Speaker 1: And that folks, it is Saturday, May sixteenth. I thought
Speaker 1: we were talking about hantavirus. We wake up this morning
Speaker 1: to news there is an ebola outbreak and it's already
Speaker 1: one of the worst outbreaks in history. And with that,
Speaker 1: welcome to this episode of Amy and TJ Okay, Ropes. Okay, okay, okay, okay, okay.
Speaker 1: It's a little alarming. We should put it all in context.
Speaker 1: But this is real, this is legit, this is concerning,
Speaker 1: and people are being mobilized for an emergency alert situation
Speaker 1: going on in Congo right now.
Speaker 2: Ropes, Oh, yes, because this is already a significant outbreak.
Speaker 2: As you pointed out, eighty people have already died. There
Speaker 2: are two hundred and forty six suspected cases, and the
Speaker 2: concern is that this has just begun, that there are
Speaker 2: going certainly going to be much higher numbers coming soon
Speaker 2: and Robes.
Speaker 1: There's concern along the community, the medical community, i should say,
Speaker 1: the world health community, that some of them seem to
Speaker 1: be thrown off guard by this that wait, we're finding
Speaker 1: out about it and the numbers already at eighty or
Speaker 1: two hundred and forty six total cases. They think something
Speaker 1: has gone wrong in our health policy. We shouldn't be
Speaker 1: finding out about it when the numbers are this high.
Speaker 2: That is incredibly disturbing. And it's happening in a part
Speaker 2: of the world where there is a humanitarian crisis already
Speaker 2: going on because there is civil unrest, there are military well,
Speaker 2: there are competing militias going on back and forth. And
Speaker 2: this is an environment where people already don't necessarily have
Speaker 2: a safe facility to go to, or to get to,
Speaker 2: or a place to go to get help.
Speaker 3: And that might explain part.
Speaker 2: Of why we're seeing these numbers and only seeing them now.
Speaker 1: And it grows you you point out this area of
Speaker 1: the world. It's on the very eastern part of the Congo,
Speaker 1: which is an enormous country, but it's on the border
Speaker 1: there where the unrest you talk about ropes, and where
Speaker 1: there is a lot of mobility. People are on the
Speaker 1: move constantly between over borders in communities, so they're trying
Speaker 1: to track all these folks, track ropes. We were talking
Speaker 1: about contact tracing here on hantavirus. Seems to be hell,
Speaker 1: how this is impossible?
Speaker 2: Yeah, you're trying to contact trace where you've got armed
Speaker 2: militias circling these roads. People are afraid for their lives.
Speaker 2: Forget the virus. They want to survive gunfire, they want
Speaker 2: to survive a machete attack. They're concerned for their lives immediately,
Speaker 2: not necessarily protecting themselves wearing ppe and socially distancing and
Speaker 2: making sure they report their illnesses to the local hospitals.
Speaker 3: That's not what's.
Speaker 2: Capable, truly, it's not realistic with what's going on and
Speaker 2: where it is in the world.
Speaker 1: Okay, we talked about where it is in the world,
Speaker 1: and we were talking about where hantavirus in the world
Speaker 1: as well, off the coast West Africa, out in the
Speaker 1: middle of nowhere and nothing. We are good, we are fine.
Speaker 1: We are safe here in the United States. And sure
Speaker 1: enough we end up finding out that the number of
Speaker 1: people are being monitored in this country for a number
Speaker 1: of reasons. It made its way, if you will. So Robes,
Speaker 1: here we go with abola. You hear ebola, and we
Speaker 1: should say that the approximate death rate for this one
Speaker 1: is fifty percent. And I say approximates because of all
Speaker 1: these outbreaks it ranges. So the who said the death
Speaker 1: rate could be anywhere from twenty five percent to ninety
Speaker 1: oh percent goodness. So that's what we're dealing with. Generally speaking, everybody,
Speaker 1: Is there a worse word you could say when it
Speaker 1: comes to viruses than ebola for people to know shut up.
Speaker 2: No, because you think about, Look, this is a disease
Speaker 2: that we've heard, at least through our lifetimes pop up
Speaker 2: now and again. But when it's been described as what
Speaker 2: this disease does and how quickly and brutally it kills someone, yeah,
Speaker 2: this is some scary stuff.
