Ebola epidemic

Frustrated woman quarantined with sheets, towels soiled by Ebola patient

Video-

http://www.cnn.com/2014/10/02/us/tex...can/index.html

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Dallas Ebola family confined to home under armed guard

http://www.gopusa.com/news/2014/10/0...r-armed-guard/
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Hazmat crews clean up, quarantined family move out due to Ebola case

http://www.cnn.com/2014/10/03/health...-us/index.html

Dallas, Texas (CNN) -- A Dallas apartment where the first person diagnosed with Ebola in the United States had stayed is finally getting a thorough cleaning, days after the diagnosis left four people quarantined there with soiled towels and sweat-stained sheets from the Ebola patient.

After some delays, the first of three phases to clean the apartment began Friday afternoon. While the process will take days, at least sheets and towels that Ebola patient Thomas Eric Duncan used have been removed.

Also out are the four people -- the partner of the Ebola patient Thomas Eric Duncan, her 13-year-old son and her two 20-something nephews -- who'd been stuck there for days.

They had been ordered to stay inside the apartment until October 19. By that point, enough time should have passed to determine if any of them contracted Ebola or if they're in the clear.

Judge Clay Jenkins, director of the county's Homeland Security and Emergency Management, said Friday that Duncan's partner slept last night on a couch pillow on the living room floor. But now she and the others have a new place to call home in the meantime: a private 4-bedroom residence in Dallas, which was arranged with the help of someone in the local faith-based community.
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"They were very glad to be going and very pleased when they got there," Jenkins said. "(One of them) got a big grin on his face, and he said, 'I wish somebody would get me a basketball.' So we're going to see if we can't take care of that."

The move added to a busy day for the quartet, who until then had gotten little more than brief stops from a health official and were told not to go more than a few steps outside. On Friday, they were visited by a hazardous materials team wearing masks, boots and yellow protective gear, as seen in photos tweeted by Dallas city spokeswoman Sana Syed. A large tarp was laid out, and several oil-drum like containers were on site.

Some have criticized the fact that it took so long to start the process, given that health officials announced three days ago that Duncan had Ebola. At that time, four people Duncan had stayed with in the Texas city were ordered not to leave the apartment because of possible lingering effects of Duncan, from his clothes to toilets to silverware.

Additionally, the Dallas hospital where Duncan is being treated has come under fire for how it handled his first visit there eight days ago.

Duncan's partner, identified only as Louise, told CNN's Anderson Cooper that hospital medical staff were twice told that Duncan, who was suffering with fever and abdominal pain, had recently arrived from West Africa -- key information that could have been a tipoff for Ebola, yet was never properly relayed. Instead, he was released with an antibiotic only to come back by ambulance even sicker on Sunday.

Dr. Anthony S. Fauci, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, acknowledged to reporters Friday that "there were missteps" in Dallas as to how Duncan's case was initially treated. But he also insisted that "there were a lot of things that went right and are going right."

And Fauci stressed that, while there may be a case here and there, what's happened with Ebola in West Africa -- where more than 3,400 people have died and public health infrastructures have become overwhelmed -- won't happen in the United States.

"Our health care infrastructure in the United States is well-equipped to stop Ebola in its tracks," Fauci said.

Official: 50 being monitored

Until this week, Ebola's impact on the United States has been confined to preemptive measures at airports and elsewhere to stop its spread, the deployment of U.S. military and other resources to West Africa to help corral the outbreak there, and the treatment of a select few Americans who contacted the virus in Africa and were flown back home to get well.

But Duncan changed all that.

He landed in Dallas on September 20, started feeling sick days later, then made his initial visit to Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital late on September 25. He went back three days later and was quickly isolated, with a blood test confirmed he had Ebola on Tuesday.

If he gets healthy, Duncan could be in trouble: Some in Liberia have accused him of lying on a pre-flight questionnaire about his contact with Ebola sufferers, leading to threats of charges by authorities there and prompting the Dallas County district attorney's office to announce it is "looking into whether or not (he) knowingly and intentionally exposed the public to a deadly virus -- making this a criminal matter."

For now, though, any future legal battles are overshadowed by Duncan's fight for his life -- in isolation, in serious condition, at Texas Health Presbyterian.

No one he'd come in contact with has shown symptoms of Ebola, though officials were watching them -- 50 people in all -- just in case.

