First american ebola case diagnosed

[Toni]

I have read subsequently, she didn't have a fever until she got back to Dallas.

DALLAS (CBSDFW.COM) – The CDC has announced that the second healthcare worker diagnosed with Ebola — now identified as Amber Joy Vinson of Dallas — traveled by air Oct. 13, with a low-grade fever, a day before she showed up at the hospital reporting symptoms.

The CDC is now reaching out to all passengers who flew on Frontier Airlines flight 1143 Cleveland to Dallas/Fort Worth. The flight landed at 8:16 p.m. CT.

All 132 passengers on the flight are being asked to call 1 800-CDC INFO (1 800 232-4636). Public health professionals will begin interviewing passengers about the flight Wednesday afternoon.

“Although she (Vinson) did not report any symptoms and she did not meet the fever threshold of 100.4, she did report at that time she took her temperature and found it to be 99.5,” said CDC Director Tom Frieden. Her temperature coupled with the fact that she had been exposed to the virus should have prevented her from getting on the plane, he said.

http://dfw.cbslocal.com/2014/10/15/ebola-patient-traveled-day-before-diagnosis/

Usually 99.5 is not considered a fever for adults. She was probably not given the lower temperature threshhold.

 

[dismal]

DALLAS (CBSDFW.COM) – The CDC has announced that the second healthcare worker diagnosed with Ebola — now identified as Amber Joy Vinson of Dallas — traveled by air Oct. 13, with a low-grade fever, a day before she showed up at the hospital reporting symptoms.

The CDC is now reaching out to all passengers who flew on Frontier Airlines flight 1143 Cleveland to Dallas/Fort Worth. The flight landed at 8:16 p.m. CT.

All 132 passengers on the flight are being asked to call 1 800-CDC INFO (1 800 232-4636). Public health professionals will begin interviewing passengers about the flight Wednesday afternoon.

“Although she (Vinson) did not report any symptoms and she did not meet the fever threshold of 100.4, she did report at that time she took her temperature and found it to be 99.5,” said CDC Director Tom Frieden. Her temperature coupled with the fact that she had been exposed to the virus should have prevented her from getting on the plane, he said.

http://dfw.cbslocal.com/2014/10/15/ebola-patient-traveled-day-before-diagnosis/

Usually 99.5 is not considered a fever for adults. She was probably not given the lower temperature threshhold.

Well, there's also the fact she was recently acting as a nurse to a guy who had projectile vomiting and explosive diarrhea from Ebola.

When you combine the two it seems commercial air travel may not be a great idea.

 

[bilby]

 

[Toni]

DALLAS (CBSDFW.COM) – The CDC has announced that the second healthcare worker diagnosed with Ebola — now identified as Amber Joy Vinson of Dallas — traveled by air Oct. 13, with a low-grade fever, a day before she showed up at the hospital reporting symptoms.

The CDC is now reaching out to all passengers who flew on Frontier Airlines flight 1143 Cleveland to Dallas/Fort Worth. The flight landed at 8:16 p.m. CT.

All 132 passengers on the flight are being asked to call 1 800-CDC INFO (1 800 232-4636). Public health professionals will begin interviewing passengers about the flight Wednesday afternoon.

“Although she (Vinson) did not report any symptoms and she did not meet the fever threshold of 100.4, she did report at that time she took her temperature and found it to be 99.5,” said CDC Director Tom Frieden. Her temperature coupled with the fact that she had been exposed to the virus should have prevented her from getting on the plane, he said.

http://dfw.cbslocal.com/2014/10/15/ebola-patient-traveled-day-before-diagnosis/

Usually 99.5 is not considered a fever for adults. She was probably not given the lower temperature threshhold.

Well, there's also the fact she was recently acting as a nurse to a guy who had projectile vomiting and explosive diarrhea from Ebola.

When you combine the two it seems commercial air travel may not be a great idea.

In retrospect, sure. But I am pretty certain she was following the guidelines she was given, and believed she avoided exposure by following protocols.

 

[lpetrich]

Ebola outbreak: Nigeria is 'a week away' from beating virus - Health News - Health & Families - The Independent

Nigeria's success in containing the Ebola virus ought to be a major national humiliation for the US, a national humiliation like what Sputnik had been back in 1957.

I don't agree. Not at all. Instead, if indeed Nigeria has beaten this Ebola outbreak, it should be a cause of great rejoicing world wide.

I don't mean that at all. I mean success in Nigeria itself.


