Showing posts with label hot zone. Show all posts
Showing posts with label hot zone. Show all posts
Thursday, August 7, 2014
Ebola Cave (Kitum Cave)
The Hot Zone #1
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Ebola Virus Presentation Part One
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The Kitum cave is more recently famous for a very different sort of lifeform, a deadly virus. In 1980 and again in 1987 visitors to the cave contracted Marburg virus, a deadly virus very similar to Ebola. The cave Ebola and Marburg virus rose to notoriety when it was featured in bestseller "The Hot Zone." It is believed that the bats in the cave may carry the virus and that their powdered guano may act as the disease vector.
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A review from Kitum cave
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Visited this park in the year 2011, with a group of friends. For the adventure lovers, this is an ideal place. We toured the largest cave, Kitum. It was a bit scary at first due to the darkness and the millions of chanting bats at the entrance. But it was fun as we toured the inside chambers. Elephants visit these sites at night for salt lick, one would wonder how they make it.. but it's nature.
Security is provided so no need to worry. Got to see numerous pure springs right at their sources. A number of animals were also sighted on the way, but the highlight was the adventure in the caves.
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(Tours are offered at Mount Elgon National Park of the Kitum Cave. The above person toured the cave where bats carry the virus and are immune to it. Their powdered and liquid guano is inside the Kitum Cave just waiting for stupid people to be exposed to a couple of deadly viruses.
"Millions of bats at the entrance",
"Security is provided so no need to worry") Story Reports
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The Hot Zone Questions
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Usually on the 7th day of being exposed to Ebola, the victim develops a severe headache. After that, the victim can get abdominal pain, fever, bloody vomit, maculopapular rash, malaise, joint and muscle pain, inflammation of pharynx, coagulopathy, chest pain, dry and sore throat, hemorrhagic diathesis, diarrhia, vomiting. The incubation period is generally from 3-18 days, however it ranges from 2 to 21 days.
As soon as an individual is infected with Ebola, the virus starts making copies of itself. A headache usually develops on the 7th day after coming into contact with the virus, and from there the symptoms get worse. The victim may spike a fever, and begin to vomit uncontrollably. The victim's face becomes a yellow mask, and the eyes turn bright red. The virus is trying to transform the body into itself, the result being liquefying flesh and virus. The victim may start vomiting black vomit, which is actually a hemorrhage.
The victim's blood begins to clot, which cut off the blood supply in most parts of the body. Eventually the clotting factors become used up, and the blood becomes clotless. The victim begins to bleed from every opening in their body. The victims usually die of hypovolemic shock or organ failure.
Kitum Cave is significant because in the 1980's two visitors to the cave contracted EBOLA Marburg virus; Charles Monet and a fifteen year old boy.
A hot virus is a lethally infective virus. Examples of hot viruses include Ebola and Marburg.
One way to stop a virus is to isolate everyone with the virus and let them die out, or cure them. Another would be to vaccinate the population at risk. The third is to eliminate the vector.
Hot Zone Questions
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Marburg Virus
Marburg was the first filiovirus discovered. The Marbug virus has similar symptoms to Ebola, but the chance of surving an infection of Marbug virus is higher.
First infected: Klaus F. He cared for the monkey in the Behring Works factory and broke with the virus on August 8, 1967 and died two weeks later.
Date discovered: During the summer of 1967
Noted outbreaks:
Marburg Germany, in a factory called Behring Works, was the first to break out with Marburg, around the summer of 1967. The factory works on producing serums and vaccines using kidney cells from African green monkeys, normally shipped in from Uganda.
Kitum Cave: Monet and Peter Cardinal died of Marburg shortly after visiting the cave.
Originated in: Sub-Saharan Africa
Incubation Period: On average- seven days.
Casultly rates: One in four.
Noted victims:
Charles Monet, a French expatriate who lived in western Kenya. He became terribly sick on Jan. 8, 1980, seven days after a visit at Kitum cave on Mount Elgon. Monet went to Nairobi Hospital for treatment. He died quickly after vomitting into Dr. Shem Musoke's face.