US Ebola patient in critical condition

http://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/hos...ion/ar-BB7tYke

DALLAS (AP) — The lone U.S. Ebola patient is in critical condition, the Dallas hospital that has been treating him reported Saturday.

Candace White, a spokeswoman for Texas Health Resources, which operates Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital Dallas where Thomas Eric Duncan is being treated, issued a six-word news release saying, "Mr. Duncan is in critical condition."

She provided no further details about his condition and didn't immediately respond to emails and phone calls. The hospital previously said Duncan was being kept in isolation and that his condition was serious but stable.

Duncan traveled from disease-ravaged Liberia to Dallas last month before he began showing symptoms of the disease. He was treated and released from the hospital before returning two days later in an ambulance and being diagnosed with Ebola.

Health officials said Saturday that they are currently monitoring about 50 people for signs of the deadly disease who may have had contact with Duncan, including nine who are believed to be at a higher risk. Thus far none have shown symptoms. Among those being monitored are people who rode in the ambulance that transported Duncan back to the hospital before his diagnosis, said Dr. Tom Frieden, the director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

On Friday, a hazardous-materials crew decontaminated the Dallas apartment where Duncan was staying when he got sick during his visit. The family who lived there was moved to a private home in a gated community, where they are being carefully monitored. The city had been having trouble finding a place that would take in Louise Troh, originally from Liberia, her 13-year-old son and two nephews.

"No one wants this family," said Sana Syed, a Dallas city spokeswoman.

The decontamination team collected bed sheets, towels and a mattress used by Duncan before he was hospitalized, as well as a suitcase and other personal items of his, officials said. The materials were sealed in industrial barrels that were to be stored in trucks until they can be hauled away for permanent disposal.

The first Ebola diagnosis in the U.S. has raised concerns about whether the disease that has killed 3,400 people in West Africa could spread in the U.S. Federal health officials say they are confident they can keep it in check.

The virus that causes Ebola is not airborne and can only be spread through direct contact with the bodily fluids — blood, sweat, vomit, feces, urine, saliva or semen — of an infected person who is showing symptoms.

Duncan arrived in Dallas on Sept. 20 and fell ill a few days later. After an initial visit to the emergency room at Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital, he was sent home, even though he told a nurse he had been in disease-ravaged West Africa. He returned to the hospital two days later, last Sunday, and has been kept in isolation ever since.

The hospital issued a news release late Friday saying that the doctor who initially treated and released did have access to Duncan's travel history, after all. It said Thursday that a flaw in the electronic health records systems led to separate physician and nursing workflows, and that Duncan's travel history hadn't been available to that doctor.

If this wasn't so serious it would be like listening to the antics of the Keystone Cops.

I saw this recently, I thought it was a good read:


http://dtolar.wordpress.com/2014/10/...s-perspective/

This is a rather interesting thread I found on another site -> http://www.abovetopsecret.com/forum/thread1035478/pg1

In Spain... Nurse assistant has it: http://www.cnn.com/2014/10/06/health...t=hp_inthenews

This real time map might be interesting to keep an eye on -> http://www.liveebolamap.com/

First patient in Dallas has passed away, there may be a second...
http://dfw.cbslocal.com/2014/10/08/f...bola-symptoms/

It will be interesting to see if that deputy actually does have Ebola. He was in Ebola Tom's apartment for 30 minutes. 30 minutes is a LONG time to not touch anything and be breathing air in an environment where Ebola DEFINITELY was in presence. Wouldn't be the first time recently that someone would come down with Ebola and not have a clue about how that happened. Too many instances of that happening for my peace of mind.

There is a lot of controversy surrounding the euthanasia of the pet dog belonging to the nurse from Spain who is infected with Ebola.
I am hoping that there is research being done on whether dogs can become infected.

Certainly dogs are prime possible fomites, friendly, brushing up against people, rolling in icky stuff outdoors (my dogs do this all the time, if they discover a decomposing earthworm they treat it like cologne and roll and try to get it on their snout and ear area) and also they eat all sorts of questionable stuff.
And then they run around everywhere and from person to person.

I know that in kennels and boarding facilities, kennel cough is very infectious. I think I heard that one of the Houston shelters was having trouble with parvo a couple years ago, they could not seem to isolate it for a while.
It seems difficult to keep dogs isolated and uninfected in a kennel situation if there is an infectious disease going around.

Since I have several dogs who I'm very attached to, I'm interested in what research finds as far as whether dogs can become infected or become carriers of Ebola other than fomites.