Ebola--21 Days of Travel Restrictions

The first patient actually infected in the United States is a nurse out of Dallas caring for the FIRST victim to enter the United States. The CDC states that the nurse broke protocol, but specifically what protocol did she break? The people want to know; health professionals want to know. The CDC must publish this protocol lapse, so we all can be better informed.


Quarantine

I mentioned in the preceding article that health workers are most at risk: this is now a case in point. I pity the emergency physician who first  sent the Ebola patient home, as I have no specific details, but the assumption is that this patient’s blood tests and CT scans were as non-specific as other viral infections common in any busy emergency room.

The only useful information for an ER doc is if the patient came from an endemic area or exposed to a patient who has confirmed Ebola. In the early stages, this is the seminal clue to early diagnosis.

Now, experts and alarmists alike are concerned that the virus may mutate to become an airborne contagion, magnifying its potential spread.

Our health economy would collapse if we have to treat everybody in the ER as if they had Ebola. On the flip side, going to the ER, then, is its own risk: you are exposed to contagious people in a full waiting room under normal circumstances.

My recommendation is that the CDC should restrict travel from any endemic area for the recommended 21 days. If the traveler has to “sit it out” in a quarantine facility at the point of departure, so be it.  

My mother-in-law immigrated from Ireland in the 1940’s and had to go through Ellis Island in New York for similar reasons to screen for TB and so forth. Endemic travelers may need to quarantine themselves in WHO (World Health Organization) designated shelters before departing on public transportation out of an endemic area.

Quarantine hotels or shelters do not exist yet. Nonetheless, we need to heed these common sense precautions of old. AKA Public Health 101.

10/13/2014 7:00:00 AM
Donald McGee
Written by Donald McGee
Dr. Donald McGee is the Founder of Wellness.com, a Board Certified M.D., graduated from Mt Sinai School of Medicine in New York, and has an accredited PhD in Health Studies from Saybrook Institute in San Francisco. He is also a Diplomate of the American Board of Emergency Medicine as well as a Fellow of the American ...
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Comments
It's stressful enough to worry about the virus itself spreading more in the US; but add to that the infuriating aspect of the politics and the political correctness game that is being played here in the US and it's enough to drive you mad. An automatic 21-day quarantine for anyone coming here from infected areas is a great idea. Shoot, it should be a given! A no-brainer. We need to protect our entire country, not cave to the people who think it's unfair to quarantine a healthcare worker who went over to Africa to help out. That's great that people go over there to help out, I applaud that. However, it doesn't give them the right to think they can just waltz back into the US without being quarantined until we can ensure they are not carrying the virus. We didn't pay for them (with our tax dollars) to go help West Africa so that they could easily bring the virus back here and infect thousands in a matter of days. The latest healthcare worker to be quarantined threatened a lawsuit and then they let her out of quarantine. Ridiculous. I think every healthcare worker that leaves the US to go help with Ebola needs to sign a waiver whereby they agree to any quarantine terms that are in effect when they return to the US. The situation is being handled so badly.
Posted by Bryan Moore
The virus Ebloa is now no longer isolated in Africa..it is on 3 continents now, North Armerica, Europe and Australia. WHO needs to make recommendation to world leaders to start restriction, isolations and even look at developing fever centers. The fever center is a first line of triage to determine if the person has been exposed and then either isolate and/or treat. If not then a normal dispostion for the patient as the MD feels is appropiate. I think we are now in a world stage where filoviruses are here for a long time.
Posted by John
Agree with 21 day quarantine for anyone traveling through or from West Africa or anywhere Ebola is endemic now.

The CDC is not being completely truth and forthcoming with us as healthcare workers or the public and I think its going to backfire on the agency very soon.

We must know what exactly has been identified as the breach of protocol to avoid similar issues. You have to wonder why the photos of healthcare workers in West Africa are all in full isolation gear yet our workers were only in minimal protective gear. MRSA protocol is clearly not good enough for Ebola!!
Posted by Kathryn Wagner
I agree! .....is there some kind of petition going around about this?!? I would like to sign it! We should not be put in this situation at all.
Posted by JG
I absolutely agree. I would go as far to say that travel should be restricted to healthcare workers aiding in the humanitarian efforts there and flights should be chartered, not commercial. I really like the idea of the 21 day wait in quarantine to get out of the region.
Posted by Jackie M.
I wholeheartedly agree with the Dr.
Posted by Patty
You probably wouldn't feel so worried if you knew anyone traveling from the Ebola Areas had been quarantined before being allowed to board an aircraft. I don't understand why this isn't happening !! Is anybody running this country???
Posted by maureen
I am hesitating to buy airline tickets to an important business meeting as the thought of sitting near a sick person is bad enough--let alone sitting next to someone with a life threatening virus that can be possibly transmitted by a sneeze. Scary stuff. Granted crossing the street is probably more dangerous as odds go, but that could change with just a few more reported cases.
Posted by John Valenty
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