Passenger quarantined after treating Ebola patients in Africa develops fever Update-no ebola

[hrmjustin]

Last edited Sat Oct 25, 2014, 08:37 AM - Edit history (1)

NEWARK (WABC) -- A health care worker arriving from Africa who was placed in mandatory quarantine as part of a new policy by the governors of New York and New Jersey has developed a fever.

The state health department said the woman had no symptoms upon arrival at Newark Liberty Airport, but on Friday night she developed the fever and is now in isolation and being evaluated at University Hospital in Newark.

In a major new state policy for New York and New Jersey, Governors Andrew Cuomo and Chris Christie announced a mandatory quarantine for people returning to the U.S. through area airports who are deemed "high risk."

http://7online.com/health/passenger-quarantined-after-treating-ebola-patients-in-africa-develops-fever/364779/

[Marrah_G]

1. As a nurse coming from one of those areas she would have self reported

More then just about anyone on the planet, these brave men and women KNOW how important it is to get to a hospital at the first sign of fever, not just to protect others, but for their own survival.

If we start quarantining them then there is a risk that the number willing to go will drop off and THAT would do more harm then letting them go home and self report ever would.

The quarantine is the result of public panic.

[hrmjustin]

2. This is a huge dilemma.

Both arguments have merit.

[Marrah_G]

3. It's really not.

These people in particular have a very up close and personal knowledge of this virus. They know what it can do, how it can spread and how vital getting care at the first sign of fever is. They didn't become uncaring and stupid individuals on the plane ride back.

Besides the two nurses that were caring for a very ill patient in Texas without proper gear/procedure (not their fault, the hospitals fault).... not one other person has been infected. Not even the family of that very sick man who lived in the same apartment, ate the same food, used the same bathroom and slept in the same bed. No one on a plane. No one in a house, etc.

We have had exactly one person die, who was not a healthcare worker sick in this country and he contracted it before he got here. That does not make an epidemic.

[hrmjustin]

4. So what do you think should happen?

[Marrah_G]

15. They go home and call the hospital if they start showing symptoms

They don't want to die, unless you think they are suicidal and homocidal there is no reason to put these men and women into a 3 week quarantine. They are smart, compassionate, dedicated health care professionals. We should give them that respect.

[KMOD]

24. I agree with Marrah_G on this

Plus like I said in another thread, this could very well deter any health care workers and doctors from volunteering in West Africa as well.

I had CNN on in the background, about one half hour ago, and they were discussing a Dr. from Doctors without Borders who is due to come home soon from his stint in West Africa. He lives in Louisiana, but is scheduled to land in Newark. He now wonders if he will be quarantined in NJ for three weeks before he can return home.

I know Cuomo and Christie mean well, although I believe they are under pressure from people who are scared, but it does not seem like that thought through all the logistics.

If it stops folks from volunteering, and we desperately need as many volunteers as we can get, it's more hurtful to the crisis than helpful.

Plus, what's to stop anyone from changing their flight plans. They can land at Dulles instead and take the train to NY.

It's also very demeaning to the real experts, i.e. Doctors without Borders who have helped shape our new protocols. They know so much more about Ebola prevention than Gov. Cuomo and Christie.

And finally, they should be using their positions to educate the public. Not affirm the public's fears. Quarantining people makes it even more frightening to the people who don't understand the disease and its contagiousness. Self-monitoring is quite sufficient. It is not very contagious until you are very, very sick.

[LisaL]

31. And if they symptoms hit while they are traveling?

Like the little girl in Mali who was bleeding while traveling from Guinea to Mali by public transportation?

[KMOD]

34. That poor baby was sick before she left

Bless her soul.

Everyone needs to step up Lisa. We'll never get a handle on this, unless we all work together. Protocols have to be world-wide, not Country to Country, or State to State. It's a horrible humanitarian crisis. And if we don't get it together, we'll see more and more of these situations. Ebola is a horrible disease, but it can be controllable.

[Marrah_G]

36. She was sick before they were traveling or they were traveling for multiple days

It takes more then a couple days to go from a fever to the bleeding aspect. If they were traveling for 3 or 4 days ...then again, that goes to poverty and lack of modern medical facilities.

Tell you what Lisa....if this becomes some big pandemic, spreading across the world or even just spreading in the US, I will publicly come here and say "you were right Lisa". But I am confident it will not. Not because I have some vision of the future, but because I know how the disease spreads and I understand the reasons it has become so bad in western Africa.

This isn't some new thing for me...I have been laying my hands on everything I can out there on zoonotic diseases for a lot of years. When I first heard of ebola I thought "omg that is some scary shit, it could wipe out the world" but then, in time, I came to understand that as terrible a disease as it is....it is not something, that as an American, I needed to fear.

The experts are telling the people what I already knew. Ebola is a bad choice as a pandemic. With all our medicine, communications, transportation and basic standard of living, what is happening in West Africa won't happen here. There are other viruses out there that would pose a much greater threat to people in the US.

I am off, probably for the weekend, I wish you well.

[LisaL]

10. She could have self reported.

After meeting who knows how many more people. Which CDC would have to trace, etc.
Was this her final destination? If not, she was going to get on another plane.

[hrmjustin]

11. She was going to NYC.

[LisaL]

12. So she was going to get on another plane?

Last edited Fri Oct 24, 2014, 09:46 PM - Edit history (1)

[hrmjustin]

13. Thay is a good question. Not sure if she was headed home to NYC or going to Laguardia.

[magical thyme]

14. not if she was going to Newark to NYC

she wouldn't be getting on another plane. More likely taking a taxi I think...

[Marrah_G]

19. Why would you think she was going from Newark to NYC to get on another plane?

[Warpy]

28. From Newark?

No, she was going to take a cab or other surface transportation.

