So a few months ago the country was enthralled with the idea of a few patients, infected with the Ebola virus, coming to the United States. Up until this point, we had been safe from Ebola due to the fact that bats can’t fly over the Atlantic. Some people were completely indifferent, while others had seen Outbreak one too many times. Most were a healthy mix, somewhere in between, but what bothered me the most was both the lack of education and the poor information that was spreading more virulently than the virus could ever hope to.
First, I want to stress that I am a nurse, not a virologist, and hopefully throughout my post you will see that I am not pretending to be one. I have a Bachelor’s in Nursing and am currently a graduate student. I have worked extensively with Infectious Disease Specialists. I have been exposed to almost every infectious disease known to the modern world. I have taken courses in Biology, Microbiology, Anatomy, Physiology, Pathophysiology, Advanced Pathophysiology, Pharmacology, and an assortment of others. However, I am not and will not pretend to be an expert, just an experienced professional. When it comes to an epidemic of any sort, my first focus is on the patient, protecting and healing them, my second focus is on protecting the community. I don’t care about which strain does what, or what we can do with in lab. As a nurse, I concern myself with the current patient and future possible patients. I feel the first thing we should examine is Ebola itself. It is foreign to the US, both literally and figuratively. What it does to people and how it harmonizes with nature are both things that most westerners have little concept of. It is a virus, not a bacteria. This means that it is not its own organism. It is actually much smaller and basic than you can imagine. It is nothing more than a few pieces of DNA/RNA and some proteins. No cell wall, no cytoplasm, no metabolic functions. This is both their advantage and their downfall. Viruses require a host. For this example I will use the HIV virus. HIV gets into the human body and invades the host’s white blood cells, T4 cells to be exact but I won’t get that involved. The proteins help get the virus into the cell and those few small sequences of DNA/RNA write themselves into the host DNA/RNA. Now instead of the white blood cell attacking invaders, it is nothing more than an HIV factory. All of its metabolic functions are redirected at producing more of the virus, which pours out of the white blood cell like a sieve until eventually the host cell dies. This is why HIV infected patients have poor immune systems. The virus re-writes the DNA of the host cells. This is not something we can stop. New viruses are pouring out of the white blood cells at a rate of millions a day. We cannot filter them out. We cannot “kill” a little chunk of DNA and we don’t know enough about the human genome to correct the DNA sequences. This is why a lot of viral infections like HIV, Herpes, and Hepatitis are life long infections. HIV invades the white blood cells, Herpes invade the nerve roots, and Hepatitis invades the liver.
Now that we have a better grasp of viruses, we will focus on Ebola a bit more. In tropical Africa, Ebola naturally lives in bats. It is nice to the bats and doesn’t cause them many issues. It is rumored that there are many viruses humans carry our entire lives and have no idea because they show zero symptoms. Therefore, they have never been studied. If this sounds crazy, just remember that it was in recent years the we discovered there was a virus behind cervical cancer. A virus that men can carry and spread without ever knowing they have it. Where the problem arises is that in tropical Africa, people like to eat bats. Sometimes they get infected with Ebola and it spreads. This process is called Zoonosis and can be true of bacteria or viruses. Racoons carry Rabies, Armadillos carry Leprosy, Birds carry the Flu, Bats carry Ebola.
When I said Westerners don’t really understand Ebola, the primary aspect that I am talking about is the patient. We don’t ever see what Ebola does. Our media is too censored, we hear how many died, and see people in haz-mat suits. Speaking of suits, we’ve all seen the pictures. Rubber gloves are adequate for AIDS and hepatitis, a simple mask (N95) stops Tuberculosis, but this requires space suits, just keep that in mind when you think its no big deal. So here is what happens when you catch Ebola, I figure you’re getting bored with reading right about now, so I’ll spice it up. First the virus gets into your system, I’ll elaborate on that later. Then, it hangs out for a few days, even up to 21, growing, multiplying at a rate of millions a day, and guess what, you’re infectious. Now at this point it would pretty much require a straight blood to blood interaction so the only real threat here is for IV drug users who share needles. Just like with the flu or hand foot and mouth disease, you can be spreading it to others before you show a symptom*(apparently not many see the *, so please read the elaboration at the bottom). Remember, nurse mind set, protect the community. At first it’s not bad, little nausea, some sweating, diarrhea, much like a stomach bug. But then the virus really starts to build up in your liver and adrenal glands, after it has saturated your blood cells, the lining of your vessel, your skin, and bones. Hepatocellular necrosis occurs, which is fancy term for your liver starts to decompose.Your liver is what regulates blood clotting. This causes your blood either clot up and turn to jelly in your veins, stay liquid and bleed profusely, or a combo of both. The adrenal glands then do the same, causing your blood pressure to drop. This requires lots of IV fluids to keep your circulating volume up. At the same time inflammatory cytokines are released which causes vascular leakage. Cells don’t do a good job of holding things together so it all becomes a bloody goop. Anywhere in your body that blood vessels are shallow, like your nose, ears, gums, throat, GI tract, urethra, vagina, rectum, all start oozing fluids and bleeding because the tissues that normally keep it contained are disintegrating. So now you bleed from every orifice, including your eyeballs. Every time someone or something touches you, your tissue gets damaged which further the cycle, so a shot in the arm can turn into a massive blood blister. Those who survive are left with massive scarring. Since the adrenals cannot keep your blood pressure up, and you are losing blood and fluids, we have to put IV fluids in to keep you out of hypovolemic shock. This in turn reduces your blood concentration, lowering your oxygen carrying capacity, which causes your heart to race. So you lay in bed, oozing fluids from everywhere, all while feeling like you just ran a marathon, with bloody diarrhea, oh and did I mention pain? Lots and lots of pain, but you can’t have any pain medicine because your liver and kidneys have failed. This why it pains me when I see this outbreak ONLY has a 50% death rate, when in Africa it is up to 90%…ONLY 50%. That is literally worse than cancer, and people are blowing it off. Imagine if cancer was infectious, and you lived in a country with zero cancer, and someone thought it would be a good idea to fly a few people in. I think there would be a different attitude.
