Harborview volunteers to treat possible Ebola patients (Seattle: living, safety)

[Arushan]

No Ebola evacuees expected immediately, but hospital taking steps in case

SEATTLE —
Health officials announced that Harborview Medical Center is ready for American Ebola patients from West Africa.
At a news conference Monday morning, officials said Harborview is not only ready to manage an Ebola case, but the facility is also prepared to accept U.S. Ebola patients who are infected overseas and medically evacuated to the U.S.
Officials said Harborview is not the local or regional Ebola hospital, but they expect all facilities to be prepared.
“I think all hospitals have to be aware that we have a small world. People travel, so any hospital could have someone who has traveled to an endemic area,” said Timothy Dellit, Associate Medical Director, Harborview Medical Center.
There are no patients on the way at this time.


More:

Harborview will accept U.S. Ebola victims evacuated from West Afr | www.kirotv.com

Makes be a little uneasy, but preparation is necessary.

[EvilCookie]

Being prepared is great, but volunteering to bring it over here???
We all saw how great the medical protocol worked in Dallas.

I really really hope they won't be getting patients, but this is making me very upset. I believe the people living here should have had a choice in a decision like that. Have a vote or something. It's very disturbing that they are essentially placing the entire public at risk just to win some accolades for themselves, and no one has a say. Scary.

[sean98125]

Harborview has the resources to handle these patients, and it's better to have emergency management in the county ready to recognize these patients early on.

[Garethe]

Originally Posted by sean98125

Harborview has the resources to handle these patients, and it's better to have emergency management in the county ready to recognize these patients early on.

Exactly! I can't think of a finer facility than Harborview, I've been using their clinics/hospitals for years.

[perigee]

Would anyone be concerned if Harborview volunteered to treat patients with AIDS or Hepatitis, no, because we know that they already do and they can safely handle blood borne pathogens. Ebola is spread through blood and bodily fluids, it's spreading quickly in developing nations because they don't have the resources that our medical community has.

While you might think that victims die in a gush of blood similar to staking a vampire on True Blood (guilty of watching the first season), it's far less dramatic then that, it's more similar to dying from internal bleeding. As long as health care workers employ Universal Precautions, and yes they'll take the extra step and wear the moon suits (poor suckers, it gets wicked hot in there), and use an isolation room (negative pressure room that keeps the air from leaking out) there is basically no chance of it spreading to the community.

Yeah, yeah Ebola is a biosafety level 4, the highest, but it's not going to become airborne anymore then Hep C will, no matter what Hollywood may say (I'm looking at you Outbreak) and we've already have had a couple of Ebola outbreaks in the this country, even one outside of Washington D.C., but they were confined to monkeys and somehow we didn't all die.

Be more worried about drug resistant Tuberculous, though not worried enough to keep you up.