My take on Ebola
By: Kendall Haney,
Staff Writer
(original infographic: http://www.cdc.gov/vhf/ebola/pdf/infographic.pdf)
No, I don’t have a Ph.D. in infectious disease control. But, I don’t think I need one to recognize the Center for Disease Control (CDC) propaganda pieces for what they are. In this instance pictured above, they are conducting at best a poor effort at Public Panic Control. At worst, posters such as this one (before my helpful scratch-outs) give vague information that hides CDC definitions of things like ‘airborne,’ and carelessly dismisses very real virus transmission scenarios.
Different sources categorize viruses between those that travel less than six feet in aerosol droplets, and those that travel more than six feet on particles (1, 1a, 2). The CDC recommends protective gear that includes masks, gowns, and gloves for those viruses not considered ‘airborne,’ but rather travel in droplets. Their safety precautions, for health care workers and not the general public, warn against germs that travel within 3 ft. of those working with sick patients.1b For many scientists, the definition of ‘airborne’ is a virus that ‘can travel more than six feet in the air.’ By that definition, Ebola is not airborne, but it is capable of traveling in droplets through the air, landing on surfaces, and surviving for days at a time outside of a person’s body (3). So far, current CDC guidance states that direct contact is needed to pass the virus, but guidelines and information on Ebola is updated regularly (1, 1a, 1b, 2, 3). There exists at least two anecdotal reports that suggest otherwise (see below).
The CDC has maintained that this illness is not spread through food, water, or indirect contact with victim’s bodily fluids. But I can think of someone making you (not me, I don’t let people touch my food) a sandwich. This person coincidently has Ebola, and doesn’t know it yet because the symptoms have just started. This person coughs over your sandwich, and wraps it in paper for you to enjoy later. You eat this double-decker. You quite possibly have contracted Ebola, and you got it from food. Along that same thinking, a food preparer rubs their nose with his hand absently (we’ve all done it once, don’t lie), then puts ice in your drink before washing his hands. Ice melts. It contaminates your drink. You potentially have Ebola.
Still want to go to McDonald’s for lunch? Now consider all the fruits and vegetables lying about uncovered at the grocery store. Someone ill and jet lagged from a long flight overseas comes in rummaging through the tomatoes. Then, you come in and rummage through the tomatoes. Then the person behind you rummages through the tomatoes. It would be so easy to spread germs through unwashed food in a similar way that E. coli epidemics start.
Some people who read ‘my take’ will say I am creating alarm by writing this article. But consider the following statements by Dr. Kent Brantley, an American who miraculously recovered from Ebola recently, and an African nurse in Nigeria who died.
“I never contacted his fluids. I checked his vitals, helped him with his food (he was too weak),” wrote the nurse, Obi Justina Ejelonu. “I basically touched where his hands touched and that’s the only contact. Not directly with his fluids. At a stage, he yanked off his infusion and we had blood everywhere on his bed…But the ward maids took care of that and changed his linens with great precaution.”
Ejelonu soon after tested positive and at last report was critically ill, deep in the horrors of Ebola." (http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2014/08/14/how-bureaucrats-let-ebola-spread-to-nigeria.html)
In his remarks upon leaving the U.S. hospital (in Atlanta) that he had been flown to from Africa for treatment, Brantley remarked, “We also took every precaution to protect ourselves from this dreaded disease by following MSF and WHO guidelines for safety.” (http://www.nbcnews.com/storyline/ebola-virus-outbreak/ebola-survivor-dr-kent-brantlys-full-remarks-god-saved-my-n185956)
The statement “Ebola poses no significant risk in the United States” comes off to me as an insensitive way to reinforce a naïve sense of security just to keep the U.S. public calm. It also fails to acknowledge the coming Ebola economic impact effect for any country that has active transmissions. Yes, Ebola is a significant economic threat to any U.S. business people trying to make money in Africa, and bring it home to put in U.S. owned banks. Ebola is already costing the American public millions in lost profits overseas, and that translates into lost tax dollars down the road. Where China has been successful building markets pre-Ebola, the United States has barely gotten started due to the violence and rampant illness that stymies economic potential (8).