The biggest part of the discussion is how Ebola is spread. I will say two things on the topic, no, it is not airborne, and yes, basic hygiene plays a HUGE factor. But while on the topic of whether it is or is not airborne, the definition of an airborne contagion is one that can freely float in the air, survive lengths of time, and infect someone else. VERY few things fit in this category, most have been eradicated, Small Pox, Tuberculosis, Measles. Things that are also NOT airborne, are the flu and the cold. For the flu, you have to come into direct contact with the patients body fluids. How then, do you explain why people catch it and have no idea how. Well for one, people can spread it before they show symptoms, just like Ebola, and one other HUGE factor…droplets….let that word really sink in. The virus may not be airborne, but the droplets are. I’m going to digress for a second and get back to HIV and Hepatitis, while I let droplets dwell in your mind. Everyone knows that HIV and Hepatitis are spread by blood contact, and sexual fluids, I don’t mean a drop of blood on the skin, or even a mucous membrane, it has to get INSIDE of you. This is why only gloves are required. HIV and Hepatitis are not found in urine, stool (Some forms of hepatitis are, but you have to eat the stool to get infected) saliva, sweat, tears, or mucous. This is where some viruses are different. The flu gets into your mucous and other secretions, Ebola tends to stay in the blood, but remember, every one of your bodily fluids are full of blood now. So a person with the flu sneezes, and now millions of little droplets (remember those guys?) shoot out of their nose at nearly mach 1, all across the room, same for a cough, all it takes is a little microscopic droplet to land in your eye, nose, mouth, or the unlikely scenario of an open wound, and you’ve now been infected, because you came in CONTACT with their bodily fluids. I see the word contact thrown around a lot, but most people think of mass amounts of contact with blood, but what they don’t realize is that contact also includes microscopic mucous and saliva droplets, each one chock full of Ebola. Bacteria can survive for long periods of time without a host because they are their own organism. They can feed on just about anything and be happy. Viruses lifespan without a host is much shorter. Their goal is to infect, replicate, and spread, if they cant replicate, they die. Measles only lives 2 hours. But Ebola, depending on what data you look at, can survive for several days.
So with all this information, lets have some role play, so that you can see exactly what this means, to a nurse, in the real world. Imagine it as a cheesy PSA or lifetime movie. You go to see your doctor because its that time of year, you need some blood drawn and refills of your blood pressure med. You sit patiently in the waiting room, thumbing a magazine while your 2-year-old plays with her toys. Like all two year olds, she touches everything, and everything goes in her mouth, toys, pens, her own fingers. She is a 22 lb drool factory and you love her to pieces. You see the doctor, get your goodies, and go home. A week later your angel starts vomiting blood and within 3 days she dies because her heart raced so fast it finally gave up while trying to maintain a blood pressure. Her eyes are blood red and demonic, her skin falls off in sheets. What you don’t know is that 3 days before your visit, someone thought they had the flu. It is October you see and they sneezed while thumbing through that very same magazine you thumbed through. The same thumb you grabbed her pacifier out of your purse with in the waiting room. The people caring for Ebola patients wear space suits, and burn the bodies, yet it still spreads. Here in America, we have much better protocols, and much better hygiene. So if it spreads, it will be contained much better. Still, it spreads prior to symptoms and survives will outside the body, just like the flu. Despite vaccines and good hand washing, thousands still get the flu every year. But while the flu kills 1-2% of its victims, Ebola kills 50% on a good day, and spreads the same way. So please, do not write it off as hype. It is a real thing and it is here.
The case in Dallas has been confirmed. The patient had contact with five children and adolescents prior to admission. Those five kids attend four of the largest schools in Dallas. One sneeze and we could already have thousands of people, who don’t know it yet, infected.
Thank you for reading. Please feel free to comment.
Symptoms* I have had a lot of comments in regards to this. I picked my words carefully, but I never imagined getting thousands of views an hour, or my article getting picked apart, but I will try to elaborate now. I said spread, the virus, I did not say you were contagious. What I meant by this, was the summation of two concepts. To fully explain everything I could write a book, but this is meant to be short and sweet. The first concept is that of a fomite. We have established that the virus can survive for an unspecified amount of time outside the host, and we have established that sneezing/coughing is a perfectly logical method of transmission. So if patient A is infectious/contagious, they sneeze on patient B, but then patient B goes home and picks up their sisters 1 6 month old, who rubs his face, and licks all over your shoulder, he could very well have just orally consumed large quantities of the virus, therefore become patient C. Patient B never got sick, the virus never entered their system, yet they are responsible for spreading the virus to someone else. This is why the 5 exposed kids are so important, there may only be a 2% chance or whatever that they’ll get sick, but if they went to school, and each rubbed up against 500 kids in the hallways, you now have 2500 exposed kids, 50 of which will statistically become infected, 25 of which will probably die. No I do not have a source for the 2%, that is just an EXAMPLE number used to represent the relatively low likelihood of contracting the virus if exposed, granted the R0 factor of R2 is correct. Remember, heal the patient, PROTECT the community. The second concept of this is defining “symptom”. Lets assume it means anything other than your baseline condition. That means the first signs of being contagious, are also the more mild symptoms, sneezy, achy, nausea, flu-like symptoms. So who is going to wake up, feel a little under the weather, and think, crap, I have Ebola, better get quarantined, no, THAT’S how you start fear mongering and mass panic. Again, flu season is upon us, the initial stages of Ebola are like the flu, and its human nature to be in denial, so many people, if infected, would hope its just the flu and wait it out, they are not showing symptoms indicative of Ebola, but they ARE symptomatic of something, and therefore, by the CDC definition, would be contagious. Its also normal procedure for people to be symptomatic BEFORE seeking medical care, so technically, everyone will be contagious, BEFORE knowing they have Ebola. But like I said before, I omitted this lengthy explanation because I didn’t feel it was necessary for the point of the article.
ADDENDUM: Sadly, I feel the need to point out that the title of this blog is “Ebola, A Nurse’s Perspective”, not “A Nurse’s Guide to Surviving the Apocalypse”, or “How to Become an Ebola Expert in 15 minutes”. It could just as well be “Hamburgers, A Chef’s Perspective” and no one would be hounding me over grammar, a misplaced comma, or wanting citations as to why I say it should be on the grill 5 minutes per side of 7 minutes per side. The point is those things are irrelevant to the goal of the article, this is MY perspective (a particular attitude toward or way of regarding something; a point of view.) I don’t have to prove anything, the point of my article is to take what the uneducated (in a medical sense) journalists say, what the talking heads on TV say, and then let you know what the people say who are on the front lines. That’s like discrediting your grandads account of what happened when he stormed Normandy beach, because its not what your history teacher told you. Have I experienced Ebola first hand? Nope, have I experienced a WHOLE lot of other things that the majority of the population has not? You bet your ass I have, and I felt the need to take the time to hopefully help other people out a little. So please keep that in mind, I’m not perfect, but my experiences are my experiences, and I wanted to share them with you, to let you inside the head of a nurse for a minute.
dtolar 
The article from an information optics on virus is well put together. It STOPS here.
The authors descriptions and sensational depictions attempting to demonstrate how one could contract the disease are grossly, GROSSLY exaggerated to be just that sensational. She clearly is ignorant of the true nature of fomites. Case in example the unfortunate mother flipping through a magazine and transmitting Ebola to her unsuspecting child. Theoretically possible but ANY well read and educated allied health professional in ID would not entertain such sensational depictions of a possibility ( case in point: your rebuttals and examples). It is more likely for that child to get attacked by a wild lion, really.