Speaker 1: That's a way to put it. Brutally kills someone. We're
Speaker 1: going to get into the reminders of what this disease is,
Speaker 1: how it's transmitted, what the symptoms are, what the treatment is,
Speaker 1: and also a reminder of the last time we saw
Speaker 1: it here in the United States. It's funny roads we
Speaker 1: look up on. We happen to have our TV on here,
Speaker 1: and sure enough they were interviewing the guy who was
Speaker 1: the last guy to be in the United States who
Speaker 1: have ebola. He did survive. Of course, that was tens
Speaker 1: plus years ago. We'll get into that in the second
Speaker 1: but Robes, let's go with what we're happening here. The
Speaker 1: who says they started looking at this what today's the
Speaker 1: sixteenth but they said, they first got a heads up
Speaker 1: about a suspected case May fifth, so they have to mobilize,
Speaker 1: so you have to get out to this remote area,
Speaker 1: try to confirm it and try to track it. So
Speaker 1: they first got a heads up May fifth, But we
Speaker 1: are now just getting all these numbers and whatnot now,
Speaker 1: all these days later.
Speaker 2: Well, the World Health Organization has been busy because May fifth.
Speaker 2: I know for a fact they were deeply entrenched dealing
Speaker 2: with the haunt of IRS. And that wasn't just yes,
Speaker 2: I mean talking about the World Health Organization. They're dealing
Speaker 2: with the haunt of virus in what six different countries
Speaker 2: right now, spread and trying to stay contained throughout the world.
Speaker 2: So they've got their hands busy with that. Now they're
Speaker 2: dealing with this abola outbreak. And why is it that
Speaker 2: we're just now hearing about it. Who knows. Maybe they
Speaker 2: had to confirm the case initially. I think some of
Speaker 2: the cases they tested were negative, and then when they
Speaker 2: dug a little deeper, they.
Speaker 3: Said, oh, holy hell, this is way worse than we thought.
Speaker 1: Hey, not going to suggest what. Their job is difficult
Speaker 1: and takes time, but robes it was shocking again not
Speaker 1: to me, and not to you, but to the folks
Speaker 1: who keep an eye on this, to the medical professionals,
Speaker 1: it was a little bit jarring to be hearing about
Speaker 1: it for the first time and not hearing a small
Speaker 1: cluster a few cases or suspected case. To know we're
Speaker 1: already at two forty six in the number of cases
Speaker 1: robes the concern they're well, how high is this thing
Speaker 1: going to go if we're only getting a handle on
Speaker 1: it and it's already taken off that much.
Speaker 3: Oh, Mike, I mean, we just know.
Speaker 2: I mean, I feel like we all became little mini virologist,
Speaker 2: or at least we tried to be during COVID And
Speaker 2: just to think that that many people without really having
Speaker 2: the proper people overseeing containing this thing in.
Speaker 3: The right amount of early days.
Speaker 2: We just know exponentially how these viruses go from person
Speaker 2: to person. And as we were hearing so much from
Speaker 2: health the visuals about how hauntavirus yes, is extremely deadly
Speaker 2: but hard to catch, Ebola is extremely deadly and easy
Speaker 2: to catch. It is described as highly contagious, and I
Speaker 2: think that's what's really, really, really scary. They're not talking
Speaker 2: about extended, you know, close.
Speaker 3: Contacts and This is just through bodily fluid.
Speaker 2: So you sneeze, you cough, you touch a surface, boom,
Speaker 2: you can catch it and row.
Speaker 1: Think about how much care is being taken to separate
Speaker 1: potential haunt to virus ill folks here in the US.
Speaker 1: They're not showing a single symptom, and they're being kept
Speaker 1: far away from everybody else, not being able to interact.
Speaker 1: Think of a community of village people on top of
Speaker 1: each other moving around in areas in land. There's no doctor,
Speaker 1: there's no nothing, just on top of each other robes
Speaker 1: dealing with a virus that is much more contagious than hauntavirus.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean, and this is scary. Just obviously they
Speaker 2: always try to find patient zero. I guess they say
Speaker 2: the index case, the suspected index case. With this latest outbreak,
Speaker 2: this concerned me just to hear that it was a
Speaker 2: nurse who died in a medical center and she was
Speaker 2: showing symptoms fever, bleeding, vomiting, weakness. But she was a
Speaker 2: nurse treating patients, so at a hospital, and if they
Speaker 2: believe she was patient zero, maybe she Obviously you would
Speaker 2: assume she caught it from a patient who ended up
Speaker 2: in the hospital but the first documentable case that they
Speaker 2: know of, and now she goes on to treat all
Speaker 2: these folks.
Speaker 3: This is just a nightmare.
Speaker 2: And then say, some of these people catch it, go home,
Speaker 2: take it to their families.
Speaker 3: I mean, this is just incredibly disturbing.
Speaker 1: So to that point there Robes, there was so much
Speaker 1: focus on Hunter ofvirus because of how long the incubation
Speaker 1: period could potentially be. They were saying up to a
Speaker 1: month and a half for that. This one is much quicker.
Speaker 1: So as you're saying people going home could be sick,
Speaker 1: much quicker. The incubation period could be as short as
Speaker 1: two days, but as long as twenty one.
Speaker 3: That's a long range for something that's that contagious.
