Ebola Reappears -- Single Case, In Abidjan, Ivory Coast -- First In A Quarter-Century There... 58 Contacts Already Vaccinated.

It is difficult to adequately express what a vast difference a highly effective vaccine makes in combating this exceedingly lethal viral killer.

58 other people rode the bus with the 18 year old woman (including the bus driver), some 900 miles before she knew -- and then, they knew she had contracted the deadly virus (presumably somewhere in Guinea). That was August 11. All have now been vaccinated.

Not one of the 58 has shown any symptoms, other than the index case -- but local public health officials in both Abidjan and northwestern Guinea continue to monitor the entire "contacts of contacts" ring. This is highly likely to be a one and done event. Even eight years ago, there might well be 100 active cases in Abidjan, by now.

And -- of course -- I post this in large part to point out just how deeply irresponsible the governors of Texas and Florida have been. One of them now has the virus. It literally makes me shake my head, in disbelief. Here's CIDRAP, on the main Ivory Coast narrative:

. . .An investigation is under way into the source of an Ebola infection in a traveler from Guinea whose infection was detected in the Ivory Coast's major urban center of Abidjan, marking the country's first case since 1994.

In a statement today, Ivory Coast's health ministry said the patient is an 18-year-old woman who left the city of Labe in Guinea traveling by road, arriving in Abidjan on Aug 11. Her illness was identified and treated by health services the next day. Tests on samples at the Pasteur Institute in Ivory Coast confirmed her Ebola infection on Aug 14.

Officials said [this] case is an isolated, imported infection, and the woman is at the Highly Epidemic Diseases treatment center at the University Hospital of Treichville. . . .

We need to do better, people. Electing this sort of ignorance, in the richest nation on Earth. . . is humiliating. I am sure these governors know better -- but they are fully-willing to gamble voters' (and their own) lives. . . to score political points.

It is a near certainty that if Governor Abbott had worn a mask, and all the attendees at his 600 person Monday speech had, as well -- he would not be on a daunting therapy course, a monoclonal antibody regimen, from Regeneron today. In short, he'd very likely not have contracted. . . COVID. Insane. And insane, the rubes are willing fools -- in the epidemiology experiment. It is already ending badly. Out.

नमस्ते