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Positive Ebola Test In Second Texas Health Worker
mdsolar tips news that a second healthcare worker at Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital has tested positive for the Ebola virus. Like the nurse who tested positive a few days ago, this worker was involved in providing care to Eric Duncan, the Liberian man who seems to have brought the virus into the country. The CDC is working to identify further exposures to the local community, though the Times says a second infection among the 70+ medical professionals who were around Duncan is not unexpected. The largest U.S. nurses union says a lack of proper protective gear and constantly changing protocols are to blame for exposures. Meanwhile, the World Health Organization says infection rates in West Africa are such that within a few months, they can expect 10,000 new Ebola cases a week. They also say the death rate for the current outbreak has risen to 70 percent.
The problem is that in the real outbreak areas (parts of west Africa, especially Liberia) there simply isn't enough protective gear to go around, let alone facilities or trained personnel to use them. In many places they are doing triage, sending patients home who they know to have Ebola because there simply isn't room. Now, if two trained nurses wearing most of the necessary protective gear got sick treating a patient in a modern hospital setting, how do you think average people are going to do treating their sick family members? At that point, things spiral rapidly out of control, which is exactly what we've seen in those regions and is why the WHO says if they don't get more beds, supplies, and doctors in place soon we'll see more than a million infections before the end of January.
So far we have a small handful of US infections - mostly related to one guy who brought it in the country and the healthcare workers who didn't follow appropriate protocols while working with him. (Some of that blame might lie on the CDC and the hospital's management - not all of it on the nurses.)
Contrast this with the 5% - 20% of people in the US who get the flu every year and the 200,000 who are hospitalized with flu-related complications. (Source) If you are panicked about Ebola then you should be running down the street screaming about the flu. (Hopefully running down the street to get your flu shot.)
This isn't to say that Ebola isn't serious. Anyone who has traveled to the countries affected and gets a fever should be treated with extreme care. Anyone who was around someone like this should be suspected of having contracted Ebola and should watch for the symptoms. Be wary if you are in these situations, but otherwise it isn't panic-time despite the continuous "WE'RE ALL GONNA DIE"-style reporting the media is giving Ebola.
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Average is closer to $70k for an RN, which puts them in the to 15% of all wage earners in the US.
The rest is true, though. It's a pretty hectic job, and corporations will look for any market advantage (LVNs, overworked residents, image over process, etc.).
Is it just my observation, or are there way too many stupid people in the world?
Can we please stop comparing Ebola to the flu?
For starters, Ebola apparently has a 70% mortality rate. Additionally, Ebola kills people who are otherwise perfectly healthy. The flu does not.
Some flus are absolutely more deadly for healthy people. Part of what made the 1918 flu pandemic so deadly was that it could induce a cytokine storm resulting in multiple organ failure. Since the release of cytokines is an inflammatory immune response, the better your immune system the worse off you are. Thus a young, fit person with a healthy immune system is more at risk than an infant with a undeveloped immune system, or an elderly person with a failing one.
You fail statistics and understanding. First of all, the ratio of patients to health care workers is very different (read: Texas has a higher ratio). Second, you need to understand sample size before you start drawing conclusions.
Too late. The second infected nurse flew from Ohio to Texas, while symptomatic. Which means that the infection could, theoretically, have been spread in both Ohio, and wherever her co-passengers went.
Forget quarantining areas. I think efforts should be focused on
- educating citizens on measures to reduce chances of exposure (hygiene)
- training medical personnel (the infected nurses are a disgrace to their hospital's procedures)
- purchasing equipment to deal with Ebola (better suits, gloves, etc...)
But hey, I'm just an engineer. I do not have constituents to please so that I keep my cushy job where I can trade the common good for personal perks. So if any of the above gets implemented, it will be later, as opposed two weeks ago.
As for panicking? There's never a time to panic. There is a time to punish the guilty, after the emergency has been dealt with. They can panic them, if they wish.
No good deed goes unpunished...