Thank you for a great article. So now I think you should consider a weekly blog. You are a born communicator, and right now, we trust your insight. I am a cardiac nurse in Minneapolis. We have a huge population of African folks here, many worried people to say the least.
That is ridiculous. I appreciate you’re work as a nurse but in no way shape or form are you qualified or studied enough to know anything about the finer points of Ebola. Stop fear mongering and let experts who study the disease spread information. All you’ve done here is assert a piece based off of no research you have studied or put together to get traffic to you’re blog. Shitty shitty shitty.
You are a nurse dude, stick to you’re job, let the doctors deal with the serious diseases.
The doctors aren’t the ones treating temhe disease, the nurses are the ones treating the patient. The Dr is in and out of the room in 5 minutes, I’m here 12 hours, I’m the one cleaning the body fluids and giving the drugs, I wrote this so that people would here OUR side of it, and not just the higher ups, and the reporters. You have completely and utterly missed the point. Name one thing I’ve said that could cause harm? What’s wrong with a little fear? Fear is a han instinct to keep us safe, were scared of the flu so we get the vaccine, were scared of STDs so we practice safe sex, were scared of getting ejected from the car so we wear seat belts. So if I’m am truly.being overboard, what’s going to happen? People are going to wash their hands more? They’re going to be safer in public places? Heaven forbid people have the info to take care of themselves….. by the way you commented on the wrong post..
The doctors are the ones treating the disease, the nurses are the ones treating the patient. The Dr is in and out of the room in 5 minutes, I’m here 12 hours, I’m the one cleaning the body fluids and giving the drugs, I wrote this so that people would here OUR side of it, and not just
http://www.dshs.state.tx.us/news/releases/20141012.aspx. Looks like even with American staff, in American hospitals with all the right PPE and precautions, a nurse caught it. Patient zero was a direct case from the source of the outbreak, the first domestic victim is a nurse, one of us. Symantics and statistics aside, the whole point of my article is now validated.
BDSFALCON- I dont know what bubble you live in or where you get your food from, but Ebola is a VERY serious condition. I am a Social Worker who conducts home visits- up to 6 or so a day, I stop at restaurants along the way to grab a snack on the run. In the interim, I touch handles and door knobs, receive my food from someone who may have drug their forearm across their forehead to wipe the sweat or across an itchy nose, picks up the bag to put my yogurt in, drags it across the counter where hundreds, if not thousands have done who knows what before they came in there and touched the counter, then I receive my potentially germ-saturated bag as I run out to my car and munch during my travels. Oh, I forgot about when I used the restroom. I usually use my sleve to open the door, but the person before me may or may not have washed thier hands, and I’m touching everything as I DO wash mine and as I exit the restroom, my shoulder touches the door…probably where thousands have sneezed and touched, many who do not wash their hands and I carry whatever I picked up, past the crowd of people waiting to order, that are blocking the door, and i carry whatever….to my car and into the next Patient’s home where they want a hug, kiss on the cheek, handshake… whatever. Do I now tell these patients, “sorry, I cant shake your hand”, or do I go in with gloves and possibly offend them…. these are difficult things to do, but it may now be part of my ‘exit routine’, sadly.
So, next time you touch anything that has not JUST come out of a cryopack (sp), or a vacuum sealed bag, please remember, you potential Eboal or flu carrier, you- remember this article which for thousands of people who read this article and have benefitted from the information. I dont want to be infected due to your ignorance.
Oh, and the silverware that is wrapped in the napkin at your favorite restaurant…. yes, remember that and the wait staff who brings your food and has their thumb on the top of the plate, whose thumb just touched an item of food you are about to consume. And those fresh fruits and vegetables at the market….. healthy??….. it depends who has touched it just before you purchased it or sampled a grape while in the store, as I’ve seen many do.
For me, this article was excellent in revealing some truths that the CDC dont and WONT talk about because they have the same mind-set… “Don’t give all of the information, because we dont want to start a panic!”. This has not caused me to “panic”, it cause me to think differently and has educated me to the point that I CAN diffuse some panic in my patients as well as to educate them.
BDSFALCON- just remember…. Ebola started with ONE person, now they are many, and are being flown (by our wonderful(???) government,… to a city near you… and your family.
Just a friendly note: “Your” implies ownership, “You’re” is a conjugation for “You are”. The above sentence “…stick to you’re job…” is incorrect. One other friendly note, the “experts” that are supposed to share their infinite knowledge are the same people that gave their blessing for the nurse from Atlanta to fly and did not feel it necessary to lend their support to a facility that was ill prepared for this unknown (to them) virus. So in defense of the author, maybe you (BDSFALCON) should likewise stick to your job, whatever it is, and stop trolling. DTOLAR thank you for this article, it does help quite a bit to have complicated subjects broken down for easy understanding. As a critical care nurse facing having to possibly deal with this if it spreads this far, it helps to have all the information we can get. While the physicians give orders, we all know who does the actual work, Nurses.
I AM ALSO A NURSE AND APPRECIATE YOUR ARTICLE. there IS SO MUCH INFORMATION FLOATING AROUND IT IS HARD TO TELL FACT FROM FICTION. THANKS FOR YOUR INSIGHT. JOB WELL DONE
Very informative, I took the time to read it and I learned a lot I didn’t know.THANK YOU LEEANN YOUR HEPFUL, DONT ALLOW NEGATIVE PEOPLE PICK YOUR OPINION APART.WE R ALL INTITLED TO SAY WHAT WE WANT. BUT YOU DO EXPLAIN IT EASIER.THEN WHAT EVERYONE HEART IN THE NEWS.THANK YOU FOR YOUR TIME , AND CARING HEART TO EDUCATION OTHERS.♡♡♡
Thank you for the good read. Just a quick thing, I’m sure you already know this but. “The virus may not be airborne, but the droplets are.”
