Help me bring this into the public!

Published

There's a petition on a website to have nurse Kaci Hickox's license revoked for refusing quarantine after working directly with Ebola patients in West africa.

Specializes in critical care.
YOU WILL HAVE DIRECT CONTACT IF SHE BECOMES SICK WHILE OUT AND ABOUT.

What kinda stuff do you do to other people when you go out?!

Up Vote Up Vote ×

I don't understand your question. I don't do anything to anyone. I do touch surfaces however, and use public restrooms, and walk on pavement with shoes that enter my home where my youngest crawls. I do have a toddler that manages to attract every sticky substances known to man and places her hands on any and everything she can reach lol.

***semi-cute moment alert***

I took my toddler to Sprint, and as I'm talking with the associate I look down to notice that she is picking the nose of the toddler next to her. Being a nurse, I immediately grab her hands in an effort to sanitize them and she flicks my lip.:dead:. She found it hysterical. I laugh at it now, but I was highly teed at the store lol.

Up Vote Up Vote ×

I have also inadvertently parked in someone's vomit, walked through someone's cough cloud lol, urinated so hard that I had splash back :yawn:, forgot to wash my hands before eating, bit my fingernails while my hands were dirty, shook some questionable hands, took a sip of the wrong drink, and the list goes on. I live normally when I go out.

Up Vote Up Vote ×

Respectfully, touching surfaces isn't "direct contact".

Up Vote Up Vote ×
Specializes in critical care.
I don't understand your question. I don't do anything to anyone. I do touch surfaces however, and use public restrooms, and walk on pavement with shoes that enter my home where my youngest crawls. I do have a toddler that manages to attract every sticky substances known to man and places her hands on any and everything she can reach lol.

***semi-cute moment alert***

I took my toddler to Sprint, and as I'm talking with the associate I look down to notice that she is picking the nose of the toddler next to her. Being a nurse, I immediately grab her hands in an effort to sanitize them and she flicks my lip.:dead:. She found it hysterical. I laugh at it now, but I was highly teed at the store lol.

*sigh* Allnurses needs a sarcasm font. I was being silly. My initial response was actually far more crude (saliva, sperm, stuff like that) and probably would have been a bit more obvious as sarcasm, but alas, TOS and all. :)

Since I've thrown silliness in twice, I'll go ahead and jump into the ring a little. I'm thankful that I stumbled onto this thread. I've only heard the reports as they've been shared by media. I didn't feel nervous until the nurse who flew to Ohio. That prompted me to design a tin foil hat immediately before conducting a mildly panicked "OMG what will we do?!?!?!" email to my unit manager. Anyway, that panic calmed, but I still felt the threat was real and immediate to all of us in hospitals. After all.... Only nurses have been getting it domestically.

This thread has shared both points of view, and I'm glad for that. Ultimately, the cooler heads are prevailing for me. What is being said here AGAINST the panic truly makes sense. There is no reason for people to be freaking out over an illness that ONE person has in the US, that has had a ZERO mortality rate in the US during this outbreak, and that we clearly understand so well that we know BEFORE a person can transmit it. I think those points (which have been backed up in this thread by credible resources) are the most important to remain focused on.

Now, go get your flu shot so you don't fill up my critical care unit. If you don't, you will be quarantined.

(That was more sarcasm.) :)

Up Vote Up Vote ×

It can be if the virus can remain infectious on surfaces up to 50 days.

Up Vote Up Vote ×
*sigh*

This thread has shared both points of view, and I'm glad for that. Ultimately, the cooler heads are prevailing for me. What is being said here AGAINST the panic truly makes sense. There is no reason for people to be freaking out over an illness that ONE person has in the US, that has had a ZERO mortality rate in the US during this outbreak, and that we clearly understand so well that we know BEFORE a person can transmit it. I think those points (which have been backed up in this thread by credible resources) are the most important to remain focused on.

(That was more sarcasm.) :)

What panicking and freaking out are you referring to?

Holding an opinion that quarantine is reasonable is not to panic or freak out.

Up Vote Up Vote ×
Specializes in critical care.
What panicking and freaking out are you referring to?

Holding an opinion that quarantine is reasonable is not to panic or freak out.

The panic that I feel our media is trying to feed into. If panic buys them ratings, panic, they will induce.

Up Vote Up Vote ×
The panic that I feel our media is trying to feed into. If panic buys them ratings, panic, they will induce.

And that panic is sounding a lot louder than actual science. If I see one more Facebook post from a relative that starts "I heard on the news..." followed by some ridiculous "facts" about Ebola, I'm going to scream. Emotion and paranoia is shutting down their critical thinking. Eh. I used to only have these go rounds with the "vaccines cause autism" crew, and even then only a few times a year. Now I'm exhausted from providing sound scientific resources that they likely won't even read. Love em, they're my family, but choosing to believe a portrait painted by the media as opposed to actual research and information by scientists and doctors who work with this virus? Wishin' don't make it so. Beliefs are just that: beliefs. Opinions, beliefs, we are all entitled to them. Just don't present them as fact.

Up Vote Up Vote ×

What's crazy is I didn't panic about Ebola when I first heard it made its way to shore. I started to become concerned when more cases evolved. And then I had one of those mommy moments when you look at your kids all wide eyed and imagine if your babies were to get sick. That's when I went into research mode. It would be less troubling if I were single and without children, but with kids you view things differently. Being overly cautious becomes your daily routine, because you want to prevent unnecessary injury or harm. I couldn't begin to tell you how many trips I made to the ER with my first child because of uncertainty. I didn't care what WebMD said, I wanted to know for sure.

