Ebola, news and discussion

[cricket26]

so i did not sleep well last nite...i kept thinking about the possible declaration of emergency...i would not even let my daughter drop her dog off to be "fixed" at the vet because the vet is 3 miles from presby...and i was afraid the dog would be stuck at the vet for 21 days....


well there was no declaration of emergency...but we have finally come to the conclusion that dallas is not the best place to treat this devastating disease, patients are being transported to 2 of the only 4 hospitals designed to handle this deadly disease...patient number 1 is going to maryland and patient number 2 is going to georgia....


for now self monitoring of the family of patient zero, healthcare workers at presby, passengers of flight 1143, and several school closings due to children being on frontier flight 1143....and prayers for the two nurses being treated...

[TruTexan]

On the news tonight there have been several Texas schools that closed due to children that flew on the same plane as Nurse 2, so they can sanitize the schools and they've asked that the students remain home for 21days to be monitored at home. There are several businesses, including a military employer in Killeen, Tx where Ft. Hood is located, that asked a male employee to stay home for 21 days to self monitor, and other businesses are doing the same ...asking those employees that flew on same flights as Nurse 2, to remain at home with their families and children for self monitoring. We even have people that were on those flights with Nurse 2 that have notified employers they are staying home voluntarily, and keeping their kids out of schools to self monitor for 21 days so as not to spread the disease should it rear it's ugly head.
More and more people are coming forward and doing this on their own, they aren't taking public transportation or going to schools or working because they are monitoring themselves voluntarily. I find this very courageous for people to step up to the plate and do this just in case they become ill due to exposure from Nurse 2 and not wanting to infect others. Maybe it's them being panicky maybe not, we'll see if anyone else pops up with symptoms being reported from those flights.

I also feel for the Nurse that became a whistle blower at Texas Presbytarian Hospital, she too is keeping her children at home with her and monitoring herself and her children for fever every half hour. She's scared and afraid for a lot of reasons, she knows both nurses and worked at the hospital during the time frame of the first patient, she is on the list of the 75 healthcare workers that are off work with pay as they self monitor themselves for symptoms of Ebola. She's brave to come forward and risk her job and being black balled from nursing to speak out against the hospital and it's lack of training, chaos during Duncan's stay, and Lack of correct PPE for nurses.


As I said before, and I'll say it again, there's bound to be more people getting sick, I hope and pray not, but there's bound to be due to the way things were handled in the first place. The worst has yet to come and it's not over til it's over for all of them.

My prayers are with the hospital workers exposed, the families that may have been exposed , friends of family members exposed, and all those in Africa and other countries fighting this deadly disease. My heart goes out to all of them.

ETA: so far as of today, there is not anyone that is being monitored or self monitoring that has come forward with symptoms of Ebola, and I hope it continues to remain this way.

[Kobi]

Texas health worker isolated on cruise ship over possible Ebola contact


I fear not Ebola. I fear the inane stupidity of human beings.

[MsTinkerbelly]

Originally Posted by Kobi

Texas health worker isolated on cruise ship over possible Ebola contact


I fear not Ebola. I fear the inane stupidity of human beings.

My thoughts exactly! We are a nation that thinks the rules apply to everyone but us.

[Kobi]

Originally Posted by MsTinkerbelly

My thoughts exactly! We are a nation that thinks the rules apply to everyone but us.

I wish the health care workers in Texas would realize these behaviors are undermining their own credibility. It makes it look like they do not have a clue what quarantine means, or what not using public transportation or being in public places means, and it makes their ability to follow "protocol" highly suspect.

Yesterday, Texas officials had folks in quarantine sign "compliance" agreements with penalties for not following thru. Apparently, that may not be enough. Be interesting to see what the Texas response will be.

[Kelt]

I was glad to see this article form the BBC detailing how a country with resources properly applied, can overcome this.

