Official Ebola update thread
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Anonymous
NP. The interview questions were dumb but it was interesting hearing from the doctor. |
Anonymous
I get tired of seeing these folks with good jobs, because they look good. There is so much horrible reporting (grammar, style, facts) going on now. Can they just hire a person regardless of their looks who knows what they are doing? |
Anonymous
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15000 Liberians currently hold US travel visas.
How much do you trust them? Enough to be sure they were n't exposed and it really was malaria? Enough to think they know they've been exposed but won't lie? |
Anonymous
Question for those with more medical knowledge than I have: the doctor mentions that one of the survivors donating convalescent serum Type O blood and the other has Type A. I thought that O is a universal donor type, so wouldn't that be an option even if a patient doesn't have that blood type? |
Anonymous
Plasma is the opposite of packed red cells in terms of donor types. It has something to do with the fact that the plasma is where the antibodies are, while the blood cells are where the antigens are. So, while O- is the universal donor for blood cells, AB+is the universal donor for plasma. Blood types O and A are more common than AB or B, especially among white people and Hispanics, so it's not surprising that Brantley, who has A and can donate to anyone with O or A has matched so many patients. Unfortunately Duncan must have had AB or B blood. |
Anonymous
It was reported somewhere that Duncan was type B. |
Anonymous
If it was my family member, I would have paid to have plasma from a type B survivor in Liberia flown to the USA. |
Anonymous
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Brantly got Ebola while caring for patients in Africa, and received plasma from a 14-year-old boy who recovered under his care there.
Brantly also received ZMapp, an experimental drug that contains antibodies against Ebola. Its maker says supplies are now exhausted, leading doctors to look at plasma transfusions as an alternative. It could have been the ZMAPP, but if it was the serum, he was better of staying in Africa and getting that plasma transfusion. Still think we need to line up a set of plasma donors in W. Africa. |
Anonymous
Sounds great in theory but how exactly would you locate someone like this and arrange for the transfer in time to do any good? |
Anonymous
Wow. How an he can talk about this? That is the biggest HIPPAA violation. My impression of this hospital continues to deteriorate. |
Anonymous
Yeah, I don't think Duncan's family had that kind of money. |
Anonymous
Beyond the money, it's just not as easy logistically as you make it sound. Ebola is hitting the rural parts of Liberia much much harder than the cities, so if there are Type B survivors they are in villages somewhere. It's hard to track down who they are; it's not like you can just tweet it out or even take out a newspaper ad and expect them to see it; most are so poor they don't even have that kind of access to news. If they somehow see/hear about it, it's a huge chance that they just know they got better -- they may have no clue about blood types. And even if you ID a survivor with the right blood type, say through drs. w/o borders -- it is logistically a huge challenge to have the blood drawn and flown all the way here quick enough. Unless you've got the US military or some kind of medical transport team helping out, how do you guarantee that it gets on the first flights out of there and goes directly to Dallas with the appropriate refrigeration etc.!? Easier said than done. |
Anonymous
| Any idea why Rick Sacra isn't donating? I wonder if he's doing ok? He must have the same blood/plasma type as Brantley because he received plasma from him, yet you never hear of him donating to anyone else. I know Whitebold has made offers to everyone but she's a rare blood type that hasn't matched. |
Anonymous
The hospitals in West Africa aren't even admitting half the people with Ebola because there's no room. Do you really think they have the resources to coordinate something like this for the average patient off the street. Brantly's charity probably went out of the way to arrange a transfusion for him because he was their doctor. |
Anonymous
It is not a violation if they got permission from the patients or families of patients |