"White House Presses States to Reconsider Mandatory Ebola Quarantine Orders"

[deurbano]

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/10/27/nyregion/ebola-quarantine.html?_r=0

By MARC SANTORA and MICHAEL D. SHEAROCT. 26, 2014

<<The Obama administration has expressed deep concerns to the governors of New York and New Jersey and is consulting with them to modify their orders to quarantine medical volunteers returning from West Africa as President Obama seeks to quickly develop a new, nationwide policy for the workers, according to two senior administration officials....

...A senior administration official, who did not want to be identified in order to discuss private conversations with state officials on the issue, called the decision by the governors “uncoordinated, very hurried, an immediate reaction to the New York City case that doesn’t comport with science.”...

The United States is sending thousands of military personnel and other federal workers to the West African countries hit hardest by the virus, and a mandatory quarantine could make sending personnel to those countries more difficult, officials said...

The plans called for monitors to be assigned to each quarantined family or individual and dedicated solely to help them get meals, stay in contact with loved ones and have a clear line of communication with officials.

On Friday night, those carefully laid plans were thrown aside when Mr. Christie and Mr. Cuomo called for the mandatory quarantine.
“The entire city was not informed, even the mayor’s office,” according to a city official involved in New York’s Ebola response. “The mayor was caught unaware.”>>

[uppityperson]

1. "an immediate reaction to the New York City case that doesn’t comport with science" indeed. K&R

[Cal Carpenter]

2. Man, I read the thread title backwards, thinking that the administration wanted more states to

require quarantine.

So relieved to see it is the other way around!

[hollysmom]

3. I had a friend who voluntered for doctors without borders, did a lot of work in Haiti

Last edited Sun Oct 26, 2014, 06:19 PM - Edit history (1)

and came back with aids before they knew what it was. These people are brave and should get some respect this whole Ebola thing is going the wrong way. If the disease is stopped in Africa there would be no reason to panic abut it here.

edited because lost a lot of letters???

[HockeyMom]

4. There are people here who would quarantine others with the FLU

Throw them in ghettos for refusing Flu Shots. The CDC has created a paranoid society of being sick with ANYTHING. Surprised with Ebola? Not in the least.

[Yo_Mama]

5. Yeah, well, I believe the WH and the CDC are completely wrong

Anyone remember this?
http://www.examiner.com/article/e-coli-found-at-nyc-starbucks-that-received-a-grades-from-nyc-health-dept

An investigator swabbed high-traffic areas, including countertops and the handles on the self-serve milk dispensers. All had received a grade of “A”—the highest rating given by inspectors with the City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene.

Specimens were sent to Philip Tierno, director of Clinical Microbiology and Immunology at New York University Langone Medical Center. About half were contaminated with “fecal organisms.”
...
Samples taken from milk containers in three separate Starbucks stores tested positive for traces of Enterococcus, fecal strep, E. coli, and Klebsiella.

As soon as you have people with undetected infections wandering around in urban areas, you have the possibility for direct contact. Early on viral levels are low, but may well be highest in tears (runny eyes), as is often the case for viral infections. And the eyes are thought to be one of the main ways Ebola is spread.

In Africa, the hallmarks of this epidemic have been slow and sporadic spread in rural areas, with early dispersion from medical clinics, and then much faster dispersion as the virus moved to denser, more mobile urban populations, with plenty of undetected cases in medical clinics. For these reasons, Ebola is likely to spread much faster in the US than it did in West Africa.

[uppityperson]

8. A couple reasons it spread so fast in Liberia, Siera Leone, Guinea is they are VERY poor countries

2 of them decimated by long civil wars, with minimal health care available, cultural norms that include kissing and patting their dead after washing them, poor infrastructure including sewage, not knowing what ebola was when it arrived, and fears of the few health care workers there are. People have been murdered for trying to educate the populace. Riots have happened out of fear that this is being spread on purpose by the Red Cross.

For these reasons, Ebola is MUCH LESS likely to spread as fast in the US than it did in West Africa.

Unlike cold and flu viruses, ebola does not live primarily in the respiratory system. It spreads via the blood stream throughout the body. From all I have read, it can be in tears but is primarily spread through contact with infectious vomit and stool excretions. Not tears.

http://www.cdc.gov/vhf/ebola/transmission/qas.html

What are body fluids?
Ebola has been detected in blood and many body fluids. Body fluids include saliva, mucus, vomit, feces, sweat, tears, breast milk, urine, and semen.

What does “direct contact” mean?
Direct contact means that body fluids (blood, saliva, mucus, vomit, urine, or feces) from an infected person (alive or dead) have touched someone’s eyes, nose, or mouth or an open cut, wound, or abrasion.

How long does Ebola live outside the body?
Ebola is killed with hospital-grade disinfectants (such as household bleach). Ebola on dry surfaces, such as doorknobs and countertops, can survive for several hours; however, virus in body fluids (such as blood) can survive up to several days at room temperature.

[deurbano]

10. Here's a bit more (incl. a little about tears):

http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2014/10/24/ask-well-can-ebola-be-transmitted-in-semen/?_php=true&_type=blogs&_r=0
Ask Well: Can Ebola Be Transmitted in Semen?
By DONALD G. MCNEIL JR.
OCTOBER 24, 2014 5:02 PM

<<Q. Can Ebola be transmitted through semen? ...
A. “We’re not supposed to say ‘never’ in public health, but I’d say it’s extremely, extremely, extremely, extremely unlikely,” said Dr.Daniel G. Bausch of the Tulane University School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine, who has studied levels of virus in Ebola victims and survivors...

“Though multiple studies have shown that Ebola virus can persist in semen for longer than in blood or other body fluids, sexual transmission of Ebola has not been definitively established,” ....

The highest levels of virus are consistently found in blood, vomit and feces, and the virus is usually detectable in them from the moment the patient tests positive. Virus levels in blood, vomit and feces are low when symptoms first appear, then rise rapidly to a peak at Day 5 or so, then start to go down and are low again by Day 15 (if the patient survives that long).

The virus starts to rise later in other fluids, including saliva and tears, but never to such intense concentrations as it does in blood, vomit and feces. It’s unclear whether there’s ever whole virus in sweat....

... For that reason, he said, it is extremely unlikely that Dr. Spencer, or any man, has infectious levels of Ebola virus in his semen before the peak of his infection.

The salivary glands, in contrast, Dr. Bausch said, are not protected. So if there was any danger in intimate contact with Dr. Spencer, kissing was probably the greater risk, Dr. Bausch said. But because viral loads begin to rise in saliva days later than they do in blood, the risk was probably near zero, he added.>>

[uppityperson]

12. "It’s unclear whether there’s ever whole virus in sweat". Thanks for the link and clip.

It is good to read that semen is low viral before symptoms, but I have read after recovery it takes quite a while to clear.

[TreasonousBastard]

6. Our local news had some bigshot doctor...

(didn't catch his name or title) who basically called Cuomo and Christie morons for this nonsense.

He said essentially the same thing-- it's tough enough to get people to work in Africa and if we fuck with them on the way back we all lose.

[etherealtruth]

7. This is truly a case where ...

... "fight it 'over there' so we don't have to fight it here" rings very true!

[deurbano]

11. Good point! Finally a situation for which that expression is truly applicable!

[Cha]

9. Mahalo deurbano