Ebola outbreak...

Saw some article where Duncan's spouse was whining about how his son didn't even get to see him before he was put in isolation. Because whether his kid sees him before he dies is the most important thing when someone has a horrible disease, not public health which he deliberately put at risk by lying. I don't think she's going to find much sympathy.

I heard on the news this morning that the second nurse was told by the CDC that it was okay for her to travel despite having a fever. Her fever was 99.7 or something like that but they weren't concerned because it wasn't over 100.4 or something like that.

The lack of common sense is going to get us all killed. This woman was treating an Ebola patient and should not have been allowed to travel with ANY fever and she should have been isolated immediately.

WTF are these people thinking?

There are some medical professionals who get it. A doctor at a free clinic in my town encountered a patient who had recently traveled to Liberia who was running a low grade fever. She did NOT meet the standard criteria, but after he got the run-around in response to his inquiries to Public Health, HE PUT HER IN HIS PERSONAL CAR AND TOOK HER TO THE HOSPITAL where he insisted that she be isolated.

She tested negative, but that guy should get a medal.

The powers that be need to make up their minds. It is not contagious until you show symptoms. Running a fever? Isn't that a symptom? But it is OK to get on a plane with 132 other people for three hours because you are not puking or shitting or bleeding. So you are not "very" contagious even though we told people that symptoms = contagious.

I read a comment (take with grain of salt) of someone who had a friend who is supposedly an ER doc in this particular hospital. He said they were told that everyone has to self monitor but not to go quarantine. However, if you show a fever, you are to get into your car, alone, and drive to a dedicated entrance close to the isolation area for testing. At no point were you to take others or use public transportation.

If this comment is true, the second nurse has no business working in the field. "She needed to go home to plan her wedding, fuck the other passengers on the plane." This weekend she would have been cleared to travel...if she had not caught it. Now she potentially spread it to 132 other people. Not to mention the plane, which reportedly did not get the deep clean mandated by CDC to United when Ebola boy flew on two of their planes. I read reports that the plane flew five other legs before they found out about Nurse Ambola.

The nurse should be fired. While it is not likely her fault that she caught Ebola, she decided her wedding planning was far more important.

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From a bottle cap message on a Magic Hat #9 beer: Condoms Prevent Minivans
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I want to pick up a bus full of unruly kids and feed them gummi bears and crack, then turn them loose in Hobby Lobby to ransack the place. They will all be wearing T shirts that say "You Could Have Prevented This."

It just keeps getting better. Story from yesterday that a lab worker in the Duncan case went on a cruise while she should have been self-isolating. Now the cruise ship -- and 4,000 innocent passengers -- is stranded off the coast of Belize. Belize officials, being more intelligent than our govt. officials, have said no way in hell is a possible Ebola-infected person being allowed into their country, so, our government is trying to find a way to evacuate the woman and her husband from the cruise ship.

Of course, there have been a smattering of other Ebola scares around the country. I saw that the Pentagon parking lot areas had been shut down because a woman, who had said she traveled back to the US from Africa recently, threw up in the parking lot and on a shuttle bus full of people.

There have been a few other scares too; like the person who vomited and died on an AA flight to NY. Somehow they cleared that person of Ebola on-scene, without waiting for actual tests or anything of the sort.

This is beyond ridiculous, and it is high time that we suspend flights from Ebola-affected countries. What are we waiting for? And, it's only going to get worse as flu season is right around the corner. Imagine how many folks with flu symptoms (like fever) are going to be turning up at emergency rooms, fearing that they may have somehow came in contact with Ebola.

This is a nightmare. We need to restrict those flights already. But I've read the feds won't do it, because it's like saying that wide-open borders/travel is danger to Americans. What does that have to do with anything? Well, we have a wide-open Southern border and many politicians seem to like it that way. If we start saying that infected people need to be stopped from coming here on planes, we need to say that infected people should be stopped from coming here across our Southern border.

We need to lock it all down, but that will never happen, I fear.

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cfchevygirl
This is beyond ridiculous, and it is high time that we suspend flights from Ebola-affected countries. What are we waiting for?

There are no direct flights to the US from the worst hit countries such as Liberia and Sierra Leone, as far as I know. Passengers pass, usually, through a European city. So a suspension of flights would really be from those cities. That is not to say that screening at hospitals for those whose flight path is known to be from those countries cannot be done at airports. It's already being done in a few airports, I think.

Senegal has just been declared Ebola-free by the WHO. So it's possible to contain, even in a poorer country with a worse health infrastructure and public health capabilities.

It's common sense that is lacking in the Texas response, unfortunately. With the CDC speaking out of both sides of its mouth, a hospital sending a very sick man home, a nurse casually taking a flight while running a fever, etc., even the best infrastructure will be useless in the face of stupidity.

