USA First Ebola Case Is In Texas

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It is reported that Protocol was not properly followed at the hospital thus causing the infection.  So who is responsible for not following protocol?  One can blame the person infected; however that is not a valid excuse.  For something so serious, monitoring the personnel to insure that procedures are followed is critical.   It is ludicrous to even consider placing the blame on a State.  It is the institution where the failure occurred.  If procedures were not followed, there was a failure and someone is responsible.
 
Liability cannot be dismissed.  In most disasters, Insurers demand investigation to determine Liability.  I recall investigations of Aircraft disasters where placing the blame meant following protocol even in investigation.  In the case of Aircraft, the manufacturer wants to blame “Pilot Error” as the cause.  Even when it is Pilot Error, the investigators wants to know why the Pilot didn’t follow procedures. 
 
Regardless of an excellent record of safety, something went wrong.  The same can be said of the Hospital where the infection occurred.  Hopefully this incident will help prevent it happening again.

Abe wrote:

Regardless of an excellent record of safety, something went wrong. The same can be said of the Hospital where the infection occurred. Hopefully this incident will help prevent it happening again.

There is only one hospital involved. Dallas Presbyterian. From the initial mistake of letting Duncan go home, his eventual admittance and death, and the newly infected nurse - it was all the same hospital.

This virus is not fully understood from what I have read.  It should have been contained years ago when first infecting people in the African nations.  But then, no one cared.  Now that one or two cases are a threat to the safety of developed countries, it is bright on the horizon.  Modern countries failed the African nations.  Now the consequences come home to roost.

Borders cannot be closed.  They prevent commerce, the delivery of food and medicines and healthcare workers.  They scare people from reporting.  How many cases require the close of a border?

I agree that the airport checking is a stupid waste of money.

The best defense is an offense with the discovery of a vaccine, a blood test that catches Ebola immediately and a cure.  It wasn't profitable to do so before.  Now it is.

I did not mean to negate the current precautions.  All precautions should be taken since the volatility of this virus seems not thoroughly understood.  I just don't think closing borders will do it.  Usually closing borders only affects those without the income to get around the regulations. Those with means do as they please.  It's always the poorest that suffer the most in any of these situations.

What are the odds that the first African to bring the Ebola virus into the US should happen to be traveling to Dallas? It would have been far more likely that he might have been headed for the Eastern part of the country. This man just happened to be engaged to a woman who lived there. Did he know he was infected? We are not likely to get an answer. So, was the hospital responsible? Maybe; maybe not.

The two Americans who were brought back for treatment were sent to hospitals that knew they were coming. They had the time and opportunity to not only establish protocols but to reinforce them with drills.

That was not the case in Dallas. This was a unique situation. It had not happened before. That makes it difficult to set blame or liability. There has to be a first time, somehwere. Naturally, every town and city in the country will now have the opportunity to learn from their experience.

I've said before, I know next to nothing about that city, or its medical facilities, having spent less than a week there, split between three short visits. Four, if you include an overnight pit-stop near the airport, on my way to an Audie Murphy Convention in Greenville, over a good two hours to the northeast. It's a good seven hour drive from any of my homes in the state.

Point is, this is not a situation for pointing fingers, either to Mr. Duncan, Texas Presbyterian, or to any of the hospital's employees. it was a new experince for everyone concerned. We have learned some valuable lessons. Let's just be thankful for that.

Another perspective on Ebola and similar diseases:
Ebola: Expert Sounds Alarm Regarding Imperative, Yet Vastly Inadequate, Community Institution Mobilization
Public health advocate Pernessa Seele, founder and CEO of The Balm In Gilead —a nonprofit organization that spearheads safe community activism initiatives to proactively address infectious life-threatening conditions like Ebola, Hepatitis C (HCV) and HIV/AIDS (with offices in America and Africa), is available to discuss and detail various reasons why faith communities and niche populations may be at a higher risk for these deadly health concerns—and why faith institutions specifically have a unique, yet vastly unmet, obligation to play a more direct, responsible and mobilized role to proactively address and educate their respective constituencies about Ebola, HCV, HIV/AIDS and other pressing public health issues.

