E-Bola

[3_Octave_Fart]

Also news reports that the boyfriend of the first nurse is symptomatic.

 

[YankeeFan]

Newly infected patient was diagnosed on Tuesday. Flew on a commercial flight (Frontier Airlines) on Monday.

 

[YankeeFan]

Also news reports that the boyfriend of the first nurse is symptomatic.

During this morning's press conference, a questioner said that the hospital had emailed employees at the time that the first nurse was diagnosed saying that two people were in isolation, and being monitored.

They asked if this new patient was one of the two referenced in the email. The answer was no.

So, who's the other person in isolation? Have they been cleared, or is there still a chance they have Ebola?

 

[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.

I'm not particularly worried about Ebola yet, but this line of thinking seems misguided. This kind of thing is all about being prepared and having protocols in place to put a stop to it.

Those areas were prepared because Africa has been at risk for Ebola for many years. The U.S. has not been at risk, so whatever protocols we may have, are likely not practiced, followed or even well-known in American hospitals, as evidenced in Dallas.

It's like saying the Northeast handled 15 inches of snow during a storm last winter, so Atlanta should be able to handle 2 inches. In theory, yes, Atlanta should be able to handle it. But we all saw what happened last year.

Hopefully, American hospitals have taken notice and are now reviewing/practicing their protocols to ensure no other outbreaks occur.

The protocols are not that different from containing an outbreak of any other disease. Plus, all other things are not equal between the U.S. And Nigeria healthcare systems..

According to the CDC site, there is a fairly extensive list of Ebola-specific protocols that hospitals would have to know, practice and follow.

http://www.cdc.gov/vhf/ebola/hcp/infection-prevention-and-control-recommendations.html

According to the link, "Standard, contact, and droplet precautions are recommended for management of hospitalized patients with known or suspected Ebola virus disease (EVD). Note that this guidance outlines only those measures that are specific for EVD."

It then lists about 30 protocols specific to to known or suspected EVD patients. The differences between EVD precautions and standard precautions are significant enough that if hospitals are not ready to enact them immediately, it could pose a threat.

I'm just saying that I believe that "if Nigeria can do it, we can do it," minimizes the preparation necessary to stop the spread. At it's core, yes, you're right. If they can do it, we can do it. The question is whether, at this moment, hospitals are prepared for to stop it from spreading and becoming a much bigger issue.

The measures listed there are specific to Ebola, not exclusive to it. Also, if you read about Nigeria's containment effort, it had much more to do with effectively tracking down and isolating contacts than anything else.

I recommend reading some disaster protocols for biological attacks if you want to read about how woefully unprepared we are to deal with something.

 

[Boom_70]

Newly infected patient was diagnosed on Tuesday. Flew on a commercial flight (Frontier Airlines) on Monday.

Good news !

 

[Songbird]

If terrorists were smart they go find suicide-Ebola'ers, buy them plane tickets to the U.S. with the intent of spreading it far and wide. Wouldn't that be a hoot.

 

[Boom_70]

If terrorists were smart they go find suicide-Ebola'ers, buy them plane tickets to the U.S. with the intent of spreading it far and wide. Wouldn't that be a hoot.

There was a Tom Clancy book along those lines.

 

[MisterCreosote]

Ebola would be the worst biological weapon in history. Terrorist can, and have, done much worse.

 

[bigpern23]

The measures listed there are specific to Ebola, not exclusive to it. Also, if you read about Nigeria's containment effort, it had much more to do with effectively tracking down and isolating contacts than anything else.

I recommend reading some disaster protocols for biological attacks if you want to read about how woefully unprepared we are to deal with something.

Fair distinction, though it should be noted they go beyond "standard" protocols for contact and droplet precautions.

Again, though, my point is that we shouldn't assume American hospitals are ready to stop the spread of Ebola just because they stopped it in Nigeria. I think Dallas - not some rural hospital, but Dallas - is showing that hospital personnel may be unprepared to face such an outbreak simply because they have not practiced and prepared for it well enough. Not for anything, but why would they spend much time preparing for an Ebola outbreak?

I don't doubt we'll get it under control. I'm not an alarmist for this sort of thing. Our medical system is certainly superior to Nigeria. However, if we aren't prepared properly for this sort of thing, it can certainly cause havoc and the hospital in Dallas is calling into question whether U.S. facilities are properly prepared to stop Ebola from spreading.

Perhaps the scariest part is that the second patient was on a flight from Cleveland to Dallas the day before. Who knows how many on that flight could have come into contact with the patient, and how many were simply laying over in Dallas before moving on to other locations.

 

[MisterCreosote]

I'll just say we're no less prepared for this than we are for any other disease outbreak, save the lack of a proven, effective vaccine against Ebola. Even with a vaccine, the flu kills an average of up to 100 people per DAY here. Imagine if it mutated to a point where modern vaccines couldn't protect against it. All the protocols in the world wouldn't be able to stop it. If I had to put a number on it, Ebola is about 1/100 as efficient at spreading person-to-person. Probably about 1/1000 as efficient or worse in a country like ours.

I'm not denying Ebola is a legitimate threat. I just want to see it kept in proper perspective, especially by the media.

 

[Neutral Corner]

With regard to the hospitals, having a general protocol on paper, an action plan, is different from actually being geared up and ready when someone who is infected actually walks in the door. Even if you have drilled some of your staff and done an actual walk through of the procedures, that's different from doing it full time, all day every day, without missing some small detail that leaves you vulnerable to infection.

It's like the difference between having done a fire drill in the building you work in and what actually happens when a fire breaks out and engulfs one of the middle floors.

When it was an academic exercise, a "we need to have a plan ready just in case it ever does happen" mindset, it was approached in a far different manner from "Holy shirt, you saw what happened in Dallas. We better get ourselves together fast, because I damned well don't want to be in that position."

I think everyone involved has shifted gears in terms of how they think about it and what level of preparation they think is necessary.

 

[bigpern23]

I'm not denying Ebola is a legitimate threat. I just want to see it kept in proper perspective, especially by the media.

Agree. But, sadly, I think we all know that fear keeps eyes on the tube and gets more clicks than keeping it in proper perspective.

When it was an academic exercise, a "we need to have a plan ready just in case it ever does happen" mindset, it was approached in a far different manner from "Holy shirt, you saw what happened in Dallas. We better get ourselves together fast, because I damned well don't want to be in that position."

I think everyone involved has shifted gears in terms of how they think about it and what level of preparation they think is necessary.

Agree. I think Dallas grabbed everyone's attention, and hopefully hospitals nationwide are responding accordingly.