Posted on 08/10/2014 12:46:23 AM PDT by Smokin' Joe
I have spent a little time compiling links to threads about the Ebola outbreak in the interest of having all the links in one thread for future reference.
Please add links to new threads and articles of interest as the situation develops.
Thank You all for you participation.
Stanley Gaye, president of the Liberian Community Association of Dallas-Fort Worth, said the 10,000-strong Liberian population in North Texas is skeptical of the CDC’s assurances because Ebola has ravaged their country.
“We've been telling people to try to stay away from social gatherings,” Gaye said at a community meeting Tuesday evening. Large get-togethers are a prominent part of Liberian culture.
“We need to know who it is so that they (family members) can all go get tested,” Gaye told The Associated Press. “If they are aware, they should let us know.”
Ebola symptoms can include fever, muscle pain, vomiting and bleeding, and can appear as long as 21 days after exposure to the virus. The disease is not contagious until symptoms begin, and it takes close contact with bodily fluids to spread.
The association's vice president encouraged all who may have come in contact with the virus to visit a doctor and she warned against alarm in the community.
“We don't want to get a panic going,” said vice president Roseline Sayon. “We embrace those people who are coming forward. Don't let the stigma keep you from getting tested.”
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Ebola case stokes concerns for Liberians in Texas
Associated Press By DAVID WARREN and LAURAN NEERGARD
9 minutes ago
https://news.yahoo.com/ebola-case-stokes-concerns-liberians-dallas-053920222.html
DALLAS (AP) — The first case of Ebola diagnosed in the U.S. has been confirmed in a man who recently traveled from Liberia to Dallas, sending chills through the area's West African community whose leaders urged caution to prevent spreading the virus.
The unidentified man was critically ill and has been in isolation at Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital since Sunday, federal health officials said Tuesday. They would not reveal his nationality or age.
Authorities have begun tracking down family, friends and anyone else who may have come in close contact with him and could be at risk. Officials said there are no other suspected cases in Texas.
At the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Director Tom Frieden said the man left Liberia on Sept. 19, arrived the next day to visit relatives and started feeling ill four or five days later. Frieden said it was not clear how the man became infected.
“I have no doubt that we'll stop this in its tracks in the U.S. But I also have no doubt that — as long as the outbreak continues in Africa — we need to be on our guard,” Frieden said, adding that it was possible someone who has had contact with the man could develop Ebola in the coming weeks.
“But there is no doubt in my mind that we will stop it here,” he said.
Stanley Gaye, president of the Liberian Community Association of Dallas-Fort Worth, said the 10,000-strong Liberian population in North Texas is skeptical of the CDC’s assurances because Ebola has ravaged their country.
“We've been telling people to try to stay away from social gatherings,” Gaye said at a community meeting Tuesday evening. Large get-togethers are a prominent part of Liberian culture.
“We need to know who it is so that they (family members) can all go get tested,” Gaye told The Associated Press. “If they are aware, they should let us know.”
Ebola symptoms can include fever, muscle pain, vomiting and bleeding, and can appear as long as 21 days after exposure to the virus. The disease is not contagious until symptoms begin, and it takes close contact with bodily fluids to spread.
The association's vice president encouraged all who may have come in contact with the virus to visit a doctor and she warned against alarm in the community.
“We don't want to get a panic going,” said vice president Roseline Sayon. “We embrace those people who are coming forward. Don't let the stigma keep you from getting tested.”
Frieden said he didn't believe anyone on the same flights as the patient was at risk.
“Ebola doesn't spread before someone gets sick and he didn't get sick until four days after he got off the airplane,” Frieden said.
Four American aid workers who became infected in West Africa have been flown back to the U.S. for treatment after they became sick. They were treated in special isolation facilities at hospitals in Atlanta and Nebraska. Three have recovered.
A U.S. doctor exposed to the virus in Sierra Leone is under observation in a similar facility at the National Institutes of Health.
The U.S. has only four such isolation units, but Frieden said there was no need to move the latest patient because virtually any hospital can provide the proper care and infection control.
The man, who arrived in the U.S. on Sept. 20, began to develop symptoms last Wednesday and sought care two days later. But he was released. At the time, hospital officials didn't know he had been in West Africa. He returned later as his condition worsened.
