A physician with Doctors without Borders who returned from West Africa recently and developed potential symptoms is being tested for Ebola at a New York City hospital, health officials said on Thursday, setting off fresh fears about the spread of the virus.
The doctor developed a fever and gastrointestinal symptoms, the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene said in a statement. Preliminary results of the Ebola testing were expected in the next 12 hours...
... Mayor Bill de Blasio said test results would be made public, possibly late on Thursday evening.
"It is our understanding very few people were in direct contact with him," de Blasio said at a news conference. "Every protocol has been followed.
"We're hoping for a good outcome for this individual," he said.
The doctor reported his fever immediately, and Doctors Without Borders said it promptly notified the city health department.
The patient, who returned to the United States within the past 21 days, is being treated at Bellevue Hospital, the health department said. Twenty-one days is the maximum incubation period for Ebola...
His actions are sort of arrogant to me. He was feeling unwell a couple of days beforehand and yet he didn't isolate himself. It wasn't until he had a fever of 103 that he sought out medical help. If that was a nurse who had treated the ebola guy in Texas you sure as bet they would have gone after her.
Wait-that's right-they already did that. This guy though has a lot more nerve considering he was over in Africa hobnobbing with a lot more ebola patients.
This is a fairly unfair assessment of the situation, in my opinion.
For starters, he has only been diagnosed for a few hours, and most of that time has spanned the middle of the night for most continental Americans- not exactly much time to stir up a media firestorm.
Secondly, he contracted the disease in Africa, not in the US, like Nina and Amber. Therefore, the CDC doesn't feel the need to quell fear of Americans that ebola is "coming for them" because it's much more common for someone to catch it in Africa, then the US. It can't happen to themhere in the US. It did happen to Nina and Amber in the US, so the CDC had to turn around and do "damage control." He's far from the first doctor to catch it in Africa. Also, this is a doctor who has treated hundreds of ebola patients, not one like Amber and Nina.
Nina and Amber have paved the way for less victim blaming. A "break in protocol" was blamed. Then a second nurse got diagnosed. Two breaks in protocol? Then the horrid conditions in Texas started coming to light. It became a lot harder to victim blame when you hear stories about taped necks and waste piled to the ceiling. Then to finalize things, CDC has changed protocol- what- four times? since this whole scare has started. I think any reasonably intelligent and informed citizen is past the point of victim blaming and recognizing that we're in unknown territory.
As far as accusations that he should have been in quarantine- not living life. From what I've seen on my Facebook newsfeed, this is going on from both nurses and non-nurses alike.
Let's look at some of the NY Times comments on this article.
A health care "professional' seems to not have the common sense to isolate himself from the public after returning from a hot zone. And our government seems to not have the will to mandate common sense precautions to protect us from these careless "professionals". Is there no leadership? Is there no authority we can trust to look out for us?
I am basing my comments on this article's information alone. Why would this man with his supposed knowledge and history, who felt sluggish Tuesday, start going around town for 2 days? Being a doctor does not make anyone special, or especially smart. This case shows how difficult health care information will be to disperse. If this person, returning from working with Ebola patients in Africa was a bit cavalier with his behavior, who is going to follow any information given out by governments or any health agency?
I am shocked that such a well informed individual with such a high theoretical risk of exposure would behave such exceptional irresponsibility.
Throw the book at this doctor if and when he recovers; there's no room here for false compassion, sympathy or respect for his medical degree, just making an object lesson of this selfish, incomprehensible insouciance. I mean, doctors and nurses who should know better and presumably live to "first do no harm" should be capable of restraining their social impulses for 3 weeks.
This is the overwhelming theme in the 200+ comments on that article. Are the comments nicer than some of the ones we've read about the nurses? Maybe. But this is also the NY Times, not the Daily News. I think the level of readership intelligence may be a bit higher overall.
This is a fairly unfair assessment of the situation, in my opinion.
For starters, he has only been diagnosed for a few hours, and most of that time has spanned the middle of the night for most continental Americans- not exactly much time to stir up a media firestorm.
Secondly, he contracted the disease in Africa, not in the US, like Nina and Amber. Therefore, the CDC doesn't feel the need to quell fear of Americans that ebola is "coming for them" because it's much more common for someone to catch it in Africa, then the US. It can't happen to themhere in the US. It did happen to Nina and Amber in the US, so the CDC had to turn around and do "damage control.".
