U.S. News, etc....

[LucyL]

Lucy, does this mean it would be good to carry a small bottle of mouthwash to apply to exposed skin if on a plane or somewhere we might be exposed? Or is mouthwash not strong enough?

The advantage to chlorhexidine gluconate (hibiclens is the popular brand name you can buy at walgreens etc.) is that if left on the skin it will act as a coating and continue to kill stuff for up to 6 hours. If you use soap or alcohol hand sanitizers they will counteract the chlorhexidine and you would then have to reapply. I don't know if a chlorhexidine based mouthwash would have some other agent that would inactivate the long term protective effect. For example you can buy hand wipes that are a combination of chlorhexidine and alcohol, which will kill just about everything, but don't provide the long-term effect.

The thing about ebola is you really don't want it on your skin. By the time you kill it after-the-fact, with a wipe or something, it may be too late.

This page has some good information about how it functions - http://chlorhexidinefacts.com/mechanism-of-action.html

 

[Blossom]

It's starting. I think we will see more in the coming days. I told my office mate last week that I thought new cases would start to surface by the 15th of this month. I just based that on 3 weeks from the date Mr. Duncan was initially sent home from the ER.

So it should be spreading to Europe soon via the Spanish woman who contracted it 2-3 weeks ago from the missionaries who died

I was speculating based on the sloppy handling of the situation here in the U.S.(and the incubation period). I hope it will be different in Europe but I suppose only time will tell.

 

[aquaman]

It's starting. I think we will see more in the coming days. I told my office mate last week that I thought new cases would start to surface by the 15th of this month. I just based that on 3 weeks from the date Mr. Duncan was initially sent home from the ER.

So it should be spreading to Europe soon via the Spanish woman who contracted it 2-3 weeks ago from the missionaries who died

I was speculating based on the sloppy handling of the situation here in the U.S.(and the incubation period). I hope it will be different in Europe but I suppose only time will tell.

The nurse who was treating the Ebola carrier, turned up to hospital running a fever, and they sent her home with paracetamol, to be with her husband and dog for a few days. Then they tested her a few days later and found she had it, after she'd come in close contact with a bunch of people inside and outside the hospital. So... not handled much better

 

[aquaman]

Actually it was 6 days after she first reported mild fever. Then this:

" She was then transported in an ambulance by paramedics not dressed in protective clothing to the emergency department of the Alcorcón hospital.

Once there, after reportedly waiting some time in a busy waiting room, she informed medics that she feared she may have contracted the Ebola virus.

"The nurses who dealt with me were wearing normal clothes without any protection when they took me to hospital," Mrs Romero told El País.

Hospital staff at Alcorcón have complained that the patient was left in an improvised isolation area marked off by a curtained screen and security tape.

Finally, six hours after tests confirmed she was infected with Ebola, she was transferred in a specialist ambulance to the isolation unit set up at Carlos III hospital where the missionaries had been treated.

Some of the 84 people now under observation by Madrid health authorities are those she had contact with at her local hospital, others are family and friends with whom she had close contact with while feeling unwell, and the remainder those who also treated the repatriated missionaries. "

 

[Blossom]

Sounds like that situation wasn't handled any better than the one in the U.S.

 

[charlie]

Dedicated Ebola Hospitals Sought After Nurse’s Infection

U.S. and local health officials want to set up dedicated hospitals in each state for Ebola patients, part of a new emphasis on safety for health-care workers after a nurse caring for an infected patient in Dallas tested positive for the virus.

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-10-1 ... ction.html

 

[Philomath]

It's starting. I think we will see more in the coming days. I told my office mate last week that I thought new cases would start to surface by the 15th of this month. I just based that on 3 weeks from the date Mr. Duncan was initially sent home from the ER.

The ebola virus is an enveloped virus, which means chlorhexidine gluconate will kill it. If for some reason a person found themselves in an area of potential exposure, and inadequate protection, coating any exposed skin with chlorhexidine gluconate would be very important.

Found this on Amazon and just like the pet aspirin that is better than human aspirin, here is pet chlorohexidine gluconate 2% that's better than hibiclense:
http://www.amazon.com/Chlorhexidine-2%2 ... +gluconate
I assume this is an acceptable hand wash but are you saying it could be left on the skin? Or does it stay on the skin after rinsing. Most everything says to rinse thoroughly after application.

 

[Philomath]

By better I mean a lot less expensive and without some of the extra additives

 

[Blossom]

By better I mean a lot less expensive and without some of the extra additives

I'm touched by your thoughtfulness.
I must say I feel better informed on how to protect myself with all the valuable information I received from the forum. I'm sure I could have researched all this and figured it out but it has been so nice to have others freely offer up such helpful and potentially life saving information. I truly hope I never have to use it but it's always best to be prepared. I can't thank everyone enough.

 

[gummybear]

 

[Blossom]

I sure hope it stays that way!

 

[charlie]

I sure hope it stays that way!

I just read that we are at 4447 now. And the WHO said they expect 10,000 cases a week soon, with a 70% kill rate..... :?

