Posted on 05/19/2004 11:41:36 AM PDT by chance33_98
Hospital Quarantined After Smallpox Scare
London, KY (AP) -- Marymount Medical Center temporarily isolated employees, patients and visitors Tuesday after a patient turned up with symptoms that prompted concerns about smallpox, the hospital and a state health official said.
Dr. Rice Leach, Kentucky public health commissioner, said Tuesday night he had consulted with the Centers for Disease Control, and "the chances of it being smallpox are remote."
The quarantine was lifted at about 10 p.m. EDT.
"It was a reasonable thing for them to shut things down until they knew what they were dealing with," but it's now reasonable to merely isolate the patient and clarify the ailment, Leach said.
The patient was admitted with symptoms that resembled chicken pox, The Courier-Journal of Louisville reported Wednesday.
Marymount said in a statement that the patient is stable and undergoing tests.
The patient is a truck driver who fell ill at about 4:15 p.m. Tuesday while traveling on Interstate 75, the hospital said.
A representative of his company took the truck to the Wal-Mart distribution center in London, said Stacy Floden, a spokeswoman for the Kentucky Division of Emergency Management.
The distribution center, the ambulance that took the trucker to the hospital and the area of the hospital where the driver was admitted all were quarantined as a precaution, Floden said.
The last case of smallpox - a contagious, potentially fatal disease - in the United States was in 1949, according to the CDC's Web site.
So if it's not chicken pox, and it's not small pox, then what the hell was it?
I find this a weird statement.
It was reasonable to shut things down until they knew what they were dealing with
But
the patient is now isolated
and they have to clarify the ailment.
In other words, they still don't know what they're dealing with.
There are tons of pox viruses. Could be any one of those. Or it could be something altogether different.
Not yet. It can take time to identify the organism causing the illness.
"So if it's not chicken pox, and it's not small pox, then what the hell was it?"
Could be any of a number of things, frankly. Smallpox is the least likely of them.
Pox Viruses:
http://web.uct.ac.za/depts/mmi/jmoodie/pox2.html
Probably shingles, had that about three years ago on the side of my face and scalp. I thought I was going to die it was so painful.
The thing that killed me is that they say the chance of being smallpox is remote, which means they still don't know what it is, and haven't completely ruled out smallpox, so why lift the quarantine?
Ping.
The chance of it being smallpox is remote, exceedingly remote. Quarantining the hospital is probably overdoing it and isolation procedures are probably sufficient. I don't know if there is a quick test that can be done that rules out smallpox (my boss is out of town or I would ask him). It could be that was done and quarantine was determine to be unnecessary.
I will say that the hospital probably doesn't take these things lightly. They would quarantine if they thought quarantine were necessary. They don't want an outbreak of smallpox (or any other disease) any more than anybody else does.
The chance of smallpox is a deadly threat - especially considering the high numbers of people NOT vaccinated!
My kids have been vaccinated and had their shots for everything including Yellow Fever, Plague, etc!
To all the people claiming the shots can kill - yes a shot can kill maybe a tiny percentage at max - but the disease will definitely kill 40% PLUS.
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