Ebola, news and discussion

[SleepyButch]

Originally Posted by Kelt

I am having a bit of a problem understanding some of the reactions in the US to problems controlling an infectious disease, particularly in hospitals. Obviously, in countries in the midst of the breakout, things are well past dire so I confine this thought to the United States.

When I watched the video interview attached to the story out of Kansas I was glad that the Dr pointed out that 22 thousand people in the US died of the flu last year and yet folks are blasé about even getting inoculated against it. He also put up the thought that if 22 thousand people died of Ebola there would be rioting in the streets. I agree.

When it comes to protocols in hospitals for dealing with this; what is the surprise? Nosocomial diseases are rampant. These are hospital acquired infections (HAI), illness either bacterial or viral you come out with that you didn't have when you went in. They infect 700,000+ per year and kill over 75,000. Eblola is an infectious disease and much more difficult to transmit than flu, C.diff and others.

Only a couple of hospitals in the US are designed forN containment. Just as many hospitals do not have trauma centers, or specialize burn units, etc. Why do we all of a sudden start thinking all hospitals should be equipped for something that has never happened here before? It is clearly demonstrated most cannot handle regular prevention of common bacterial spread.

I am not trying to minimize the danger to healthcare workers and do believe that a ramp up of training and equipment beyond what was previously provided is prudent and urgent at this time, things will likely get worse before they get better. But all of these 'representatives' screaming about how far behind or unprepared we are must have only just now taken off their blinders and are looking for targets to blame.

Nosocomial diseases are usually those infections/viruses contracted by patients in the hospital who are already immunocompromised. This does not related to hospital staff, which I think is what the big deal is over. The surprise is as nursing/healthcare staff, we should know how to prevent ourselves from being infected with anything, whether that be ebola, HIV, tuberculosis, etc. Unfortunately, as I mentioned in a previous post, we are all human and as humans we make errors. Now you have nurses who have been infected, taking care of patients in a hospital. To me that is a huge deal. I'm not so much worried about the person that they encounter in the grocery store.

While every hospital doesn't have to be prepared for this type of thing, what happens when a person comes into any ole hospital with symptoms that may not scream ebola or do for that matter. What's that hospital to do? They all need to be prepared for any type of infectious disease scare in my opinion, which to me means protective garb and a negative pressure room. Also they should have yearly training as part of continuing education, which we all need to have anyway. Unfortunately though, hospitals are busy and short staffed so this kind of training doesn't occur.


I agree that we shouldn't be pointing fingers. We just need to get everyone on the same page and try to contain it as much as possible and save as many people as they can.