Ebola in America

[Belz...]

Tell it to catsmate. He's the one assuring us this data point is "pretty good".

That's not quite what he's saying, though.

 

[Charlie Wilkes]

No, it's not. It's crap. You're looking at the wrong ratio. What we've got right now is one patient infects one medical provider. That is the ratio that matters for controlling the disease. If it stays that high, the disease cannot be stopped.

This isn't reason to panic yet, because we're dealing with the statistics of small numbers plus a potential learning curve so that ratio could improve considerably. But that ratio of infected providers (who then become patients) to patients needs to be much, much lower than 1 to 1.

I guess it's two infected providers to one patient now...

http://www.cnn.com/2014/10/15/health/texas-ebola-outbreak/

 

[Belz...]

Wow. That means 200% of America will be infected.

 

[shuize]

When Ebola reaches India, then the s*** is really going to hit the fan. This is especially true since, as I recently learned, a large percentage of the population there prefers to crap in the open rather than use the public toilets the government has built to prevent the spread of disease.

Sunita’s family in the north Indian village of Mukimpur were given their first toilet in February, one of millions being installed by the government to combat disease. She can’t remember the last time anyone used it.

When nature calls, the 26-year-old single mother and her four children head toward the jungle next to their farm of red and pink roses, to a field of tall grass, flecked with petals, where the 7,000 people of her village go to defecate and exchange gossip...

In at least five of India’s poorest states, the majority of people in households with a government latrine don’t use it, according to a survey of 3,200 rural households by the Research Institute for Compassionate Economics in the capital...

While villagers remain ignorant of the dangers, about 100,000 tons of their excrement heads to markets every day on fruit and vegetables, according to Unicef, the United Nation’s children’s fund. Each gram of feces in an open field contains 10 million viruses, 1 million bacteria and 1,000 parasite cysts.

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-08-03/india-s-toilet-race-failing-as-villages-don-t-use-them.html

 

[Belz...]

And why do they keep doing that, for pete's sake ?

 

[Biscuit]

Just heard on NPR another caseworker at the Dallas hospital has come down with a fever, is now in isolation, and the cdc is performing its own tests.

cnn link

 

[Samson]

An email I just got from a doctor, but don't panic, because I'm not.

It is highly likely that this virus will shut down the world economy
This may sound melodramatic but there are now two reasons to be deeply concerned.
First the infection of a nurse taking all precautions
Second ....ditto

Widespread seeding could easily occur via the following scenario.
An infected passenger boards an international flight and via diarrhea and vomiting contaminates a toilet cubicle.
It would only take a single other person to become infected to create another nidus of infection in a naive community.
I really cannot see how this virus can be contained.
I am seriously tempted to sell all assets and turn the money into gold

This is the most serious threat to world health ever faced.

I hope you understand

 

[marplots]

An email I just got from a doctor, but don't panic, because I'm not.

It is highly likely that this virus will shut down the world economy
This may sound melodramatic but there are now two reasons to be deeply concerned.
First the infection of a nurse taking all precautions
Second ....ditto

Widespread seeding could easily occur via the following scenario.
An infected passenger boards an international flight and via diarrhea and vomiting contaminates a toilet cubicle.
It would only take a single other person to become infected to create another nidus of infection in a naive community.
I really cannot see how this virus can be contained.
I am seriously tempted to sell all assets and turn the money into gold

This is the most serious threat to world health ever faced.

I hope you understand

Does gold cure Ebola?
If it's about conserving financial wealth, it might be better to invest in companies likely to market a vaccine.

 

[jakesteele]

Looks like Ebola made it to the USA.

link



Sorry Texas but we have to burn you to the ground.

The Great Culling has begun.

 

[Belz...]

An email I just got from a doctor

You should see the number of e-mails I get from bankers, the FBI and millionaires in need for my help.

 

[Ziggurat]

It's no problem. When someone gets sick they go to a clinic or hospital, get diagnosed and if it appears to be Ebola they get taken care of in proper isolation.