Response: This statement is confusing. First of all Virus is only called virus when it’s active in cell, so technically the term Virion is used to describe virus outside of infected cell. These virion exist within the droplet that (you) are referring to, which can then become aerosolized through cough, sneeze, etc. But even if they are aerosolize, it still does not make them “airborne”. With the current strain of Ebolavirion, even when suspended in laboratory setting to micro droplet, no airbone infection through respiratory tract have been documented according to WHO (www.who.int, 2010). So It could confuse reader into thinking through droplet transmission the virion somehow become “airborne” pathogen. Also the citation for semen lasting for 91 days is from the virus can persist in semen for at least 91 days (Rowe et al, 1999).
I think it would be awesome if you post something about herd immunization and how it works. Many individual have difficulty understanding such topic and understanding the limitation of single inoculation from a predicted vaccine.
The way viruses like the flu get airborne is due to their size, when someone sneezes, the really tiny droplets get expelled and evaporate almost immediately, this leaves the individual virions, coated in salts and other goodies, suspended in the air. They are small enough and light enough to stay floating. The Ebola strain is much larger and cannot fit into the tinier droplets. When it does it is usually destroyed in the evaporation process, so it tends to stay in the larger droplets that fall onto surfaces before they can evaporate. The slower evaporation keeps the virus intact….does that help? The initial aerosolization gets it mobile, but it has to get onto a surface like a skin or clothing to really travel
CDC state airborne transmission are generally particle residue (<5 um in size). But Ebolavirion size range is 974 to 1,086 nm which converts to around 1 micrometer (Kiley et al. 1982). Does not not mean it's small enough? In Johnson et al. 1995 article, titled, Lethal experimental infections of rhesus monkeys by aerosolized Ebola virus, they did suspense the droplet in a breathable medium in a laboratory setting.
Can you clarify the classification of airborne pathogen?
I think I read that study…I’ll have to go back and look again. The droplets are small enough to float around, but a 5 micron drop can only hold 2 or 3 individual strands, which in general does not constitute a large enough viral load to cause infection. A virologist who contacted me said that in droplets that small, due to the almost instant evaporation rate, the virus is so big its destroyed. Viruses like the flu are a tenth the size of Ebola. Look up the virology down under article on droplet size, IRS really good
Jason,
Please dont be so critical. This article was distributed to many people who really dont care about the in’s and out’s of the molecular details of a ‘virus’ or the other technical things we cant see. The point here is well received and understood from someone who has no education, to those of us who are educated, but have not gone beyond basic “DNA” because that class was REQUIRED for our degree. I have a Masters Degree in Social Work and I am on a team with a Dr and RN’s. To pick apart the works of such an informative article is ridiculous. I wish you well in becoming the one who is going to save the world, but please leave the education of the rest of us to those who know what is important to divulge, and HOW to deliver it. This article was well understood… enough that I feel confident enough to educate others when needed.
Please keep you technical jargon for your Professors and leave the education of those who can use it, to those who can educate the larger society with what we NEED to know to keep ourselves as safe as possible against the things the government has decided we dont need to know.
I appreciate your advanced knowledge in biology, but it helped me NONE in understanding Ebola, how it is transmitted, and the s/s of this killer. Stick to your microscope, Jason. Quit badgering those who are helping the larger society. Your knowledge is impressive (kudos to Jason!!), but your basic common sense is lacking.
Very excellent article. I am a nurse myself. I hope those who reads this will learn something instead of criticizing. The doctors spend few minutes with their patients but they also can spread the virus from patient to patient because some of them dont even wash their hands or clean their stethoscope between patients. Keep up the good we nurses are behind you. And good luck with your graduate studies.
Thanks for you Insights and you Compassion I have been watching the CDC Site for the past month and people are frightened at the lack of true answers.
We the People Really Want some factual Answers. I have 38 years in Nursing and I have never seen Such Wanton Disregard for the Safety of this Country. National Nurses United has tried and tried, again and again to tell you that we are not prepared to handle an epidemic of this proportion in our Country. We are not ready. We don’t have the Equipment, Mobilization and many have not been in-serviced on Adequate Precautions.
What about our First Responders, our Housekeepers, our Dietary and Lab departments. Every photo you see is with People in Hazmat Gear cleaning up the Mess???. You all need to get honest with us because We are the First line Responders. If we do not shut down these borders to incoming flights, sit tight for a while and care for our Country you are not going to have a Country that is Habitable.
Thanks so much for your in depth explanation in a very unique way. As a person without any experience in the medical field, only as a patient, it’s difficult to understand most of the current information that’s coming out. I’ve learned a lot of information from your article.
I thought your Ebola article was excellent, poo on those who think you spoke out of your scope of practice. There was not a place for me to comment on your article so I had to comment here. Thank you for taking the time to educate us.
Like she said in this article and so many other nurses have agreed in their comments….it is the nurses who have the bulk of the time with the patient and even they say they are not getting enough adequate info to prevent cross contamination. Then there are the lab techs and nutrition personnel and housekeeping personnel who are in contact ….oh and the docs. the docs who are sooo poorly aware of contact and aerosolized precautions.. Nurses see it every day.
