‘You Don’t Want This Going Places’
Doctors are investigating a new strain of Ebola that has erupted in Uganda, killing 22 people and raising fears of infections farther afield.
Few things in life are scarier than Ebola. The virus has killed 9 of 10 victims in some outbreaks, and the effects are particularly gruesome—the bug causes massive bleeding. Ever since the first outbreaks in 1976, which erupted simultaneously in Zaire (now the Democratic Republic of the Congo) and Sudan, scientists had identified a total of four strains. Now there's a fifth. The outbreak earlier this month in Uganda has claimed 22 lives, including a doctor in Kampala, raising fears of an urban outbreak and causing rumors that the virus is a milder type that could spread more easily beyond Uganda and the African continent. Tom Ksiazek, chief of the pathogen branch of the Centers for Disease Control in Atlanta spoke with NEWSWEEK's Fred Guterl about how dangerous the outbreak may be and what scientists are doing to investigate. Excerpts:
NEWSWEEK: How is this virus different from the four other known strains of Ebola?
Tom Ksiazek: This virus is not like any of the four other ones. It's about as different from the other four as they are from each other.
How do you know?
That's based on preliminary information about the [genetic] sequence of the virus itself. These are RNA viruses, so we're looking at the [nucleotide] base composition of small pieces of the virus. We've managed to isolate the virus and are growing it in cell cultures. We're still working on getting more sequencing.
What have you learned about this particular strain?
There's been a lot of speculation in press reports about it being less pathogenic, or perhaps not causing as much bleeding [as other strains]. I've seen other people speculating that this will make it more difficult to control. Our perspective is, you need data to say those things. Specifically when you're dealing with a new virus. You have to develop your data as you go along. You want to probably limit your data to those who you can demonstrate are really patients who have been infected with the virus. It's very early in the process now. We've diagnosed a few patients in our lab, and those are the only patients we really know are Ebola patients.
You mean many people reported as victims of this Ebola outbreak may be sick with some other disease?
You're seeing reports from Uganda that there's—you name a number—79 patients and 22 deaths. How many of those patients are really known to [have the] Ebola virus? There's a case definition that's developed that says, "This guy's got a headache and four or five other symptoms." There are a lot of other things that will give you symptoms like that.
Like what?
If you've ever had a serious case of flu, you'd be included in that group. Or early malaria, for that matter.
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Posted By: Nins @ 07/06/2008 11:56:29 PM
Comment: Did you know that if McCain is elected you will have to pay income tax on the value of the medical insurance that your employer gives you? Worse still, he is offering a tax break for people who pay their own insurance, BUT only $2,500 for individuals and $5,000 for families.
Let's say you have a family of four. Your insurance policy costs would be at least $1,500-2,500 per month under a self-pay plan, which cost more than employer group plans. So, you pay $18,000 -$30,000 per year for insurance, and you get to deduct only $5,000 of that. If you paid $25,000 for you insurance, you would be out of pocket $20,000 per year. This is FAR WORSE than the current system, where if you are self employed you can deduct 100% of you medical insurance costs.
So, if you're not self employed, you would stick with your Employer's plan. Employer plans for a family of four have a value of $900-$1,500 per month totaling 10,800-$18,000 per year. Surprise! On April 15th, you owe tax on all of that as INCOME to you. Say your bracket is 25%, and the value of your Employer medical plan is $14,000. You will OWE THE IRS an additional $3,500, and that's ON TOP of whatever monthly premium you already pay to your employer for your insurance.
Many analysts say that McCain's new rules would encourage employers to stop offering health benefits. If that happened, then far fewer Americans would be insured than are insured today, because what family of four can afford $18,000-$30,000 out of pocket per year for self-pay health insurance?
Furthermore, McCain's plan does not require insurance companies to cover pre-existing conditions of people who self-pay their insurance. People under employer group plans have all of their pre-existing conditions covered. This is a hugely unfair aspect of the current system. Insurance companies can afford to cover the pre-existing conditions of the much larger pool of people with group insurance, but they refuse to pay the pre-existing conditions on the smaller pool of self-pay customers. They have been allowed to price gouge the self-pay customers, which is a form of market manipulation that should be illegal.
So let's say one of your kids had diabetes and you have high blood pressure, then your employer stops offering insurance. You now have to buy your own, but you and your child are INELIGIBLE due to pre-existing conditions. Oh, yeah, they will let you buy the insurance, but you can't use it for any pre-existing condition until you have paid on time every month for two years. And you know what happens at one year and 11 months? You get a letter saying your policy has been cancelled. I have many patients this has happened to.
McCain's plan SUCKS.
It does nothing to help middle class working Americans afford or obtain medical insurance. In fact, it makes the current system WORSE.
Posted By: Bornita @ 12/12/2007 11:35:12 PM
Comment: Viruses have nothing to do with anti-biotics. Anti-biotics are for bacteria and viruses are a totally different thing.
Posted By: Evolutionist @ 12/12/2007 10:23:25 AM
Comment: rofl theres gonna be a day that medicine and vacines dont work anymore. Viruses change too quickly, they actually adapt to anti- biotics. What Im about to say is just a theory, I believe some of these viruses are man made to decrease the African population. It would be easy for a scientist to release different strains of the virus onto people. Its gonna take Americans to almost completely die off to exterminate everything that is a threat. This is not far fetched.