Blood tests by Texas health officials and the CDC separately confirmed his Ebola diagnosis Tuesday. State health officials described the patient as seriously ill. Goodman said he was able to communicate and was hungry.
The hospital is discussing if experimental treatments would be appropriate, Frieden said.
Since the summer months, U.S. health officials have been preparing for the possibility that an individual traveler could unknowingly arrive with the infection. Health authorities have advised hospitals on how to prevent the virus from spreading within their facilities.
Passengers leaving Liberia pass through rigorous screening, the country's airport authority said Wednesday. But those checks are no guarantee that an infected person won't get through and airport officials would be unlikely to stop someone not showing symptoms, according to Binyah Kesselly, chairman of the Liberia Airport Authority's board of directors.
CDC officials are helping staff at Monrovia's airport, where passengers are screened for signs of infection, including fever, and asked about their travel history. Plastic buckets filled with chlorinated water for hand-washing are present throughout the airport.
Liberia is one of the three hardest-hit countries in the epidemic, along with Sierra Leone and Guinea.
[snip]
One of the commentors over on the PANDEMIC FLU INFORMATION FORUM maade the following analysis of the Eric Ericson piece I posted earlier:
http://www.singtomeohmuse.com/viewtopic.php?t=5725&postdays=0&postorder=asc&start=2715
A few points about the timeline. and some questions.
The man arrived in Dallas on Saturday, the 20th.
1. Pushing his symptom onset date back from the 26th to the 24th makes it slightly more plausible that the man was experiencing at least some initial symptoms upon his arrival on the 20th. That would mean that his fellow travelers were more at risk than has been presented.
There’s another reason to believe that the man might have demonstrated symptoms earlier. Think about it — you don’t run to an emergency room at a hospital until you’ve been sick for a few days. Not *two* days. But CDC wants us to believe that the man began to show symptoms on the 24th and went to the ER on the 26th. That idea might fly if the man had also admitted that he had just come from Liberia and had presented himself, early and worried about a possible Ebola infection, out of an abundance of caution. But he admitted to no such thing (nor did his family).
While watching cases of Ebola in Liberia, one thing that has stood out to us are the heart rending photos and videos of Ebola patients in ETUs sitting on those plastic chairs, slightly ill but not overwhelmingly so, simply waiting for their fate, for the virus to really kick in. That takes a few days, and is one of the hardest things for me, from my remote position, to watch. I can’t imagine what that must be like. But the patients do often sit there, for days, before turn really sick — say sick enough, if one was in this country, to head to an emergency room.
If the first visit to the ER really did happen on the 24th, that makes it more likely that the patient was symptomatic on arrival, or became so very shortly thereafter.
2. What was the patient doing on the weekend of September 20th? Was there a gathering in his honor on the 20th or 21st? (Saturday or Sunday?). Was there a wedding? A community celebration? Where was the man on Monday and Tuesday? Why would CDC possibly have lied and said that the man only became symptomatic on the 26th rather than the 24th?
If this has happened, CDC will believe that it can handle the matter quietly. It will ask the Liberian community in Dallas to be circumspect about it all, to decline to talk to the press. (And the press is approaching the community via social media and almost certainly in person locally). CDC could scare the Liberian community with visions of “stigmatism” should people start talking. But the Liberians should know by now that only the most open of discussion can stop this virus, whether in Liberia or here.
I agree with those who stated that Frieden’s body language and tone looked more worried than he wanted to let on. Something about the equation presented doesn’t add up. And CDC’s official dismissal of legitimate questions and concerns doesn’t help anybody, which they will figure out as the surprises tumble out in a willy-nilly fashion.
Those are excellent questions.
Thanks for posting the revised time line. We now have additional information about US-EVD-Zero.
There’s a six to ten day window which the CDC and Texas Health have to investigate. Personal contacts are obvious, but others might not be so obvious.
In that 6-10 day period it is likely that the assumed wife went food shopping. In my neighborhood there’s a large Korean supermarket with a very broad selection of fresh fruit and vegetables not available elsewhere. I’ve noticed that the obvious foreigners are very particular in their selections, handling each item and inspecting it, turning it over several times and replacing rejects back on the pile. Fomites?
The store is fairly crowded during week days and packed on Saturday mornings.
Do you think such places are on the CDC/TX lists?
