What is stranger is that she, like all the other people who had been in contact with the missionary, was supposedly being monitored by the hospital. They were all told to take their temperature twice a day and report any change immediately to the hospital.
She did so, and was then referred to her local out patient “walk-in clinic” instead of being told to come immediately to the first hospital (Carlos III). The second hospital examined her and, because her fever was very slight and didn’t reach the level at which they had to take action, sent her home with ibuprofen! She tried again later, and again she was sent home because her fever wasn’t “high enough.”
When she finally showed up at the emergency room, she supposedly already had hemorrhages, etc. and a very high fever. At that point, she was still allowed to sit there for 4 hours, and then finally sent back to the bigger hospital when someone realized that it actually WAS ebola!
She says she told them every time that she had been exposed (actually, she’s not saying anything, and this information comes mostly from her husband). Some of the places that saw her dispute this, but I think that they were so busy clinging to their guidelines that they just ignored it.
Apparently the guidelines were developed to keep everybody in the world who had a slight fever from getting paranoid about ebola and overwhelming the hospitals, but they never took into consideration the fact that a high fever generally begins with a low fever, and that people who are told to take an anti-inflammatory are going to keep their fevers artificially low until it’s too late.
That said, the real mystery is why the doctors supposedly monitoring the group missed one of the basic symptoms.
I think, personally, that it’s from the false assurances that the authorities (everywhere, including here) have given: “Oh, it’s hard to catch, Europeans aren’t likely to get it, don’t panic when you have a little fever, etc.” I agree that people shouldn’t panic, but a little prudence were certainly be welcome!
I agree. I don’t want people to panic, but I do want to see real caution by those who are supposed to be “in the know”. It concerns me that hospitals seem to ignore the information that’s been given to them by the patients. Are they being overwhelmed by hypochondriacs already? Is everyone in the ER saying they’ve returned from Ebola-stricken countries, or worked with those patients? If not, they have no excuse.
I can definitely see that happening. The problem is probably that they told her to "call the hospital", rather than give her the name and number of a specific person who had personal knowledge of her involvement with caring for the priest who had Ebola, and who could activate the processes for isolating and testing her.
“Apparently the guidelines were developed to keep everybody in the world who had a slight fever from getting paranoid about ebola and overwhelming the hospitals, but they never took into consideration the fact that a high fever generally begins with a low fever, and that people who are told to take an anti-inflammatory are going to keep their fevers artificially low until it’s too late.”
At some point EARLY in the protocol there should be a spot where they ask “did you have contact with a known case of Ebola? That alone will screen out 99.9999% of the paranoids.