First case of Ebola in the US

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marbleartist said:
Did you read the article I just posted? This man had been in contact with active Ebola less than a week prior to boarding the plane. He had direct, multiple exposures! Perhaps some screening questions would have been in order, along the line of, “Have you been in contact with anyone with active Ebola within the last 21 days?” Of course, he always could have lied, but he definitely knew he was at risk. He exposed innocent healthcare workers and, now, it turns out he also exposed 6 children here in Texas. Our citizens deserve better
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I agree! This is not the time to be worried about political correctness. Time to face reality!
 
marbleartist said:
Did you read the article I just posted? This man had been in contact with active Ebola less than a week prior to boarding the plane. He had direct, multiple exposures! Perhaps some screening questions would have been in order, along the line of, “Have you been in contact with anyone with active Ebola within the last 21 days?” Of course, he always could have lied, but he definitely knew he was at risk. He exposed innocent healthcare workers and, now, it turns out he also exposed 6 children here in Texas. Our citizens deserve better
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I hate to say it but I think flights from this region need to be banned for now.
People flying TO the region would have to understand they may not have a way back.
And as an above poster remarked, I would expect any other country to do the same if WE had an epidemic of such a deadly disease here in the U.S.
 
marbleartist said:
Did you read the article I just posted? This man had been in contact with active Ebola less than a week prior to boarding the plane. He had direct, multiple exposures! Perhaps some screening questions would have been in order, along the line of, “Have you been in contact with anyone with active Ebola within the last 21 days?” Of course, he always could have lied, but he definitely knew he was at risk. He exposed innocent healthcare workers and, now, it turns out he also exposed 6 children here in Texas. Our citizens deserve better
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I did read the article. As you point out in your above asking him questions isn’t really effective. Let’s review effectiveness-
-asking questions- not really since the individual could lie
-taking temperature- nope, you can have Ebola and not have a temperature
-observe the person for flu like symptoms, etc- same as taking temperature

Gee, what is the only effective way to screen for Ebola? Maybe blood tests and a quarantine?
 
Vanny said:
I hate to say it but I think flights from this region need to be banned for now.
People flying TO the region would have to understand they may not have a way back.
And as an above poster remarked, I would expect any other country to do the same if WE had an epidemic of such a deadly disease here in the U.S.
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👍
 
Vanny said:
I hate to say it but I think flights from this region need to be banned for now.
People flying TO the region would have to understand they may not have a way back.
And as an above poster remarked, I would expect any other country to do the same if WE had an epidemic of such a deadly disease here in the U.S.
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I agree! 👍
 
I would also add that if this man survives, he should be sent back to his home country. Reckless endangerment is a crime. At best this was reckless endangerment, at worst deliberate.

The bigger problem is that unless we implement quarantine measures asap, we are going to have more people coming over for “free” higher quality healthcare.
 
oldcatholicguy said:
I did read the article. As you point out in your above asking him questions isn’t really effective. Let’s review effectiveness-
-asking questions- not really since the individual could lie
-taking temperature- nope, you can have Ebola and not have a temperature
-observe the person for flu like symptoms, etc- same as taking temperature

Gee, what is the only effective way to screen for Ebola? Maybe blood tests and a quarantine?
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Yes.

👍
 
Vanny said:
And as an above poster remarked, I would expect any other country to do the same if WE had an epidemic of such a deadly disease here in the U.S.
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I’ve always found the panic surrounding this to be strange. Tens of thousands of people in the United States die of the flu every year, but no one ever talks about quarantine or grounding planes. 🤷
 
EmperorNapoleon said:
I’ve always found the panic surrounding this to be strange. Tens of thousands of people in the United States die of the flu every year, but no one ever talks about quarantine or grounding planes. 🤷
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Becvause the flue does not have:
  1. a 55% mortality rate; i.e. if you get this Ebola there is a better than even chance you will die from it.
  2. the Exponential growth rate is troubling; it is doubling the number of cases each month, roughly.
  3. This strain seems to be a bit different than other Zaire Ebola strains. It can be spread indirectly, though no studies have made this official, the WHO has confirmed it. Too many doctors over here do not yet seem to know this like this fellow I just saw on NBC News from NIH (Fauli?) who said it can only be spread person-to-person while the person has symptoms and that has been proven to not be true as noted in point 2.
  4. Our health care system, despite the great performance of our top hospitals, is not handling MRSA well, so what can we expect from the Ebola epidemic? The hospital in Dallas that first treated this man sent him home with antibiotics despite him telling them he was from Liberia!
I hope and pray this disease will be contained but there are so many immigrants from west Africa that I doubt that it will be.

