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To: Smokin' Joe

This seems strange to me. Perhaps ending childhood diseases (for the most part) has led us to too lax a situation concerning infectious diseases, and isolation.


13 posted on 08/16/2014 10:47:01 AM PDT by DoughtyOne (We'll know when he's really hit bottom. They'll start referring to him as White.)
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To: DoughtyOne
Perhaps ending childhood diseases (for the most part) has led us to too lax a situation concerning infectious diseases, and isolation.

I think that is part of the problem, and the era of antibiotics as we have known it is another part.

With the sense (accurate or otherwise) that virtually any bug can be defeated with a pill, I think many have become complacent about hygiene.

Then, with the whole 'germ free' thing, I still see people who will use germicidal hand cleaner touch surfaces and rub their eyes or put their fingers in their mouth...as if they don't fully understand what is going on. Maybe they don't, and just do what they do because they think it will make them 'safe'. Unfortunately, that complacency could produce unpleasant results.

But with Ebola, we are dealing with a pathogen which is lethal, easily enough communicated once the patient becomes symptomatic, and one we do not want to escape containment. The biohazard regimen and protective clothing/environment needed to keep such a patient close to supportive care, near research facilities (to learn more, and hopefully find a way to cure, or at least a vaccine) and yet isolated sufficiently are expensive, seldom needed, and would be a drain of resources on hospitals which are often financially strapped from tending to more mundane ailments with little to no compensation.

14 posted on 08/16/2014 1:07:32 PM PDT by Smokin' Joe (How often God must weep at humans' folly. Stand fast. God knows what He is doing.)
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