Musoke developed symptoms for the virus nine days after treating Monet. After diagnosis was difficult for Musoke, he went under Silverstein's care. Silverstein sent Musoke's blood serum to the National Institute of Virology in Sandringham, South Africa, and to the centers for Disease Control in Atlanta Georgia, USA. The serum tested positive for Marburg.
Peter Cardinal was a Danish boy visiting his parents in Kenya in the summer of 1987, when he dies of the Marburg virus. The army keeps a strain of Marburg named after him in its freezers, because he died of Marburg after visiting Kitum cave, like Monet.Gene Johnson had a hot zone set up there in hopes of finding the virus's host.
Other people involved:
Mr. Jones, he was an inspector for the monkeys shipped from Entebbe. He said most the monkeys weren't being killed, but sent to Lake Victoria, a focus for monkey viruses. The monkeys were trapped on the Sese islands, and were being continuessly shipped.
Gene Johnson is a civilian virus hunter working for the Army. Specialist in Ebola. In the spring of 1988, following the death of Peter Cardinal, he leads an Army expedition to Kitum Cave in Mount Elgon. He tried finding the virus host, but had no luck and ended up saving a ton of gear. "Chance favors the prepared mind" The Kitum cave equipment would later come in handy for the Ebola Reston strain that breaks out in a Reston monkey house in Virginia. He was the cheif of logistics and safety for the Reston biohazard operation.
Strains studied: Musoke, Peter Cardinal
Sisters: Ebola Zaire, Ebola Sudan, Ebola Reston
Carriers of the disease: Monkeys. The ones sent to Germany came from locations all over central Uganda. The monkeys had been shipped from Entebbe, an export facility.
Exact Source: Unknown.....(CIA)
How it is transmitted: Believed to be passed on when bodily fluid, or excretions of an infected person come in contact with another person or monkey, usually by an opening, as in eyes or mouth, or mouth cuts and intimate forms of contact.
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The Hot Zone: The Terrifying True Story of the Origins of the Ebola Virus
Thursday, July 31, 2014
ebola virus (The Hot Zone 90% Die)
(Don't let the state run media or the government tell you there has never been an outbreak of the ebola virus in the U.S.) Story Reports
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The Hot Zone Summary (Hot Zone Book)
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The Hot Zone, a true story that took place in the late 1980's, is based upon an outbreak of the Ebola virus in a monkey house located in the Washington, D.C. suburb of Reston, Virginia. The author weaves together the tales of several previous outbreaks in Africa to describe clearly the potential damage such an outbreak could cause. The first appearance of an Ebola-like virus takes place in Kenya and costs the life of a French expatriate named Charles Monet. His bloody, painful death is re-told in graphic and terrifying terms. Hospital personnel treating Monet become ill as well, demonstrating the extreme danger of exposure to this disease. Throughout the first half of the book, several outbreaks and deaths are described.
One of the U.S. Army personnel who is called upon when the Reston outbreak occurs is Major Nancy Jaax. Jaax is a mother and an Army veterinarian who works with the most lethal viruses and other dangerous agents in full-body "space suits" within laboratories known as "Hot Zones."
Nancy Jaax struggles to keep a balance between her job and her family life, but the job usually takes priority. Her husband, Jerry Jaax, also works in the Army's Veterinary Corps, and he is uncomfortable with his wife's being at such a high risk of exposure to deadly agents at Fort Detrick, Maryland.
The monkeys at a research facility in Reston, Virginia, begin to fall ill, and after some time, the head veterinarian sends tissue samples to Nancy Jaax's colleagues. They determine the illness is a strain of Ebola. The military, along with the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), takes on the task of entering the monkey house and destroying the animals in an attempt to keep the virus from jumping into the human population and causing a potentially worldwide crisis. The entire facility must be treated as a Hot Zone, and hundreds of monkeys are killed. Scares abound throughout the procedure: one woman's ventilated suit runs out of battery power, a monkey thought to be unconscious wakes up on the operating table while it is being euthanized and tries to bite a soldier, and tears occur in various members' space suits. Eventually, the entire building is decontaminated, and the personnel return to their regular lives.
