CNN: 2 Ebola patients returning to U.S.

[Springfield]

So this is how it starts. Should have left those poor souls over there. I think I'm coming down with the Ebola now.

But seriously, I'm sure everyone will be fine.

[Thekyle1591]

Is Ebola the one that makes you **** out your liquified organs?

[PCS]

No. That's pretty much a myth. It's a very nasty virus and can cause a lot of ...drainage from the body,but not that. 

[Bacon]

So I went to the grocery store today and this large, imposing but otherwise sane and sincere-looking man walks up to my wife and I and dropped truth on us.

 

"You know that eeeebowla virus? We need to be CONCERNED." As the discussion carried on, it literally went toward science fiction.

 

Instantly thought of you guys.

[visionary]

I keep seeing it mentioned as spreading through bodily fluids..., but I find that rather vague.

If it spreads through all bodily fluids, that seems pretty dangerous.

Does that mean blood, semen, urine, feces, vomit, snot/mucus, saliva, tears?  

(most of which a sick person can spread around pretty haphazardly.)

Or is it less concentrated in most of these and only a threat from one or two sources?

[Special K]

What's funny to me is that some of the same people all concerned about the Ebola patient will avoid vaccinating their kids. 

No kidding.  

 

Maybe someone should point out to those geniuses that in order to remain consistent with their anti-vaccine views, they should expose themselves and their children to the Ebola virus so their immune systems can get a jump start on "naturally" building up immunity against the disease.  In fact, I highly recommend throwing combined chicken pox/Ebola parties for the kiddies, that way they can kill 2 birds with 1 stone...  

[visionary]

http://www.cnn.com/2014/08/01/health/ebola-outbreak/index.html?hpt=hp_inthenews

Ebola coming to U.S. as Atlanta hospital preps for patients

 

The Ebola virus is coming to the United States for what's thought to be the first time, as two Americans return home after getting infected while helping others cope with the outbreak ravaging West Africa.

 

The first patient is expected to arrive in the United States on Saturday afternoon, U.S. officials said. The aircraft carrying that person will land at Georgia's Dobbins Air Reserve Base, then take off again for Liberia to get the second American infected with Ebola.

 

Both are expected to head to Emory University Hospital in Atlanta, according to Dr. Bruce Ribner, who oversees the special isolation unit where they will be treated. On Friday, he described the patients as "stable" and "safe to transport."

 

There was an Ebola strain tied to monkeys -- Ebola-Reston -- in the United States during the 1990s, though no humans got sick from it, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Thus, what is happening now appears to be the first time a symptomatic person with Ebola will be in the country and treated at a U.S. hospital.

 

The Emory unit -- created in conjunction with the CDC, which is based down the road -- that will care for these patients is designed to optimize care for those with infectious diseases while safeguarding health care workers and visitors. Emory's hospital is one of only four U.S. institutions capable of such care, according to Ribner.

 

He pointed out many precautions in place to prevent the deadly virus from spreading. These include controlling everything that comes into and out of the unit, "special air handling" and windows and an intercom so guests can interact with patients without being in the room.

 

As one of four physicians overseeing the patients' treatment, Ribner said, "I have no concerns about either my personal health or the health of the other health care workers who will be working in that unit."

 

Ebola isn't "some mystical pathogen (with) some bizarre mode of transmission," the doctor noted, adding that it is transmitted similarly to illnesses like SARS or HIV.

 

But while the Emory staff members are confident, that doesn't mean they have experience dealing with Ebola, which the World Health Organization reports has infected more than 1,300 people and killed over 700 in recent weeks in Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea. In fact, no U.S. medical facility has had a known patient with the virus.

 

 

http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/08/02/us-health-ebola-who-idUSKBN0G14AV20140802?feedType=RSS&feedName=topNews&utm_source=twitter

African leaders agree steps to fight runaway Ebola outbreak

 

West African leaders agreed on Friday to take stronger measures to try to bring the worst outbreak of Ebola under control and prevent it spreading outside the region, including steps to isolate rural communities ravaged by the disease.

 

The World Health Organization and medical charity Medicins Sans Frontieres said on Friday the outbreak, which has killed 729 people in four West African countries, was out of control and more resources were urgently needed to deal with it.

 

WHO chief Margaret Chan told a meeting of the presidents of Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone - the countries worst affected - that the epidemic was outpacing efforts to contain it and warned of catastrophic consequences in lost lives and economic disruption if the situation were allowed to deteriorate.

