Hey, the folks. That is Chuesday, May nineteenth, and they're a number of new, significant and concerning updates about the ebola outbreak. There has been a significant uptick in the number of deaths and cases. An American has now been confirmed to have the disease, and meanwhile, the United States is taking steps to keep people who've been to that
region from coming to the country. And with that, welcome to this episode of Amy and TJ Robes where you want to start because as we got like you see a headline about numbers, you started reading more and more into this and you started quite frankly, freaking more and more out.
Yes, because I actually, obviously we have seen that American test. An American tested positive, and I really thought that was going to be this episode just talking about who this doctor is and who's been exposed. And then I just started reading and reading and reading all of these concerns that World Health Organization leaders CDC leaders are saying, and it is frankly frightening to hear their level of concern. Yeah, that makes me concerned.
And you know, certainly Haunta virus very recently they were went out of their way to say no risk here, there shouldn't be a risk to the international community, and so on forward. Initially with Ebola, I think it kind of started with some of that language, but Robes it became clear pretty quickly that they were behind this disease. By a week, two weeks so it had gotten going. And that is the problem now, and that is why Robes. In recent days we have seen death tolls. Now spike.
You could argue, this is a spike now we're seeing in.
Cases absolutely, and you know what, you make such a good point. I hadn't even realized that. That is probably the reason why today I felt deeply concerned, because we heard the exact opposite from health experts when it came to hauntavirus and hearing them kind of say, yeah, this isn't good, and that's not.
What I want to hear. So here is the latest week.
I guess let's start with the Americans, because we now know yes, one American doctor, he was the person who was listed as symptomatic. Well, he did in fact test positive for the bundabougio strain. So he has been transported to Germany for treatment. But when we say treatment, you'll recall if you've been keeping up with this there is no known treatment for this particular strain, so they're just probably keeping him comfortable monitoring him. But his name is
doctor Peter Stafford. He's a doctor who has been working with the Christian missionary organization called Surge since twenty twenty three. He was treating patients in Congo, and that is how he contracted the disease. And guess what, his wife, who's also a physician, doctor Rebecca Stafford, she also is now being basically quarantined. She's been flown to Germany, along with their four young children and another physician, doctor Patrick la Rochelle, who's also with SURGE.
Okay, help me get the number. So seven Americans take it out.
Okay, Yes, Doctor Stafford, along with six other Americans, including basically his entire family, are now all in Germany being monitored.
All right, So only one at this point showing symptoms, and he is the one who's now tested positive. I haven't seen updates necessarily about his condition and how he's doing. But a reminder here, if bola does there is a vaccine for a particular strain of the disease. This ain't that. But Bundabougio, as you just said, is this strain of the virus that they do not have a vaccine for, and like I said, they don't even know what to pull off the shelf. There is no specific treatment for it.
So that's the one we're dealing with, and that's the one that's causing the concern. But Robes concerned too the numbers. I'm trying to think back when we first heard about the outbreak, what was the first death? That was it in the thirties.
I don't recall what the first one was. I have yesterday's death and that's a big search. That is yesterday, Monday. The death toll was eighty eight eighty nine depending on where you read, and three hundred and thirty six folks are cases suspected cases. Today we now have one hundred thirty one suspected deaths and five hundred and thirteen cases.
And that's just what they know of.
This is an area where there may be and almost certainly are sickened people, probably even folks who have died that they just haven't been able to account for.
And Robes that therein lies the problem this does have. We should remember a slower extuta, a shorter incubation period than Hanti virus talking about up to forty five days. That was a concern there the people could be out for the next month, month and a half somewhere and don't even realize they've been infected. This is a little different. Even though it's two to twenty one days robes, it's still they say, the sweet spot, if you will start to use that term, is somewhere about a week.
Yes, they say the average the average incubation is anywhere from eight to ten days upon exposure.
But that's still think about that.
If you've been exposed to this virus, and certainly those six other Americans they have said very specifically, have absolutely been exposed by the doctor and certainly just by the environment.
But it can it can take up to.
Three weeks for you to actually develop symptoms, but almost certainly at least a week a week and a half, So that waiting time is frightening.
We haven't gotten any indication yet. We would know, certainly rose at this point if somebody got sick somebodywhere else in the world. Again, we're talking about someone before we were aware of the outbreak. Somebody in that area could have gotten on a plane and flown absolutely those where and could be somewhere in the world sick right now. I assume we know about that.
I don't assume anything because they might not be sick yet. When we just found out about this, and so did the World Health Organization, which was their big concern. We all just found out about this this weekend.