As to my Sputnik analogy, that event was a big shock when it happened. Many Americans thought that the Soviet Union was hopelessly backward, and indeed it was in some ways. I recall from somewhere that some people thought that the Russians had faked the evidence of their first nuclear-bomb test -- the radioactive dust that that bomb had produced. Did they grind up a lot of spent fuel rods from a nuclear reactor and release the resulting dust from an airplane?

But Sputnik 1 was clearly not a fake. It could be tracked as it orbited the Earth. The Soviet Union, its creator, had beaten the US at its own game.


So now, when Nigeria does better than the US at containing the Ebola virus, it ought to be a big national embarrassment for Americans.

 

[Sabine Grant]

DALLAS (CBSDFW.COM) – The CDC has announced that the second healthcare worker diagnosed with Ebola — now identified as Amber Joy Vinson of Dallas — traveled by air Oct. 13, with a low-grade fever, a day before she showed up at the hospital reporting symptoms.

The CDC is now reaching out to all passengers who flew on Frontier Airlines flight 1143 Cleveland to Dallas/Fort Worth. The flight landed at 8:16 p.m. CT.

All 132 passengers on the flight are being asked to call 1 800-CDC INFO (1 800 232-4636). Public health professionals will begin interviewing passengers about the flight Wednesday afternoon.

“Although she (Vinson) did not report any symptoms and she did not meet the fever threshold of 100.4, she did report at that time she took her temperature and found it to be 99.5,” said CDC Director Tom Frieden. Her temperature coupled with the fact that she had been exposed to the virus should have prevented her from getting on the plane, he said.

http://dfw.cbslocal.com/2014/10/15/ebola-patient-traveled-day-before-diagnosis/

Usually 99.5 is not considered a fever for adults. She was probably not given the lower temperature threshhold.

Well, there's also the fact she was recently acting as a nurse to a guy who had projectile vomiting and explosive diarrhea from Ebola.

When you combine the two it seems commercial air travel may not be a great idea.

In retrospect, sure. But I am pretty certain she was following the guidelines she was given, and believed she avoided exposure by following protocols.

From the same article :

“Those who have exposures to Ebola, she should not have traveled on a commercial airline,” said Dr. Frieden. “The CDC guidance in this setting outlines the need for controlled movement. That can include a charter plane; that can include a car; but it does not include public transport. We will from this moment forward ensure that no other individual who is being monitored for exposure undergoes travel in any way other than controlled movement.”
Frieden specifically noted that the remaining 75 healthcare workers who treated Thomas Duncan at Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital will not be allowed to fly. The CDC will work with local and state officials to accomplish this.

Being part of the attending medical personnel who cared for Mr Duncan, she most certainly had to be under the category of individuals "monitored for exposure". Meaning controlled movement guidelines. Which indeed exclude public transportation of any sort. Further, this nurse should not have relied on her own assessment that "she avoided exposure by following protocol guidelines". Being monitored for exposure means that she was to rely on the CDC assessment that she had no risk whatsoever of exposure. I am certain the CDC is interviewing over and over again each member of the attending medical personnel while they also monitor them to assess accurately who runs a lower risk versus a higher risk.

The article mentioning her duties while she provided skilled nursing care to Mr Duncan involving the use of sharps and catheters insertion which undoubtedly would involve direct contact with bodily fluids :

Medical records provided to The Associated Press by Thomas Eric Duncan’s family show Amber Joy Vinson was actively engaged in caring for Duncan in the days before his death. The records show she inserted catheters, drew blood, and dealt with Duncan’s body fluids.

Amber Joy would have fallen in the category of higher risk of exposure due to those specific skilled nursing care duties. It is safe to assume she was being monitored and expected to abide to controlled movement measures.

Personally, no matter how much I might be convinced I followed any protocols to a T, if I were identified as a health care worker susceptible to having been exposed to an infectious disease, I would avoid contact with the public until I am actually released from any monitoring measures. I certainly would not be traveling by air considering the closed environment of a plane.

ETA : considering Mr Duncan passed away on October 8th, all attending medical personnel would still be under monitoring to include this nurse. They have yet to have met the 21 day free of any symptoms.

 

[Sabine Grant]

I don't agree. Not at all. Instead, if indeed Nigeria has beaten this Ebola outbreak, it should be a cause of great rejoicing world wide.

I don't mean that at all. I mean success in Nigeria itself.


