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Ebola

Ebola466 posts

Ebola is a disease caused by an ebolavirus. Symptoms start two days to three weeks after contracting the virus, with a fever, sore throat, muscle pain and headaches. Vomiting, diarrhea and rash follow, along with decreased function of the liver and kidneys. Victims bleed both within the body and externally. From 1976 through 2013, the World Health Organization reported a total of 1,716 cases. In 2013 an outbreak started in Guinea, spreading to neighboring African countries and infectied doctors, some of who were transported back to the US for treatment. The virus continues to claim victims as it spreads to more countries.

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26 Oct, 2014

Treatment ‘Inhumane’

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In a phone call with CNN, Hickox criticizes the way she has been treated.

For the first 12 hours, I was in shock. Now I’m angry…It’s really inhumane….To quarantine everyone, in case, you know, when you cannot predict who may develop Ebola or not, and to make me stay for 21 days, to not be with my family, to put me through this emotional and physical stress, is completely unacceptable. I feel like my basic human rights have been violated. To put me through this emotional and physical stress is completely unacceptable.

She also criticizes Chris Christie:

I heard from my mother last night who called me concerned and said, Governor Christie just said in an interview that you were quote-unquote ‘obviously ill’. And this is so frustrating to me. First of all, I don’t think he’s a doctor. And secondly, he’s never laid eyes on me. And thirdly, I have been asymptomatic since I’ve been here. I feel physically completely strong and emotionally completely exhausted. But for him to say I’m ‘obviously ill’, which is even a strange thing, that, what does that mean? Someone define that for me, because I think I don’t quite understand what ‘obviously ill’ means.

Writes op-ed critical of quarantine

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Hickox writes an op-ed for the Dallas Morning News about her quarantine:

I am scared about how health care workers will be treated at airports when they declare that they have been fighting Ebola in West Africa. I am scared that, like me, they will arrive and see a frenzy of disorganization, fear and, most frightening, quarantine.

Frantic search for experimental drug

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ebola-drug-searchCity health officials send out an email marked URGENT asking if New York area hospitals, researchers and pharmacies have supplies of the experimental Ebola drug Brincidofovir. It’s not clear if the drug was obtained. Email:

The drug would presumably be under the jurisdiction of your investigational drug or research area. If you do have this drug, please contact Dr. Scott Harper at DOHMH as soon as possible.

Bowling alley, meatball shop face uncertainty

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The businesses that Spencer visited say they are concerned over how customers will react. Todd Powers, the owner of The Gutter, has hired a cleaning crew at his own expense although the CDC said he could reopen the business immediately. Powers:

Once that’s taken care of, we’ll open the doors to the public and we hope the mayor and governor come down and bowl.

City officials visited The Gutter and The Meatball Shop, in Greenwich Village, which Spencer visited, in order to reassure the public there is no risk. He also visited the Blue Bottle Coffee on High Line park.

ACLU: Constitutional concerns

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The ACLU raises questions over the legality of the quarantine orders in New York and New Jersey after Hickox is quarantined. ACLU:

We understand the importance of protecting the public from an Ebola outbreak [but the mandatory isolation rules] raise serious constitutional concerns about the state abusing its police powers by detaining people who are exhibiting no Ebola symptoms.

Race to decontaminate apartment

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Decontaminate ApartmentCity officials are rushing to decontaminate the New York building where Spencer was living. Police moved people back around 9:15 am as two officers with the Sanitation Department’s Environmental Police Unit arrived on the scene and entered the building through a side entrance. They were joined by several people in plain clothes who exited a truck belonging to the Bio-Recovery Corporation, a full service crime scene cleanup and bio remediation company.

Seventh district City Council member Mark Levine:

Today we’re expecting a specialized crew [to] come in full protective gear and will clean and sterilize Dr. [Craig] Spencer’s apartment for signs of bodily fluid. [Officials will] confiscate material that might have come into contact with his body such as sheets and pillowcases and bath towels and toothbrushes.

Addressing the crowd:

We’ve had neighbors understandably concerned that live right across the street, maybe they live down the hall, maybe they’ve seen him in the local bodega and they’re worried. But the truth is and the facts they need to understand are they’re really not at risk.

Enters next phase of illness

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Spencer experiences gastrointestinal symptoms. He is awake and communicating. Bellevue:

In addition to the required supportive therapy, we initiated antiviral therapy within hours of admission. We also administered plasma therapy yesterday. These therapies have been used at Emory and Nebraska.

Dines at restaurant visited by Spencer

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New York City Mayor De Blasio, his wife his wife Chirlane McCray, and New York City Health Commissioner Mary Bassett dine at The Meatball Shop in West Village, a restaurant visited by Spencer before he was diagnosed with Ebola. The restaurant reopens to a packed house after being closed for a brief time following Spencer’s visit. De Blasio:

We are not only resilient, we are not only tough, we stand by each other. It’s an example of how New Yorkers deal with a challenge.

24 Oct, 2014

Staffers call in sick

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A high number of staffers Bellevue call in sick after Spencer tests positive, and those who do show up are too terrified to enter the isolation chamber. Source:

The nurses on the floor are miserable with a ‘why me?’ attitude, scared to death and overworked because all their co-workers called out sick.

Temperature 100.3, not 103

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Gov. Cuomo says Spencer’s temperature was 100.3 degrees, not 103 degrees as previously reported. When he went out bowling and to a restaurant, he:

obviously felt he wasn’t symptomatic

Cuomo also says Spencer ‘went out in a limited way’.

Quarantined

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The health worker is quarantined at University Hospital after recording a high temperature. She doesn’t show Ebola symptoms but is isolated under the mandatory isolation rules after revealing that she has been in Sierra Leone and had contact with Ebola patients. She is the first person to be quarantined under the rules.

Mandatory quarantine stepped up

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New York and New Jersey have introduced stricter rules under which state officials will establish a risk level by considering the countries that people have visited and their level of possible exposure. Patients with the highest level of possible exposure will be automatically quarantined for 21 days at a government-regulated facility. They include anyone having direct contact with a person infected with Ebola while in Liberia, Guinea, or Sierra Leone. Those with a lower risk will be monitored for temperature and symptoms. City health departments will determine their own specific procedures for hospitalization and quarantine, and will provide a daily recap to state officials on the status of screening. Gov. Cuomo:

We believe it’s appropriate to increase the current screening procedures from people coming from affected countries … We believe it within the State of New York and the State of New Jersey’s legal rights.

‘Epidemic of fear’

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The Department of Health and Human Services says public fear is worse than the virus. Testimony to House Oversight and Government Reform Committee:

Ebola is a dangerous disease, but there is hardly a reason for panic. There is an epidemic of fear, but not of Ebola, in the United States.