Emory is getting an ebola patient - if you work in a hospital

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Yikes! Scary. 90% death rate. They should just stay where they are.

Yes. I got this weird pit in my stomach when I read the story - like I was reading the beginning of something horrible. I could see if we had a treatment that could only be done here. But there is no treatment, there is no vaccine. Why risk infecting so many new people (the plane, getting them off the plane, people at the hospital). All it takes is one hospital worker to bring it home and we have an epidemic here.

Ebola has no known cure but it *is* treatable, and early treatment of symptoms has been shown to decrease the mortality rate (more like 60%). As we all know, hospitals here have much better resources and the quality of care will be much higher. If your husband or parent was deathly ill, wouldn't you want them to receive the best care available? I'm also guessing there are treatments they could attempt here that simply aren't available in places like Sierra Leone, where there aren't even enough doctors and nurses to go around.

If these people are coming home to die, so be it. They have both made incredible sacrifices for the greater good. They deserve to be able to die in their home country, with their families at their side.

+ 1!!! I'm sure the posters questioning this would want to get home and have a chance at beating this. It's pretty sad that some people think we should leave them there, especially after everything they have sacrificed.

I don't think it's sad. Come on home because that's what this hospital's program is for, but it's not like they can just beat this thing with a little elbow grease and American ingenuity.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Wtf is with these Ebola posts? Am I missing something in the news or has someone gone off their anxiety meds?

+1000
Seriously people, calm down. The earth is still round.
These are well trained professionals capable of handling a crisis. Thank goodness none of you work there.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Wtf is with these Ebola posts? Am I missing something in the news or has someone gone off their anxiety meds?

It's fascinating, mostly because of my interest (obsession?) in infectious disease. It's a new virus, one that doesn't come around very often. There's a lot of research potential.

I wonder if the CDC is bringing them here for research purposes. We are certainly better equipped to handle it.

[Anonymous]

Ebola is not a new virus. It has been around as long as, if not even before HIV was found in humans. People have been doing research on it in infectious disease centers. There are aspects of the virus that make it difficult to create a vaccine.
There have often been outbreaks, but they have usually been small and contained to the local population. This is the first time it is spreading on a larger scale.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Why exactly are we bringing people with Ebola into the country? For containment purposes, doesn't it make more sense to treat them in the country of origin irrespective of the citizenship of the patient? Transcontinental transport of people with a disease as infectious and as serious as ebola seems risky--despite infectious disease protocols.

Because the situation in West Africa is getting worse and worse. It is a public health emergency. Doctors and hospitals and caretakers are getting overwhelmed and resources are getting scarce.

The 2 Americans being evacuated were infected while taking care of patients or helping with decontamination. They put themselves in harms way. They didn't get infected working on/with just one or two patients -- they were caught in the middle of an outbreak and under these circumstances, someone made a mistake or got overwhelmed and infection control procedures slipped. It happens.

Supportive care can bring the mortality rate of Ebola down. It isn't always 90% fatal. Though there is no cure, there can be treatment. These Americans are heroes and deserve to have every chance to recover.

[Anonymous]

Why are Americans in Africa working with Ebola patients to begin with?? There are so many Americans without decent acces to healthcare. Bring all of or doctors home and have them volunteer in the US!!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Wtf is with these Ebola posts? Am I missing something in the news or has someone gone off their anxiety meds?

+1000
Seriously people, calm down. The earth is still round.
These are well trained professionals capable of handling a crisis. Thank goodness none of you work there.

+1001

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Why are Americans in Africa working with Ebola patients to begin with?? There are so many Americans without decent acces to healthcare. Bring all of or doctors home and have them volunteer in the US!!

http://www.samaritanspurse.org/our-ministry/history/

“Let my heart be broken with the things that break the heart of God.” Bob Pierce wrote these now-famous words in his Bible after visiting suffering children on the Korean island of Kojedo. This impassioned prayer is what guided him as he founded and led the ministry of Samaritan’s Purse in 1970. His mission for this organization was “to meet emergency needs in crisis areas through existing evangelical mission agencies and national churches.”

After World War II, Bob Pierce traveled throughout Asia as an evangelist and journalist with Youth For Christ. While on a university lecturing circuit in China, he stumbled across some courageous women who were living among lepers and orphans, sacrificing everything to share the love of Jesus Christ. Through their selfless love, God gave Pierce a vision for ministry. He dedicated himself to finding and supporting other such Christians who were caring for the poor and suffering in the distant corners of the world.