Get a hold of the imagination. Great article on pathogenesis but very disappointed in you (a health professional with extensive ID experience??) when you being in your sensational use of examples.
Final comment: you are a good writer, easy to follow, nice rhythm to your thoughts..
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Well I thank you for the praises, but in regards to the fomite transmission, I don’t think its THAT exageratted. But also keep in mind that I had to put this into terms that the average person could relate to and understand the concept behind it.
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Don’t you see the problem with exaggerating medical facts to “put this into terms that the average person could relate to and understand the concept behind?” If you have to resort to exaggeration, you are a poor writer. I think your “perspective” is very misguided, and I hope that your graduate school takes the time to speak to you about medical ethics. You have ZERO experience with Ebola…and while you mention that in passing, you should not be holding out as if you have any experience, other than taking some courses on infectious disease. Also, to say TB is eradicated is bogus. To essentially say it’s no big deal because it is a global issue is also bogus. Following that line of thinking, Ebola is still LESS OF A BIG DEAL than TB then, because of the numbers. The thought of you teaching/treating people/patients is scary.
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dtolar, where can I find primary source information for how the virus operates in the body? I am currently doing a research project on ebola, as an undergrad, and cannot find information on where and how the virus builds up within the body/ what it does internally. Signs and symptoms, sure; transmission, sure; public health response, sure. I want to know what happens to an individual who has ebola beyond “you fight it or die”.
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Natalie, here is one article that is interesting….http://www.npr.org/blogs/goatsandsoda/2014/08/26/342451672/how-ebola-kills-you
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Natalie, they have some good articles…http://news.sciencemag.org/health/2014/08/what-does-ebola-actually-do
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http://commonhealth.wbur.org/2014/10/reality-check-how-catch-ebola
here is a great article, without exaggerated facts, by a medical professional with over 20 years of experience directly with Ebola, that is easy to read.
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I think Peter stated things very well. I found the article easy to read, the pathogenesis was very interesting, discussing what a virus is and what it does. However, there were so many exaggerations and inaccuracies that I think in the end it does more harm. You go into great detail talking about the hemorrhagic effects of Ebola…..But, Ebola is no longer being referred to a Ebola Hemorrhagic disease, but now Ebola virus. This is because the actual hemorrhaging part is present in only 18% of patients and therefore can not define the disease. You state the effects of bleeding from every orifice as not a possibility but as inevitable. You state “Those who survive are left with massive scaring”. What are you referring to here? This again is not the case. It would be untrue to state the person can not have any pain medication. As you are aware we can help their oxygen carrying capacity by transfusing blood products, not just fluids. You then go on to state it bothers you that people say “this outbreak ONLY has a 50% death rate, when in Africa it is up to 90%”. This outbreak which has killed more than all other Ebola outbreaks combined has held at a 50% death rate the entire time… Further we had no real way of saying what the survival rate would be in the US but knew it had to be better than that. They simply do not have all of the medications, blood products, people, equipment to be able to treat people in Africa compared to the US. The other major factor that effects survival rate here Vs. Africa, is that people seeking treatment in Africa are usually at the peak of the illness. It is much harder to treat at that point. They do not want to risk going to an Ebola ridden hospital for early symptoms which could be anything. In the US, people are seeking treatment at the first signs of illness and using different medications and plasma has proven to be very helpful in not only surviving, but in recovering in a short amount of time.
While explaining airborne well, you are inaccurate in your droplet understanding. The flu and common cold are droplet spread. This means they attach to the small droplets in the airway and can spread through a cough and sneeze to those within 3-6 feet. The virus can not “fly” further like an airborne virus could. This means you can simply breath in the flu and not know that you did. The flu and colds thrive in the airway. People with the flu are contagious before they have symptoms. You assert this is the same as Ebola. This is not the same as ebola at all. Ebola does not spread until the ill person has symptoms. Ebola (as you mention), does not thrive in the airway, that is not where it lives. Ebola lacks the genetic design to attach to the small particles in the airway. Sneezing and coughing are not early signs of ebola. That is not to say the person may not sneeze or cough, but with the cold and the flu, these are symptoms. Ebola is called Contact borne, because it lacks the ability to attach to those small particles. In the early stages when the viral load is not high, there would be even less ebola present in the large droplets in the airway. Now if someone with ebola spats or coughs on you to the point you are aware you have been hit by their saliva, that saliva may contain ebola and you could contract it. However, if you are merely in the room when a pt. sneezes or coughs, those tiny droplets that can travel several feet-like the flu- do not contain ebola. It can not, “fly”. You can not simply breath it in from several feet away. This is not splitting hairs, this is a big difference from how the flu is spread. Microscopic droplets are simply not “chuck full of Ebola”.
Your very dramatic case with the 2yr old is so very unlikely I think that type of hyperbole could only increase hysteria. There are simply way to many scenarios that are more likely to play out that a person would not spend a second of worry about. At his point in time we know that Duncan did not pass Ebola on to any family members that were in the home with him, the initial Doctor and nurse that cared for him on his first ER visit did not contract it, the Officer who was in his home for 30 minutes without protective gear did not get it, and the ambulance workers who transported him did not contract it. This really does not spread easily. In Africa where people are laid out in tents shoulder to shoulder, vomiting and bleeding and having severe diarrhea, the dead being handled by family members, the ill being hidden by family, this is spread quickly. In the US, it does not have the same capability. We can talk doomsday scenarios where hospitals are over capacity, but we have put so many measures in place. If I had to choose a disease to fight-Ebola versus the Flu, I would of course pick the flu. If I had to tell you my concerns regarding my family, I would say, the flu hands down.
Your school scenario is also beyond what we could call exaggeration. It could not happen. “One sneeze and we could already have thousands, who don’t know it yet, infected.” No, this could not happen. And, a child asymptomatic, rubbing against 500 kids in the hallway could not expose all of them. At any rate the family was quarantined, which I agree with. I do not agree with quarantining healthy health care workers who have treated ebola patients. Tracking and self monitoring works amazingly. Nigeria is a great example of that, and in the US we have done well with this. No person in the US has contracted Ebola that did not directly care for a pt. suffering from ebola. We at this time can not make the leap that this is out there in the general population. People know if they have been exposed, people are now being monitored from any of the hot zones, even if they had no contact. So early symptoms will be reported. However, if the very first symptoms are not reported and you perhaps go bowling feeling a bit fatigued you really have to start puking on people, or spreading other fluids. You are not going to spew ebola forth.
Again, you gave some good information and I am sorry if my critique is overly critical. I am sure there are things you do not agree with that I have stated, or feel we should be more worried that how I come across. I think we need to respect this deadly disease and have a healthy fear of it. But, to much hysteria has been spread. The media loves this kind of stuff. I have sat on this for a number of weeks now, and decided I needed to comment.