THe person who died on the flight from Lagos to JFK was an American, not a Nigerian as reported. He vomited and complained of chest pains. The testing the CDC did on site came back negative. Officials later said he suffered a heart attack, which both symptoms suggested.

I guess the Belize cruise ship gets better. They left Belize and attempted to port in Mexico who also refused to let the ship dock at all. They wound up heading back to Galveston.Relatives released a statement claiming bridezilla would never expose anyone to Ebola. They claim she was already in Ohio when she found out about the first nurse contracting Ebola. This would appear to be true since she was diagnosed that Sunday (10/12).

(This does not take away from the fact that she probably should have stayed home until the 21 days were up though.)

The bridezilla's uncle also admitted that she never personally called the CDC. She called her hospital, who apparently talked to someone at CDC who gave her the OK to fly. There were other articles indicating she did not feel well all that weekend.

They hired a lawyer of course...because untruths about their daughter violating protocol by flying out of Dallas left them with hurt peewings. http://www.wkyc.com/story/news/local/northeast-ohio/2014/10/19/updated-statement-from-amber-vinsons-family/17585759/

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From a bottle cap message on a Magic Hat #9 beer: Condoms Prevent Minivans
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I want to pick up a bus full of unruly kids and feed them gummi bears and crack, then turn them loose in Hobby Lobby to ransack the place. They will all be wearing T shirts that say "You Could Have Prevented This."

There are new stories about passengers from Liberia apparently being tested in New Jersey tonight, and 2 in Chicago.

Once again, it's vomiting on a plane. I know that air sickness happens, but, in all the times I've flown I can't remember vomiting or seeing/hearing anyone else do so. What is with the sudden bouts of apparent "air sickness" as of late?

I feel like, "we" are so hellbent on keeping the flights open and tamping down anxiety, that there could be more cases that we're not being told about, so as not to cause a panic or uproar.

I say this as someone who is a complete skeptic and very critical of conspiracy theories and whatnot. In this situation, however, I would not put it past our leaders to be denying more infections because people would be freaking out more than they already are.

http://www.northjersey.com/news/passenger-at-newark-airport-taken-to-hospital-for-ebola-evaluation-video-1.1114189

http://www.cbsnews.com/news/ebola-plane-passenger-hospitalized-after-screening/

Frankly, I don't know how they can be declaring people Ebola-free on sight, or even after a couple hours. Publicly, it's been noted that confirmation tests have been taking somewhere between 24-48 hours initially.

I recently read an article talking about the long term effects of Ebola here. Anyway, they spoke about survivors having eye problems and other effects after recovery. It makes sense to me. Any illness that can turn your organs to goo and have you bleeding out of your asshole is going to have long term effects.

I noticed that the two recovered nurses just look "different". I cannot put my finger on it. But it is like their facial features have subtly changed since their illness. I believe there is a lot that we don't know about this virus and it is foolhardy to not put some travel restrictions in place. Canada has done it and even some African countries have not allowed those from the three major Ebola stricken countries to come in until further notice.

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"I have found little that is 'good' about human beings on the whole. In my experience most of them are trash, no matter whether they publicly subscribe to this or that ethical doctrine or to none at all."
~Sigmund Freud

What bothers me is, I do not think they will tell us even if there are more cases now.

I saw last week that there as a significant number of people being 'watched' by NY Dept. Of Health. Like several hundred people. I think that it might be people who came into contact with the NY doctor who ended up being positive for ebola, but, I'm not sure.

Now, in theory, I can understand that perhaps they don't want to say "we have 300 people we're watching" for fear of stirring panic. However, hiding it is not kosher either, imo.

Okay here it is, as of Nov. 5th, 357 people in 'active monitoring'. And that's just one city.

Link

No disrespect cfchevygirl, but I'm thinking that you are starting to fall victim under this Ebola hysteria in thanks to the fear-mongering media.

Look, I'm not trying to down play Ebola because it's a very serious disease and it's good to stay cautious, but being paranoid about it doesn't help much.

I swear that some of you are acting like Ebola is airborne. Is not! The only way to get Ebola is if you got body secretions from someone is already showing symptoms of the disease.

I don't know, but I am starting to get fed up about this.

Maybe you should read up on how "airborne" was defined... It most certainly can be airborne, it just doesn't meet a particular standard for A technical definition of airborne, that was established back in the '50s. This isn't paranoia, this is quibbling with what the meaning of is is.
I'll post some links when I'm at work, my husband looked it up a few weeks back when this first started getting transmitted to nurses.