*********************

Summary from eboladeeply.org

Nigeria and Senegal Cited as Success Stories in Containing Ebola

Nigeria and Senegal could be declared officially free of Ebola within a few days, the BBC reports, as both countries near a period of 42 days without any new cases. As of Friday morning, Senegal was on the brink of being declared Ebola-free . The World Health Organization (WHO) called Nigeria’s successful contact tracing “a piece of world-class epidemiological detective work.” The 42-day period is twice the generally accepted maximum incubation period of the virus.

I think it demonstrates the efficacy of awareness over panic.

[*Anya*]

For me, personally, it is not that I fear Ebola. I fear the infection control practices of hospitals (or lack thereof), I fear the lack of honesty of the CDC and I fear, in general, the lack of of a cohesive, proactive, response to any health crisis in our country.

I have experienced this failure, personally. This is not some abstract concept for me.

Two years ago, as I have written previously in the Listening-to-each other thread- I went into the hospital for gynecological surgery, early in the AM. Before the end of the day, I had a temperature that was sky-high and a case of hospital-acquired Clostridium difficile (C-Dif). I was profoundly ill, wound up in CCU and a 11-12 day hospital stay.

It wasn't finished there. On discharge, among other issues, I had 3-4 relapses of C-Dif between March and September 2012. I had to go back on vancomycin antibiotic (cost of $2,800.00 for each course of treatment) and one episode of kidney infection before stabilizing.

Then, in July of this year, I had a squamous cell cancer removed from my leg in a dermatology out-patient office. Within 3 days, I had methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) in the wound (which was tightly covered with Tegaderm).

This took a month to heal, with a couple of rounds of antibiotics. I went to a university hospital infectious disease specialist who confirmed that I was not a carrier, i.e., I did not have MRSA when I went to the doctor in the first place.

I am an RN. I have worked in hospitals. I went into the hospital with the most positive attitude. An expectation that I would contract C-Dif did not enter my consciousness. I did not even consider that I might get MRSA. I have other minor surgical procedures with no negative outcomes.

I don't only post my personal opinion in this thread. I look for legitimate studies, journals, WHO and CDC's own published information. Jesse's link for EbolaDeeply.org was an excellent source of information, too.

Facts for all of us-both negative and positive are critical. Personal experiences are no less important. They show us that we must be alert, educated and knowledgable, to keep ourselves and those that we love as healthy and safe as we possibly can.

http://www.hospitalinfection.org/essentialfacts.shtml

http://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/preview/mmwr...cid=mm6309a4_w

[MsTinkerbelly]

Originally Posted by Kelt

I was glad to see this article form the BBC detailing how a country with resources properly applied, can overcome this.

*********************

Summary from eboladeeply.org

Nigeria and Senegal Cited as Success Stories in Containing Ebola

Nigeria and Senegal could be declared officially free of Ebola within a few days, the BBC reports, as both countries near a period of 42 days without any new cases. As of Friday morning, Senegal was on the brink of being declared Ebola-free . The World Health Organization (WHO) called Nigeria’s successful contact

tracing “a piece of world-class epidemiological detective work.” The 42-day period is twice the generally accepted maximum incubation period of the virus.

I think it demonstrates the efficacy of awareness over panic.

I think awareness over panic is the ideal, BUT we live in a country where people get on airplanes, cruise ships and God knows what else, WHILE SELF-MONITORING FOR EBOLA!!!!

See, i have no faith in hospitals...besides the horrors Anya spoke of from personal experience, my mother got c-diff while fighting for her life in the hospital, and finally gave up hope and stopped dialysis. I have had to be in the hospital 5x since she passed, and each time i wondered what i would catch while there. I have to DEMAND that nurses and DOCTORS wash their hands before touching me. Yes, i will admit Ebola terrifies me, and i don't apologize for that.

Ebola cannot be minimized, because the people will not take it seriously IMO.

Let's hear it for some loooonnngggg overdue panic if it makes our government finally do something to help end this world crisis.