Posted on 10/13/2014 8:18:43 AM PDT by Rockitz
How did it happen?
That’s the big question as U.S. health officials investigate the case of a Dallas health worker who treated an Ebola patient and ended up with the disease herself.
These are professionals and this is the United States, where the best conditions and protective gear are available, unlike in West Africa, where the Ebola epidemic is raging in much poorer conditions.
The health worker wore protective gear while having extensive contact with Thomas Eric Duncan, the Liberian man who died Wednesday of Ebola at Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital.
Officials say she has not been able to pinpoint any breach in infection control protocols, although there apparently was a breach, they say.
Second Ebola Case
Experience shows that health workers can safely care for Ebola patients, “but we also know that it’s hard and that even a single breach can result in contamination,” Dr. Thomas Frieden, director of the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said Sunday on CBS’ “Face the Nation.”
The situation also raises fresh concerns about whether any U.S. hospital can safely handle Ebola patients, as health officials have insisted is possible.
“A breach in protocol could be anything from not taking your gloves off the right way to taking a dialysis catheter out of a dialysis patient and not disposing of it the right way,” explains Dr. Darrin D’Agostino, Chair of Internal Medicine UNT.
...
Q: How else could infection have happened?
A: Some of the garb the health worker takes off might brush against a surface and contaminate it. New data suggest that even tiny droplets of a patient’s body fluids can contain the virus, Maki said.
...
(Excerpt) Read more at dfw.cbslocal.com ...
That's just silly.
It is a teleporting virus. If you are within a 10 mile radius, it teleports into your body.
If HIV is spread even through a condom, could ebola be spread even through latex gloves?
I agree, it spreads widely
Firestone has proved that you don’t need a lot of high tech equipment to contain Ebola. They made their own designed containment unit and people wore chemical spill suits when treating their sick workers and their family members and stopped the disease from spreading.
You do realize the people in the magic box are just pretending, don’t you? This may come as a shock, but giant gorillas don’t roam remote islands and there’s no such thing as a talking scarecrow; don’t even get me started on flubber...
Let's all keep hoping and praying she doesn't die. She is adorable - such a shame if that is indeed the person who contact ebola.
A post from comments section.......
United States, 7 hours ago
USCIS dot org website shows an 8/15/2014 order for ‘expedited visas’ from the affected countries if one has a relative living in the USA. Very quietly done. According to the internet at least 13K have come from three of the countries but I think that’s terribly low. That’s how the TX case got here - he knew he’d been exposed and got the visa.
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2789825/Texas-health-care-worker-tests-positive-Ebola.html#ixzz3G2ifIaAF ;
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Interesting story. Too bad Mr Duncan didn’t just make the (quicker) trip to the Firestone plantation clinic.
Missing from the story is that, while it’s only one confirmed case of transmission that occurred in the country, Ebola entering the country “in the wild” vs. deliberate to bring someone in for treatment, has a 100% transmission rate....even after “being contained”.
CDC MORON just now:
“We haven’t identified the breach in protocol that led to the 2nd Ebola infection”...
But we’ll still throw her under the bus, so there.
That's not why CDC takes the following position:"(Question) Are U.S. hospitals ready to care for patients with Ebola virus disease (EVD)? (Answer) Yes – any U.S. hospital that is following CDC's infection control recommendations and can isolate a patient in a private room is capable of safely managing a patient with EVD. CDC recommends that U.S. hospitals isolate the patient in a private room and implement standard, contact, and droplet precautions.
They take that position because, in the absence of travel restrictions or quarantine at POEs, Ebola will be widespread in the USA and multiple hospitals at varying levels of preparedness will be dealing with it.
If the answer to "Are U.S. hospitals ready to care for patients with Ebola virus disease (EVD)?" is "no", then the whole open borders/free movement in the interior paradigm falls apart, and nobody of any importance in DC, Republican OR Democrat, wants THAT to happen.
Bottom Line: This virus is effectively airborne.
USCIS dot org website shows an 8/15/2014 order for ‘expedited visas’ from the affected countries if one has a relative living in the USA. Very quietly done. According to the internet at least 13K have come from three of the countries but I think that’s terribly low. That’s how the TX case got here - he knew he’d been exposed and got the visa.
True, but presumably the people in the apartment had even more exposure and none of them have symptoms (yet) after 15 days and counting.
I think he hoped he would be given experimental drugs in the US if he ended up with the disease. While that did not happen, his case has exposed some inherent weaknesses in our medical establishment. If Ebola spreads further, the lessons learned in treating Mr. Duncan might hopefully save other lives.
inherent weaknesses?
Our medical system was never designed for this kind of thing, which is why one case has shut down a major big city hospital for however long.
A link to this thread has been posted on the Ebola Surveillance Thread
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