<p>First of all, there is a very little chance that this kind of thing can happen here in the US. I believe the medical professionals here in the US are trained in the infection control much better than marginally educated medical personnel in third world countries. If a US doctor gets exposed to a highly contagious infectious agent via a needle prick or some other means. s/he will not hide the fact and will make everything possible to get treated and isolated. Second, we can get lax about infections when there is little perceived danger, but the word Ebola evokes so much fear that even a person who is lax about hand washing would scrub like there is no tomorrow. So I really believe that a US hospital, especially the one like Emory, can handle all Ebola. Here is an example of how a needlestick in such a lab had been handled:</p>
<p>The fact is that the virus needs to be studied so vaccines and possibly drugs can be developed against it, and the best place to carry out these studies is not in a poorly equipped hospital in a third world country, but in a BSL-4 lab here in the US. When I fly Busdriver Air, I feel confident that you can handle the plane. Have some faith in biomedical researchers, bus! :)</p>
<p>"@busdriver11, no one has said that there isn’t a risk from people who don’t know they are infected. I think you are now trying to distract the discussion from your earlier position that these people should not have been brought back or aren’t being properly kept in isolation."</p>
<p>Could be. Or maybe it could be that you are focused like a laser beam on one thing that you thought I said, as opposed to the first post that I brought up expressing concern…and followed up with saying that I didn’t know if this was the right thing to do or not. Or that people can have many different thoughts about a subject, and might even modify their viewpoints as they consider issues further, or get more information as it is released.</p>
<p>But if it makes you feel happy, keep on belittling people who express concern for these kinds of things. Whatever floats your boat, as they say.</p>
<p>Much has been made of the fact that the infected doctor got this disease in spite of “meticulous adherence” to protocols. I was not there, so I cannot say whether he did or whether he didn’t, but I suspect that somewhere along the line, there was a breach, whether consciously or not. I’ve seen photos of PPE being left in the sun to dry (wth?) and read tales of equipment being washed and re-used. Really, who knows what happened.</p>
<p>I read this in a nursing forum and thought it was worth considering:</p>
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<p>There was similar hysteria about the AIDS virus when it first appeared in the US. I’m not saying we don’t take this seriously, but we need to be calm and try to get the facts and understand just how this disease is transmitted, WHEN people are actually contagious, and how to contain it once it appears. It’s people who travel when they know they don’t feel well who are the real danger, not two patients who we KNOW have this disease and can be managed appropriately. So I think people are focusing on the wrong target here. </p>
<p>I am kind of proud of the fact that these patients are being brought to Emory…my D is a researcher in a lab there and my son in law is a resident physician, though not in that part of the hospital. Still, it speaks to the quality of the institution. The two patients have been in my thoughts and prayers almost constantly. I was actually at my daughter’s home (less than a mile from the hospital) when Dr. Brantley was being transferred…I knew because of all the news helicopters hovering about. </p>
<p>I agree with the poster above who said that the thing to fear is the patient who comes in to a US hospital after traveling abroad, and who turns out to have contracted the virus. It has not happened yet, but it could. Even then, I have faith that the CDC would go into action and trace that person’s contacts and limit the spread. The virus is just not all that easily spread through any sort of casual contact. </p>
<p>My niece’s husband is David Tickle, AKA BA #5 (lead solo). Aren’t they amazing? And when they are done with this duty, they go back into active service…</p>
<p>The first former Ebola patient was released today and the other will leave later.
Weirdly enough, the sky didn’t fall and we’re not suddenly in an Ebolapocalypse here in the US. In fact, the US is now once again Ebola free AFAIK. </p>
<p>" My niece’s husband is David Tickle, AKA BA #5 (lead solo). Aren’t they amazing? And when they are done with this duty, they go back into active service…"</p>
<p>@churchmusicmom, I just read this. That’s cool! They are amazing. But during the performance, we were noticing that #5 lead solo was a little off sometimes on his rejoins…just kidding. We especially LOVED their low passes. It was so loud and they were so low. They put on a much better show than the Thunderbirds. </p>
<p>Very glad for the Ebola patients. They were fortunate to get the wonder drug. But this sounds awful. I am afraid that many people will die in Liberia. Whether from Ebola, or starvation:</p>
<p>"MONROVIA, Liberia – Riot police and soldiers acting on their president’s orders used scrap wood and barbed wire to seal off 50,000 people inside their Liberian slum Wednesday, trying to contain the Ebola outbreak that has killed 1,350 people and counting across West Africa.</p>
<p>Hundreds of slum residents clashed with the gunmen, furious at being blamed and isolated by a government that has failed to quickly collect dead bodies from the streets. One 15-year-old boy was injured trying to cross the barbed wire as security forces fired into the air to disperse the crowd.</p>
<p>The World Health Organization said the death toll is rising most quickly in Liberia, which now accounts for at least 576 of the fatalities. At least 2,473 people have been sickened across West Africa, which is now more than the caseloads of all the previous two-dozen Ebola outbreaks combined.</p>
<p>The UN health agency also warned of shortages of food, water and other essential supplies in West Africa’s population centres"</p>
Aren’t they amazing? And when they are done with this duty, they go back into active service…</p>
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We especially LOVED their low passes. It was so loud and they were so low. They put on a much better show than the Thunderbirds. </p>