Ebola Outcomes

Ebola virus

Please take time to read "Free of Ebola but not fear: Nurse Nina Pham to file lawsuit against Texas Presbyterian Hospital, worries about continued health woes," a lengthy article in Dallas Morning News article (February 28, 2015).

Nurse Nina Pham is twenty-six years old.

The article concludes as follows (emphases mine):

Duncan Lied To The 2nd ER Nurse

Read the article and watch the 60 Minutes video HERE.

Did Duncan also lie to the first nurse he saw two days earlier at Texas Presbyterian Hospital?

Ebola Policy Change?

According to U.S. considering quarantine for returning Ebola health workers: CDC (dated the evening of October 24, 2014):

Ebola Question: Why Aren't We Using The PCR?

To screen every arrival from the Ebola Hot Zone in Africa — or, better yet, to screen before these potential pathogen-carriers board a commercial jetliner in the Hot Zone:

...[W]e can marry quarantine with technology using polymerase chain reaction, or PCR. At a cost of $60 to $200 the test looks for viral particles in the blood and amplifies them millions of folds, picking up most cases of Ebola patients who may still be asymptomatic. While not 100 percent foolproof, the PCR test increases the level of certainty in determining if a patient has an Ebola infection, which can ultimately lead to a more accurate decision...

Read "Rethinking the 21-Day Quarantine for Ebola Contacts" in its entirety HERE. There is more information in the article than the above excerpt, including the following:

...[A] recent article in the New England Journal of Medicine detailing the first nine months of the 2014 epidemic in West Africa raises concern about the short, often-mentioned 21 post-exposure-day periods in the guidelines. In the journal's study of 4,507 probable and confirmed cases, "approximately 95 percent of the case patients had symptom onset within 21 days of exposure." If we do the math, this means that approximately 5 percent or 225 of the Ebola cases in West Africa had symptoms 21 days after exposure, as reported by the patient or caregiver....

Additional reading: Ebola Protection Guidelines On CDC Website Riddled With Mistakes.

[My unrelated-to-Ebola post today at Infidel Bloggers Alliance: How To Lose A War]

Ebola Realities (Updated)

In the video below the fold, Bill Whittle explains the Basic Reproduction Number — and more. Please watch the entire video before commenting:

Yet Another Ebola Case In Dallas

Confirmed: another healthcare worker who took care of pathogen-carrying, pathogen-spreading criminal Thomas Eric Duncan has Ebola.

Now there are two cases from an individual index patient. An outbreak is not contained until there are fewer than two additional cases from any one individual index case.

As if the above isn't bad enough...No hospital 'protocols' for Ebola treatment: US nurses' group.

Meanwhile, some 4500 West Africans with visas enter the United States every month. How many new index cases are among them?

Important additional reading...Ebola Preparation ‘Will bankrupt my hospital!’ Director Reacts to CDC Prep Call.

Another Ebola Case in Dallas, Texas (With Addendum)

(Two posts today. Please scroll down. The post below is a musical interlude, a much-needed break from politics)

One of the Texas Presbyterian Hospital nurses who took care of Liberian national Thomas Eric Duncan, Patient Zero here in the United States, has tested positive on a preliminary test and is in isolation. Thomas Eric Duncan died of Ebola on October 8.

Addendum: The protocols can't be sufficient, if someone following them gets infected despite them.

Ebola Quotation Of The Day (With Addendum)

By Aesop, the owner of the blog Raconteur Report:

[T]he hospital in [Madrid] was using BL2 respiratory protection for a BL4 virus, and the nursing union in Madrid sent letters to the authorities months back telling them that if anyone was treated for Ebola in Spain, the hospitals wouldn't be adequately prepared, and that people were going to get infected as a result of inadequate equipment.

Short of hitting them upside the head with a tire iron, the medical workers did everything possible to tell the authorities how badly they were screwing the pooch.

The response from those authorities was to send the dog flowers afterwards, and point out the dog was asking for it.

Are we doing any better here in the United States?

