And that folks, it is Saturday, May sixteenth. I thought we were talking about hantavirus. We wake up this morning to news there is an ebola outbreak and it's already one of the worst outbreaks in history. And with that, welcome to this episode of Amy and TJ Okay, Ropes. Okay, okay, okay, okay, okay. It's a little alarming. We should put it all in context.
But this is real, this is legit, this is concerning, and people are being mobilized for an emergency alert situation going on in Congo right now.
Ropes, Oh, yes, because this is already a significant outbreak. As you pointed out, eighty people have already died. There are two hundred and forty six suspected cases, and the concern is that this has just begun, that there are going certainly going to be much higher numbers coming soon and Robes.
There's concern along the community, the medical community, i should say, the world health community, that some of them seem to be thrown off guard by this that wait, we're finding out about it and the numbers already at eighty or two hundred and forty six total cases. They think something has gone wrong in our health policy. We shouldn't be finding out about it when the numbers are this high.
That is incredibly disturbing. And it's happening in a part of the world where there is a humanitarian crisis already going on because there is civil unrest, there are military well, there are competing militias going on back and forth. And this is an environment where people already don't necessarily have a safe facility to go to, or to get to, or a place to go to get help.
And that might explain part.
Of why we're seeing these numbers and only seeing them now.
And it grows you you point out this area of the world. It's on the very eastern part of the Congo, which is an enormous country, but it's on the border there where the unrest you talk about ropes, and where there is a lot of mobility. People are on the move constantly between over borders in communities, so they're trying to track all these folks, track ropes. We were talking about contact tracing here on hantavirus. Seems to be hell, how this is impossible?
Yeah, you're trying to contact trace where you've got armed militias circling these roads. People are afraid for their lives. Forget the virus. They want to survive gunfire, they want to survive a machete attack. They're concerned for their lives immediately, not necessarily protecting themselves wearing ppe and socially distancing and making sure they report their illnesses to the local hospitals.
That's not what's.
Capable, truly, it's not realistic with what's going on and where it is in the world.
Okay, we talked about where it is in the world, and we were talking about where hantavirus in the world as well, off the coast West Africa, out in the middle of nowhere and nothing. We are good, we are fine. We are safe here in the United States. And sure enough we end up finding out that the number of people are being monitored in this country for a number of reasons. It made its way, if you will. So Robes,
here we go with abola. You hear ebola, and we should say that the approximate death rate for this one is fifty percent. And I say approximates because of all these outbreaks it ranges. So the who said the death rate could be anywhere from twenty five percent to ninety oh percent goodness. So that's what we're dealing with. Generally speaking, everybody, Is there a worse word you could say when it comes to viruses than ebola for people to know shut up.
No, because you think about, Look, this is a disease that we've heard, at least through our lifetimes pop up now and again. But when it's been described as what this disease does and how quickly and brutally it kills someone, yeah, this is some scary stuff.
That's a way to put it. Brutally kills someone. We're going to get into the reminders of what this disease is, how it's transmitted, what the symptoms are, what the treatment is, and also a reminder of the last time we saw it here in the United States. It's funny roads we look up on. We happen to have our TV on here, and sure enough they were interviewing the guy who was the last guy to be in the United States who have ebola. He did survive. Of course, that was tens
plus years ago. We'll get into that in the second but Robes, let's go with what we're happening here. The who says they started looking at this what today's the sixteenth but they said, they first got a heads up about a suspected case May fifth, so they have to mobilize, so you have to get out to this remote area, try to confirm it and try to track it. So they first got a heads up May fifth, But we are now just getting all these numbers and whatnot now, all these days later.
Well, the World Health Organization has been busy because May fifth. I know for a fact they were deeply entrenched dealing with the haunt of IRS. And that wasn't just yes, I mean talking about the World Health Organization. They're dealing with the haunt of virus in what six different countries right now, spread and trying to stay contained throughout the world. So they've got their hands busy with that. Now they're dealing with this abola outbreak. And why is it that
we're just now hearing about it. Who knows. Maybe they had to confirm the case initially. I think some of the cases they tested were negative, and then when they dug a little deeper, they.
Said, oh, holy hell, this is way worse than we thought.
