Honestly, the best thing would be to transport Ebola patients in a private plane with an isolation suite to one of the four hospitals set up to deal with the disease if they wanted to be super-cautious but I doubt it's really necessary, given Ebola is a wimpy virus off its host and begins to die within 30 minutes and is easily killed using rubbing alcohol, disinfectants, soap and water, UV light, heat, etc.

Until then, off the top of my head, given the scenario of a biohazard spill, I'd imagine you immediately cover the bodily fluids on the floor with fluid-impermeable sheeting and move everyone away from the bodily fluids in the environment, contain what's coming from the patient as much as possible with impermeable sheeting, push the Stop button on the elevator if you were in one, while another attendant calls Security and the Biohazard Team to official close down the elevator, room, hallway, etc., until the biohazard cleaning crew can fetch fresh headgear, cover gowns/protective footwear, gloves for all in the party and put down CDC-approved protective sheet material for the transport party to walk on to a safe room where the patient, attendants and all equipment can be cleaned, disinfected and the waste products of protective suits, materials all be disposed of per CDC guidelines. Take care of the patient as usual then. And then the reporting and paperwork start and everybody gets questioned over and over and monitored and then more paperwork.

And that's just off the top of my head - surely far better minds have worked on the protocols and offered exhaustive training for years in how to keep safe from contagious and infectious pathogen hazards about clinics and hospitals.

All hospitals and large clinics are set up for this. It's basic stuff since AIDS, SARS, hantavirus and H1N1, etc. How have they all stayed safe in America and other first world countries this far if they are so slack? One mistake in a history/diagnosis doesn't create an epidemic, especially with the contact tracking being done by the CDC and now that all are super vigilant, even the worst of healthcare facilities will pick up the pace.

I worry about with flu season coming in that we are either going to be over cautious and hospitals filled with people they think could have Ebola or not cautious at all and just think everyone has the flu.

Every hypoconrdiac will be at the ER with a case of Ebola. :rolleyes:

Ebola: doomsday disease

http://www.svj.hvu.nl/mediahype/risk...s/stsl_bnr.gifhttp://www.svj.hvu.nl/mediahype/risk...s/stsl_bar.gif

Ebola: how the media create unnecessary hysteria


By: Tim van den Berg



Ebola was pictured by western media as a disease that could soon travel to Europe or the US and kill millions of people. This was quite exaggerated, since Ebola has never caused many victims and is not as dangerous as in a Hollywood movie like Outbreak. The media were merely trying to get the attention of readers and viewers, and hence created useless hysteria.
What is Ebola?
Ebola was first discovered in Zaire (by now the Republic of Congo) and southern Sudan in 1976 (WHO, 2000). It is named after the river Ebola in he north of the country, where it first appeared and killed 300 people around the village of Yambuku (CNN, December 9, 1995). After that there were only a few known outbreaks among humans: again in Sudan in 1979, in Ivory Coast and Zaire in 1995, in Gabon in 1996, in 2000 in Uganda, in 2001 in Gabon and Congo and again this year in the Republic of Congo. But in none of the cases did the death toll come above 300.

Ebola Haemorrhagic Fever is characterized by the sudden onset of fever, weakness, muscle pain, headache and a sore throat. This is followed by vomiting, diarrhea, rash, limited kidney and liver functions, and both internal and external bleeding (WHO, 2000). It’s transmitted by direct contact with the blood, secretions, organs or semen of infected persons. Transmission of Ebola has often occurred by handling ill or dead chimpanzees or attending sick patients. The disease has effect on monkeys and humans (although not all Ebola-types) and has caused death in 50 to 90 percent of all cases. Until today there is no treatment or vaccine for it.


What is Ebola according to the media?
Although Ebola was already discovered in 1976, it didn’t become well known until the epidemic in Ivory Coast and Congo (then still called Zaire) in 1995. In the same year, the Hollywood movie Outbreak was released. This blockbuster about an Ebola-like virus erupting in the United States, made the western world think about the possible risk of Ebola (Moeller, 1998). Suddenly, it wasn’t an innocent African problem anymore, but a possible threat to the whole world.