Wrong. Doesn't make a difference where he contracted it. If you want to lay that argument out be my guest. The fact is he was in West Africa and he was treating ebola patients which makes him a pretty prime target for the disease. So when he started to feel ill a couple of days BEFORE he had a temp of 103 common sense should have told him that hey, might be ebola so I should isolate myself in case it is. Instead he went about his business like he had no worries. Arrogant and stupid IMO.
And yet here we are, still allowing flights from West Africa to continue to come to the US. We are still allowing medical personnel who have been on the front lines of this disease to come back to the US, with no isolation or quarantine prior to returning.
We allowed and continue to allow nurses to care for patients and NOT supply them with complete hazmat suits, decon protocols...now I know that this is presuming. However, from various threads and surveys, nurses do NOT have access to overkill suits and a specialized decon team and protocols. The CDC is recommending, the hospitals are supplying....what, exactly? Instead of the president appointing a grand pooh-pa of public relations, perhaps he can get together haz mat teams equipped with the best of the best as far as super-suits and decon set ups. Perhaps he can direct his researchers to work 100% on not only a vaccine but a treatment for this disease. It is frightening how little regard the government has for what could be an epidemic of epic proportions.
Arrogant and stupid all the way around. What is the government going to do about this? Not a darned thing until such time as it reaches Washington DC.
Wrong. Doesn't make a difference where he contracted it. If you want to lay that argument out be my guest. The fact is he was in West Africa and he was treating ebola patients which makes him a pretty prime target for the disease. So when he started to feel ill a couple of days BEFORE he had a temp of 103 common sense should have told him that hey, might be ebola so I should isolate myself in case it is. Instead he went about his business like he had no worries. Arrogant and stupid IMO.
I agree.
Even moreso when one considers that this physician has had training in protocols, indications, etc that far surpassed Nurses Pham and Vinson. And I've pointed out in other threads how the public responded to a nurses 'Protocol Breach' as it was termed versus the physician's 'unfortunate circumstance.'
This man is just as cavalier as Dr. Synerderman from NBC. The preference to attend social functions or get some food from our restaurant of choice supersedes the need to protect the public. It's very disappointing to read. And even more disappointing to me that the desire to lynch our two fallen compatriots overrules instituting and enforcing a protocol to protect the public at large due to physician status.
Wrong. Doesn't make a difference where he contracted it. If you want to lay that argument out be my guest. The fact is he was in West Africa and he was treating ebola patients which makes him a pretty prime target for the disease.
Oh, but it absolutely does make a difference. The difference isn’t based on science or facts though, it’s all about perception. A person, whether they got infected overseas or stateside are of course both capable of infecting someone else, but the psychology of the two set of circumstances is vastly different.
People in general get all hysterical when someone is actually infected in their own country, it makes it feel that it could happen to them too. So, just like blondie2061h wrote, the authorities face a bigger challenge when attempting to assuage fears when someone gets infected locally, as opposed to when someone gets infected in the geographically distant countries affected by the outbreak.
Most people don’t give a rodent’s patootie that people are infected over there in Africa, and that lack of concern extends to healthcare staff volunteering in Africa as well. Those healthcare workers only seem to register on people’s collective radar when they are flown back to their country to receive care. That’s when the hysteria-laden doomsday prophets start rumbling. Keep them over there, don’t bring it here. Seal of West Africa, stop all flights. We don’t want it here.
If anyone is getting the feeling that I’m angry, you’re correct. This kind of knee-jerk self-centeredness irks me. When people are brave enough and caring enough to volunteer to contain an outbreak in a faraway land, they darn well should receive care in their own country if they need it. Getting this outbreak under control is crucial for everyone who inhabits this planet, not just those who live locally in the stricken part of the world. Be grateful that someone’s up to the task.
If your fear is of sufficient proportions to quench any humanitarian tendencies you would normally have, then at least try to be comforted by the fact that there are enormous scientific advantages to caring for an EBV patient at home, instead of leaving them behind. This is how we can conduct research and learn about the disease process, treatment and cure. The amount of data that can be gathered in first-world facilities with its capabilities, can’t be accomplished in a third-world country. We need to expand on our knowledge base, it’s vital that we do.
