What this Dallas case should be making clear to each one of us is that it is possible, theoretically, that ANY town in the USA with a hospital could be the next one to have an Ebola virus positive patient come into their E.R.
Disease is NO respecter of location or situation once the infected person has left Africa and landed somewhere, anywhere in the USA. Likewise for other countries around the globe which do not have travel bans on incoming flights from the affected countries in Africa.
So, to say that there are only 4 hospitals in the USA who can safely care for an Ebola positive patient is very dangerous to believe, as every hospital in this country which is accredited by the JCAHO has infection control polices and procedures for both contact isolation ( which is the minimum standard isolation for Ebola) up to strict isolation ( which would be needed if an Ebola positive patient was on a ventilator or emitting a spray of respiratory secretions which were aerosolized ( tiny particles not seen, IOW).
I remember the first active AIDS patient I cared for. None of my co-workers wanted anything to do with the patient. They were very scared. I knew that someone had to step up and render expert and compassionate care to a dying person, so I volunteered to add this patient to my assignment. I was both confident of my ability to care for the person with compassion and quality, and also to keep myself and my other patients safe with the use of appropriate precautions. We learned as we went.. Precautions were standardized in the USA because of the lack of knowledge of how to care for very ill AIDS patients in the 80's.
Likely, every hospital has cared for HIV+/ AIDS patients at some point since those years, and as far as I know, no one is afraid of caring for a patient based upon the diagnosis any longer. If they are, then they are ignorant. But- I remember when AIDS patients were treated as ticking time bombs out of lack of understanding. We had no guidelines. The CDC didn't know exactly what precautions to use for those first few years. And again, I am ashamed of our health care system for not knowing, for not teaching.
Fear immobilizes people, including health care professionals. I would like to encourage each of you who are still out there rendering care to review your Infection Control manuals and be confident in your ability to manage every type of isolation precaution. Because the next Ebola positive patient could be yours for which to care.
With luck, the vast knowledge gained in anti-viral therapy because of HIV will be useful in the development of anti-virals specific to Ebola.
We have learned so much because of HIV/ AIDS research and care.