Local Dallas TV Station WFAA posted the following about a possible secondary Ebola case in Dallas.
The secondary case is a “Close associte” of Case Zero, but not family.
Thompson: Associate of Dallas Ebola patient under close monitoring
Marjorie Owens , WFAA 8:56 a.m. CDT October 1, 2014
http://www.wfaa.com/story/news/health/2014/10/01/thompson-dallas-county-ebola-patient-cases/16524303/
DALLAS — Due to close contact with a patient diagnosed with the Ebola virus, a second person is under the close monitoring of health officials as a possible second patient, said the director of Dallas County’s health department Wednesday morning in an interview with WFAA.
Zachary Thompson, the director of Dallas County Health and Human Services, says all those who’ve been in close contact with the diagnosed patient are being monitored as a precaution. However, Thompson pointed to one person in particular as a potential second case.
“Let me be real frank to the Dallas County residents, the fact that we have one confirmed case, there may be another case that is a close associate with this particular patient,” he said in a Wednesday interview with WFAA. “... So this is real. There should be a concern, but it’s contained to the specific family members and close friends at this moment.”
The director continued to assure residents that the public isn’t at risk as health officials have the virus contained.
Dallas County health director addresses Ebola case
Tuesday, the Center for Disease Control confirmed a patient at Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital Dallas was the first person to be diagnosed with the Ebola virus in the United States.
The patient left Liberia on September 19 and arrived in Dallas the following day. On September 26, he sought treatment at the hospital after becoming ill but was sent home with a prescription for antibiotics. Two days later, he was admitted with more critical symptoms, after requiring an ambulance ride to the hospital.
Local health officials say the patient was in contact with several children before he was hospitalized. Thompson says each of those children have been kept home and are under precautionary monitoring.
The Dallas County school district says they’re working closely with health officials.
“DISD is in contact with Dallas County Health Department regarding the Ebola investigation,” read a statement from Jon Dahlander, a spokesman with the district. “They are consulting with the County on any additional action that may need to be taken during the course of investigation. This is part of routine emergency operations during a health incident in the county. This is same protocol taken during things like flu and Tuberculosis cases.”
It would not hurt to be extra careful, especially since Western doctors (who were in Africa) got infected without knowing how that happened.
Based on the math I’ve been able to do, I think WHO/CDC is fudging its numbers, the reported ones.
The reported numbers aren’t even close to matching up with journalist reports of what they are seeing in front of them, with all the precautions and restrictions placed on them in these situations.
No cases in Southern Italy and France? None. That’s not underreporting.
This case in Dallas happened so much faster than they thought it would.
Oh, and if there is an R in Congress with a full set, they will use this and the ‘paralyzing enterovirus’ outbreak as an excuse to FINALLY close the southern border down and run it like you would any other national frontier.
Interesting dot connecting in this video:
Dallas Ebola Victim Acquired His Infection On His Aircraft +50% Probability
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vW_jvTSNvxo&feature=youtu.be
http://pissinontheroses.blogspot.com/2014/09/maximum-alert-dallas-ebola-victim-most.html
"Close monitoring" I hope that means quarantine
A real 'Sherlock moment', that.
http://pissinontheroses.blogspot.com/2014/09/maximum-alert-dallas-ebola-victim-most.html
CDC’s time line of the Dallas Ebola victim's flight date and symptom onset date indicates a greater than 50% probability that the Dallas Ebola victim ACQUIRED HIS INFECTION DURING HIS FLIGHT.
Per the Center For Disease Control’s very own Ebola simulation model, 50% of all Ebola infections develop symptoms five and a half days after infection. Given that the Dallas victim's symptom onset occurred within 6 days of his Liberian departure flight; it is most likely that he/she was infected on that flight by someone else on that flight who was actively shedding Ebola virus.
Since the Dallas victim is most likely a secondary infection, and are likely to not attract attention in any Emergency room until massive hemorrhaging has started.
Bttt
Racism.
And who would admit to being from Liberia if that was the policy.
Ivy Apartments
7225 Fair Oaks Ave,
Dallas, TX
How many people from that apartment complex were exposed to Ebola and went to the opening week end of the State Fair of Texas?!?
This past week end, Sept 27th-28th, was the opening week end of the Fair.
The name of the Case Zero infected is Thomas Eric Duncan.
See:
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