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Friday, October 3, 2014

Breaking News For D.C.

(Two posts today. Please scroll down for the earlier post today)

Patient Being Tested for Ebola at D.C.'s Howard University Hospital: Patient had traveled to Nigeria recently; is being isolated and tested

Second patient with Ebola-like symptoms in D.C. region

28 comments:

  1. Abundance of caution.

    You are going to hear that and I don't think it's a bad thing.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Maybe if Obama's kiddies are at risk he may play a different tune. Then again, does he have the capacity to care? I wonder as he destroys our country.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Replies
    1. Regarding the ebola case in Texas ...
      ... not long ago there was the possibility of Ebola present in a New York hospital and they were in infectious disease control within ten minutes.

      The cases in Hawaii and just now in D.C. were quarantined out of "an abundance of caution".

      When are they going to ask hard questions about the cockup in Texas?

      Was he turned away to avoid the expense?
      Just when do the hard questions get asked?

      Delete
    2. Duck,
      Was he turned away to avoid the expense?

      Get a grip!

      From the news I've read today (not right-wing news), Duncan lied to the ED nurse on his first trip to the hospital. He was asked if he'd been in contact with anyone who was ill -- and said no. How might things have turned out if he'd told the truth?

      There is also the matter of Duncan's low-grade fever.

      The CDC set those protocols.

      Delete
    3. Sorry AOW, but this man displayed the symptoms and admitted he had been to Liberia. To send him on his way with a couple of aspirin is not "an abundance of caution".
      It isn't even minimal caution.

      Why wasn't he quarantined for observation?
      Is this hospital part of a "for profit" chain (I believe it is)?

      When do the questions get asked and answered?
      Or where they just incompetent?

      As I said, there was just a hint of Ebola in NYC and they were in contagious disease mode in ten minutes?
      What happened in Perryland? Why did they screw up so badly. In most places this man would have been quarantined.

      Delete
    4. Duck,
      Follow this for a minute.

      His fever wasn't to the temperature for Ebola screening, but the ED nurse continued asking questions.

      Duncan did indeed state that he had traveled to Liberia. She then asked, "Have you been around anyone who was ill?" He replied in the negative.

      Why wasn't he quarantined for observation?

      The CDC protocol at the time didn't warrant that.

      As for payment arrangements, they are not pursued in an emergency situation, which Duncan's first visit didn't warrant at the time.

      Treatment is first in an emergency situation, which this was not according to the CDC protocol.

      See CBS News Dallas for the details that I am mentioning in this comment.

      Delete
    5. Excerpt from the above link:

      2. Has the patient been around anyone who has been ill?
      · When Mr. Duncan was asked if he had been around anyone who had been ill, he said that he had not.

      Delete
    6. Great roundup over at your link. Says it all.

      Delete
  4. The worst thing that can happen to a business, is for its' existence to no longer "profit" a community. Because once patients stop "profitting" from the health care being dispensed, they will seek it "elsewhere".

    So ducky, do you really think that that a hospital "profits" by risking its' reputation for high quality healthcare in the marketplace? Do you think it "profits" when even its' "pro-bono" patients remain ill and/or die?

    Or would you prefer that the government dispense healthcare, and that patients no longer have options. It's the government hospital, or nothing (single payer).

    ReplyDelete
  5. We should also remember that not all hospitals are equipped to deal with Ebola -- including disposal of the waste contaminated by Ebola.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Along those lines about needing to be specially equipped:

      ...The sheets, clothes and towels Duncan used are in plastic bags in one of the apartment's rooms, health officials say.

      Ebola can live outside the body on those kinds of materials, says CNN's Dr. Sanjay Gupta. The length of time it remains active depends on the environment -- from hours to days -- but it is possible for someone to contract the disease from touching those materials.

      Delete
    2. More from the above link:

      So far, no one from the cleaning crew has been allowed inside the apartment, said Brad Smith of Cleaning Guys.

      [...]

      Hazmat teams still do not have permits to dispose of the soiled items taken from the apartment, said Dr. David Lakey of the Texas Department of State Health Services. The items will be moved to a secure location in Dallas County until the appropriate permits are obtained, he said Friday.

      Delete
  6. Obama quietly scraped a proposed quarantine regulation from 2010 by the Bush administration. Which would let airlines collect information on passengers coming and going just in case something like the Ebola case happened. Well can I say congratulations to Obama, and his voters for another great screw up once again.

    Just waiting for the Obamanuts to either to insult me or call me a liar..

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Kaz,
      Obama quietly scraped a proposed quarantine regulation from 2010 by the Bush administration.

      You are correct.

      Delete

  7. Late Breaking News!

    BREAKING NEWS: Internet video purports to show Islamic State group beheading British hostage Alan Henning [AP]
    Voice of executioner in video showing death of Alan Henning appears to have been digitally altered.In the same short video, the terror group threatens the life of an American aid worker

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Kaz,
      Please post this comment to a different thread -- the one below this blog post.

      Thank you.

      Delete
  8. So how many patients do you think have been in US hospitals with Ebola symptoms over the past few weeks who haven't made the news? A dozen? Two?

    ReplyDelete
  9. from the BBC

    A hospital in the German city of Frankfurt-on-Main has taken in an Ebola patient after he was flown in during the night under tight security.

    After arriving on a medical flight from West Africa, the man was brought to Frankfurt University Hospital where he was placed in an isolation ward.

    He is a Ugandan doctor who worked with Ebola patients in Sierra Leone.

    It is Germany's second case, with a man undergoing treatment in Hamburg after arriving from West Africa in August.

    ReplyDelete
  10. The truth about our hospitals' readiness to handle Ebola:

    ...Facilities may not realize, for example, how much practical planning goes into training and staffing personnel, configuring isolation rooms, and determining what to do with dirty bedsheets and other waste...

    [...]

    Although the CDC has issued guidelines for keeping infected patients in isolation in special rooms, hospitals need to determine how big that room should be, he said. “Do I put the patient in a single room, or in a larger space that could accommodate laboratory equipment and medical care?”

    [...]

    Some health-care workers around the country have expressed concern about whether the facilities where they work haven’t provided sufficient training to handle Ebola patients.

    [...]

    She cited a study that the union recently completed of nearly 700 registered nurses around the country, in which the vast majority said their hospital had not communicated any policy with them regarding the potential admission of Ebola patients. To the extent there had been training, the nurses said, it was largely conducted by computer and didn’t offer the chance to pose practical questions about how to provide such care. A third of the respondents said their facility lacked adequate supplies of protective gear....


    This ain't simple, folks.

    ReplyDelete
  11. Good article: Can you catch Ebola from an infected blanket?.

    One snippet:

    ...Experts call it “a caregivers disease”...

    ReplyDelete
  12. As of right now, tests have not ruled out Ebola for the patient in D.C.'s Howard University Hospital. That might mean that preliminary tests indicate that more tests are necessary.

    The patient in Maryland's Adventist Hospital does not have Ebola. Malaria is the diagnosis, I think.

    ReplyDelete
  13. Since July, hospitals around the country have reported more than 100 cases involving Ebola-like symptoms to the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, officials there said. Only one patient so far — Thomas Duncan in Dallas — has been diagnosed with Ebola.

    ReplyDelete
  14. Today's news: the patient at Howard University Hospital does not have Ebola.

    What a relief!

    Otherwise, the logical conclusion would be that Mr. Duncan was contagious on the airplane, which touched down at Dulles.

    ReplyDelete

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