Ebola and other Epidemics, Inadequate Healthcare Threatens Millions

[Martim Silva]

Now they want to kill the couple's dog 

http://politica.elpais.com/politica/2014/10/07/actualidad/1412691591_113101.html

The husband posted a facebook appeal to the population to save the family's dog, because the authorities asked him for his permission to kill it. He refused, noting that before leaving they left him food and water for several days, and the varanda open so he can do his needs.

Now the chief of Health in Madrid said he would ask the court for a judicial order so that they could go inside and kill the dog.

He posted the dog's photo:

[jimmy olsen]

I don't think they can get infected unless it eats a dead body.

[CountDeMoney]

I don't think they can get infected unless it eats a dead body.

Thank you, Dr. Douchebag.

[jimmy olsen]

Ebola burial crews on strike in Sierra Leone over unpaid hazard pay. I can't blame 'em, but this is just real bad news with regards to containment.

http://in.reuters.com/article/2014/10/07/us-health-ebola-leone-idINKCN0HW21U20141007

[Martinus]

I guess the problem with predictions that Ebola has no chance of spreading in the civilised West is that they are based on a false assumption that the West does not include places like Spain, Romania, Poland or Texas. 

[jimmy olsen]

It really does sound post apocalyptic.

http://www.nbcnews.com/storyline/ebola-virus-outbreak/runaway-doctors-missing-supplies-cripple-care-ebola-hit-liberia-n220686

http://news.sky.com/story/1349325/ebola-dead-abandoned-on-streets-after-strike

[Tamas]

Spanish hospital is separating ebola-suspect cases.

Like this:

[Liep]

That should be good enough, if a little impromptu.

[Grey Fox]

It's not airborne?

Are you ready to die? Have you made your peace with your god?

[Tamas]

That should be good enough, if a little impromptu.

Enough when their blood and puke starts flowing all over the place?

[celedhring]

The particular case depicted in the photo was chalked and confirmed as a negative, anyhow.

[Liep]

That should be good enough, if a little impromptu.

Enough when their blood and puke starts flowing all over the place?

Well, as long as it's still a suspect case they shouldn't be spouting liquids all over the place. And I hope for Spain that they have actual isolation rooms if that time comes.

[celedhring]

That should be good enough, if a little impromptu.

Enough when their blood and puke starts flowing all over the place?

Well, as long as it's still a suspect case they shouldn't be spouting liquids all over the place. And I hope for Spain that they have actual isolation rooms if that time comes.

That's what I mean, it was a nurse that worked with the infected one that developed a slight fever; it wasn't considered a probable case given the incubation times didn't match, but she was tested all the same. They are going through all people that have been in contact with the infected nurse and keeping them under medical surveillance, but they can't reasonably put them all in isolation rooms - nor it seems reasonable.

Not to say that we haven't botched this; lot of medical workers are complaining about lack of effective training and overall readiness.

[The Larch]

Every news piece that appears regarding the management of the outbreak in Madrid is more cringe worthy than the last. This must be the most shambolic management of a health crisis ever. If the world collapses in a zombie apocallipse it'll be because of our own ineptitude. So far we know:

- That the infected nurse was only tested for ebola at her own insistence, after being originally told to report to her local hospital for treatment, where she spent almost a whole day, instead of going directly to the hospital where she was working.
- That she knew she was infected from the news, not because it was officially communicated to her.
- That she was taken to hospital in a normal ambulance by unprotected operatives.
- That her appartment was only dissinfected today, even after neighbours had been trying to get help from the police and local authorities for several days.
- That her husband, who is also isolated in hospital, hasn't even been tested for ebola yet because he doesn't show any symptoms.
- That the original protocol for personnel that had been in contact with ebola patients was only to check their temperature twice per day and report if they had any fever.
- That the family dog will be put down even after experts ask for it to be quarantined so it can be studied and the role of animals in the transmission of ebola be better understood.
- That the first public hospital (La Paz) to be designed as reference for ebola was rejected because staff filed a formal complaint in court claiming it was unsuitable. Then another public hospital (Carlos III) got provisionally designed while a military hospital was equipped. The Carlos III, which used to be the national reference hospital for infectious diseases and pandemics, had been stripped of this status (halting staff training and drills in infectious diseases and) last year, as well as of laboratory and intensive care unit because it was transitioning to being a short stay hospital for the elderly. Hospital managers, when the second ebola victim brought back to Spain died in september, halted the adaptation of the hospital rooms devoted to patient isolation in order not to interfere with the refurbishing being done for the transition to short stay hospital.
- That official protocols were altered by the hospital management to adapt them to the infrastructural deficiencies of the hospital.
- That there was only one proper level 4 isolation suit that personnel should be using to deal with the sick, and it was only used for training purposes (which were only 45 minute sessions on how to wear them). Personnel were only given level 2 isolation suits, which are only suitable to deal with less infectious diseases like salmonella, influenza or smallpox.
- That more sanitary personnel had to be brought from La Paz hospital to the Carlos III hospital to work with ebola patients and were given no training whatsoever, under threats from the administrators if they refused. They had to be trained on the job by the undertrained personnel from the Carlos III.
- That high risk patients suspected to be infected are not taken into hospital through the standard route but through a basement where the kitchen and cafeteria are located, mingling in the way with staff and families of patients that use those premises, all in order to avoid being seen by the media camped outside the hospital.

This just shows what a terrible decision it was to repatriate the two sick missionaries and bring them here, when we didn't have the proper facilities to treat them.

[The Larch]

Apparently the Spanish government tried to procure some doses of the experimental drug that proved to cure ebola patients when the missionaries were repatriated but it was said that there weren't any doses left anywhere in the world and it would take a long time to make some more. Now apparently the Norwegian government has been able to get some to treat the MSF Norwegian volunteer affected by ebola who has been repatriated recently.