This was an excellent article and full of very valuable information . Thank you for posting the article. Sorry for the rude comments some people are making.
I was married to an Army Surgeon and a Physician for 20 years. He didn’t want to listen to my predictions on infectious disease but he finally did. The studies were done in the 70’s an unfortunately the US dropped the ball. Did not want to hear about a problem during AIDS’s this is not HIV and the band is now playing on and on.
Thanks for the info. I am a lay person, but I am also a self proclaimed germaphobe with common sense. The article was indeed helpful, made plain sense and now my fears are verified. We do indeed have every right to be afraid. At the same time, I refuse to stop living. I would love to know, as I’m sure most people do, exactly every place the first victim went upon reentry to the US. And every person that visited those same places should be quarantined separately. I’m afraid it’s too late for that kind of precaution, though. Had the people in charge done that to begin with, we wouldn’t be in this mess. Well actually, they should have shut down air traffic from the infected areas in W. Africa to begin with and THEN we wouldn’t be in this predicament! I can’t help but wonder if this was done on purpose as a conspiracy. I mean, really!?
Nurses United 165,000 strong just came out with an outstanding Article and a stance a physician from Canada came out and said there are airborne components.
This being the INTRO topic – I would like to say you have done a good thing with your wordpress blog. I appreciate that you are one persone sharing your perspective which for the most part is what blogging is all about. If you are new to blogging you need to understand many people can be very hateful in the comment section of a popular post – these are the internet trolls. I hope you continue to maintain this blog because as far as I am concerned you are the only blogging nurse that I have read. Speak your mind – this is not a trial 😀 Thank you for sharing! I appreciate what you have brought to this global discussion. tTt
You did a great job on this article!!! The generally population are not aware of half the crap we are exposed to, but some feel they need to criticize us because “we are just the nurse”.
Behind every good doctor is a great nurse! Today’s medical world is a team based practice. A doctor runs their coarse of treatment and plan of care for a patient primarily based on the clinical picture & the nursing staffs assessment or information they provide to the them. Most doctors will tell you once they trust a Nurse he/she becomes a major asset into YOUR CARE as a patient. So before anyone slams the nurse…. be aware you will spend more time with a nurse then a doctor if you become ill…. AND the nurse is the one who double & triple checks things, advocates for you & are the center of YOUR care! We are not “Experts” in anything— but your well being & looking out for you as a patient, to receive holistic care- believed it or not NURSES, physical therapy, respiratory therapy, lab, pharmacy occupational therapy…. every type of service in a medical center is part of your care team & every doctor relies on each profession to help him/her to treat you successfully. I blessed to be a nurse & have medical knowledge, gives me a bonus when I’m sitting in the same waiting room you are during flu season & this Ebola outbreak across America.
Thank you for your insight, your humor, your foresight and knowledge regarding a sickness which could very well be the next “Black Plague” of the 21st century. Thank you for putting a face on all the people this affects, or will affect, and thank you most of all for your candor and humanity in the face of something akin to pure evil disguised as Zombie Flu. My education credentials allow me to put the initials E.E. at the end of my name, and as a fellow scientist and human being, I appreciate your efforts to quantify something as horrific as the word and the disease know now to the world as “Ebola”. Please do not be discouraged by negative responses to your piece – you are trying to do a service to all of us, and I for one would appreciate it if you would continue your efforts to help the rest of humanity deal with and survive what could literally be the fight for our very lives…….
Gratitude to you and all those others who are making every effort to protect and serve us during these trying times.
Cynthia D. Belton
FROM THE GENERAL – Russel Honore – On Ebola Respone
My Lessons Learned – From training for and responding to epidemics / pandemic / bio threats
I spent 6 of my last 10 years in the Army working directly with the inter-agency on preparing our Government for potential pandemic, bio-terrorism, weapons of mass destruction disasters. The following are some of the lessons learned from those 6 years as a General Officer working these issues from the White House National Security Council Committee meetings,Top Off Exercises, as Commanding General Joint Force Headquarters Homeland Security, or as First Army Commanding General.
I have authored two books (Preparedness and Leadership In the New Normal) that speak to many issues of leadership in these arenas. And I have served as an expert on CNN and major industry forums throughout the Nation and the world. I am currently adjunct Professor for Emory and LSU Schools of Public Health (I go down once or twice a year and give a lecture on disaster management). The following are few of the lessons learned from my experience.
1. Poor Reporting,,,,, first incident from medical facility, misdiagnosis, protect patience privacy – HIPAA
2. No Hospital/Town wants to be the first to say they have what they believe is a contagious patient – the consequences on local economy is significant.
I was in the Pentagon when we dealing with Anthrax and the Bird Flu. The issue of Quarantine is like a hot potato. No one wants to hold it as their responsibility to make the decision. Public Health Law is executed at the local level, the local Public Health officer makes maybe $150.000 a year, the local Hospital CEO makes maybe $2 Million. Who do you think the Mayor will listen to? All of this caused delays and confusion. The Federal Government needs to make the scenario and responsibility clear, – like with Terrorism. When terrorism happens, the FBI is in charge. We continue to fail at getting this done with Pandemic Type events. The medical community follow protocols; they need to understand and follow the damn Law.