Jenni
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I continue to be amazed to realize how hard it is for people to accept that the nurse is a man! Oh my, how stereotypes do hang on. Unfortunately, failure to recognize that fact argues against the validity of anything the respondent may say …
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Mona, I read professional, never spotted a name or gender reference. My husband is a nurse. To me,this was gender neutral. The good thing about science, you don’t have to believe in it, for it to be real.
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As an unqualified, non-medical, non-professional, but simply as a reasonably informed reader who is interested in the subject being discussed, I want to thank you for adding the voice of reason to the earlier statements I had heard in the article to which you refer. Exactly as with the case of the horrendous matters concerning the terrorist group known as ISIS or ISIL, the actual actions and events surrounding the current Ebola Crisis are already frightening enough for laymen such as myself without some “expert” adding to my concerns anything that is more sensationalistic than the reliably reported facts already are. These type of tabloid-style articles do nothing but encourage panic and total confusion among the populace who at times like these really need to be able to rely on our experts for information that can be trusted to be accurate. Thanks again for trying to clear things up.
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Thank you! This is something the media and the general population should know! As a nurse I am sure the two nurses in Texas followed every protocol they were told to meticulously as the deadly nature of this virus is well Known.
the government knows that aerosilized droplets can cause Ebola to spread as the Reston strain which appeared in Falls Church Virginia in the 90’s killed a warehouse full of quarantined primates. Thank god that strain was only deadly to monkey’s!
Do we need to panic ? No but we need to take this threat seriously and be meticulous in containment!
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Thanks for taking the time to do this.
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For me personally, the subject of Ebola was like walking into a dark room. This article has shed some light and made me more aware of this critter and how he works. That is what the general population needs to know. Everything we are hearing from the government and the leftist media tells us that there is nothing to worry about. THAT is what alerts me to the fact that there IS something to worry about. Any virus or disease that has up to a 90% succesful KILL ratio needs to be seen as a very real threat. Something our government is definitely failing to do and our medical community seriously needs to be working day and night to find a way to contain and kill this thing. Thank you for a very informative article. I will pass it along to my friends and family. And, as to your example of the mother and her daughter in the waiting room, IF that possibility exists, It definitely needs to be acknowledged. Keep up the good work and remember this, a lot of people were confused about Ed Snowden at first. People will begin to see how important what you are doing really is.
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I too am a nurse, now retired. Bravo to you for writing this article in such a manner that laypersons can assimilate. Best wishes to you as a graduate student and a professional nurse.
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EDUCATION about any subject is always the KEY. I believe I learned a good
deal about this viral threat from the nurse’s article.
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I am an ER nurse. We sit unprotected at the front door and encounter anyone that walks in. Our complaints that there is no protection in this area (as this is where sick people come and we will begin to see real cases) are not taken seriously because CDC says its ok. What is wrong with these people?? I bet if they had to sit out there, their recomendations would be different. Also CDC walks around in hazmat suits and they recoment that nurses do not need head covered. I dont understand why this is??
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JC, It isn’t difficult to disect this. First of all, people react to visual stimulation. What happens today when people see a gun being weilded by someone out of control is very predictable. The same would go for a person entering the ER and seeing the reception nurse in a hazmat outfit. The CDC is trying to control panic, not Ebola.
Got the picture? They don’t care if you contract the virus, live or die, just as long as people don’t panic. The CDC is a bunch of irresponsible idiots. You are the one responsible for your own life. Act accordingly like a mature, intelligent person.
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Because they DON’T have to sit in the direct line of fire. I also have been a triage Nurse, was an ER RN for 40 yrs, now am the Supervisory RN in a small clinic in a rural part of SD County. Even WE have developed a triage system for the front desk, “do you have a fever?”, Yes, “have you traveled outside the country in the past 2 weeks?” Yes. “please put on this (N95) mask and have a seat OUTSIDE”, call is placed to me or the mgr. I was complacent UNTIL I saw the map of where that Frontier plane had gone….San Diego. Not much of a stretch to imagine someone getting off that plane, driving up the hill, feeling ill and showing up at the clinic. Scary stuff…..
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Very well written. Kudos to you! Thank you for taking the time to write this. I am a state social worker and we have no protection in the field unless there is a specific need for an officer. It helped me to realize how easily we can be carriers or become infected with this. We go into homes in two to three counties or more in one day at times. Interesting. Thank you again.
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Great explanation on the pathogenesis, which is what I’m looking for to share with non-medical and non-expert readers. However, the rest of the information and the style of writing is too sensationalized. More drawn to the writer’s own self than providing straightforward information. As a healthcare professional myself, I find this post, albeit a ‘personal view’, irresponsible, potentially causing unnecessary and unfounded panic.
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ROSE C, Whereas I do appreciate your opinion, I can not agree with your appraisal of the writer’s intent to stir an emotional response. Sometimes a little displayed panic is good. It gets the attantion of idiots. In the news, there are plans for this administration to bring Ebola infected people into this country for treatment. Got any opinions about that??? Tell me if you will, at what stage do you think stirring people to action is appropriate? Knowing that this virus has the PROVEN, DOCUMENTED potential to kill 90% of its victims, at what point do we as a people start to wake up and respond? I don’t think DTOLAR has acted irresponsible in the least. If anything, she has tried to expose the threat for what it really is and I think you would do well to do understand this intent and respond more appropriately and dispose of the complacent posture you are demonstrating here.
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What kind of medical professional are you, is the question? Because as a critical care nurse, and a fellow graduate student, I think his post was well-written and his own perspective. That’s the problem…people want to critique someone’s own personal perspective and opinion because they don’t like it. Well, he’s not claiming to be a spokesperson for the CDC or WHO, so take it for what it is and appreciate that someone took the time to explain the virus the way this nurse did.
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“Too sensationalized”, “irresponsible”, “causing unnecessary and unfounded panic”? 70% of Ebola patients DIE, we don’t know how long the virus lives on fomites, we aren’t even really clear on transmission, there is no apparent consensus from anyone about PPE, the guy appointed Czar doesn’t know anything about medicine, he’s not even invited to the planning meeting Friday. What exactly would you call this?
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A LITTLE KNOWLEDGE IS DANGEROUS. A LOT OF KNOWLEDGE IS USEFUL, TOO MUCH KNOWLEDGE IS UNPRODUCTIVE AND CAN BE CONFUSING AND DANGEROUS. IF YOU ARE A REASONABLY RESPONSIBLE PERSON YOU WILL TAKE WHAT EVER PROTECTIVE STEPS THAT ARE RECOMMENDED TO PROTECT YOURSELF AND YOUR LOVED ONES. PANIC IS NOT PRODUCTIVE SO IN ANY EMERGENCY STAY CALM, EVALUATE THE SITUATION AND REACT ACCORDINGLY. PROTECT YOURSELF BY BEING CAUTIOUS AND WELL INFORMED. THANK YOU TO THE NURSE WHO WAS SO WILLING TO SHARE HER OBSERVATIONS.