[with a hat tip to FreeThinke for the above graphic]

ADDENDUM: Please read What's Coming Next, also by blogger Aesop.

Another Ebola Case In Texas? (Updated)

In Frisco, Texas, an affluent suburb of Dallas. I think.

There was a massive local response. Details below the fold.

Obama's Ebola Negligence

A team of scientists at Northeastern University in Boston have used air travel information to predict where the deadly Ebola virus could reach in the next three weeks 

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2783332/Husband-Spanish-nurse-contracted-Ebola-quarantine-health-authorities-admit-DON-T-KNOW-contracted-virus.html#ixzz3FSXk1EBf
Follow us: @MailOnline on Twitter | DailyMail on Facebook

From the Daily Mail:

...Professor Alessandro Vespignani of Northeastern University in Boston, who led the research [about Ebola-spread patterns], said: 'This is not a deterministic list, it's about probabilities – but those probabilities are growing for everyone.

'It's just a matter of who gets lucky and who gets unlucky.

'Air traffic is the driver.'...

By not banning incoming flights from the Ebola Hot Zone in Africa, Obama will become Murderer-In-Chief if there is an Ebola pandemic here in the United States.

Information, Please!

Where was that Spanish nurse who just tested positive for Ebola vacationing? Can anybody here ferret out that information? Thank you.

Deadly Dumbing Down

The result of abandoning the proper teaching of geography?

With a hat tip to Barnhardt:

“He said he was from Liberia, not Africa…”

From this thread over at Lucianne.com. Emphases mine.

Reply 29 – Posted by: gone2pot, 10/3/2014 5:50:33 PM (No. 10030644)
It´s us. We are the reason for the panic. We vote for it, educate our kids with it, watch it on TV, “like” and “follow” it, and listen to its music. Here´s anecdotal evidence; my wife´s hospital is caddy corner to Dallas Presby, home of the ebola incident. The docs at her hospital left Presby to start a new, less screwed up system. So, they know Presby and keep in contact with former colleagues. Well, according to the old Presby docs, the thirty-something Dallas Presby nurse´s answer to the CDC was, “He said he was from Liberia, not Africa.” So, next time you want to believe the tin foil hat conspiracy theory answer, remember instead that we ARE that stupid and our stupidity is why we create the cases for panic.

Is the above anecdote true? I don't know, but it could be.  And I don't mean only with regard to the aforementioned nurse!  It's not out of the question that a doctor wouldn't know that Liberia is in Africa.

Sunday Graveyard Humor

With a hat tip to The Last Refuge:

Another graphic below the fold (hat tip to The People's Cube):

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

Deadly Political Correctness? (UPDATED)

What didn't the profile of this Liberian national, visiting family and friends here in the United States (not a business trip or the like) result in immediate quarantine when he first appeared at a hospital in Dallas?

Ebola victim was originally SENT HOME from hospital with antibiotics before the deadly virus was diagnosed after he had mixed with other people for TWO DAYS

Also see A Hospital Sent the US's First Ebola Patient Home for Two Days After He Was Sick. Excerpt from the latter:

"We're trying to identify all the people who may have had contact with people while he could have been infectious," Frieden said. "Once identified, they'll be monitored for 21 days after for Ebola. If they have the fever, the same criteria are used."

How many are quarantined so far in Dallas and elsewhere in the United States?

Why are we allowing into the United States any flights from the Ebola Zone of Africa?

Additional reading:

1. Ebola Virus Symptoms and Prevention Tips

2. EBOLA in America (Mustang's site)

UPDATES

1. Patient in isolation in Hawaii (few details at the time of this posting)

2. ‘Hero’ Ebola Doctor Testimony Confirms Ebola Can Spread By Touch

3. VIDEO: NIH Director Admits Possible Ebola Could Mutate, Go Airborne [possible, but unlikely]

4. White House: No Ebola travel restrictions

5. Extensive report by ABC News, October 2, 2014

6. Ebola Expert Tells CNN We Can’t Ban Flights From Liberia Because Of Slavery