E-Bola

[YankeeFan]

I *am* a health care worker. Of course I'm concerned. If any sort of pandemic ever breaks out, people like me will be the front line. The risk to myself personally and more than that to my family is very real and something I have considered, and of late reconsidered.

I don't mean to minimize the risk. I'm just saying that people are reacting as though the plague had come to town and the death carts were rolling when there has been one death in the US and one additional person has contracted it here.

Compare that to what I heard on NPR this afternoon about the hospital in Liberia that has established a triage area in the parking lot to separate out the Ebola cases before they enter the hospital proper.

It scares the shirt out of me... but there is still a lot of overreaction going on.

Fair enough.

I think there is some over reaction. But, the way the first case diagnosed here has been handled doesn't give people a lot of faith.

When we brought back the first doctor from Africa, a bug deal was made about how Emory University Hospital was one of four hospitals in the country specifically set up to deal with something like this.

With only a few patients brought back from Africa, to top hospitals, given advance notice of their arrival, we can handle this.

But, if we get even a handful of folks with Ebola walking into various emergency rooms across the country, we're going to have a lot of problems. One case can overwhelm a hospital. 70 people worked on the patient in Dallas, and he still died, and still infected a nurse.

 

[Smallpotatoes]

Can somebody explain to me why this is not a frivolous lawsuit and the lawyer filing it is not mentally defective?

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/the-fix/wp/2014/10/14/larry-klayman-is-suing-the-federal-government-because-of-ebola-yes-really/

 

[Neutral Corner]

Maybe I have a different mindset. I'm a registered radiographer, X-ray tech, among other things. The first thing that happens when we get someone in the clinic that's got a cough and fever is the doc wants a chest x-ray. Its a standard diagnostic tool. Probably blood work too.

If that patient happens to have active TB, if he coughs that is an airborne bacillus. It can hang in the air for up to 45 minutes. I might never even see that patient that infects me because I breathed in the x-ray suite after he left.

TB isn't the near death-sentence that Ebola is, but it's a serious occupational hazard. Since I draw blood, so is Hepatitis B and C. Aids too, to a lesser degree.

It's not something that you take casually, but it's part of the job. That kind of informs my thinking about Ebola... and yes, I understand the difference, obviously. It's just that there are a lot of things out there that kill thousands of people every year, but we're used to them and they're not mega-scary to us like Ebola is. And it is.

 

[Vombatus]

Second health care worker in Dallas has tested positive.

Anyone worried yet?

 

[YankeeFan]

As I was going to bed, Twitter was buzzing about the New York Times article about the (old -- manufactured prior to 1991) chemical weapons found in Iraq by the U.S. and Iraqi military between 2004 and 2011.

There's some incredible reporting done on the article, and it was poised to dominate the news cycle today.

This will now blow that out of the water, as the media only knows how to handle one big story at a time. Bad timing for the Times.

 

[KJIM]

As I have friends and colleagues who live in western Africa, yes.

The greater area of where I live also has about 200k African immigrants and about double that coming and going on a regular basis.

So yes, I've been watching this since March.

 

[Big Circus]

Sounds like the hospital was completely unprepared: http://www.latimes.com/nation/la-na-ebola-dallas-20141014-story.html#page=1

"There was no advanced preparedness on what to do with the patient. There was no protocol. There was no system. The nurses were asked to call the infectious disease department" if they had questions, but that department didn't have answers either, the statement said. So nurses were essentially left to figure things out on their own as they dealt with "copious amounts" of highly contagious bodily fluids from the dying Duncan while they wore gloves with no wrist tape, flimsy gowns that did not cover their necks, and no surgical booties, the statement alleged.

 

[Vombatus]

Be safe and best wishes KJIM.

 

[Boom_70]

Second health care worker in Dallas has tested positive.

Anyone worried yet?

I'm not. I still take solace in the statement made by Assistant To The President For
Homeland Security Lisa Monaco at 10/3 press briefing:

"Finally, I want to emphasize that the United States is prepared to deal with this crisis both at home and in the region. Every Ebola outbreak over the past 40 years has been stopped. We know how to do this and we will do it again. With America's leadership, I am confident, and President Obama is confident, that this epidemic will also be stopped."

It also seems that at a local level leadership is taking on more and not waiting for direction from the Federal Government. I watched a press conference this a.m.
on second Dallas health care worker that was lead by the Mayor of Dallas Mike Rawlings and County Judge Clay Jenkins. No one from the Federal Government was involved. It was unusually straight forward with lots of facts. If I lived in Dallas I
would more confidence in these two men to craft a proper response than I would
someone looking at issue from afar.

 

[cranberry]

Sounds like the hospital was completely unprepared: http://www.latimes.com/nation/la-na-ebola-dallas-20141014-story.html#page=1

"There was no advanced preparedness on what to do with the patient. There was no protocol. There was no system. The nurses were asked to call the infectious disease department" if they had questions, but that department didn't have answers either, the statement said. So nurses were essentially left to figure things out on their own as they dealt with "copious amounts" of highly contagious bodily fluids from the dying Duncan while they wore gloves with no wrist tape, flimsy gowns that did not cover their necks, and no surgical booties, the statement alleged.

Yeah, it's pretty clear the hospital was grossly unprepared, leaving staff untrained and unequipped to handle this level of emergency. I wonder how many hospitals are prepared.

 

[YankeeFan]

Sounds like the hospital was completely unprepared: http://www.latimes.com/nation/la-na-ebola-dallas-20141014-story.html#page=1

"There was no advanced preparedness on what to do with the patient. There was no protocol. There was no system. The nurses were asked to call the infectious disease department" if they had questions, but that department didn't have answers either, the statement said. So nurses were essentially left to figure things out on their own as they dealt with "copious amounts" of highly contagious bodily fluids from the dying Duncan while they wore gloves with no wrist tape, flimsy gowns that did not cover their necks, and no surgical booties, the statement alleged.

Would your local hospital be prepared?

There's a reason why the folks flown back from Africa were sent to the hospitals they went to.

That's why this is scary. We can handle a few cases, at a few hospitals.

After that, regional hospitals can't handle it. The Hospital in Dallas is going to run out of isolation rooms if they don't stop it here, and they'll be lucky if it doesn't spread further. These health care workers dealt with many more patients than the one infected patient who died.

I've heard some people call for isolation centers, outside of hospitals, where the infected can be treated. If we don't stop it ASAP, that may be necessary so we cripple our hospitals ability to treat other patients, and to prevent its spread throughout a hospital.

 

[MisterCreosote]

Nigeria contained its outbreak of Ebola at a few dozen cases, and is now a few days from being declared eradicated. Same with Senegal, but with only one confirmed case.

If they can do it, I'm pretty sure we can, too. Read about it here:

http://www.businessinsider.com/how-nigeria-stopped-ebola-2014-10