3. Risk Communication is poorly understood by elected civilian leadership. Political types don’t want to report in fear of being wrong; they will only start to report, in most cases, as the Media starts asking questions . The politicians still don’t understand, because of the aforementioned above, the first reports are normally wrong .
4. The Media is normally trying to play catch up to lying /misinformed officials who don’t even know who the Public Health Officer is. We used to conduct annual exercises prior to 911 that drilled all of government, but after 911, most of the focus switched to the terrorism fight, and the Health care folks went back to focusing on National Health care ,
5. Public Health whose purpose is to prevent Illness/death by disease and keep us healthy and away from hospitals – their funds have been cut by 50% percent in last 10 years – the funds supported training and capability development in our nation’s hospitals
6. The Medical community fails to train like they going to fight (a war). When they do train, they don’t train until they have already failed, and so they never get to the point where they can ask the state, federal government for help.
7. Thanks to the Media particularly CNN for staying on this story and
providing facts. ” This democracy only works when you shine the light of the media on it.”
I don’t work for the Government, or a stinking think tank. I am a recognized, independent, Disaster Management Subject Matter Expert and, foremost, a global humanitarian.
8 I have also been to Cuba 3 times, on a exchange program to discuss disaster management, Hurricanes, and the Emergency Health Deployment of the Cuban Henry Reeves Brigade (3,000 Doctors, Nurses and staff ready to deploy around the world to assist after volcanoes, earthquakes and pandemics. The U S ARMY should have an expeditionary Medical Brigade with the CDC/USAID for just such deployments on an hour’s notice – just like the Cubans.
See Something, Smell Something, Say/Do Something!
—
Best Regards,
Russel L. Honore’
LTG, U.S. Army (Retired)
Share · October
Well said. Thank you for your direct approach! you clarified a quite a few things for me. A big Thank You to all the nurses and health care workers who are on the front line of our health! Prayers to all.
I just love how you state “in tropical Africa, they eat bats…” (Insert Full sarcasm here)1st of all please don’t get your biased info from Wikipedia, rather look for EBP ones. Unless you have seen it, don’t generalize the statement here, making you sound more of an ignorant nurse rather than an informative one…and yes am a CCU nurse, and yeah I got my facts straight!
http://Www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19323614. Saying tropical Africans eat bushmeat, which includes fruit bats, the primary reservoir for Ebola, is like satin Americans eat McDonalds. Many don’t, I personally ear no fast food. But plenty do, and it doesn’t take a research team to know that happy meals are a common commodity in the US.
A cranky, overworked, and bitter CCU nurse at that. Take a chill pill. It wasn’t intended as a generalization – you’re taking an article that is informative to the general public way too seriously. Let’s see your write-up. I’m sure you can do better?
I’m a nurse here in CA…. Your article was good and very informative… You are so right!!! We need to wake up and realize how diseases are transmitted… Hospitals aren’t the better places to hang out in either… We as nurse follow the Isolation protocols, wash our hands from patient to patient… But yet do the patients and family members coming in to visit???? First thing to do about Ebola is learn all you can about it… Let’s not let FEAR spread this virus!!! We need to rethink our travel plans for awhile… International travel needs to be looked at more closely for a time…. Let’s be smart folks…
A Doctor and I were discussing this situation. He said, maybe were we should quarantine the affected people on a Medical Ship like the Ship Hope that was done many years ago.
Bob
This is a real eye opener. why is it we have to hear the facts from those who serve on the front lines. Why can’t the doctors hiding behind the glass wallsof safety tell the truth. my concern is for the soldiers being deployed into a unknown danger without any hope of protecting themselves. Perhaps the president and the CDC head should go to Africa with them. By the way they wont need all the protective gear as from what tells us there is nothing to worry about.
Thanks for a well written, much needed piece.
From this Health Professional you certainly know what you are talking about, and I would love to see this published as a paper! Thank you for the layman’s version my fellow nurse 🙂
Thank you for this article. Airborne infections are indeed in the droplets and yes, I would expect they are projected quite a distance from the patient. It is a mindset that the general public has that ‘contact with body fluids’ means we really need to be close to or touch the individual who is sick, not so. As you so well have written, and commentators have expounded the surfaces we touch are also contaminants. My interest is in hearing how Nigeria can claim the Ebola epidemic there has ended, saw that in a news article this morning. Hopefully, this is true, but what does that mean for us? All the school children and the people who sat on the plane that carried nurse Vinson are still at risk. Time to quarantine all international travelers for 28 days. I like the idea of using the boat as the quarantine center, this idea of only allowing travelers to enter through 5 ports is like using a sieve to hold water.
dtolar 
Thank you for a great article. So now I think you should consider a weekly blog. You are a born communicator, and right now, we trust your insight. I am a cardiac nurse in Minneapolis. We have a huge population of African folks here, many worried people to say the least.
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You may want to move this over to the Ebola post, you put it in my intro 🙂
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That is ridiculous. I appreciate you’re work as a nurse but in no way shape or form are you qualified or studied enough to know anything about the finer points of Ebola. Stop fear mongering and let experts who study the disease spread information. All you’ve done here is assert a piece based off of no research you have studied or put together to get traffic to you’re blog. Shitty shitty shitty.
You are a nurse dude, stick to you’re job, let the doctors deal with the serious diseases.