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Congratulations!! I’ll bet you got an “A” in that class. Good for you. Teach every nurse everything that you know about infectious disease and s/he will still not know how to properly apply infection control protocols. “It’s the protocol, stupid”. The average health care worker is not proficient in applying infection control protocols in this scenario. A twice yearly in-service doesn’t cut it here and an academic dissertation on the topic is about as useful as a second thumb. Education and practice are what’s needed. Thankfully this is beginning to happen. The major medical centers are beginning to get it together. The smaller health care facilities are sure to follow. The military specialists who have been practicing biological weapons protocols for decades are getting on board. It’s going to be a rough ride for a while but once all pieces are in place this will level off and work itself out. So stop trying to spread panic. Trust the experts to do their jobs. This is a real-life situation, not a place for a masters dissertation.
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Why do so many posters feel it necessary to denigrate this obviously intelligent, caring, extremely qualified woman who gives excellent information WITH the caveat that what isn’t factual is HER opinion? Francis Bacon said “Knowledge is power”. The more we have the more we can protect ourselves, our patients, and the community.
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Well I’m a guy…but the point is still the same
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I very much enjoyed reading what this brave nurse had the guts to do, to inform us of Ebola. I believe the government is keeping the real truth from us, I believe this could be germ warfare. I think Isis is responsible for it & the man that died in Dallas was like a suicide bomber. He knew he was infected but did it for his cause, Isis. What better way to get back at the USA. Did they ever mention the man’s religion or anything about him, no. The government will let you know only what they want you to know, they don’t want mass panic. It’s a shame that we can’t trust our own country. And then Obama sent thousands of our soldiers over there to keep the people in Africa, why didn’t Obama go there before he sent our men & women, because he knows what is going on. I feel so sorry especially for the babies & children that are dying in Africa, I can only hope & pray for us in the USA. You helped many people by your article, you gave medical information that we all need to know & more than the government has done, thank you.
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Germ warfare? Pretty ineffective germ bomb if you ask me. Small pox or H1N1 Type A influenza would be far more effective as a terrorist weapon.
Duncan was a “suicide bomber”? Please. For openers he was a Christian, so unless Christians have suddenly gone rouge and joined ISIS it is highly unlikely. Secondly, it is well know that he was very likely infected by a pregnant woman named Marthalene Williams that he help transport to a hospital that turned her away do to lack of space.
ISIS is responsible? ISIS didn’t exist until a couple of years ago. Ebola was first identified nearly forty years ago.
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Ebola “Ineffective”? It is 70% fatal! We don’t know so much about it. As a medical professional I would say this is the perfect warfare organism. We have been told he was infected by the woman, was he? We have been told a lot of things by this govt which only 13% of the public trusts according to a CNN poll in August.
What difference does when ISIS erupted? They watched our disorganization, they learned from our dithering. They want us DEAD, every man, woman, and child of the “Great Satan”, they are willing to blow themselves, their women and children up to get to us. You figure it out.
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The death rate runs between 25 and 90% and depends on how early and effective treatment is. It makes a poor weapon because of its relatively low rate of transmission and low R0 (reproductive number) of 2. If you would like to post a link or direct me to a reliable source that has clear evidence about how Mr. Duncan contracted Ebola, I’d appreciate it. I don’t trust the Government any more than 87% of the public noted in the CNN poll. ISIS is a direct consequence of the policies of the Bush Jr. administration, and compounded by the current administration. We have no one save ourselves for the hatred of the people in the Middle East, Muslims in particular.
FYI- During 2012 there were:
4492 deaths due to Ebola
26,000 deaths due to TB
203.000 deaths due to Hunger
320,000 deaths due to Malaria
620,000 deaths due to HIV/AIDS- 620,000
I’d be more concerned about TB and Malaria if I were you.
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Well you see, you’re looking at it all wrong, TB is a worldwide issue, but the US has it fairly well under control here. Malaria is bad in the tropical regions, but not really a US problem. Secondly, Ebola is a much worse illness than the two mentioned above. Secondly, can you imagine what it would be like if we had been this proactive against HIV when only a handful of people had it? Smallpox killed millions per year before we got on top of it and stopped it. If we can wipe out Ebola at 1 death, and a few dozen quarantined, then why the hell not. By your logic, do we need to wait until Ebola has killed 10’s of thousands before we worry about it? Imagine if someone wrote an article in the 60s like mine, and was read by 2.3 million people, like mine has, and possible scared a few more people into getting checked for HIV, or to practice safer sex, extrapolate that out and think of the hundreds of thousands of lives that could be saved. Me, as one little nurse in a an average hospital, cant do a damn thing about HIV or TB, but I’ve sure as hell made a difference this time around.
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What I see is someone writing an article as an “opinion piece” who promptly lists their creds in an appeal to authority. As such, your “opinion” is taken as gospel by the ill-informed masses that won’t bother to fact check their “opinion”. As written, one could easily conclude that Ebola is as contagious as Spanish Flu and as deadly as the Black Death which killed 60% of Europe’s population. It is neither.
I am hardly suggesting that we wait until Ebola kills tens of thousands of humans. What I am suggesting is we remain calm and not react to this in a way that would equate to killing flies with a shotgun. Stopping flights from West Africa, as many people are demanding, would be expensive and VERY difficult to manage. Who pays for it, who manages it, and just how long do people think it would take to effectively implement it? So far eight people have been treated for Ebola in the U.S., one has died, and hundreds have been exposed to those eight victims. So far there have been no further individuals infected. I’d say the system is working.
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Well it appears that this little outbreak is about some here, but it will be back at some point as there is very little effort to realistically prevent it from leaving Africa. Let’s just hope the CDC has learned from its mistakes and hopefully all regions of the US will take the necessary steps to prepare for that possibility.
And a couple of other facts about hemorrhagic fevers in general. Ebola was first mistaken for its close relative, Marburg virus. The Marburg virus was actually being developed as a potential biological weapon by the former Soviet Union in three different labs. I don’t believe it would be very viable as anthrax seems to be the most useful because it can be weaponized through milling in a lab versus an actual virus that can mutate and spread. Even small pox is risky because it requires complete vaccination among the non-target population and even a target population can mitigate it through vaccination.
Funny you should bring up the Black Plague. In 2004 some British researchers published a book with an alternate cause for the black death. They discovered a genetic mutation that renders some people of European descent resistant to viruses such as HIV. They believe that this occurred due to exposure and survival from a major viral outbreak around the time of the plague. They suggest that the Black Plague was actually caused from a viral hemorrhagic fever like Ebola.