In their means to get the readers attention, the media tended to make more of Ebola then it really was. So-called scientists claiming that Ebola could be handed over by just a handshake or that it might get airborne (like in the movie Outbreak) were being quoted more and more. Terms like ‘the ultimate horror’, a ‘doomsday disease’, the ‘apocalypse bug’ and a ‘biological Satan’ were the new spectacular names (Moeller, 1998). Also, the way patients suffered from Ebola became a new trend. Richard Preston wrote a whole ‘facts-based’ book about ‘the danger’ of Ebola: The hot spot. He describes the development of the disease as follows:

...The red spots on the skin grow and spread and merge to become huge, spontaneous bruises, and the skin goes soft and pulpy, and can tear off if it is touched with any kind of pressure. Your mouth bleeds, and you bleed around your teeth, and you may have haemorrhages from the salivary glands -- literally every opening in the body bleeds no matter how small...The surface of the tongue turns brilliant red and then sloughs off, and...maybe be torn off during rushes of the black vomit...Your heart bleeds into itself; the heart muscle softens and has haemorrhages into its chambers, and the blood squeezes out of the heart muscle as the heart beats... (Preston, 1995)

This Hollywood-like description is typical for the way a lot of media pictured Ebola: the more spectacular, the more readers. Even the highly rated program Nightline, opened an item on Ebola with a clip from Outbreak (Moeller, 1998), making it harder for their viewers to see the difference between the not-so-dangerous reality and apocalyptic fiction.

How hysteria could rule the media
In total, 244 people died during the Ebola-outbreak in Congo in 1995. The 2000-outbreak in Uganda caused 173 deaths. During these epidemics however, media were picturing a disease that was quickly spreading across the African continent and would soon be heading towards Europe and the US. Quite exaggerated, for a disease like tuberculosis kills about half a million people each year in sub-Saharan Africa. Almost 700,000 die from malaria each year and 900,000 from diarrhoea (Fumento, 2001). And then there’s also HIV/AIDS, which is said to have infected half the population in some African countries. But those diseases are boring to us: we know them already and they don’t scare us anymore. Ebola is a dramatic and infrequent event, occurs very rare and is yet uncontrollable (Cohl, 1997). Therefore, it’s much more interesting.

Although professional organisations like the WHO and medical experts explained that Ebola was not an airborne virus, many media-sources related to the movie Outbreak, about a lethal airborne-virus. But the technical medical information didn’t seem to have that much impact on the audience (Sandman, 1994). The information also has an opposite effect in some cases: ‘if Ebola isn’t airborne now, maybe it will mutate in the nearby future?’ Besides this, a scary story is just more interesting (Sandman, 1994). That is a reason why CNN called the disease ‘the Apocalypse bug’ and Newsweek had a cover with ‘Killer Virus’ (Fumento, 2001). After all, papers have to be sold and programs have to be watched.

In 1996 there was an outbreak of Ebola on monkey farms in the American towns Reston (Virginia) and Alice (Texas) (WHO, 2000). This was the Ebola Reston-type, which is not dangerous for humans. Imported monkeys from the Philippines brought the disease with them. Eventually all the monkeys were executed and the situation under control, but the media speculated heavily. The four men infected with the disease didn’t get ill, but nobody knew what could happen to them. Their disease was unknown and therefore a perfect story for journalists (Cohl, 1997). Another possible western case was in 2001 in Canada, when a woman returned from a travel to Africa and was mysteriously ill. She had symptoms of Ebola, but not the disease itself. But for a few days, the whole of Northern America was waiting in fear for the results of medical investigation. The media got many extra consumers during those days.


