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-Signs, Portents, and the Weather-
Ebola Fight in Africa Is Hurt by Limits on Ways to Get Out
2014-10-15
BRUSSELS — When a French nurse working as a volunteer in West Africa tested positive for Ebola last month, it took 50 hours to get her to Paris for treatment on a private American plane that had to fly all the way from Georgia to pick her up.

The nurse survived, but according to the aid group that sent her to Liberia and arranged to get her out, Europe’s failure to establish a swift evacuation service for infected medical workers has become a serious hurdle impeding the battle against Ebola in West Africa.

“For us, this is a big problem,” said Brice de le Vingne, director of operations for the group, Doctors Without Borders. “We will not be able to convince volunteers to go to these countries to help tackle the epidemic if we don’t have a good evacuation system.”

Dr. Hervé Raffin, the general director of Medic’Air, said the biggest obstacle was a shortage not of aircraft but of pilots willing to fly Ebola patients. He said his company’s usual pilots had all refused because “they think the risk is too high,” adding that he knew of only two pilots in all of Europe who would fly Ebola evacuation missions.

A 25-bed treatment center that the American military is building in Liberia to treat health workers could help relieve some of the strain. While visiting an Ebola treatment unit run by International Medical Corps in Liberia, Gen. Darryl A. Williams, commander of United States Army soldiers operating in Africa, said his forces had no general mandate to evacuate American medical workers who become infected. But he added, “If conditions warrant, we’re not going to turn our back."

A spokesman for Ms. Georgieva said the European Commission was also hoping to reach an arrangement soon with Phoenix Air, a private American company that works under contract for the United States government and is the only air ambulance operator equipped to handle patients who have developed full-blown Ebola.

The company, based near Atlanta, has two Gulfstream jets equipped to carry patients with highly infectious diseases like Ebola and is outfitting a third. The planes have flown more than a dozen people infected with Ebola out of West Africa, including the French nurse.
Posted by:Anguper Hupomosing9418

#12  Last week I quoted an article which said one of Patient Zero's relatives knew about the lack of isolation on the 2nd ER visit, and personally called the CDC &/or the TX state health department to tell them about the patient's origination in the Hot Zone and that he thought his sick relative should have been in isolation. Posted by: Anguper Hupomosing9418


All you have to do to understand the hospital's almost militant reluctance to isolate Patient Zero is flip to the Ferguson, Missouri headlines.
Posted by: Besoeker   2014-10-15 14:33  

#11  Whul, you need to understand the no-fly lists are for critical purposes, like monitoring tea-party, no government types. That and making sure that the TSA doesn't bother our betters, like the Saudis.
Posted by: ed in texas   2014-10-15 13:59  

#10  How many paid computer experts do they have to check no fly lists and none of the people from Dallas E bola Hospital were supposed to fly think they need more computers server farms and sat tracking or do people need to pull their FUCKING HEADS OUT OF THEIR ASSES?!? WHAT A FUCKING JOKE A TERA PLOP !!!!!!! NOT LIKE THE LIST WAS LONG OR IT WAS THE CHINS IN THE CHINA PHONE BOOK FUCKING PATHETIC!
Posted by: Whulet Shavins7256   2014-10-15 13:33  

#9  How many paid computer experts do they have to check no fly lists and none of the people from Dallas E bola Hospital were supposed to fly think they need more computers server farms and sat tracking or do people need to pull their FUCKING HEADS OUT OF THEIR ASSES?!? WHAT A FUCKING JOKE A TERA PLOP !!!!!!! NOT LIKE THE LIST WAS LONG OR IT WAS THE CHINS IN THE CHINA PHONE BOOK FUCKING PATHETIC!
Posted by: Whulet Shavins7256   2014-10-15 13:32  

