I'd really like to here how the sloppy conditions at the hospital are the CDC's fault: http://www.castanet.net/news/World/1247 ... conditions Makes for an interesting read, and screams administrative incompetence to me.
I find myself agreeing with Net. Who's personnel is it treating the patients? Pretty sure the CDC doesn't fly in its doctors in a black helicopter to take care of these patients. Seems like each hospital is on its on with the guidance of the CDC, meaning the CDC is not responsible for enforcing these guidelines, the hospital admins are. Also shouldn't we hold the individuals somewhat responsible? The mode of transmission is known, we know its in bodily fluids. Its tragic people are getting sick, but isn't it possible they made an honest mistake and got themselves infected? That this mistake wasn't due to the incompetence of an organization which isn't overseeing their current practices?
For this, somebody posted it on facebook and I thought it was funny. For the entire cause, because I worked as a critical care nurse and once upon a time could easily have been one of those two nurses (as could millions of other nurses) and at times the lackadaisical attitude gets me riled up. Everybody has their "thing", and mine happens to be healthcare so am posting my opinion on the subject. There are many healthcare topics that would have inspired the same sort of defense from me, to be honest. Hospitals have long been cutting corners and it is typically the workers (and the patients) who suffer so it is the one topic that I will debate endlessly.
Yeah, well, the troops will be there soon. Humanitarian Effort There are fewer warlords there than in some countries in that region, which isn't saying much. I want to be cynical, but honestly, if the US can help, I support it. Liberia's got a good looking flag, though. I have some friends who work with the Ricks Institute there, and some at a nearby University that has college students working there. It suits me just fine to have Ebola stay right over there.
Lovely... the newest ebola patient flew the day before being diagnosed. http://www.cnbc.com/id/102078863 It's really becoming apparent that voluntary quarantines do not work.
I was discussing the Dallas hospital bit with my sister and my wife on the weekend. Both of them work in the ICU's in the local hospitals, my sister is a nurse and wife is a dietician. We were discussing how the current isolation protocols aren't generally followed in the hospitals. People moving in and out of isolation, not de-gowning, handling objects, then re-entering the rooms, etc. My sister said she thinks if an Ebola case came into a local hospital the staff would be hyper-diligent in the protocols. I said the care givers in Dallas would have known he had Ebola, and wouldn't they have been hyper-diligent. All I got in response was good point. I took away from that conversation is that there's a culture in the hospitals from the administration down to the front line workers that the protocols are in place, and everybody knows them, but there's complacency in following them. It's easier to just quickly leave the room, do the chart, then come back in, and not bother with de-gowning, washing, doing the chart, putting everything on, then going back in the room. It's sort of like the challenger incident, everyone knew the o-rings were suspect in cold weather, but nothing bad had happened previously so it's okay to keep doing what we're doing. I also feel for the nurses. They have an assumption of risk that goes along with working in the health care profession where they can be exposed to all kinds of nasty stuff, but if you don't have training or the proper pieces of PPE to do a job safely. Refuse to do it. North American Occupational Health and Safety regulations protect workers from having to do tasks that are unsafe and I don't see how this is any different. Don't have the proper face shields or gowns, nope not going in that room until you do. The other thing we couldn't figure out was if the nurse who got sick originally was exposed after he'd been admitted for Ebola or from his first visit. I haven't read a confirmation of that other than she was a nurse assigned to him.
I've just learned which of our local hospitals has been designated as the "Ebola treatment center" and it is NOT the one I would have bet on. We have two, they have always played their own role in healing our local citizens. One is where you go if you're really fucked up, the one I would have bet on. The other is where you go if you're having a baby, not the one I would have bet on. You look at the list of services for each hospital and the one that has been designated just looks like a poor choice. I don't know what criteria they use to make this designation but it is bloody stupid and probably just a marketing ploy by the hospital's owners, Novant. If it makes it here, this region of my state is screwed.
So I'm at home last night making dinner and my roommate walks in the door with two huge cases of bottled water. I turn and point to the sink and the following conversation takes place Fleafly: "You know that's free out of that little tap over there." Roommate: "Not if it's not working." Fleafly: "Are you preparing for the apocalypse or something?" Roommate: "A second person has come down with ebloa in Dallas." He goes back down to his car and gets two more huge cases of water and proceeds to tell me how much water an adult male needs a day and how long the bottled water will last us both. It worried me that he was dead serious. I'd never taken him for a doomsday pepper before. My girlfriend just came back from Dallas so I guess it's a good thing I didn't joke about her bringing back Ebola. I wonder if he realizes that if shit does hit the fan and the water does get shut off and he does need to survive off of those bottles, that it's probably going to be winter and we will be worrying how to stay warm, not how to get water.
