On Tuesday, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention announced the first case of Ebola diagnosed in the United States. Officials should be able to contain any US outbreak pretty quickly
The Ebola outbreak in West Africa has already infected thousands of people - including several Americans who were diagnosed there and then brought back to the United States for treatment. But this is the first person to be diagnosed with the disease inside US borders rather than abroad.
It's not surprising that an Ebola case has finally popped up in the United States - especially with air travel as common as it is. But it's also not a disaster. Experts say that public-health officials would likely be able to contain any Ebola outbreak in the United States pretty quickly.
Why is that? Partly because Ebola is not very contagious, as diseases go. You can only get it by coming in direct contact with the bodily fluids of someone who is already showing symptoms. That makes it relatively slow to spread.
What's more, unlike in West Africa, where Ebola has already killed about 3,000 people, the United States has ample health resources and infection control measures to contain an outbreak. Here's a rundown of how US public-health officials would respond to any outbreak: 1) The first 24 hours: Identify the outbreak
Ebola is most likely to arrive in the United States via an infected person flying from West Africa who doesn't even realize he or she is carrying the disease. Ebola can incubate in a person's body anywhere from two days to three weeks before symptoms emerge. The good news? This person is not If health officials realize a person has Ebola early on, they should be able to limit the spread
Once an initial Ebola patient starts feeling sick, the person will probably seem at first like he or she has the flu or traveler's diarrhea. (Some of the more famous symptoms of Ebola, like bleeding from orifices, don't tend to come on until later, and only affect about half of cases.)
And even when the patient starts showing symptoms, the disease is still relatively hard to transmit. Ebola doesn't spread through the air, and it's harder to catch than things like the flu. You can't get it just from being on the same plane or in the same public space. The only way to get Ebola is to touch a patient's bodily fluids, like vomit, diarrhea, sweat, saliva, or blood.
Once a patient starts showing symptoms, speed and public awareness plays a big role. If health workers realize that this might be Ebola early on, other people should be able to avoid getting infected by keeping away from the patient's bodily fluids.
Unfortunately, in West Africa, Ebola had spread for three months before anyone actually identified the disease - which is partly why the disease spread so quickly.
2) The next step: Isolate the patient
In US hospitals, any suspected case of Ebola should be treated as a potential risk until tests come back negative. The CDC has said that the patient in Texas, who has by now tested positive, is in 'strict isolation,' which is exactly what needs to happen.
Standard procedures to protect other patients and health-care workers from the patient's bodily fluids will also be put into place. Because Ebola doesn't hang out in the air, hospital workers won't necessarily have to wear respirators or what you might think of as full Outbreak gear. However, they will protect their body and face from fluids that might splash on them, using things like gowns or full body suits, masks, gloves, and goggles.
Anything that touches the patient will be sterilized or disposed of in a safe manner. And if the patient dies, the body will be carefully handled so that it won't be a danger to anyone, either. The death rate for the current outbreak is roughly 50 percent, although good health care in the US might lead to better outcomes than that.
Unfortunately, West Africa lacks many of these protections - which is one reason why the disease has spread so quickly there. Many health-care workers have gotten infected, likely because the rules aren't followed as closely. For instance, hospital workers who are supposed to wearprotective suits may be taking them off when the weather climbs past 100°F, explained Michael Osterholm, of the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy at the University of Minnesota . But US hospitals are more climate controlled, he says, and even that small difference makes a breach less likely. 3) Then, track down other potential patients
Detective work is a major part of controlling a disease like Ebola. Experts will interview the patient, the patient's relatives, and other potential close contacts to monitor them and make sure that they don't spread the disease to others if they have it.
Officials will then suggest various options for these people, depending on the level of risk, including watching and waiting, isolation at home, and testing for infection.
Tracking down contacts has been especially problematic in West Africa in ways that are unlikely to happen in the US. An editorial in the major medical journal The Lancet says 'The geographical spread of cases and movement of people in and between the three countries presents a huge challenge in tracing those who might be infected.' And the World Health Organization says that 'low coverage of contact tracing' is one key problem it uncovered in a recent assessment the Ebola response in Liberia. 4) Keep patients in the hospital until they're not a threat
It's important to remember that roughly 50 percent of the patients in this Ebola outbreak have survived. There's no specific pill or shot that will make an Ebola infection go away, but doctors can try to make the patient comfortable, give IV fluids, and treat symptoms. (There are also some experimental treatments, but their efficacy is still unknown.)
To prevent Ebola from spreading, health authorities won't release a patient from the hospital until it's clear that the person has cleared the virus from the body, has tested negative, and won't be a danger to others.
This might seem intuitive, but it hasn't always happened in West Africa. For example, the BBC reports that there are several missing patients in Sierra Leone - where some people don't trust that medical care will help them. That, obviously, increases the odds that the outbreak will spread. The best-case scenario and the worst-case scenario
The best-case scenario is that someone coming back from West Africa realizes that they might possibly have Ebola as soon as they start feeling sick. Everyone makes sure not to touch this person's vomit, sweat, diarrhea, or other fluids. And the outbreak ends with just one patient.
The worst-case scenario is that this person is ill for days and in contact with a whole lot of people before anyone realizes that something unusual is going on and brings this person to a hospital. But it's still unlikely that Ebola will get farther than a local problem in one city or town. Even in the worst case scenario, 'I don't think we'll have a serious public health threat in any of the developed countries,' Osterholm told me in July. For more on the basics of the Ebola outbreak, check out 14 things you need to know about Ebola.
Post By http://www.vox.com/2014/9/30/6875325/ebola-virus-outbreak-case-diagnosed-us
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