She'd have arrived before she developed the fever.

She'd have self reported and gone to whatever facility the CDC suggested.

Even with a fever, she is not contagious until the GI symptoms hit.

[LisaL]

30. Well, that's news to me.

Ebola patient wouldn't be contagious even with a fever until GI symptoms hit? Says who?

[Warpy]

32. Infections have all been traced to vomit, feces, and blood.

The real contagions here are ignorance and scaring oneself stupid.

[LisaL]

33. Virus is in all the body fluids, such as saliva and sweat.

And considering people don't seem to know how exactly they got infected (neither of the two nurses nor Dr. Spencer seem to have a clue how exactly they got infected), it's ridiculous to claim that all infections have been traced to vomit, feces and blood.

[Warpy]

35. Again, infections have been traced to exposure with vomit, feces and blood.

Patient 0 was a toddler in Guinea and it was assumed he died, as so many children in Africa do, from waterborne illness. Relatives got it and took it to the cities via extensive contact with the child's body during funeral rites.

Again, the virus is fragile. UV light kills it. Sunlight kills it. Drying out kills it. Clorox kills it. Likely health workers are getting it because they're wearing impervious plastic suits in a hot climate in the rainy season. Either they aren't waiting the full 10 minutes after the low pressure hose washes them down or the low pressure hose has missed a spot or two.

Most of the "what if" scenarios have never been documented. At this point and in this country, panic mongering over this disease is far more dangerous than the disease, itself.

[Marrah_G]

16. Lisa, how many health care professionals have infected others after self monitoring?

Any?

How many people outside of the two nurses caring for a very ill patient have contracted the disease?

Any?

How about we trust these people to monitor themselves instead of locking them up. They know this disease better then almost everyone on the planet.

Why are you so convinced that this is the next great plague? it has not shown any signs of becoming one here in the US. People who are genuinely worried should be pressuring their reps to give more money to help the people in Africa rather then wasting it here with unnecessary quarantine zones.

As for planes? there is not one case of someone contracting it on a plane.

[LisaL]

17. Are you asking me about US or Africa?

Because we had very few cases of Ebola at this time, it's useless to make any conclusions. But in Africa there are cases of health care professionals infecting their relatives.
So if you asking me if it's possible for health care professional to infect others, the answer is very clearly YES.

[Marrah_G]

18. In the US.

In Africa health care workers are infecting others due to the conditions they work and live in. "healthcare worker" does not just mean the MSF or the other groups working in Ebola units. Healthcare workers there can mean minimally trained staff in very rural clinics who have very little supplies.

Ebola in Africa is spread due to poverty and everything that brings with it.

[LisaL]

20. Again. We had very few cases so far.

And the people exposed haven't even completed their quarantine yet. So we don't even know if any of them will develop Ebola. I am not going to just assume they won't develop it until their quarantine is up.

[Marrah_G]

22. We haven't had many cases because things here are not like things there.

Most people have finished their quarantine. So far we have zero cases and people freaking the hell out because a teacher was on the same continent or because someone's relative was on a plane that one of the nurses flew on so they need to quarantine a college dorm or shutting down schools. It is absurd. It is fear. It spreads through ignorance and assumption. It is EXACTLY the same type of fear mongering that made sure Ryan White would not be allowed to go to school. It did not matter what the scientists and doctors said.... people knew better and that kid was going to kill all their kids by breathing on them. Remember those days?

We have been going round and round for weeks over this. There is no epidemic here, there is no crisis here. There is in Africa and that is where the focus should be.

[LisaL]

23. No, most people haven't finished their quarantine.

Only Mr. Duncan's contacts finished their quarantine (and not all of them even).
People exposed to the new doctor barely even started their quarantine.
In Africa, it started with one case and then spread.

[Warpy]

27. I really do hate to keep pointing this out

but this isn't Africa. We don't live in one room houses with dirt floors. We have sanitation facilities. We have access to things like thermometers to warn us of the very first sign of illness. We don't have a plethora of water borne diseases that mimic early Ebola. We have safe water so there will be no confusion.

Sheesh.

[magical thyme]

5. There is also the question of hospital staff treating Ebola patients here in the US

Are they going to quarantine the people caring for Dr. Spencer right now? Starting when? Will they require that they live at the hospital in isolation for the duration of his treatment, plus 21 days? Or are they somehow less of a risk than somebody who was providing care in Africa?

[hrmjustin]

6. Good point.

[kestrel91316]

8. Exactly. Here's their plan: work a single shift >>>> go directly into 21 days quarantine.

They'll probably make them pay for it, too.

[pnwmom]

21. By quarantining a single exposed person, we can avoid quarantining dozens later,

if she has Ebola. It makes sense to me to nip this in the bud.

[Warpy]

26. Public panic+electioneering+ignorance.

Health care professionals returning will simply land at other airports like Logan and take surface transportation to NY and NJ.

Quarantine of healthy people for a disease that can't be transmitted until and unless they become very ill is stupid. People who know there is a ghost of a chance are self monitoring. Nobody wants to die of Ebola. They will seek treatment at the first sign of illness.

Other people will simply lie about where they've been, giving no chance of tracking them.

Stupid, stupid, stupid. Health care decisions should never be made by politicians, especially when they're running for re election.

[kestrel91316]

7. RWers to scream "see, it still doesn't work, ANOTHER one got in!!!" in 3....2....1....

They'll be calling for passports to be revoked from all who travel to West Africa next. Fucking idiots.

[hrmjustin]

9. They are what they are. If they didn't have fear they would not know what to do.

[hrmjustin]

25. local tv says her symptoms are getting worse.

[LisaL]

29. Did they say what symptoms?

[hrmjustin]

37. NY1 says she tested no for ebola.

She had a fever.