Speaker 1: Yeah, so that means what we've got weeks of monitoring,
Speaker 1: months of possible monitoring of people. And again the number
Speaker 1: we talk about, look, eighty is a lot dead eighty
Speaker 1: is a big number. The number of cases two forty six.
Speaker 1: You hear that initially and go, oh, well, in many
Speaker 1: of the previous outbreaks Robes they only got up to
Speaker 1: maybe two hundred, three hundred cases. So it's significant that
Speaker 1: this already is in one of the top tier of
Speaker 1: the worst outbreaks, but I guess robes it could. No,
Speaker 1: we shouldn't look at it that way because the worst
Speaker 1: EBO outbreaks were so bad that we're nowhere close to that.
Speaker 2: Yes, and let's hope we don't get to that. We
Speaker 2: actually were looking at some of these outbreaks. I believe
Speaker 2: the deadliest one was from twenty eighteen, so not that
Speaker 2: long ago. We're talking thousands dead. Two two hundred and
Speaker 2: eighty seven people died. There were thirty more than thirty
Speaker 2: four hundred cases. But when you look at that thirty
Speaker 2: four hundred cases twenty three hundred dead, you just see
Speaker 2: how deadly it is.
Speaker 3: And certain strains are deadlier than others.
Speaker 2: But you can have anywhere from a thirty like you said,
Speaker 2: a twenty percent to a ninety percent. I mean, this
Speaker 2: is how much the range goes. But when you get
Speaker 2: these deadliest strains going, that is I mean.
Speaker 3: That is so scary.
Speaker 2: When we think about how quickly we can catch a
Speaker 2: virus that is highly can tage just like a cold
Speaker 2: or a flu, and to think that it could have
Speaker 2: up to a ninety percent death rate, that is frightening
Speaker 2: beyond words.
Speaker 1: So some of the numbers there was not specific to
Speaker 1: one country, but one in twenty fourteen that covered several
Speaker 1: countries in West Africa. Now this this twenty eight thousand cases,
Speaker 1: but again robes. As you say, I'm looking at several
Speaker 1: of these listed and it has number of cases and
Speaker 1: number died robes. Those are huge numbers as far as
Speaker 1: ratios of the number of cases and the number of dead.
Speaker 2: Yes, yes, you mentioned the West Africa twenty fourteen, twenty
Speaker 2: eight thousand cases, eleven thy three hundred dead I mean,
Speaker 2: and then I you know, you have the some of
Speaker 2: the smaller outbreaks. But again the last one that they
Speaker 2: had in the area was in December. There were sixty
Speaker 2: four cases, forty five died. That is a scary ratio.
Speaker 1: Roams. We were terrified hearing about hantavirus and the forty
Speaker 1: percent death rate. So this is why, no doubt this
Speaker 1: is incredibly concerning. A reminder, this still is a hasn't
Speaker 1: been around that long. It was discovered in nineteen seventy
Speaker 1: six in the Democratic Republic of Congo. Like you said, Robe,
Speaker 1: there are I think three strains that they've identified, but
Speaker 1: the zayre strain is the one that's been around. It's
Speaker 1: the deadly one of the deadliest one. They're still checking
Speaker 1: out these strains, seeing what they're dealing with. But robes bats, right,
Speaker 1: is that's where it originates. I believe it from bats, Yes,
Speaker 1: but hey, it's been around a little while, and it's
Speaker 1: the scariest thing you can say when it comes to viruses,
Speaker 1: and I guess robes to a certain degree. The world
Speaker 1: doesn't necessarily and maybe the United States doesn't go into
Speaker 1: full freak out when we hear ebola because it is
Speaker 1: and has stayed for the most part so far away
Speaker 1: from us.
Speaker 2: Yes, but as you mentioned, this is a highly trafficked
Speaker 2: area where people are crossing borders from back and forth,
Speaker 2: especially between Congo and Uganda.
Speaker 3: And look, it's not far fetched to think some of those.
Speaker 2: People would or could or will or plan to get
Speaker 2: on planes and fly to other parts.
Speaker 1: Of the world, including possibly the United States of America.
Speaker 1: And yeah, folks, quick reminder, it's happened before, and it
Speaker 1: wasn't that long ago. Stay here, all right, folks, We
Speaker 1: continue here on Amy and TJ on this Saturday, May sixteenth,
Speaker 1: getting up to a word that there is any bola outbreak,
Speaker 1: a very concerning outbreak happening right now in the Democratic
Speaker 1: Republic of Congo along the border there with Uganda. But
Speaker 1: at least two hundred and sixty plus cases right now
Speaker 1: and at least eighty eighty dead in those cases. They're
Speaker 1: trying to get a handle on it, and again brokes
Speaker 1: Central Africa, Congo remote area, even of the Congo. That
Speaker 1: virus isn't going to get here. It seems very difficult,
Speaker 1: highly unlikely. And I guess we're ope when we hear
Speaker 1: a Bola. That's why sometimes here in the US we
Speaker 1: don't go into full alarm when we hear it. But Robes,
Speaker 1: it wasn't that long ago. And I think a lot
Speaker 1: of us remember, most people will remember Ebola made its
Speaker 1: way through the United States.
