Jerseygirl

Domestos kills 99% of all known germs. Dead.

Many other bleach products are not as effective because they contain half or less the amount of chlorine.

WEBlue

The CDC director will meet with President Obama today to discuss domestic measures within the US such as 'enhanced' screening at international airports.

U.S. Ebola patient flies to Nebraska for treatment - CNN.com

It seems to me that though temperature screening at the Monrovia airport certainly didn't detect Duncan's disease, it might still be a good idea, as it might flag other more advanced cases.

sir_eccles

The problem is, Duncan actually flew to Belgium. So increased screening of flights from Africa to the US would not have provided this particular patient with any further screening unless Belgium (and by extension the whole of the rest of the world) did the same too. I had read somewhere else that overly draconian screening or attempts at quarantining whole countries is actually counter productive.

scrubbedexpat099

Quarantine seems the most obvious solution. Would have stopped this case.

Pulaski

I can't image why (though it might make the problem worse in West Africa), but if the death rate escalates in Africa while those that manage, one way or another, to make it to the US mostly if not entirely survive, we can be certain that more people from West Africa will attempt to make their way to the US.

sir_eccles

Didn't say I agreed with it. I think the logic is that quarantining an entire country is logistically impossible, the infrastructure just isn't there and it is likely to induce panic therefore overall it's counterproductive. Also it prevents the influx of supplies and personnel from outside.

Nigeria seems to have done ok containing their outbreak. The reality of the situation is that countries like Sierra Leone don't have the infrastructure, they probably have less doctors and hospital beds in the entire country than that one hospital in Dallas.

Leslie

It is logistically impossible.

1 - Borders are too porous, both here and abroad. If simply "forbidding" people from entry actually worked, we wouldn't have an illegal immigration problem. It won't work.

2 - More medical screening at airports will catch only those who are symptomatic thus providing a false sense of security. Infected people will get through as long as they're asymptomatic.

The only solution is for the countries, who have the resources, to quit farting around to deal with the outbreak of the disease at its origin. Trying to quarantine an entire country is a completely ridiculous proposition.

Pulaski

Ironically, and this might be where the argument against trying to quarantine a country comes from, if you instill a sense of panic and or hopelessness in a population you are likely to provoke a significant proportion of people to self-evacuate, almost certainly taking the disease with them.

I think a lot of the containment issue is a function of early diagnosis and dumb luck on how much infected people move around. One infectious person on the London Underground or NY Subway could infect a lot of people very quickly.

scrubbedexpat099

Nothing much is absolute. And its not either or.

sir_eccles

Agreed. Though in that context, something like the flu is much more contagious and fatal to something like 36,000 people every year in the US.

scrubbedexpat091

First person to contract Ebola outside West Africa, a nurse in Spain who treated a missionary who was flown to Spain from West Africa for treatment. She was admitted to hospital Sunday and has tested positive.

Spanish Nurse First To Contract Ebola Outside West Africa

Pulaski

The patient in Dallas died this morning. Problem solved.

sir_eccles

Jolly good, back to bread and circuses then.

lansbury

But it isn't. It takes 21 days for symptoms to show, so there is still time for people he infected to develop it.

scrubbedexpat091

Hopefully they cremate the body seems to be the only way to ensure the virus is killed.

I wonder if the hospital had admitted him on the first day if the outcome would be different, seems starting treatment early on has helped others brought to the US to survive, but they of course we in specialized hospitals set up for high dangerous diseases and the hospitals of course knew in advance they were coming.

Seems though the Texas hospital made enough mistakes for a lawyer to have a pretty good case.