I don't want to panic anyone, but Ebola may be coming to a town near you

[Skyy God]

At least we won't have to slog through another 7-9 Chiefs season....

Now there are American casualties.

Not in Gaza, and not on the ill-fated Malaysian airliner. Now there are American casualties in another war very far away so maybe, goddammit, somebody should start paying more attention to it.

Kent Brantly, 33, an American doctor who has been working in Liberia since October for the North Carolina-based aid organization Samaritan's Purse, is receiving intensive medical treatment after he was infected with Ebola, according to a spokeswoman for the group. Melissa Strickland said Brantly, who is married and has two children, was talking with his doctors and working on his computer while being treated. A second U.S. citizen, Nancy Writebol, also has tested positive for Ebola, Samaritan's Purse said. Writebol is employed by mission group SIM in Liberia and was helping a joint SIM/Samaritan's Purse team treating Ebola patients in Monrovia. Writebol is married with two children, the organization said. "Both of them tonight are in stable condition," Ken Isaacs, Samaritan Purse's vice president of programs and government relations, said Sunday. "But they are not out of the woods yet."

That's some serious Damien-at-Molokai hero stuff right there, still being at your computer while you're being treated for one of the most vicious diseases on the planet. Other medical professionals, alas, are not as lucky.

A Liberian government official said Sunday that one of that country's highest-profile doctors has died in what the World Health Organization (WHO) calls the largest recorded outbreak of the disease...The first Liberian doctor to die of the disease was identified as Samuel Brisbane. He was working as a consultant with the internal medicine unit at the country's largest hospital, the John F. Kennedy Memorial Medical Center in Monrovia. Brisbane, who once was a medical adviser to former Liberian President Charles Taylor, was taken to a treatment center on the outskirts of the capital after falling ill with Ebola and died there, said Tolbert Nyenswah, an assistant health minister. He said another doctor who had been working in Liberia's central Bong County also was being treated for Ebola at the same center where Brisbane died. The situation "is getting more and more scary," Nyenswah said.

Yes, you could say that. The disease is now in both Nigeria and Liberia, and not in the backwater places any more, either, but in the capital cities. The ones with millions of people. And airports.

Over the weekend, health officials in Nigeria raced to stop the spread of Ebola after a man sick with the disease arrived on a flight in Lagos, Africa's largest city with 21 million people. He later died. The man's ability to board an international flight raised new fears that other passengers could carry the disease beyond Africa because of weak passenger inspection and the fact that Ebola's initial symptoms can resemble those of other illnesses. Isaacs said in an interview that "where it gets really scary" is that the disease, which was previously seen only "in very remote, small villages in Africa" is now being contracted by people in the capital cities of Liberia, Guinea and Sierra Leone. "Now the disease has been introduced into the big urban areas with millions of people," he said. "In the big cities, people can get on an airplane and fly out." Isaacs does not believe this outbreak his peaked. "I think the worst is yet to come," he said. "I hope I'm wrong."

Meanwhile, the local customs aren't helping a lot, either.

Koroma, 32, a resident of the densely populated Wellington district, had been admitted to an isolation ward while blood samples were tested for the virus, said Sidi Yahya Tunis, a health ministry spokesman. The results came back on Thursday. "The family of the patient stormed the hospital and forcefully removed her and took her away," Tunis said. "We are searching for her."

Jesus save us. I don't mean to sound like a cultural imperialist -- although I seriously doubt that the people in rural Sierra Leone are acting out of what they know about the Tuskegee experiments, or what happened in Guatemala in the 1940's -- but snatching an Ebola patient out of the hospital doesn't sound like a very good way to fight the disease, family networks notwithstanding. (The purloined patient eventually died.) This thing is one airplane flight away from being an international catastrophe, but there is no boom-boom, and without boom-boom, there is no news. However, you know, Americans are getting sick now. Hey, Wolf! Over here?

http://www.esquire.com/blogs/politic...Ebola_Outbreak

[rabblerouser]

I'm just saying...my chances of becoming infected or beheaded have increased exponentially over the last 6 years.

[Pasta Little Brioni]

Burn it with fire

[Valiant]

Originally Posted by Mr. Laz

Texas nurse who had worn protective gear tests positive for Ebola
By Elizabeth Cohen, Steve Almasy and Joe Sutton, CNN
updated 4:54 PM EDT, Sun October 12, 2014

NEW: A "close contact" of the nurse is being monitored, says CDC
The worker helped care for an Ebola patient multiple times, CDC director says
He says there was a breach in protocol and his agency is investigating
Nurse was wearing protective gear when she helped care for Thomas Eric Duncan

(CNN) -- The deadly Ebola virus has been contracted by someone inside the United States for the first time.