Hey, not going to suggest what. Their job is difficult and takes time, but robes it was shocking again not to me, and not to you, but to the folks who keep an eye on this, to the medical professionals, it was a little bit jarring to be hearing about it for the first time and not hearing a small
cluster a few cases or suspected case. To know we're already at two forty six in the number of cases robes the concern they're well, how high is this thing going to go if we're only getting a handle on it and it's already taken off that much.
Oh, Mike, I mean, we just know.
I mean, I feel like we all became little mini virologist, or at least we tried to be during COVID And just to think that that many people without really having the proper people overseeing containing this thing in.
The right amount of early days.
We just know exponentially how these viruses go from person to person. And as we were hearing so much from health the visuals about how hauntavirus yes, is extremely deadly but hard to catch, Ebola is extremely deadly and easy to catch. It is described as highly contagious, and I think that's what's really, really, really scary. They're not talking about extended, you know, close.
Contacts and This is just through bodily fluid.
So you sneeze, you cough, you touch a surface, boom, you can catch it and row.
Think about how much care is being taken to separate potential haunt to virus ill folks here in the US. They're not showing a single symptom, and they're being kept far away from everybody else, not being able to interact. Think of a community of village people on top of each other moving around in areas in land. There's no doctor, there's no nothing, just on top of each other robes dealing with a virus that is much more contagious than hauntavirus.
Yeah, I mean, and this is scary. Just obviously they always try to find patient zero. I guess they say the index case, the suspected index case. With this latest outbreak, this concerned me just to hear that it was a nurse who died in a medical center and she was
showing symptoms fever, bleeding, vomiting, weakness. But she was a nurse treating patients, so at a hospital, and if they believe she was patient zero, maybe she Obviously you would assume she caught it from a patient who ended up in the hospital but the first documentable case that they know of, and now she goes on to treat all these folks.
This is just a nightmare.
And then say, some of these people catch it, go home, take it to their families.
I mean, this is just incredibly disturbing.
So to that point there Robes, there was so much focus on Hunter ofvirus because of how long the incubation period could potentially be. They were saying up to a month and a half for that. This one is much quicker. So as you're saying people going home could be sick, much quicker. The incubation period could be as short as two days, but as long as twenty one.
That's a long range for something that's that contagious.
Yeah, so that means what we've got weeks of monitoring, months of possible monitoring of people. And again the number we talk about, look, eighty is a lot dead eighty is a big number. The number of cases two forty six. You hear that initially and go, oh, well, in many of the previous outbreaks Robes they only got up to maybe two hundred, three hundred cases. So it's significant that this already is in one of the top tier of
the worst outbreaks, but I guess robes it could. No, we shouldn't look at it that way because the worst EBO outbreaks were so bad that we're nowhere close to that.
Yes, and let's hope we don't get to that. We actually were looking at some of these outbreaks. I believe the deadliest one was from twenty eighteen, so not that long ago. We're talking thousands dead. Two two hundred and eighty seven people died. There were thirty more than thirty four hundred cases. But when you look at that thirty four hundred cases twenty three hundred dead, you just see how deadly it is.
And certain strains are deadlier than others.
But you can have anywhere from a thirty like you said, a twenty percent to a ninety percent. I mean, this is how much the range goes. But when you get these deadliest strains going, that is I mean.
That is so scary.
When we think about how quickly we can catch a virus that is highly can tage just like a cold or a flu, and to think that it could have up to a ninety percent death rate, that is frightening beyond words.
So some of the numbers there was not specific to one country, but one in twenty fourteen that covered several countries in West Africa. Now this this twenty eight thousand cases, but again robes. As you say, I'm looking at several of these listed and it has number of cases and number died robes. Those are huge numbers as far as ratios of the number of cases and the number of dead.
Yes, yes, you mentioned the West Africa twenty fourteen, twenty eight thousand cases, eleven thy three hundred dead I mean, and then I you know, you have the some of the smaller outbreaks. But again the last one that they had in the area was in December. There were sixty four cases, forty five died. That is a scary ratio.
Roams. We were terrified hearing about hantavirus and the forty percent death rate. So this is why, no doubt this is incredibly concerning. A reminder, this still is a hasn't been around that long. It was discovered in nineteen seventy six in the Democratic Republic of Congo. Like you said, Robe, there are I think three strains that they've identified, but the zayre strain is the one that's been around. It's the deadly one of the deadliest one. They're still checking
out these strains, seeing what they're dealing with. But robes bats, right, is that's where it originates. I believe it from bats, Yes, but hey, it's been around a little while, and it's the scariest thing you can say when it comes to viruses, and I guess robes to a certain degree. The world doesn't necessarily and maybe the United States doesn't go into full freak out when we hear ebola because it is and has stayed for the most part so far away from us.
