2014 Ebola Outbreak

[TummieGaruda]

Another one of the nurses who treated the Ebola patient in Dallas has contracted the virus. The bad part about it is that she traveled on a commercial flight to Ohio a few days ago so now health officials are trying to reach out to the 132 people on board.

http://www.cnn.com/2014/10/15/health...eak/index.html

[Kuya]

I'm gonna start selling anti ebola crystals and chakra enhancers

[Kyreth]

And whether or not this lady flying on a plane triggers an outbreak is when we show that a microbial lifeform > 'MERICA.

I mean, think about it. A disease that took tainted needles, blood, or sex managed to cover all 50 states in the US inside of a decade- HIV. Ebola only has to end up in a few decent population clusters to do plentiful damage here. Heck, I work in mass transit. If there's a serious outbreak, I get a constant stream of international and national traffic going right by my counter 13 hours a day, 5 days a week. It's likely how I came down with whooping cough (doc nervous about anti-vaccers neglected to ask when my last PDT booster was- tooooo late), and needless to say the idea of laying dying in a puddle of my own hemmoraging fluids doesn't appeal.

[Salodin]

Another one of the nurses who treated the Ebola patient in Dallas has contracted the virus. The bad part about it is that she traveled on a commercial flight to Ohio a few days ago so now health officials are trying to reach out to the 132 people on board.

http://www.cnn.com/2014/10/15/health...eak/index.html

Anddddd now we won't hear the end of Captain Hindsight saying we should have grounded all flights inbound from Africa weeks ago.

[Tyche]

That's not captain hindsight, that's captain idiot. Grounding flights will exacerbate the issue.

We ground flights, these people go to other countries, countries less sanitary and less prepared and more clustered than the US. Ebola becomes more a problem there than we'd ever see here. We ground flights from that nation. They flee to other countries for care. Vicious circle occurs, we have no idea where Ebola patients are or aren't. We can't screen every flight from Europe and Africa. Gets to US even worse than it would have.

[Salodin]

We already don't know where Ebola patients are or arent, except that they're mainly in Africa. To make matters worse, theres now a nurse testing positive for it who recently went onto an aircraft in the states. We can treat it better here, sure, but not if we don't know who or doesn't have it until after they've already potentially infected hundreds of others. That's not a plan, that's rolling the dice and hoping science can save us faster then we infect ourselves. The solution to this isn't to just let them all in and hope people showing symptoms make it to a Freedom Owned Quarantined Zone before they infect another native.

[Tyche]

Taylor Swift dumped more men in the time it took me to post this than have contracted Ebola on US soil. AND they were knowingly and intimately involved with a known infection.

[kuronosan]

And whether or not this lady flying on a plane triggers an outbreak is when we show that a microbial lifeform > 'MERICA.

I mean, think about it. A disease that took tainted needles, blood, or sex managed to cover all 50 states in the US inside of a decade- HIV. Ebola only has to end up in a few decent population clusters to do plentiful damage here. Heck, I work in mass transit. If there's a serious outbreak, I get a constant stream of international and national traffic going right by my counter 13 hours a day, 5 days a week. It's likely how I came down with whooping cough (doc nervous about anti-vaccers neglected to ask when my last PDT booster was- tooooo late), and needless to say the idea of laying dying in a puddle of my own hemmoraging fluids doesn't appeal.

No.

[Tyche]

And no one "potentially" infected hundreds of others. Did hundreds of others lick his saliva off the floor? No. This is not something easy to catch. If one person in a household of 7 have ebola, chances are that MAYBE one other person catches it. And that's people that live in close quarters and interact daily.

We have the problem largely isolated to a region of Africa. Not the entirety of Africa. We don't need a massive fucking quarantine zone with a Stephen Kingsian glass dome over the nation.

[kuronosan]

Two people who had intimate contact with an infected patient developed an infection.

It's not the fucking flu. Enough already.

