Jump to content

Texas health care worker tests positive for Ebola


27 Time World Champions
 Share

Recommended Posts

The head of CDC must go. Budget funds being cut is a bullshit excuse for what is taking place right now. This is up front and center and this man has know clue. When the head of FEAM for Bush was out screwing things up from the hurricane, everyone called for his head. This I am afraid will be much worse.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Replies 105
  • Created
  • Last Reply

Top Posters In This Topic

does anyone remember this? I can't find to much about it. It hit mass media for about a day. A frozen corpse frome the Arctic was thawed and the virus isolated and brought back. Small pox was not eradicated in 1976. Both Russia and the US have the live virus ready to go. M.A.D. never went away. Bio is probably slower, but possibly more effective than nukes.

http://www.armscontrol.org/act/2009_03/tucker

 

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1770992/posts

 

Free Republic
Browse · Search News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

Skip to comments.

Concern as revived 1918 flu virus kills monkeys
Nature ^ | January 17, 2006 | Kerri Smith


Posted on 1/20/2007, 11:06:06 PM by streetpreacher

Questions raised over safety of revived microbe.

Kerri Smith

spacer.gifspacer_pink.gifspacer.gif445237a.jpg
spacer.gif
Natural Museum of Health and Medicine

The 1918 influenza virus, which killed some 50 million people worldwide, has proved fatal to macaques infected in a laboratory. The study follows Nature's controversial publication1 of the virus's sequence in 2005, alongside a paper in Science that described the recreation of the virus from a corpse and its potency in mice2.

Some scientists question the wisdom of reconstructing such a deadly virus. Do the benefits outweigh the risks?

Those who carried out the macaque study say yes, as a better understanding of how it acts in a system similar to humans' will help scientists treat future pandemics. The study was carried out in the biohazard level 4 labs of the Public Health Agency of Canada in Winnipeg. Yoshihiro Kawaoka of the University of Wisconsin-Madison and his colleagues infected macaques with the 1918 virus or a contemporary flu strain3. Whereas the contemporary virus caused mild symptoms in the lungs, the 1918 flu spread quickly throughout the respiratory system and the monkeys died within days. The damage parallels reports of human patients in 1918.

The team reports that the 1918 virus caused the monkeys' immune systems to go into overdrive, causing immune proteins to be expressed at abnormally high levels and attack the body — what immunologists call a cytokine storm.

..........................................more thread ..........................................

Link to comment
Share on other sites

An article I was reading described how one of the hotspots for spreading Ebola in Sierra Leone has 7 toilets serving thousands of people, all of whom use newspapers to wipe then dump them in a pile a foot deep around the toilets. One of the worst tasks for Ebola volunteers is apparently having to go in to try to get rid of all the newspaper, scooping it up with gloved hands. These people don't live the way we live and there's a reason they're all getting it.

 

As far as it spreading in the West, there are two things I'm interested in, and I don't know if there's much information about it yet so we'll probably find out the hard way:

 

#1) What is the death rate for someone who gets modern stabilizing medical care immediately, as soon as they realize they are sick, before they reach the horrifying "vomiting bloody poop out of your eye sockets" stage? We have little or no information on this because such a tiny percentage of the victims ever got modern care at all. The two nurses might be fairly revealing.

 

#2) Ebola sounds like it is transmitted in a very similar way to EBV/mononucleosis. I gather most people, something like 70% or 90%, have been exposed to this and carry the antibodies for it by age 30, even though most never got sick enough for anyone to realize it was EBV. I'm wondering what percentage of people get exposed to Ebola subclinically, never become ill or even contagious, but develop antibodies for it. All I found, looking into this, was an abstract that noted a community in Sudan where 20% of the local population had Ebola antibodies, but few of those who tested positive had ever become sick from Ebola.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

This one, from the link below, certainly does not give me any warm & fuzzies. :-(

About one in every 25 patients get an infection while being treated in a U.S. hospital, which translates to more than 700,000 hospital-associated illnesses each year, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. In 2011, about 75,000 patients died from those infections, or more than twice the number killed in auto accidents.

Virtually all those infections are transmitted via contaminated equipment, rooms or caregivers — problems that would pose grave threats in treating patients with Ebola, which is both more deadly and more contagious than many of the bugs commonly spread in hospitals.

