Ebola 2014

Summary from Oct 16, 2014 'Daily Skimm' morning email newsletter:

THE STORY

The second US health worker who has Ebola flew commercially a day before she started showing symptoms.

WHAT…

The nurse had treated Thomas Eric Duncan, the patient in Dallas who died from the virus. She was monitoring herself for symptoms and had flown to Cleveland, and then took a flight back to Texas on Monday. Before that last flight, she reportedly had told the CDC that she had a low-grade fever. The CDC says she should not have been on that plane. Now, the CDC would like to find the 132 people that flew on this flight with her. In other fantastic Ebola news, there are reports that indicate health workers treating Duncan didn’t wear protective Hazmat gear days before he was diagnosed, but while he was symptomatic.

http://thescoopblog.dallasnews.com/2014/10/who-is-the-man-with-the-clipboard-at-the-airport-next-to-ebola-patient-amber-vinson.html/

The paramedics who escorted Ebola patient Amber Vinson from Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital at Dallas to the airport for a flight to Atlanta on Tuesday were dressed in hazmat suits.

Everyone was wearing protective gear. Except for one person: The man with the clipboard outside the plane at Love Field Airport.

He was wearing a button-down shirt, dark slacks and sunglasses. No gloves, mask or protective eyewear. Photos of him next to Vinson were passed around on social media Tuesday.

He is a medical safety coordinator with Phoenix Air, the air carrier that took Vinson from Love Field to Atlanta. Phoenix Air takes three healthcare workers on these flights. Two wear hazmat suits and one doesn’t.

“One of the three people on the medical team are the eyes and ears,” said Randy Davis, a vice president at Phoenix Air. “They know how far to stay away from the patient.”

Davis said that Phoenix Air has gone on 11 missions so far transporting Ebola patients, including from Liberia to the United States and to Europe. The hazmat suits limits a person’s peripheral vision, smell and hearing.

http://mobile.bloomberg.com/news/2014-10-16/ebola-wary-u-s-seeks-solace-in-sanitizer-prayer.html

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/A/AF_EBOLA_AFRICA_CONTAINMENT?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2014-10-16-14-24-38

#health - #politics