Some of the people who were infected first in the story were visiting a site in Kenya called Kitum Cave. A U.S. scientific expedition goes there in hopes of finding the origins of these viruses. Unfortunately for the U.S. scientists and military, the mission is unsuccessful, but the doctor who put the expedition together was able to stow the equipment used when the cave was treated as a Hot Zone. This experience and equipment made the eventual decontamination project at Reston possible. The story ends with the book's author visiting Kitum Cave to explore the place that is still suspected to be home to Ebola's host. Through all his research and writing on the book, he has learned how to keep himself as safe as possible during his explorations. Rather than searching for the actual origin of the virus, however, he is searching for the origin of the story.
Chapter one introduces the reader to Charles Monet. He is a French expatriate working on a sugar plantation in western Kenya. The story begins on New Year's Day, 1980, when Charles and a woman take an overnight trip to Mount Elgon, a formerly active volcano. During their trip, they visit Kitum Cave.
After returning to his quiet life, Monet becomes ill. The reader knows that he is experiencing a catastrophic illness, but Charles and those who treat him are unaware of how serious it truly is. He experiences headaches and backaches for several days before spiking a fever and vomiting violently for a long period of time. His eyes turn red, his face becomes expressionless, and his personality changes. Finally, a coworker drives him to a hospital in the city of Kisumu.
"A hot virus from the rain forest lives within a twenty-four-hour plane flight from every city on earth." Part 1, Chapter 1, Page 16.
"The kill rate in humans infected with Ebola Zaire is nine out of ten." Part 1, Chapter 3, Page 38.
One of the obvious indicators of the fear is the setup of the Level 4 Hot Zones and the numerous procedures and policies in effect for anyone entering one.
The outside world is separated from the Hot Zone by a "gray area" that is considered neither sterile nor hot. There is an elaborate ritual to donning the space suits, including what to wear, how to provide layers of protection between the skin and the hot zone.
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HOT ZONE
Epidemiology Hot area, hot side A Biosafety Level 4 room or area in which trained personnel work with highly virulent infectious organisms—e.g., Ebola virus
Medspeak A regionally popular term for a place—e.g., the emergency department—where diagnosing, assessing, and treating patients with a particular condition occurs.
The term hot zone was likely coined during the Cold war where it described locations rendered hazardous due to nuclear contamination. The term was later extended to areas or locations considered to be hazardous such as Level-4 Biosafety labs, places in which there is active conflict, etc.
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Biosafety
A biosafety level is the level of the biocontainment precautions required to isolate dangerous biological agents in an enclosed facility. The levels of containment range from the lowest biosafety level 1 (BSL-1) to the highest at level 4 (BSL-4). In the United States, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) have specified these levels.
At the lowest level of biocontainment, the containment zone may only be a chemical fume hood. At the highest level the containment involves isolation of an organism by means of building systems, sealed rooms, sealed containers, positive pressure personnel suits (sometimes referred to as "space suits") and elaborate procedures for entering the room, and decontamination procedures for leaving the room. In most cases this also includes high levels of security for access to the facility, ensuring that only authorized personnel may be admitted to any area that may have some effect on the quality of the containment zone. This is considered a hot zone.
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Biosafety level 4
This level is required for work with dangerous and exotic agents that pose a high individual risk of aerosol-transmitted laboratory infections, agents which cause severe to fatal disease in humans for which vaccines or other treatments are not available, such as Bolivian and Argentine hemorrhagic fevers, Marburg virus, Ebola virus, Lassa virus, Crimean-Congo hemorrhagic fever, and various other hemorrhagic diseases.
When dealing with biological hazards at this level the use of a positive pressure personnel suit, with a segregated air supply, is mandatory. The entrance and exit of a level four biolab will contain multiple showers, a vacuum room, an ultraviolet light room, and other safety precautions designed to destroy all traces of the biohazard. Multiple airlocks are employed and are electronically secured to prevent both doors from opening at the same time. All air and water service going to and coming from a biosafety level 4 (or P4) lab will undergo similar decontamination procedures to eliminate the possibility of an accidental release.
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(Bubba I think ya may need a positive pressure suit with a segregated air supply. Your home should have an entrance an exit that contains a shower, a vacuum room, an ultraviolet light room, etc. Oh ya don't forget the Multiple airlocks that are electronically secured to prevent both doors from opening at the same time.