 

"The presidents recognize the serious nature of the Ebola outbreak in their countries," Chan said after the meeting. "They are determined to take extraordinary measures to stop Ebola in their countries."

 

In a communique after their talks, the leaders agreed to deploy security forces to isolate the frontier regions where 70 percent of the 1,323 cases have been detected.

 

They banned the transportation of anyone showings signs of disease across borders, and pledged to introduce strict controls at international airports to prevent the virus spreading outside the region.

[Special K]

 

I keep seeing it mentioned as spreading through bodily fluids..., but I find that rather vague.

If it spreads through all bodily fluids, that seems pretty dangerous.

Does that mean blood, semen, urine, feces, vomit, snot/mucus, saliva, tears?  

(most of which a sick person can spread around pretty haphazardly.)

Or is it less concentrated in most of these and only a threat from one or two sources?

I've always understood transmission of the Ebola virus to be very similar to the routes of transmission of HIV.  It is not a virus that is easy to contract as it is not transmitted through casual contact. 

 

Here's the official CDC statement on transmission:

http://www.cdc.gov/vhf/ebola/transmission/index.html

 

Here's a link to what the discoverer of the Ebola virus, Prof. Peter Piot, said about transmission of the virus:

http://www.syracuse.com/news/index.ssf/2014/08/ebola_important_facts_on_how_the_viral_disease_can_spread.html

[Dont Taze Me Bro]

I keep seeing it mentioned as spreading through bodily fluids..., but I find that rather vague.

If it spreads through all bodily fluids, that seems pretty dangerous.

Does that mean blood, semen, urine, feces, vomit, snot/mucus, saliva, tears?  

(most of which a sick person can spread around pretty haphazardly.)

Or is it less concentrated in most of these and only a threat from one or two sources?

This excerpt was taking from the WHO website (listed in the Transmission section):

 

"Ebola then spreads in the community through human-to-human transmission, with infection resulting from direct contact (through broken skin or mucous membranes) with the blood, secretions, organs or other bodily fluids of infected people, and indirect contact with environments contaminated with such fluids. Burial ceremonies in which mourners have direct contact with the body of the deceased person can also play a role in the transmission of Ebola. Men who have recovered from the disease can still transmit the virus through their semen for up to 7 weeks after recovery from illness."

 

Link to the rest of the article/information: http://www.who.int/mediacentre/factsheets/fs103/en/

[Dont Taze Me Bro]

No kidding.  

 

Maybe someone should point out to those geniuses that in order to remain consistent with their anti-vaccine views, they should expose themselves and their children to the Ebola virus so their immune systems can get a jump start on "naturally" building up immunity against the disease.  In fact, I highly recommend throwing combined chicken pox/Ebola parties for the kiddies, that way they can kill 2 birds with 1 stone...  

I'm all for vaccines.  I'm all for cures.  I can honestly say that I don't think a doomsday/plague is coming to wipe us all out of existence just because they are bringing an infected person back to the states.  But I will not change my stance, I don't like it at all.  Why not just bring back more samples, which has to be a lot easier to secure and a lot safer, one would think.

 

Any vaccine they are coming up with (according to various news websites, they plan to have one in Sept.) can be administered in Africa.  They know what it does to an infected person, so again, maybe my lack of medical/biological knowledge has me still wondering how much more of an advantage can they obtain by studying a live infected patient versus the virus that was captured in sample vials?

[twa]

I've always understood transmission of the Ebola virus to be very similar to the routes of transmission of HIV.  It is not a virus that is easy to contract as it is not transmitted through casual contact. 

 

Here's the official CDC statement on transmission:

http://www.cdc.gov/vhf/ebola/transmission/index.html

 

Here's a link to what the discoverer of the Ebola virus, Prof. Peter Piot, said about transmission of the virus:

http://www.syracuse.com/news/index.ssf/2014/08/ebola_important_facts_on_how_the_viral_disease_can_spread.html

 

yeah, the crucial difference is in the short latter stages when blood is present in most body fluids,whereas HIV is more spread out by virtue of the slow nature of the disease and ability to survive outside host cells

[Special K]

I'm all for vaccines.  I'm all for cures.  I can honestly say that I don't think a doomsday/plague is coming to wipe us all out of existence just because they are bringing an infected person back to the states.  But I will not change my stance, I don't like it at all.  Why not just bring back more samples, which has to be a lot easier to secure and a lot safer, one would think.

