Ebola coming to a town near you.

[Brooke]

"Being at first skeptical that Ebola virus could be an aerosol-transmissible disease, we are now persuaded by a review of experimental and epidemiologic data that this might be an important feature of disease transmission, particularly in healthcare settings."

By the way, if these authors are correct, then the woman in Texas who got Ebola from Dallas Patient Zero might *not* have had any protocol lapse at all and was infected because the protocols are insufficient (since a surgical mask does almost doesn't protect against inhalation of aerosol).

[Brooke]

"Experimental work has shown that Marburg and Ebola viruses can be isolated from sera and tissue culture medium at room temperature for up to 46 days, but at room temperature no virus was recovered from glass, metal, or plastic surfaces.23 Aerosolized (1-3 mcm) Marburg, Ebola, and Reston viruses, at 50% to 55% relative humidity and 72°F, had biological decay rates of 3.04%, 3.06%. and 1.55% per minute, respectively. These rates indicate that 99% loss in aerosol infectivity would occur in 93, 104, and 162 minutes, respectively.23

In still air, 3-mcm particles can take up to an hour to settle. With air currents, these and smaller particles can be transported considerable distances before they are deposited on a surface."

This also means that Ebola in vomit could stay viable for days, and then when you hire some unprotected, uninformed workers go power wash it and create an aerosol (like was done with Dallas Patient Zero) it is . . . unbelievably idiotic and incompetent.

The Keystone Cops have been in charge of all of this so far.

[mbailey]

A second healthcare worker has tested positive......was watching the news and they were discussing that it may be time to lock down the hospital.....they being a former CDC asst director and an infectious Disease Dr

[Tec]

Am I the only one out there who thinks the timing of this is beyond bad going into the cold/flu season?  Here we have a deadly virus that presents like your normal wintertime malady until you start toejamting out blood.  People who get a cough and a fever will just assume it's normal unless they have had contact with someone known to be infected.  Then you add in the fact that everyone and their brother will be coughing and wheezing all over the cold and flu meds at the local pharmacy and trudging off to work because "it's just a cold".  Throw in a little holiday travel to help get it moving. 

No reason to worry though, it's almost impossible for the lay person to contract.  It only becomes contagious when you are trained how to deal with it and wearing protective gear apparently.

[Dichotomy]

aaaaand I'm probably going to move back there by the end of the week?

[Masherbrum]

I am feeling even more strongly that it is horribly negligent to allow travel from Ebola-ravaged areas into the US.

This is the entire crux of the issue with me. 

[Hap]

It's 7AM Mountain Time. 

Things that have struck me so far: 1)  CDC is in Dallas with some nurses from Emory now.  2) Dallas Health Presbyterian was over their heads in this.  3) Statement from the Hospital reads like it was written by lawyers. 

[GScholz]

[Traveler]

The end of time is upon us.  Perhaps have all management of the CDC move to and set up in that Texas death trap, errrr, hospital.  second, stop all air travel and quarantine everyone wishing to travel to the United States for 21 days. Within the united states   No state to state travel for 21 days.    We are just looking at the tip of the ice burg.  How many people did this second health worker see and interact with , how many other patients within the hospital itself did this second health worker interact with over the last week, what about their families and the interactions of each family member.

At one time all new arrivals   to the United States arriving in NEW York harbor were guests of the United States on Ellis Island for two weeks, which was the incubation period for typhoid and TB.  Perhaps we need to impose such measures again today.

Of course travel restrictions will never happen, not with just an out break of two ,  no the government and the experts will wait , my guess is until we have 50 or more cases in 5 states and by then its' just to late.

[wpeters]

See Rule #14

[Traveler]

See Rule #14

[Brooke]

No reason to worry though, it's almost impossible for the lay person to contract.  It only becomes contagious when you are trained how to deal with it and wearing protective gear apparently.

+1

Then there are the poor family members.  We have about 13 days to go to see if any of them (or any more health-care workers involved) got it.

Then, we have about 20 more days to find out if anyone got it from those people.

Meanwhile, folks are still jetting in each day from West Africa.

There need to be some major changes, and I hope that there are come, say, November as a good start.

[68ZooM]

It has been said over and over and over it needs to be treated in Africa not over here, they need to move all necessary equipment to Africa and treat it over there.. This just keeps getting worse everyday.

Edit and what kind of worries me is that my son is a US Navy corpsman and I don't want him to end up in Africa.

[Devil 505]

[CAP1]

aaaaand I'm probably going to move back there by the end of the week?

 i'd buy a space suit first if i were you. two actually. one for you, one for the woman. crap.....a bunch. one for the kid too.....one for the dog.......