Ebola – The 2014 Dallas, Texas, Outbreak And Spreading Of The Virus

Earlier today it was announced that Amber Joy Vinson became the next American to contract the deadly Ebola virus here in the United States.

You see, Vinson was one of many nurses who cared for Thomas Eric Duncan a couple of weeks ago.  Duncan, as we know, was a carrier of the Ebola virus when he flew from his home in Liberia and ultimately arrived in Dallas, Texas.  He was highly contagious and seriously ill from the virus when he was finally admitted into the hospital.  Although Duncan was administered experimental drugs to try to combat the Ebola virus, he ultimately died from the disease.  His death was announced on October 7, 2014.

A larger part of the news story involving Vinson is that *after* she was part of the team caring for Duncan, and after he died from Ebola, she chose to FLY to Cleveland, Ohio to allegedly visit with family members for a few days.  She flew back to Dallas on October 13th and reported Ebola-like symptoms the following day on October 14th.  Vinson was then isolated in the hospital.  Today, October 15th, it was announced that she does have Ebola.

Amber Vinson flew on Frontier Airlines flight #1143 on Monday, October 14, 2014.  Right now the CDC is scrambling to contact the other 132 people that were on board that flight.  One could only imagine A) How many people had close contact with Amber during her travels, and B) If any of those passengers had connecting flights, potentially spreading the deadly disease around the country that much faster.

Amber was not the only nurse who had cared for Duncan and later been diagnosed with Ebola.  On October 10, 2014, nurse Nina Pham had suspicious Ebola-like symptoms and was placed in isolation.  The following day she was diagnosed with Ebola.

TIMELINE OF EBOLA EVENTS

September 15, 2014 – LIBERIA – Thomas Eric Duncan helped Marthalene Williams take a taxi to a hospital.  She was highly contagious and deathly ill from Ebola.  Marthalene was turned away at the hospital and Duncan helped carry her back into her home.  She died from Ebola shortly later.

September 19, 2014 – LIBERIA – Duncan went to the airport in Monrovia and lied to airport officials about not having been in contact with Ebola.  He was allowed into the airport and to board his flight.  He flew from Liberia to Belgium to Washington Dulles Airport and then his destination of Dallas, Texas.  Duncan stayed at an apartment in Dallas with his fiancée and her five children.

September 24, 2014 – DALLAS – Duncan began experiencing Ebola-like symptoms.

September 25, 2014 – DALLAS – Late in the evening, Duncan went to Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital to seek medical treatment.  He had a number of Ebola-like symptoms, and he stated that he recently came from Liberia, one of the countries in West Africa that has been hit hard with the Ebola virus.  Duncan also lied when he stated that he was not around anybody who was sick.  The hospital diagnosed him with basically a common viral disease, gave him antibiotics, and then sent him home.

September 28, 2014 – DALLAS – Duncan’s condition worsened and he was now vomiting.  An ambulance took him to the emergency room at Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital and he was placed in isolation.

September 30, 2014 – DALLAS – The CDC announced that Duncan was diagnosed with Ebola.  Over the next few days he would be given at least two different drugs to try to combat the deadly virus.

October 8, 2014 – DALLAS –  Thomas Eric Duncan died from Ebola, becoming the first patient in the U.S. to die from the disease.

October 10, 2014 – DALLAS – 26-year-old nurse Nina Pham began experiencing Ebola-like symptoms.  She went to the hospital and was placed in isolation.

October 10, 2014 – DALLAS –> CLEVELAND, OHIO – 29-year-old nurse Amber Joy Vinson flew from Dallas, Texas to Cleveland, Ohio to spend a few days with some of her family.  Vinson was also one of the nurses who helped care for Duncan while he was in the hospital.

October 11, 2014 – DALLAS – Pham was diagnosed with Ebola.  She was one of the nurses who cared for Duncan while he was in the hospital.

October 13, 2014 – CLEVELAND –> DALLAS, TEXAS – Vinson flew from Cleveland back to Dallas on Frontier Airlines flight #1143.

October 14, 2014 – DALLAS – Amber Vinson began experiencing Ebola-like symptoms.  Like Pham, she was also placed in isolation in the hospital.

October 15, 2014 – DALLAS – Vinson was also diagnosed with Ebola.  News statements mentioned that Vinson would be transferred to Emory University Hospital (near downtown Atlanta, Georgia) for her treatment against the disease.

THE EBOLA VIRUS

So what do we really know about this deadly Ebola virus?

How is it really transmitted between people?

Apparently we don’t really know a whole lot about Ebola if the nurses at the hospital are being diagnosed with the disease, the very people who should have been the most protected against it.

There’s also the question of whether or not this is really Ebola or the Marburg virus.  Apparently the two viruses are similar but while Ebola is allegedly 100% fatal, the Marburg virus is commonly 60-70% lethal.  Of course, the information itself is conflicting depending on where you look and get your news.

So far, only those two nurses have been diagnosed with Ebola.  There have been a number of news stories about people around the country being tested for the disease, but so far all of those outcomes have been negative.  As far as we know, the Ebola outbreak here in America has been limited to the nursing staff who helped care for Duncan while he was in the hospital in Dallas, Texas.

That’s good and it’s bad.

For starters, we’d have a panic on our hands if people around the country were suddenly being infected with Ebola.  The fact that right now all of this has been (hopefully) contained to a single area is a good sign.  People need to stay vigilant and aware of the disease, but if there aren’t any new cases here in the U.S. over the next couple of weeks, then that will be an extremely good sign.

