Ebola patients, US citizens, are being evacuated to the U.S. from Liberia.

[gwheezie]

233. I would bet that the hospitals involved are not requiring people to work with these patients

I remember the 1st aids patient I had in 1987, they asked for volunteers. I won't forget him, he was a man in his 60's, no hx of a blood transfusion and married to a female. At the time it was the gay disease so it took some time before he was accurately diagnosed but I remember the hospital giving staff the option of not caring for him and asked for volunteers. I had no issue working with him, I had many gay friends who I ate with, shared bathrooms with, shared beds with, shared utensils with, {I never share toothbrushes but that goes without saying for anyone, even my husband, I'd rather use my dogs toothbrush and he licks his own ass}. Some of them had aids at this point.
I also remember applying for a job at a long term care facility that was going to open one of the 1st units for aids patients in the state, there was so much controversy the unit was never opened and I thought I had by that time taken care of several aids patients who were so sick and homeless because it was still the gay disease and some were estranged from their families or hadn't come out and were so worried about people finding out they were gay they wouldn't ask for help. I thought,my god don't the powers that be that are stopping this unit from opening understand there are people with aids on buses and on the street and not getting any care and they're afraid of a long term care unit opening?
I am not equating ebola with aids, because of raygun we knew little about aids and how it was transmitted. We know about ebola and frankly it does scare the hell out of me. I've been a nurse a long time,I've seen mistakes made. But, I do think we need to bring these folks home because they are americans, they are sick, they need to be cared for.