*My Point*

I look at this situation the same way. It never hurts to play it safe because you could be sorry. With such uncertainty about a fairly deadly disease, why not be careful. I gave up my right to peace, silence, freedom, and partying the moment I had children. Now I do things with their interests in mind FIRST. It is my duty as a parent. So as a caregiver I expect the same duty from Kaci, not just in Africa but in the States as well.

Unfortunately, fear is forever and ALWAYS going to be apart of human nature. Remember we panicked about Y2K, 2012, Mad Cow, Swine Flu, etc. It is something we just do. Thumbing your nose up and having media wars does not help simmer those fears. It compounds it. Sometimes you have to look at the bigger picture and take one for team. I know Santa isn't real, but if it makes my child feel comfortable at night knowing Santa is coming on Christmas, my husband and I will gladly keep that charade going however ridiculous it makes us look.

Up Vote Up Vote ×
BTW, one is not put into isolation after receiving suspect CXR until they can get the PPD.
Off the subject, & we do see eye to eye on the topic of quarantine for Ebola-exposed nurse. As a TB case manager, I isolated plenty of people with CXRs consistent with TB prior to having a positive PPD. We even isolated plenty of people with negative PPDs who had signs/symptoms. PPDs, ironically, often come back negative at the peak of active TB b/c their immune systems are too weak from fighting TB to bother to respond to a silly little PPD.
Up Vote Up Vote ×
It can be if the virus can remain infectious on surfaces up to 50 days.

I'm guessing that your repeated references to the virus remaining infectious "up to 50 days" is a reference to the UK DSTL study. That study found that one strain of Ebola could remain infectious as long as 50 days on glass (only) when stored at 4 degrees C (39 degrees F). That's one strain (only), on glass (only), in close to freezing temperatures, only. Other studies have found that, in other (more common) conditions, the virus remains active only a few hours to a few days.

For their 2010 paper, ‘The survival of filoviruses in liquids, on solid substrates and in a dynamic aerosol’, the UK’s Defence Science and Technology Laboratory (DSTL) tested two particular filoviruses on a variety of surfaces.

These were the Lake Victoria marburgvirus (Marv), and Zaire ebolavirus (Zebov).

Each was placed into guinea pig tissue samples and tested for their ability to survive in different liquids and on different surfaces at different temperatures, over a 50-day period.

When stored at 4° (39°F), by day 26, viruses from three of the samples were successfully extracted; Zebov on the glass sample, and Marv on both glass and plastic.

By day 50, the only sample from which the virus could be recovered was the Zebov from tissue on glass.

Ebola can last on surfaces for almost TWO months, tests reveal | Daily Mail Online

Ebola is killed with hospital-grade disinfectants (such as household bleach). Ebola on dry surfaces, such as doorknobs and countertops, can survive for several hours; however, virus in body fluids (such as blood) can survive up to several days at room temperature.

http://www.cdc.gov/vhf/ebola/transmission/qas.html

One reason Ebola is not as contagious as some viruses is that the virus is relatively fragile. That’s in contrast to, say, smallpox, a virus that can remain infectious for long periods even when outside of a host. But Ebola virus left alone, outside a host, on a surface, will begin to disintegrate rather quickly.

"Ebola is an ‘enveloped’ virus, which means it is surrounded by a lipid membrane. That membrane protects it from its surroundings, but even more importantly is essential to its ability to fuse with and enter living cells. And it’s pretty poor protection, as it is vulnerable to light, heat, dryness, and almost any detergent or alcohol you care to name. The virus in saliva on a counter top will be inactive in minutes," Kinzer said by email.

How long will it remain infectious? Hard to say, exactly, though there have been scientific studies on just that question.

In one laboratory experiment, scientists couldn’t recover Ebola virus that had contaminated a surface kept at room temperature. In another study, Ebola virus kept at cold temperature was recovered from plastic and glass surfaces after more than three weeks.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/to-your-health/wp/2014/10/03/can-you-catch-ebola-from-an-infected-blanket/

Studies done in Ebola Treatment Units in Africa, CDC spokeswoman Abbigail Tumpey says, show the virus can live on surfaces for a few hours at most.

"Ebola is a vicious virus inside the body, but it dies very quickly on surfaces," she said. "It' s not a hardy virus. It's a very wimpy virus."

Ebola is easily destroyed outside of the body, experts say. UV light, heat and exposure to oxygen all deactivate the virus over time.

CDC Director Dr. Thomas Frieden said that while it's theoretically possible for someone to catch Ebola by touching a surface that an infected patient sneezed on, for example, past outbreaks have shown that direct contact with a patient's bodily fluids is the way the virus is spread.

http://www.cnn.com/2014/10/01/health/ebola-us-reader-questions/

Ebola can also live on surfaces for a few hours, and in blood outside of the body, for up to a few days. So there is a risk of getting Ebola by touching a contaminated surface. But you'd then need to put your hands in your mouth or eyes. This is believed to be a less common mode of transmission. Again, most people seem to get infected through direct contact with bodily fluids. http://www.vox.com/2014/10/9/6905347/too-afraid-to-ask-about-ebola-virus-outbreak-symptoms 　

Up Vote Up Vote ×
+ Join the Discussion