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With the spread of Ebola and the Enterovirus here in the US and with Ebola expected in the UK and France in about a month I was wondering if our planet has reached a population tipping point to where Mother Nature steps in and delivers a rather brutal 'population readjustment' with plagues and the likes.

http://news.yahoo.com/high-risk-ebola-c ... 15476.html

As one doctor said, any person can get on a plane and be anywhere else in the world in 24 hrs and that levels the playing field, biologically speaking.

I would like to think we are better prepared to handle a virus versus the black plague back in the day but how well is your area prepared? Are any of us really ready for such an event? Are any of us more prepared that the native Americans were for small pox?

Thoughts anyone?

try this game http://www.ndemiccreations.com/en/25-plague-inc-evolved

Don't believe in this "tipping point" ideay myself, seen it too many times so disbelieve starts to creep in.

And concerning ebola and what not, every couple of years there's another "flu" remember the swine flu? So I'm a bit sceptical. Nonetheless, no one saw the Spanish flu coming in '18...and that one cost more lives than WWI itself. So yeah who knows? Better prepared ... maybe, maybe not.

I am not too concerned about it. I think it's media hyperbole. For one, it's only contagious in the latter stages. Two, in the current case, the guy flew back from Africa, went to the hospital with the known ebola symptoms (don't forget he just came from africa), then was sent home. A real /facepalm moment in health care.

Ebola has been in African countries for years at this point, and the African people are still around. It's only getting attention at this point because it can happen to us, and the 24 hour news cycle trying to constantly scare people and get viewership.

Also it only spread through direct contact with bodily fluids.I assume people not washing their hands after using the washroom.Most likely no place to wash hands or a cultural habit.

....unless it goes airborne.

.

ORIGINAL: bairdlander

Also it only spread through direct contact with bodily fluids.I assume people not washing their hands after using the washroom.Most likely no place to wash hands or a cultural habit.

It's been shown to transmit without direct contact in monkeys. Presumeably through indirect means. Also, there are several strains and I haven't heard the specific strain that this current outbreak can be identified with.

Even with bodily fluid contact only transmission, there are a lot of ways for indirect transfer.

ORIGINAL: warspite1
....unless it goes airborne.

The evolutionary trade-offs involved with going airborne would change the virus enough that it wouldn't necessarily be the death-knell that it threatens to be.

Granting that the virus would be able to make that leap at all is already a huge hand-wavy hypothetical in and of itself.

ORIGINAL: bairdlander

Also it only spread through direct contact with bodily fluids.I assume people not washing their hands after using the washroom.Most likely no place to wash hands or a cultural habit.

If you look at population density versus availability of first rate medical care, it still comes down to containment. Containment in Dallas is a different type of problem than say, in Mexico city.

Let's all hope this burns out quickly.

I wonder if it is likely that someone, somewhere, is trying to make a biological weapon out of this. And if so, I also wonder if terrorists would try to get it in order to use it.

Comes down to hygiene,I took a taxi this afternoon,the driver had a toothpick and was drooling all over his fingers,I paid with my atm card,which he held with the same fingers he just put his saliva all over,if he had a cold or some other disease he could be spreading it to me.Good I always carry a mini hand sanitizer bottle and used it right away.

No need to worry about tipping points as long is there is a careful balance
between right and left. To much of one or the other and over she goes!!

Do you guys really think that the medical personnel sent down there got infected because of bad personal hygiene?

When talking about diseases such as Ebola it does not only come down to hygiene.

I find it unlikely that everyone behaves rationally when they have been exposed to a deadly disease. I find it far more likely that most would behave irrationally in such situations.

Soon someone who lost their entire family to the disease is going to take all the money available and the go to Vegas and gamble with all his money because he has "always wanted to go to Vegas before he dies". Or visit Paris. Or London. Or Rome. Or go to their last living relative in Stockholm. And since his symptoms has yet to show and the authorities has no idea that he has been exposed he gets to travel his journey. Then he begins to feel sick but he tries to hide it since he doesn't want to spend his last days isolated since he know he is going to die either way. He rather spend it doing things he considers fun...

I wonder if it is likely that someone, somewhere, is trying to make a biological weapon out of this. And if so, I also wonder if terrorists would try to get it in order to use it.

For whatever my opinion is worth: someone is probably thinking about it, but not very seriously because the long incubation period makes it less useful as a weapon than several other pathogens. As for terrorists, biological weapons don't deliver the immediate, spectacular results that most terrorists seem to thrive on. (Note how few chemical weapons attacks there have been, and it's not much more difficult to prepare toxic chemicals than to prepare explosives.)

ORIGINAL: Capt. Harlock

I wonder if it is likely that someone, somewhere, is trying to make a biological weapon out of this. And if so, I also wonder if terrorists would try to get it in order to use it.

For whatever my opinion is worth: someone is probably thinking about it, but not very seriously because the long incubation period makes it less useful as a weapon than several other pathogens. As for terrorists, biological weapons don't deliver the immediate, spectacular results that most terrorists seem to thrive on. (Note how few chemical weapons attacks there have been, and it's not much more difficult to prepare toxic chemicals than to prepare explosives.)

I actually thought that the long incubation time was an advantage for it as a weapon of terror. But your opinion means a lot to me so now I will be less concerned.

ORIGINAL: Orm
I wonder if it is likely that someone, somewhere, is trying to make a biological weapon out of this. And if so, I also wonder if terrorists would try to get it in order to use it.

Tom Clancy did

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Executive_Orders

ORIGINAL: Orm

Do you guys really think that the medical personnel sent down there got infected because of bad personal hygiene?

When talking about diseases such as Ebola it does not only come down to hygiene.

I never said that,but the fact is hand washing before eating and after use of washroom is the basic common practice to greatly reduce catching a disease.This disease spreads through contact with infected bodily fluids.thorough washing eliminates most of that threat if not all.

Actually washing the dead bodies is how most get infected. It is a practice in parts of Africa to wash the dead. As for health workers, do you honestly believe they touched infected waste without gloves and masks?

I never said anything about washing dead bodies,all I'm saying is wash your hands with soap,hold under warm water for at least 30 seconds and it greatly reduces catching communicable disease.Im quite sure the body wash you refer to was not warm water or any soap used.