Doctors Without Borders Physician Tests Possitive for Ebola In New York City

[herring_RN]

New York tests doctor who was in West Africa for Ebola

By Ellen Wulfhorst

NEW YORK Thu Oct 23, 2014

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...

http://uk.reuters.com/article/2014/10/23/uk-health-ebola-newyork-idUKKCN0IC2KE20141023

[AdamantiteEnigma]

If the viral load reaches peak capacity, producing symptoms, and signaling the ability to transmit, while out in the public - there are only more potential exposures and new cases. This is a fact as well.

Self monitoring is failing as a model. Something must be done. This is not hysteria, it's common sense.

[adpiRN]

Why would they take him to Bellevue?? That's the worst hospital in Manhattan.

I sense a disaster waiting to happen....

[Been there,done that, ASN, RN]

Should have been zero people he came in contact with.

Does it take a Czar to figure out that.. any one returning from caring for Ebola victims are quarantined for the 21 day incubation period?

[MissyWrite]

If the viral load reaches peak capacity, producing symptoms, and signaling the ability to transmit, while out in the public - there are only more potential exposures and new cases. This is a fact as well.

Self monitoring is failing as a model. Something must be done. This is not hysteria, it's common sense.

People experiencing hysteria don't recognize it as hysteria -- they see it as 'common sense.'

Viral load is not at it's 'peak' early in the process, when someone first develops a fever. Add to that there is no means of transmission -- no body fluids being emitted. (Sweat and saliva do not become infectious until late in the illness).

"Ebola virus patients are really sick, and that’s also something you should keep in mind. They do not walk around happily and all of a sudden they start to throw up, that is not the case. It’s a deadly disease, and deadly means deadly, so you are ill and you won’t be able to walk around and infect people so easily.

You can’t really get out of bed by the time your fluids would be contagious?

Exactly."

From interview with Dr. Elke Muhlberger, an Ebola expert long intimate with the virus, an associate professor of microbiology at Boston University and director of the Biomolecule Production Core at the National Emerging Infectious Diseases Laboratories at Boston University.

Reality Check: How People Catch Ebola, And How They Don’t | CommonHealth

Other Ebola experts say the same thing. And real-life experience concerning the spread of this virus have proved it.

[MissyWrite]

I'm dismayed that health professionals are getting their info on Ebola from embarrassingly low-level sources such as the NY Daily News, (like the infographic posted above).

If this doctor was well enough to run three miles, go out for dinner, and go bowling, he was not contagious to casual contacts. That's what SCIENCE tells us. Remember science?

[macawake, MSN]

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.

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?

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.

I'm dismayed that health professionals are getting their info on Ebola from embarrassingly low-level sources such as the NY Daily News, (like the infographic posted above).

If this doctor was well enough to run three miles, go out for dinner, and go bowling, he was not contagious to casual contacts. That's what SCIENCE tells us. Remember science?

Thank you for being a voice of reason.

The index patient in Nigeria boarded a flight in Monrovia, Liberia when he was already in a more advanced stage/higher viral load of the disease and symptomatic (vomiting), yet he didn’t infect anyone in that crowded and confined space. He did however subsequently infect healthcare professionals in Lagos, Nigeria. (Since he denied contact with any Ebola infected individuals, he was initially suspected of having malaria, not Ebola. The precautions taken by staff reflected that, I’m sure that that didn’t help matters much).

I don’t think it can be argued that self-monitoring is failing when there as far as I know, have been no cases of a healthcare worker/foreign aid workers infecting another person before their own early symptoms led them to seek care. There has been an abundance of fearful speculation and predictions of doomsday scenarios, but so far that’s it.

This isn’t exactly the first time ever organizations like MSF and the Red Cross have been deployed to areas with Ebola outbreaks (or a host of other infectious disease outbreaks). Ebola has been around since 1976.

A while back I had the privilege to get firsthand impressions and information from a MSF healthcare professional returning from Monrovia, Liberia. We (this person and I as well as a few others) sat around a table, had a cup of coffee and talked about this person’s experiences. This was approximately two weeks after the person returned from Liberia. At no time was I even the least bit apprehensive about this.

Fortunately this person didn’t get infected during the time s/he worked in Liberia. Even if s/he had been though, I wouldn’t have worried one bit that I’d get infected too. Not in an early stage of the disease, over a cup of coffee.

Decisions should in my opinion be based on science, fact and logic, not fear.

[MissyWrite]

Decisions should in my opinion be based on science, fact and logic, not fear.

And thank you for also being a voice of reason.

Let's get a grip on reality. A person infected with Ebola is NOT a threat to casual contacts early in the disease process, such as when he has a fever but is feeling well enough to go for a run, go out for dinner and go bowling, like Dr. Spencer was. Science and real-world experience tells us this. Only later, when too ill to do anything, and when spewing bodily fluids, is there a risk of transmission. The people who are at risk are care givers, nurses, doctors and other health care workers -- those who come into contact with the patient when their viral load is high and it is being shed in vomit, diarrhea, blood. This has been the actual, verifiable case throughout this outbreak.

Yes, many have become infected...but they were all caregivers (health workers and family members) during the time the patient was actually able to transmit the virus. If those who rode on trains, planes and buses with them were infected, we would have see MANY more infected.

Once again, people are blaming the victim -- the person who had the heart and the cajones to step up to the plate and provide care. I don't blame the public, because many are ignorant of the facts. Media is whipping them into hysteria to make a buck. But health professionals should do better, shouldn't they?

I've read many comments in various news publications this morning, and the overwhelming response is to say that Dr. Spencer 'should have known better.' He DID know better -- he knew he wasn't a risk to anyone.

[RNsRWe, ASN, RN]

And yet we have people in full freak-out because Amber Vinson, with a very low-grade fever and no other symptoms, got on an airplane. Go figure.

[hopebewild]

Do the healthcare workers in Africa that get sick, get interrogated about the breach in protocol that "obviously happened" (quote by cdc in cnn article on Pham) by either the CDC or WHO?

[MissyWrite]

Yeah, Nina Pham is Ebola-free and will be discharged TODAY! Unfortunately, her sweet dog, Bentley, will remain in quarantine until Nov. 1. Luckily, Nina didn't take public transportation and escaped much of the wrath of the public, and was 'only' blamed for her apparent 'breach of protocol' (until it was discovered that the protocol was useless).

Let's hope Bentley isn't shunned by society when he's released.

Will he or won't he?

[chadrn65]

I'm dismayed that health professionals are getting their info on Ebola from embarrassingly low-level sources such as the NY Daily News, (like the infographic posted above).

If this doctor was well enough to run three miles, go out for dinner, and go bowling, he was not contagious to casual contacts. That's what SCIENCE tells us. Remember science?

I have been reading the same information as others on various credible websites, as well as listening to NPR. I understand regarding the low risk of transmission in the early stage versus the latter stage. I merely wanted to show a timeline of Dr. Spencer's travels, which was the same info I posted earlier from CNN, only I was looking for a picture with dates, which was consistent with CNN. I am well aware that some consider the NY Daily news a tabloid rag, I never said it was a credible resource. Sorry the picture offended you enough to make a snarky comment.

Re-read what I wrote above the picture, I merely wanted to know why volunteers, who are working in the hot zones, are not quarantined as others from those countries when they return to the states.

[MissyWrite]

I merely wanted to show a timeline of Dr. Spencer’s travels...

My apologies, chadrn65.