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

[smith11]

would a white president cut off travel from the African countries with ebola outbreaks to the US?

[ChiliConCarnage]

From the OP

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.

For some good news, Senegal should be declared Ebola-free today and Nigeria Monday as they hit 42 consecutive days without ebola cases after early outbreaks.

Rather than demonstrating the effectiveness of any particular method of Ebola control, the case of Nigeria, and the less severe case of Senegal, confirm what we’ve known about the disease from the beginning. Despite its high mortality rate, Ebola is relatively difficult to transmit from person to person, and under normal circumstances, it’s relatively easy to contain with common-sense public health measures: isolating those infected, limiting the exposure of health care workers, and tracking those who may have come in contact with them.

Despite early lapses, Nigeria—a country that’s not known for reliable public institutions or health care infrastructure—was able to get the outbreak under control. And despite the early lapses in Dallas, the U.S. should be able to do the same.

[Mr. Laz]

Originally Posted by Iowanian

I'm just curious what the magic number of Americans that is acceptable to get or die due to Ebola before it's ok to become upset with the people who have allowed this shit to happen?

Is 1 death ok? ooops
10?
100?

Already past it for me

I've been taking shit from people for weeks about the shitty way this has been handled.

Sheer stupidity to just half-ass the situation

[Mr. Laz]

Originally Posted by DaFace

I don't think anyone's saying that it's OK for people to die. I just haven't seen anyone have any reasonable suggestions about what we're expecting the CDC to do that they haven't already been doing.

That said, the Dallas hospital lack of following protocol, and the woman getting on the plane, are both pretty major oversights. It's not like every person on the plane is going to be infected or anything, but it's entirely possible that a handful could be. Hopefully not and they can get it contained again relatively quickly.

1. All ebola medical patients go to a isolated medical facility with a staff specifically trained for handle communicable diseases. Not just shipped off to Omaha,Atlanta etc.

2. All passages entering the U.S. who have visited Africa within the last 2 months have to medically tested and/or quarantined until they are proven to not have ebola

3. General Alert to all hospitals to quarantine any patient coming into hospital showing Ebola symptoms until evaluated by someone who can determine if they have it.

not that complicated



instead we get 'oh it can never happen in the U.S., just be careful' half-assed routine like we were dealing with yearly flu season

[BIG_DADDY]

Everyone in here still alive?

[Donger]

Originally Posted by Mr. Laz

Already past it for me

I've been taking shit from people for weeks about the shitty way this has been handled.

Sheer stupidity to just half-ass the situation

You've taken shit because you said a silly thing.

[DaFace]

Originally Posted by Mr. Laz

1. All ebola medical patients go to a isolated medical facility with a staff specifically trained for handle communicable diseases. Not just shipped off to Omaha,Atlanta etc.

This largely does not exist. At least not in the level necessary to treat more than a handful of people. And how are you planning to transport people to get to such a facility?

2. All passages entering the U.S. who have visited Africa within the last 2 months have to medically tested and/or quarantined until they are proven to not have ebola

This is hundreds of thousands of people, and if you haven't noticed, our medical system isn't cheap. What you suggesting would not only make it impossible to get aid into/out of Africa (causing the disease to spread there even faster), it would likely cost hundreds of millions of dollars.

3. General Alert to all hospitals to quarantine any patient coming into hospital showing Ebola symptoms until evaluated by someone who can determine if they have it.

not that complicated

Well, yeah. That's exactly what the protocol says to do. Dallas just didn't follow it. Others will learn from that.

instead we get 'oh it can never happen in the U.S., just be careful' half-assed routine like we were dealing with yearly flu season

No one ever said that no one would be infected in the U.S.

[Aries Walker]

Fox News, offering some much-needed sanity.

[Mr. Laz]

Originally Posted by DaFace

This largely does not exist. At least not in the level necessary to treat more than a handful of people. And how are you planning to transport people to get to such a facility?

This is hundreds of thousands of people, and if you haven't noticed, our medical system isn't cheap. What you suggesting would not only make it impossible to get aid into/out of Africa (causing the disease to spread there even faster), it would likely cost hundreds of millions of dollars.

Well, yeah. That's exactly what the protocol says to do. Dallas just didn't follow it. Others will learn from that.

No one ever said that no one would be infected in the U.S.

You've have basically taken the attitude that a few people are going to die and that's ok.

I hope Karma is listening.

[BIG_DADDY]

Originally Posted by cdcox

The CDC estimates that between 3000 and 49,000 people die of influenza every year. .

The CDC is completely full of shit. I don't believe anything they say. They estimated over 60 million people got H1N1 after they dropped testing because the pandemic wasn't happening. Do you even know a single person that got it?

[DaFace]

Originally Posted by Mr. Laz

You've have basically taken the attitude that a few people are going to die and that's ok.

I hope Karma is listening.

I'm sorry, but if you can't grasp the concept that we won't be able to save everyone from everything no matter how much money we throw at it, there's no point in trying to help you understand the situation.

[Mr. Laz]

I've changed my mind, the director of the CDC shouldn't be fired.


He should be reassigned to help organized the Ebola containment efforts on the front lines in Africa.


I bet he tries harder if his ass is on the line.

[Mr. Laz]

Originally Posted by DaFace

I'm sorry, but if you can't grasp the concept that we won't be able to save everyone from everything no matter how much money we throw at it, there's no point in trying to help you understand the situation.

If you can't grasp that incompetence and lack of effort led to this, not more money, then i can't help you understand much of anything.

[Donger]

Medics responded to the Pentagon this morning for a report of a woman on a tour bus who was sick and vomiting. When they learned that she had recently arrived from Africa, the hazmat team was called out of “a complete abundance of caution,” Pentagon Force Protection Agency spokesman Chris Layman told ARLnow.com.

A large portion of the Pentagon south parking lot has been cordoned off with crime tape, and police are telling those who don’t work at the Pentagon to avoid the immediate surrounding area.

The woman has been transported via ambulance to Inova Fairfax Hospital. The county’s medical director also responded to the call and is at the hospital with the patient, according to scanner traffic.

Layman said the bus was at the Pentagon for a tour of the Pentagon Memorial. Pedestrian and vehicle traffic has been shut down around it.

A tipster with knowledge of the emergency response tells ARLnow.com that the patient recently traveled from the West African nation of Sierra Leone. That tip could not be immediately confirmed.

Read more: http://wtop.com/41/3724393/Ebola-sca...#ixzz3GQBaVlKR

[Skyy God]

Originally Posted by Mr. Laz

If you can't grasp that incompetence and lack of effort led to this, not more money, then i can't help you understand much of anything.

Dallas Presbyterian was woefully incompetent in treating Duncan and protecting their nurses. Hopefully other hospitals will learn from their mistakes.