It's airborne now motherfuckers, prepare your anus for intense bleeding. I see this as just a mock test of how the zombie apocalypse will never happen, we'll see maybe a dozen cases, since it is spread by physical contact with bodily fluids it'll burn itself out and we can turn our attentions back to the next media trial of someone killing an unarmed black kid just around Christmas.
But, but, that one guy DIED! Come on, that wasn't even funny. Level headedness, common sense and rational thought have no place here. If you're not going to propagate the hysteria, you can just leave. Sheesh.
Personally, I'd rather quarantine the shit out of the least important of the hospitals, leaving the super capable one to deal with the broadest range of shit that might happen. You don't need super high end tech or neurosurgeons to deal with Ebola, you need bleach, protective gear, space, and people trained in the proper protocols.
Sound reasoning, that. However, this particular hospital specializes in women's health. I think, with this premature designation, they're needlessly riling up the pregnant women and that, I know, is a horrible idea. Baby daddies are going through hell as I type this!
Unless they're fast zombies. Then that shit'll spread like wildfire. There is a degree of smugness and misplaced confidence going on in this thread. Prior to the reporting of the first case of Ebola in the U.S., the overall opinion of people in positions of responsibility was that the U.S. could handle it effectively, what with our money, technical know how and can do attitude. Which leaves out the vast wildcard - people are fucking stupid. Then came patient U.S. #1. In the past several weeks we have learned that: 1) trained health care professionals suck at diagnosing Ebola and then taking the necessary precautions once it's recognized 2) the CDC has failed in its leadership position, most of all in ensuring proper training 3) Patients with Ebola will in fact lie about their status and their prior actions, and wander around willy nilly to infect the rest of us 4) The head of the nurses' union in at least one State (New Jersey) has flat out said "take that shit elsewhere, we aren't dealing with it." http://www.nj.com/healthfit/index.s..._nurses_group_says.html#incart_special-report Yup, thus far things are going swimmingly. So while I'm not pushing the panic button and tkaing the family into hiding just yet, all of the numbers, and statistics, and "this can't happen here"s go out the fucking window in the face of human stupidity. The sooner that is recognized, the fewer casualties there will be.
The human element is the one that frightens me. The arrogance of "I won't catch it" mixed with the speed and pace of work, and the "I'm only in there for 30 seconds to do a chart read, I don't need to gown / glove / wash / whatever, it'll be fine" tossed with a dash of pure human stupidity. Things happen. I never expected the health care workers to escape unscathed. I've seen too many flurries of activity when JCAHO comes through - the sudden pressing need to reevaluate every nook and cranny of the hospital for violations, the extra hours worked to make sure EVERYTHING is up to speed, only to get gigged anyway - to think that hospitals follow safety protocols 100%, 100% of the time. Simply doesn't happen.
From the CDC: The CDC healthcare-associated infec...ort, please visit: CDC HAI Prevalence Survey Look, I've been around here long enough that I'd hope you all recognize that I'm not an alarmist. But for the health care community and our political leaders to get caught off-guard by a disease that was absoultely going to make it here it at some point is inexcusable. I am concerned.
First, the fact that the CDC has two planes capable of carrying BSL-4 patients around - and has had that capability for a few years now - and the fact that patients are able to be treated in a BSL-4 bed in a hospital means that this is a far, far cry from being caught off-guard. Being caught off-guard is not even being able to put patients in BSL-4 beds in the first place. Secondly, if you're going to use the standard that everyone needs to be prepared to respond perfectly to any disease that arrives in the U.S. - what with the ubiquity of air travel making it inevitable that every disease will - well, I hope you see how ridiculous that scenario becomes. What if HIV becomes airborne tomorrow? What if H5N1 becomes transmissible person-to-person? Is every hospital in the country supposed to have a ward of BSL-4 beds and a team of experts sitting around waiting for Ebola patients to arrive?
Actually, I'm going to walk myself back on this one a little bit, partly because of this article: http://www.slate.com/articles/health_an ... erian.html I've been on the inside of news stories and such and I know that articles like these make things seem a lot more sinister than they really are... but holy crap. The good news here is that identifying that some rather blatant errors in infection control measures should reduce the concern about the future ability of hospitals to prevent the further spread of infections.