http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/oct/07/ebola-crisis-substandard-equipment-nurse-positive-spain
“The nurse was in a stable condition. She had alerted the ministry of a slight fever on 30 September and been checked into a hospital in Alcorcón, on the outskirts of Madrid, with a high fever on Monday.
The nurse, who is married with no children, was transferred to Carlos III hospital early on Tuesday morning.
El Mundo reported that it was the nurse who asked to be tested for Ebola, having to insist repeatedly on being tested before it was done on Monday.”
Hmmm. The story keeps changing. Figures.
The other thing that we’re not hearing here is that it has become a political football, since there are elections coming up. All of the different party leaders are posturing and charging everybody else at all levels with incompetence or wilful neglect or whatever and demanding their heads (minister of health, regional health departments, etc.). But it’s not going to solve the problem.
Actually, I don’t think politics are particularly relevant in this case, which appears to be the result of human stupidity or perhaps fear: why didn’t she go back to the hospital where she worked, which surely would have known her medical and relevant personal history? I suspect that she may not have mentioned the ebola contact until she realized that she couldn’t deny it any longer.
That’s always the problem with a disease like this; I’m sure many plague carriers reacted the same way. The African patients such as Patrick Sawyer and Duncan reacted the same way, acting almost as if they thought they could outrun it.
Everybody obviously needs to beef up their procedures, and they probably only do it when it’s too late. I think we’ll find the same thing in Dallas, alas, where they are being way too dismissive of the whole thing.