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Air Date: August 6, 2014
Host: Jim Schneider
Guest: Dr. Elizabeth Lee Vliet
The death toll due to the deadly Ebola virus in West Africa has risen to 932 after 45 individuals died from August 2nd to August 4th. The number of suspected, probable or confirmed cases increased by 108 over the same period to a total of 1,711 cases. The situation is so bad that British Airways is even suspending flights to and from Liberia and Sierra Leone until the end of the month. In addition, there is also a threat to Americans because serious diseases are spreading at detention centers for illegal border crossers.
Joining Jim to discuss this issue was Dr. Elizabeth Lee Vliet, a preventative medical physician and CEO of International Health Strategies and a past Director of AAPS—the Association of American Physicians and Surgeons.
Ebola is a hemorrhagic viral fever that requires only 10 viral particles to initiate infection. This is why medical workers are at such great risk for contracting it. It can overwhelm the immune, vascular and central nervous systems and cause brain damage. It’s mortality rate is between 50% and 90% among the people that it affects.
Dr. Vliet noted that it can be transmitted through bodily fluids but questions still remain as to what degree it might be transmitted through lung fluids that are spread through coughing.
As the program moves along, Jim and Dr. Vliet also discuss President Obama’s revised list of quarantinable and communicative diseases, the concern over multi-drug resistant tuberculosis, vaccinations, the illegal alien tie-in to dangerous illnesses and more.
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Dr. Vliet’s Twitter address
@healthandcents
An open letter to U.S. Senators and Representatives from the Association of American Physicians and Surgeons can be viewed at www.aapsonline.org