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The doctors aren’t the ones treating temhe disease, the nurses are the ones treating the patient. The Dr is in and out of the room in 5 minutes, I’m here 12 hours, I’m the one cleaning the body fluids and giving the drugs, I wrote this so that people would here OUR side of it, and not just the higher ups, and the reporters. You have completely and utterly missed the point. Name one thing I’ve said that could cause harm? What’s wrong with a little fear? Fear is a han instinct to keep us safe, were scared of the flu so we get the vaccine, were scared of STDs so we practice safe sex, were scared of getting ejected from the car so we wear seat belts. So if I’m am truly.being overboard, what’s going to happen? People are going to wash their hands more? They’re going to be safer in public places? Heaven forbid people have the info to take care of themselves….. by the way you commented on the wrong post..
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The doctors are the ones treating the disease, the nurses are the ones treating the patient. The Dr is in and out of the room in 5 minutes, I’m here 12 hours, I’m the one cleaning the body fluids and giving the drugs, I wrote this so that people would here OUR side of it, and not just
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http://www.dshs.state.tx.us/news/releases/20141012.aspx. Looks like even with American staff, in American hospitals with all the right PPE and precautions, a nurse caught it. Patient zero was a direct case from the source of the outbreak, the first domestic victim is a nurse, one of us. Symantics and statistics aside, the whole point of my article is now validated.
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BDSFALCON- I dont know what bubble you live in or where you get your food from, but Ebola is a VERY serious condition. I am a Social Worker who conducts home visits- up to 6 or so a day, I stop at restaurants along the way to grab a snack on the run. In the interim, I touch handles and door knobs, receive my food from someone who may have drug their forearm across their forehead to wipe the sweat or across an itchy nose, picks up the bag to put my yogurt in, drags it across the counter where hundreds, if not thousands have done who knows what before they came in there and touched the counter, then I receive my potentially germ-saturated bag as I run out to my car and munch during my travels. Oh, I forgot about when I used the restroom. I usually use my sleve to open the door, but the person before me may or may not have washed thier hands, and I’m touching everything as I DO wash mine and as I exit the restroom, my shoulder touches the door…probably where thousands have sneezed and touched, many who do not wash their hands and I carry whatever I picked up, past the crowd of people waiting to order, that are blocking the door, and i carry whatever….to my car and into the next Patient’s home where they want a hug, kiss on the cheek, handshake… whatever. Do I now tell these patients, “sorry, I cant shake your hand”, or do I go in with gloves and possibly offend them…. these are difficult things to do, but it may now be part of my ‘exit routine’, sadly.
So, next time you touch anything that has not JUST come out of a cryopack (sp), or a vacuum sealed bag, please remember, you potential Eboal or flu carrier, you- remember this article which for thousands of people who read this article and have benefitted from the information. I dont want to be infected due to your ignorance.
Oh, and the silverware that is wrapped in the napkin at your favorite restaurant…. yes, remember that and the wait staff who brings your food and has their thumb on the top of the plate, whose thumb just touched an item of food you are about to consume. And those fresh fruits and vegetables at the market….. healthy??….. it depends who has touched it just before you purchased it or sampled a grape while in the store, as I’ve seen many do.
For me, this article was excellent in revealing some truths that the CDC dont and WONT talk about because they have the same mind-set… “Don’t give all of the information, because we dont want to start a panic!”. This has not caused me to “panic”, it cause me to think differently and has educated me to the point that I CAN diffuse some panic in my patients as well as to educate them.
BDSFALCON- just remember…. Ebola started with ONE person, now they are many, and are being flown (by our wonderful(???) government,… to a city near you… and your family.
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Just a friendly note: “Your” implies ownership, “You’re” is a conjugation for “You are”. The above sentence “…stick to you’re job…” is incorrect. One other friendly note, the “experts” that are supposed to share their infinite knowledge are the same people that gave their blessing for the nurse from Atlanta to fly and did not feel it necessary to lend their support to a facility that was ill prepared for this unknown (to them) virus. So in defense of the author, maybe you (BDSFALCON) should likewise stick to your job, whatever it is, and stop trolling. DTOLAR thank you for this article, it does help quite a bit to have complicated subjects broken down for easy understanding. As a critical care nurse facing having to possibly deal with this if it spreads this far, it helps to have all the information we can get. While the physicians give orders, we all know who does the actual work, Nurses.
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thanks for an excellent article! I am a nurse and was thinking a lot of the same thoughts you confirmed. Thanks for your hard work!!!
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I AM ALSO A NURSE AND APPRECIATE YOUR ARTICLE. there IS SO MUCH INFORMATION FLOATING AROUND IT IS HARD TO TELL FACT FROM FICTION. THANKS FOR YOUR INSIGHT. JOB WELL DONE
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Very informative, I took the time to read it and I learned a lot I didn’t know.THANK YOU LEEANN YOUR HEPFUL, DONT ALLOW NEGATIVE PEOPLE PICK YOUR OPINION APART.WE R ALL INTITLED TO SAY WHAT WE WANT. BUT YOU DO EXPLAIN IT EASIER.THEN WHAT EVERYONE HEART IN THE NEWS.THANK YOU FOR YOUR TIME , AND CARING HEART TO EDUCATION OTHERS.♡♡♡
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>>>>>>>>>>>> EXCELLENT! <<<<<<<<<<<<
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…..OPPPPSSSS……WAS AIMING FOR THE NURSES PROSPECTIVE AND COMMENTED ON YOUR INTRO INSTEAD.
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I noticed 🙂
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Nice ! Thanks!
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Thank you for the good read. Just a quick thing, I’m sure you already know this but. “The virus may not be airborne, but the droplets are.”