I don’t think that the bitter nurse victim mentality is in any way constructive. This is not a time to fuel nurse-physician discord, we need to band together and support each other. We healthcare professionals are facing a huge challenge, having petty squabbles about who receives most criticism serves no purpose at all. It will only make our job harder as well as make us look like petulant children.
The general public is scared or even terrified and medically uneducated. Why the Hades would anyone expect them to give nurses a fair shake? They are behaving exactly as irrationally as I would expect them to. They are being eagerly egged on by the media whose primary agenda isn’t to keep people knowledgeable, calm and rational, but to generate a profit. They do this through sensationalism and scare-mongering. The result is predictable.
Fear not, there will be an impressive amount of vitriol directed at this physician as well. He will be attacked by journalists and every scared senseless, post-brainectomy individual with tweet capabilities out there.
He’s already being attacked by nurses here on AN.
Both the two nurses and this physician have been and are being judged by nurses on this message board. It would be extremely unrealistic to expect any better from the public.
Vent/rant over. (I suspect I may have ruffled a few feathers, I’m not really having a diplomatic day).
Just as I have wished the two infected nurses from Dallas all the best and a speedy recovery, I extend the same heartfelt wish for this physician.
Maybe it would help when volunteers return from Ebola hot zones, to remain at home for a set period of time, just to be safe. For, others who have been in contact with people who tested positive were quarantined for 21 days. Here is the timeline of Dr. Spencer’s travels from the New York Daily News.
Distant versus immediate areas of contraction makes absolutely no difference in my opinion on this matter. The bottom line is that this man is a physician who has received exceptional training regarding working with Ebola patients. While I am not inclined to blindly believe the media in it's representation of events- it has actually been confirmed from interviewing him that he did, in fact, step into the public following experiencing the onset of symptoms. This is cavalier and irresponsible behavior considering that. Much like Dr. Snynderman and her choice to ignore suggested self quarantine.
I get that when faced with a mandatory quarantine following performing humanitarian work in that region- it becomes far less attractive to volunteer and provide assistance when it's needed. I feel it's foolish to continue allowing health care professionals of all walks to self quarantine following potential exposure. How many new suspected or confirmed cases are we going to see before a mandatory quarentine is dispensed. This is in the best interest of the general public.
It's been proven over and over again that people will continue on with their daily lives following exposure. With or without symptoms...
Dr. Spencer followed the Doctors Without Borders protocols for staff returning to the US. He was permitted to go about his life, while checking his temp twice per day and reporting an elevation.
The reason they don't require a person to isolate themselves for 21 days is that there is little to no risk of transmitting the virus in the early stages of the illness. It is only in the later stage -- when the viral load is high and the patient is at their sickest, having diarrhea and vomiting -- that they pose a threat to others. That's why this virus is such a threat to health care workers and other direct caregivers.
Here's an explanation of how this virus spreads, from Dr. Elke Muhlberger, an Ebola expert long intimate with the virus — through more than 20 years of Ebola research that included two pregnancies:
Protocols for staff caring for Ebola patients should be based on fact, not hysteria. Imagine if you were assigned to care for an Ebola patient and were not only expected to isolate yourself for 21 days afterward, but also from Day One of caring for that patient (since you could get infected at any time), and you were expected to do that for absolutely no good reason, and the only real reason was to prevent hysteria from people who don't understand the facts?
I'm all for protecting those at the front lines to the hilt, the maximum, as I've expressed in several threads. Caregivers are the ones at risk, because we have contact with the patient when they are capable of transmitting the virus.
A person infected with Ebola who has a fever, but who isn't spewing bodily fluids and who is feeling well enough to go bowling, is not a public health threat.
Officials know this and keep saying it, but then they keep isolating hundreds of people out of an 'abundance of caution.' What message are they sending?
TheGooch
775 Posts
His actions are sort of arrogant to me. He was feeling unwell a couple of days beforehand and yet he didn't isolate himself. It wasn't until he had a fever of 103 that he sought out medical help. If that was a nurse who had treated the ebola guy in Texas you sure as bet they would have gone after her.
Wait-that's right-they already did that. This guy though has a lot more nerve considering he was over in Africa hobnobbing with a lot more ebola patients.