Ebola epidemic

Originally Posted by Lucille

Sometimes I think that unless the issue can be treated right there in the ER, the patient is send home.
I recall some years ago a teacher's assistant brought her young child to my clinic at 7AM or so (yeah, I got there early most of the time). She did not want to take off work unless she had to, she had used up all her sick leave so if she didn't work, she didn't get paid, and those assistants make very little money. The child presented with the classic symptoms of appendicitis, so I told her it was urgent that she take her child to the emergency room immediately, and she went.
Her child was seen, and they were sent home. That day in the late afternoon, according to what she was told on her second, now extremely urgent visit, the appendix ruptured.

Fortunately the child lived. But here, with an infectious disease such as Ebola, the urgency for a correct, early diagnosis is multiplied, it is not only the ill person at risk, but potentially many, many more.

Yeah, think this one through. Now, anyone in the area where this guy with Ebola was located who develops flu like symptoms can expect that if they go to any medical facility there is an excellent chance that they are going to want to isolate and observe him or her for 21 days in case it IS Ebola. Many people knowing this are quite likely going to try to convince themselves that it's "only the flu" and try to tough it out rather than losing work (and pay) and their freedom of mobility for three weeks. Many people are not going to want to be sequestered away and many are not going to be able to afford (not just for monetary reasons) to be locked up away from home.

People are not programmable and controllable robots and there is going to be an awful lot of unpredictability in just how people are going to react to Ebola being in their own home town.