As to my Sputnik analogy, that event was a big shock when it happened. Many Americans thought that the Soviet Union was hopelessly backward, and indeed it was in some ways. I recall from somewhere that some people thought that the Russians had faked the evidence of their first nuclear-bomb test -- the radioactive dust that that bomb had produced. Did they grind up a lot of spent fuel rods from a nuclear reactor and release the resulting dust from an airplane?

But Sputnik 1 was clearly not a fake. It could be tracked as it orbited the Earth. The Soviet Union, its creator, had beaten the US at its own game.


So now, when Nigeria does better than the US at containing the Ebola virus, it ought to be a big national embarrassment for Americans.

From the same article,

Dr Tom Frieden, director of the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, praised Nigeria’s response.

“Although Nigeria isn't completely out of the woods, their extensive response to a single case of Ebola shows that control is possible with rapid, focused interventions,” he said.

If any embarrassment, it would about the Dallas Health Presbyterian Hospital who neglected to intervene immediately when Mr Duncan reported to the ER on his first visit. Meaning that it certainly should not be confused for meaning that the US cannot control an outbreak versus Nigeria can. The US is far from facing 20 cases with 8 deaths. Equally, we could conclude that Senegal could control an outbreak versus the US cannot.

 

[credoconsolans]

I'm in contact with doctor friends in Dallas and you don't want to know what they are calling that dumb beeotch nurse.

Doctors have long told me that some of their nurses are morons, and now I believe them.

Apparently this chick is getting married soon, and completely put the idea out of her head, that however small, she might be at risk for a disease with a 60-90% mortality rate.

Since nothing matters but her wedding, and to hell with anyone else, she put at risk cab drivers, airport employees, every single passenger on the plane both coming and going, taxi drivers and her friends and family and anyone else.

How fucking stupid can you get?!?!

 

[dismal]

It does not appear anyone from Duncan's family or other contacts has contracted the disease so it's hard to argue not checking him into the hospital 2 days earlier has much to do with the spread of the disease. The focus seems to be on whether adequate precautions were taken the first couple days he was there.

 

[credoconsolans]

It does not appear anyone from Duncan's family or other contacts has contracted the disease so it's hard to argue not checking him into the hospital 2 days earlier has much to do with the spread of the disease. The focus seems to be on whether adequate precautions were taken the first couple days he was there.

From what a panel of doctors from a medical school informed us in a town hall meeting, the rate of being infectious begins with the onset of symptoms and rises geometrically with the growth of the virus in the blood stream, so at its height, you can also find the virus in sweat and sometimes saliva, but when it's just getting started, such body fluids will not have the virus. So unless Duncan's girlfriend or kids touched his semen, blood, urine or feces, they ran a low risk.

The doctor panel said of Ebola that 3 types of people get Ebola

1) family
2) health care givers
3) those who handle the dead body

If the disease spread by air, you'd see other people getting the disease, but so far, you don't.

 

[Sabine Grant]

It does not appear anyone from Duncan's family or other contacts has contracted the disease so it's hard to argue not checking him into the hospital 2 days earlier has much to do with the spread of the disease. The focus seems to be on whether adequate precautions were taken the first couple days he was there.

I agree. And again, it specifically concerns health care workers who treated Mr Duncan while in he was placed in isolation in ICU.

Aside, but if this strain of Ebola were "airborne", I guarantee that all of Mr Duncan's contacts would be falling like flies. This incidence of infected health care workers ought to confirm that it is via specific direct contact (versus air transmitted) with the infected party's bodily fluids and secretions that contamination will occur.

Meaning that anyone tempted to join in any mass hysteria based on "it's airborne, it's airborne" needs to calm down.

 

[Sabine Grant]

It does not appear anyone from Duncan's family or other contacts has contracted the disease so it's hard to argue not checking him into the hospital 2 days earlier has much to do with the spread of the disease. The focus seems to be on whether adequate precautions were taken the first couple days he was there.

From what a panel of doctors from a medical school informed us in a town hall meeting, the rate of being infectious begins with the onset of symptoms and rises geometrically with the growth of the virus in the blood stream, so at its height, you can also find the virus in sweat and sometimes saliva, but when it's just getting started, such body fluids will not have the virus. So unless Duncan's girlfriend or kids touched his semen, blood, urine or feces, they ran a low risk.

The doctor panel said of Ebola that 3 types of people get Ebola

1) family
2) health care givers
3) those who handle the dead body

If the disease spread by air, you'd see other people getting the disease, but so far, you don't.

Exactly my thoughts too...I just realized your post was 4 minutes before mine!

 

[RavenSky]

I don't agree. Not at all. Instead, if indeed Nigeria has beaten this Ebola outbreak, it should be a cause of great rejoicing world wide.