[notorious bum]

That can't be right... If Ebola isn't the ISIS of viruses then the world leader of news is lying and that is the literal worst, I can't even with fake friends.

[archibaldcrane]

How the hell did multiple nurses get Ebola from a known patient? Aren't they like, nursing in hazmat suits and shit?

[Edelweiss]

How the hell did multiple nurses get Ebola from a known patient? Aren't they like, nursing in hazmat suits and shit?

Because they flagrantly disregarded precautionary procedures and clothing in the isolation area(s) on occasion. Also apparently their containment suits had coverage gaps (the neck) which were addressed... with medical tape.

[Tyche]

How the hell did multiple nurses get Ebola from a known patient? Aren't they like, nursing in hazmat suits and shit?

Speaking as someone with experience being on those situations, that is, taking care of an intubated patient with a respirator and gown and garb, it's fucking hard. Isn't your mom a nurse? She could tell you. Doing a complete bed change to clean a patient, swapping out suction canisters, pulling labs from blood, urine, feces, respiratory secretions. There's lot of exposure risks. Something gets knocked over, spilled on the floor. The ICU rooms, especially the isolation rooms, are typically pretty small. I really don't know how something could get through, but it really isn't shocking or unheard of, especially the case of they were being casual with the isolation.

Real talk. Every nurse is casual with isolated patients. It's sad, but true. I would have hoped in this case, since it was a national case and the documentation and every aspect of care would be closely monitored by state agencies, that nurses would have been more careful. I was particularly shocked that they had a 26 year old that JUST got her CCRN and has less than 5 years experience caring for this patient. I don't know what their staffing is like, but that was a bit eye opening for me. I'd almost bet my salary that she worked nights where no one was really there and when you're typically staffed by less experienced nurses.

[Ksandra]

too soon?

[chazzyphizzle]

too unfunny

[kuronosan]

How the hell did multiple nurses get Ebola from a known patient? Aren't they like, nursing in hazmat suits and shit?

As a second voice of experience, it's much harder than you think to remove "contaminated" PPE. I mean, the slightest gap puts you at risk for exposure. If you take things off in the wrong order, if you put your hand on something without remembering it could be contaminated, or if you touch your gown/shield/etc, without regard for decon procedures, you've put yourself at risk.

If there's a gap between gloves and gown, it's an entry point. If your mask is on too loosely, it's an entry point. If you forget to take off your gloves last, it's an entry point.

Basically what Edelweiss said as well. Sometimes people just don't properly prepare for something because they adopt the attitude "never me I've always been fine" and then shit like this occurs.

People act like it's coincidence that the caring nurses are the only two infected. It's not. It's not at all suprising, either.

Tyche is absolutely correct in his analysis. Sometimes noobs gon' noob. It happens with every type of health care professional. People also lie, and nurses are no different. If you ask them if they took all the proper precautions, of course they're going to say that they did.

At our hospital, professional staff haven't been allowed to leave the patient's contained area until he's confirmed negative (preliminary testing is negative so far). If you've cared for the patient, you stay there. They're also going to test the staff if he comes back positive and continue to treat both them and the patient. No professional is allowed to care for another patient or go home until they're given the all-clear by the medical director.

With something like this, you can never be too cautious. Even something with a low rate of infection in the U.S., such as Ebola, should never be taken lightly.

I handle HIV+ specimens weekly, and I throw out my gloves and wash my hands like nuts. No, I don't have cuts. No, I'm not at risk. No, I didn't spill any on my hands.

For the good of myself, my family, and my patient, I do it anyway.

[Kuya]

No joke though, avoiding contamination is hard as shit. Even something as simple as doing cell culture is a fucking headache when trying to avoid contamination.

Fucking yeast

[Ksandra]

I am pretty sure not every hospital has hazmats, too. right?

[kuronosan]

I am pretty sure not every hospital has hazmats, too. right?

Any hospital with an infectious disease ward is usually required to be equipped with hazmats.