The idyllic UIC medical campus

UIC report

Today has heralded one major development after another on the ebola front. First, we find out that doctors at the University of Chicago released a report stating clearly that ebola can most certainly be spread through aerosols (and not at “3 feet” as the CDC states, but far further) and that the CDC’s information is endangering health workers, by prescribing gear that protects only modestly against aerosol transmission.

Spain

We then find out that a nurse treating a different patient in Madrid, Spain, has become the first truly native ebola case in Europe – more frightening, Spain was fairly low on the list of nations likely to see spread- France and the UK seem certain to see some action. Interestingly, and to great concern, the priest who this nurse was treating keeled over on the 25th of September – so the nurse had to be infected but asymptomatic for a fairly long period of time, potentially infecting others.

Norway

We then find out that, additionally, a Norwegian medical worker is also sick after working in Africa, and will be airlifted back to Norway for treatment – exactly the same way the sick Spainish nurse was infected (oddly, while wearing full medical gear in a country where it supposedly, magically, can’t spread because somehow hygeine affects the transmission of viruses.)

India

To cap it all off after an already eventful, slightly disturbing day, the media is now reporting a suspected ebola case in Manipur (a city of over 2 million people in densely populated India) which appears to have caused panic in the streets – whether this will turn out to be one of many negative cases or a rare positive is yet to be seen, but if it does manage to get into India we may see it explode across Asia – after all India has one of the highest population densities in the world.