A nurse who had worn protective gear during her "extensive contact" at a Dallas hospital with an Ebola patient who died tested positive during a preliminary blood test, officials said Sunday.

The woman had on a gown, gloves, mask and a shield during her multiple visits with Thomas Eric Duncan, but there was a breach in protocol, health officials said.

The patient is a nurse at Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital in Dallas, an official who is familiar with the case told CNN.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta conducted testing on the blood sample, and confirmed the results Sunday, marking the first known transmission of Ebola in the United States and the second diagnosis in the country.

CDC: Protocol 'breach' led to infection Hospital: Worker wore protective gear Are U.S. hospitals prepared for Ebola? Second confirmed Ebola case in U.S.
She was involved in Duncan's care after he was placed in isolation -- his second trip to the hospital after coming to the United States from Liberia -- said Dr. Tom Frieden, the director of the CDC.

The nurse is in stable condition, Texas Health Resources chief clinical officer Dan Varga said. Duncan, the first person to be diagnosed with Ebola in the United States, died Wednesday.

The nurse had "extensive contact" on "multiple occasions" with Duncan, Frieden said.

"At some point, there was a breach in protocol, and that breach in protocol resulted in this infection," he said at a news conference Sunday. "The (Ebola treatment) protocols work. ... But we know that even a single lapse or breach can result in infection."

Also, Varga said that someone who is a "close contact" of the nurse has been "proactively" placed in isolation.

The hazardous materials unit of the Dallas Fire Department has cleaned up and decontaminated the public areas of the health worker's apartment complex, Mayor Mike Rawlings said. Police are keeping people out of the area and are talking to residents nearby.

"We have knocked on every door on that block," the mayor said.
Hazardous materials units have also cleaned out the nurse's car and will work on her apartment Sunday.

"This development is understandably disturbing news for the patient, the patient's family and colleagues and the greater Dallas community," the CDC said in a statement, announcing the nurse's test results.
It sought to play down a wider risk.

"The CDC and the Texas Department of State Health Services remain confident that wider spread in the community can be prevented with proper public health measures, including ongoing contact tracing, health monitoring among those known to have been in contact with the index patient, and immediate isolations if symptoms develop," the CDC said.

Complete coverage on the Ebola outbreak - http://www.cnn.com/2014/10/12/health/ebola/index.html

I was reading this earlier today.


Someone is lying. Somehow a nurse in a protective suit and safety measures caught it. They do not know how. Somehow a measure must of been missed they said. Or it is easier to catch then reported.

What is going to start happening after this guy successfully made it here is more people are going to try. You will have more people lying about not having it. Getting on airplanes to travel. You know, those airplanes with closed in atmospheres. They will try and get here and elsewhere to seek help, in turn infecting others.

There needs to be a quarantine on all flights from those areas. You can also be tested earlier to get out of quarantine but at your expense.


Quarantine is the only way, you can not help people by teaching and explaining to them, when they think it is ****ing witchcraft and like handling dead bodies that are oozing. **** sakes, these are the same people that think you can get rid of hiv by raping virgin girls.

Fight it over there by quarantining it over there and restricted travel.

[Pasta Little Brioni]

Just brilliant for them to let people keep bringing this shit in to the country. Jfc. Uh like Valiant said it's time to take some measures to stop this shit from spreading to over here. Door to door fliers

[Eleazar]

Originally Posted by Valiant

I was reading this earlier today.


Someone is lying. Somehow a nurse in a protective suit and safety measures caught it. They do not know how. Somehow a measure must of been missed they said. Or it is easier to catch then reported.

Well, we aren't hearing all the details. It's entirely possible that this nurse did not follow all the protocol for dealing with this patient. Protocols are violated every day, either through ignorance or carelessness. Sterile violations can happen at any time in the operating theater for example.

It's more complicated than "she was wearing a protective suit, so how did she get it?". There has to be a certain way to take the suit off and dispose of it, for example.

I have posted in our Ebola thread in DC, that there are many questions about how easily it is to transmit the disease, if it can spread by air in close quarters, and what your danger would be sitting next to someone on a bus for example. There are a lot of people including some experts on Ebola who do not think this is settled science. This is by far the largest outbreak in history which means the virus has exponentially more chances to mutate.