Complete article at http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2014/10/15/hospitals-infection-control-concerns/17317397/

Link to comment
Share on other sites

 

About one in every 25 patients get an infection while being treated in a U.S. hospital, which translates to more than 700,000 hospital-associated illnesses each year, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. In 2011, about 75,000 patients died from those infections, or more than twice the number killed in auto accidents.

 

Virtually all those infections are transmitted via contaminated equipment, rooms or caregivers — problems that would pose grave threats in treating patients with Ebola, which is both more deadly and more contagious than many of the bugs commonly spread in hospitals.

 

 

Ah, yes. One of two Dirty Little Secrets of the Health Care Industry: nosocomial infections.
It is a SERIOUS problem nationwide. It has been for years and continues to be. As I've posted here before, I
passed the BOCES Surgical Tech program a few years ago. I was in the OR for 6 months training.
Other than continuing patient care, we had to learn the same things RN's learn.
I got the bird's eye view on this problem. The sad, ironic truth is your health is rarely so in jeopardy as when
you're in a hospital.
When my bf was in hospice, I saw a few things the nurses did that were flat out WRONG. I took one of
them aside and mentioned them. I didn't see the need to embarass them in front of a room full of people.
Had my friend not been in hospice and been in for some other treatment, what happened might not
have jeopardized his life.
I worked with nurses enough to know that most of them are conscientious, diligent, smart people who
truly care about doing their best every day and care about their patients. So this is not a "nurse bash."
I also know that nurses and doctors are people too, and they make mistakes just like the rest of us.
I always watch what's going on closely whenever I visit in the hospital and ask a lot of questions if
my visit is with a family member. I also strongly suggest to my friends that they do the same.
On the rare occasion that I'm in the ER, I'm hawkeyeing them and asking as many questions as I can
think up. I don't do it to be a PITA, but to let them know that I'm paying attention, I am an intelligent consumer
and they need to bring their A game for me.
No one is going to look out for my best interests better than I am, and that includes in health care settings.
A few days ago I was calling the two nurse Ebola infection a hospital problem, not a nurse problem.
The hospital apologized publicly today, confirming my opinion.
The other Dirty Little Secret is medication errors, but that's another topic for another day.
Link to comment
Share on other sites

The insanity continues:

 

Man without hazmat suit during Ebola patient transfer was a supervisor: airline Health workers in biohazard suits helped Dallas nurse Amber Vinson onto a private flight to Atlanta on Tuesday. A man, later identified as the medical protocol supervisor, created an online stir by not wearing Ebola-repelling protective gear, but an airline spokesperson said there was a reason for this.

http://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/man-hazmat-suit-transfers-dallas-ebola-patient-cdc-plane-article-1.1976079

NEW YORK DAILY NEWS
Published: Thursday, October 16, 2014, 12:12 AM
Updated: Thursday, October 16, 2014, 3:37 PM
Link to comment
Share on other sites

 

The insanity continues:

 

Man without hazmat suit during Ebola patient transfer was a supervisor: airline Health workers in biohazard suits helped Dallas nurse Amber Vinson onto a private flight to Atlanta on Tuesday. A man, later identified as the medical protocol supervisor, created an online stir by not wearing Ebola-repelling protective gear, but an airline spokesperson said there was a reason for this.

http://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/man-hazmat-suit-transfers-dallas-ebola-patient-cdc-plane-article-1.1976079

 

 

At first, I was like "OK, that makes sense. Protocol supervisor who doesn't have a specific task to perform can watch everybody and make sure they aren't screwing up or forgetting anything, has full visibility, etc."

 

Then I see this:

 

clipboar3-e1413460544882.jpg

 

This isn't my wheelhouse, but I feel like the guy who is not wearing the protective suit should not be the guy who handles what I presume to be the bright red biohazard medical waste garbage bag.

 

I'd like to think he's looking into that bag going "Hey guys, what's in here?"

 

Guy on the far right is standing there looking at him like he's a moron. "Ebola, probably. Stop touching things, Carl. Jesus. Go wash your hands."