Maybe that’s why its news and the flu is not.
 
Should it become a major concern, maybe it will effect how we go to Mass? I don’t know. I don’t want to be alarmist.
 
Vanny said:
I hate to say it but I think flights from this region need to be banned for now.
People flying TO the region would have to understand they may not have a way back.
And as an above poster remarked, I would expect any other country to do the same if WE had an epidemic of such a deadly disease here in the U.S.
Click to expand...
If we do this, will we also need to ban anyone from leaving Texas and entering the rest of the country?
 
RGCheek said:
This strain seems to be a bit different than other Zaire Ebola strains. It can be spread indirectly, though no studies have made this official, the WHO has confirmed it.
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And that’s the core of the scary-factor right there.
 
This is quite troubling on many levels.

I have a doctorate and experience working in the field of microbiology, and have training and clearance for working with potentially deadly agents.

One of the projects I was going to work on involved working with viruses in a level 3 containment situation, but then it was squashed by the university as being too risky. I know the difference between level 3 and level 4 (hot zone) agents.

Ebola is a level 4. Why? High mortality rate, no cure, no vaccine, high infectiousness, and possibly airbone transmission.

There is a book published in 1999 called “Biohazard” which is a professional memoir of Dr. Ken Alibek, a former USSR bioweapons program scientist. In this book, he writes (on p.126) that it was unclear how Ebola and Marburg (another hemorrhagic virus) were transmitted. He knew of several people in Germany and Africa who were working with infected patients and became infected just by being in the same room with the infected people.

So, seriously, I honestly believe that this can be transmitted airborne because of what this man wrote. If anyone would know, he would. He also wrote how Marburg virus became even more highly infectious after it had passed through a human host - who happened to be a colleague of his who died from Marburg after being accidentally exposed in the lab. As Marburg and Ebola are closely related, and viruses do tend to mutate, I don’t see why this would NOT be possible with Ebola.

I would like to clarify something: HepB and HIV are examples of viruses spread by blood and body fluids transmission; Ebola is NOT like these.
 
Path_Finder said:
Should it become a major concern, maybe it will effect how we go to Mass? I don’t know. I don’t want to be alarmist.
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I don’t mean to sound glib, but hopefully this will bring about the end of holding hands during the Our Father.
 
The Zaire strain of Ebola, the worse:
  1. As of Sept. 23, the Zaire outbreak has a 47% fatality rate.
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  1. In the United States, there is a single imported case from Liberia that occurred last month. A traveler arrived in Texas. on Sept. 20, developed Ebola symptoms on Sept. 24, first sought care on Sept. 26 and was admitted to a Dallas hospital on Sept. 28. Ebola was confirmed on Sept. 30.
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  1. The virus spreads from person to person, or from mammals to people. Fruit bats are believed to be the natural hosts of the Ebola virus.
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  1. The virus passes through direct contact with blood or other body fluids (including sweat, saliva, mucus, vomit, feces, breast milk, urine, semen) or from contact with contaminated needles or other equipment. “Direct contact” means that body fluids must touch someone’s eyes, nose or mouth, or an open cut, wound or abrasion.
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  1. Ebola on dried surfaces, such as doorknobs and countertops, can survive for several hours. Ebola is killed with hospital-grade disinfectants (including bleach).
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  1. It takes between 2 and 21 days to develop symptoms, which are very painful. Symptoms include fever, muscle pains, vomiting and diarrhea. Victims are often so weak that they are bedridden. As the virus spreads, it shuts down major organs, including the kidneys and liver.
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30 Ebola facts that will make you cringe, plus 7 ways to manage the risk
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And other thoughts come to mind as I picture the index patient going to the ER for the first visit…

There he is sitting at the triage station or in the waiting area. Possibly coughing, sweating profusely, possibly vomiting. This generates tissues contaminated with Ebola, possibly plastic bag or emesis basins filled with vomitus (sorry to be gross). But where did these items end up? Who emptied the trash? Who was in the rest room or close by when he was being sick?

How about if he wiped his mouth with his hand? Where did that secretion end up?

If the hospital send him home, they did not suspect Ebola. (And whoever worked on his case or discharged him should be reprimanded or terminated.) If they did not suspect Ebola, the proper precautions were not taken to handle his waste.

In my opinion, everyone who was within a 3 foot radius of him that day, or handled his waste/vomitus, is at risk. Do you know how easy it is to aerosolize waste taken out of a trash can? Worker leans over the can, pulls out trash bag, closes bag - as they close the bag, all that infected air rushes into their face. I know someone who was infected in the laboratory with an improperly handled level 3 agent (which is handled at level 2 in some European labs) by just taking out the lab trash.
 
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