“Due to an engrained culture, staunch belief system, and adherence to ‘traditional healing’ practices, far too many faith-driven individuals and niche culture populations turn a deaf ear to scientific approaches for understanding, avoiding and treating Ebola, HCV and other serious medical conditions,” notes Seele, who has worked with three U.S. presidential administrations on important health issues. “Because of this, many in various faith communities are not as aware, educated or diligent about these serious public health threats. Often, even when they are aware, they erroneously view both the condition and medical-based treatment with a spiritual mentality—some on the extreme side even regarding the conditions as a ‘curse’ and medical science as hermetics. These are among the reasons why faith institutions in particular, which regularly serve their communities at the front-line, have a unique opportunity and responsibility to better advise, educate and motivate individuals to avoid and screen for serious health conditions and seek proper medical care when needed.”

Toward this end, Ebola, HCV and HIV/AIDS will be topics of discussion at the upcoming Healthy Churches 2020 Conference to be held in North Carolina his November 13-15—an event Seele founded and oversees to directly address how faith-based communities, for their part, can play a more significant front-line role in addressing life-threatening diseases like Ebola, HCV and others. Through this large-scale industry event, and also grassroots Town Hall Meeting forums that Seele hosts in cities across the United States, she is working tirelessly to educate regional populations on the risks and realities of life threatening diseases while concurrently helping faith-based organizations better achieve their community health-related goals.

“Strong intervention by faith institutions is essential, not only for awareness and education, but to formulate a concerted action plan and execute tactical training programs that will help reduce the spread of Ebola, HCV, HIV/AIDS and other deadly diseases,” Seele says. “Indeed, faith institutions can play an integral role as safe community centers that proffer health education and disease prevention. In this capacity, faith structures can utilize their existing span of influence to reach into every urban and rural center to facilitate comprehensive health services.”

About Pernessa Seele
Pernessa C. Seele is founder and CEO of The Balm In Gilead is a 501(c) (3), a not-for-profit non-governmental organization (NGO) whose primary mission is to prevent diseases and to improve the health of individuals by building the capacity of faith and other communities to address life-threatening issues, including HCV, HIV/AIDS, obesity, cervical cancer and sexual violence, in areas of health education and service program design, implementation and evaluation. Now in its 25th year, Seele’s The Balm In Gilead operates out of both Richmond, Virginia in the U.S. and Dar es Salaam in Tanzania, providing technical support to over 10,000 institutions.

Seele has worked with three U.S. presidential administrations on important health issues. She is known for her extraordinary vision and ability to create national and global partnerships among leaders of various cultures and religious doctrines in areas of health promotion and disease prevention.  Seele is the recipient of numerous citations and honors including being featured on the cover of TIME magazine in 2006 as One of the Most Influential Persons In the World. Ebony Magazine selected Dr. Seele as one of their Power 150; Essence Magazine has honored her with numerous features. In its 35th Anniversary issue, she was named one of the 35 Most Beautiful And Remarkable Women In The World; In May 2010, Dr. Seele was selected as 21 Leaders of the 21^st Century of Women E-News in New York City.

Seele is a licensed minister; an honorary member of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Inc.; and a life-time member of The National Council of Negro Women. She received a Bachelor of Science degree and Master of Science from Clark Atlanta University in 1976 & 1979 respectively, and a Doctorate of Humane Letters from the College of New Rochelle, NY in 2007. She is a native of Lincolnville, SC.
Learn more online at www.BalmInGilead.org.

Great article and inspiring individual.

I have been ruminating on some relevant ideas, working toward a new post here.  My thinking has not been so much about faith-based initiatives, although they could provide a good answer to how to go about increasing awareness and finding solutions.

