Posted on 05/15/2014 2:06:02 AM PDT by blueplum
On Tuesday morning in Florida, Orlando Health physicians and a state public health official spoke with reporters about the second MERS (Middle East Respiratory Syndrome) case at Dr. Phillips Hospital, where the patient is currently being treated.
The patient with MERS initially came to Orlando Regional Medical Center to bring a relative in for testing, according to Dr. Ken Michaels, the health system’s medical director for occupational health. The care team admitted him to the hospital on May 8, when Dr. Michaels said the patient came to the emergency room at Dr. Phillips Hospital displaying possible symptoms of pneumonia. (The physicians continued to use the pronoun “he” in the news conference, although neither the patient’s gender or age have been confirmed.)
snip
It was reported yesterday that the patient flew on May 1 from Saudi Arabia to Orlando, Fla., making stops in London, Boston, and Atlanta before reaching his final destination. The patient is a resident of Saudi Arabia.
The mortality rate from the MERS infection, a coronavirus from the same family as SARS (Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome), is 30 percent, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Symptoms of the respiratory infection include coughing, fever, and shortness of breath, which can lead to fatal pneumonia.
(Excerpt) Read more at boston.com ...
Atlanta, London, Boston, Orlando.
Add up the numbers and he likely came in contact with 3,000 people as a minimum with the planes, the airport, the security folks, and the medical staff.
Statistically.....you’d have to figure at least ten got something from him, and they are spreading it currently. Unless luck just happens to occur....I don’t see how you avoid an epidemic on this episode.
I have to admit that I don’t think this was random. How many others like him are among us now?
I’m really not a conspiracy-minded guy, but this has the hair on the back of my neck standing up!
Ping!
The connection between the two patients will be discussed at length, I think. They might know each other.
I would comment on this...having read a fair bit over the plague in London (1665). Getting some disease like this doesn’t mean you automatically die. If you have a weakened immune system (especially if you had TB)...your odds of surviving are pretty much zero. That plague in London really cleansed society in England a good bit, and left the strong to carry on for the next couple of centuries. I’ll also point out that various medical treatments discussed in 1665, sold to the public as wonder-drugs....had ZERO effect. Having people around to care for you...ensuring you didn’t get dehydrated, and that you got enough calories to survive each day....probably meant more than any treatment of the time.
I just read that this is not as “catchy” as we think.
more info on Indiana fellow, admitted to Community Hospital, Munster, Indiana. ( I had to look up Munster - it’s a bedroom suburb of Chicago)
left Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, on April 24 and took two planes and a bus to travel back to Indiana via London and Chicago.
http://www.sfgate.com/health/article/1st-MERS-virus-case-in-U-S-concerns-California-5452707.php
Florida fellow was employed at a hospital in Jeddah, Saudi.
for now, it’s just kinda odd, I think. If a third one shows up, then more than odd.
that’s a good thing for us. I think pepsionice is right about the level of care making a huge difference in survivability.
Diversity is so grand isn’t it?
Not quite sure what you mean, but diversity is what keeps diseases like this from running through a population like a wildfire.
Not many people in the United States go around kissing camels.
Is this a biological attack on the U.S.?
Important note: the incubation period for MERS-CoV is usually about five days, but can be as long as 14 days.
In practical terms, when someone displays symptoms, it means that every human contact they have had in the last two weeks is at risk, and if they were infected, the clock is running for them to exhibit symptoms.
This is why potentially epidemic causing pathogens needs to be thought of as “coming in waves.” It also means that there are “troughs between the waves” that can last up to two weeks when nobody seems to be sick, and the inclination is to think the danger has passed.
It also indicates to some extent *how* the disease is being passed. If people are exhibiting symptoms sporadically, then they were likely infected one or a few individually. But if a whole bunch of people show symptoms at once, they may have all been infected at the same time.
Then there is as yet little understood phenomenon of individuals who are “super carriers”. Unlike most people, who might infect a few others, super carriers can infect dozens. The classical example is Typhoid Mary.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Typhoid_Mary
And this brings up those who are infected and communicable, but never develop disease symptoms. Because of this they are seldom detected, so are not isolated, and can continue to infect during much of the time others would have been incapacitated with symptoms.
Has anyone read or heard any mention about the “families” these two MERS infected health care workers were visiting in the U.S.? The Indiana patient is supposedly a U. S. Citizen. The Orlando patient, a Saudi, was supposedly visiting family.
Post to me or FReep mail to be on/off the Bring Out Your Dead ping list.
The purpose of the “Bring Out Your Dead” ping list (formerly the “Ebola” ping list) is very early warning of emerging pandemics, as such it has a high false positive rate.
So far the false positive rate is 100%.
At some point we may well have a high mortality pandemic, and likely as not the “Bring Out Your Dead” threads will miss the beginning entirely.
*sigh* Such is life, and death...
How many others like him are among us now?
***
Yeah, they are probably sending us more human bombs right now. Jihad by viral infection.
Not many people in the United States go around kissing camels.
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Someone posted an article related to MERS that described how many products used in the ME contain camel urine. This piece also claimed that they actually drink camel urine mixed with camel milk for health reasons.
This is real peachy. Thanks for the ping Joe!
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