Ebola outbreak - general thread #5

[1&2&3]

This is only a thought. On television, we always see people treating Ebola patients with boots on or protective coverings on their feet. I have not read that this is a requirement in caring for a Level 4 patient. Is it possible the sick nurse touched the bottom of her shoe or even just her shoe, and some fluid had gotten on it? Could she have gotten infected this way?

 

[Brightbird]

“.....the final economic toll of Ebola will not be driven by the direct costs of the disease itself — expensive drugs, sick employees and busy caregivers. It will be driven by how much those who are not infected trust their governments,” Mr. Giugale wrote.

http://mobile.nytimes.com/blogs/dealbook/2014/10/13/calculating-the-grim-costs-of-ebola/

 

[musicaljoke]

She's improving, and none of the others currently in quarantine are showing any symptoms.
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/oct/12/spanish-ebola-nurse-shows-signs-improvement

 

[lawstudent]

As I watched Dr take off a (pretend) contaminated suit............very carefully and he has 2 tiny contamination marks............chocolate syrup..............I thought this virus is so strong..........a tiny spot on a human to human and wham ..............ebola.............

That's not ebola being 'strong' - if you put any substance all over a suit and attempted to remove it, a few spots would likely get by. And it's also not "wham - ebola" - that substance would then have to enter the person's body through a cut or mouth/eyes etc. Which is certainly possible, but it's not as simple as a tiny spot escapes the suit and the person has ebola.

 

[amberjul]

RE Why not close our borders to people flying in from the affected areas until this thing is under control
Media is doing this a lot --we cant do it from Mexico - I just cant comprehend how this can be done, even tho IMO it is not necc - but for the sake of discussion how would they do that?

Respectfully snipped for clarity.

Passports leapt to my mind. Anyone who has traveled to affected areas would be turned away.

However, Ebola is nothing new and people have traveled freely for years. The trouble began when the US knowingly allowed patients in for treatment. Because we "accepted" these patients, I get the notion that the US has had protocol in place for travelers all along.

 

[KALI]

The nurses don't have a problem with CDC as much as they have a problem with the hospitals they work for. A recent survey of nurses showed 85% of them had not received any instruction on Ebola protection procedures from the hospitals where they work.



http://www.nbcnews.com/storyline/eb...urses-shows-heightened-ebola-concerns-n224491

The hospital administrators need to get up to speed. Part of the problem may be that many of them staff hospitals with nurses who come from temp agencies.[/QUOTE

Sheesh. There are so many cracks in our infrastructure, it's MInd boggling. Just who the h*'ll is in charge???
nobody who'll step up to the plate...or, would even be allowed to? I really dislike politics. They will be the downfall of our country. Imo

 

[WichitaFalls]

One last link and I'm off to sleep.
Dedicated Ebola Hospitals Sought After Nurse’s Infection
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-...to-include-medical-staff-after-infection.html

 

[KALI]

Here here. A really smart man speaks.

“.....the final economic toll of Ebola will not be driven by the direct costs of the disease itself — expensive drugs, sick employees and busy caregivers. It will be driven by how much those who are not infected trust their governments,” Mr. Giugale wrote.

http://mobile.nytimes.com/blogs/dealbook/2014/10/13/calculating-the-grim-costs-of-ebola/

 

[SwampMama]

http://news.yahoo.com/ebola-families-bodies-bribes-153423993.html

WSJ reports that retrieval teams are accepting bribes from families of Ebola victims to issue death certificates that say their loved ones died of other causes, allowing them to keep their bodies for a traditional burial.

So the family's pay a crooked burial team member or someone else who can help them get ebola-free death certificate and the family can collect the body and go bury it themselves. This puts them at risk and it puts the people tending the body or attending the funeral/burial at risk. The ebola virus is present and catchable in the body after death.

Not to mention the fact that people don't want the diagnosis of ebola to be known because of the stigma and how their neighbors will shun them. So having that fake death certificate helps them avoid that but that lie puts even MORE people at risk.

 

[LaborDayRN]

Family and friends have asked for prayer for Nina - Dallas ebola patient.
Time: Now

I'm praying for you Nina! God bless you! May you heal quickly and fully.

 

[chipmunk]

The Nebraska bio containment treatment center has 10 beds, the largest in the country. Does anyone know how many beds there are total?

--I just wrote a good long post but I lost it. I love this thread but that was frustrating. I had said I have experience with the NIH as both a patient and a national board member of a medical foundation and their researchers are the pinnacle of our medical profession. They are amazing medical detectives. If the CDC staff are anything like those of the NIH and I believe they are, they will get on top of this situation and do a good job.

 

[popsicle]

Breaking News ‏@BreakingNews 4m4 minutes ago
Patient treated after contracting Ebola in Liberia dies in Leipzig, Germany - @dw_english http://www.breakingnews.com/t/PoI

KOMO News ‏@komonews 2m2 minutes ago
AP: German hospital says UN medical worker infected with Ebola in Liberia has died. #liveonkomo

 

[Sonya610]

I just don't think that this dog would be allowed to live without learning what role they may play/proving dogs do not play.... in spread of this virus.
((Bently))

Killing Bently would peeve a LOT of people in this country off and right now the main focus is NOT upsetting the sheeple.

Also if a precedent was set saying the pets of anyone who tested positive would be automatically slaughtered (with no proof they can even spread the disease) that would cause a lot MORE fear and mistrust and a segment of animal lovers would NOT report symptoms or participate in any monitoring programs (I sure wouldn't participate and I wouldn't care if that put the entire state of Georgia at risk).

