COBs...what do you think about the handling of the Ebola outbreak

[richardgecko]

...in comparison to how HIV/AIDS was handled when it first hit the scene?

I'm far too young to remember it, but I'd love to hear your input, oh wise ones.

[RNIBCLC]

It's similar in that we don't know enough about Ebola to be making claims that we can contain it. HIV/Aids was extremely misunderstood about who could get it back then. The day my first child was born, the headline was "Rock Hudson has Aids". It thought only to be a gay disease. We just don't know enough yet. A lot of fear and not enough knowledge back then for AIDS. In that sense it's very similar.

This disease frightens me more though.

[OCNRN63, RN]

I remember being a junior in nursing school. The hospital's first AIDS patient was on the unit where I was doing my clinical. I watched as a nurse garbed up from head to toe before going in the patient's room. There was a level of fear I'd never seen before.

Lots of similarities.

[jadelpn, LPN, EMT-B]

It is very frightening. When HIV/AIDS came into the world's consciousness, it was anything from a "curse on the gay sinners" to "and those who have blood transfusions too" as it was at first very group specific.

Ebola is becoming more widespread. The exact way someone contracts the virus is still not entirely clear--meaning contact with bodily fluids as in just by contact, or contact with broken skin....there are so many uncertainties. We can only be vigilant about getting as much information as we can, and protecting ourselves in our work that we do.

Practice donning and doffing. It is imperative to protect yourself.

[VivaLasViejas, ASN, RN]

It is amazing how differently HIV/AIDS is handled now as opposed to in the early '80s. Now it's managed as a chronic disease, not a terminal one, and people are (largely) unafraid to touch or hug a person with the condition. Ebola is frightening because it is foreign to us, like AIDS was thirty years ago, and because it kills in such an ugly fashion. It was easy for Americans to ignore it back when it stayed in Africa, but now it's literally only an airplane trip away and now we've seen it come to our shores. It was only a matter of time.

[Laurie52]

Both are public health issues that were/are treated with a political "solution" rather than as a public health problem.

[roser13, ASN, RN]

I think that the 2nd American Ebola patient is vastly more frightening than the first.

We have been told, over & over, that the method of Ebola transmission is contact with bodily fluids. Yet this healthcare worker, operating (presumably) under the strictest of precautions, contracts the disease?

Ebola, for whatever reason, does not seem to carry the hysterical connotation that HIV did. I think that's the greatest difference between the two. There also is no sexual (ie, moral) aspect to the disease transmission. The American public for the most part, survived HIV. They just want to know how to protect themselves against this new threat and right now, the public advice seems suspect.

[Bezoars]

Yes, our nursing instructors told of how they would double gown and glove before taking care of an aids pt. My grandmother contracted AIDS from a blood transfusion for a hip replacement back in the early 80's before the blood supply was being tested. She died a slow agonizing death within 2 years of diagnosis. This was back when it was a terminal diagnosis. Now it's a chronic illness that you can live almost forever with. What strides we've made.

[Raviepoo]

The main difference today is that we have learned that it's OK to touch a patient with AIDS. Ebola scares the $#@% out of me.

[firstinfamily, RN]

LIke HIV/Aides--the body fluids are the means of transmission--isn't seman a body fluid?? So, it has not been tested most likely, but could potentially also be a means of transmission. We were told that the HIV was only transmitted via blood at first and as more testing and research was done the other methods of transmission came out, through body fluids---body fluids include salavia, tears, seman, blood, urine, stool etc. We put on full isolation garb back then, today AIDS pts are treated the same as any other contact patient, if they have AIDS pneumonia we should be wearing masks etc. Universal precations became more prevalent after AIDS came into the healthcare environment. How are the healthcare workers in our country being diagnosed with Ebola---a preliminary test, and correlation with symptoms? I don't fully understand how not taking off the isolation gown,gloves can lead to a transmission unless the worker has exposed cuts etc. ARe they wearing eye protection as well??

[RschIVF40]

I agree with roser13, that Ebola does not seem to be as much of a "stigma" as HIV/AIDS was "back in the day", mainly because it doesn't seem to be transmitted by sex, although my understanding is that Ebola can be found in semen (and other body fluids) once the person's symptoms appear.

I'm not sure what protocol that Texas hospital utilized to care for the Ebola patient as well as remove their personal protective gear following caring for that first Ebola patient. It also isn't clear whether they wore full "bunny suit" protective wear, like the healthcare workers utilized in caring for the Ebola patients in Africa, or whether they only wore gowns, gloves and masks. I would agree that certainly, by not wearing eye protection, shoe covers, and a surgical cap, when caring for these patients could potentially lead to Ebola transmission if the caregiver was inadvertently splashed by the patient's body fluids if the caregiver had an open cut. I would also hope that the hospital followed the CDC protocols as they stated in caring for the patient as well.

[Esme12, ASN, BSN, RN]

The hospital was clear they followed protocol. We were afraid of AIDS...but I remember wearing full suits though. They weren't positive air suits like the HAZMAT suits but we did wear respirators. Covered head to toe. They were very convinced that it body fluid only and it lived a very short time without blood and it was clear it was not "casual" contact.

This has different hallmarks...I am far more leary of Ebola than I was of AIDS.