I don't mean that at all. I mean success in Nigeria itself.


As to my Sputnik analogy, that event was a big shock when it happened. Many Americans thought that the Soviet Union was hopelessly backward, and indeed it was in some ways. I recall from somewhere that some people thought that the Russians had faked the evidence of their first nuclear-bomb test -- the radioactive dust that that bomb had produced. Did they grind up a lot of spent fuel rods from a nuclear reactor and release the resulting dust from an airplane?

But Sputnik 1 was clearly not a fake. It could be tracked as it orbited the Earth. The Soviet Union, its creator, had beaten the US at its own game.


So now, when Nigeria does better than the US at containing the Ebola virus, it ought to be a big national embarrassment for Americans.

Why on earth should the US feel any sort of national humiliation at this point? Per the article you just posted, Nigeria suffered 20 ebola infections and 8 deaths before they got it under control.

So far, the US only has 2 infections and no deaths. (I do not count Mr. Davis' death here because he came into the country with the infection). When/if the US has more than 20 infections and more than 8 deaths, then you can continue this odd misplaced derail.

In the meantime, would you care to discuss that it is US medical personnel and US dollars (along with Norway, Germany and a few other countries) that have been assisting in the containment and treatment in West Africa? Yeah... no... not seeing what the US has to feel humiliated about on this topic.

 

[Jimmy Higgins]

I'm in contact with doctor friends in Dallas and you don't want to know what they are calling that dumb beeotch nurse.

Doctors have long told me that some of their nurses are morons, and now I believe them.

Apparently this chick is getting married soon, and completely put the idea out of her head, that however small, she might be at risk for a disease with a 60-90% mortality rate.

Since nothing matters but her wedding, and to hell with anyone else, she put at risk cab drivers, airport employees, every single passenger on the plane both coming and going, taxi drivers and her friends and family and anyone else.

How fucking stupid can you get?!?!

Dude, can you please keep things in perspective? She went to a town that borders Akron. She endangered the life of Lebron James!!! Everything else, who cares. But putting a NBA Title for Cleveland at risk?! Kill the bitch! Where is Zimmerman?

 

[RavenSky]

This is alarming but, frankly, what I already suspected and commented on up-thread:

A nurses' union is sounding the alarm about the lack of safety protocols at Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital Dallas after two nurses there apparently contracted Ebola from a patient who later died of the virus.

Claim: Duncan wasn't immediately isolated

On the day that patient Thomas Eric Duncan was admitted to the hospital with possible Ebola symptoms, he was "left for several hours, not in isolation, in an area where other patients were present," union co-president Deborah Burger said.
Up to seven other patients were present in that area, the nurses said, according to the union. A nursing supervisor faced resistance from hospital authorities when the supervisor demanded that Duncan be moved to an isolation unit, the nurses said, according to the union.

Claim: The nurses' protective gear left their necks exposed

After expressing concerns that their necks were exposed even as they wore protective gear, the nurses were told to wrap their necks with medical tape, the union says. "They were told to use medical tape and had to use four to five pieces of medical tape wound around their neck. The nurses have expressed a lot of concern about how difficult it is to remove the tape from their neck," Burger said.

Claim: At one point, hazardous waste piled up

"There was no one to pick up hazardous waste as it piled to the ceiling," Burger said. "They did not have access to proper supplies."

Claim: Nurses got no 'hands-on' training

"There was no mandate for nurses to attend training," Burger said, though they did receive an e-mail about a hospital seminar on Ebola. "This was treated like hundreds of other seminars that were routinely offered to staff," she said.

Claim: The nurses 'feel unsupported'

So why did the group of nurses -- the union wouldn't say how many -- contact the nursing union, which they don't belong to? According to National Nurses United Executive Director RoseAnn DeMoro, the nurses were upset after authorities appeared to blame nurse Pham, who has contracted Ebola, for not following protocols. "This nurse was being blamed for not following protocols that did not exist. ... The nurses in that hospital were very angry, and they decided to contact us," DeMoro said.

http://www.cnn.com/2014/10/15/health/texas-ebola-nurses-union-claims/index.html?hpt=hp_t1

 

[bilby]

This is alarming but, frankly, what I already suspected and commented on up-thread:

Claim: Duncan wasn't immediately isolated

On the day that patient Thomas Eric Duncan was admitted to the hospital with possible Ebola symptoms, he was "left for several hours, not in isolation, in an area where other patients were present," union co-president Deborah Burger said.
Up to seven other patients were present in that area, the nurses said, according to the union. A nursing supervisor faced resistance from hospital authorities when the supervisor demanded that Duncan be moved to an isolation unit, the nurses said, according to the union.