All air and water service going to and coming from yout house Bubba needs to be decontaminated also.)Story Reports
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How does UV Light Clean
There are three UV light wavelength categories: UV-A, UV-B and UV-C. The UV-C wavelength is the germicidal wavelength. UV-C utilizes short-wavelength ultraviolet radiation (shorter than UV-B and UV-A which are NOT germicidal) that is harmful to microorganisms.
This light is effective in destroying nucleic acids and breaking apart germ DNA. With their DNA broken, they can't function or reproduce and the organism dies.
UV-C light penetrates the cell and disrupts the DNA, killing the pathogen.
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Clean drinking water in 6 hours
An organization called Eawag: The Swiss Federal Institute of Aquatic Sciences and Technology, is spreading the word about the solar water disinfection method -- known as SODIS for short -- as a cost-effective solution for treating water and making it safe to drink in developing countries.
And it's simpler than you might think: Clear PET bottles (a commonly used food grade packaging plastic known for its chemical inertness) are filled with water and placed in the sun for six hours. The UV-A rays in sunlight kill germs such as viruses, bacteria and parasites. This process works even in lower temperatures.
All it requires is sunlight and PET bottles. How does it work? Clear PET bottles are filled with the water and set out in the sun for 6 hours. The UV-A rays in sunlight kill germs such as viruses, bacteria and parasites (giardia and cryptosporidia). The method also works when air and water temperatures are low.
People can use the SODIS method to treat their drinking water themselves. The method is very simple and its application is safe. It is particularly suitable for treating relatively small quantities of drinking water.
The SODIS method is very easy to apply: A transparent PET bottle is cleaned with soap. Then, the bottle is filled with water and placed in full sunlight for at least 6 hours. The water has then been disinfected and can be drunk.
The bottles must be transparent and colourless. PET bottles often have a bluish tinge.
The bottles must not hold more than 3 litres.
If the water is very turbid, the effectiveness of the method is reduced. It is very easy to determine whether the water is sufficiently clear:
The filled PET bottle must be placed on top of a newspaper headline. Now one must look at the bottom of the bottle from the neck at the top and through the water. If the letters of the headline are readable, the water can be used.
If the letters are not readable, the water must be filtered. This test corresponds to a turbidity of 30 NTU.
Cloudiness affects the strength of solar radiation and thus also the effectiveness of the method.
Rule of thumb:
If less than half of the sky is clouded over, 6 hours will be enough to completely disinfect the water.
If more than half of the sky is covered with clouds, the bottle must be placed in the sun for 2 consecutive days.
The method does not work satisfactorily during lengthy periods of rain. On these days, collect rainwater instead.
Preventing recontamination
The treated water should be kept in the bottle and drunk directly from the bottle, or poured into a cup or glass immediately before it is drunk. In this way, it is possible to prevent the treated water from becoming contaminated again.
If you leave your water bottle in a hot car, or reuse it, your exposure is magnified because heat and stress increase the amount of chemicals that leach out of the plastic. So the container your water comes in needs to receive just as much attention as the water itself.
Maybe get some clear glass beverages with resealable tops to put out in the sun.
........
The Hot Zone Summary (Hot Zone Book)
........
The Hot Zone, a true story that took place in the late 1980's, is based upon an outbreak of the Ebola virus in a monkey house located in the Washington, D.C. suburb of Reston, Virginia. The author weaves together the tales of several previous outbreaks in Africa to describe clearly the potential damage such an outbreak could cause. The first appearance of an Ebola-like virus takes place in Kenya and costs the life of a French expatriate named Charles Monet. His bloody, painful death is re-told in graphic and terrifying terms. Hospital personnel treating Monet become ill as well, demonstrating the extreme danger of exposure to this disease. Throughout the first half of the book, several outbreaks and deaths are described.
One of the U.S. Army personnel who is called upon when the Reston outbreak occurs is Major Nancy Jaax. Jaax is a mother and an Army veterinarian who works with the most lethal viruses and other dangerous agents in full-body "space suits" within laboratories known as "Hot Zones."
Nancy Jaax struggles to keep a balance between her job and her family life, but the job usually takes priority. Her husband, Jerry Jaax, also works in the Army's Veterinary Corps, and he is uncomfortable with his wife's being at such a high risk of exposure to deadly agents at Fort Detrick, Maryland.
