Ebola has been diagnosed in the United States, brought in from Liberia by a man visiting family in Dallas, Texas. He had been here about a week before becoming ill enough to go to the emergency room. He told ER medical staff at Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital he was visiting from Liberia, noting the Ebola outbreak there, and true to my biggest fear they dropped the ball – into the fire, per say – and released him after failing to recognize his symptoms. He returned to the ER two days later, by ambulance, and was admitted immediately.
He has since been diagnosed and CDC representatives are going door-to-door in the neighborhood surveying neighbors. The ambulance he rode in is no longer in use until it has been decontaminated. The hospital is taking the necessary precautions now. But originally, protocols were not followed, and this is disconcerting to me, especially in a place like Dallas that has a huge international traveling population.
The man’s family has five school-aged children he has been in contact with, who then went to school. I pray none of those children get sick. That could be absolutely catastrophic. Kids touch and share all kinds of things and are not great at washing their hands. We all know this. Kids get diarrhea, vomit, and have traces of saliva, urine, and feces on their hands. And they are almost always sweaty, especially if they are outdoors. I’m not panicking about this, nor do I think anyone else should, but this is some frightening shit. THAT is why the medical protocols were put in place and that is why I am so upset that the hospital missed this on first visit.
Besides being spread by all bodily fluids, Ebola can also survive outside the body for one to two days. Simply touching an infected person can be fatal. The virus is continuing to spread in West Africa at an alarming rate, making this the deadliest outbreak in history. Many frightened and confused infected people in those countries are hiding from health workers – hiding in their homes infecting their families and others in their villages out of fear and ignorance. Ignorance is often deadly.
I heard on the news last night that so far there have been almost 6600 confirmed cases of Ebola and almost 3100 deaths. I also heard The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation granted the World Health Organization $4 million for help in the Ebola fight, as well as so many others working to help by contributing time, money, knowledge and expertise – especially those on the front lines trying to stop the monster from spreading any further.
Getting back to the U.S. case, CDC Director Dr. Tom Frieden seems quite confident that there is no danger of this disease spreading out of control. I’m glad he is so sure, because I’m afraid that I’m not. I read somewhere when asked if this newly diagnosed Ebola patient would be sent to one of the four isolation units in the country, Frieden had said this was not needed because “virtually any hospital can provide the proper care and infection control” – seriously … hospitals have high infection rates resulting in “superbugs” over the last decade or so.
I would think the special isolation units have highly-trained staff to provide care – staff who have practiced exposure to these types of infectious diseases. I certainly hope Dallas doesn’t drop the ball again.
After this initial blunder, I hope all medical professionals are following the CDC protocols put into place regarding this disease. They are truly our first line of defense in this battle and they have to be ever vigilant.
Just something I was thinking about . . .
Just something I was thinking about . . . 
well I heard the story on the news = but you gave a lot more info than they did – thx! anyhow, I hope they handle this with the care needed = oh – and one thing I heard was that ebola is not spread through the air – so that is a plus, but still….. not cool!
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Thanks Prior & glad I was so informative! I have now heard that it is positioned for mutating & becoming more virulent, possible airborne . . . I have a post in work about that.
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whoa- that is crazy – and just heard that a Texas healthcare worker has been diagnosed with it…
I look forward to your upcoming post –
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Scary, huh?
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Yeah Doobs, it is . . . on so many different levels.
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This is exactly the scenario that a few movies that have warned about a pandemic used as a plot. Jeez!!!! Anyone from Liberia with a fever in an ER should go to Isolation whether the staff thinks its Ebola or not, …. shit! This virus has been in the news for months. An ER staff that is as clueless as that should be moved to another department and retrained.
The nonchalant attitudes of the doctors they have been interviewing worries me very much also. Assuring us that they will stop it from spreading seems to me a little too confident.
I’m telling you, I will not be using public restrooms in my travels. And avoiding the airlines if I can drive my own vehicle instead. I used to be confident that the Hospitals knew how to handle this, not now, the way this first one was handled by a large respected hospital, scares the shit out me, pardon the pun.
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DSS – yeah, they really dropped the ball bad on this one. I heard nurses in several states have had rallies/protests to express that they do not feel their employers are ready to handle this type of infection and the risk they are being exposed to. And let’s be honest, their risk is our risk.
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That is scary Sadie. Imagine – the outbreak is that bad and it’s not airborne. *Shivers*
Thanks for the post and info Sadie – much appreciated.
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Glad the info was helpful, Paul. I’d like to say that I have been following this story pretty intently, but then again, I don’t have a lot of choice. It is all over the news in my parts! I’ve got a new post in work with a few updates – been working on it between reading other posts, and reading & responding to comments on my own posts. Working on my multi-tasking skills tonight LOL!!! And probably not doing the most efficient job 😉 (But enjoying it just the same!)
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I’ve always figured it was very likely the end of humanity would come, not in bombs, but in disease. I suppose it’s slightly better than starvation due to climate change wiping out vast areas of farm land.
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WS – not sure why, but I had to laugh & think – hell, it certainly is much quicker . . . I can have an dark sense of humor at times 😉
Seriously, I do agree with your thought on the disease part though, probably coupled with starvation from lack of food . . .
Sorry, dark and cynical this evening! 🙂
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I can relate. I have a feeling we’d get along very well. It’s one of the cool things about the interweb tubes thingy… finding out other people are just as weird — and in the same way weird — as you.
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I am surprised the US let him i nthe country at that time kowing there was an Ebola outbreak in that country, that smacks of stupidity to me, I guess we will fin dout in the next few weeks how widespread it has become. Resident Evil anyone??
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Moi – never played it, never saw it – shit I wish this was a game or a movie! I am surprised at all the travel being allowed throughout the world, too. Having said that, I wouldn’t want to be stranded away from home somewhere either – it’s a damn fine line . . . freedom and security/protection. ☮
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it is and it isnt, yes it would be scary being stranded far from home, but to allow travel is madness and allowing travel has meat that where this was contained in Africa it is now in the US and Spain… and where else is it? festering for its incubation period. The consequenses are too great to allow the people that are scared in those countries to allow world travel.
These workers in the US and Spain has been tested postiive and they are all saying that there was a lapse in procedure but they dont know what, but what if there wasnt a lapse in procedure, what if it found another way.
On top of all that the few people that have it have been in contact with others who are being monitored, but what about the people they have been in contact with, and then those people and those people, it is never ending.
By allowing travel they have endangered millions upon millions of people.
They should have locked the coutries down, sent specialised team over there to help out then quaranteed those workers afterwards to ensure nothing was being taken out of those countries. So I think in this case there is no fine line, it was a big fat red line saying do not cross, and they crossed it.
In the UK they are screening people from today ???? how long has the outbreak being going on in Africa? Western Governments didnt care becuase it was thousands of miles away, they dont care about some dead Africans, but they care now dont they, now it is on home soil they care a lot.
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