Their book has some compelling evidence that suggests that it was viral as opposed to bacterial as widely believed to be spread by fleas on rats. It had a high mortality rate similar to Ebola. It appears to have had a similar incubation period. It was spread by human carriers that fled outbreaks only to become ill later and spread it. Quarantine and sequestration were effective in mitigating and even stopping the spread. It never went backwards in its spread which suggests that created immunity among survivors. Even some that had close contact with highly infected patients did nor succumb to it (although most did). It all but ceased in cold weather. These things suggest it was more likely a viral infection passed on by human vectors, rather than bacterial spread by insects or rodents that would be more sporadic and not followed a press pattern like the plague did.
After the initial 5 year mass killing of 40 to 60 percent of the entire continent of Europe, there were smaller outbreaks over the next 300 years that killed smaller numbers. That also suggests a viral immunity as well as lessons of quarantine from earlier outbreaks were applied to prevent the spread from human to human.
Oh and by the way I am also a EMR (Emergency Medical Responder) on a volunteer FD. We trained on Ebola just tonight at our biweekly training. Our medical officer is a paramedic with a local privately run ambulance service which is owned and operated as a subsidiary of one of our local medical centers. The consensus is that it isn’t about IF Ebola will return, but WHEN. Be vigilant, be safe, be prepared!
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Conspiracy theorize much? Wow……
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A huge thank you to the nurse who brought this up!
Judy Rodgers love your comment I truly believe this!
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High Five to you for writing this! i’m a nurse, and couldn’t have said it better myself!! 🙂
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Thank you for taking the time to write about this important issue. When T.B. was being taken care of, there were special T.B. hospitals and units throughout the Country. Do we need every hospital set up to care for those with Ebola ? What will this do to the cost of health care for our Country. Will people go to the hospitals that care for the Ebola patients.
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As a nurse I applaud your descriptions of Ebola. The media has no idea what these virus’s can do and the government just tells lies and couldn’t care less. This needed to be said in vivid terms in order to let people know the seriousness of the situation.
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No, the MEDIA does not. But people who study the disease do. Stop the absolute panic. If they can contain it, surely after 3 infected out of how many in the U.S., we can as well!
http://www.cbsnews.com/news/ebola-outbreak-in-uganda-declared-over/
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Three people quarantined in OH now from the nurse who flew to Cleveland.
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Which is a stupid waste of time and money. Unless of course she licked someones eyeballs…..or worse….. looked at them.
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Can someone please explain what the difference is between “airborne” and “droplets”?
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Joyce, Without going to Google, I will attempt to assist you in a basic understanding of the two. First, “airborne” describes the method of delivery. In simple terms it means the virus can be carried on the wind or by air currents inside an enclosed space, such as in a home or a building. This infers that it is very small and very light in weight. Secondly, “droplets” describe a medium that might encapsulate the virus. In this case a fluid such as mucous from a sneeze could create the droplets. Droplets can be any size from unseeable microscopic particles to some large enough to see with the naked eye. Droplets could contain anywhere from a few members of the virus up to millions of members of the virus. Hope this helps.
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Airborne transmission occurs when droplet nuclei (the remnants of evaporated droplets) or dust particles containing microorganisms remain suspended in air for long periods. The organisms must be able to survive for long periods of time outside of a body and need to be resistant to drying. Airborne transmission allows organisms to enter the upper and lower respiratory tracts.
Diseases capable of airborne transmission include Tuberculosis, Chickenpox, and Measles.
Diseases transferred by infected droplets generally do so through contacting surfaces of the eye, nose, or mouth. This is called droplet contact transmission. These droplets are generated when an infected person coughs, sneezes, or talks, as-well-as during certain medical procedures. The primary difference with droplets is they tend to be too large to remain airborne very long and drop out of the air fairly quickly.
Measles, SARS and Ebola are examples of diseases that are transmitted by droplet contact transmission.
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Thank you, your explanation is better than mine, I took a little different approach
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Droplets: think of a perfume atomizer. Squirt some into a shaft of sunlight and notice the different sizes
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People need to wake up and understand that our government is NOT looking out for us. Our government is no longer we the people, by the people and for the people. If Obama’s lips are moving, he is lying. Even I know he is lying about ebola by the information that is out there for all to know. It’s amazing on how he depends on our stupidity for his agenda. I believe there needs to be panic, otherwise we are complacent, standing by watching a train wreck, yet we are all on that train. Big thanks to the nurse for some honesty. Something our government. (I mean dictator) knows nothing about. Do you sense an attitude, you betcha!
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Duncan a suicide misssion? Then why did he go to the hospital, tell them he was in Africa, AND return to the hospital later. Wouldn’t it be better for his alleged “cause” to stay in the community as long as possible? That’d probably the most ridiculous thing I’ve heard in a while. As far as hysterically stopping flights, in any fashion, realize we would then have no idea who to screen. Maybe they’d fly from Europe. Russia. I’d try t o come in from south America myself. If you don’t have a plane ticket ride the “beast” with the illegal immigrants. Don’t forget about the buses and trains. It’s not possible to stop or contain travel effectively at this point when ppl are fleeing for their lives. I’d do anything to save my life or my family’s life, including lying about where I’m coming from. Let’s get real. Focus on containment here. Focus on irradication in Africa. IT WILL BE UNSTOPPABLE SOON. 250,000 by Thanksgiving. Over 500,000 by Christmas. 10,000 new infections a week. Then you better panic, head for the hills. Then Europe, then Asia, gameover. We can’t quarantine the entire country. And that’s the only way a travel ban would work. Better get our poop together and stop it over there before this turns into a bad movie.
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Rather than banning flights, why not a simpler solution. Why not establish quarantine camps with sequestered quarters complete with field hospitals in these infected countries close to their departure points. The message would be sent that you are still allowed to travel after cleared of the disease and top quality treatment is available should they have contracted it. This would also apply to western aid workers and medical personnel. No self-monitoring, flight bans, or travel restrictions necessary one they are officially cleared.
Instead there is motive to flee to escape it, incentive to lie on a questionnaire, and the ability to escape as a carrier before detected by fever…Just as in the case of Duncan. It is the recipe for the worst case scenario!
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One of the more scary arguments the author presents is an ebola victim sneezing all over the place.
Examples, “That means the first signs of being contagious, are also the more mild symptoms, sneezy, achy, nausea, flu-like symptoms” and “It is October you see and they sneezed while thumbing through that very same magazine” and “Those five kids attend four of the largest schools in Dallas. One sneeze and we could already have thousands of people, who don’t know it yet, infected” and ” So if patient A is infectious/contagious, they sneeze on patient B, but then patient B goes home and picks up their sisters 1 6 month old,”
That would be scary. Fortunately, ebola does NOT make one sneeze any more than normal. Why people are giving this blog so much attention is beyond me.