It's Tuesday, okay, so yes, Roll, that's a good point.
It's too soon. But even if they left several days ago, a week, if someone gets sick somewhere in the world, we should know about it right pretty quickly.
Let's hope.
So, But it just depends on where they went and what the level of communication is.
That's how developed that area is. I mean, it's just very scary.
You're in a very remote part of the world, or a part of the world that's highly densely populated in an urban like area, but they don't have the facilities and just the ability to contact, trace, to monitor, to treat, to be aware of, to count, to protect the borders all of them.
That just is not an area where this is likely to have happened.
Until now we've got folks coming in the CDC, people from all over the world sending in folks to help do all of that, but we're at least a week behind.
So though, Yes, World Health Organization mobilized as quickly as they could. They are the ones who are I guess the lead here, Robes. But the lead is starting to use some language. The language is starting to get a little more learning.
Yes, the World Health Organization chief, the head of the World Health Organization said he is quote deeply concerned by the scale and speed of the epidemic. In fact, they are convening its emergency committee today to try and come up with plan of action, like just what they could be doing. And that wasn't comforting, bro, that was not comforting at all.
And I mean some of what he said.
He said, the death He put it in perspective like this, the deaths of healthcare workers, the high population mobility and the absence of vaccines or therapeutics for this strain creates a real fear of further spread and more deaths.
That is ominous.
Jezu least. And they really I haven't seen. They don't know how far behind they are on this thing. Did I see so?
No?
No, No, May fifth or fifteenth, if you remember which date was it that they first were alerted of some issue.
I thought it was May fifteenth. We're talking this weekend.
No, there was a previous I know there was something pre Again, there's so far behind. It was the first. I think it might have been May fifth, you know me and my dates. I think I got it right. But they were first alerted to an issue to where they were starting to mobilize and send somebody to check it out. They didn't know how big of a deal they had. So we were talking ten a week and a half ago, ten days, and then they start to piece together. And then on May fifteenth we started getting
word but robes, we're talking. This thing was present and nobody was necessarily trying to contain it for the past week and a half.
Was that the nurse that died, because I think that that was the first heads up. They had a healthcare worker, a nurse who tested positive and died for this disease, for this particular strain, and that's when they first thought, hmmm, well, if a nurse caught it, she obviously caught it from
a patient. How many other people were exposed? And it went from And I do think it's interesting we talked about this, but the majority of the deaths and cases have been in people between the ages of twenty and thirty nine. So this is going after like basically the robust folks. I remember my dad, who's a microologist, was talking about certain strains and when you have a strain, go after your healthiest Basically these are twenty to thirty nine.
You are in the prime of your life, your immune system is at its prime.
When you get certain strains.
It actually those are the ones they kill because your immune system is so robust, it overreacts to try and fight the virus and ends up killing you with your own fluids. And that sounds like what this Because when you have a strain that goes after that population twenty to thirty nine, those are typically your healthiest segment or age segment of the population.
So that's really scary.
Yeah, well, because a lot of times you think, oh, it's the young and it's the old who are more susceptible.
That's not the case with this. They're saying, it's that's who it's going after, that's who it's killing.
Okay, we should get to add on, but my question is there, I did not know it's possible that there's a virus, a disease, something out there that if you're older, it's an advantage.
Is that what the is because your own immune system ends up being your worst enemy.
So your own immune system is the thing that's killing you.
Look, I just remember my father talking about viruses and strains of viruses, and that was something that really stood out to me. And I remember I was in that age group at that time, and it made me so nervous, like, oh, please, don't let one of those viruses be unleashed. But this is scary, and primarily so far, two thirds of.
The deaths have been women.
So you know, I don't know how they what they do with that information, but that is deeply, deeply concerning what that.
Is or why that would be. Is that hospitals, Is that getting help in clinics.
Yes, maybe the women are the caretakers of this community and they're the more likely ones to get the disease just because of the exposure and what they do and what they.
Provide for their community.
Is when we come back, we are going to tell you about a whole bunch of changes that are happening right now in the United States. The CDC getting heavily involved trying to make sure ebola doesn't come to the United States. But when you hear their language, I don't know how confident I feel that that is going to be able to be protected.
We'll tell you what the CDC is saying when we come back and.
