Second Ebola Case in Dallas

[Jean in Newcastle]

Lethargy is not a sign that someone is symptomatic.  A fever is and he was monitoring for that.

[Laurie4b]

U.S. soldiers who are returning from Liberia are first being quarantined in Italy.

 

http://www.cbsnews.com/news/ebola-outbreak-u-s-soldiers-returning-from-liberia-placed-in-isolation-in-italy/

 

I just would like some consistency. It seems no one cares about the people quarantined in CT, but NJ is being called out for one nurse. I didn't like the way the quarantine in NJ was handled either, but I still think that in certain cases quarantines are necessary. Is it the concept of mandatory quarantines in general that people don't like, or do people support them if they are handled in a humane way?

 

For myself, I am not against quarantines when they are needed. What I am concerned about is that there seems to be no real reason for quarantining medical workers who are not yet symptomatic. So far, we have not seen anyone get sick from being in contact with them, which is what we have been told is true. (No symptoms, no contagion. Mild symptoms, small possibility of transmission and then only through contact with body fluids.) So, it appears that the quarantines are not necessary.  Where quarantine is necessary (e.g. for the people Duncan had stayed with), it should be humane.

 

I had hoped that the ebola czar would help straighten some of this out, but I guess it just has to ride the pendulum swings until things come to some kind of equilibrium.

[Pawz4me]

It is tough. I don't want mandatory quarantines for everyone, but the doctor who was supposedly self quarantined but went bowling had started to feel lethargic a few days before the bowling. This is a lack of common sense, and it's coming from a doctor, it's reason to give anyone pause.

 

As Jean said, lethargy is not a red flag that someone who has been exposed to Ebola is contagious.  Unless he was running a fever then he was perfectly fine going bowling.  If he was supposed to be self-quarantining (I've forgotten about that, if I ever knew it) then it was voluntary, yes?  It's certainly not "nice" to violate that if he had stated that he was going to self quarantine.  But his decision to go out didn't put anyone in danger.  If there was a real lack of common sense it was in the public over reaction.

 

I think this BBC article nails it regarding our bumbling response to Ebola.

[songsparrow]

For myself, I am not against quarantines when they are needed. What I am concerned about is that there seems to be no real reason for quarantining medical workers who are not yet symptomatic. So far, we have not seen anyone get sick from being in contact with them, which is what we have been told is true. (No symptoms, no contagion. Mild symptoms, small possibility of transmission and then only through contact with body fluids.) So, it appears that the quarantines are not necessary.  Where quarantine is necessary (e.g. for the people Duncan had stayed with), it should be humane.

 

I am curious why you think that quarantine was necessary for the people that Duncan had stayed with, as they were also asymptomatic?

[Twolittleboys]

I am curious why you think that quarantine was necessary for the people that Duncan had stayed with, as they were also asymptomatic?

 

That is a good question and it did take me a minute to figure out why I did agree with the above post when I read it. I think it is because at least at that point (when Duncan's family was put in quarantine) in time it seemed much more likely to me that civilians in intimate contact with a pretty sick person (Mr Duncan seems to have been quite sick the second time he went to the hospital) who didn't know that he had ebola (as I presume they believed the doctor) would catch it than health professionals with experience, training, and proper equipment. It now seems that is not necessarily true as apparently the disease only really spreads once the patient is very sick.

[Laurie4b]

I am curious why you think that quarantine was necessary for the people that Duncan had stayed with, as they were also asymptomatic?

 

That's a good question. I was thinking that they had been exposed much more intimately, but you may be right now that the data is in. I think that I formed a conclusion at the time that they were quarantined that it was necessary (ie that's what I thought at the time) and never really re-thought it, but now that, too, might have been unnecessary as long as officials could monitor them.