So if you can possibly avoid throwing pepper in an ebola victim’s face today, you should live through this “crisis.”
http://www.cdc.gov/vhf/ebola/transmission/qas.html
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Some patients will cough and even sneeze when they are more sick and highly contagious. There is also a danger from droplet spatter from projectile vomiting. Luckily those most at risk are not lay people, but medical professionals that directly handle severely ill patients when they are the most contagious. Which begs the question why the CDC did not recommend a higher level of PPE for the nurses (two of which were infected in the first place?!
We dodged a bullet here, yet most apologists will never know how close we were for a much larger outbreak here. Thankfully we do have a much better medical system here so that most don’t have to get sick and die in isolation as they are in West Africa and in Europe during the Black Death. That is how mortality rates are 50 to 90 percent. The Marburg outbreak in Marburg, Frankfurt, Germany and Belgrade, Yugoslavia in 1967 infected 31 with 7 deaths (23%). That is probably what we would be facing in future outbreaks here precluding an actual epidemic were mass amounts of people are delayed to get treatment as Duncan was.
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I found this article very good at explaining how Ebola is different from Aids. I understood that it was transmitted by blood and body fluids so I wondered why the suits were necessary. Now, I understand that many of the body secretions contain blood so therefore there are droplets which would contain ebola. As the nurse mentioned, blood will eventually end up in the various body fluids, not like Aids. Just a note from a former nursing instructor and grammar nut,- ‘mucus’ is the noun and ‘mucous’ is the adjective. I don’t think books, magazines, and toys should be in waiting rooms anymore. It’s just not worth it. Many have stopped having them.
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Thank you so much for the information. I am a CNA at a local hospital. Our hospital is updating our information about the proper PPE equipment and what to do. What worries me is we had a CNA that went home to a area that has some Ebola cases and they are not quarantining her. She has been home for a while so hopefully she doesn’t have it. I understand more about Ebola now and will attempt to copy your information so I can pass it around at work.
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I just have a question/concern. How well do water supply filtering systems protect against such a virus as Ebola? In Africa they haven’t had to concern themselves with this but when the guy came here with Ebola and vomited on the sidewalk at his apartment, if the janitor used a hose to wash that vomit right into the water supply what kind of concern should we have of that being a viable option for Ebola to spread?
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“How well do water supply filtering systems protect against such a virus as Ebola?”
About as well as they protect you against hepatitis or the flu. That is to say: As long as you don’t go romping through the sewer, you ought to be OK.
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While hosing it down wouldn’t kill the virus, it likely would substantially dilute it enough so infection is highly unlikely…kind of like some suggest it isn’t a threat when 3 infections and 1 death are no big deal among 350,000,000. Of course until that one person is you or a loved one! The spread to those two nurses was highly preventable.
Back to the water supply. Ebola can survive up to 6 days outside of a host and is killed by UV as in sunlight. The sewage/water treatment plants would render Ebola pretty ineffective. I’m pretty sure people that handle these things wear some sort of impermeable gloves, and unless it splatters into someone’s face there should be little chance of getting infected.
Goggles or safety glasses and hepa masks would be sufficient for that unless it is a highly contagious patient (in a hospital hopefully) then full encapsulation is the only safe way as these two nurses found out. Common sense will likely go further than waiting around for the CDC to tell us what to do (as we almost tragically found out). The only wild card in future outbreaks is how long will the infected wait i.e. how sick will they become before they seek medical attention at a hospital?
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Those who think that this is not a real threat, are like the ostrich, with his head in the ground. This indeed, is a plague, which should not have been let into the US. My thanks to the nurse, who hopefully, cleared up some things for many uninformed and naive’ people.
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“This indeed, is a plague, which should not have been let into the US.”
Quick: How many of the 350 million Americans here in the US have gotten sick from ebola? Bonus question: How many have died?
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Oh wait I know this one……Ummm, 3 and one!
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Good Job!! One of the best, easiest to understand articles on contagion that I’ve read. This is Infection Control 101, and this disease is being treated as if the powers that be, the so-called “experts” had madness 2.0.
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I’m a retired RN ,I very much appreciate your article. It has opened my eyes.
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I am a retired “infectious Disease,” RN. I think you did a fantastic job. Clear and yet down to earth for the “lay readers.” If I were to write an article someone would criticize. There is a saying, “You can please some of the people some of the time, but you can’t please ALL the people ALL of the time. Good job and thanks for your time and energy and concern for the American people. Sure we don’t hear all the inside info from the Government (unless the press hears), however we hear quite enough to panic a lot of persons. Let’s get real now, can we panic over every threat that comes along? I guess some can. If you really want to blame our government and live in the unreal world, watch a very interesting, very good role casting movie called OUTBREAK with Dustin Hoffman and Morgan Freeman I believe. In book form too. People would panic if that was shown on Nationwide TV. It is a good movie though. Some persons have criticized this great nurse who wrote this article and did her very best to share and educate and help better understand this POTENTIAL devastating disease. WASH THOSE HANDS and just ask for help to whomever is your “higher being.” May Peace, Love, happiness and GOOD HEALTH prevail!
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I see people bringing up the 90% death rate as a reason to freak out, since until now the virus has been in Africa, I don’t think we can count that high number when that country has primitive to no medical care and the living conditions are very different meaning hygeine is very different, if you lived in a poor community in a one room dwelling with a family of 5 and no running water it would spread like crazy, then the lack of medical care in the sense that just the symptom of diarrhea can lead to death whether it’s from Ebola or a common flu makes that rate of 90% higher than it would be here. People are dying of malnutrition and dehydration every day over there, they don’t have the circumstances to withstand a common stomach bug that we would only miss 2 days of work and lay in bed watching tv and sleeping through, so I expect their Ebola death rate to be really high. You can’t compare how a virus affects an American community versus how it has affected am African community.
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The document is well written, but I feel that is gave undue fear. This section especially: “The case in Dallas has been confirmed. The patient had contact with five children and adolescents prior to admission. Those five kids attend four of the largest schools in Dallas. One sneeze and we could already have thousands of people, who don’t know it yet, infected.”
The article was written on Oct 1, and now 21 days later, the incubation period of Ebola, there have been no new outbreaks. As such, the statement above, while possible, only made people fear more. Disappointing, not that there are no new outbreaks, but that instead that this was written to suggest such fear.
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I’m not panicking, but I am worried. We all know that the government is NOT telling us the truth…they have to “sugar-coat” information to keep the public from panicking… but I do think that we are in trouble. ?why are we not being more aggressive and using quarantine tactics to contain this until we understand it better?…no host/no spread…
? what about the dr. who “felt sick” in Africa, so he flew back to Kansas to seek medical care?….is this OK with our government to allow??
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I applaud this Nurse for trying to educate the mass to the degree of being aware, taking precautions, and not taking this lightly. As commented by another person, the media keeps trying to shove down the throats of Americans that everything is ok, everything will be all right, yet at the same time, trying to cause hysteria! When the media (who is dictated by the government as to what to report), YES they are, whether you want to believe it or not, says everything is ok…that is the time to worry! What I find dreadful is the fact that our government is allowing people to fly from the very infectious areas to our homeland! SERIOUSLY????