Link to comment
Share on other sites

^The bag he's holding is the "clean" bag. The bag they are tying up has the contaminated material. You place the contaminated bag in the "clean" bag and tie it off. The materials are therefore double bagged and the exterior is clean. It's still best to carry it away from the body but if it should accidentally brush against your leg, it's ok.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

^The bag he's holding is the "clean" bag. The bag they are tying up has the contaminated material. You place the contaminated bag in the "clean" bag and tie it off. The materials are therefore double bagged and the exterior is clean. It's still best to carry it away from the body but if it should accidentally brush against your leg, it's ok.

 

And in all seriousness, I can see that, but if you're not wearing any protective equipment and the other guy fumbles the contaminated bag (which has got to be easier in that suit) and manages to rub it all over you, that seems undesirable.

 

I mean, I sometimes put regular garbage bags into city bags. Even if I had a helper holding the city bag open, I'd be really hard-pressed to say "no, I definitely didn't rub any garbage drippings on you".

 

You'd think there'd be a guy who doesn't touch anything else but has a mask, goggles, and gloves for that.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I'd read after they double bag they're supposed to place the trash in a cardboard box. I don't think that box should be more than say,6-8 feet away from this process.

 

Bing^ I think gloves, minimum...but they probably know what's in the bag and how heavy it is.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

A passenger on a cruise ship was exposed in the US. The boat is now in the Mediterranean headed back and due in Texas on Sunday.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

A passenger on a cruise ship was exposed in the US. The boat is now in the Mediterranean headed back and due in Texas on Sunday.

 

Caribbean, or that cruise ship has a jet engine attached. The woman is in voluntary isolation in her cabin, although the United States wanted to fly her back and Belize refuses to assist. The passenger was a lab supervisor who had no contact with the patient and may or may not have even been exposed to the samples. It's day 19 of her self-monitoring, she is almost certainly not sick. Sunday is their original scheduled date of return.

[insert Carnival Cruise Joke]

This is not nearly as jarring as the one who thought it was wise to jump on a flight to Cleveland after playing spin-the-bottle with an Ebola patient, or whatever the protocol was at that hospital before they got their act together.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

 

Caribbean, or that cruise ship has a jet engine attached. The woman is in voluntary isolation in her cabin, although the United States wanted to fly her back and Belize refuses to assist. The passenger was a lab supervisor who had no contact with the patient and may or may not have even been exposed to the samples. It's day 19 of her self-monitoring, she is almost certainly not sick. Sunday is their original scheduled date of return.

[insert Carnival Cruise Joke]

This is not nearly as jarring as the one who thought it was wise to jump on a flight to Cleveland after playing spin-the-bottle with an Ebola patient, or whatever the protocol was at that hospital before they got their act together.

95% of ebola patients show symptoms with 21 days. 3% from 22 to 42 days. 2% after 42 days.

 

The problem is that people think this is Las Vegas and we are playing the odds. It is one thing to lose a few bucks in Vegas. It is something different to lose you life.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

95% of ebola patients show symptoms with 21 days. 3% from 22 to 42 days. 2% after 42 days.

 

The problem is that people think this is Las Vegas and we are playing the odds. It is one thing to lose a few bucks in Vegas. It is something different to lose you life.

 

It is, but in this case, the odds of infection are not high to begin with. This isn't somebody who was in the room doing the tango with the sweat/vomit/feces-covered patient.

 

Remember that those numbers reflect survivorship bias, or maybe the opposite of that (deceasorship bias?): those are the numbers among people *who did eventually turn out to have it*. The percentage of people being monitored for possible exposure who actually get it is probably below 1% as it is. So it doesn't mean that she has a 5% chance of developing the disease after 21 days. That would only be true if she was actually on course to be an Ebola patient at all.

 

Odds are not impossible, but pretty low, and quarantining her in her cabin is probably going to be about as effective as quarantining in a private home. I'm not saying it's nothing, but compared to nearly everything else we've heard about getting mishandled regarding this incident, it's the least upsetting.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Government at its best:

 

In my opinion this is retro damage and information control.

 

We have probably the world best at the CDC and NHS that are managed by politicians and tangled in bureaucracy. The solution? Tangle them up with another politician with 0 medical experience.Is there not ONE administrator within these agencies to take charge that is already up to speed on this. Now throw Homeland Security in the mix, that is who he reports to. Going that route adds two mor layers befor the president is involved.

