Man Tested for Ebola at New York City Hospital

[moriah]

Man Tested for Ebola at New York City Hospital
The patient had recently travelled to a West African country.

http://time.com/3080189/ebola-mt-sinai-new-york/

A man who arrived at Mount Sinai hospital in New York City Monday with a high fever and stomach problems is being tested for Ebola, a hospital spokesman confirmed.

The patient had been visiting a West African country where Ebola cases have been reported. Africa is in the midst of the worst Ebola outbreak in history, with over 1,600 reported cases and over 887 deaths in Nigeria, Guinea, Liberia, and Sierra Leone.

The hospital reports that the patient is being kept in isolation to prevent the spread of the deadly virus, and is being tested to confirm that his symptoms are from Ebola.

“All necessary steps are being taken to ensure the safety of all patients, visitors and staff,” Mt. Sinai said in a statement.

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Looks like Ebola would have gotten here anyway, without bringing humanitarian personnel home to the US for treatment.

[RiffRandell]

1. Yikes.

That kind of scares me.

[randys1]

26. Not airborne, therefore while a concern it is easily contained

[Little Star]

2. Damn!

[raccoon]

3. So far--being tested. nt

[msanthrope]

4. WE ARE ALL GONNA DIE!!!!!! No seriously....when I wrote a few days ago about Ebola already being

here, this is the kind of thing I meant. Too many possible vectors. But there's no reason to panic. This will be controlled.

[RiffRandell]

5. Yeah, you're right.

[moriah]

7. Yeah, me too. But you already recall my thing about panic... heh.

You don't have to tell me again.

I was trying to point out that the most likely way Ebola would get here is like this guy who potentially, may, have it. Brantley was believed to have caught the disease from another healthcare worker who did not isolate themselves quickly enough upon feeling sick, Brantley did. The fact he caught it doesn't mean it's more likely to spread in a hospital than it is from a real-life Patient Zero like this guy *could* be (not is, yet).

[gvstn]

9. Relax, progress is being made according to this report from The Onion

If this does turn out to be Ebola it may bring us one case closer to a cure depending on the patient's race.

“While all measures are being taken to contain the spread of the contagion, an effective, safe, and reliable Ebola inoculation unfortunately remains roughly 50 to 60 white people away, if not more,” said Tulane University pathologist Gregory Wensmann, adding that while progress has been made over the course of the last two or three white people, a potential Ebola vaccination is still many more white people off.

http://www.theonion.com/articles/experts-ebola-vaccine-at-least-50-white-people-awa,36580/

[B Calm]

6. I heard he's good friends with Donald Trump!

saracasm

[moriah]

8. ???

I don't get it, even with sarcasm. Am I impaired today? It's on Time, not on a gossip column....

[B Calm]

10. I guess you haven't watched the news lately. . .

Trump was scared to death about Obama allowing EBOLA patients into the United States.

[moriah]

23. Oh, see, that explains it. No, I didn't hear that, but I would have tuned out anything Trump said..

.... on general principles anyway.

[herding cats]

11. Yeah, it would have gotten here anyway. Just like SARS and MERS made it here.

Both of those were isolated and controlled just like Ebola will be.

[Zorra]

12. He probably just ate at Chik fil A and got food poisoning from the salmonella. nt

[Hekate]

13. Fortunately, the US is far better equipped to handle such a case than African nations on the whole

Here there are protocols for strict isolation and sanitation, many single-use items, biohazard containers, hospital incinerators, and crematoria. Our mortuary and burial practices are different. I know of few US communities where custom and religion require that families wash and prepare the body themselves (unlike African culture, for instance), and in the case of a deadly communicable disease I'm pretty sure public health laws can be invoked in order to fast-track the deceased to a crematorium rather than whole-body burial.

[Vattel]

14. globalism sucks

[flamingdem]

15. So much for my fabulous NY trip

kiddin' will go anyway but carry extra purell

[Laffy Kat]

27. FYI: Ebola is viral.

Hand sanitizers don't kill viruses.

[redqueen]

30. Alcohol-based sanitizers (the best kind) do kill some viruses.

Not sure about Ebola specifically.

[jberryhill]

16. "Looks like Ebola would have gotten here anyway"

In what way is this sentence supported by the article?

The patient has general flu-like symptoms. Because the patient recently visited West Africa, the patient is being "tested for" Ebola.

Perhaps we might await the results of the test, eh?

[COLGATE4]

19. And miss the opportunity for some pearl-clutching

and general panic? Never, I say. Never.

[Zorra]

17. I'd feel safer if they had reported how long the patient had been in the US

after arriving from Africa, and how long he had manifested symptoms before seeking treatment.

It's often those little "white lies" of deliberate omission that'll get ya.

[davidn3600]

18. Get ready for a new wave of Doomsday Prepping

[Drew Richards]

20. OOoooOOHH Prepping I got just the thing for the consumate prepper....

https://motopeds.com/facebook

[MineralMan]

21. OMG! Evacuate NYC RFN!

Oh, wait...maybe that's a little premature...

[markpkessinger]

22. The link has apparently been updated

They are now saying an Ebola diagnosis is "unlikely."

[moriah]

24. Yay, but that's how it'll get "in the wild" here, not humanitarian efforts for US citizens....

... if it ever does.

[markpkessinger]

25. More likely . . .

. . . it will arrive via some random traveler. It's going to get here sooner or later. At least, if it is a humanitarian worker being transferred by medical personnel to a hospital isolation unit, it is under relatively controlled conditions.

[moriah]

28. More patients in bubbles waiting on test results:

http://abcnews.go.com/Health/ebola-false-alarm-johns-hopkins/story?id=24814249

Hospitals across the country are isolating and testing potential Ebola patients, erring on the side of caution as the largest Ebola outbreak to date rages in West Africa.

A 46-year-old Columbus, Ohio, woman who recently traveled to one of the three countries affected by the outbreak is being held in isolation at a local hospital, the Columbus health department said today. She was hospitalized several days ago but is “doing well” as she awaits Ebola test results from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which are expected today or Wednesday, the health department said.

The CDC last week sent a health alert to hospitals across the country urging them to ask patients about their travel history to help identify potential Ebola cases. The CDC said has tested blood samples from six people with possible Ebola symptoms who had recently traveled to West Africa.

Emergency room physicians at Johns Hopkins Medicine thought one of their patients had Ebola Friday, but it turned out to be a false alarm, according to an internal memo obtained by ABC News.

I think, despite the OMG! factor, that they're being prudent in preventatively isolating patients who present with high fever and other symptoms with suspect travel histories.

[Louisiana1976]

29. If it weren't for the fact that people are actually dying of the disease in West Africa I'd say

Ebola is the Summer Scare of 2014. Remember one year it was sharks?