The monkeys at a research facility in Reston, Virginia, begin to fall ill, and after some time, the head veterinarian sends tissue samples to Nancy Jaax's colleagues. They determine the illness is a strain of Ebola. The military, along with the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), takes on the task of entering the monkey house and destroying the animals in an attempt to keep the virus from jumping into the human population and causing a potentially worldwide crisis. The entire facility must be treated as a Hot Zone, and hundreds of monkeys are killed. Scares abound throughout the procedure: one woman's ventilated suit runs out of battery power, a monkey thought to be unconscious wakes up on the operating table while it is being euthanized and tries to bite a soldier, and tears occur in various members' space suits. Eventually, the entire building is decontaminated, and the personnel return to their regular lives.
Some of the people who were infected first in the story were visiting a site in Kenya called Kitum Cave. A U.S. scientific expedition goes there in hopes of finding the origins of these viruses. Unfortunately for the U.S. scientists and military, the mission is unsuccessful, but the doctor who put the expedition together was able to stow the equipment used when the cave was treated as a Hot Zone. This experience and equipment made the eventual decontamination project at Reston possible. The story ends with the book's author visiting Kitum Cave to explore the place that is still suspected to be home to Ebola's host. Through all his research and writing on the book, he has learned how to keep himself as safe as possible during his explorations. Rather than searching for the actual origin of the virus, however, he is searching for the origin of the story.
Chapter one introduces the reader to Charles Monet. He is a French expatriate working on a sugar plantation in western Kenya. The story begins on New Year's Day, 1980, when Charles and a woman take an overnight trip to Mount Elgon, a formerly active volcano. During their trip, they visit Kitum Cave.
After returning to his quiet life, Monet becomes ill. The reader knows that he is experiencing a catastrophic illness, but Charles and those who treat him are unaware of how serious it truly is. He experiences headaches and backaches for several days before spiking a fever and vomiting violently for a long period of time. His eyes turn red, his face becomes expressionless, and his personality changes. Finally, a coworker drives him to a hospital in the city of Kisumu.
"A hot virus from the rain forest lives within a twenty-four-hour plane flight from every city on earth." Part 1, Chapter 1, Page 16.
"The kill rate in humans infected with Ebola Zaire is nine out of ten." Part 1, Chapter 3, Page 38.
One of the obvious indicators of the fear is the setup of the Level 4 Hot Zones and the numerous procedures and policies in effect for anyone entering one.
The outside world is separated from the Hot Zone by a "gray area" that is considered neither sterile nor hot. There is an elaborate ritual to donning the space suits, including what to wear, how to provide layers of protection between the skin and the hot zone.
.........
.........
HOT ZONE
Epidemiology Hot area, hot side A Biosafety Level 4 room or area in which trained personnel work with highly virulent infectious organisms—e.g., Ebola virus
Medspeak A regionally popular term for a place—e.g., the emergency department—where diagnosing, assessing, and treating patients with a particular condition occurs.
The term hot zone was likely coined during the Cold war where it described locations rendered hazardous due to nuclear contamination. The term was later extended to areas or locations considered to be hazardous such as Level-4 Biosafety labs, places in which there is active conflict, etc.
........
........
Biosafety
A biosafety level is the level of the biocontainment precautions required to isolate dangerous biological agents in an enclosed facility. The levels of containment range from the lowest biosafety level 1 (BSL-1) to the highest at level 4 (BSL-4). In the United States, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) have specified these levels.
At the lowest level of biocontainment, the containment zone may only be a chemical fume hood. At the highest level the containment involves isolation of an organism by means of building systems, sealed rooms, sealed containers, positive pressure personnel suits (sometimes referred to as "space suits") and elaborate procedures for entering the room, and decontamination procedures for leaving the room. In most cases this also includes high levels of security for access to the facility, ensuring that only authorized personnel may be admitted to any area that may have some effect on the quality of the containment zone. This is considered a hot zone.
........
........