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The government dictates what the media says? Ever hear of Rupert Murdoch or Fox News? Since when are either Government lackeys?
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What gives me a case of the snorts is the CDC will not admit that there things about Ebola that is not known. We have studied flu, HIV and many other contagious illnesses and really have not concluded that we know everything about them, yet pontificate that we know everything about the spread of this virus in its many forms. Which alone says it is very mutable and the next iteration is waiting in the wings for its first human host.
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Thank You so very much for taking the time to write this article. I am college educated,and teaching in a school for disabled children. We see many unpleasant things in our jobs,too. But nothing like what you and your colleagues experience. I thank you for doing what you do and for caring enough to write this. I know you are hoping to educate the public, in the hope that more information from someone in the business of working with very sick people would, perhaps, stem the panic, and make us all more proactive. I will do my best to share this information and do my small part to help my community better understand this horrific disease. If we are better educated, then, perhaps, we can all band together and find the answers that will help our country, and the rest of the world,’degrade and destroy’ Ebola.
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Thank You for “not Sugar Coating” the actual facts and details about this deadly disease, IMOI: it literally scares the “holy crap” out of me, especially the way this nation has turned into “pigs” being clean has been totally lost in our nataion. just look in our local grass areas along any and all of our roadways, our nation has turned into Pigs themselves, once this ebola get’s it’s grip on this nation, it could be devastating!
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We can hide our heads in the sand and pretend the threat is not real but it won’t change a thing. This is an ugly virus that often results is death. I was at my doctor’s office last week and watched a dad and his daughter as they checked in at the front desk. He cleaned both their hands with sanitizer and placed a mask over his small daughter’s face. We should all be doing this…..but we won’t. Thank you DTOLAR for your article. I’m a nurse as well and appreciate your descriptive article. Praying for our world.
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“We can hide our heads in the sand and pretend the threat is not real but it won’t change a thing. This is an ugly virus that often results is death”
It’s an ugly virus that often results in death for WEST AFRICANS. Even now, the ebola virus is far, far less deadly than a dozen other diseases in Africa. Malaria and HIV kill millions of there. WHERE’S THE PANIC over that?
“I was at my doctor’s office last week and watched a dad and his daughter as they checked in at the front desk. He cleaned both their hands with sanitizer and placed a mask over his small daughter’s face. We should all be doing this”
How silly. You have 4 times more chances of marrying Rush Limbaugh (or Kim Kardashian if you swing that way) than you have of contracting ebola in the US.
If you can possibly manage to not lick the fanny of someone who just hopped off a plane from Liberia, you will probably survive this “crisis.”
And you are a NURSE? Really?
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This is a very good read. As a nonmedical person, I feel I got a good understanding of the whole thing.
Thanks for taking the time putting it together.
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I appreciate you writing this, I’m a young nurse that has a lot to learn and I now feel more comfortable discussing this with patients who question me as to why I’m asking them if they recently traveled or thought they could of possibly had contact with the Ebola virus by bodily fluids etc.
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A well written article. You stated your purpose and credentials. I like that. Many of your nay sayers above have not sharred that. I have a theory and it goes like this: “Not all opinions are equal”. Thanks.
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I just want to remind everyone that has written snide comments about this article that was gallantly written by this nurse about Ebola and how it is spread, that as you all are arguing about whether it is necessary to be cautious or not, our very President is in the planning stages of bringing a lot of those Ebola patients to the United States for treatment. WHY? They are getting treated just fine over there, why risk spreading the disease by bringing Ebola ridden patients here? Look at what is going on in our Government and ask yourself, is this really what we as US citizens really want coming here. Right now we have had a few cases and they have been contained, you bring more into the US and there is more chances of the virus getting out of hand. Wake up and see what is going on. Kudos to the nurse that wrote this article to educate the general public on what the disease does and how it can be spread. And to let everyone know my credentials, I am a Critical Care Paramedic and an Instructor to include Bloodborne and Airborne Pathogens.
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@Jim Fisher: Yes. She is a nurse; and a damn good one, judging from this article. However, if you don’t like listening to nurses (and a lot of people think they know as much as “any stupid nurse” any day) read this Medscape article, and read some of the DOCTOR’s comments at the end. This disease, for some reason, is not being treated like any other disease. Hamburgers, smoking, malaria, HIV kill more people right now, but not as this virus does. The government, and even the CDC (which is government-funded) are not taking the measures needed to protect the public.
http://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/833730?nlid=68063_2981&src=wnl_edit_dail&uac=118207FR
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Thank you for writing this. You are well educated and well spoken. I am a nurse and I appreciate your candor.
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I wish to thank this nurse for all the time it took her to give this info. I would say she is more capable of knowing the ins and outs of the medical things than the everyday person. I believe we will learn that Ebola is more dangerous than the CDCf is telling us. I said in 1981 when I first heard the word “HIV” that these persons should be quarantined and taken more serious than the government took it at that time. Elizabeth
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I love this share! Not because I am a RN, but because it is acurate about HOW fomites are transferred and the infectious aspect shared is FAR MORE accurate than what the CDC will “let out” in the public!
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My 24 year old daughter is a brand new RN working as a case manager in the East Valley of Phoenix taking care of hospice patients .. she chose to put this whole article on Facebook I guess it was and I was just reading it. I read almost all of it, probably about 90%. I don’t have time now to finish it, however, I thank you all for your comments and the person that wrote this because I think we do need more communication to us, we the people, so we can hopefully try to be safe and avoid these dangers of these viruses. I applaud you and thank you very much! !
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Hey Peter you arrogant holier than than the rest of us you missed the point, its all of us Non experts who would be at the bedside not the person with the twenty something years of ebola experience. so with that being said , the nurses who caught ebola from Mr. Duncan, got it when the hospital failed to provide the right PPE. If you were a nurse you would know that greedy hospital administrators have no concern for the “stupid Nurses”. And another thing America is not really scared, we’re pissed, there’s a difference. By the way the sept issue of New England Journal of Medicine, suggest as much as 13% of those capable of inoculating others show no symptoms. This country has done a very poor job of educationg its nursing work force with regard to Ebola or any other potential bio weapon. The average RN, LPN, CNA is ill prepared to respond in the disaster setting. The Federal government’s current handling of this tiny little incident in a warning. I applaud this fellow RN for taking up the cause and trying to get the word out. If our profession expects to be prepared we will have to do it ourselves.
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An BTW katie, you can bite it too, arrogant jerk.
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How mature. I’m interested in people getting accurate information. Not exaggerated information. The author admits he has exaggerated facts to keep readers interested. I think it is irresponsible.
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Response to Jenni. I was referring to the fact that so many comments refer to the nurse as “she” and “her” no matter how many times the original author identifies himself as a male.
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