Ebola, from a guy who really knows his stuff.
November 3, 2014 2:06 PM   Subscribe

Paul Farmer, back from Sierra Leone, discusses Ebola treatment strategies. Brigham and Women's Hospital Grand Rounds, October 31, 2014. Almost an hour but worth it for the depth of info and analysis.
posted by homerica (15 comments total) 34 users marked this as a favorite
 
Transcript would be nice. Then again, it's Paul Farmer, so it's probably worth the hour ...

Really, someone should be paid to follow and transcribe just about anything Paul Farmer says. The world would be better for it.
posted by Dashy at 2:36 PM on November 3, 2014 [6 favorites]


Thanks for this. Looks terrific.
posted by enrevanche at 2:42 PM on November 3, 2014


I can't watch this now, but Farmer is reliably amazing.
posted by Dip Flash at 2:45 PM on November 3, 2014 [1 favorite]


"Clinical Datapenia Syndrome." Ha.

(-penia means "deficiency of.")
posted by ocherdraco at 2:46 PM on November 3, 2014 [3 favorites]


Dashy, I agree-- and have been trying in my little way to do a bit of that. Let the War on Datapenia continue!
posted by homerica at 2:53 PM on November 3, 2014


I'm not sure if this is as good a talk, but here is one from a similar time period but on YouTube (I can't get silverlight to work on Linux)
posted by SCdF at 2:59 PM on November 3, 2014 [2 favorites]


Farmer also recently had an ebola essay in the LRB.
posted by RogerB at 3:35 PM on November 3, 2014 [5 favorites]


Yeah, the ebola diary by Farmer RogerB links at LRB is great:

But the fact is that weak health systems, not unprecedented virulence or a previously unknown mode of transmission, are to blame for Ebola’s rapid spread. Weak health systems are also to blame for the high case-fatality rates in the current pandemic...If patients are promptly diagnosed & receive aggressive supportive care...the great majority, as many as 90 per cent, should survive...

I’ve been asked more than once what the formula for effective action against Ebola might be. It’s often those reluctant to invest in a comprehensive model of prevention and care for the poor who ask for ready-made solutions...

posted by mediareport at 3:50 PM on November 3, 2014 [12 favorites]


I just happened to read today an interview with Nigerian virologist Oyewale Tomori where he harshly criticizes Africa's lack of a coordinated response to ebola outbreaks.
posted by sbutler at 4:20 PM on November 3, 2014 [2 favorites]


Even despite the small sample sizes, the ability of the in-country US healthcare to save Ebola patients is astounding in comparison to what's going in in Africa.

And devastating.
posted by Dashy at 7:28 PM on November 3, 2014


sbutler's link is great; lots of pointed observations and interesting links from someone who's been on the ground wrestling with Ebola for over a decade (close to two decades, actually).
posted by mediareport at 7:32 PM on November 3, 2014


...weak health systems, not unprecedented virulence or a previously unknown mode of transmission, are to blame...those reluctant to invest in a comprehensive model of prevention and care for the poor who ask for ready-made solutions...

As Laurie Garret describes it in the twenty-year-old prescient and remarkable title The Coming Plague, public health professionals have long called the roots of this issue "the infrastructure problem". highly recommended read.

for a non-alarmist account of early ebola work, try Joe McCormack's Level Four, not the hyperbolic Hot Zone by Preston.

A more recent review (for popular readership) of infectious diseases that jump species, try Spillover by the peerless nature writer David Quammen.
posted by j_curiouser at 10:47 PM on November 3, 2014 [2 favorites]


Meanwhile, nearly every day Snopes is dealing with another hysterical Ebola rumor: Ebola is airborne; Ebola is in Doritos; Ebola is in chocolate; a kindergarten class is infected. It's sad and frustrating.
posted by happyroach at 12:06 AM on November 4, 2014 [1 favorite]


I seriously can never get enough Paul Farmer.
posted by naoko at 6:50 AM on November 4, 2014 [1 favorite]




« Older The Evil Part (may not be evil in all...   |   Diversity within us comes out better when there's... Newer »


This thread has been archived and is closed to new comments