Biosafety level 4
This level is required for work with dangerous and exotic agents that pose a high individual risk of aerosol-transmitted laboratory infections, agents which cause severe to fatal disease in humans for which vaccines or other treatments are not available, such as Bolivian and Argentine hemorrhagic fevers, Marburg virus, Ebola virus, Lassa virus, Crimean-Congo hemorrhagic fever, and various other hemorrhagic diseases.
When dealing with biological hazards at this level the use of a positive pressure personnel suit, with a segregated air supply, is mandatory. The entrance and exit of a level four biolab will contain multiple showers, a vacuum room, an ultraviolet light room, and other safety precautions designed to destroy all traces of the biohazard. Multiple airlocks are employed and are electronically secured to prevent both doors from opening at the same time. All air and water service going to and coming from a biosafety level 4 (or P4) lab will undergo similar decontamination procedures to eliminate the possibility of an accidental release.
......
......
......
(Bubba I think ya may need a positive pressure suit with a segregated air supply. Your home should have an entrance an exit that contains a shower, a vacuum room, an ultraviolet light room, etc. Oh ya don't forget the Multiple airlocks that are electronically secured to prevent both doors from opening at the same time.
All air and water service going to and coming from yout house Bubba needs to be decontaminated also.)Story Reports
......
......
How does UV Light Clean
There are three UV light wavelength categories: UV-A, UV-B and UV-C. The UV-C wavelength is the germicidal wavelength. UV-C utilizes short-wavelength ultraviolet radiation (shorter than UV-B and UV-A which are NOT germicidal) that is harmful to microorganisms.
This light is effective in destroying nucleic acids and breaking apart germ DNA. With their DNA broken, they can't function or reproduce and the organism dies.
UV-C light penetrates the cell and disrupts the DNA, killing the pathogen.
..........
..........
..........
Clean drinking water in 6 hours
An organization called Eawag: The Swiss Federal Institute of Aquatic Sciences and Technology, is spreading the word about the solar water disinfection method -- known as SODIS for short -- as a cost-effective solution for treating water and making it safe to drink in developing countries.
And it's simpler than you might think: Clear PET bottles (a commonly used food grade packaging plastic known for its chemical inertness) are filled with water and placed in the sun for six hours. The UV-A rays in sunlight kill germs such as viruses, bacteria and parasites. This process works even in lower temperatures.
All it requires is sunlight and PET bottles. How does it work? Clear PET bottles are filled with the water and set out in the sun for 6 hours. The UV-A rays in sunlight kill germs such as viruses, bacteria and parasites (giardia and cryptosporidia). The method also works when air and water temperatures are low.
People can use the SODIS method to treat their drinking water themselves. The method is very simple and its application is safe. It is particularly suitable for treating relatively small quantities of drinking water.
The SODIS method is very easy to apply: A transparent PET bottle is cleaned with soap. Then, the bottle is filled with water and placed in full sunlight for at least 6 hours. The water has then been disinfected and can be drunk.
The bottles must be transparent and colourless. PET bottles often have a bluish tinge.
The bottles must not hold more than 3 litres.
If the water is very turbid, the effectiveness of the method is reduced. It is very easy to determine whether the water is sufficiently clear:
The filled PET bottle must be placed on top of a newspaper headline. Now one must look at the bottom of the bottle from the neck at the top and through the water. If the letters of the headline are readable, the water can be used.
If the letters are not readable, the water must be filtered. This test corresponds to a turbidity of 30 NTU.
Cloudiness affects the strength of solar radiation and thus also the effectiveness of the method.
Rule of thumb:
If less than half of the sky is clouded over, 6 hours will be enough to completely disinfect the water.
If more than half of the sky is covered with clouds, the bottle must be placed in the sun for 2 consecutive days.
The method does not work satisfactorily during lengthy periods of rain. On these days, collect rainwater instead.
Preventing recontamination
The treated water should be kept in the bottle and drunk directly from the bottle, or poured into a cup or glass immediately before it is drunk. In this way, it is possible to prevent the treated water from becoming contaminated again.
If you leave your water bottle in a hot car, or reuse it, your exposure is magnified because heat and stress increase the amount of chemicals that leach out of the plastic. So the container your water comes in needs to receive just as much attention as the water itself.
Maybe get some clear glass beverages with resealable tops to put out in the sun.
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