Jism 2

Jism 2.

“Why did you even have to come this way? There is a good route somewhere else! This is no route” said someone who appeared to be senior man in a  group of people sitting at the road junction of the village when asked about the directions to  SatyaMangalam (SM). Bemused bystanders there  chipped in enthusiastically to our enquiry. Then, the same senior man, perhaps, saw the adventure glint in Deepak’s eye and said smilingly that we  could  still reach SM on  motorcycles but be cautioned  that a stretch of more than 10 kms  is just  mud track. In fact, that advice turned out to be an understatement. More than 20 kms of road was plain 4WD track. Our man probably wanted us to do this course just for fun of it. I thank him for not demoralizing us at that point. That moment , I really didn’t want know how far was SM. Forest road ahead was so appealing that  we just wanted move on. We knew it was a roundabout trip to SM and we realized it more so on our way back in the regular route. Anyway, for us” Jism-2” started from here.

This route, for about 100 kilometres,   is sheer jungle barring few hutments of 2 or 3 villages in the valleys between hills. I still cannot figure out this route on Google maps (perhaps, the genius in Guru did it).In the commotion and lack of foresight I forgot to switch on my GPS too.  The names of the tiny settlements are missing in Google map and I cannot remember them from what I heard from the people while asking directions there. It looked a utter “no man’s land”. Incidentally, the bikes handled very well. They did serious off-roading in spite of not being generic model for the purpose. At one point, we were in the middle of jungle and we had covered quite distance on 4WDtrack and stopped: got off our bikes to chat about it. It was quiet around and then, we heard a loud noise: a roar or may be a grunt, probably of an elephant. We looked at each other sensing the seriousness of the situation. There was a road ahead of us: again, it was a climbing jeep track with plenty of gravel and the bikes were on stand. No way could you rush off on bike if there was an elephant attack. I still don’t know what we would have done if there was one. Probably in a situation like this “luck favours the brave” model works. It worked then, even though we were disoriented with fear. Anyway, we managed to move away from that place without any incidents. Later, it was same off-roading on this  200kg bike with limited manoeuvrability  for another about 2 hours( how I wish I had my Duke200 then).  I have never seen so many elephant dungs in one day so far counting in my limited trek experience. There were dried to fresh fuming ones. This area seemed to be dedicated to wild life, a kind of de facto reserve area: the road roads are left untouched by the authorities. There were no signs of repair either. Only the borders of the road had bike paths typical 4WD tracks. We never saw any vehicles apart from few Splendors for nearly 3 hours in this core of the jungle area.

Time just flew. Huzefa and Deepak remained spirited throughout. In fact, I was fatigued:perhaps my age is catching up. I have to mention what Huzefa said towards the end this ride “I love my bike even more now”. Obviously, he was referring to its remarkable performance in a territory alien to it and I couldn’t agree with him no more.

I haven’t seen the movie Jism2 and I wonder if it was as adrenaline packed as this ride. 

Ebola update

This is my understanding of Ebola so far. I gathered the material from web of course. None of them is mine. I have only tweaked it here and there with the intention  to make it easy to understand.  Consider it as primer that can be updated. You probably know most of this already.

·         Ebola can only be transmitted through direct contact with bodily fluids. As such, each person infected with Ebola transmits the disease to only about 1.5 people. By comparison, each smallpox case, which is often transmitted through airborne droplets of saliva, produces about five new infections. And each measles infection, which also spreads through airborne saliva, can produces more than 10 new cases. .Barrier-protection (physical barrier like gloves and full body drape,  between the patient's body fluids  and health care personnel to prevent disease trans-mission can prevent the spread to some degree .

·         Unlike SARS this virus does not spread by air.

·         It’s relatively fragile virus ie. It can be killed by simple washing with detergents.

·          About half of the people who contract Ebola die. The others return to a normal life after a months-long recovery that can include periods of hair loss, sensory changes, weakness, fatigue, headaches, eye and liver inflammation

·         Ebola has contacted more humans in the last 9 months than all previous outbreaks over the last 40 years combined.

·          The worry, according to officials, is that it has had an opportunity, though remote, to mutate and could go airborne.

·         Unlike AIDS the infected person does not spread the disease during the incubation period. Incubation period is the time duration between the person’s exposure to the virus before the symptoms of the disease show up. This is generally 2 to 21 days in case of Ebola.  While in AIDS, during symptom-free period the exposed person can transmit the disease not being aware that he is infected.