 

[charlie]

Article goes into some detail about how the ebola virus progresses in a patient and also about viral loads and such.

Questions Rise on Preparations at Hospitals to Deal With Ebola

“Usually, an individual is not sick for three to five days after the onset of symptoms, which will fool you,” Dr. Ribner said. “You say, ‘Oh, you’re not going to be that sick.’ Then, around Day 5 to 7, they really crash. Their blood pressure goes down, they become stuporous to unresponsive, and they start to have renal and liver failure. This correlates with the enormous viral load, which is just attacking every organ in the body.”

Ebola patients lose enormous amounts of fluid from diarrhea and vomiting, as much as five to 10 quarts a day during the worst phase of the illness, which lasts about a week. Doctors struggle to rehydrate them, replace lost electrolytes and treat bleeding problems. Some patients need dialysis and ventilators.

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/10/14/us/qu ... -ipad&_r=0

 

[Blossom]

Article goes into some detail about how the ebola virus progresses in a patient and also about viral loads and such.

Questions Rise on Preparations at Hospitals to Deal With Ebola

“Usually, an individual is not sick for three to five days after the onset of symptoms, which will fool you,” Dr. Ribner said. “You say, ‘Oh, you’re not going to be that sick.’ Then, around Day 5 to 7, they really crash. Their blood pressure goes down, they become stuporous to unresponsive, and they start to have renal and liver failure. This correlates with the enormous viral load, which is just attacking every organ in the body.”

Ebola patients lose enormous amounts of fluid from diarrhea and vomiting, as much as five to 10 quarts a day during the worst phase of the illness, which lasts about a week. Doctors struggle to rehydrate them, replace lost electrolytes and treat bleeding problems. Some patients need dialysis and ventilators.

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/10/14/us/qu ... -ipad&_r=0

I really think the idea of designated hospitals is for more than just to protect healthcare workers. By phrasing it that way it gives the unspoken impression that it is really only healthcare workers at risk. It will be a form of quarantine which I think is highly appropriate but just as much to protect other patients as medical staff. Most ICU's are run with minimal staff to increase profits/save money. This is no disease where corners can be cut. If a worker has 10 people on ventilator life support that staff member can only be taking care of one person at any given time. The common way hospital acquired infections occur is from healthcare workers not either having time or taking the time to observe basic hand hygiene between patients. In an ICU where seconds count the choice often comes down to washing your hands for the proper length of time or saving someone's life because the ventilator has become disconnected or something similar. Our system is currently set up for breaches in infection control but now instead of spreading c-diff, mrsa ect. it could be Ebola which is much more deadly. I'm all for these decision makers taking this very seriously and hope they do so quickly.

 

[gummybear]

I sure hope it stays that way!

I just read that we are at 4447 now. And the WHO said they expect 10,000 cases a week soon, with a 70% kill rate..... :?

http://www.businessweek.com/news/2014-1 ... ses-a-week

Not really that alarming but still not so good.

The number of Ebola cases in three West African nations may jump to between 5,000 and 10,000 a week by Dec.

 

[charlie]

WHO: Ebola 'out of control' in West Africa
Admits some patients take longer than 21 days to show symptoms

NEW YORK – The World Health Organization announced Tuesday that while the Ebola epidemic appears to have been stopped in Senegal and Nigeria, the disease remains “out of control” in Guinea, Sierra Leone and Liberia

WHO further disclosed that the incubation period for the current strain of Ebola could be longer than 21 days, meaning some people infected with the virus might not show symptoms until later than previously reported.

“Recent studies conducted in West Africa have demonstrated that 95 percent of confirmed cases have an incubation period in the range of one to 21 days; 98 percent have an incubation period that falls within the one to 42 day interval,” the WHO report disclosed.

http://www.wnd.com/2014/10/who-ebola-ou ... st-africa/

 

[charlie]

Ebola research: Fever not a surefire sign of infection

Yet the largest study of the current outbreak found that in nearly 13% of "confirmed and probable" cases in Liberia, Sierra Leone, Guinea and elsewhere, those infected did not have fevers.

The study, sponsored by the World Health Organization and published online late last month by the New England Journal of Medicine, analyzed data on 3,343 confirmed and 667 probable cases of Ebola.

The finding that 87.1% of those infected exhibited fever — but 12.9% did not — illustrates the challenges confronting health authorities as they struggle to contain the epidemic.

http://www.latimes.com/nation/la-na-101 ... tml#page=1

 

[charlie]

Nurses at Texas hospital: ‘There were no protocols’ about Ebola

– After expressing concerns that their necks were exposed even as they wore protective gear, the nurses were told to wrap their necks with medical tape, the union says. “They were told to use medical tape and had to use four to five pieces of medical tape wound around their neck. The nurses have expressed a lot of concern about how difficult it is to remove the tape from their neck,” Burger said.

http://fox8.com/2014/10/14/nurses-at-te ... out-ebola/

 

[Blossom]

Ridiculous, but not surprising.

 

[LucyL]

Second Dallas Healthcare worker has tested positive.
http://www.breitbart.com/system/wire/ap ... 1a4a14c60e