty-one days when they do come home? What’s the plan for troops who come back and have Ebola? Has the Veterans Administration been prepared for handling Ebola cases?

Since the situation is likely to get much worse before it gets better, you need an emergency plan. This will be good insurance for various other disasters as well. Remember, do not rely on the government to protect you or help you.

AVOIDANCE

1. Watch the outbreaks section of the CDC website, your local news, and the Threat Journal.
2. If there has been an outbreak in an area, stay away for at least twenty-five days after the last reported case; preferably wait forty-two days.
3. If your child is in public school, consider changing to a private school, or homeschooling. In addition to hospitals, public schools, which must accept illegal foreign nationals without adequate health screening, are prime sites for contagion. Additionally, think of the political indoctrination and moral corruption in government schools.
4. Limit travel. If you must use public transportation, take a travel kit (see below), and don’t be shy about setting new fashion and etiquette trends.
5. Think twice about attending large public gatherings, especially if new cases of disease are being reported.

SELF-QUARANTINE

1. Do you have some food? Before you go for expensive “survival foods” (which some say are becoming unavailable, surely a bad harbinger), stock up on the basics: rice, beans, salt, sugar, baking soda, salt substitute (for your rehydration kit, see below), and canned food that requires no cooking. The best advice for long-term storage is still Cresson Kearny’s Nuclear War Survival Skills, invaluable for all types of disaster.

2. You can’t have too much water.

3. Do you have cleaning supplies: chlorine bleach, soap, detergent?

4. Do you have a stockpile of medications you need?

5. Do you have a battery-powered or hand-crank radio and enough batteries in case of power outage? A light source and a means of cooking?

6. Stock up on trash bags and ziplock bags.

7. Make a shopping list, and add a few essentials to your supplies whenever you go out. Remember that store shelves will empty quickly in an emergency.

MEDICAL CARE

1. Do not rely on the hospital emergency department for things that can be treated elsewhere. You do not want to be sitting for hours in the waiting room. (You might want to take your travel disinfection kit with you if you do decide to go to the emergency room.) Find a doctor who is not beholden to a hospital or an insurance network, and support him by seeing him for all your medical needs, not just the bad ones.

2. Have medical information on your bookshelf. Don’t rely on the availability of the Internet. Suggestions: an old PDR (Physicians Desk Reference on prescription drugs); used medical textbooks (state-of-the art treatment changes, but diseases not so much); a Merck Manual; Dr. Lee Hieb’s suggestions (The Special Operations Forces Medical Handbook and the U.S. Army First Aid Manual).

3. There are many suggested lists of medical equipment and supplies, including drugs that your doctor would need to prescribe. The 1987 prices in the Doctors for Disaster Preparedness Basic Medical Kit for a 10-to-20 Person Shelter, which is directed toward physicians but has many items that lay people can use, show how devastating medical inflation has been.

A TRAVEL KIT

Click Image To See Full Size

1. You need several pairs of powder-free disposable gloves (nitrile, latex, polyisoprene, or neoprene), some N-95 masks, a small bottle of hand sanitizer, some individually wrapped sanitizing wipes, a one-gallon ziplock plastic bag for contents of the kit, and several 1-quart ziplock bags for disposing of waste.

2. Practice taking the gloves off without touching the outside with your fingers; turn them inside out as you do so.

3. Alcohol-based hand sanitizers are effective against many bacteria and enveloped viruses such as Ebola. For nonenveloped viruses such as norovirus, alcohol is ineffective. Zylast uses benzethonium chloride. Other products are hydrogen-peroxide based, though plain 3 percent hydrogen peroxide is said to be ineffective.

Look for disinfectant wipes shown to be effective against norovirus. They won’t have been tested against Ebola, but enveloped viruses like Ebola are easier to inactivate. If they don’t come individually wrapped, put them in a ziplock bag. The EPA has a sixty-five-page list of products registered as effective against norovirus.