Response: This statement is confusing. First of all Virus is only called virus when it’s active in cell, so technically the term Virion is used to describe virus outside of infected cell. These virion exist within the droplet that (you) are referring to, which can then become aerosolized through cough, sneeze, etc. But even if they are aerosolize, it still does not make them “airborne”. With the current strain of Ebolavirion, even when suspended in laboratory setting to micro droplet, no airbone infection through respiratory tract have been documented according to WHO (www.who.int, 2010). So It could confuse reader into thinking through droplet transmission the virion somehow become “airborne” pathogen. Also the citation for semen lasting for 91 days is from the virus can persist in semen for at least 91 days (Rowe et al, 1999).
I think it would be awesome if you post something about herd immunization and how it works. Many individual have difficulty understanding such topic and understanding the limitation of single inoculation from a predicted vaccine.
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The way viruses like the flu get airborne is due to their size, when someone sneezes, the really tiny droplets get expelled and evaporate almost immediately, this leaves the individual virions, coated in salts and other goodies, suspended in the air. They are small enough and light enough to stay floating. The Ebola strain is much larger and cannot fit into the tinier droplets. When it does it is usually destroyed in the evaporation process, so it tends to stay in the larger droplets that fall onto surfaces before they can evaporate. The slower evaporation keeps the virus intact….does that help? The initial aerosolization gets it mobile, but it has to get onto a surface like a skin or clothing to really travel
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CDC state airborne transmission are generally particle residue (<5 um in size). But Ebolavirion size range is 974 to 1,086 nm which converts to around 1 micrometer (Kiley et al. 1982). Does not not mean it's small enough? In Johnson et al. 1995 article, titled, Lethal experimental infections of rhesus monkeys by aerosolized Ebola virus, they did suspense the droplet in a breathable medium in a laboratory setting.
Can you clarify the classification of airborne pathogen?
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I think I read that study…I’ll have to go back and look again. The droplets are small enough to float around, but a 5 micron drop can only hold 2 or 3 individual strands, which in general does not constitute a large enough viral load to cause infection. A virologist who contacted me said that in droplets that small, due to the almost instant evaporation rate, the virus is so big its destroyed. Viruses like the flu are a tenth the size of Ebola. Look up the virology down under article on droplet size, IRS really good
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Its really* damn autocorrecr
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Jason,
Please dont be so critical. This article was distributed to many people who really dont care about the in’s and out’s of the molecular details of a ‘virus’ or the other technical things we cant see. The point here is well received and understood from someone who has no education, to those of us who are educated, but have not gone beyond basic “DNA” because that class was REQUIRED for our degree. I have a Masters Degree in Social Work and I am on a team with a Dr and RN’s. To pick apart the works of such an informative article is ridiculous. I wish you well in becoming the one who is going to save the world, but please leave the education of the rest of us to those who know what is important to divulge, and HOW to deliver it. This article was well understood… enough that I feel confident enough to educate others when needed.
Please keep you technical jargon for your Professors and leave the education of those who can use it, to those who can educate the larger society with what we NEED to know to keep ourselves as safe as possible against the things the government has decided we dont need to know.
I appreciate your advanced knowledge in biology, but it helped me NONE in understanding Ebola, how it is transmitted, and the s/s of this killer. Stick to your microscope, Jason. Quit badgering those who are helping the larger society. Your knowledge is impressive (kudos to Jason!!), but your basic common sense is lacking.
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Very excellent article. I am a nurse myself. I hope those who reads this will learn something instead of criticizing. The doctors spend few minutes with their patients but they also can spread the virus from patient to patient because some of them dont even wash their hands or clean their stethoscope between patients. Keep up the good we nurses are behind you. And good luck with your graduate studies.
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Thanks for you Insights and you Compassion I have been watching the CDC Site for the past month and people are frightened at the lack of true answers.
We the People Really Want some factual Answers. I have 38 years in Nursing and I have never seen Such Wanton Disregard for the Safety of this Country. National Nurses United has tried and tried, again and again to tell you that we are not prepared to handle an epidemic of this proportion in our Country. We are not ready. We don’t have the Equipment, Mobilization and many have not been in-serviced on Adequate Precautions.
What about our First Responders, our Housekeepers, our Dietary and Lab departments. Every photo you see is with People in Hazmat Gear cleaning up the Mess???. You all need to get honest with us because We are the First line Responders. If we do not shut down these borders to incoming flights, sit tight for a while and care for our Country you are not going to have a Country that is Habitable.
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Thanks so much for your in depth explanation in a very unique way. As a person without any experience in the medical field, only as a patient, it’s difficult to understand most of the current information that’s coming out. I’ve learned a lot of information from your article.
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I thought your Ebola article was excellent, poo on those who think you spoke out of your scope of practice. There was not a place for me to comment on your article so I had to comment here. Thank you for taking the time to educate us.
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We have a big problem. The US Army put this out and were told to by the CDC to dumb it down.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2785288/It-s-literally-Katie-bar-door-Marine-Corps-general-warns-mass-migration-US-Ebola-epidemic-hits-Central-America.html.
PS I have a Masters in Biology and my BSN in Nursing.
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And here is the other Truth given to Canada and the US Army
They are blaming Nurses for breaking Protocol, wrong protocol
http://www.phac-aspc.gc.ca/lab-bio/res/psds-ftss/ebola-eng.php
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Like she said in this article and so many other nurses have agreed in their comments….it is the nurses who have the bulk of the time with the patient and even they say they are not getting enough adequate info to prevent cross contamination. Then there are the lab techs and nutrition personnel and housekeeping personnel who are in contact ….oh and the docs. the docs who are sooo poorly aware of contact and aerosolized precautions.. Nurses see it every day.
