[J_9]

Was that person confirmed with Ebola? I didn't think so. Even so, that person went into confinement.

The issue here is transmission. This is a virus, while it may mutate, it doesn't change it's method of transfer. It is not transferred via airborne. Unless this person vomited on, had diarrhea on, splashed blood on any of the mucous membranes, or any open wounds of the other passengers, there is little to worry about.

This is a mid-term election year. This is also fear mongering at its finest.

I'm sure you remember the AIDS fear of the 80's, I know I do. I lived the scare due to a blood transfusion in '83, got tested every 6 months for 5 years. This is no different. As a healthcare worker, I can tell you that this is no different. It's not airborne like the flu or the common cold.

Let's go to West Africa. Shall we? Their literacy rate is 25%, approximately. They have very poor sanitation systems, and they live in crowded living conditions wth very poor medical systems. It's no wonder it is rampant there.

[Alty]

I couldn't agree more with J9.

I saw on the news yesterday that a man at a restaurant called 911 because the person at the table next to him was a pilot that was talking about the flight he just came back from, which happened to be a flight to West Africa. They played the 911 call, and the idiot that called stated that he had just been put at risk of catching Ebola because there's an Ebola carrier sitting at the table next to him.

The public has been so misinformed it's not even funny. Why are they causing this panic. How many confirmed cases of Ebola are there in the US at this time? Last time I saw it on the news, it was 2, both nurses that weren't properly trained or didn't have the proper gear to deal with a very ill Ebola patient in their care. The CDC even said that was their fault, that they didn't properly train the health care workers that cared for the sick man that died and started this panic.

This is getting out of hand, and it's ridiculous. Do some research on how Ebola is spread, ease your mind, because this is all a bunch of hokum!

[Catsmine]

This may be the first time J9 has agreed with the White House Press Secretary. It IS the second time a deadly disease has become a political football.

To be fair, Ebola is supposedly easier to catch than HIV, but not much, being "fluid born" rather than "blood born."

The last time quarantine procedures in most hospitals were updated, I was still in the medical field (the late 70s), when face shields replaced cloth masks and safety glasses, so "not much" more communicable than HIV still is frightening. They can't stop Staph bacteria, so a virus is a problem.

[Alty]

Not saying it's not a problem, it obviously is. But a problem that requires every news channel to report on it for hours a day, a problem that has the US in a panic, and, based on who posted this thread, Canada as well?

Correct me if I'm wrong, but in the US right now there are 2 confirmed cases, two nurses that only caught it because they weren't properly taught how to deal with it, and didn't have the protective gear necessary to treat it safely. All this panic because two people in the US have this disease? You don't think that's a bit extreme?

[paraclete]

It's all media hype and gulliable minds, yes there is a need for caution and that applies first on controlling entry and isolating any possible cases. Obviously the message didn't get through because of the "it's hard to catch" propaganda. We had a suspected case here but it came to nothing, still with all these aid workers rushing in, it is sure to spread. I think they should lock down the borders of those countries and that means if you go there to help you stay there until the threat is over, and no amount of political pressure and agony aunts should change that, and let's have some common sense, no travel on the pretext of visiting relatives in the midst of a crisis.

There is a great need to education in Africa on hygene, particularly in butchering animals. What I see is if you want to live in primitive conditions, hunter gatherer society, then you do that away from centres of population and you give up a certain mobility for sake of public health. This threat was known for a long time

[J_9]

Find it interesting that I agree with the press secretary considering I've never even listened to him. I'm speaking strictly from my own research and from the education we are getting at work.

Luckily, with the kind of population in my immediate area, I won't be having to deal with this as very few people here ever leave the county, much less the country. But it never hurts to be properly informed and educated.

[cdad]

Alty, the problem is that one of those infected people has put 800 people on the watch list for ebola. It is something that can spread like a wildfire and it needs to be treated as such. Even with medical care there is a 70% chance you can die from it if contracted.

[J_9]

Who put 800 people at risk? If you are talking about the woman on the cruise ship, she's not infected. She tested negative.

[smoothy]

If its so hard to catch, why are all of these Medical professionals in full body environmental suits catching it. They aren't kissing and hugging people who died from it. In my mind that shows its actually awfully easy to catch. Unlike AIDS, or TB for that matter.

Particularly since I would think you still go and scrub down immediately after getting out of the suit. You don't go straight to preparing meals to eat without washing.

