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Hospital released Ebola patient by mistake
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  1. The CDC doesn't agree. " Ebola on dried on surfaces such as doorknobs and countertops can survive for several hours; however, virus in body fluids (such as blood) can survive up to several days at room temperature."
  2. So, how does blood stay liquid for several days? Body fluids dry out very quickly unless there is a huge amount or it has been sealed somehow.
  3. Louisiana has an unfortunate history of allowing all kinds of unnecessary shit into the state that other states don't want. Wtf, Louisiana? (That's exactly what I said when I heard this on the news over the weekend.)
  4. I don't know and I don't know that it has to stay liquid.

    There are significant issues bubbling to the surface that didn't fit neatly into the CDC's dialogue...something meant to keep the public calm. This hospital may be great but the procedures have to be near perfect and this is not something they deal with regularly or train for regularly. In what was likely a desperate move, patient zero was intubated and dialyzed. Those instruments and the procedures themselves are fraught with risk of spreading Ebola further. All patients at this point need to be funneled to one of the 4 (5?) isolation hospitals in the US.

    Now I'm reading that vomit and saliva have virus-carrying potential. Every bit of conflicting information that comes out makes the public less trusting.
  5. It dies within hours after drying unless dried in tissue culture and refrigerated.

    SURVIVAL OUTSIDE HOST: Filoviruses have been reported capable to survive for weeks in blood and can also survive on contaminated surfaces, particularly at low temperatures (4°C). One study could not recover any Ebolavirus from experimentally contaminated surfaces (plastic, metal or glass) at room temperature. In another study, Ebolavirus dried onto glass, polymeric silicone rubber, or painted aluminum alloy is able to survive in the dark for several hours under ambient conditions (between 20 and 250C and 30–40% relative humidity) (amount of virus reduced to 37% after 15.4 hours), but is less stable than some other viral hemorrhagic fevers (Lassa). When dried in tissue culture media onto glass and stored at 4 °C, Zaire ebolavirus survived for over 50 days.

    http://www.phac-aspc.gc.ca/lab-bio/res/psds-ftss/ebola-eng.php​

    I agree that Ebola or any hemorrhagic fever is not something that any local hospital is staffed and equipped to handle. But patients are going to go there with symptoms so they must be ready to deal with it initially.
  6. Patient with Ebola-like symptoms now in Kansas City.
  7. Dealing with it initially should probably include something that mimics the boy in the plastic bubble. I will go back to your earlier example of asbestos abatement because the procedures in that industry are heavily regulated and with much success. The CDC would do well to include some of those top notch contractors to develop processes going forward. Isn't deploying best practices a no-brainer?

    5 stages of decontam....dirty room to remove just the protective layer/suit inside out, air lock, shower which includes the removal of the respirator and gloves, another air lock, and then a clean room. I wonder how many if any "regular" hospitals in America have a negative pressure system whereby the germs stay in and do not come out. Dallas Presbyterian doesn't seem to have one.
  8. And enough already with the political correctness and other nonsense answers. Isn't it really time to suspend all air travel to the US from flights originating in hot zones? It doesn't have to be permanent but it is so hard to monitor passengers it would be far easier to just halt flights.

    British Airways isn't flying there anymore and some African countries no longer accept flights.
    Bengal B likes this.
  10. It wouldn't have helped with the Dallas guy. He flew to Brussels and from there to the US. We can't halt all international travel. Best to put screening clinics in certain African airports and you have to pass before being allowed to leave. But the Africans aren't wild about this because they feel like if it's not an international problem, it won't get international attention to develop a vaccine.
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