Ebola, news and discussion

[MsTinkerbelly]

There was an incident yesterday in Los Angeles, where a man with a mask got onto a Metro bus and told the bus driver he had Ebola. When leaving the bus, he told the entire bus he had Ebola and threw his mask on the floor of the bus.

The driver drove back to the yard, told his supervisors, and thus began the isoation of the bus and the driver. They are saying they have the tape from the bus, and if they find this man they will bring charges of making a terrorist threat. What a waste of resources.

Let the crazy begin....

[SleepyButch]

I just read that the Zuckerbergs are donating $25 million to the CDC foundation.


Also the WHO says that west Africa could see up to 10,000 new cases a week within two months. The confirmed that the death rate currently is 70% over there.

If that continues, in an 8 week time, approximately 56,000 people will die. That's a lot of lost lives.



NEW YORK (AP) -- Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg and his wife, Priscilla Chan, are donating $25 million to the CDC Foundation to help address the Ebola epidemic.

The money will be used by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's Ebola response effort in Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone and elsewhere in the world where Ebola is a threat, the foundation said Tuesday.

The grant follows a $9 million donation made by Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen last month. Zuckerberg and Chan are making the grant from their fund at the nonprofit Silicon Valley Community Foundation.

Also on Tuesday, the World Health Organization said West Africa could see up to 10,000 new Ebola cases a week within two months and confirmed that the death rate in the current outbreak is now 70 percent. The disease has killed more than 4,000 people, nearly all of them in West Africa. The WHO has called the outbreak "the most severe, acute health emergency seen in modern times."

"The most important step we can take is to stop Ebola at its source. The sooner the world comes together to help West Africa, the safer we all will be," said CDC Director Tom Frieden in a statement.

[cricket26]

[MsTinkerbelly]

Originally Posted by cricket26

They also have someone else that was close to Nina in isolation as they are showing symptoms. This was per CNN, just a few minutes ago.

[TruTexan]

Originally Posted by MsTinkerbelly

They also have someone else that was close to Nina in isolation as they are showing symptoms. This was per CNN, just a few minutes ago.

The person that was close to Nina Pham, the Dallas Nurse, is her boyfriend, it was on the news today in Dallas. They didn't mention anything about him having symptoms today that I recall. I'll check the Dallas news tonight and go from there.

I"m glad the CDC is there giving extensive training for all the caregivers for PPE protection usage and giving the hospital protocols to follow. That should have happened when Duncan showed up at the hospital and it was reported to the CDC. They dropped the ball from the get go in my .02 opinion.

[firegal]

Folks are all ready slowly starting to over react.... In the emergency medicine world... God help anyone if they cough and have a fever!

Went thru I it with 9-11 twin towers and terrorist stuff and abandoned bags and white powder etc.

It's ok to be carefully and cautious but paranoid makes life harder!

[cricket26]

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=717755041627102

[MsTinkerbelly]

Originally Posted by firegal

Folks are all ready slowly starting to over react.... In the emergency medicine world... God help anyone if they cough and have a fever!

Went thru I it with 9-11 twin towers and terrorist stuff and abandoned bags and white powder etc.

It's ok to be carefully and cautious but paranoid makes life harder!

After basically NO REACTION from the United States and the rest of the world during this crisis, I'll take a bit of over-reaction and paranoia. This disease has been around for decades and we did nothing.

No this was not a "United States" problem, but we could have helped stop this before it became our problem. Was this left alone because it was primarily killing poor black people? We involve ourselves in other people's wars and issues all of the time, was it because there was nothing in it for us to gain by helping?

This is going to get a lot worse before it gets better...paranoia? We will see!

[TruTexan]

Originally Posted by MsTinkerbelly

They also have someone else that was close to Nina in isolation as they are showing symptoms. This was per CNN, just a few minutes ago.

MsTinkerbelly, the Dallas news stations have NOT reported that Nina Pham's boyfriend, who is the contact person in isolation for 21 days, as showing any symptoms, they have said he is being monitored only.

And the Dallas news stations have NOT reported anything about the claims that CNN has made about the Nursing Union statements made on behalf of anonymous nurses either.

Not sure why it's different reporting, makes me wonder though if someone somewhere isn't making HYPE to scare people.

[MsTinkerbelly]

Originally Posted by TruTexan

MsTinkerbelly, the Dallas news stations have NOT reported that Nina Pham's boyfriend, who is the contact person in isolation for 21 days, as showing any symptoms, they have said he is being monitored only.

And the Dallas news stations have NOT reported anything about the claims that CNN has made about the Nursing Union statements made on behalf of anonymous nurses either.

Not sure why it's different reporting, makes me wonder though if someone somewhere isn't making HYPE to scare people.

I never said boyfriend. Close to her, worked closely with her, whatever.

Like i said there is someone at the hospital also being monitored.

As far as the nurses union goes, i have no clue.

[SleepyButch]

Originally Posted by MsTinkerbelly

They also have someone else that was close to Nina in isolation as they are showing symptoms. This was per CNN, just a few minutes ago.

I wonder if this was referring to the second nurse who now is positive for the virus. I'm sure these two won't be the only ones who test positive before all is said and done.

Anyone know how soon you will test positive after exposure? Or do you have to start exhibiting symptoms first??

[*Anya*]

Originally Posted by SleepyButch

I wonder if this was referring to the second nurse who now is positive for the virus. I'm sure these two won't be the only ones who test positive before all is said and done.

Anyone know how soon you will test positive after exposure? Or do you have to start exhibiting symptoms first??