 

Any vaccine they are coming up with (according to various news websites, they plan to have one in Sept.) can be administered in Africa.  They know what it does to an infected person, so again, maybe my lack of medical/biological knowledge has me still wondering how much more of an advantage can they obtain by studying a live infected patient versus the virus that was captured in sample vials?

My apologies, I wasn't referring to you specifically when I made my flippant statement about the anti-vaxers.  I deal with anti-vaccine nuts on an almost daily basis in my field of work so when Yusef made his sarcastic remark (which on the whole happens to be more true than not, unfortunately) I continued building upon his sentiment by releasing my inner smartass.  Anyway, I wasn't referring to you or anyone in particular in this thread, moreso the faceless anti-vax movement that has caused a great deal of harm to the public's health.  Anyway, I'm really sorry for not articulating that clearly and leading you to think I was dissing you.

 

Now back to the Ebola discussion...  

 

A major reason the 2 patients are being transported back to receive treatment at Emory is that this gives them the best chance for survival.  They will receive supportive care here that they would not otherwise have access to in Liberia.  In addition to the treatment teams having at their fingertips the best supportive care options in the world, experimental treatments can also be administered at the joint Emory/CDC isolation facility these patients are going to be treated at.

 

Here's a link to an article talking about the Emory facility, risks of transmission according to the physician in charge of this whole operation and some of the reasons the patients are being brought here.

 

http://www.cnn.com/2014/08/01/health/ebola-outbreak/

 

I think the bottom line for me is that the more one truly knows the science behind communicable disease epidemiology and the more one truly understands the poor treatment and isolation conditions in Africa (and the rest of the developing world) and how those conditions facilitate the transmission of communicable diseases like EVD and cause major outbreaks, the less worried they are about transporting, in proper isolation, 2 Ebola victims back to the US where they will receive treatment at one of the few hospital facilities in the world that is properly equipped for Biosafety Level 4 pathogen treatment and research.  

 

Just as a personal aside, I've worked in various hospitals and medical clinics in Madagascar and sub-Saharan Africa and I can personally attest to the fact that they are extremely limited in their capacity to effectively treat virulent communicable diseases like EVD.

[Dont Taze Me Bro]

I hear ya Special K and I didn't take your post as a jab at me in regards to the anti-vaccine peeps.  I was actually in agreement with you on that  The whole Ebola stuff is just a scary topic to me.  I really do have faith in the containment and precautions in place.  But I still feel uneasy about it all at the same time.  

[Special K]

I hear ya Special K and I didn't take your post as a jab at me in regards to the anti-vaccine peeps.  I was actually in agreement with you on that  The whole Ebola stuff is just a scary topic to me.  I really do have faith in the containment and precautions in place.  But I still feel uneasy about it all at the same time.  

Well, I can't blame people for being uneasy about it; over the years and especially with regard to this current outbreak, Ebola has been greatly sensationalized in both Hollywood pop culture and the media at large.

 

Don't get me wrong, Ebola is a horrible virus and the extent of this current outbreak in Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone is unprecedented in the decades-long known history of this virus.  Health officials over in these outbreak countries have a nightmare on their hands as far as containing the spread of the virus (difficulties faced by health officials are primarily due to lack of adequate resources, subpar hygiene practices - particularly the more remote the village clinics - and a general cultural distrust of health care workers swarming in and enacting community quarantines, stopping traditional burial practices that significantly increase exposure risk and isolating and treating symptomatic patients).  However, with all that said, I'm not worried about any type of threat to the general American public, particularly with the abundance of caution being taken by all the experts involved.

[MEANDWARF]

I'm too immature to be scared.

 

[The Sisko]

I hear ya Special K and I didn't take your post as a jab at me in regards to the anti-vaccine peeps. I was actually in agreement with you on that The whole Ebola stuff is just a scary topic to me. I really do have faith in the containment and precautions in place. But I still feel uneasy about it all at the same time.

FWIW my comment wasn't directed at you or anyone in this thread in particular. The anti vaxers are a major pet peeve for me and this incident just brought to mind how odd human nature is in terms of evaluating danger/risk in light of a high level of perceived horror..

[daveakl]

FWIW my comment wasn't directed at you or anyone in this thread in particular. The anti vaxers are a major pet peeve for me and this incident just brought to mind how odd human nature is in terms of evaluating danger/risk in light of a high level of perceived horror..

But you can't deny that vaccines have high amounts of mercury and are the cause of the rapid rise of autism.

A former playboy playmate can't be wrong.