Here is the link that argues the definition of "airborne" is outdated and inaccurate. It also references some studies of disease transmission via noncontact routes.
http://www.cidrap.umn.edu/news-perspective/2014/09/commentary-health-workers-need-optimal-respiratory-protection-ebola

This second link is a study on non contact transmission from pigs to nonhuman primates.
http://www.nature.com/srep/2012/121115/srep00811/full/srep00811.html

Whether the spread was through actual animal coughs or exhalation, or through low spray cleaning methods doesn't make a lot of difference since both types of aerosolization will also happen with humans. Even without lung involvement, flushing a toilet of waste from an Ebola patient will also aerosolize the virus enough to contaminate many surfaces which must then be cleaned, also leading to further aerosolization.
We must rely on quarantining of contaminated areas to ensure the virus has time to die off from exposure, but even at the highest rate of 3+% per hour die off, that can take a pretty long time.

It certainly doesn't hurt to cultivate good habits going into flu and cold season. I do indeed doubt that Ebola will spread rampantly in the US, but I would hate to be wrong. Fully informed is fully armed.

Sure, blame the nurses and appeal to authority. I posted references to studies, I ain't gonna claim to be an expert while quoting the media.

Don't get me wrong, it's good to be cautious.

I have taken several microbiology courses with well-quafieid teachers and I also have some healthcare experience by doing some clinicals in healthcare settings (mainly hospitals and doctor's offices).

Ebola is not as contagious as people think. The reason why the media is saying that Ebola contagious has do with ratings. if you want to boost ratings, the facts be damned.

Here are some facts about Ebola.

Ebola is spread through direct contact. The only way to get the disease is if you touched the body secretions of the infected person who has the disease for a while. When a person starts showing symptoms, that person only has low virulence of the disease. This means that there is little chance of getting the disease from that person. However, the more a person goes without treatment, the higher the virulence becomes. This is when wearing contact gear if dealing with the infected person comes into play. The higher the virulence, the more likely you will get the disease if you are touching the body secretions.

The reason why the nurses got the disease was that they were not properly protected and they were much in contact with the patient's body secretions.

Again, it is not airborne and contagious. If it was airborne and contagious, a lot of more people would have been infected by now. Plus, I think people are forgetting the fact that the patient's family has NOT been infected.

The reason why it's so bad in West Africa is because of lack of education, mistrust of hospitals and healthcare workers, superstition beliefs, and their culture. West African culture involves a lot of direct contact with people, from care giving to burying the dead.

And Ebola's natural reservoir are bats. Has anyone been bitten by a bat in the US?

Plus, the immunity system plays a big part in fighting the disease. If you have a stronger immunity system, the more likely you will fight off the disease. Another reason why it's so bad in West Africa has do with poor nutrition and poor immune systems.

And last, I live in the Dallas area. And I'm still not worried.

By no means am I an a panic about 'catching' Ebola. Though there is perhaps an apparent case in Charlotte, which is not far away.

Do I think there's going to be some widespread epidemic? Not really. I'm simply saying that there are apparently a lot of people being watched and it's all being kept quiet. Why? Because look at the media disaster that the whole thing in Texas started. People were starting to panic then. People who lived near the guy (and the nurses), people who pulled their kids out of school, etc.

Now, anything about Ebola seems to have fallen completely out of mainstream news. I don't think that's accidental. Media is keeping a lid on any potential cases at this point. Is that helpful, or even the right thing to do? I'm not sure that it is.

Don't we have a right to know about people/groups who being actively watched because they have come from a location where this virus has been running rampant? I think so.

But, it's the like we've gone from one extreme to the other. First Ebola was all over the news. Anytime anyone sneezed on a flight or went to the hospital with a fever, it was 'breaking news'. Sure, that stirred the pot quite a bit. But, now, it's all clamped down and no one knows what is going on. I don't think that's much better.

All of this should be addressed differently. And our city/state/fed govt. should be treating us like grown adults. They want to stem the possibility of an Ebola panic, don't pretend it's gone away and not a risk. Show people that you are actually dealing with this, and that will set most people's minds at ease.

For that matter, yes I do think we should be watching those flights that originate from hotspot countries. Yes, they are all connecting flights, but, yes we do know where they are connecting through. The fact that symptoms seem to take a few days to show up, and the fact that we've already had one person who knew he was in contact with an Ebola patient but decided to come anyways, the possibility for more to keep bringing the virus in is very real.

Actually 2 patients who knew they were in close contact if we now at Dr. Spencer who lives in NY. He knew he had close contact and then went flitting around NY for a week even. If you can't trust a doctor to use common sense in this situation, who can you trust?

There are many grades of caution that do not include or even come close to panic. We've had it get in already, and it seems to be contained, but who knows with the 'radio silence' of health departments right now.

As for the possibility of contagion, I don't know what to think at this point, because as Presto point out, aerosolization could be considered akin to airborne. I know that I would consider it so. Meaning sure it's not hanging around the air in a room with an Ebola patient, but if that patient sneezes on you? Yeah you do have potential to have it transferred via open cut, mucous membranes, etc.

I believe I saw on multiple news sites that the CDC used to have something about aerosol transmission on the ebola page, but that it was removed.