Posted on 08/18/2014 1:55:05 PM PDT by nickcarraway
In 1972, a full four years before the Ebola virus even had a name, Dr. Thomas Cairns was a young doctor doing missionary work in the dense jungles of Zaire — a sprawling central African nation now known as the Democratic Republic of Congo.
A very sick patient came into Cairns' clinic and died before doctors could offer a diagnosis. This was not particularly extraordinary, given the panoply of exotic infectious diseases native to the region. The local authorities requested an autopsy to see if they couldn’t figure out what killed this person so quickly. During the procedure, Cairns nicked himself with a scalpel, drawing blood. It was that moment that he became, quite possibly, the first non-African Ebola patient — and would become, almost certainly, the first non-African Ebola survivor.
"Twelve days later I became acutely ill," Cairns said. "I had a very high fever, intense aching, headache, vomiting, diarrhea, rash. My skin was peeling. I lost hearing in one ear for weeks. My hair turned white. We didn't know what was happening to me."
Minn. Man May Have Survived Ebola Before Disease Had NameNBC NEWS CHANNEL
The illness that was ravaging Cairns' body was unlike anything any of the local medical staff had ever seen. "We thought it was going to kill me," he said. "That was a real possibility."
(Excerpt) Read more at nbcnews.com ...
Go a more exact link? There are dozens of links on that page.
That one worked, thanks.
Has he been checked for antibodies for a vaccine or a cure for those infected? I heard it has a 95% fatality rate; why do the few survive?
Thanks. Maybe they got too many complaints from atheist readers who saw “missionary work.” After all, they see them as the plague.
“During the procedure, Cairns nicked himself with a scalpel, drawing blood. It was that moment that he became, quite possibly, the first non-African Ebola patient — and would become, almost certainly, the first non-African Ebola survivor.... “
“Cairns, 71, now semi-retired and working at an urgent care facility in a suburb of Minneapolis, did more than just survive. Health officials were so enamored with the level of Ebola antibodies they discovered in his blood that they took samples to store in the CDC freezers in Atlanta, to study and to use to help treat those who may come in contact with the virus in the future. (Over those initial years, Cairns gave several specimens to health workers but his antibody levels eventually lessened as he grew older, making his blood less immune to the disease than it once was.) “
Thank God for his recovery to help others.
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