[visionary]

http://www.cnn.com/2014/08/02/health/ebola-outbreak/index.html?hpt=hp_t1

Ebola patient walks into Atlanta hospital; wife sees him through glass

 

A specially equipped medical plane whisked Ebola-stricken Dr. Kent Brantly from Liberia to Georgia on Saturday, setting up the latest leg of a race to save the man who's now the first known Ebola patient on U.S. soil.

 

An ambulance rushed Brantly -- one of two Americans seriously sickened by the deadly viral hemorrhagic fever last month while on the front lines of a major outbreak in West Africa -- from Dobbins Air Reserve Base to Atlanta's Emory University Hospital shortly after the plane landed late Saturday morning.

 

Video from Emory showed someone wearing a white, full-body protective suit helping a similarly clad person emerge from the ambulance and walk into the hospital.

The plane, also equipped with a unit meant to isolate the patient, was able to take only one patient at a time. Organizers expect the plane will now pick up Writebol in Liberia, and bring her to Georgia early next week, said Todd Shearer, spokesman for Christian charity Samaritan's Purse, with which both Americans were affiliated.

 

Brantly's wife, parents and sister cried when they saw him on CNN, walking from the ambulance into the hospital, a family representative said on condition of anonymity. His wife, Amber, later said she was relieved that her husband was back in the United States.

 

"I spoke with him, and he is glad to be back in the U.S.," she said in statement sent to CNN. "I am thankful to God for his safe transport and for giving him the strength to walk into the hospital."

 

Brantly's wife visited with him from behind a glass wall for about 45 minutes, the family representative said. Kent Brantly was described as being "in great spirits and so grateful."

[Zguy28]

Good interview with a doc from Vanderbilt about the low risk here.

 

http://www.cbsnews.com/videos/should-americans-be-concerned-about-ebola-patients-in-us/

 

[Dont Taze Me Bro]

Good interview with a doc from Vanderbilt about the low risk here.

 

http://www.cbsnews.com/videos/should-americans-be-concerned-about-ebola-patients-in-us/

Nice post.  I'm not as nervous about it as I first was.  I still don't like it, but I'm starting to have more faith in our capabilities to bring them back and study it, etc.  Special K, thank you for providing some insight on the issue from the medical/biological standpoint.  

[PCS]

Now discussing this on Facebook. Man. This is eerily familiar to the conversations and stuff about aids back in the mid 80's.  I was working in the base hospital at that time and the fear was palpable at times. I took care of two patients who had contracted the virus from blood transfusions,(this was back in 85-86). Followed the isolation protocol at the time to the letter,(keeping in mind we didn't know the patients had contracted aids until 6 months or so later),and as far as I know,it worked. But man the fear that came with that virus was unreal. Just like now with Ebola. 

[PCS]

http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2014/08/03/ebola-us-africa-brantly-ga/13536981/

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

CDC chief: Ebola patient improving after return to USA    

The American physician flown back to the United States after becoming infected with the Ebola virus in Liberia "seems to be improving," the head of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Sunday.

Kent Brantly was being treated in a special isolation unit at Emory University Hospital in Atlanta after arriving Saturday at Dobbins Air Reserve Base in Georgia. It's the first time anyone infected with the deadly virus has been brought into the country.

 

 

*Click Link for More*

[Sticksboi05]

Now discussing this on Facebook. Man. This is eerily familiar to the conversations and stuff about aids back in the mid 80's.  I was working in the base hospital at that time and the fear was palpable at times. I took care of two patients who had contracted the virus from blood transfusions,(this was back in 85-86). Followed the isolation protocol at the time to the letter,(keeping in mind we didn't know the patients had contracted aids until 6 months or so later),and as far as I know,it worked. But man the fear that came with that virus was unreal. Just like now with Ebola. 

 

The thing is, HIV was legit completely unknown then, Ebola has been around for 40 years, just people are oblivious.

[Special K]

http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2014/08/03/ebola-us-africa-brantly-ga/13536981/

 

*Click Link for More*

Great news.  Really happy for them and their loved ones.

 

If both aid workers end up surviving this, they each need a "I survived Ebola" t-shirt.

[Dont Taze Me Bro]

Great news.  Really happy for them and their loved ones.

 

If both aid workers end up surviving this, they each need a "I survived Ebola" t-shirt.

If it were me in their place, I'd want one that says, "I went to Liberia and all I got was Ebola and this ****ing t-shirt"

 

I hope they survive, I hate it when good people that help others are the ones that suffer.  Life's so unfair at times.