Ebola+dirty needles in US?

[Mark Van Alstine]

In article <Pine.SOL.3.91.950512125040.11888A-100000 at com1>,
sspecter at COM1.MED.USF.EDU (Steven Specter) wrote:

> Ebola is not HIV.  Even if the scenerio you depict were to occur, which 
> is highly unlikely, the virus would not be transmitted for months to 
> years as HIV is.  The infected individual would die within 2 weeks or 
> would recover and be non infections.  In the unlikely case that Ebola 
> should come to the US it can be contained far more readily than HIV.  The 
> number of cases would likely be in the dozens or may be even hundreds.

Steven,

Actually, it might be worthwhile to keep in mind the behavior of IV drug
abusers who *do* commonly share dirty needles quite frequently. Such
behavior is not only responsible for the endemic spread of HIV in the IV
drug abusing population but, perhaps just as importantly, for the endemic
spread of other diseases such as hepetitis. Given the distinct posisbiity
that such injection behavior is strikingly familiar to one of the main
transmision vectors that has been responsible for Ebola epidemics in
Africa it is possible that such an epidemnic *could* happen here if,
somehow, Ebola was introduced into the IV drug abusing population. 

The 10-15 day incubation period for Ebola, in spite of its "fast burn"
pathology, may still be enough time to infect a significant population of
people. Given the right circumstances an infected person who frequently
shared needles during this period could, in theory, infect many other
people who, in turn, could infect many *other* people...  Once those
people made their way into our arguably ill-prepared medical system, not
to mention society in general, who knows what may happen?

Mark