That 24-Hour Ebola
Greetings
from the land of Anthrax and Bruce Ivins. People round Frederick,
Maryland and Fort Detrick take the consequences of the spread of
pathogens more seriously than most.
Problem with Ebola – speaking containment now – is that the first symptoms mimic that of a severe flu.
So
many have the potential to miss early intervention, quarantine, and
life-saving interventions. Should the known outbreaks – or one from one
of our local labs – outgrow our ability to fire-wall the spread, certain
diagnostics will be problematic.
So,
what special steps have the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), and our
local enforcers, put into place to make certain we are not engulfed in
some global biological tragedy of short-sightedness? Not enough as I
sample media reports today.
A
doctor returning from a “hot zone” was reportedly not even questioned
upon re-entry into our country at an entrance point. Illegals are not
routinely screened medically. And some travel over our southern borders
from lands as exotic as Liberia.
The
potential militarization and accidental proliferation of Level 4
biologic agents has been a concern of mine since Michael Crichton’s
seminal 1969 speculative sci-fi book “The Andromeda Strain.” It’s all
about containment, and planning for worst case scenarios.
When
will we become serious enough to marshal our resources in education,
precautions, and first local response to infectious disease outbreak?
Perhaps
it’s our military posture relative to “offensive capability” of
infectious-contagious disease that sets us off guard. Then President
Richard M. Nixon formally ended our “Research and Development” into an
on-the-shelf offensive capability of all biological agents.
Well,
so it would seem: The problem is almost one of semantics; although, on
the record the above is correct. In truth we harbor lethal agents and
test them for peaceful “defensive” uses, you know, in case this stuff
gets used on us. Good, right, for cases like now, right?
But what kinds of planning have we been doing?
Africa has been a known source of origin for the recent Ebola outbreak. This is widely acknowledged.
What
is less widely known is that American Army doctors routinely test
prototype agents in Africa, on clandestine missions where only plain
clothed Army doctors participate. This is presumably under some formally
arranged accord with the host countries involved. Money, you know. We
also call it foreign aid.
Some
of the testing in Africa – that I have personally gotten wind of –
include some used to test the natural spread of “dumbed-down” infectious
diseases. In essence, we mutate laboratory strains of bad diseases into
(presumably) benign forms. An Ebola that merely causes a common cold
instead of reliably killing, for instance.
In
this way we can be forearmed about patterns, timing, and durations of
infectious disease spread – but why are we not now taking advantage of
this body of knowledge?
Here’s
an even worse concept: What if a “dumbed- down” mutated strain used in
testing reverted back in some way into a deadly (or deadlier!) form,
unbeknownst and unpredicted?
I’m keeping a weary-eye on the news of this Ebola outbreak, because it is impossible to be sure.
Is it a common influenza, or just a 24-hour Ebola?
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