Hellobee Boards

Oh man I hope he gets good care in the hospital he's in so he can pull through.

It's scary to think about, but I think we can take comfort in the fact that the Dallas patient was in contact with tons of people while symptomatic, and only the two nurses got it (not even his own family members did). Health care workers are always the most at risk I'm wondering whether they'll keep him in NYC or send him right away to Atlanta or Nebraska given what happened in Dallas?

They aren't contagious until the symptoms start, so the traveling he did beforehand shouldn't matter. Still worrisome for him though.

Kind of worrisome that Doctors Without Borders just lets participating doctors back into their countries without a more formal quarantine period!

@MrsSCB: I agree with this-- though it still is pretty scary!

@photojane: @mrbee: at least now the CDC will apparently be monitoring people who return from affected countries.(http://abcnews.go.com/Health/ebola-prompts-cdc-monitor-travelers-coming-guinea-liberia/story?id=26376904) I do feel like that should have been common sense, though. I don't know, if I were returning from caring for patients in Liberia or Guinea I just think I'd want to make sure everything was good before being around other people, you know?

@mrbee: Luckily he hadn't been back to work yet! Or so I read.

@mrbee: Bellvue Hospital though? I didn't understand that this hospital has the right facilities, or did I miss something?

@Andrea: PHEW! I was worried it didn't have a quarantine unit. I thought there were only a couple in the country that were really prepared, and they weren't in NYC.

@mrbee: I'll be honest, what worries me is the waste handling and disposal. I hope this unit really takes precautions and no one compromises themselves.

I've been reading the Twitter account of the NBC cameraman who has now been declared Ebola-free and I've been finding it very interesting. I particularly liked this tweet, but it's worth reading through more his timeline! https://twitter.com/unkyoka/status/525451044424523776

@Espion: Thanks, I'm going to see if I can track that down to read! One of the big things that stood out to me in those tweets was the NBC guy saying that it was sudden onset for him. Like he was fine and then he was suddenly running a fever. I've seen a lot of people saying (without any actual information) that the NYC doctor "must have been gradually getting sick for days." But from what I've seen it appears he wasn't out and about when he was having symptoms. He'd also been out of Guinea for almost two weeks, so I imagine he was starting to think he was in the clear. Poor guy

@MrsSCB: It was a personal e-mail communication sent out to state epidemiologists. I'm not sure if it has made the leak to the media yet! Nothing "juicy" in it, other than things I didn't really think about, which are external to specific care. Like, make sure your hospital can absorb the financial impact, because cases get cancelled, patients refuse to go there, etc. Lock down the medical record because people are being offered obscene amounts of money to leak information and private details.

@Espion: Yikes, I bet people are being offered a ton of money. Hopefully patients' information remains private (or at least as private as possible in this situation). And the financial impact is no joke, I've seen the Dallas hospital's revenue has just plummeted.

ETA: @looch: In terms of waste disposal, some of the waste from Dallas was incinerated at a facility near me because they had the only incinerator in the state capable of doing the job. It was sealed in big drums, driven over here (4-5 hours I believe) in a refrigerated vehicle, then placed in a 1500 degree incinerator. And anything left was then put in 1800 degrees.

PS: I just got a news alert that the first Dallas nurse is better and will be going home, so yay!!