Slashdot Mirror
After Dallas Ebola Diagnosis, CDC Raises Estimate of Patient's Possible Contacts
As reported by Bloomberg News, The Washington Post, and other outlets, the Liberian patient whose diagnosis of Ebola infection marks him as the first such case to have been first diagnosed within the United States may have had contact with more people than previously estimated, and 80 people in the Dallas area are now
believed to have come into contact with him. While Bloomberg reports that this larger group of potential contacts is "being monitored for symptoms," the Washington Post's slightly later story says that, in keeping with the best current knowledge about Ebola's spread,
"Dallas County Health and Human Services Director Zachary Thompson said that these [newly identified contacts] are not being watched or monitored and are not showing any symptoms of the illness. Only the immediate family members of the victim are being regularly monitored for Ebola symptoms; they've been ordered to stay at home and avoid contact with others."
Ok everyone! Time to freakout!
Please ignore the fact that the majority of Africa has this under control, and the hardest hit areas are those with virtually no sanitation. This could be us!!! Did we mention Plagues are a harbinger of the apocalypse? Worry about your souls as well!
Syria? ... nothing to see there, move along sheeple. Please remain distracted, it's for your own safety.
Maybe blown out of proportion but Ebola is far more lethal virus than H1N1. Also, deaths were mostly people who were ill already or had other issues. Ebola doesn't discriminate. On the other hand, the dumb nurse/doctor who was told that the patient was in Liberia and had Ebola like symptoms and still sent the dude back home needs to get fired. Today. Now. Maybe he/she/it thought that Liberia was a town in Missouri.
Total mortality=lethality*infection rate
There's no serious reason to believe that second variable has any hope of getting anywhere near thousands in the US.
Can you give us a cite?
If I understand correctly, while there have been about 150 doctors and nurses who have died from the disease, none of them were wearing protective suits. In fact, all of them were working in 2nd tier clinics. All of these clinics had poor to no infection controls in place. Nobody has died in a major hospital which had infection controls in place. This strain of Ebola is not airborne – yet.
A lot of people are directing outrage at the healthcare worker who dropped the ball, but what about the patient? He reportedly didn't tell the nurse/doctor "I just came here from Liberia a few days ago and was recently in contact with people who died of Ebola." which is what any sane person would have done. I'm guessing he did the opposite, and downplayed it like "Have you been to Africa? / Yes I used to live in Africa."
You're forgetting that anyone who gets it now is an idiot because they had direct contact with an infected person's bodily fluids. People who are idiots tend to accidentally kill themselves in a variety of ways so curing them from ebola wouldn't solve the problem. You'd need to cure them from being stupid and that hasn't been invented yet.
Informing the public isn't the same as creating panic.
People like you would have the whole world burning before deciding to tell people there is a fire.
The Kruger Dunning explains most post on
How the fuck can the latter be stated with any kind of confidence in the same sentence as the former?
For your security, this post has been encrypted with ROT-13, twice.
I keep hearing that the reason it's so bad in Africa is that they are incompetent in handling it. Surely we're more competent at such things.
Oh crap, now I'm worried!
Slow down, cowboy! It has been 4 hours since you last posted. You must wait another few hours.
But "regretfully, that information was not fully communicated throughout the full team," said Dr. Mark Lester, executive vice president of Texas Health Resources. ... The CDC has been vigorously emphasizing the need for a travel history."
Duncan was sent home with painkillers and antibiotics, only to return in worse condition on September 28. That's when he was isolated.
"It was a mistake. They dropped the ball," Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said of the miscommunication at the hospital.
"You don't want to pile on them, but hopefully this will never happen again.
Gupta said this mishap doesn't make sense.
"A nurse did ask the question, and he did respond that he was in Liberia, and that wasn't transmitted to people who were in charge of his care," he said. "There's no excuse for this."
And one of Duncan's friends said he was the one who contacted the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention with concerns that the hospital wasn't moving quickly enough after Duncan's second hospital visit.
But the hospital said the patient's condition "did not warrant admission" last week.
http://www.cnn.com/2014/10/02/...
"Didn't warrant admission" AKA "He wasnt sick enough for anyone to care, and we were to stupid to realize just how dangerous the situation could be." Heads need to roll for this.
Talk about a retard. The flu is a virus and as such is not something that even responds to current forms of medical treatment. You might be able to stop the spread of it with vaccines and extreme isolation but that's about it.
The flu is transmissible BEFORE you manifest symptoms. You can be wandering around infecting friends and coworkers before you even know you are sick.
Ebola is not like that.
The flu also spreads much more easily from person to person.
Two entirely different situations.
A Pirate and a Puritan look the same on a balance sheet.
these [newly identified contacts] are not being watched or monitored and are not showing any symptoms of the illness
How does that work? If you are not watching or monitoring them how do you know they aren't showing any symptoms?
You're forgetting that anyone who gets it now is an idiot.
Really? So a health worker that comes into contact with an Ebola patient that is undiagnosed and gets ill is an idiot?
'But "regretfully, that information was not fully communicated throughout the full team," '
My experience from working in ICU and ER years ago:
Can't know, but when I hear phrases like "full team", that's what I am reminded of. Very very unfortunate. Beyond all of the additional exposure, the guy didn't get the care he likely needed to have a chance at survival.
Actually, I'd look to fire somebody higher-up. Communication issues like these are cultural and systemic -- organizational problems. I feel it is always a bit too easy to punish the front line folks without holding responsible higher-ups to any account.