Speaker 2: I didn't realize how recently it actually was. It was
Speaker 2: in two thy fourteen September of twenty fourteen. Certainly you
Speaker 2: and I were in newsrooms back then. I was a
Speaker 2: Good Morning America back then, and it was a tremendous
Speaker 2: story to see and to hear that Ebola made it
Speaker 2: to the United States.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and that was a part of an outbreak. Then
Speaker 1: the gentle men from Liberia visited to the United States.
Speaker 1: He was coming to visit family in Texas and I
Speaker 1: think a lot of people remember this guy. As the
Speaker 1: outbreak was going on over there, all of a sudden
Speaker 1: we hear about a guy who was sick in Texas
Speaker 1: Ropes and he went in and he told him where
Speaker 1: he was from. They still let him get on a plane.
Speaker 1: He ends up coming over, he gets sick, he goes in,
Speaker 1: they put him in isolation, and a couple of weeks
Speaker 1: later this man was dead.
Speaker 2: Yeah, they even put him on an experimental drug. He's
Speaker 2: got the best care in the world here in the
Speaker 2: United States. He went to the hospital, but pretty quickly
Speaker 2: he ended up on a ventilator. His kidneys were failing,
Speaker 2: and yes, he died, and that scared the hell out
Speaker 2: of folks here in.
Speaker 3: The United States.
Speaker 2: And you combine that and not to be fear mongering here,
Speaker 2: but just having gone through the pandemic, being concerned now
Speaker 2: obviously with what we're dealing with with hantavirus. It's especially
Speaker 2: alarming when you hear that the CDC director there in Africa,
Speaker 2: this was the quote. Given the high population movement between
Speaker 2: affected areas and neighboring countries, rapid regional coordination is essential.
Speaker 2: I mean, they are speaking urgently to people urgently to
Speaker 2: health officials and they are saying we need help and
Speaker 2: they need to secure borders. The contact tracing is key.
Speaker 2: My god, I just can't imagine what that looks like.
Speaker 1: It's impossible, records, keeping up with everybody, who are you
Speaker 1: in contact with? Where did you go? It's just this
Speaker 1: is such a tall task, but it's worth putting on
Speaker 1: everybody's radar and something to keep an eye on. But
Speaker 1: like you said, Robes, hantaviruses on our brains and that
Speaker 1: made us concern because COVID was still on our brains
Speaker 1: and now we're having to hear about ebola. You can
Speaker 1: did I mention here the symptoms fever, fatigue, sore throat, headache,
Speaker 1: They say, that's another part of the issue, Robes. It
Speaker 1: shows up kind of as normal, run of the mill issues.
Speaker 1: You might think you have a cold.
Speaker 2: Yeah, you wake up and you think, oh god, I'm
Speaker 2: getting sick, and it really is. Those are the hallmark
Speaker 2: symptoms of your run of the mill cold. Worst case scenario,
Speaker 2: you're thinking maybe I have influenza, but you're not thinking, oh,
Speaker 2: I could have a bola. And certainly anyone who wakes
Speaker 2: up like that, yeah you're not and that's when you're contagious,
Speaker 2: and that's the frightening.
Speaker 1: They aren't those the first symptoms of damn near everything?
Speaker 3: Yes? Yeah, how do you know? How do you distinguish?
Speaker 2: I think the always the scary thing to me was
Speaker 2: the bleeding, like you imagine, like you hear about the
Speaker 2: bleeding coming from your our this is your like holy hell.
Speaker 1: Let's say that's. Yeah, the headache and whatnot. It turns
Speaker 1: into more severe symptoms. They say that's from the vomiting
Speaker 1: and the diarrhea, organ failure on what you mentioned, But
Speaker 1: they say it's a horrific, horrific death.
Speaker 2: Yes, that was always the way I remember hearing it described.
Speaker 2: And that's just what scares the hell out of you.
Speaker 2: And to think that, regardless of medical intervention you may receive,
Speaker 2: it's oftentimes too late.
Speaker 3: There's nothing they can do.
Speaker 1: All right, folks, giving you the latest there on this Saturday,
Speaker 1: obviously one that certainly we and really the world and
Speaker 1: all of us should be keeping a close eye on,
Speaker 1: but one did to give you the updates. We always
Speaker 1: appreciate you spending some time with us. From our dear
Speaker 1: Amy Robot, I'm TJ. Holmes. We'll talk to