Ebola in the Air? A Nightmare that Could Happen
Photo Credit: CNNBy Elizabeth Cohen.
Today, the Ebola virus spreads only through direct contact with bodily fluids, such as blood and vomit. But some of the nation’s top infectious disease experts worry that this deadly virus could mutate and be transmitted just by a cough or a sneeze.
“It’s the single greatest concern I’ve ever had in my 40-year public health career,” said Dr. Michael Osterholm, director of the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy at the University of Minnesota. “I can’t imagine anything in my career — and this includes HIV — that would be more devastating to the world than a respiratory transmissible Ebola virus.”
The World Health Organization says its scientists are unaware of any virus that has dramatically changed its mode of transmission.
“For example, the H5N1 avian influenza virus… has probably circulated through many billions of birds for at least two decades. Its mode of transmission remains basically unchanged. Speculation that Ebola virus disease might mutate into a form that could easily spread among humans through the air is just that: speculation, unsubstantiated by any evidence.”
Osterholm and other experts couldn’t think of another virus that has made the transition from non-airborne to airborne in humans. They say the chances are relatively small that Ebola will make that jump. But as the virus spreads, they warned, the likelihood increases.
Read more from this story HERE.
____________________________________________________________
Government Has Failed In Its Job To Protect Americans From Ebola
By Phyllis Schlafly.
Americans against amnesty are not only worried about unemployed Mexicans crossing our southern border illegally to take U.S. jobs.
More than ever, we need the fence that Congress voted for and President George W. Bush made a television photo event when he signed it into law.
Rep. Duncan Hunter, R-Calif., said that at least 10 ISIS thugs have crossed our southern border. Hunter added, if we caught 10, “you know there are going to be dozens more that did not get caught by the Border Patrol.”
Rep. Tom Cotton, R-Ark., says the Islamic State, ISIS, is actively working with Mexican drug cartels to infiltrate and eventually attack Americans.
ISIS has told us it wants to extend a caliphate over America, so why is anybody surprised that they are doing what they said they wanted to do?
Read more from this story HERE.
____________________________________________________________
Photo Credit: AP / Brandon WadeABOUT 70 HOSPITAL STAFFERS CARED FOR EBOLA PATIENT
BY MARTHA MENDOZA.
They drew his blood, put tubes down his throat and wiped up his diarrhea. They analyzed his urine and wiped saliva from his lips, even after he had lost consciousness.
About 70 staff members at Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital were involved in the care of Thomas Eric Duncan after he was hospitalized, including a nurse now being treated for the same Ebola virus that killed the Liberian man who was visiting Dallas, according to medical records his family provided to The Associated Press.
The size of the medical team reflects the hospital’s intense effort to save Duncan’s life, but it also suggests that many other people could have been exposed to the virus during Duncan’s time in an isolation unit.
On Monday, the director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said the infection of the nurse means the agency must broaden the pool of people getting close monitoring. Authorities have said they do not know how the nurse was infected, but they suspect some kind of breach in the hospital’s protocol.
The medical records given to the AP offer clues, both to what happened and who was involved, but the hospital said the CDC does not have them.
Read more from this story HERE.
____________________________________________________________
Photo Credit: FacebookTexas nurse fighting Ebola receives blood transfusion from survivor Dr Kent Brantly – who also matched blood types with two others struck by the deadly virus in the U.S.
By Nick Fagge and Mia De Graaf.
The Texan nurse diagnosed with Ebola has received a blood transfusion from survivor Dr Kent Brantly, reports claim.
It is the third time Dr Brantly has donated blood to Ebola victims after medics discovered he had the same blood type as previous patient Dr Nick Sacra and NBC cameraman Ashoka Mukpo, who is still being treated.
Incredibly, nurse Nina Pham, 26, has also matched with Brantly and today received a transfusion of his blood in a move that doctors believe could save her life.
Pham has been in quarantine since Friday after catching the disease from ‘patient zero’ Thomas Eric Duncan – the man who brought the deadly virus to America.
Brantly is believed to have traveled to Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital, where Pham worked, to make the donation on Sunday night.
Read more from this story HERE.
____________________________________________________________
Photo Credit: RicochetThe Centers for Disease Control Loses Its Grip
By Paul A. Rahe.
I have lived long enough, now, to have seen it again and again. Something goes badly wrong involving a corporation, a university, a religious denomination, or a branch of government, and the executive in charge or a designated minion goes before the press to engage in what is euphemistically called “damage control.” The spokesman does not level with the public. He or she tries to be reassuring and — more often than not — by lying, succeeds in undermining confidence in the institution he or she represents.
This is what is now going on with the Centers for Disease Control. In recent years, this well-respected outfit has branched out, opining in a politically correct manner on one issue after another outside its proper remit. Now it is faced with a matter absolutely central to its responsibilities — actual disease control — and it flips and flops and flounders because the ultimate boss, the President of the United States, cannot bring himself to put limits on contacts between Americans and the citizens of the countries in Africa where there is an Ebola epidemic.
There is only one way to prevent the spread of an epidemic, and that is quarantine. No medical professional with any sense would suggest that we should admit individuals from Liberia to the United States at this time, and no medical professional worth his or her salt would say that we can test for the disease when the prospective visitor arrives at Immigration and Passport Control. Like most diseases, Ebola has an incubation period. Early on, there are no symptoms: none at all. There is no reliable way to tell whether those arriving at our ports of entry have contracted the disease or not. If we do not want it coming here, for a time, we have to keep everyone out who has been in that neck of the woods.
And what are we told by the authorities? That cutting off contact would contribute to the spread of the epidemic. “Just how?” we are entitled to ask. But no explanation is given because, of course, there is none. We were also told that the disease would not come here. And, when it did come here, we were told that it could easily be contained. And, when it was not contained and a medical professional wearing all the proper gear came down with the disease, we were told that he did not follow the protocol.
Read more from this story HERE.
____________________________________________________________
Photo Credit: ZeeNewsWHO calls Ebola modern world’s worst health crisis
Manila: The World Health Organisation says the Ebola outbreak in West Africa is “the most severe, acute health emergency seen in modern times” but adds that economic disruptions can be curbed if people are adequately informed to avoid irrational moves to dodge infection.
Read more from this story HERE.
____________________________________________________________
Photo Credit: NolaState attorney general wants to stop ashes of Ebola victim’s belongings from being brought to Louisiana
By Diana Samuels.
Louisiana Attorney General Buddy Caldwell said late Sunday that he will seek a temporary restraining order to stop the incinerated belongings of Dallas Ebola victim Thomas Eric Duncan from being brought to a Louisiana landfill.
However, there is no evidence that this would spread the dreaded disease.
The items include linens, carpets and bedding from Duncan’s apartment. Six truckloads of the “potential Ebola-contaminated material” were burned at a facility in Port Arthur, Texas, on Friday, Caldwell said in a statement.
The ashes are planned to be brought to a hazardous-waste landfill in Louisiana, but Caldwell is trying to stop that from happening.
Read more from this story HERE.