This was an excellent article and full of very valuable information . Thank you for posting the article. Sorry for the rude comments some people are making.
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I understand, people just seem to forget that research and text books are written for nurse Nancy at the NCLEX hospital…not the real world.
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I was married to an Army Surgeon and a Physician for 20 years. He didn’t want to listen to my predictions on infectious disease but he finally did. The studies were done in the 70’s an unfortunately the US dropped the ball. Did not want to hear about a problem during AIDS’s this is not HIV and the band is now playing on and on.
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Thanks for the info. I am a lay person, but I am also a self proclaimed germaphobe with common sense. The article was indeed helpful, made plain sense and now my fears are verified. We do indeed have every right to be afraid. At the same time, I refuse to stop living. I would love to know, as I’m sure most people do, exactly every place the first victim went upon reentry to the US. And every person that visited those same places should be quarantined separately. I’m afraid it’s too late for that kind of precaution, though. Had the people in charge done that to begin with, we wouldn’t be in this mess. Well actually, they should have shut down air traffic from the infected areas in W. Africa to begin with and THEN we wouldn’t be in this predicament! I can’t help but wonder if this was done on purpose as a conspiracy. I mean, really!?
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National Nurses United
http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/post-nation/wp/2014/10/12/national-nurses-united-says-most-hospitals-are-not-prepared-for-ebola/
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Holy crap! Small world, Dennis Tolar.
Why not just pray the virus away?
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Thank you- more informative than a day of mainstream media
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Nurses United 165,000 strong just came out with an outstanding Article and a stance a physician from Canada came out and said there are airborne components.
Click to access 1014_Ebola_Letter_Obama.pdf
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This being the INTRO topic – I would like to say you have done a good thing with your wordpress blog. I appreciate that you are one persone sharing your perspective which for the most part is what blogging is all about. If you are new to blogging you need to understand many people can be very hateful in the comment section of a popular post – these are the internet trolls. I hope you continue to maintain this blog because as far as I am concerned you are the only blogging nurse that I have read. Speak your mind – this is not a trial 😀 Thank you for sharing! I appreciate what you have brought to this global discussion. tTt
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You did a great job on this article!!! The generally population are not aware of half the crap we are exposed to, but some feel they need to criticize us because “we are just the nurse”.
Behind every good doctor is a great nurse! Today’s medical world is a team based practice. A doctor runs their coarse of treatment and plan of care for a patient primarily based on the clinical picture & the nursing staffs assessment or information they provide to the them. Most doctors will tell you once they trust a Nurse he/she becomes a major asset into YOUR CARE as a patient. So before anyone slams the nurse…. be aware you will spend more time with a nurse then a doctor if you become ill…. AND the nurse is the one who double & triple checks things, advocates for you & are the center of YOUR care! We are not “Experts” in anything— but your well being & looking out for you as a patient, to receive holistic care- believed it or not NURSES, physical therapy, respiratory therapy, lab, pharmacy occupational therapy…. every type of service in a medical center is part of your care team & every doctor relies on each profession to help him/her to treat you successfully. I blessed to be a nurse & have medical knowledge, gives me a bonus when I’m sitting in the same waiting room you are during flu season & this Ebola outbreak across America.
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No need for hateful comments. I too am blessed to be an RN
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Thank you for your insight, your humor, your foresight and knowledge regarding a sickness which could very well be the next “Black Plague” of the 21st century. Thank you for putting a face on all the people this affects, or will affect, and thank you most of all for your candor and humanity in the face of something akin to pure evil disguised as Zombie Flu. My education credentials allow me to put the initials E.E. at the end of my name, and as a fellow scientist and human being, I appreciate your efforts to quantify something as horrific as the word and the disease know now to the world as “Ebola”. Please do not be discouraged by negative responses to your piece – you are trying to do a service to all of us, and I for one would appreciate it if you would continue your efforts to help the rest of humanity deal with and survive what could literally be the fight for our very lives…….
Gratitude to you and all those others who are making every effort to protect and serve us during these trying times.
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Cynthia D. Belton
FROM THE GENERAL – Russel Honore – On Ebola Respone
My Lessons Learned – From training for and responding to epidemics / pandemic / bio threats
I spent 6 of my last 10 years in the Army working directly with the inter-agency on preparing our Government for potential pandemic, bio-terrorism, weapons of mass destruction disasters. The following are some of the lessons learned from those 6 years as a General Officer working these issues from the White House National Security Council Committee meetings,Top Off Exercises, as Commanding General Joint Force Headquarters Homeland Security, or as First Army Commanding General.
I have authored two books (Preparedness and Leadership In the New Normal) that speak to many issues of leadership in these arenas. And I have served as an expert on CNN and major industry forums throughout the Nation and the world. I am currently adjunct Professor for Emory and LSU Schools of Public Health (I go down once or twice a year and give a lecture on disaster management). The following are few of the lessons learned from my experience.
1. Poor Reporting,,,,, first incident from medical facility, misdiagnosis, protect patience privacy – HIPAA
2. No Hospital/Town wants to be the first to say they have what they believe is a contagious patient – the consequences on local economy is significant.