[Wondergirl]

Those medical people were/are cleaning up diarrhea and vomit. I've read that sleeves and gloves didn't meet and overlap and one nurse said there weren't enough shoe covers. Have you ever cleaned up diarrhea and vomit (multiple times from one person)? And just carefully and safely taking off all that protective clothing has to get complicated.

[smoothy]

Everything just does not add up to it NOT being exceptionally easy to catch. One could have made the argument about unequipped African doctors in African hospitals. But that's just not the case here. This one is exceptionally EASY to catch...look at all the people being watched and quaranteed just because they were near this nurse...who was never vomiting or bleeding all over the place when they were near her, much less had diahrea. All she had was a fever. Wait and see if even ONE person contractis it from being near her in her first DAY of symptoms.

And the point is how they have picked calling it "Hard to catch", not unlikely to catch, or any other more realistic definition. Hard to catch diseases don't rapidly become epidemic with modern sanitation, or without prolonged exposure like this one does, and this is an RNA virus which shares nothing with AIDS.

They are spreading more BS in an effort to dupe and pacify the average person into complacency until its too late. 30+ years working around the stuff and people I have has tuned my BS detector to a fine degree. You can tell when politicians hiding something by the choices of words and how they say it. THose same choices or words and phrases also belie what they know but aren't telling you. And more than one person with a PHD in Epidemiology say as much too. Sorry but none of the talking heads making these claims are any more qualified than I am (and I'm not because I have no official medical training, outside the typical Red Cross first aid and CPR stuff)... they are all political hacks... operating on political agendas.

[Wondergirl]

I'm guessing this is a learning experience. Ebola has never been a concern in our country, and for those in medicine, it has always been a chapter in a textbook, not a disease they have had experience with. Your BS meter is buzzing because there's just too much they don't know, but are doing their best to look like they are on top of it.

[smoothy]

They should never have brought ONE infected patient here... Citizen or not... and travel should have been blocked from the very beginning of this outbreak. THOSE are time honored and effective ways to contain an epidemic. 30 African nations are already blocking travel to and from there. I think they have far more common sense than our own administration has.

[cdad]

J, the second nurse that flew on the plane has had the CDC scrambling and they are the ones that put the 800 on notice and 21 day voluntary isolation.

[paraclete]

I think they have far more common sense than our own administration has.

smoothy at what point did you think your administration might show common sense, they are responsive to an electoral cycle, not common sense. Could you imagine the howls of derision and lobbying should one of your precious citizens be deprived of the right to travel home

[J_9]

CDad, they are taking precautions according to the paranoia of the public. The girl on the plane was not symptomatic, therefore she was not contagious. Ebola is transmitted through body fluids once a person is symptomatic. I have a much higher chance of getting it than any of you do. Am I scared? No. I'm educated.

Rather than adding to the paranoia, why not educate yourselves? Stop listening to the media and do some research. Here is a good article I just WHO | Ebola virus disease

[tickle]

They found that healthcare workers were not trained properly on how to put on (or assisting with) protective clothing. Skin was being left exposed in some areas, possibly between gloves and sleeves and neck and helmets. Also, there is a certain order that all of this has to be removed in order not to become contaminated and this was not being done.

This is partially what they mean when workers have to be trained properly.

Germany was the first country to set up proper containment units and train healthcare workers as soon as Ebola surfaced.

I totally agree with J about educating yourselves for any eventuality and not go off half cocked most times because of every rumour.

The healthcare unit I work for are prepared and are being up-dated daily on new developments.

[J_9]

It is only my opinion, but this is really a political issue, more than a medical issue. Mid term elections are here. It's time for finger pointing and mudslinging. They aren't focusing on facts, they are trying to get votes. Let's see how much this is in the news post election time.

[paraclete]

So the germans are ready, fat lot of good that does anyone else. Just a comment, you have to ask how a highly sophisticated medical system gets itself in these situations. The answer is political correctness

[J_9]

It has little to do with political correctness. Hell, I'm the least politically educated person here. But, I am the most medically educated.

The family members of the Ebola victim who died have passed the tests and will be out of quarantine. The woman on the cruise ship has been cleared. It's apparent the two nurses did not take the proper precautions. They had to be exposed to the bodily fluids of the victims through mucous membranes, open wounds, or needle sticks.