Should we close the UK borders to West Africa?

[john carr]

Take a look at this - http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-28544605

 

Tragic and really frightening. What should we be doing to prevent this outbreak of ebola reaching our shores?

[tzijlstra]

Not a lot. Last thing to do is cause panic over this.

 

It spreads through human-to-human contact ONCE it has properly taken hold of the patient. There is little you can do before then, simply because it is not presenting any symptoms. Once symptoms are present we need to rely on the NHS to sort this out, it is one thing that the NHS is actually good at.

[andyofborg]

Take a look at this - http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-28544605

 

Tragic and really frightening. What should we be doing to prevent this outbreak of ebola reaching our shores?

 

The only way to be sure is to stop pretty much all international air travel since people could go from west Africa to anywhere and then to here, or from west Africa to somewhere and infect someone else who then comes here.

 

I read a story years ago, can't remember the name, which used this sort of scenario as an end of civilisation as we know it sort of thing. One infected person on a plane sneezes and infects the rest of the plane, who then change to different planes and infect their passengers etc. Eventually, all these people end up at their homes all over the world, infecting people they meet on the way and you have a virtually simultaneous pandemic.

 

The world's health services could rally round and deal with a localised epidemic of almost anything, an almost simultaneous world wide pandemic would swamp them.

 

On a happier note, it's apparently quite hard to catch Ebola unless you come into contact with infected fluids.

 

A far worse scenario would be a very infectious and very damaging flu virus. Despite the panic, the "bird flu" pandemic a few years ago was very limited because that variant was not very infectious. Had it been very infectious then the consequences would have been far worse. Its only a matter of time before an infectious variant meets a damaging one..........

[Mecky]

And how would you close the borders?

[tzijlstra]

I read a story years ago, can't remember the name, which used this sort of scenario as an end of civilisation as we know it sort of thing. One infected person on a plane sneezes and infects the rest of the plane, who then change to different planes and infect their passengers etc. Eventually, all these people end up at their homes all over the world, infecting people they meet on the way and you have a virtually simultaneous pandemic.

 

Someone else remembered that story and made a brilliant iPad/Steam game called Plague out of it. You are basically controlling a virus with the aim of wiping out the world.

[LeMaquis]

The Black Death killed about 20% of the world's population in the 14th century. With the revolution in global travel since then closing borders is neither feasible nor effective as a possible solution.

[john carr]

The Black Death killed about 20% of the world's population in the 14th century. With the revolution in global travel since then closing borders is neither feasible nor effective as a possible solution.

 

How can closing the borders not be effective against preventing the virus from coming to our shores?

[megalithic]

What would you do with any non West Africans over there already ? Forbid them from leaving ?

[john carr]

What would you do with any non West Africans over there already ? Forbid them from leaving ?

 

Good question, what would you do with them?

[Janus]

It is not an easy call.

 

In Eyam Derbyshire, that village chose to isolate itself when the plague

was discovered there in August 1665, rather than let the infection spread.