Yes, but as you mentioned, this is a highly trafficked area where people are crossing borders from back and forth, especially between Congo and Uganda.
And look, it's not far fetched to think some of those.
People would or could or will or plan to get on planes and fly to other parts.
Of the world, including possibly the United States of America. And yeah, folks, quick reminder, it's happened before, and it wasn't that long ago. Stay here, all right, folks, We continue here on Amy and TJ on this Saturday, May sixteenth, getting up to a word that there is any bola outbreak, a very concerning outbreak happening right now in the Democratic Republic of Congo along the border there with Uganda. But at least two hundred and sixty plus cases right now
and at least eighty eighty dead in those cases. They're trying to get a handle on it, and again brokes Central Africa, Congo remote area, even of the Congo. That virus isn't going to get here. It seems very difficult, highly unlikely. And I guess we're ope when we hear a Bola. That's why sometimes here in the US we don't go into full alarm when we hear it. But Robes, it wasn't that long ago. And I think a lot of us remember, most people will remember Ebola made its way through the United States.
I didn't realize how recently it actually was. It was in two thy fourteen September of twenty fourteen. Certainly you and I were in newsrooms back then. I was a Good Morning America back then, and it was a tremendous story to see and to hear that Ebola made it to the United States.
Yeah, and that was a part of an outbreak. Then the gentle men from Liberia visited to the United States. He was coming to visit family in Texas and I think a lot of people remember this guy. As the outbreak was going on over there, all of a sudden we hear about a guy who was sick in Texas Ropes and he went in and he told him where he was from. They still let him get on a plane.
He ends up coming over, he gets sick, he goes in, they put him in isolation, and a couple of weeks later this man was dead.
Yeah, they even put him on an experimental drug. He's got the best care in the world here in the United States. He went to the hospital, but pretty quickly he ended up on a ventilator. His kidneys were failing, and yes, he died, and that scared the hell out of folks here in.
The United States.
And you combine that and not to be fear mongering here, but just having gone through the pandemic, being concerned now obviously with what we're dealing with with hantavirus. It's especially alarming when you hear that the CDC director there in Africa, this was the quote. Given the high population movement between affected areas and neighboring countries, rapid regional coordination is essential.
I mean, they are speaking urgently to people urgently to health officials and they are saying we need help and they need to secure borders. The contact tracing is key. My god, I just can't imagine what that looks like.
It's impossible, records, keeping up with everybody, who are you in contact with? Where did you go? It's just this is such a tall task, but it's worth putting on everybody's radar and something to keep an eye on. But like you said, Robes, hantaviruses on our brains and that made us concern because COVID was still on our brains and now we're having to hear about ebola. You can did I mention here the symptoms fever, fatigue, sore throat, headache,
They say, that's another part of the issue, Robes. It shows up kind of as normal, run of the mill issues. You might think you have a cold.
Yeah, you wake up and you think, oh god, I'm getting sick, and it really is. Those are the hallmark symptoms of your run of the mill cold. Worst case scenario, you're thinking maybe I have influenza, but you're not thinking, oh, I could have a bola. And certainly anyone who wakes up like that, yeah you're not and that's when you're contagious, and that's the frightening.
They aren't those the first symptoms of damn near everything?
Yes? Yeah, how do you know? How do you distinguish?
I think the always the scary thing to me was the bleeding, like you imagine, like you hear about the bleeding coming from your our this is your like holy hell.
Let's say that's. Yeah, the headache and whatnot. It turns into more severe symptoms. They say that's from the vomiting and the diarrhea, organ failure on what you mentioned, But they say it's a horrific, horrific death.
Yes, that was always the way I remember hearing it described. And that's just what scares the hell out of you. And to think that, regardless of medical intervention you may receive, it's oftentimes too late.
There's nothing they can do.
All right, folks, giving you the latest there on this Saturday, obviously one that certainly we and really the world and all of us should be keeping a close eye on, but one did to give you the updates. We always appreciate you spending some time with us. From our dear Amy Robot, I'm TJ. Holmes. We'll talk to