CDC to issue Ebola guidelines for healthcare workers as soon as today

[Baitball Blogger]

CDC to issue Ebola guidelines for healthcare workers as soon as today
Source: Orlando Sentinel

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention will issue new guidelines for healthcare workers handling Ebola patients as soon as Saturday, the agency confirmed to the Los Angeles Times.

The CDC is “wrapping up the final details” about the new guidelines, which come in the wake of the first Ebola cases in the U.S., CDC spokeswoman Melissa Brower told The Times in an email Friday night.

Two nurses from the Dallas hospital who had close contact with America's first Ebola patient, Thomas Eric Duncan, have contracted the virus as a result of apparent lapses in preparedness for handling infected patients. Duncan died Oct. 8.

In addition to the possible CDC announcement, Ohio governor and other state officials have scheduled a news conference Saturday morning concerning Ohio's response to the Ebola threat after the second Texas nurse traveled to the Akron area while she was apparently infected.

Read more: http://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/nationworld/la-na-nn-cdc-new-ebola-guidelines-20141018-story.html

[DeadLetterOffice]

1. Glad to see them on the ball...

...Oh, wait. This outbreak in Africa started when? And the first US case was confirmed when? OK, not so much "on the ball" then I guess.

[Bluenorthwest]

2. Compared to the only other new viral threat during my lifetime, the US has been far swifter to act

than that other time, during which Republican Ronald Reagan and his coterie of idiots stood silent witness to the deaths of tens of thousands of Americans right here in America not only without taking any action, but without so much as mentioning the crisis. By the time Reagan cleared his bigoted throat and said the word 'AIDS' it was an unchecked fully global pandemic and is currently still killing Africans at a rate well in excess of one million people a year, as well as thousands from other countries including our own.
Those of you finding fault with the handling of three ebola cases with one death would have dropped dead from outrage in the late 80's had you given any thought to it, but most of America did not and just voted for Reagan again, then for Bush as the bodies piled up......

[DeadLetterOffice]

3. Hey now, I lived through that time period too...

...and of course Reagan's (total lack of) response was horrific.

My issue about the CDC protocols for Ebola is that we had months of knowing this was coming to our shores and we waited until it actually got here before TPTB figured out we weren't quite as ready as we need to be. That's all.

Well, no, that's not all, actually. The fact that we (as a nation) waited until it got here before we took it seriously, when there have been people needlessly dying from this thing for months and months somewhere else -- that pisses me off, and reminds me all too much of the "hey if it's not 'us' then I don't care" attitude from beginning of the HIV crisis.