Posted on 10/17/2014 5:55:03 PM PDT by Capt. Tom
Thomas Eric Duncan, who had ebola , flew into this country from Liberia and mingled and interacted with family, friends and others.
After a few days here he got so sick from ebola, he went to the Hospital in Dallas, but was sent home because he was misdiagnosed.
About 4 more days of mingling with others while still showing the symptoms, he was so sick he went back to the Dallas hospital by ambulance.
The CDC estimates about 84 people in Dallas had contact with him one way or the other.
Additionally the people on the airplanes he flew in could be possible ebola targets. That’s a lot of people in total.
Yet the only people that came in contact with him that have come down with ebola symptoms are 2 nurses at the Dallas Hospital. ((And they supposedly wore protective gear.)
Statistically , why aren’t there more infections?? This seems strange to me. -Tom
It hasn’t been 21 days (maximum ebola incubation period) since he was isolated.
It’s as though the only way to catch ebola is to wear a protective suit.
He took three flight to get to Dallas with a total 700-800 fellow passengers. That was a month ago and not have turned up with Ebola.
More shoes will drop.
The intent is to play it as “nothing”.
Note Friedan saying you can’t get Ebola on a bus but you can give it.
And Brak Ubama stating he “ kissed and hugged” nurses who had been exposed, implying that it is no big deal.
Then take note of Ubama science czar John P Holdren and his position on depopulating the United States.
The amount of virus shed by the victims goes up exponentially as the disease progresses. The nurses were with Duncan when the risk was the greatest.
Supposedly, at no time when Duncan was on any aircraft was he contagious because he was not yet exhibiting any symptoms.
His family has been in isolation for days. We really don’t know what is going on in there.
It seems strange to me too. Three possibilities as I see it:
1. They knew he was likely infected and took every precaution.
2. They were just lucky.
3. It is seriously less contagious in the early and middle stages.
May be Duncan was not the source of the nurses’ ebola. How’s that for a twist?
The greatest risk historically comes from contact with a patient in very late stage Ebola nearing death when the viral load is at peak, and also with the body of the patient after death, with that peak viral load still capable of infecting those who touch the body or anything in contact with it. Those who worked with Duncan at this point would have been the last exposures. Maybe they got better at protecting themselves as the likelihood of transmission increased. Maybe the experimental treatment lessened the viral load but the damage was already done and Duncan could not be saved. Or, maybe there are more cases coming.
And after he was turned away from the hospital, he went back home, stayed in his room and cleaned up after himself in the bathroom. Still, hard to believe that one of his family didn’t get it. But there is still time.
Actually, it’s not odd at all.
It appears that Ebola is spread only by contact with body fluids. Before symptoms appear, that’s pretty unlikely without very intimate contact, and anyway it is likely that little if any virus is in most body fluids except possibly blood.
Once symptoms appear, body fluids become more and more saturated with the virus, with the load increasing by many orders of magnitude and the virus becoming found in more and more fluids.
To top it off, it’s a hemorraghic fever. People bleed all over the place and develop explosive diarrhea and projectile vomiting.
So the fluids are MUCH more heavily contaminated with virus and those fluids are flying all over the place. That’s why so many health care workers in Africa get infected but relatively few people who have contact during the early stages of the illness.
So far (cross fingers) that seems to be holding true in this country too.
Rush made this point today.
I was thinking the same thing the other day.They only reporting positive results of Health Care workers.Too quiet.
That runs counter to published reports that he had soiled every mattress in the apartment.
The nurses were in contact with him when he was most contagious?
My guess.
It does show that more than casual contact may be needed to contract the virus from another person.
The nurses were in closer contact with his sweat and waste, perhaps vomit.
I heard Ben Carson today make the excellent point that infection could have occurred when removing the protective gear, which made sense.
If not done correctly, in proper procedure or order, infectious material from the patient on the gear can reach the person removing the gear.
Obviously not everyone near an Ebola patient catches it. The nurses undoubtedly contacted his bodily fluids/waste.
They handled his waste/mucus.
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