 

Half jokingly, more would be done faster if Lucky Luciano was running the show.

 

This is ABC, NOT FOX

http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/ron-klain-meet-president-obamas-ebola-czar/story?id=26269061

 

Amid mounting pressure to name someone to spearhead the administration's response to the Ebola crisis, President Obama announced today that he plans to appoint Ron Klain, Vice President Joe Biden's former chief-of staff, as his Ebola czar, ABC News has confirmed.

Klain, who also served as Chief of Staff for Vice President Al Gore, now works as general counsel at Revolution LLC.

 

(Lisa Monaco, the president’s homeland security and counterterrorism adviser, is a lawyer with a background in federal law enforcement, criminal prosecution and crisis response.""

 

The White House had previously already assigned Homeland Security Advisor Lisa Monaco, a lawyer with a background in federal law enforcement, criminal prosecution and crisis response, to work with the CDC and other government agencies responsible for addressing an outbreak on American soil.

Klain will report directly to Monaco and National Security Advisor Susan Rice, according to a White House official.

But by Thursday evening, Obama signaled his openness to naming a czar.

"The truth is, is that up until this point the individuals here have been running point and doing an outstanding job in dealing with what is a very complicated and fluid situation," Obama said.

However, "It may make sense for us to have one person, in part just so that after this initial surge of activity we can have a more regular process just to make sure that we’re crossing all the t’s and dotting all the i’s going forward," he added.

Here are 5 things you should know about Ron Klain:

1. General Counsel: As general counsel for the Gore Recount Committee, Klain was at the forefront of the 2000 “hanging chad” controversy, aiding in the Gore campaign’s ultimately unsuccessful attempt to clinch Florida’s 25 electoral votes.

2. Chief-of-Staff: As Biden’s chief-of-staff, he helped oversee implementation of the Recovery Act, the stimulus package enacted in 2009.

3. Debate Prep Advisor: Klain also served as a top debate prep adviser for Presidents Obama and Clinton as well as Democratic presidential candidates Al Gore and John Kerry.

4. Private Sector: He left the White House in 2011 to become president of Case Holdings and general counsel at Revolution LLC, a technology-oriented venture capital firm founded by AOL co-founder Steve Case.

5. Education: He’s a magna cum laude graduate of Harvard Law School and a former law clerk to Supreme Court Justice Byron White.

Get real-time updates as this story unfolds. To start, just "star" this story in ABC News' phone app. Download ABC News for iPhone here or ABC News for Android here. To be notified about our live weekend digital reports, tap here.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

 

Half jokingly, more would be done faster if Lucky Luciano was running the show.

 

Here are 5 things you should know about Ron Klain:

 

I agree on your point about Luciano. Even Ron Luciano would have gotten a better jump on this.

 

You didn't say so directly, but it reads as if you're politicizing the Ebola situation.

Right now I think I can speak for all of America that isn't virulent Dem. or Rep. haters and say that no one gives a crap who is appointed to handle this, as long as it gets done.

 

What I didn't know until yesterday is that we currently do not have a Surgeon General in office. He/she would be the smart, quick, no-brainer choice for Ebola Czar.

 

No doubt someone will post here and politicize the SG post, why it hasn't been filled, etc.

 

Again, no one cares.

 

FDR's great line "The only thing we have to fear is....fear itself" is very relevant right now.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Not politicizing, using common sense. Two more layers of political entanglement and its inherent back biting will waste valuable time. If ABC would publish the article, it is as if they are trying to say something. It contains nothing more that the bios, leading people to for once think for themselves. This crap transcends politics. Like I said earlier, Ebola made its breakout in '76 and then bigger in '94. There is more than enough blame to go around.

 

Like I keep saying, COMMON SENSE. If a schmuck like me could see this back in '94, why couldn't all these educated people see it coming? DAMMIT! We are putting more resources into tracking asteroids than communicable disease. We are in a world today where 100,000 people travel halfway around the world daily.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Not politicizing, using common sense. Two more layers of political entanglement and its inherent back biting will waste valuable time. If ABC would publish the article, it is as if they are trying to say something. It contains nothing more that the bios, leading people to for once think for themselves. This crap transcends politics. Like I said earlier, Ebola made its breakout in '76 and then bigger in '94. There is more than enough blame to go around.