The CDC and the White House are telling everyone there's nothing to see here, and that unless you get blood on you then you aren't going to get it, but that's not the whole story.

What is going to start happening after this guy successfully made it here is more people are going to try. You will have more people lying about not having it. Getting on airplanes to travel. You know, those airplanes with closed in atmospheres. They will try and get here and elsewhere to seek help, in turn infecting others.

We aren't doing anything meaningful at the country's airports to stop it, so of course if someone in Liberia got the disease he'd try to get to the US since it's the only chance he has got.

The problem is that there is no more of the drug that saved the American doctor, so he would get much better care here but his chances would still be slim.

There needs to be a quarantine on all flights from those areas. You can also be tested earlier to get out of quarantine but at your expense.

Quarantine is the only way, you can not help people by teaching and explaining to them, when they think it is ****ing witchcraft and like handling dead bodies that are oozing. **** sakes, these are the same people that think you can get rid of hiv by raping virgin girls.

Fight it over there by quarantining it over there and restricted travel.

I think there should be a ban on anyone entering the United States who has traveled to the affected area in the last 30 days.

Unfortunately, our government is not interested in dealing with the political ramifications of closing the borders in some way.

[DaFace]

[J Diddy]

Ebola? I hardly knew her.

[BWillie]

Originally Posted by DaFace

Awful short sighted cartoon. All people are wanting is preventative measures, and more measures taken so this DOESNT turn into something problematic.

[Dave Lane]

No people are frightened cowards that piss their pants when the wind blows. Thats different.

[Skyy God]

Originally Posted by Cochise

We aren't doing anything meaningful at the country's airports to stop it, so of course if someone in Liberia got the disease he'd try to get to the US since it's the only chance he has got.

The U.S. has implemented screening at 5 airports, covering 90% of flyers from West Africa. I'd argue they should funnel all incoming travelers to those airports, but it isn't true that we "aren't doing anything."

[Otter]

Originally Posted by DaFace

So...are gunshot wounds caused by fat people who cosumed too much alcohol while trying to light a cigarette while speeding?

DaFace, please don't go cosmo on us. You're one of the sane faces here.

[Eleazar]

Originally Posted by Cave Johnson

The U.S. has implemented screening at 5 airports, covering 90% of flyers from West Africa. I'd argue they should funnel all incoming travelers to those airports, but it isn't true that we "aren't doing anything."

I said "meaningful". We aren't doing anything meaningful as we are not restricting entry to people with the primary risk factor, travel to the affected area.

Even the half measures, such as screening for people who are actively symptomatic entering the country (and would have been "unlikely" to be permitted on board at their originating airport) are only in place at a couple of airports.

There is little question that travel restrictions would shut this down, but the government doesn't want to do anything for political reasons.

[Mr. Laz]

Originally Posted by Cave Johnson

The U.S. has implemented screening at 5 airports, covering 90% of flyers from West Africa. I'd argue they should funnel all incoming travelers to those airports, but it isn't true that we "aren't doing anything."

not until recently and even then the screening process sounds pretty weak.


"Do you have a fever?"
"NO"
"Do you feel sick?"
"No"
"Have you been in contact with anyone with Ebola?"
"No"
"Ok, welcome to the U.S."


pathetic ... anyone coming to the U.S. who has visited Africa within the incubation time should be quarantined until proven they don't have it. Period.

Anyone brought to the U.S. for treatment should be taken to a isolated physicality that specializes in dealing with communicably diseases, not just sprinkled around the U.S. near their home town and huge population centers.

This is not hair on fire panic talking ... it's common sense.

This idea that nobody will catch it in the U.S. has already turned out to be bullshit. I forget who said it but they INSISTED that there was absolutely no threat here in the U.S.

The people trying to play it off as media propaganda or panic by the small-minded are being naive or stupid.

The chance that even a small breakout could happen is simply not worth the risk.

[rabblerouser]

Originally Posted by Valiant

these are the same people that think you can get rid of hiv by raping virgin girls.

Wait...so, what you're saying is...

Baby rape voodoo DOESN'T cure muh dick of the AIDS??

[Mr. Laz]

Originally Posted by DaFace

https://i.imgur.com/0My0MP9.jpg

so anyone concerned about the handling of the Ebola disease in the U.S. is a drunk,fat idiot?

nice