·         On the other hand, in an ominous scenario: An Ebola infected person, at this symptomless incubation stage bypasses an early detection and melts into the thick city crowd. When the symptoms show up, symptoms are mistaken for one the common diseases and then, it is free ride for the virus from there on!

·          In general, WHO says, Ebola can have a 90 percent case fatality rate (it may kill 9 out of 10 infected people). The strain currently spreading through West Africa carries a 55 percent mortality rate(5.5 out of 10 may die) , making it, on average, more deadly than the Bubonic Plague, Yellow Fever, SARS, or MERS—Middle East Respiratory Syndrome, since 2012

·         As the researchers point out, virulence (ability of the virus to multiply and cause damage to the host) and transmission (ability to spread) generally have an inverse relationship, as pathogens that readily kill their hosts have less time to spread. Similarly in case of Ebola, as it is a very vicious strain, the damage to the host is so severe that the human host will die within few days after the symptoms arise. The virus has less time to survive and spread defeating the very reasons for the virus’s existence. Any virus wants to survive as long as possible so that it can replicate and multiply. Hence, like any deadly viruses this highly vicious virus is more likely to mutate( alter its simple DNA to the new environment) someday to a lesser ferocious form so that the infected person continues to live and spread the virus (like flu virus). When it becomes less virulent the disease becomes endemic (disease being transmitted at low level all the time like common cold and would  kill very smaller number of people than  the current epidemic form). At the moment this disease is in epidemic form (it is in isolated areas on earth and spreading rapidly among large group of people). Mutation to endemic form can occur if the disease continues to spread unabated at this high degree of virulence for few more years. By then, it’s any body’s guess what would be its toll on the population and the world in general.

·         About this transformation from deadly epidemic to sufferable endemic stage, a renowned scientist mentioned “The bad news from this endemic transformation is that one day you might get Ebola from a sneeze.  The good news is that if you get Ebola from a sneeze it will probably make you sneeze — and not bleed out from your nipples”.

·         This virus is claimed to have come from fruit bats and some primates where the infected animal continues to live and transmit the disease making it is an ideal scenario for a virus. This was how the situation till 1976 when virus “jumped” from animals to humans. This is rather awkward new situation for the virus. It is yet to adapt well to human scenario. Humans are ineffective hosts for this virus in this current form because they die very soon ending the virus’s life cycle.  So there is a chance for this virus to either burn out (kill themselves off) with humans or they might withdraw or retreat back to animals.

·         If Ebola virus in current form ever hits India anytime now, it would be nightmarish scenario. Densely populated cities are virus’s delight. The affected city would shut down. Our hard wired habits of spitting and urinating won’t help the situation either..

·         Our government must act promptly and earnestly stop this Ebola from entering India itself. If in case it hits India, isolating infected and quarantining the contacts should be done at highest emergency level. Sensitising the people that is making them aware of the disease without really alarming them has to be undertaken carefully.

·         There are estimated 45,000 Indians living in Africa, 40,000 are in Nigeria. Nigeria being relatively well resourced country in the region is reportedly handling the situation well. Many of Indians here are of dual passport status and are well settled in this country and hence they are unlikely to return to India during an outbreak. As per the latest information, The World Health Organisation declared Nigeria Ebola free on Monday (20-10-14) after a 42 day period with no new cases, in a success story with lessons for countries still struggling to contain the deadly virus. The other 5000 Indians in Africa are at the epicentre of this disease. Most of them are healthcare workers. There exists high probability with threat of an infected Indian in a symptom-free stage returning to India from the epicentre. Any person from any of the west African nation has to tracked, monitored and quarantined if needed with discretion without evoking g any racial scandal  Any botch-up at this stage would be catastrophic.

·         Dead body should be handled with proper barrier protection and the dead body has to be buried. The fluids oozing from the dead body have heavy virus load and hence highly contagious. Religious ablutions for the dead are a no-no.

·         From the latest report the situation in the epicentre in Africa is out of control. Ebola is most likely to spread to the neighbouring African states very soon. According to Prof Peter Piot, one of the scientists who discovered Ebola, Ebola epidemic may not end without developing a vaccine.

·          Reports say that there are several vaccines are on the make and are put onto fast track for trial. Health care workers and the people in the neighbouring countries of the epicentre areas are to be tested first for effectiveness of the vaccines.

·         Latest:  chocolate may be the next casualty as the world’s 70% of cocoa comes from western Africa where Ebola is p.