Ebola: So here's the problem

[B2G]

We have no isolation protocal for those returning/coming over.

We got lucky in NYC in that the patient was a doctor. He immeiately called EMT when he started running a fever. We're told that he posed no risked by his previous escursions...I guess we just have to take that on faith for now.

What about the other 150 people coming over from the hot zones daily? Regular people who aren't medical professionals who we are trusting to self monitor? There is no mechanism to track them. We have no way of knowing at what point in their potential illness they may contact athorities and how many peopple are exposed in the interium.

This is going to become one big ugly mess.

[notadmblnd]

1. Well that does it. I guess we all might as well slit our wrists now.

[pnwmom]

20. No, better yet -- let's send all the Ebola patients home from the ER with antibiotic prescriptions!

That works out so well.

[uppityperson]

2. Ebola: so here's the problem

Experts agree that the best, the easiest and most cost effective money and life-wise, is to contain this where it is epidemic and sooner better than later.

There are not enough resources, money, caregivers, equipment, to care for, contain, contact trace those who have it in W Africa. Thousands of dollars are spent on each person here. How much on each person where it is epidemic?

Simpler to just board it up, let them all catch it and those who will die will die, those who survive will survive?

This is one big ugly mess.

[B2G]

3. So it makes no sense to establish quarantine procedures here?

Since we won't restrict travel?

Why not?

[Logical]

14. Force people to live where for 21 days? Hotel, they got jobs probably....

Going to fly the family out to see them?

Are you going to Quartine everyone who is on the flight with the nurse? Where?

[Warren DeMontague]

19. And every case we get over here requires contact tracing, too, doesn't it?

Seems to me minimizing the number of cases we have to deal with over here- and minimizing the potential exposure of others from those cases- the less resources we have to throw at it over here.

The 'ignore it over here so we can beat it there' argument makes even less than no logical sense.

[pnwmom]

21. And in Liberia this big ugly mess began with a single case in April 2014.

I don't know if the situation in Africa can be contained but we have to try.

And we have to keep on doing our best here, no matter how many false alarms we have, because the alternative is too gruesome to contemplate.

[LiberalElite]

4. They now have to enter the country through

one of five airports where there is enhanced screening for Ebola.

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-29719240

[B2G]

5. And then what?

[LiberalElite]

6. and then if they're not symptomatic they're free -

Should we just lock up the populations of 3 countries?

[B2G]

7. What?

Did you understand the question?

[pnwmom]

22. No. It was rather open-ended. nt

[magical thyme]

11. they apparently are asking them for their travel plans, asking them to self-monitor and

report their temperatures, giving them a thermometer and log, and if they don't comply, may go and get them wherever they're at.

Read that somewhere tonight. They're getting quite serious about it now.

[moondust]

9. Plus a 21-day watch.

U.S. Plans 21-Day Watch of Travelers From Ebola-Hit Nations

[ZombieHorde]

8. Well, if worse comes to worse,

Ebola will dramatically slow down the pace of climate change.

[LeftyMom]

10. When absolutely nobody catches it from this guy will you all finally stop freaking out?

He rode the NEW YORK CITY GODDAMN SUBWAY and chances are very, very good that he infected absolutely no one. Because his body had very little circulating virus and presumably he didn't shit on anybody's head.

It's not like the flu. You start feeling ill before you're more than theoretically contagious. Which is why it spreads to family members, caregivers and people who handle the body, not to minor social contacts.

[renegade000]

12. this

considering the only known instances of ebola transmission in the country have been between a critically ill patient and some subset of the caregivers that were physically handling his vomit and feces with substandard protective gear, i can't muster that much panic over the disease.

[LeftyMom]

13. And the person who shared a bed with that sweating, sick, puking and shitting guy didn't even get it

It's really not that catchy in US conditions.

In countries where amateur home nursing is the norm, modern sanitation isn't a thing, professional medical care is barely a thing at normal times, and funeral customs include the mourners handling the deceased's body? Entirely different story.

Culture impacts disease spread in many circumstances, and unfortunately this is one of them.

[morningfog]

15. Absolutely not. The ignorance spreads faster than Ebola.

They will always freak over the next one because, well, I don't know why.

[Marrah_G]

16. ^this

[pnwmom]

23. Do you think his fiancé wasn't exposed, either? n/t

[LeftyMom]

25. Thomas Duncan's fiance is alive and well, and she was far more exposed to a far sicker patient.

If you want to ignorantly freak out in contradiction to evidence and common sense, kindly do it in your own little space and not on the internet. It's your problem and it shouldn't be anybody else's.

[Marrah_G]

17. People who want to be afraid will continue to be afraid

It's not going to be a big ugly mess, but no matter how many reasons given why it will not be, those who want to be afraid will be.

[pnwmom]

24. Don't you think people in W Africa count? Of course it's a big ugly mess, as uppityperson said.

There are thousands of cases there and it's growing exponentially.

[TorchTheWitch]

18. that's changing as of the 27th

Recently I posted an article that explained that starting on the 27th anyone coming into the country who was recently in an outbreak area would be tracked and self-monitoring where they have to report in their temperature readings and any other symptoms (daily or twice daily, I can't remember).

http://www.democraticunderground.com/10025699845

Personally, I'd prefer quarantine, but as long as people know that they aren't going to be punished in some way for bringing in the virus and that the monitoring is for their own health and safety I'm more confident that people (particularly those that live in these areas rather than those familiar with our government and not suspicious of government as locals there can be) that they will self-monitor and answer truthfully about the state of their health as it regards Ebola. They'll be instructed on what symptoms to look for and given phone numbers of who to contact if they suspect they are having symptoms so that they don't just walk into an ER willy-nilly or call an ambulance willy-nilly risking others and will be picked up by ambulance with EMT's correctly garbed and forewarned that the patient may have Ebola. It also gives the immediate opportunity to send in a team to close off their home for disinfection and to warn any nearby neighbors.

As I mentioned when I first posted the article this was something that we should have already been doing. Had we been doing that Mr. Duncan would have been educated and provided with thermometer and phone numbers so he could have called people ready to go into action if he started showing symptoms and may have been treated early enough to live not to mention limiting the fear and risk suffered by his relatives who - thank goodness - didn't become infected by him. Had the CDC been on the ball and made sure that hospitals were ready with correct protocol and training instead of just putting inadequate protocol on their website and just assuming hospitals WERE prepared the two nurses that got Ebola from him likely wouldn't have either.

[kestrel91316]

26. Well NY and NJ are now formally, forcibly quarantining all returning medical personnel

Hope you and your reactionary friends are happy.

[B2G]

28. Why don't you do us both a favor

and just put me on ignore?

I enjoyed reading your posts up to the point that you started blaming HCWs and then started getting ugly about all of this.

[Warpy]

27. Most of the people coming in will be health care professionals. A few will be businessmen

and fewer still will be family members of people here.

They all know what Ebola is and what it does if left untreated. Few will be infected and those who are will seek treatment. No one wants to die like that if they can help it.

This is not an easy disease to catch. Consider that Mr. Duncan's family is fine and that the two of several dozen health care workers who had contact with him and fell ill have survived and are out of the hospital, great motivation for anyone who has been in west Africa to come in and seek treatment as quickly as possible should they start experiencing vague symptoms.

There are a lot scarier things out there.