What has been going through my head has to do with the tendency for us as humans to not "see" what we have not been exposed to.  It's that thing about creating reality again.

My point is that until the EBOLA virus became an actual reality a few weeks ago in Dallas, the majority of us were like those revelers in Prince Prospero's palace in Poe's short story, "The Masque of the Red Death."  They thought that they were safe, in a place where the disease could not touch them.

The sequence of events that occurred at Texas Presbyterian in Dallas is very likely to be what might have happened at any hospital in the country, with the exception of perhaps 4 or 5 that we now know to have been on the cutting edge, including those serving the patients beginning with the original two flown in from Africa (part of a faith-based community, incidentally) through the two Dallas nurses who have recently been transferred.

Until something like this actually hits home, for the average citizen, recognition of the risk involved doesn't seem real enough to actually do anything about it.  It's a bit like AIDS was in the '80s.  (Did I punctuate that correctly, DK, or did I overthink and do it backwards?)

I believe that the first US case had to occur, wherever, before people really believed it could occur.

And that is a big part of where Dr. Seele and organizations like Balm in Gilead come in.

10/24

                 Now as of yesterday a Dr. who worked in Africa has contracted it and
           brought it to New York City, at least he knew what to do , knew the risk
           and called EMS he was taken to Bellvue Hospital, they confirmed he had it
           so can you imagine if a lay person had this and walked and touched things
           it would have been worse than the plague 8 Million people a total horror zone.

                                                             Joe

joefrank wrote:

10/24

                 Now as of yesterday a Dr. who worked in Africa has contracted it and
           brought it to New York City, at least he knew what to do , knew the risk
           and called EMS he was taken to Bellvue Hospital, they confirmed he had it
           so can you imagine if a lay person had this and walked and touched things
           it would have been worse than the plague 8 Million people a total horror zone.

                                                             Joe

Not really, Joe.  The Ebola virus is not so easily spread.  It isn't air-borne, and simply walking around and touching things won't spread it either.

Take the situation in Dallas.  Mr. Duncan walked around and touched a lot of things, came in contact with a lot of people, but most of them have now been cleared of any chance of catching the disease.  The only two people who did come down with it were health-care professionals who worked closely with the patient on a regular basis.  Both cases were diagnosed quickly and within a day or so of the other, which would indicate a single incident causing both infections.

10/24

                              Facts about Ebola...Always wash your hands !!

                                                     Joe

http://www.aol.com/article/2014/10/24/how-long-does-the-ebola-virus-live-on-a-surface/20983419/?icid=maing-grid7%7Chtmlws-main-bb%7Cdl3%7Csec1_lnk2%26pLid%3D551424

from Joe's link:
http://www.aol.com/article/2014/10/24/how-long-does-the-ebola-virus-live-on-a-surface/20983419/?icid=maing-grid7%7Chtmlws-main-bb%7Cdl3%7Csec1_lnk2%26pLid%3D551424

Quote :

This begs the question -- just how long does the Ebola virus live on a surface like a handrail or a bowling ball? According to the Centers for Disease Control, Ebola on dry surfaces, such as doorknobs and countertops, can survive for several hours; however, the virus in body fluids (such as blood) can survive up to several days at room temperature. The CDC also clarifies that unlike respiratory illnesses like measles or chickenpox, which can be transmitted by virus particles that remain suspended in the air after an infected person coughs or sneezes, Ebola is transmitted by direct contact with body fluids of a person who has symptoms of Ebola disease.

The main purpose of the article, it seems to me, is to reassure people that there is no need to panic. Unnecessary fear isn't productive.

Latest news: Ms. Pham is already Ebola-free.

10/24

                  I'm so happy she's better, from what I read she's a very dedicated nurse.
                  God bless her and may she go on to better and higher causes in life.

                                                        Cheers...Joe

Found on Facebook:

11/1

                                I don't see one Happy Headline? 
                   Maybe the news Media thinks we won't read
                   Good News...

                                        Cheers...Joe...

Another Facebook photo: