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What you're proposing we should have done doesn't make rational sense. HIV isn't detectable except via testing. If you quarantined everyone who tested positive for HIV, they would have stopped seeking testing to find out if they had HIV, and the virus would have spread further than it did. My sister was the director for the local chapter of the Aids Project, and I volunteered and helped people who had AIDS back when people were treating them like lepers. So don't think for a moment that quarantine would have worked for HIV. Education, awareness and compassion is what worked in slowing the progression. The majority of the people who are contracting HIV today are idiots who don't follow protocol for how to protect themselves. It's an easy disease to avoid. And it is significantly declining. We need to keep focusing on education and awareness.
Say what you want. The only reason isolation wasnt used was because of the political ramifications involved.
Early on, it was known that bath houses were a breeding ground for anything but babies. You make it sound as if no one knew anything about how HIV was being transmitted. It was known. Education? Oh please, there was such a taboo to even mention that multiple partner sex was a primary vector for transmission. Just how did HIV spread so rapidly in the homosexual community, through shaking hands? It was known, just that to say it meant getting out in the open what was really going on and who was doing it, knowing that a certain segment of the population was the vector to other segments.
It was easy to avoid when it first started too. While it wasn't going to be eradicated, we didn't take the necessary steps to reduce the impact it had and how many people paid with their lives because of political sensibilities?
We are quarantining Ebola patients aren't we? Did we do that with HIV? No way and we all know why, at least those who will say it know.
If Ebola was primarily within the homosexual community today what do you think would happen? You bet, oh no, can't do that, such a stigma. New flash, when you have a communicable disease that is deadly, you are stigmatized and there are no two ways about it. Doing anything but everything to stop it only kills people and haven't we done enough of that already?
Last edited by Mack Knife; 10-06-2014 at 12:29 PM..
Reason: First sentence, wasn't instead of was.
The epidemic snowballed because it reached a city; before now, it was pretty isolated in small villages in the bush. Once it reached the city, conditions included lots of people living in small spaces, complete lack of healthcare workers Per this source, there are only 120 doctors in Liberia. For a population of 4.4 million people.
Contact tracing - the proven way to stop the epidemics - isn't fully effective because in many cities there isn't even a consistent method for assigning addresses. It can be very, very difficult to find someone.
Add to this the superstitions that led many in the area to denounce the very existance of the virus (including, ironically, Patrick Sawyer, who brought the disease to Nigeria). It was a perfect storm.
Contact tracing - the proven way to stop the epidemics - isn't fully effective because in many cities there isn't even a consistent method for assigning addresses. It can be very, very difficult to find someone.
Suzie posted an article last night a few pages back interviewing a doctor who survived ebola. He says Liberia is doing ZERO contract tracing. Nobody even asked him for his contacts, and he's a doctor and had contact with hundreds and hundreds of people. He said the country just doesn't have the manpower to do it.
Suzie posted an article last night a few pages back interviewing a doctor who survived ebola. He says Liberia is doing ZERO contract tracing. Nobody even asked him for his contacts, and he's a doctor and had contact with hundreds and hundreds of people. He said the country just doesn't have the manpower to do it.
You're right.
If they were then Duncan would have been contacted when the pregnant girl died.
But he wasn't.
The reason why though is that they are so overwhelmed with ebola patients the system has broken down.
They can't even take the patients in for treatment never mind ask who they've been in contact with.
And that's only if these people admit they might have ebola.
The epidemic snowballed because it reached a city; before now, it was pretty isolated in small villages in the bush. Once it reached the city, conditions included lots of people living in small spaces, complete lack of healthcare workers Per this source, there are only 120 doctors in Liberia. For a population of 4.4 million people.
Contact tracing - the proven way to stop the epidemics - isn't fully effective because in many cities there isn't even a consistent method for assigning addresses. It can be very, very difficult to find someone.
Add to this the superstitions that led many in the area to denounce the very existance of the virus (including, ironically, Patrick Sawyer, who brought the disease to Nigeria). It was a perfect storm.
We don't have those conditions in this country.
The conditions we do have in this country is what is allowing Ebola to get into this country.
You can't find dead people unless it is by chance.
We have done little to nothing to keep Ebola within the source countries. Yes, we could if we wanted to.
Instead, we fly them here from there. We have the capacity to treat infected Americans right where they are. We are deliberately bring them here just so we can say they got treated at our fine hospitals and voila, problem solved.
Here is the thing, there are only so many hospital beds. This gets out and it won't matter how effective we think our health care system is. Like a war, if there are too many of the enemy, you run out of bullets and then it doesn't matter how good your equipment is.
The conditions we do have in this country is what is allowing Ebola to get into this country.
You can't find dead people unless it is by chance.
We have done little to nothing to keep Ebola within the source countries. Yes, we could if we wanted to.
Instead, we fly them here from there. We have the capacity to treat infected Americans right where they are. We are deliberately bring them here just so we can say they got treated at our fine hospitals and voila, problem solved.
Here is the thing, there are only so many hospital beds. This gets out and it won't matter how effective we think our health care system is. Like a war, if there are too many of the enemy, you run out of bullets and then it doesn't matter how good your equipment is.
And even less "ebola isolation units".
The CDC is fielding over 800 calls per day on ebola symptoms.
Imagine if there is an outbreak how many non ebola patients would be showing up thinking they had ebola and demanding tests ?
Suzie posted an article last night a few pages back interviewing a doctor who survived ebola. He says Liberia is doing ZERO contract tracing. Nobody even asked him for his contacts, and he's a doctor and had contact with hundreds and hundreds of people. He said the country just doesn't have the manpower to do it.
The doctor in the article is in Congo, not Liberia. The outbreak there was much smaller.
The doctor did say he was not asked about contacts, but he isolated himself in his home near the hospital when he became symptomatic. I would hope he would volunteer the names of contacts, perhaps even notify them himself, rather than waiting to be asked. Every healthcare worker who treats Ebola is by definition a contact.
The outbreak in the Congo appears to be coming under control. As of Oct 1, the last confirmed case had been about 10 days prior, though there are still contacts in the incubation time window.
Last edited by suzy_q2010; 10-06-2014 at 01:03 PM..
Instead, we fly them here from there. We have the capacity to treat infected Americans right where they are. We are deliberately bring them here just so we can say they got treated at our fine hospitals and voila, problem solved.
What on earth makes you think we have the capacity to treat Americans in Liberia to the standards they can receive in the US? They are not providing the same quality of care in Liberia. I'm glad the United States brings its own people home for quality treatment instead of leaving them in the bush to fend for themselves.
What on earth makes you think we have the capacity to treat Americans in Liberia to the standards they can receive in the US? They are not providing the same quality of care in Liberia. I'm glad the United States brings its own people home for quality treatment instead of leaving them in the bush to fend for themselves.
On that point, I agree, but noncitizens like Duncan will encourage further medical refugees.
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