It doesn’t help matters though that the CDC has been acting like the Ebola virus is something that can only be transmitted through bodily fluids, similar to HIV/GRID/AIDS.  It was thought that you were fine being around Ebola patients as long as they didn’t get any bodily fluids on you, such as blood, sweat, saliva, vomit or diarrhea.  If the nurses were taking those precautions, then how did they contract Ebola?

That answer still isn’t known.

If somebody is infected and contagious with Ebola, could they transmit the disease by SNEEZING?  If that’s true, then how long could the disease last on common items like doorknobs and grocery cart handles?

When news broke of Nina Phem contracting the disease, CDC Director Dr. Tom Frieden basically threw Nina under the bus by claiming that she obviously didn’t follow protocol, and that’s how she became infected with Ebola.  He didn’t know how she became infected, but since she still managed to get infected with the disease, according to Frieden’s statements, it must have been through her own wrongdoings.

However, according to some of the nurses at the Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital, there were no concrete protocols for dealing with deadly diseases such as Ebola.  It’s quite shocking to read about how little was done to protect the caregivers from contracting the disease.  Claims from the nurses include a lack of proper protective gear for the workers, leaving their heads and necks exposed for treating a patient with projectile vomiting and explosive diarrhea.  It’s also claimed that the nurses were not restricted and cared for other patients as well as Duncan.

Did the hospital screw up by not having the right protocols in place for a situation like this?

Did the CDC screw up by not informing the hospital of the right way to handle the patient?

We’re talking about Ebola, a deadly disease for which there is no known cure.  It has an extremely high death rate and is currently ravaging Western Africa.  Knowing that, it’s quite frightening to learn that so far two of the nurses who cared for Duncan have now been diagnosed with Ebola as well.

One of the theories is that perhaps Ebola is easier to spread than we were originally told.  If these nurses were still being very careful around Duncan and they managed to contract the disease, then that’s obviously a bad sign.  Those nurses should have been the most protected people in the entire hospital.

Knowing that, one can only wonder why Amber Vinson travelled out of the city AFTER being around a very sick and extremely contagious Thomas Eric Duncan.  Why in the world would she travel on an airplane of all vehicles?  It’s understandable that she would want to visit with family members after going through that ordeal, but the act of travelling puts so many other people at risk of catching the disease.  Who knows how many of the other passengers on her return flight might get infected with Ebola?  Thankfully that was the last flight of the day for that particular aircraft, and it was allegedly cleaned that night according to FAA / CDC protocols.  But as it cleaned properly to combat the potential spread of Ebola?

HOW TO DO YOU STOP EBOLA FROM SPREADING?

One of the problems with Ebola (besides its incredibly high percentage of fatalities) is that it can take two weeks for the symptoms to fully develop.  That being said, a person infected with Ebola could potentially carry and (unintentionally) spread it to a high number of people.  If you think that you may have been in contact with somebody who had Ebola, then you’re looking at a period of several weeks of watching yourself for any of the symptoms.

Since it can take that long for the symptoms to develop, infected people could travel all over the world.  In today’s age it’s easy to simply hop on board an airplane and be in a new country or region of the world in a matter of hours.  Worst-case scenarios can have a disease like Ebola becoming a pandemic and killing millions and millions of people.  Just think of how much damage a disease like that could do if it reached densely populated areas like India, Mexico & Central America, and/or Eastern Asia (China, Japan, Korea, etc.).  What would happen if Ebola patients began appearing in places like New York City?

The best way to stop a disease like Ebola from spreading can be answered in one word — QUARANTINE.

By restricting people’s movement in “hot zones,” the disease will be contained within that area.  It would not be able to leave that zone and infect other cities or countries.  Throughout history that’s how people have handled infectious diseases.  You simply create a barrier around the area with the disease and RESTRICT people from leaving until they’ve been cleared of the disease.

In a quarantined zone, people would still be allowed to leave as long as they go through a separate quarantine process.  As long as they go through quarantine and prove that they are not infected with the disease, then they are free to leave.  But until that point they must stay within the quarantine zone until the entire area is cleared of the disease.  Doctors wearing hazmat suits may enter the quarantine zone and help those people who are infected, but they must go through a decontamination process when leaving the zone.

As a leader you have to ask yourself if it’s better to inconvenience a small number of people to contain a deadly threat, or do you allow them to roam and potentially spread the threat to other areas, putting the entire country at risk.

Quarantine.

That’s how you stop deadly diseases with no known cure.  The process includes not allowing flights from places like Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea (the hardest hit areas in Western Africa) to arrive in the U.S.  Stop them from arriving in the country and you’ll rapidly slow the international spreading of the disease.

What do firefighters do to control wildfires?

In addition to actually fighting the fire, they also establish fire breaks, gaps of open areas to prevent the fire from spreading.  This can help block and/or contain a wildfire from spreading.  A fire break can be thought of as a quarantine for the fire.  The flames may reach the fire break, but it’s not going to pass the fire break and continue to spread.

FINAL THOUGHTS

The next few weeks will be critical for determining the spread of the Ebola outbreak here in the U.S.

Of course, had the government restricted incoming flights from Western Africa months ago when the Ebola virus was hitting those areas hard, it’s doubtful that we would have the virus in this country right now.  Those hundreds of people who have had direct and indirect contact with Thomas Eric Duncan would be living a normal life right now instead of being paranoid about possibly catching Ebola.

It sure would be great if the government and CDC would put their political correctness aside and actually do something towards stopping the spread of Ebola in this country.  It’s time for them to step up, accept responsibility for this outbreak, and take the necessary steps of containing it before it spreads across the country.