Claim: The nurses' protective gear left their necks exposed

After expressing concerns that their necks were exposed even as they wore protective gear, the nurses were told to wrap their necks with medical tape, the union says. "They were told to use medical tape and had to use four to five pieces of medical tape wound around their neck. The nurses have expressed a lot of concern about how difficult it is to remove the tape from their neck," Burger said.

Claim: At one point, hazardous waste piled up

"There was no one to pick up hazardous waste as it piled to the ceiling," Burger said. "They did not have access to proper supplies."

Claim: Nurses got no 'hands-on' training

"There was no mandate for nurses to attend training," Burger said, though they did receive an e-mail about a hospital seminar on Ebola. "This was treated like hundreds of other seminars that were routinely offered to staff," she said.

Claim: The nurses 'feel unsupported'

So why did the group of nurses -- the union wouldn't say how many -- contact the nursing union, which they don't belong to? According to National Nurses United Executive Director RoseAnn DeMoro, the nurses were upset after authorities appeared to blame nurse Pham, who has contracted Ebola, for not following protocols. "This nurse was being blamed for not following protocols that did not exist. ... The nurses in that hospital were very angry, and they decided to contact us," DeMoro said.

http://www.cnn.com/2014/10/15/health/texas-ebola-nurses-union-claims/index.html?hpt=hp_t1

Hang on a second; the nurses are not union members, but want the union to help them anyway?

Isn't that like not buying car insurance, and then expecting an insurer to pay out if you are involved in a crash?

This is why you join a union - so that in the unlikely event that the shit hits the fan, you have someone to fight your corner. If you don't join the union, asking for their help after the free-standing air circulation device is impacted by faecal material is a bloody cheek.

 

[RavenSky]

Even today, Burger said, some hospital staff at the Dallas hospital do not have proper equipment to handle the outbreak.

“Hospital managers have assured nurses that proper equipment has been ordered but it has not arrived yet,” she said.

The nurses’ statement said they had to “interact with Mr. Duncan with whatever protective equipment was available,” even as he produced “a lot of contagious fluids.” Duncan’s medical records, which his family shared with The Associated Press, underscore some of those concerns.

http://www.theblaze.com/stories/201...-say-they-faced-while-treating-ebola-patient/

 

[RavenSky]

This is alarming but, frankly, what I already suspected and commented on up-thread:





http://www.cnn.com/2014/10/15/health/texas-ebola-nurses-union-claims/index.html?hpt=hp_t1

Hang on a second; the nurses are not union members, but want the union to help them anyway?

Isn't that like not buying car insurance, and then expecting an insurer to pay out if you are involved in a crash?

This is why you join a union - so that in the unlikely event that the shit hits the fan, you have someone to fight your corner. If you don't join the union, asking for their help after the free-standing air circulation device is impacted by faecal material is a bloody cheek.

Texas is not a union state, and Texas Presbyterian does not have a nurse's union. The nurses were threatened with being fired if they spoke to reporters or authorities about the lack of protocol measures and equipment, so they went to the union for help.

Maybe after this, people will relearn why unions are important.

 

[bilby]

Hang on a second; the nurses are not union members, but want the union to help them anyway?

Isn't that like not buying car insurance, and then expecting an insurer to pay out if you are involved in a crash?

This is why you join a union - so that in the unlikely event that the shit hits the fan, you have someone to fight your corner. If you don't join the union, asking for their help after the free-standing air circulation device is impacted by faecal material is a bloody cheek.

Texas is not a union state, and Texas Presbyterian does not have a nurse's union. The nurses were threatened with being fired if they spoke to reporters or authorities about the lack of protocol measures and equipment, so they went to the union for help.

Maybe after this, people will relearn why unions are important.

I don't know what 'not a union state' means; but I find the idea of a large hospital without a nurses union rather more worrying than Ebola.

 

[barbos]

Ebola outbreak: Nigeria is 'a week away' from beating virus - Health News - Health & Families - The Independent

Nigeria's success in containing the Ebola virus ought to be a major national humiliation for the US, a national humiliation like what Sputnik had been back in 1957.

I don't agree. Not at all. Instead, if indeed Nigeria has beaten this Ebola outbreak, it should be a cause of great rejoicing world wide.

Wait when Nigeria launches a sputnik in one week.