I think this is good information and hope it answers some questions:

Tests for Ebola

A number of tests can be used to diagnose Ebola within a few days of the onset of symptoms, which can detect the virus's genetic material or the presence of antibodies against the pathogen.

The most accurate of these is likely the polymerase chain reaction (PCR) test, a technique that looks for genetic material from the virus and creates enough copies of it that it can be detected, Hirsch said. "PCR is a really definitive test," Hirsch said. It can pick up very small amounts of the virus.

>>>>>However, this test can be negative during the first three days an infected person has symptoms, said Dr. Sandro Cinti, an infectious-disease specialist at the University of Michigan Hospital System/Ann Arbor VA Health System.

"Somebody could be in the hospital for three to five days before a diagnosis [of Ebola] is confirmed," Cinti told Live Science. "The important thing is keeping the patient isolated until you can get to a diagnosis." Meanwhile, doctors will be running tests to rule out other diseases, such as malaria, which can be detected more quickly than Ebola, he said.

>>>>Another test for Ebola looks for antibodies produced by the body's immune system in response to the virus. Known as the antigen-capture enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA), this test can take even longer than three days to give a positive result for an infected person, Cinti said. And antibodies can also be detected after a patient recovers, he added.

Once a patient is diagnosed with Ebola, scientists may attempt to isolate the virus -- which is a type of filovirus, known for their filamentlike shape -- by culturing it with living cells and examine it using electron microscopy. But culturing Ebola is very dangerous, and should only be done in a high-biosafety-level lab, Hirsch said. Culturing the virus is not a practical means of diagnosing infection, but may help researchers understand how the virus infects cells and test possible treatments.

So, given the severity of an Ebola infection, why wouldn't you test everybody with the remotest chance of having the disease?

A huge number of people come to the United States from Africa with fevers, Cinti said, and testing all of them for Ebola would drain hospital resources and raise unnecessary panic. "We really have to be clear and get good histories about exposure," he said. "It makes absolutely zero sense to test people who aren't from high-risk areas."

http://www.cbsnews.com/news/how-doctors-test-for-ebola/

[EnchantedNightDweller]

CNN is reporting that a second health worker has it. CDC admitting more should have been done.

[*Anya*]

2nd health care worker tests positive for Ebola at Dallas hospital
By Holly Yan, CNN
updated 6:52 AM EDT, Wed October 15, 2014


STORY HIGHLIGHTS
>>Official: Duncan should have been transferred out of Texas immediately
>>Health department has interviewed the patient to find contacts
>>The second health care worker with Ebola reported a fever Tuesday
**Like nurse Tina Pham, the second worker cared for Thomas Eric Duncan**

(CNN) -- A second health care worker at Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital who cared for Thomas Eric Duncan has tested positive for Ebola, health officials said Wednesday -- casting further doubt on the hospital's ability to handle Ebola and protect employees. The worker reported a fever Tuesday and was immediately isolated, health department spokeswoman Carrie Williams said.

The preliminary Ebola test was done late Tuesday at the state public health laboratory in Austin, and the results came back around midnight. A second test will be conducted by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta.

"Health officials have interviewed the latest patient to quickly identify any contacts or potential exposures, and those people will be monitored," the health department said. But the pool of contacts could be small, since Ebola can only be transmitted when an infected person shows symptoms. Less than a day passed between the onset of the worker's symptoms and isolation at the hospital.

An official close to the situation says that in hindsight, Duncan should have been transferred immediately to either Emory University Hospital in Atlanta or Nebraska Medical Center in Omaha. Those hospitals are among only four in the country that have biocontainment units and have been preparing for years to treat a highly infectious disease like Ebola.

"If we knew then what we know now about this hospital's ability to safely care for these patients, then we would have transferred him to Emory or Nebraska," the official told CNN Senior Medical Correspondent Elizabeth Cohen.

"I think there are hospitals that are more than ready, but I think there are some that are not."

The latest infection marks the second-ever transmission of Ebola in the United States. Both stemmed from Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital. Late last week, nurse Tina Pham tested positive for Ebola. She also took care of Duncan, the first person to be diagnosed with Ebola in the United States. Duncan died last week. On Tuesday, Pham said she was doing well. "I am blessed by the support of family and friends, and am blessed to be cared for by the best team of doctors and nurses in the world," she said.

Troubling allegations

Also Tuesday, National Nurses United made troubling allegations about the hospital, claiming "guidelines were constantly changing" and "there were no protocols" about how to deal with the deadly virus." "The protocols that should have been in place in Dallas were not in place, and that those protocols are not in place anywhere in the United States as far as we can tell," NNU Executive Director RoseAnn DeMoro said. "We're deeply alarmed."

Nurses were told to wrap their necks with medical tape when equipment left their necks exposed; they felt unsupported and unprepared, and they received no hands-on training, union co-president Deborah Burger said. A Texas Health Presbyterian spokesman did not respond to the specific allegations, but said patient and employee safety is the hospital's top priority.

Global epidemic
While the Texas hospital deals with its third Ebola patient, the situation in West Africa is getting increasingly dire.

More than 4,000 people have died from Ebola this year in Sierra Leone, Liberia and Guinea.
And it could be up to 10,000 new Ebola cases per week in Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone by the end of this year as the outbreak spreads, the World Health Organization warned Tuesday.

U.S. President Barack Obama says he'll reach out directly to heads of state to encourage other countries to do more to fight back.

"There are a number of countries that have capacity that have not yet stepped up," he said. "Those that have stepped up, all of us, are going to have to do more."

CNN's Catherine E. Shoichet and Tina Burnside contributed to this report.

http://www.cnn.com/2014/10/15/health...bola-outbreak/