Was listening to a report this morning regarding Ebola. The nurse who recovered has got it again because the virus can hide inside your body for an unknown length of time before re-emerging.
Apparently it hides in sperm, eyeballs , nasal passages etc amongst other places, meaning potentially even simple teardrops could transmit infection . Recovered men in West Africa are being told to always wear condoms from now on - but will they I wonder ! Bit scary to think that thousands of folk that have had Ebola and recovered, are wandering around West Africa , free to travel anywhere in the world , and that any number of them anytime, anywhere , could suddenly have a re-appearance of Ebola and start a new outbreak .

Annoying that at the beginning of the outbreak we were getting numerous reassurances that this is a regular thing that they know all about and now are admitting that very little research had been done and they know sod all.

We were exceedingly lucky it was contained this time but next time it would only take a very small mutation to be much worse and with the new knowledge there is a risk that less volunteer doctors and nurses will be prepared to get involved.

I suppose you win some you lose some so to speak. That CJD was banded about bigtime for a while wasnt it, with Prof Richard somebody or other advising the Govt that within 20 years god knows how many people would be suffering from it. That seemed to just fade away , didnt it .

BSE didn't show in cattle until they were at least 30 months old so most cattle were slaughtered before that age between 1996 and 2005. Older cattle had to have compulsory BSE testing and were not allowed to be sold as food between 1996 and 2005.

It became illegal to sell certain parts of the cow as food as they were the parts that were most likely to contain BSE.

It is illegal for a cow born before 1996 to be sent to a slaughterhouse.

The use of animal protein as cattle food was banned as this was helping spread the disease.

I believe to this day most food stock cattle are slaughtered by the 30 month point this hides BSE on a lot of the cases as they are not tested.

Other countries are still having outbreaks of BSE, so far this year there have been 2 cases in the UK.

The problem is still there but the measures are containing it being passed on to humans as vCJD, the last two years had no worldwide deaths from vCJD. Total worldwide deaths are 177 from vCJD since 1990.

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This might have to be checked out. Could be just journalistic rhubarb..

Exactly, wanting to blow their own trumpets in haste.

Does Cafferkey's relapse mean that all those she has been working with, alongside and treating in her nursing capacity during the last 9 months, are at risk ?

It might not apply in this instance but the general rule by grandparents and parents of my generation was, always wash your hands after touching money, wear gloves when you go out and particularly on public transport .Don't touch your face until you've washed your hands. That was probably to avoid impetigo.

Ebola is quite hard to pass on, it happens in some cultures because of the rituals they perform.

Anyone interested in Ebola as a weapon should read the brilliant novel "Executive Orders" by Tom Clancy.

It also scarily reports on the rise of ISIS / ISIL (albeit with less terrorism and more on making a unified Muslim state) and a jet plane used as a weapon and flown into the US congress building. This book was written in 1996.

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