4. You should still vigorously wash your hands for twenty seconds with soap and water at every opportunity.

DISINFECTANTS IN HOME OR SICK ROOM

1. A 1:10 dilution of hypochlorite can be prepared from household chlorine bleach (hypochlorite at 5.25-to-6.25 percent). This is equivalent to 5,000 parts per million (ppm) chlorine. To make this, add 11/2 cups of household bleach to one gallon of water. The effectiveness of diluted hypochlorite decays over time, so working solution should be prepared fresh every twenty-four hours. Paper towels or cotton cloths should not be used in open cleaning buckets because cellulose reduces the effectiveness of hypochlorite and hydrogen peroxide. Do not mix chlorine bleach with other agents, to avoid generating poisonous chlorine gas.

2. According to the Kimberly Clark Ebola virus disease precautions brief of September 19, 2014, a contact time of ten minutes should be sufficient if there is no organic matter present.

3. Remember that toilet flushing generates aerosols filled with pathogenic organisms. If caring for someone with vomiting or diarrhea, it might be helpful to pour bleach in the toilet and allow it to stand for at least ten minutes before flushing with the lid closed. (Then disinfect the lid.)

4. Ultraviolet radiation from the sun is the primary germicide in the environment. The time it takes for sunlight to inactivate filoviruses has been studied under various conditions. For example, filovirus activity is reduced by 90 percent on a clear day at midday in April in Griffin, Georgia, in about one hundred minutes.8 Viruses are protected by the presence of organic matter.

5. UV-C, a shorter wavelength than found in sunlight, is more effective. Ultraviolet “Ebola-zapping” robots are being used to disinfect hospital and nursing home rooms. The UV lights commonly present in isolation rooms in hospitals have fallen out of favor; literature on them is decades old. You can purchase air-purifying devices with HEPA filters and UV light (see EbolaReady.com for suggested sources). Efficacy against viruses is unproven, but the devices at least purify the air of allergens. Your eyes must be protected if you are looking at a UV source, and sunglasses are not adequate.

6. Viruses are degraded over time. “Quarantining” a room for a week after cleaning and disinfection provides an added margin of safety.

SUPPLEMENTS

1. Surprisingly, the majority of people, even in the sunny Southwest, are deficient in vitamin D, which is essential for immune function. There is some evidence that optimal levels of vitamin D may be even more protective against influenza than immunizations. The best possible method is to expose a goodly portion of your skin to sunlight for twenty minutes a day, without sunscreen. As that is difficult for most people, supplements are a good idea and are safe; 10,000 IU of vitamin D3 each day is recommended.

2. Vitamin C needs to be in your food stockpiles, as it is essential for all, and fresh fruits and vegetables may be impossible to obtain during a crisis. Fighting infections depletes your vitamin C level, so you need more when you are sick. Sugar also depletes vitamin C. Vitamin C tablets deteriorate over time, so your supply needs to be rotated.

Taking large doses at frequent intervals to “bowel tolerance” (backing off when you get diarrhea) is suggested by some practitioners at the first sign of any illness. Lypo-Spheric vitamin C, available online, is expensive but may be tolerated in higher doses. In fact, it may be combined with tablets, as the two forms may act somewhat differently. This is not mainstream medical advice. There are no good efficacy studies, but it is very unlikely to be harmful.

3. Numerous other supplements are touted, but discussion of them is beyond the scope of this booklet. One caution is not to spend all your money on unproven remedies if you don’t have the basics covered. And do not make any assumptions that you will be protected and can thus take a risk of exposure.

ORAL REHYDRATION

1. Patients who might otherwise recover can die rapidly from loss of fluid through diarrhea and vomiting. Given the present shortage of basic medications in the United States, even essentials such as sterile intravenous solutions, it is imperative to have the ingredients for oral rehydration.

2. Formula for homemade rehydration solution: Take one quart of water, add one scant teaspoon of Morton’s Litesalt or other salt substitute containing potassium chloride, 25 10 teaspoons of sugar, and 1/3 teaspoon of sodium bicarbonate (baking soda).