They can test Bently weekly to see if he has been exposed, if he shows antibodies from exposure then they can expose him to a needy rescue dog in a few weeks to see if he passes the virus on to another canine (preferably another small dog with a low chance of getting adopted -- and if clear the nurse agrees to adopt). If the virus is NOT passed on then it is safe to say Bently is clear.

We also don't know of HUMANS can be asymptomatic carriers yet NO ONE is even slightly worried about that? Are they even planning to test all of the individuals that came in DIRECT contact with a sick Duncan to see if they were exposed? Or will they just release them into the population? Likely the later.

 

[SophieRose]

The UN medical worker treated in Germany that just died was critical but stable when he arrived there.

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/oct/14/un-medical-official-dies-ebola-german-hospital

The Sudanese man was the third Ebola victim to receive treatment in Germany. A doctor from Uganda is being treated in an isolation unit in Frankfurt, while a Senegalese man was recently released from a Hamburg clinic after a five-week treatment.

 

[nomoresorrow]

[Portland, Maine] Maine Medical Center holding patient at request of CDC - The official word is that the patient does not have a confirmed case of Ebola.

The hospital said in a release:

"Maine Medical Center is using policies developed by the World Health Organization (WHO). Those policies exceed the policies of Center for Disease Control (CDC) and represent the strictest of guidelines. In addition we are using a higher level of protective apparel than that recommended by the CDC."

http://www.wmtw.com/news/maine-medical-center-holding-patient-at-request-of-cdc/29105922#ixzz3G7DCyuJx

ETA: Live in Maine and heard this on the radio on my way home from work this morning.

 

[Elley Mae]

snippets

“Usually, an individual is not sick for three to five days after the onset of symptoms, which will fool you,” Dr. Ribner said. “You say, ‘Oh, you’re not going to be that sick.’ Then, around Day 5 to 7, they really crash. Their blood pressure goes down, they become stuporous to unresponsive, and they start to have renal and liver failure. This correlates with the enormous viral load, which is just attacking every organ in the body.”


Ebola patients lose enormous amounts of fluid from diarrhea and vomiting, as much as five to 10 quarts a day during the worst phase of the illness, which lasts about a week. Doctors struggle to rehydrate them, replace lost electrolytes and treat bleeding problems. Some patients need dialysis and ventilators.


At the peak of illness, an Ebola patient can have 10 billion viral particles in one-fifth of a teaspoon of blood. That compares with 50,000 to 100,000 particles in an untreated H.I.V. patient, and five million to 20 million in someone with untreated hepatitis C.

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/10/14/u...ons-at-hospitals-to-deal-with-ebola.html?_r=0

 

[Sonya610]

A team of C.D.C. officials — reinforcements sent to Dallas in the aftermath of the second Ebola case diagnosed in the United States — worked through the night at the hospital to identify what was described as a “large group” of health care workers who might be at risk of infection because they treated the original Ebola victim

And they are now watching hospital personnel as they put on and take off their protective garb, retraining the staff and evaluating the type of protective equipment being used. They were considering using cleaning products that kill the virus to spray down workers who come out of the isolation unit where the nurse is being treated.

Interesting, so now they are worried about 70 health care workers at that hospital being at risk.

Also it turns out that about 13% of infected folks WITH active symptoms do NOT have a fever and studies have shown 5% of the infections show up AFTER the 21 day mark, sometimes 30, 35 and even 40 days after exposure.

Fever Link: http://www.latimes.com/nation/la-na-1012-ebola-fever-20141012-story.html#page=1

New England Journal of Medicine Chart showing onset of symptoms graph:http://www.nejm.org/action/showImage?doi=10.1056/NEJMoa1411100&iid=f03&

 

[gngr~snap]

So far Dr. Branly donated to three Ebola victims. Poor guy will have no blood left if this spreads! How often can one even donate?

I have been curious about that as well. He is donating plasma?
Blood is only good for 30 days. My premie got 12 from my dad, but a transfusion was about a tablespoon as she was about 2#. The blood tests alone required her to need transfusions.

A plasma transfusion has to be sound down. My memory still says the donation volume is lower...
I need to check that. Poor Dr. Brantly can't save everyone...
http://m.redcrossblood.org/donating-blood/types-donations/plasma-donation

You can donate every 28 days, up to 13 times per* year.


Isn't it kinda backwards!?
I understand why.
HIV or HEPATITIS blood donation. It will give you the disease.
EBOLA blood donation to an actively sick individual and possibly heal them.
I guess because Ebola isn't a lifelong infection.
I am mystified!
All posts are MOO

 

[SStarr33]

[Portland, Maine] Maine Medical Center holding patient at request of CDC - The official word is that the patient does not have a confirmed case of Ebola.

The hospital said in a release:

"Maine Medical Center is using policies developed by the World Health Organization (WHO). Those policies exceed the policies of Center for Disease Control (CDC) and represent the strictest of guidelines. In addition we are using a higher level of protective apparel than that recommended by the CDC."

http://www.wmtw.com/news/maine-medical-center-holding-patient-at-request-of-cdc/29105922#ixzz3G7DCyuJx

ETA: Live in Maine and heard this on the radio on my way home from work this morning.

Good for Maine

 

[Detective Klimpt]

Obama needs to close the damn borders! This is is b.s that people are allowed in our country. If you notice the people they are testing are all people who have come from Africa.

Nobody agrees with this more than me. That said, I just came across this (long) article this morning where Dr. Friedman claims this won't work. You can read his reasons why, some I which I call 'bs'.

http://www.forbes.com/sites/jvchamary/2014/10/13/ebola-travel/

In a nutshell, he is claiming that if we prohibit legal air travel from these countries, they will get here via alternate routes, illegally, and then they will be here and we won't know it. Or...they will escape to other neighboring countries and create an outbreak there. In my view, these things can/will happen regardless of whether we ban legal air travel.