<p>^^^^The big question is: was he asked about travel history? If so, was he honest? Ebola presents like many other illnesses in the early stages. If they didn’t ask about his recent potential for exposure, that is totally on the ER staff. If they did and he wasn’t truthful, that’s on him. Also, he should have been forthcoming about it from the get go-why wouldn’t you want the earliest treatment possible if you knew you could have been exposed to it?</p>
<p>So the person was visiting family in the US? I am also very surprised that the person, obviously not a US resident, was not questioned about travel history. Maybe the person was hiding it hard for the fear of being quarantined or sent back or something like that…</p>
<p>I was wondering if we could work backward as to when he was infected. I looked it up, and apparently you can get symptoms as soon as 2 or as long as 21 days, the most common incubation period being 4 to 6 days:</p>
<p><a href=“http://ebola.emedtv.com/ebola/ebola-symptoms.html”>http://ebola.emedtv.com/ebola/ebola-symptoms.html</a></p>
<p>Scary thought: if he arrived on Sept 20, and started showing symptoms on Sept 24, it’s possible that he was infected on the flight, and not in Liberia, and he is not patient zero. That flight is almost a day long and multi-stop, right?</p>
<p>So this guy came here from Liberia to visit family. Does he have health insurance, or are we footing the bill for this treatment? Did he show up in the ER on the 24th and get sloughed off because he had no insurance?</p>
<p>The CDC needs to put his photo out there fast. How is someone in Dallas supposed to know if they came in contact with the guy? Are they putting every nurse, orderly, paramedic, at the hospital with whom he had contact in quarantine? How many of their doctors will be quarantined? Then there’s the flight, people at DFW, cab drivers, people on buses, not to mention family members, it is endless. </p>
<p>This hospital is going to take a huge financial hit. Not only for his care but people given a choice will say not Texas Presbyterian. Elective surgeries will be cancelled there by patients. </p>
<p>I doubt the government will do anything to stop travel from West Africa to the U. S. but airlines might. Wasn’t it the airline employees previously who said 'We aren’t working the flights in and out of the Ebola countries". </p>
<p>^^^^^You have to come into direct contact with his bodily fluids to become infected. It’s not as easy as you are implying.</p>
<p>As of now, HIPAA rules, so he will not be identified publicly.</p>
<p>Oh for the love of Pete. Closing borders, really? </p>
<p>Unless you’re going to be routinely handling blood, urine, or feces, you don’t have much to worry about.
More people are still going to die this year from not getting their flu vaccines and other very common things that we are blase about. </p>
<p>Unless the guy puked on you, odds are you could share a cab or sit next to him on a bus without catching it. It is family members caring for sick individuals (cleaning up vomit, diarrhea, etc.), those same family members washing dead bodies, and health care workers who are coming into contact with patients when they are very ill that are at the most risk of contracting it by far. And they DID take the guy’s temperature before he left Liberia, that is standard procedure now for people flying out. He was not symptomatic when he left. </p>
<p>I actually saw his name on a web site this morning (one of the first reports). No one seems to be reporting it now, though, per HIPPA rules.</p>
<p>I personally wouldn’t panic about having treatment in the hospital he is in now. It isn’t airborne, they have him in isolation, and anyone who came into contact with him is being monitored carefully. We have a far stronger public health system here than in the countries with the worst of the outbreak. There seem to be some posters out here who are aiming to whip others into a panic. Don’t be such drama queens… it isn’t coming to get you.</p>
<p>^^Although not airborne, you can be infected via aerosol droplets - if you get sneezed or coughed on because the saliva will also be infectious. If he sneezed on someone in that time after he got the flu-like symptoms, that person could be infected.</p>
<p>Maybe… but I have taken quite a bit of mass transit, and can’t say getting sneezed on is a frequent occurrence. Also, respiratory symptoms (stuffy nose, sneezing, etc) aren’t part of the normal symptoms. I bet if anyone catches it from this guy in Dallas, it will be either a health care worker at the first place he went, a health care worker in the ER where he was admitted, or a family member. It isn’t going to be someone he came into casual contact with.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>The collective Chicken Little doesn’t want to acknowledge that.</p>
<p>I am curious, since he was visiting family here, when will the family be quarantined? This is scary because it has a long incubation period.</p>
<p>The minute any one of them becomes symptomatic, they will be put in isolation. I would self isolate if it were me.</p>
<p>Time to pull out one of my favorite Roz Chast cartoons from the New Yorker (the list of favorites is long)</p>
<p><a href=“The New York Times > Books > Image >”>http://www.nytimes.com/imagepages/2006/12/04/books/05chast1.html</a></p>
<p>I am sure everyone they can find who has been in close contact with him (family, health care workers, etc) will be monitored closely (probably checked daily) until the 21 day incubation period has passed. Guessing that anyone who thinks they were definitely exposed (cleaned up vomit, etc) may be quarantined.</p>
<p>A remarkable Ebola story from West Africa</p>
<p><a href=“http://www.cnn.com/2014/09/25/health/ebola-fatu-family/index.html?hpt=hp_c4”>http://www.cnn.com/2014/09/25/health/ebola-fatu-family/index.html?hpt=hp_c4</a></p>
<p>The EMS crew that transported him to the hospital is now in quarantine. </p>
<p>Thanks for posting that story, scholarme.</p>
<p>Watching CNN right now and it is disturbing to say the least. Apparently the patient was not asked about his travel history even though all hospitals have been given a directive to ask by the CDC. </p>
<p>CNN sent a team to Liberia to cover the Ebola story, and the woman reporting said their temperatures were taken three times before they left Liberia. They were asked questions like, how close were you to a patient, did you participate in burials, are you experiencing these symptoms, etc. When the crew returned tot the US they were very open about where they had been and why. There were no screenings. She said they told her to be mindful of Ebola symptoms but when she asked them what they were no one could tell her. Her colleagues were asked no questions. This is scary, the CDC is based in Atlanta , one would think that the Atlanta airport would be on top of things considering it is the busiest airport in the US. </p>
<p>^^ that is scary.
I was just thinking of other diseases that get spread through bodily fluids and the first one that came to mind was mono.
We really have to screen people from infected areas. </p>