(Reuters) - An American nurse who was exposed to Ebola while volunteering in an Ebola treatment unit in Sierra Leone will be admitted to the National Institutes of Health's Clinical Center in Maryland on Thursday, NIH announced.NIH did not release any further information on the nurse, including when he or she might have been exposed to the virus, current medical condition or affiliation.It is thus apparent that we're not meant to know where she's arriving from, whether and how many people she may have already exposed here or anywhere else, or anything further about the case.
And she's being taken to the one facility (out of four) completely under the control and purview of the U.S. government, from top to bottom. Make of that what you will.
If you aren't continuing to get your personal quarantine ducks in a row, you aren't paying attention.
UPDATE: NBC local affiliate is reporting that the nurse has tested negative for Ebola. So whether she's actually infected is an open question, and/or will accidentally leak out the truism that a negative initial Ebola test doesn't mean you're not infected.
Disinformation Czar Klain will not be pleased.
A guinea pig it seems. If that phrase isn't too offensive in this context.
ReplyDelete"The nurse will take part in a clinical study that NIH has been running to watch dangerous infectious diseases from beginning to end. NIH specialists check patients several times a day to see if there's any evidence of infection, and would be able to see just what happens in a patient's body as Ebola virus takes hold."
Though you'd think this has been done already sometime since 1976. That German case study that NEJM reported was good but I suppose they want to see it from the actual start not just the start of symptoms.
What relation the cover story has to reality remains to be seen.
ReplyDeleteA good cover will have a veneer of truth to hide things behind.
ReplyDeleteLike the common, "We can't comment while the investigation is ongoing." Where there is an investigation but it was started to provide the cover not to uncover things.
Aesop,
ReplyDeleteI think I've done decent work across the board preparation-wise. My food, water, heat, shelter, and personal protection needs are continually being worked on but at this stage are in a good condition. (I've lived in the country for over half my life and I've got a pretty good general knowledge of practical skills, but since this summer Ebola has really focused the need for sharpening it up) However, what I lack is any sort of medical experience.
Assuming a 3-6 month window before shit hits the fan well and truly here stateside, what is the best practical regimen for obtaining the most critical practical knowledge. I understand that such a program will be cursory - but it's got to be better than nothing...
3-6 months may be happy gas, but I figure if mystery nurse starts an epidemic next week then I'm already too late to bother you about this.
Anything you can provide would be appreciated. Thank you.
The best thing you could do in that time frame is seek out and take the local basic EMT training where you are. It may be community college, occ center, college extension, or what have you. It's all the same. Once you finish, jump through the (minimal, in general) hoops to get an actual cert in your state.
ReplyDeleteEMT jobs per se are minimum wage entry, but the card is far more useful in that it opens up opportunities to volunteer for things like ski patrol, volunteer rescue squads, local wilderness search & rescue, disaster medical/first aid, etc.
So once you take the class, and get the cert, go do that as well, because then you'll have anted into the game of hands-on learning, which is where the real experience is to be had. Your first hands-on patient shouldn't be a loved one the day after TSHTF.
Do it now, while there's a safety net, and more experienced people can precept and mentor you.
There's always the possibility that it will lead you to a second career. (Ask me how I know this.)
If time and/or other constraints absolutely make doing that little bit impossible, the current (10th) edition of "the orange book"
Emergency Care and Transportation of the Sick and Injured, by the AAOS,
http://www.amazon.com/Emergency-Care-Transportation-Injured-Orange/dp/1284032841/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1418338198&sr=1-1&keywords=emergency+care+and+transportation+of+the+sick+and+injured+10th+edition
is simply the sine qua non textbook to begin with for that.
It runs about $90 new, maybe half that used. Get a hard copy, not an e-version. Read it, and learn as much as you can until the opportunity to take a class opens up. And follow up by exploring YouTube tutorials to reinforce the material presented. Damn near everything is somewhere on YouTube, and frequently presented by knowledgeable folks (although unfortunately with less video production sense than what nature gave a jackass. Some things are free for a reason.)
That book, and an EMT class/card, will do you more good in less time than just about anything else I could recommend at this point.
And everything you may someday decide to do beyond that will build on that foundation.
What do you do, as a 21st century closet eugenicist with a depopulation agenda who's wormed his way high up the government colon, do when the scientist underlings beneath you invent the panacea?
ReplyDeleteWhy, have it sold off to a bunch of slugs who then sit on it.
(Short form: Ebola was solved ten years ago.)
http://www.whec.com/news/stories/S3643056.shtml
ReplyDeleteThis is a short piece on the 100 fold risk that healthcare workers face of infection in West Africa but what drew my attention was the video at the bottom which is a "tour" of a US facility in Monrovia.
ReplyDeleteAn EMPTY facility.
ReplyDeleteAnd did you catch the part in the lab where "this is where we do blood draws"? So does he REALLY mean they will bring potentially (and some actually) infected patients into that lab area? That doesn't sound smart...
And I couldn't help thinking that those beds were pretty close together for patients with vomiting and explosive diarrhea. For that matter, it looks like they all share the same toilet area, and have to travel thru the tent, and in the open, contacting and passing other patients to get there. How can they possibly keep the shared toilet from cross contaminating the patients? Wasn't private toilet facilities one of the CDC requirements for a hospital to treat ebola patients?
I guess I can't fault the guy for being excited that they will be able to continually draw blood and document the development of the disease in vivo, but doesn't all that needlework expose the staff to greater risk, esp. with combative or disoriented patients?
All in all, too little too late, and a little ghoulish in his enthusiasms.
nick
Here are two of the planes that the CDC uses to move Ebola patients. They have the special chambers for transporting infectious patients:
ReplyDeletehttp://flightaware.com/live/flight/N163PA
http://flightaware.com/live/flight/N173PA
Flights to Dakar are most likely to pick up ebola patients.
Not sure how many more planes there are out there...
Oh fantastic. Let's bring another country into the fire as soon as possible by using their airport to move highly infectious Africans.
ReplyDeleteUnless we're already doing that, I guess... business as usual?
@Anonymous (December 11, 2014 at 6:35 PM)
ReplyDeleteNot the same nurse, or at least likely not, as other sources are reporting the one at the NIH came directly from Africa via specialjet: http://www.voanews.com/content/american-nurse-admitted-to-nih-for-possible-ebola/2555976.html
@Anonymous (December 12, 2014 at 5:30 AM)
Aircraft tail # links are AWESOME. That should help shed light on future 'possible Ebola patient moved to..' articles in the future.
Two different flights. One to NIH and one to CDC.
ReplyDeleteIt is a criminal operation.
ReplyDeleteKill The Poor
@geoffb,
ReplyDeleteTracking, 2 separate jets. Per your article link, they've actually got 3 now, which just means we can exceed our patient capacity here quicker than before. My note about Anonymous' (11DEC1835hrs) link was because the Webster nurse in that article flew back via Dulles.
..........Nice..^_^v............
ReplyDelete