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Who would believe this? A doctor just back from helping to treat Ebola patients in Africa returns to New York, has no fever of symptoms, but goes out bowling and then, the next night, Thursday, tests positive for Ebola? How could this be? How could it be that people are so stupid that they don’t realize that a few clear days after having been close to Ebola doesn’t mean you are disease free?
This is a replay of the Dallas nurse flying around the country, except this time the man was in the nation’s largest metro area, New York. What happens next? Of course, he will be isolated and treated and then there will be, there is, a frantic effort to track down all the people with whom he might have been in close contact over the last 24 to 36 hours. In the best case, the man stopped circulating immediate when his symptoms appeared and no one else has been infected. In the worst case, he didn’t and was in close physical contact with 10 to even 50 or more people. If the latter is the case, then there will be a lot of trouble over the next three weeks while this is waited out. (Remember that the African man who died in Dallas did not infect anyone in his immediate family, nor his bride to be or, as far as we know, anyone else.)
It is abundantly clear that this disease is not getting the response it deserves. Anyone, everyone, who has been in close contact with the disease is going to have to be isolated for three weeks, which is what the man in question in New York should have done with himself on his return from Africa. These matters will no longer be left to individual discretion. They are going to have to be addressed by civil authorities, court orders if necessary and examinations before any at high risk is allowed to go out in public again.
One case, a new one, coming back from Africa is not surprising. The potential of spreading it to others is not acceptable, ever.
Doug Terry, 10.24.14
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