Family says that Amber Vinson is free of ebola.

Wonderful news if this is the case. Hopefully she can be reunited with her family/friends in either Dallas or Ohio soon.

Its still around. It turns up from time to time in Colorado New Mexico or Arizona. I think usually in children that have been bitten by mice or rats, but it can be treated with antibiotics and so they may end up in the hospital but treated okay.

Its less contagious but turns up with about the same frequency as Hanta virus, but Hanta can be in dust a particulates left behind by rodents and can be prevented by wearing a dust mask or respirator when working in an attic or woodpile - some place you would expect rodents

Well, I don't know much about the history of diseases/viruses as far as how many civilizations were wiped out because of it. However, I do know that under some circumstances, diseases change little in their virulence or even get worse. Moreover, some, like bubonic plague, appear to oscillate in virulence.

Yep. It's caused by the bacterium Yersinia pestis, which infects many animals, especially rodents. From these it can be transmitted to humans (and their cats and dogs) by fleas.

What I don't understand is why would fleas leave the shelter of the fur/hairs on furry animals such as rats to venture onto the exposed surface of the relatively hairless, like people? I remember when I was a kid, our dog had fleas, and not only were they biting the dog, they were biting the hell out of us, too. That is until we eliminated them.

lol
That's because there are different kinds/species of fleas. Some will bite both people and the dog or cat. However, a lot of times with fleas, it's not through choice. Fleas come in distinct varieties and tend to stay with the animal they are adapted to. So, when rats or mice die of plague, their fleas leave and look for new animals to infest. Rat fleas cannot actually survive for long on humans -- our blood doesn't supply the correct balance of nutrients. But one bite is enough to transmit plague.

I had no idea there was a difference. Since there is, then how do you know which species of fleas are which? If there are several different species of fleas, all having their own preferences of who or what to live and feed on, isn't that hard to keep up with?

Sorry - I didn't mean that the population was immune to Bubonic plague, but that over time I assumed the remaining population was less susceptible. I may have just assumed that, though ;) I always heard that the native populations of North and South America were so devastated by smallpox and influenza because they didn't have any immunity to these diseases at all, whereas Old World populations had developed some natural immunity due to centuries of exposure.

Also - all this talk of fleas is making me itch! Have you ever set up little traps for fleas with a bowl of soapy water near a nightlight? No? I was the only one who did that as a kid? Ok then...

Yep. There are roughly more than 2200 species and subspecies of fleas that we actually know about.

Well, it's not really that difficulty to keep up with, because there's what vets refer to as the "dog flea" and the "cat flea". I mean, there are several species, but only Ctenocephalides felis (cat flea), and Ctenocephalides canis (dog flea) occur in large numbers on dogs and cats. It's just that in North America, the most commonly encountered flea species on dogs and cats is C felis (cat flea).

However, the term "cat flea", which is the approved common name for C felis, can occasionally cause confusion with people who don't understand the terminology we use when communicating with each other. When it appears in print, if refers to the specific flea genus and species and not to fleas recovered from cats.

And then too, there are actually four recognized subspecies of C felis throughout the world. There's C felis damarensis and C felis strongylus that occur primarily in East Africa. Then there's C felis orientis which occur in India and Australia. But the widespread C f felis occurs in all continents except Antarctica and is the only subspecies that occurs in North America. So, most of the North American literature refers to the cat flea as C felis. Because the "cat flea" is the most common flea on domestic dogs and cats in North America, flea biology is usually most commonly confined to the "cat flea". It just makes our job a little easier, and less confusing when consulting with each other and to the client about their pets.

Well, I think a misconception many people have is that because diseases adapt to their hosts, they will inevitably become milder if we just wait long enough. Yes, immunity does play a part, but also diseases tend to grow in virulence when their hosts are plentiful and crowded close together. On the other hand, they evolve with lesser virulence when their hosts are few and far between. I think the bottom line is the best way to understand how disease has affected our history, we have to understand how infections are spread.

Hilarious! :p
Did it work?

I'm currently watching the football game, and across the bottom of the screen was "breaking news" from the local Houston station - a NYC doctor who just returned from West Africa has tested positive for Ebola.

Ok, it's a news story, but did it really have to be run as breaking news over another tv program? :rolleyes:

::Waiting on the inevitable panic that will now spread across the country all over again::