I was in the Pentagon when we dealing with Anthrax and the Bird Flu. The issue of Quarantine is like a hot potato. No one wants to hold it as their responsibility to make the decision. Public Health Law is executed at the local level, the local Public Health officer makes maybe $150.000 a year, the local Hospital CEO makes maybe $2 Million. Who do you think the Mayor will listen to? All of this caused delays and confusion. The Federal Government needs to make the scenario and responsibility clear, – like with Terrorism. When terrorism happens, the FBI is in charge. We continue to fail at getting this done with Pandemic Type events. The medical community follow protocols; they need to understand and follow the damn Law.
3. Risk Communication is poorly understood by elected civilian leadership. Political types don’t want to report in fear of being wrong; they will only start to report, in most cases, as the Media starts asking questions . The politicians still don’t understand, because of the aforementioned above, the first reports are normally wrong .
4. The Media is normally trying to play catch up to lying /misinformed officials who don’t even know who the Public Health Officer is. We used to conduct annual exercises prior to 911 that drilled all of government, but after 911, most of the focus switched to the terrorism fight, and the Health care folks went back to focusing on National Health care ,
5. Public Health whose purpose is to prevent Illness/death by disease and keep us healthy and away from hospitals – their funds have been cut by 50% percent in last 10 years – the funds supported training and capability development in our nation’s hospitals
6. The Medical community fails to train like they going to fight (a war). When they do train, they don’t train until they have already failed, and so they never get to the point where they can ask the state, federal government for help.
7. Thanks to the Media particularly CNN for staying on this story and
providing facts. ” This democracy only works when you shine the light of the media on it.”
I don’t work for the Government, or a stinking think tank. I am a recognized, independent, Disaster Management Subject Matter Expert and, foremost, a global humanitarian.
8 I have also been to Cuba 3 times, on a exchange program to discuss disaster management, Hurricanes, and the Emergency Health Deployment of the Cuban Henry Reeves Brigade (3,000 Doctors, Nurses and staff ready to deploy around the world to assist after volcanoes, earthquakes and pandemics. The U S ARMY should have an expeditionary Medical Brigade with the CDC/USAID for just such deployments on an hour’s notice – just like the Cubans.
See Something, Smell Something, Say/Do Something!
—
Best Regards,
Russel L. Honore’
LTG, U.S. Army (Retired)
Share · October
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Well said. Thank you for your direct approach! you clarified a quite a few things for me. A big Thank You to all the nurses and health care workers who are on the front line of our health! Prayers to all.
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I just love how you state “in tropical Africa, they eat bats…” (Insert Full sarcasm here)1st of all please don’t get your biased info from Wikipedia, rather look for EBP ones. Unless you have seen it, don’t generalize the statement here, making you sound more of an ignorant nurse rather than an informative one…and yes am a CCU nurse, and yeah I got my facts straight!
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http://Www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19323614. Saying tropical Africans eat bushmeat, which includes fruit bats, the primary reservoir for Ebola, is like satin Americans eat McDonalds. Many don’t, I personally ear no fast food. But plenty do, and it doesn’t take a research team to know that happy meals are a common commodity in the US.
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Mmmm one done >5 years ago…awesome 😒
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@JB please take several seats…entitled to my opinion!!!
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A cranky, overworked, and bitter CCU nurse at that. Take a chill pill. It wasn’t intended as a generalization – you’re taking an article that is informative to the general public way too seriously. Let’s see your write-up. I’m sure you can do better?
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I’m a nurse here in CA…. Your article was good and very informative… You are so right!!! We need to wake up and realize how diseases are transmitted… Hospitals aren’t the better places to hang out in either… We as nurse follow the Isolation protocols, wash our hands from patient to patient… But yet do the patients and family members coming in to visit???? First thing to do about Ebola is learn all you can about it… Let’s not let FEAR spread this virus!!! We need to rethink our travel plans for awhile… International travel needs to be looked at more closely for a time…. Let’s be smart folks…
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A Doctor and I were discussing this situation. He said, maybe were we should quarantine the affected people on a Medical Ship like the Ship Hope that was done many years ago.
Bob
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This is a real eye opener. why is it we have to hear the facts from those who serve on the front lines. Why can’t the doctors hiding behind the glass wallsof safety tell the truth. my concern is for the soldiers being deployed into a unknown danger without any hope of protecting themselves. Perhaps the president and the CDC head should go to Africa with them. By the way they wont need all the protective gear as from what tells us there is nothing to worry about.
Thanks for a well written, much needed piece.
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From this Health Professional you certainly know what you are talking about, and I would love to see this published as a paper! Thank you for the layman’s version my fellow nurse 🙂
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Thank you for this article. Airborne infections are indeed in the droplets and yes, I would expect they are projected quite a distance from the patient. It is a mindset that the general public has that ‘contact with body fluids’ means we really need to be close to or touch the individual who is sick, not so. As you so well have written, and commentators have expounded the surfaces we touch are also contaminants. My interest is in hearing how Nigeria can claim the Ebola epidemic there has ended, saw that in a news article this morning. Hopefully, this is true, but what does that mean for us? All the school children and the people who sat on the plane that carried nurse Vinson are still at risk. Time to quarantine all international travelers for 28 days. I like the idea of using the boat as the quarantine center, this idea of only allowing travelers to enter through 5 ports is like using a sieve to hold water.
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I have read so many articles about the blogger lovers but this piece of writing is genuinely a pleasant
paragraph, keep it up.
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