Dallas Hospital Worker Tests Positive For Ebola

[Sailor]

DALLAS (CBSDFW.COM) - A female health care worker at Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital in Dallas, who provided care for the first Ebola patient hospitalized there, has tested positive for the virus in a preliminary test at the state public health laboratory in Austin. Confirmatory testing will be conducted by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta.

This information is according to the Texas Department of State Health Services, which released a statement early Sunday morning.

Thomas Duncan was the first patient diagnosed with the Ebola virus in the United States, after traveling into the country from Africa. Duncan died on Wednesday after more than 10 days of treatment at Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital.

More here:
dfw.cbslocal.com/2014/10/12/worker-who-cared-for-dallas-ebola-patient-tests-positive-for-disease/

"Dr. Daniel Varga, chief clinical officer at the hospital, stated that the worker did wear a protective suit while administering care to Duncan, and was thought to be at a low risk for getting the virus."

Except that there are so many different ways one can screw up and become exposed.

You guys all know I work in the Home Health Field, and since I was working in the homes of patients who could have active TB and you assume may have Hep A, B or C, Influenza and HIV and I've worked with patients who were dying of AIDS. The standard precautions we take for those are only a start for protection from Marburg / Ebola. This lady was in the full kit, but apparently there was one flaw in either her dress or committed when she was removing the kit. An unseen flaw in the gloves or a momentary inattention where she might have touched her face while still gloved or just removed a glove improperly, it only takes one tiny mistake and this shit is very unforgiving.

As worrisome as HIV et.al. are ... Ebola scares the shit out of me. I probably won't have to deal with it in home care, but the company also runs hospitals ... 7 in Hampton Roads and 3 others in central and northern Virginia, one of which serves an area south of Dulles Airport which is one of the ports of entry being scrutinized by CDC. The company is being pro-active, putting in place plans and education on how to deal with this infection. Patients coming into our ERs, both at hospitals and the "stand alone" ERs are being screened as a precaution, "just in case."

[prospero]

Not really over much danger until it gets loose in public and we have some folks walking around contagious.
In Africa the reservoir host is thought to be a type of fruit bat, but if it can be carried and hide out in certain rats and mice in North America If it gets loose the disease could be here to stay.

[Sailor]

Pros, it could be loose in public now and we not know it until people start turning up at doctor's offices or ERs symptomatic.

My worry is that it get loose in some of the overcrowded 3rd world hell holes in Central and South America. If that happens I agree with the pundits that say we could end up facing a human tidal wave of people trying to either escape it or get far better health care than they'd get there.

[prospero]

Oct 13, 2014 2:44:33 GMT -8 Sailor said:

Pros, it could be loose in public now and we not know it until people start turning up at doctor's offices or ERs symptomatic.

My worry is that it get loose in some of the overcrowded 3rd world hell holes in Central and South America. If that happens I agree with the pundits that say we could end up facing a human tidal wave of people trying to either escape it or get far better health care than they'd get there.

All too true.

[Sailor]

You guys have heard about the Carnival cruise ship that has one of the lab techs from the hospital aboard by now, probably. Forced to anchor off Belize with about 4000 people aboard, well ... if the passenger is indeed symptomatic, in the close packed environment aboard ship there is the very real possibility that the THOUSANDS of passengers and crew aboard CARNIVAL MAGIC may have been exposed before the passenger checked in with the ship's medical officer.

IMHO (Carnival Lines/Cunard Line) ain't gonna like it if the entire ship, passengers and crew are held at anchor off shore in quarantine for 21 or more days with the "Yellow Jack" (Signal Flag indicating infectious disease aboard) flying.

Can't happen? If the Obama CDC had any balls the Coast Guard could order exactly that, the laws are in place and well established. And after the quarantine ends the entire ship would still have to be scrubbed down.

The reason I wrote "21 or more days" above is because the way the ship quarantine laws are written mean the quarantine clock resets EVERY time an infectious disease presents. 20 days into the quarantine, a passenger or crewman comes down with Ebola ... the clock restarts and the ship sets there until 21 days with NO infection passes. 21 days AFTER the patient either dies or recovers. That's the law, based on a thousand years of experience.

To add to the nightmare, there are some Ebola specialists in Europe who are recommending to the WHO extending the mandatory quarantine period from 21 days to 40 on the basis of them finding some strains of Marberg / Ebola that have a much longer gestation period.

The virus mutates, quickly. So far consensus says it's not an airborne pathogen, but it's so virulent that a single droplet from a sneeze or cough will get the job done. And several scientists warn that it could mutate enough to produce an airborne strain.

Marberg / Ebola is persistant. According to the CDC it will survive on a dry countertop or other surface for several hours. In blood, urine or other moist bodily excretion including stool it will survive for several days at room temperature. It's strongly recommended that bleach or other industrial disinfectants be utilized during any cleanup.

I've been saying it for days, this stuff is the stuff of your worst nightmares. Medical personnel with the BEST western made protective equipment working in Nigeria and Liberia are getting caught by it and dying, a couple dozen at least so far from Doctors without Borders and other NGOs.

The Administration is sending 4000 military personnel into the middle of it with only 4 hours instruction each (to NON-MEDICAL personnel) to build treatment centers and other support infrastructure. Some are coming from 7th Transportation at Ft Eustus near Williamsburg VA but the bulk seems to be coming from the 101st Airborne at Ft Bragg with a sprinkling (possibly) of National Guard personnel, engineers I think.

And the Administration is still refusing to slap commercial flight restrictions on traffic from Liberia, Nigeria and other stricken areas. Insane.

[Sailor]

The NYPost has some more on the cruise ship passenger -

The lab tech, who worked at the Dallas hospital where Thomas Eric Duncan died, set sail from Galveston, Texas, on Sunday aboard the 1,000-foot Carnival Magic.

The woman — who has shown no symptoms of the deadly virus — waited until Thursday to quarantine herself and her husband in their room, the cruise line said in a statement.

“The individual remains in voluntary isolation,” Carnival said.

The rest of the passengers were permitted to disembark in Belize on Thursday, but the country would not allow her to go through its port to get a flight back to the United States.

On Friday, they arrived in Cozumel, Mexico, where Mexican officials refused to allow the ship to dock. The crew decided to go back to Texas, where they will arrive on Sunday.

More here:
nypost.com/2014/10/17/texas-hospital-staffer-in-self-quarantine-on-cruise-ship/

Seems like there's no quarantine issues, the 21 day incubation period will be done this weekend.

And Carnival still has the issue of 4000 pissed off guests.