Welcome back everyone to this episode of Amy and TJ. We are talking about the growing concerns surrounding the Ebola outbreak. We now have one American who has tested positive. Six other Americans have been flown to Germany. They have been exposed. Many of them are members of doctor Stafford's family. Another physician involved as well, So they are monitoring that group of Americans, and they're also trying to get other Americans who may be in the area, the affected area out
of Congo, Uganda, South Sudan. But back here at home, the CDC is issuing and has issued basically a ban on travelers for the next thirty days if you have traveled in Uganda, Congo, or South Sudan.
But here's the deal.
They're only they can only ban entry to this country for people who are non US passport holders. If you are an American citizen, they cannot ban you from returning to the United States.
It's come home, yep.
And that's scary because, as the CDC points out, with the incubation period being anywhere from two to twenty one days, it is highly possible that someone who is a US citizen who traveled to one of these countries comes in and yes, of course they're going to medically evaluate you before they let you back into the general population to go back home. But many of these folks may present zero symptoms and test negative for now, and come a
week later, two weeks later, that could change. So that's where there is a massive scary loophole.
But I, I mean, this is the right call, is it not. This is what you have to do. You cannot have this thing land within our borders, right we had it once? What happened? The guy came, God he died in Texas, but he ended up infecting two nurses I believe down there they survived. That was the only transmission.
But which strain was that, Because because there are some strains that have treatment options, there are some strains that have vaccines, this one has neither of those.
We'd have to guess rhobes. The one he had.
Was the one they know more about za the zion.
So the Bundabougio has it ever landed in the United States.
Sound, I haven't seen that it has. And look, this is this is some scary stuff. So the CDC has enacted this Title forty two order, and with this order they're now coordinating with Airlines International partners Port of.
Entry officials all the ways people.
Can come into the United States to try and identify and then manage passengers who may have been exposed.
And they go.
Over the airports that people could have or will be traveling through and how they would get into the United States and how these are the airports they're targeting for monitoring. But it started to get scary when you started seeing these airports so overseas. Oftentimes, if you're coming from Congo, South Sudan or Uganda, you have to go through Addis Ababa.
Sorry, I've been through that when I was in Tanzania. You have to go through that airport.
Ethiopia, Nairobi, Doha, cutter Istambul Okay. Those are the connecting flights. But then they would be coming into JFK here in New York, of course, Dulles in DC, Hartsfield Jackson in Atlanta, Ohair, Chicago, O'Hair.
And of course our big dogs are being monitored right now. I don't know. We don't want to be alarmists, right, but hantavirus oola, al jeez, Louise, this.
Is okay, and you say that hauntavirus. Let's talk about our National Quarantine Unit in Nebraska. It is, by the way, this is the only federally funded quarantine facility in the United States, and right now, eighteen of its twenty beds are occupied by Haunta virus cruise ship passengers.
What are the chances? What are the chances? Now?
There are thirteen what they call Regional Emerging Special Pathogen Treatment Centers that are sprinkled across the country. So we do have some other facilities that are like regionally funded or state funded.
It's ebola. We don't need the B team.
Right, you want to be in Nebraska, But that's crazy. There are only two beds available because of another break.
And I thought it was interesting.
All those passengers, we didn't know if they would go home, and you were like, yeah, I would stay.
Turns out they're all staying.
Yeah, And that makes sense if you think you have a disease that has a fifty percent death rate and you want to go back and take your chances back home and hope that you'll get to a hospital and nah, I'm gonna stay where the experts are.
Yeah, they probably have like an emergency red button next to the I want to be able to push that. I'd be hitting that thing every three hours. Hey, you know what, I just sneezed. I just want to be checked out.
Yeah. I would want to be tested twice a day, every day, just so I could know. Because the anxiety of waiting to see if symptoms develop for a very highly fatal disease, that is just a unbelievable, anxiety ridden mind game that I would never want to have to experience.
What the majority of the audience listening right now can probably relate, wasn't that initially what happened with COVID. You find out you got COVID, You sit and wait, how sick am I going to get?
In the early days when you started to see body bags piling up and in Italy, in that New York nursing home, you're just oh, my goodness, Yes, you had no idea how your body was going to react.
So we have had absolutely a taste of it. But this is just.
A it's not a pandemic yet, I don't know what the criteria is. I think they made a very clear point yesterday to say we're not at a pandemic level, We're not at a global pandemic level. But today the verbiage is very different, and who knows what we're going to hear tomorrow, the day after. This is deeply concerning, and of course we will continue to keep our eye on this situation. But in the meantime, as always, everyone, we appreciate you listening to us. I'm Amy Roboch alongside t. J.
Holmes. We will definitely be talking soon.