#8  Whistle-blower nurses issue anonymous statement about confused response at Presbyterian Dallas ER to Ebola case
DALLAS — Nurses at the Dallas hospital where a Liberian man died of Ebola described a confused and chaotic response to his arrival in the emergency room, alleging in a statement Tuesday that he languished for hours in a room with other patients and that hospital authorities resisted isolating him.
In addition, they said, the nurses tending him had flimsy protective gear and no proper training from hospital administrators.
The allegations, made under unusual circumstances, provided the first detailed portrait of Thomas Eric Duncan’s second trip to the emergency room...A statement outlining a litany of damning assertions was read by Deborah Burger, co-president of National Nurses United. The Oakland group does not represent the Dallas nurses, who are nonunionized, but has been vocal about what it says are hospitals’ failures to prepare for Ebola.
The Dallas nurses asked National Nurses United to read their statement so they could air complaints anonymously and without fear of losing their jobs, National Nurses United executive director RoseAnn DeMoro said from Oakland, Calif. DeMoro refused to say how many nurses signed off on the letter or how many were on the media call, but she said all of them worked at Presbyterian and had been involved in Duncan’s care or had direct knowledge of what had occurred after he arrived by ambulance.
The statement alleged that when Duncan was brought to Presbyterian by ambulance Sept. 28 with Ebola-like symptoms, he was “left for several hours, not in isolation, in an area” where up to seven other patients were. “Subsequently, a nurse supervisor arrived and demanded that he be moved to an isolation unit, yet faced stiff resistance from other hospital authorities,” they alleged.
Duncan’s lab samples were sent through the usual hospital tube system “without being specifically sealed and hand delivered. The result is that the entire tube system … was potentially contaminated,” they said.
Last week I quoted an article which said one of Patient Zero's relatives knew about the lack of isolation on the 2nd ER visit, and personally called the CDC &/or the TX state health department to tell them about the patient's origination in the Hot Zone and that he thought his sick relative should have been in isolation.
Posted by: Anguper Hupomosing9418    2014-10-15 12:26  

#7  
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) have notified state health officials that the second health care worker in Dallas diagnosed with Ebola visited family in Akron from October 8-13. State health officials say they have been working with the CDC and the Summit County health officials to identify those who may have been in contact with the health care worker. Officials are also working with the airline to identify individuals on her flight from Cleveland to Dallas - Fort Worth on October 13. It's Frontier Airlines flight 1143.

There are no confirmed cases of Ebola in Ohio.

Visit WAKR.net for the latest information as it becomes available.

Now I'm wondering who I shook hands with at church on Sunday.
Posted by: Anguper Hupomosing9418    2014-10-15 12:16  

#6  CLeveland local news said the 2nd nurse with Ebola had been visiting relatives in Akron before she flew back to Dallas, through Cleveland airport.
Posted by: Anguper Hupomosing9418    2014-10-15 12:06  

#5  CDC says second nurse diagnosed with Ebola flew from Cleveland to Dallas the day before she reported symptoms
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says this morning that Amber Joy Vinson, the second Texas Health Resources Presbyterian Dallas to contract Ebola, traveled by air on Monday — “the day before she reported her symptoms,” as the CDC puts it.

The CDC says she flew Frontier Airlines Flight 1143 from Cleveland to Dallas/Fort Worth International on October 13, landing at 8:16 Dallas time. The CDC is asking all 132 passengers who flew on that trip to call 1-800-232-4636.

“After 1 p.m. ET, public health professionals will begin interviewing passengers about the flight, answering their questions, and arranging follow up,” says a statement from the CDC. “Individuals who are determined to be at any potential risk will be actively monitored.”

The CDC cautions: “The healthcare worker exhibited no signs or symptoms of illness while on flight 1143, according to the crew. Frontier is working closely with CDC to identify and notify passengers who may have traveled on flight 1143 on Oct. 13."
Posted by: Anguper Hupomosing9418    2014-10-15 11:54  

#4  Hope they didn't have a dog.
Posted by: Skidmark   2014-10-15 11:06  

#3  Texas nurse's boyfriend was admitted with symptoms too, on Sunday. He works for Alcon in Fort Worth.
Posted by: RandomJD   2014-10-15 07:36  

#2  Second Texas Health Worker tests positive for ebola.

Oct 15 (Reuters) - A second Texas healthcare worker who treated the first patient in the United States to be diagnosed with Ebola has tested positive for the disease, the Texas Department of State Health Services said in a statement on Wednesday.

The worker at Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital, who cared for Thomas Eric Duncan, was immediately isolated after reporting a fever on Tuesday, the department said.

"Health officials have interviewed the latest patient to quickly identify any contacts or potential exposures, and those people will be monitored," the department said.

The news comes just days after another nurse, 26-year-old Nina Pham, became the first person infected by Ebola in the United States while caring for Duncan during much of his 11 days in the hospital. He died on Oct. 8.

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said in a statement that it was performing confirmation testing of Texas' preliminary tests on the new patient.

"An additional health care worker testing positive for Ebola is a serious concern, and the CDC has already taken active steps to minimize the risk to health care workers and the patient," the CDC said. (Reporting by Curtis Skinner in San Francisco; Editing by Alison Williams)
Posted by: Besoeker   2014-10-15 06:43  

#1  Private volunteer -> public liability and risk.

In any other situation, if you don't have travel insurance to get you home, then it's your problem.

Treatment is irrelevant to the 'battle against ebola'. We are way past that point.
Posted by: phil_b   2014-10-15 04:19  

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