Ebolavirus 2014 Outbreak
October 16, 2014
Update #3
Paul Herscu, ND, DHANP, MPH
Herscu Laboratory
DON’T PANIC!
When you turn on the news just
now, there is a great deal of media attention on the Ebolavirus outbreak. And
as importantly, there is a sort of hysteria in the general public, as well as
in the healthcare community, including those in CAM. In this recent Kaiser poll
about half of all Americans believe their family is at risk of contracting
Ebola. ( http://tinyurl.com/ol6xr57)
Let me say here clearly, that
unless something unusual occurs such as 1) a change in the transmission mode,
as in it becoming airborne (which is a difficult thing to happen and despite
what some at CDC and in the government have said, has absolutely NOT happened.
Ebolavirus has not become airborne. They are wrong here, but will explain their
mistake in the next post), 2) a change in vectors, as in animals that have yet
to transmit to humans, and/or 3) a change in incubation time, as in a
lengthening of incubation time while still being contagious (which both may be difficult to occur at the
same time), there
will NOT be an epidemic in the USA, in North America, or in Europe. Nor will
there be a greatly widening epidemic within Africa itself. And as shocking as
it seems to you just now, the average person will hardly, sadly, think about it
by the end of the year. I have tried to say this in a variety of ways, but I
thought I would say it again here. In essence people are worrying about the
wrong thing, the wrong epidemic, the wrong focus. I hope that by reading these communiqués,
you will be better prepared to handle the media, assess the information you
hear, and not become overly anxious because of hyped up media offerings. As
promised, I wanted to discuss treatments that occur at this time.
As mentioned in the first
post, aside from treatment aimed at supportive care, we have at least two major
pathways for treatment—antivirals and plasma products.
While no drug is yet approved, there are a host of medications being tested.
