<p>"BRAINTREE — A man who recently visited Liberia is being assessed in a Boston hospital for a possible infection by the deadly Ebola virus, health officials said Sunday.</p>
<p>The man, whom officials have not identified, was taken by ambulance to Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center late Sunday afternoon after his presence at a Braintree medical practice briefly shut down that facility earlier in the day."</p>
<p>two warring gov agencies. Just what we need. You would think they would have sorted out and jave the protocolsin place on what to do if you have a suspect on the plane.</p>
<p>Thats exactly the issue- the CDC can provide recommended protocol and the state can ignore it and do their own thing. Its been explained upthread. Several times.</p>
<p>@scholarme You need to step away from the news channels </p>
<p>The LA County Health Department is saying there’s no risk of Ebola. However, I don’t really think this is a blame the media moment. When guys in space suits haul vomiting passengers off planes people are going to tweet about it. And, local reporters are going to cover the emergency response. They just are, and they probably should. </p>
<p>The early failures in management (sending home index case Duncan, ignoring Spanish nurse who called in that she was ill and scared - 3 times) seem to be very painful lessons that our health care system had to learn. The latest cases are being handled with much greater timeliness and care - they shut down the entire clinic for the Braintree patient who didn’t even complain of fever, just headache and muscle soreness and he had been in West Africa. He’s in biocontainment at a Boston teaching hospital now before anyone has even touched him.</p>
<p>But the problem is that lots of people get fever, muscle aches, nausea, headache, etc. As the cases spread (heaven help us) sifting out the real Ebola risks from the rest may grow much more challenging. </p>
<p>We may someday have to begin the “stay home and alone if you are sick” approach Sierra Leone has adopted. </p>
<p>Can Congress please confirm the Surgeon General nominee so he can coordinate the anti Ebola effort. This is probably another important time in our history where we need to put politics aside.</p>
<p>I did not read all 12 pages, so perhaps this was addressed, but I wrote an email to my student’s college saying (politely) that I surely hope with fall, Thanksgiving, and Christmas breaks coming up, including extended international and national travel, including study abroad students returning (from many universities, I am sure), that it will address this with seriousness and not be concerned with political correctness and image. I did not use the words political correctness, but surely it was implied. With kids being in such close contact and being negligent in health issues largely, this is vital. No response 48 hours later (business hours).</p>
<p>Maybe one of the medical professionals here can answer this: apparently the nurse in Spain and the one in Dallas might have contracted Ebola while removing their protective gear. Don’t they make them shower or go through some decontamination process while still in their gear? Wouldn’t that be enough to kill the virus if they did? </p>
<p>According to Dr. Anthony Fauci, head of NIH, the healthcare worker was infected because of an inadvertent breach of protocol, and he repeatedly stressed “inadvertent.” He said that such breaches often occur when the PPE is being removed. The worker may have been working long hours under stressful conditions, may be fatigued. It just takes a moment of inattention at the end of a difficult patient encounter. “Sometimes people are human,” he said. </p>
<p>Fauci also noted that Doctors Without Borders has been working with Ebola patients for decades, and infection in those workers is very rare. So the protocols are effective when strictly followed. But those workers undergo intensive training and drilling, far more intensive than most American healthcare workers are likely to get. </p>
<p>Lots of countries do NOT stamp your passport upon exit from the country. Here’s an example of such a country (you might have heard of it): the United States. </p>
<p>The MA Department of Public Health is saying that the patient who presented yesterday with Ebola-like symptoms is in isolation and is at low risk for having it. They actually said “There are no cases of Ebola in Massachusetts”. Mind you, the test results haven’t come back yet.</p>
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