ebola is here

A couple of months ago we started asking people if they have travelled out of the country.  This was around the ebola outbreak in Africa.

Today there is a report that the first ebola case has been confirmed in Dallas.  This is really scary for
those of us who work in emergency rooms. We're literally at the front lines. If someone slips by and we are exposed we take it home to our family and they are exposed.

Shit just got real.  The symptoms of ebola are fever, headache, muscle aches, weakness, vomiting. Symptoms we see every day of the week in the emergency room. Symptoms may appear anywhere from 2 to 21 days after exposure, average being 8-10 days.

I wonder how this patient came into the hospital  No doubt it was through the emergency room, exposing lots of ER staff.  The question is did they have any idea this could have been ebola when the person came in or did it take a couple of days for the hospital to figure it out?  Did those staff go home to their families before it was known?

We live under the illusion that somehow this won't get here.  We will stop it at the airport.  There are CDC quarantine stations at airports around the country that deal with those ill from other countries.  They determine whether they can enter the country.  Here's the thing:  They may not yet be manifesting the symptoms at the time they enter the country.

So what's the solution?  I don't know. You can ban people from coming here. The on
ly solution lies in Africa, stopping the spread there. That's being worked on.  In the mean time we're sitting ducks.

•