Conclusion
Ebola is used by the media to create a spectacular story about a world-threatening virus, although history and scientists have shown that it is indeed a very deadly disease, it can be transmitted easily, but the disease is so deadly so very quickly, that it destroys itself. The chances for a worldwide epidemic are for that reason nonexistent. In that respect it is not dangerous, but for the African victims it is. But partly because of movies like Outbreak, people just imagine Ebola as a ‘doomsday disease’. The media want to sell, they like rare and exotic viruses and thus tend to exaggerate the potential threat of Ebola. Also, the public doesn’t seem to hear experts who say the disease is not a world-threat and rather see the event as a Hollywood movie. Now Ebola has occurred several times in the last ten years and hasn’t caused many victims, the fear for the virus seems to fade. New diseases like SARS are the new trend. But maybe there is a chance for an Ebola-revival in western media. A case in Europe or the US, or maybe an African outbreak during a period without much news: we can always use some hysteria to make life a little bit more exiting.

Bibliography
CNN-website. CNN.com - Breaking News, U.S., World, Weather, Entertainment & Video News (search for Ebola)
Cohl. H. Aaron - Are we scaring ourselves to death?: how pessimism, paranoia, and a misguided media are leading us towards disaster. New York, St. Martins griffin, 1997
Fumento, Michael – Hysteria strain of Ebola fever. Washington Times, February 8, 2001
Moeller, Susan - Compassion Fatigue: How The Media Sell Disease, Famine, War And Death. New York: Routledge, 1998
Preston, Richard – The hot zone. New York: Anchor Books Doubleday, 1995
Sandman, Peter M. – Mass media and environmental risk: seven principles. Peter Sandman website: Home page, 1994
World Health Organisation (WHO)-website: Ebola Haemorrhagic Fever. WHO | World Health Organization December 2000.

The above article is from 2010, I believe. I just thought it interesting. I really don't blame the people in a panic as much as I do the media for their tabloid reporting of the problem.


I don't believe anyone with malice purposely sets out to get the disease nor transmit it. However he got it we don't know, there is just too much misinformation to get a clear picture. I wish for him a complete recovery, as I do any person suffering from this terrible disease.

I told you I hate it when you pridect my future lol! Just kidding.

dog
 

This ebola virus is enough to get me praying. My daughter is going to a big concert held in Austin, Texas soon and I really do not like the idea of her going. I will pray for her and all the young people attending this concert. All those flying in airplanes and anywhere this horrible virus may be. I feel for this family of the patient critically il and all affected by this. May we see God's healing power come over these sick people and this come to an end.

LOL... so true

I have not read this entire thread but when I saw this, I needed to say that Ebola IS an airborne disease!!

I knew it was just a matter of time before it made it over here.

From everything on the news and the CDC, it's only transmitted through bodily fluids - and they're all saying it's not airborne. Where are you hearing it's airborne? Viruses are capable of mutating into airborne diseases, but apparently the type of virus family that ebola is in doesn't readily/easily mutate to that state. Bc if it does/is, we're in way more trouble.

Apparently Thomas Duncan's doctors did try him on an experimental drug. He must have been fading and the docs getting pretty desperate as a respirator, fluids, dialysis and whatever else they were doing apparently wasn't doing enough. Everyone I know is praying for him and his contacts once he became ill.

Technically, I guess, almost any pathogen can become airborne if it leaves the host and travels through the air and into another host. But non-airborne pathogens have limited flight ability, limited to the velocity and mass of its vehicle while moving through the air as opposed to those that of an aerosolized nature or that can attach to dust motes, particles of pollution, float in air currents and move through the air for considerable distances. Ebola isn't infectious over long distances and can't remain suspended in the air. I heard one epidemiologist say that to become an airborne pathogen, Ebola would have to mutate into a whole different type of virus.

There are reports of specialists saying it 'could' mutate and become airborne, and some sources are saying the CDC and the UN WHO are close to 'admitting it could become airborne.' Very confusing.

I would think there is a big chance it could be otherwise why wear the big totally covering body suits and how are the ones that are being very careful without the body suits getting sick?