(And other diseases the immune system can't handle)

Offered by David Apollo

I really wanted to wait a bit before writing on this topic ...

Click here for a short note on why I'd rather have postponed this post.

Yet it seems a bit callous to not write on something as timely as Ebola (and what this sort of biological agent means for the broad human community) simply because I am not quite ready to write about topics concerning human health.

So here I will post what will likely be a stand-alone health post on the topic of Ebola and post it for all to see. Which, at the moment, I expect will be only a very few.

I should confess a certain sensitivity to the topic of Ebola because it "hits" me in several places as a scientist. I was born to consume the world as a canonical scientist would. Just built that way. A geek. I won't define that right now, but may put a link for it (RIGHT HERE) later if I get around to it.

That label means first and foremost that I had for quite some time felt that I could be useful to others by contributing what I could by being rational, factual, etc., which came natural to me. These were all attributes that I had been told as I grew up were the things that separated us from the rest of the animals. I assumed everyone else related to the world just like me. (We all do that, don't we?) We have reason, the ability to anticipate based on prior knowledge and a rational imagination - whereas all the other animals simply have instincts. We flatter ourselves.

Let's just get it out of the way that the above paragraph turns out to be a gross exaggeration, if not mostly inaccurate. We humans, for the most part, also act mostly out of instinct. Very few of us are purely fact and reason oriented. Many scientists as well are in fact not as fact and reason oriented as their labels would imply them to be.

Which is why Ebola may very well kill many millions of us.

For me, the damning evidence that we let faiths trump obvious facts came with the arrival of the AIDS epidemic back in the 80's. Here was an illness to quarantine and save lives if ever there was one, knowing everything we knew back in 1984. And we didn't quarantine for all sorts of reasons. And, as a result, many, many, millions more have died or been infected than otherwise would have.

And, I have felt so regretful for not being more forceful in speaking out, as if I might have made an impact.

Now we have Ebola. It's been around for quite some time, but it is no AIDS virus. Rather than a latency of months or years like HIV, Ebola symptoms start as early as a week. And, whereas simply touching someone with AIDS will not usually get you infected, with Ebola you are likely to get hosed.

The pic at left is the least gruesome pic I could find of a victim suffering with Ebola.

So, we have a virus that most of our immune systems cannot defend ourselves against, that doesn't show itself for 1 to 3 weeks after infection, whose early signs of infection seem as innocuous as a simple cold which we usually try to ignore for a day or two, and which can infect us by simple contact. And then kill us.

What is simple contact?

Well, for example, lets say an Ebola sufferer (charitably, before he or she knows he or she is infectious with Ebola) sneezes. Covers mouth and nose to catch it. Perhaps wipes a bit on clothing. Then, opens a door or grabs a rail. Someone else later touches that door or rail, then, as we do several times an hour without even being aware of it, that someone else touches their face, rubs an eye, eats a sandwich. Simple contact has taken place. This is how infections spread.

While this happens to us every day, with millions of bacteria and viruses we can't see, the impact is usually harmless. Our immune systems take care of things, its what they do. However, most of us do not have immunity to Ebola. And, as of this writing, we don't have a way of delivering immunity to ourselves as we have done with smallpox or polio. (Note, though billions have been spent, after 20 years we still don't have effective immunization for HIV. For that matter, we haven't conquered the flu virus either.)

Think of it like stepping into a pile of dog do-do on a lawn that you didn't know was there. Sometimes you don't smell it right away. You now walk into the house, and someone walks in after you. They step where you did as you came into the door, and now, even though you have gone to the living room, the guest after you is smearing a little bit of it in the kitchen where you have not yet been.

When discovered in the kitchen, the offending second guest has no idea where they had gotten the smear on their shoe! And you, hearing the commotion and looking down at your shoe, go surreptitiously off to clean your shoe and attempt to avoid embarrassment.

Except Ebola is different than the dog shit. Ebola replicates, makes more of itself. In time, it gets "stuck on the shoe" of folks you will never meet 3 weeks later, 3 months later. Way worse than gum on hot pavement. The dog do-do? It's already dried and become part of the dust ecosystem. Perhaps a plant is grateful. Ebola will kill most of the people it infects.

So, I want you to think of Ebola as a biological weapon of mass destruction. Sure, no-one is trying to use it as a weapon (yet!) But, the same could be said of any other weapon that no one is intending to use at the time. You still need to be careful around it because it can kill, and will kill indiscriminantly.

Except Ebola is different from a man-made weapon. Ebola can make more of itself. It thus, never gets used up so long as it can move from host to host. Man-made weapons get used up.

So, if it is a biological weapon of mass destruction, regardless of intent, what should our policies be regarding people who may have it? Let them roam? Let them come into our place? Be nice and hope?

If the compassionate act is to save or prevent as many lives as possible from becoming ill, dying, or spreading death to others, then from a scientific fact and rational logic perspective the path is rather clear.

Alas, most of us are more faith driven rather than fact driven. The evidence of the recent cases surrounding Ebola in the US and Europe are pretty clear about this. Even our own medical professionals not only inadvertently infect themselves, they circulate among us until they are SURE they have their own Ebola infection. (As opposed to withdrawing from us until they are sure they do not have the infection.)

We make mistakes. We are ignorant through no fault of our own. We hope. We don't react to what we can't see. All practical enough. But, not for the containment of a fast acting virus for which we have no innate immunological defense, and no cure identified in the case we get sick (other than hoping that ours is one of the 10-30% of bodies that may heal on its own.)

We can end optimistically here. Nature will take care of this if humans do not. It always does.

But remember - "Nature does not convert. It selects." Those who are not susceptible to the disease will survive.

Now, go do the right thing. Conserve Liberty