It's almost like we foresaw this when we as a country chose to implement universal health care. Just imagine how scary it would be right now if we hadn't.

That's about the stupidest thing anyone has said on this thread. Nothing about universal health care would prevent what have prevented what happened in Dallas from happening.

 

[GlennB]

First the infection of a nurse taking all precautions
Second ....ditto

The BBC just reported serious lapses in the protection given to the nurses treating the Texas patient. Daily Mail report (yeah, I know ) with links to external quotes and news reports.

If true, those reports are pretty shocking.

 

[Belz...]

The BBC just reported serious lapses in the protection given to the nurses treating the Texas patient. Daily Mail report (yeah, I know ) with links to external quotes and news reports.

If true, those reports are pretty shocking.

But hardly surprising.

 

[William Parcher]

I really cannot see how this virus can be contained.

Stand back and watch it happen.

 

[cosmicaug]

This is the most serious threat to world health ever faced.

I hope you understand

A very provincial perspective unless you do not count what happens in the developing world as part of "world health". I guess since various health threats are ongoing matters they have little salience.

Even discounting a lot of these things, your perspective is historically provincial:
Black Death^WP
1918 flu pandemic^WP (maybe you are too young to have had grandparents telling you stories about this).

I'm sure there are others.

 

[Dan O.]

That's about the stupidest thing anyone has said on this thread. Nothing about universal health care would prevent what have prevented what happened in Dallas from happening.

Only to be eclipsed by the even stupider comment that ignores the context.

In Dallas, a mistake or two were made. These mistakes can be overcome by better training as not every doctor patient interaction has resulted in the the spread of the virus. But when it hits the high density poor populations that don't have ready access to health care it can explode. We're not talking just about the homeless bums sleeping over a heating vent, this includes the lower class service workers that interact daily with the middle class. Does that busboy in your favorite restaurant have health care?

 

[GlennB]

I was going to say:

My guess is that an Ebola case in the 1st world transcends UHC considerations. If it's spotted it becomes a case of mandatory isolation and treatment, no?

But if fear of incurring medical costs causes a person to avoid calling in a doctor then it isn't so simple. Then family and other parties could get infected.

 

[Belz...]

I was going to say:

My guess is that an Ebola case in the 1st world transcends UHC considerations. If it's spotted it becomes a case of mandatory isolation and treatment, no?

But if fear of incurring medical costs causes a person to avoid calling in a doctor then it isn't so simple. Then family and other parties could get infected.

And that's where universal health care comes into play, Zig.

 

[Ziggurat]

Only to be eclipsed by the even stupider comment that ignores the context.

In Dallas, a mistake or two were made. These mistakes can be overcome by better training as not every doctor patient interaction has resulted in the the spread of the virus. But when it hits the high density poor populations that don't have ready access to health care it can explode. We're not talking just about the homeless bums sleeping over a heating vent, this includes the lower class service workers that interact daily with the middle class. Does that busboy in your favorite restaurant have health care?

Yeah, not any smarter. First, you confuse health care with health insurance. Not the same. Did Duncan have health insurance? No, he didn't. Was he treated anyways? Why yes, he was, and at great cost too. A lack of insurance is not the problem here. It will not be the problem here. Issues of actual capacity, training, competence, equipment, etc, those are what matter. And none of that, none of that, depends upon whether or not we have "universal health care".

 

[Axiom_Blade]

Yeah, not any smarter. First, you confuse health care with health insurance. Not the same. Did Duncan have health insurance? No, he didn't. Was he treated anyways? Why yes, he was, and at great cost too. A lack of insurance is not the problem here. It will not be the problem here. Issues of actual capacity, training, competence, equipment, etc, those are what matter. And none of that, none of that, depends upon whether or not we have "universal health care".

If you get sick, and you're not insured, you're much less likely to go to the hospital, because you know it'll be expensive and you can't afford it. So, you're likely to become sicker and spread your germs around a lot more. The "Issues of actual capacity, training, competence, equipment, etc" don't matter at all if people aren't going to the hospital in the first place.