 

Like I keep saying, COMMON SENSE. If a schmuck like me could see this back in '94, why couldn't all these educated people see it coming? DAMMIT! We are putting more resources into tracking asteroids than communicable disease. We are in a world today where 100,000 people travel halfway around the world daily.

 

 

Anyone in the infectious diseases industry would have known for years that it was just a matter of time before Ebola got here or to Europe, or minimally out of Africa.

 

Now it's here, it's contained so far, and we have to learn how to deal with it. Severe travel restrictions on anyone in direct patient care or handling specimens should have been been in place a day after Duncan got put in isolation.

 

The protocols for handling it should have been in a dusty binder in some administrator's closet in every hospital in the U.S. for at least the last decade.

 

Why the CDC did not have a PDF on their website that the Dallas hospital (or any) could download at any given moment is beyond words to comprehend.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Because the CDC thought it was the NHS's job, and the NHS thought it belonged to the CDC. Governmental departments are like fiefdoms at war with each other fighting for more money and power. Accomplishing the the tasks that brought them into being is either incidental, or at best accidental. Two more fiefdoms that do not communicate effectively, more wasted time and resources.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Because the CDC thought it was the NHS's job, and the NHS thought it belonged to the CDC. Governmental departments are like fiefdoms at war with each other fighting for more money and power. Accomplishing the the tasks that brought them into being is either incidental, or at best accidental. Two more fiefdoms that do not communicate effectively, more wasted time and resources.

 

I think that's part of the reason Obama appointed his Ebola Czar. That, and to calm everyone the f down.

 

In the absence of a Surgeon General, it was his only rational move. He can't be expected to manage every detail of this.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Bing-re post 66-'the odds of infection are not high to begin with"

 

Wrong-they are very high IN THIS COUNTRY, THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA as evidenced by various people completely ignoring the situation for lack of objective evidence. And when they actually do have evidence they still ignore it until somebody vomits on their feet.

 

Did you not recently read Garo's story of how he complained of difficulty breathing for 16 hrs before someone decided to be RESPONSE ABLE?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

"I think that's part of the reason Obama appointed his Ebola Czar. That, and to calm everyone the f down."

I thought of this before I posted, but the organizational structure isolates Klain by two layers. This gives him, the president, NHS, and CDC plausible deniability. If Klain was appointed a temporary advisory position reporting directly to the president. It is the time and clarity of information issues that sent me down this road. Also given his lack of medical experience, wealth of hammer down politics, information management and damage control does not exactly give reassurance that we will get accurate information. What all this means to me is unified information correct or not, to keep the public and media quiet. Klan's greatest skill lies in keeping peoples mouths shut. In Nixon's administration he would be a "plumber"

Link to comment
Share on other sites

"I think that's part of the reason Obama appointed his Ebola Czar. That, and to calm everyone the f down."

 

I thought of this before I posted, but the organizational structure isolates Klain by two layers. This gives him, the president, NHS, and CDC plausible deniability. If Klain was appointed a temporary advisory position reporting directly to the president. It is the time and clarity of information issues that sent me down this road. Also given his lack of medical experience, wealth of hammer down politics, information management and damage control does not exactly give reassurance that we will get accurate information. What all this means to me is unified information correct or not, to keep the public and media quiet. Klan's greatest skill lies in keeping peoples mouths shut. In Nixon's administration he would be a "plumber"

 

First of all we don't know if Klain has immediate access to Obama or his cabinet. The layers mean nothing if he's got the White House cel phone number.

 

I get why people are confused as to why Klain was appointed with no health care creds. It seems to be common sense, doesn't it?

 

If you're going to war, do you want a leader who's the best sniper, the best warplane pilot, the best strategist, the best at any one aspect of war? Or do you want someone who knows how to surround himself with the most highly skilled people, organize a structure for the flow of information, assign specific duties to the right person for the task, isn't afraid to take advice and suggestions, isn't afraid to make decisions and will accept the responsibility of overseeing the whole war?

 

Leaderships skills are entirely different than the "get it done" skills that professionals and specialists possess.

 

We don't need someone who knows it all. We need someone who can get it done from the oversight position.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

Loading...
 Share


×
×
  • Create New...