Saturday, November 8, 2014

Ebola in perspective

For a second week now, new cases and number of deaths from Ebola continue to decline in Liberia, although not yet in Sierra Leone and Guinea.   Let's take a look at what has happened here in the U.S.

One patient has died from Ebola in the U.S., and he was infected in his native Liberia before he came to Dallas, where he died despite belated treatment in a hospital there.  Two of the nurses who took care of him came down with Ebola.   Both of them have been cured and released from hospitals.

No one exposed to him on the flight, nor any of the 23 people, including his fiance, whom he spent time with before he was hospitalized, has become ill.

The onset of symptoms in the two nurses has now passed the 21 day period, and no one has caught it from either of them.    The only other case of someone who came down with the disease while in this country -- as opposed to being brought here for treatment after already getting sick in West Africa -- is the volunteer American doctor who went to Liberia to help.   He is currently being treated at New York's Bellevue Hospital.   He caught the disease while working with patients in West Africa but only became symptomatic after returning to the U.S.  Reports on him are that he is now in stable condition.

Soon, his onset will have passed the 21 day mark without any new cases stemming from him.

The Ebola volunteer-nurse, that Gov. Christie ordered into quarantine as she arrived on a flight from Africa, was never ill and remains well at home in Maine.  Unless she becomes sick within the next four two days (21 days since her last contact with a patient), there is no possibility of anyone acquiring Ebola from her.

Summary:    Only two cases of Ebola have been actually acquired in this country.   No one has caught it from them.  Both of them were nurses working with the first Ebola patient treated in a general hospital setting before proper isolation techniques had been implemented there.

No one on the health care teams at the specialized treatment centers (Emory Hospital, Nebraska Medical Center, NIH) has acquired the disease.

Maybe it's time for the hysteria to abate, as I believe it is doing.   Or, now that the distraction of the election is over, will it flare up again?

Ralph

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