In the summer of 1973, Bob Pierce met his eventual successor, an adventurous young student named Franklin Graham with a growing heart for world missions. Intrigued by his many stories from the field, Franklin began to spend more and more time with the seasoned Christian statesman. In 1975, he accompanied Bob on a life-changing tour of some of the world’s neediest mission fields. Franklin saw the poverty of pagan religions and the utter despair of the people they enslave. God had captured his heart for missions.

Bob Pierce died of leukemia in 1978, and a little over a year later, Franklin Graham became the President and Chairman of the Board of Samaritan’s Purse. Through over 30 years of earthquakes, hurricanes, wars, and famine, Franklin has led the ministry in following the Biblical example of the Good Samaritan all across the globe. God has blessed the organization under Franklin’s leadership, and the ministry has seen explosive growth.

“Go and do likewise,” Christ commanded after explaining the parable of the Good Samaritan in Luke 10. So we do. Samaritan’s Purse travels the world’s highways looking for victims along the way. We are quick to bandage the wounds we see, but like the Samaritan, we don’t stop there. In addition to meeting immediate, emergency needs, we help these victims recover and get back on their feet.

No matter where we go or what we do, we offer more than help. We offer hope. To suffering people in a broken world, we share the news of the only One who can bring true peace—Jesus Christ, the Prince of Peace.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Ebola is not a new virus. It has been around as long as, if not even before HIV was found in humans. People have been doing research on it in infectious disease centers. There are aspects of the virus that make it difficult to create a vaccine.
There have often been outbreaks, but they have usually been small and contained to the local population. This is the first time it is spreading on a larger scale.

It wasn't identified until the mid 70s. As far as viruses go, that's new. Outbreaks of more than 50 are not common. Several of the "outbreaks" were only 1 patient.

[Anonymous]

"Grave condition is a medical state that is used to describe a patients condition while in the hospital. This term is most often used by the media and very rarely by medical professionals. When someone is in grave condition it means that they are not expected to recover. Other terms that are used are critical, serious, fair, good, and undetermined. When the status is undetermined, it means that they are still awaiting a physician or an assessment." ask.com

That is how the condition of the two patients is described. So they are coming here to die? And be studied by the CDC?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Why are Americans in Africa working with Ebola patients to begin with?? There are so many Americans without decent acces to healthcare. Bring all of or doctors home and have them volunteer in the US!!

I really, really hope I don't know you.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:"Grave condition is a medical state that is used to describe a patients condition while in the hospital. This term is most often used by the media and very rarely by medical professionals. When someone is in grave condition it means that they are not expected to recover. Other terms that are used are critical, serious, fair, good, and undetermined. When the status is undetermined, it means that they are still awaiting a physician or an assessment." ask.com

That is how the condition of the two patients is described. So they are coming here to die? And be studied by the CDC?

Probably. Which is a good thing. Logistics wise, it is impossible to get the staff and equipment to Western Africa that would be needed to study Ebola and hopefully find a way to cure it not prevent it. Not to mention it is far safer to study it in a controlled environment in the US with 2 cases vs in an epidemic, no space left, unsanitary conditions of Western Africa.

[Anonymous]

If two Americans hadn't been infected, no one would even know or care about what was happening in western Africa. The news here picked it up because two Americans were involved.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Why exactly are we bringing people with Ebola into the country? For containment purposes, doesn't it make more sense to treat them in the country of origin irrespective of the citizenship of the patient? Transcontinental transport of people with a disease as infectious and as serious as ebola seems risky--despite infectious disease protocols.

Because U.S. organizations feel loyalty to their U.S. employees and commit to them to do everything feasible to save them when their job is to voluntarily put themselves in harm's way.

Further, the risk of an Outbreak-style outbreak is much, much greater when people are unknowingly transporting the disease around, in the early stages of their symptoms. No one is confused about whether these folks have Ebola and appropriate precautions are being taken.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:If two Americans hadn't been infected, no one would even know or care about what was happening in western Africa. The news here picked it up because two Americans were involved.

Where have you been? This has been in the US news for months and months--long before any Americans were infected.