Saving Excalibur!

Mom got infected for her dedication to care for the sick.
Teresa Romero Ramos, 44 a nurse from Spain was the first person who was diagnosed with the deadly Ebola virus outside West Africa. She got the virus from the Spanish missionaries Manuel Garcia Viejo and Miguel Pajares, both came from missions in West Africa. Ramos was the nurse assigned to care for the two missionaries which both have died from the virus last month. Along with her husband, Javier Limon, the couple were now in separate isolation in Carlos III hospital in Madrid.
Dad plead for help.
Recently, Ramos’s husband, Javier in an effort managed to forward a message from his hospital room claiming Madrid health officials are asking his consent to enter their house to get their dog whom officials thought might also be infected with the virus. Javier told that before leaving the house and going to the hospital he had filled the bath and several buckets with water and left 15 kilo sack of dog food. He also left the terrace door open for the dog to do his necessities. Javier could not agree on putting their dog down to solve the infection the easy way. All he ever wanted was to also put the dog in quarantine like they did to him and his wife. The officials later told him they will be getting a court order to enter their house and put down their pet dog, Excalibur. Javier’s message was sent to his friends and colleagues with the appeal to get it on social media via a co-nurse of his wife. The recipient then confirmed the authenticity of the message before publishing it on social media. Javier’s appeal were picked up by several Spanish newspaper. The daily El Mundo even managed to get a quick five-minute phone interview with Javier and posted it in their website. Javier also told the reporter that his wife had followed all health safety protocols yet have no idea how they could have gotten infected.
According to the report sent by health officials in Madrid that, “although dogs can’t contact Ebola, it is possible they can transmit the virus to humans.”
An online petition have already attracted 255,000 signatures not to put down Excalibur, the dog thought by Madrid health officials could also have the Ebola virus just because his parents were under quarantine and believed to be infected with the virus.
Why do I have to suffer the consequence?
Animal activists rally over the internet to save the life of an innocent dog a few people in Madrid thought could be infected with Ebola. The parents of Excalibur believed that their pet dog must also be given the treatment they now are getting, isolated and quarantined. For this they get to have that chance to live despite the deadly virus in their system. All they request now was for their dog to have an equal treatment he need and killing the dog is not option just to give instant solution to the virus that was now in Madrid due to the negligence of a few human being. Why must an innocent dog’s life be wasted as an easy solution to a human failure?
***

I think there was a lot of confusion over this case - in what the risks were to humans and to animals.

Firstly the question does need to be bluntly put - what is more important human lives or animals lives - the answer will differ from person to person.

As I understand it (and I did do healthcare including epidemiology at college)

There is no risk of dogs catching ebola and they do not need to be treated (neither do cats)

There is a possible risk of unknown severity that a dog (or cat or other animal) could transfer the virus from one human to another for an unspecified length of time. Some health authorities will choose to quarantine such animals others may decide that the best option is to humanely destroy them.

The big problem is at the moment nobody knows how much of risk there is for how long.

From what I have read about dogs catching ebola, most authorities seem to believe that although the dog does not become sick with ebola, the disease can still be passed to a person if the dog licks them or transmits body fluids in some other way.
Ebola is thought to come from fruit bats, and can also be contracted by monkeys, and some other animals. When people eat those animals, or are contaminated in another way; then they can get the virus.

Since they have been telling us that ebola is not contagious until a person has shown the symproms, it would seem like a dog would not be contagious either, since they have a natural immunity to the disease.

It is sad that this dog had to be put down; but still better than taking a chance that it might pass on the ebola virus to someone else who was taking care of him.

Update: as of Oct, 10, 2014:
The rainbow bridge opens wide for Excalibur

As the whole humanity worries about the effect of the Ebola virus, Spain has to do what has to be done in order to serve and protect the greater risk on the uncertainty and behavior of the threatening deadly virus to humans. Madrid, equipped with a court order got to the couple’s apartment and took the dog. The Regional Agency issued a statement that it had put down Excalibur, his corpse was put in a biosecurity device and cremated last Oct. 7, 2014 in an authorized disposal facility.

Excalibur’s death sealed what could have been the case of Ebola exposure through the canine of what experts say ‘they are uncertain of what risk that poses to human.

According to some of the reports that I have been reading, the area of Africa where ebola has broken out was widely vaccinated for meningitis, and accidentally used a live vaccine. They are not verifying that each suspected case of ebola is not meningitis, which has about the same symptoms as ebola does.
Many of what are considered ebola-caused deaths may actually be from the meningitus virus that is now being transmitted heavily in those infected areas.
Dogs CAN catch meningitus, so it is possible that if the ebola victim in Spain actually had meningitus, then Excalibur would likely have died from that anyway.

Meningitis does not cause massive internal bleeding - although it can cause septicemia which will cause bleeding but in a different way. While in undeveloped areas of Africa with less training and no testing may have cases getting mixed up and misdiagnosed I would not expect that in Spain.
Spain should have experienced trained medics who will know the difference and they will be backed up by blood tests confirming the presence of the ebola virus.

(10-12-2014, 09:32 PM)cyberpuppet Wrote: Meningitis does not cause massive internal bleeding - although it can cause septicemia which will cause bleeding but in a different way. While in undeveloped areas of Africa with less training and no testing may have cases getting mixed up and misdiagnosed I would not expect that in Spain.
Spain should have experienced trained medics who will know the difference and they will be backed up by blood tests confirming the presence of the ebola virus.

Lets all hope and pray, a vaccine will be available to treat those thousands infected from West Africa, Spain, America and the rest of other nationalities who have contacted the disease including animals and pets.

Praying especially for those who have died, particularly those missionaries, health workers and other volunteers and now animals like Excalibur have not died in vain. May their death have that significance in solving this worldwide health threat! May their souls rest in eternal peace.

(10-12-2014, 08:52 AM)Happyflowerlady Wrote: According to some of the reports that I have been reading, the area of Africa where ebola has broken out was widely vaccinated for meningitis, and accidentally used a live vaccine. They are not verifying that each suspected case of ebola is not meningitis, which has about the same symptoms as ebola does.
Many of what are considered ebola-caused deaths may actually be from the meningitus virus that is now being transmitted heavily in those infected areas.
Dogs CAN catch meningitus, so it is possible that if the ebola victim in Spain actually had meningitus, then Excalibur would likely have died from that anyway.

Really praying this disease can be contained and cure.

GREAT NEWS:
The test result of Bentley, the quarantined dog of Nina Pham, the nurse that contacted Ebola caring for Eric Duncan, the first Ebola patient who died in the US was released negative of the virus!

Now I thought about the case of Excalibur had he been treated the same as Bentley, Excalibur must have been alive today. May Excalibur's sacrificial death brought resolution of this disease. RIP Excalibur!

Read more about it HERE.

Yes, I was reading about this, too, and also thinking that it is a shame that they did not do the same thing, and at least test Excalibur for the disease. It appears that there have been ebola epidemics for many years, and they originate from the African people who eat the fruit bats; however it has not spread like it is spreadng this time. Maybe this strain affects more animals, too; since they are reporting that this is a mutated strain from what the ebola virus used to be.
Obviously, they are not likely to stop the African people from eating the monkey and fruit bats (those things are HUGE !); so ebola is going to be around for a long time to come. If it is going to spread to other countries where people have animals as pets, then we need to know whether the pet is infected by the virus, too.
I am very glad that they kept this dog in quarantine, and even happier that he was found to be ebola free !