3. If using a salt substitute that contains potassium only (read the label), use 1/2 teaspoon of the substitute and 1/2 teaspoon ordinary table salt.

4. Sip slowly; the patient might be able to retain enough even if vomiting.

The post How Can You Protect Yourself & Your Family from Ebola Virus? appeared first on Ebola.com.

This year’s annual flu shot will offer protection against H1N1 flu (swine flu) virus, in addition to two other influenza viruses that are expected to be in circulation this flu season.

A vaccine that protects against four strains of the virus will also be available, as will a high-dose flu vaccine for adults age 65 and older.

As you can see there are many different flu vaccines and the general population believes that there is just one. This article explains why you need a vaccination and why you need to also speak to you Dr. about which one is best before heading into your neighborhood Walgreens to get a flu shot.

What is Influenza (Flu)?

Influenza is a respiratory infection that can cause serious complications, particularly for young children and for older adults. Flu shots are the most effective way to prevent influenza and its complications. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recommends that everyone 6 months of age or older be vaccinated annually against influenza.

Here are the answers to common questions about flu shots:

When is the flu vaccine available?

Because the flu vaccine is produced by private manufacturers, its availability depends on when production is completed. Doctors and nurses are encouraged to begin vaccinating people as soon as flu vaccine is available in their areas.

It takes up to two weeks to build immunity after a flu shot, but you can benefit from the vaccine even if you don’t get it until after flu season starts.

Why do I need to get vaccinated every year?

New flu vaccines are released every year to keep up with rapidly adapting flu viruses. Because flu viruses evolve so quickly, last year’s vaccine may not protect you from this year’s viruses.

After vaccination, your immune system produces antibodies that will protect you from the vaccine viruses.

Who should get the flu vaccine?

The CDC recommends annual influenza vaccinations for everyone age 6 months or older. Vaccination is especially important for people at high risk of influenza complications, including:

• Pregnant women
• Older adults
• Young children
• Children between 6 months and 8 years may need two doses of flu vaccine to be fully protected. Check with your child’s pediatrician.

Chronic medical conditions can also increase your risk of influenza complications. Examples include:

• Asthma
• Cancer or cancer treatment
• Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD)
• Cystic fibrosis
• Diabetes
• HIV/AIDS
• Kidney or liver disease
• Obesity

Who shouldn’t get a flu shot?

Check with your doctor before receiving a flu vaccine if:

• You’re allergic to eggs. Some flu vaccines contain tiny amounts of egg proteins. If you have an egg allergy or sensitivity, you’ll likely be able to receive a flu vaccine — but you might need to take special precautions, such as waiting in the doctor’s office for at least 30 minutes after vaccination in case of a reaction. There are also flu vaccines that don’t contain egg proteins, and are Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved for use in people age 18 and older. Consult your doctor about your options.

• You had a severe reaction to a previous flu vaccine. The flu vaccine isn’t recommended for anyone who had a severe reaction to a previous flu vaccine.

What kind of protection does the flu vaccine offer?

How well the flu vaccine works can vary. According to the CDC, in past flu seasons when the match between flu vaccine and circulating strains of flu virus is close, a flu shot is 71 percent effective in reducing flu-related hospitalizations among adults of all ages, and 77 percent effective among adults ages 50 and older. The flu shot may reduce a child’s risk by 74 percent.

Can I lower my risk of the flu without getting a flu shot?

With or without a flu shot, you can take steps to help protect yourself from the flu and other viruses. Good hygiene remains your primary defense against contagious illnesses.

Wash your hands often and thoroughly with soap and water.

Use an alcohol-based sanitizer on your hands if soap and water aren’t available.

Avoid touching your eyes, nose or mouth whenever possible.

Avoid crowds when the flu is most prevalent in your area.

Practice good health habits. Get plenty of sleep, exercise regularly, drink plenty of fluids, eat a nutritious diet, and manage your stress.

The post What You Need to Know About The Flu Vaccine appeared first on Ebola.com.