As long as Ebola exists without a vaccine, it’s a threat to every American just as it is a threat to every human on the planet. Waiting for this virus to step on our shores before we bother with an ‘African problem’ is short sighted, irresponsible, in my opinion mean-spirited, and promotes a humanitarian crisis. By caring for our brothers and sisters in Africa, we care for ourselves.
We Americans should be demanding this epidemic to be placed as the highest priority on our government’s agenda right now just as we would if it were already killing children in Oklahoma, California, New York, or even my home state of Minnesota.
It is reasonable to point out that our country narrowly escaped the first Ebola victim (who did not know he was infected) landing at the Minneapolis/St. Paul airport from Lagos. Patrick Sawyer was on his way to Coon Rapids, MN—approximately an hour from my house—when he died in Lagos, Nigeria. He stepped off the airplane in Lagos to catch his connecting flight only to collapse and infect eight people immediately who assisted him. They tried to help him as any good person should. It is my understanding that all ten of those people died in quarantine a little over a month after meeting Mr. Sawyer (7,9).
Imagine what might have happened if Mr. Sawyer had made it back to his two young kids in daycare. Now imagine the kids in daycare that are friends of the Sawyers. Now imagine those kids going back home to their parents, and falling ill 21 days later. Get the picture?
This disease does not have to be airborne if it can fly six feet in a snot bubble, live on a Lego for five days and not die, or survive on an already-been-sucked-on juice box straw that gets passed around the kindergarten classroom as a chew toy. We Americans are good at solving a crisis, and we certainly didn’t start this one. However, we have a civic duty to our fellow humans to intervene now, and stop our agencies from lying to us with half-truths. Karma is a...witch.
Clock gif: http://chadstjames.com/the-clock-of-change-endlessly-ticking-away/
Stats: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ebola_virus_epidemic_in_West_Africa
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Sources
1. http://www.dailykos.com/story/2014/09/03/1326937/-Ebola-needs-to-get-under-control-now
1a. http://www.differencebetween.net/science/health/difference-between-airborne-and-droplet-precautions/
1b. http://www.cdc.gov/hicpac/2007IP/2007ip_part2.html#e
2. http://www.popsci.com/blog-network/under-microscope/pigs-and-primates-addressing-airborne-ebola-allegation
3. http://www.cdc.gov/vhf/ebola/hcp/environmental-infection-control-in-hospitals.html
4. http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2014/08/14/how-bureaucrats-let-ebola-spread-to-nigeria.html
5. http://news.yahoo.com/top-doctor-nigerias-fifth-ebola-death-223359458.html
6. http://www.nbcnews.com/storyline/ebola-virus-outbreak/nigerian-nurse-who-treated-american-patrick-sawyer-dies-ebola-n173786
7. http://news.yahoo.com/top-doctor-nigerias-fifth-ebola-death-223359458.html
8. http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-us-africa-business-20140806-story.html#page=1
9. http://www.kemifilani.com/2014/07/sad-ebola-victim-patrick-sawyer-was-on.html
Resources for Further Information
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-08-01/ebola-outbreak-in-west-africa-questions-and-answers.html
source: http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2014/08/14/how-bureaucrats-let-ebola-spread-to-nigeria.html
http://news.yahoo.com/top-doctor-nigerias-fifth-ebola-death-223359458.html
http://www.nbcnews.com/storyline/ebola-virus-outbreak/nigerian-nurse-who-treated-american-patrick-sawyer-dies-ebola-n173786
http://news.yahoo.com/top-doctor-nigerias-fifth-ebola-death-223359458.html
The above articles talk about the caregivers that helped Patrick and lost their life because of it, plus the driver who picked him up at the airport. While news agencies say he was quarantined, he was not quarantined at the airport in any sense that matches what the average American would expect 'quarantine' means.