U.S. Prepared for Ebola… 10 Patients at a Time

Exclusive: Dr. Jane M. Orient reveals why virus has greater disaster potential than AIDS.

Have you wondered why Ebola patients are being sent to Omaha, Nebraska?

It’s because one physician, Dr. Philip Smith, had the foresight to set up the Nebraska Biocontainment Patient Care Unit after the Sept. 11 attacks as a bulwark against bioterrorism. Empty for more than a decade, used only for drills, it was called “Maurer’s Folly,” for Harold Maurer, former chancellor of the University of Nebraska Medical Center.

The unit has a special air handling system to keep germs from escaping from patient rooms, and a steam sterilizer for scrubs and equipment.

It could handle at most 10 patients at a time, but one or two would be more comfortable, owing to the large volume of infectious waste.

It is the largest of only four such units in the U.S., and the only one designated for the general public.

Some say this is “overkill” – that our medical workers can be kept safe with much less stringent precautions. Ebola is “hard to get.” It is being compared to AIDS, which has not proved to be a significant threat to medical workers, not even surgeons.

“The Ebola outbreak is presenting some of the same challenges we saw with HIV,” writes Cheryl Clark for HealthLeaders Media, such as “fear of contagion.”

“In many ways, the AIDS epidemic in the early 1980s was the best thing to happen to health care,” she claims. For one thing, it brought “universal precautions.”

CDC Director Dr. Tom Frieden also likens Ebola to AIDS.

“In the 30 years I’ve been working in public health, the only thing like this has been AIDS,” he said at a World Bank and International Monetary Fund annual meeting in Washington, D.C. “And we have to work now so that this is not the world’s next AIDS.”

Ebola, however, has far greater disaster potential than AIDS. Here are six major differences:

1. Universal precautions are mostly adequate for AIDS, which really does seem to be “hard to get.” But despite protective gear, hundreds of nurses and doctors have become infected with Ebola and died in Africa – and so far one is infected in Spain and another in Dallas.
2. AIDS, at least in the U.S., can be almost completely avoided by refraining from certain behaviors: needle sharing and intimate contact with men who have sex with men (and with their contacts). But Ebola is an equal opportunity infection.
3. AIDS impairs the immune system, so people eventually die of infections that a normal immune system would fight off – but that can often be treated successfully. AIDS does not attack body organs and blood vessels directly. Ebola attacks the immune system first, then many other organs and the blood vessels supplying them, leading to rapid death in up to 90 percent of cases. Past a certain point, the damage is irreversible, even if further viral proliferation could be stopped.
4. AIDS has never had an explosive outbreak like Ebola’s, which appears to be doubling every three weeks.
5. AIDS would not be a suitable pathogen for biological warfare; it is not contagious enough, and it does not kill rapidly. Ebola has been viewed as an excellent biological weapon and researched extensively for this purpose.
6. Both AIDS and Ebola are zoonotic diseases – diseases that long existed in wild animals and “spilled over” into the human population in Africa. AIDS has no known nonhuman reservoir in North America. Ebola appears to be capable of infecting dogs and pigs without sickening the animals. This is why the dog in Spain had to be put down when its owner, a nursing assistant, became infected while caring for a patient.

Reassurances from the CDC, and the public policy based on them, rely on assumptions that are probably not true. The CDC still insists that the virus is not “airborne” – at least not for more than three feet. Barack Obama has said that “you cannot get it through casual contact like sitting next to someone on a bus.” But the CDC has told travelers who exhibit Ebola-like symptoms to avoid public transportation.

Our robust and sophisticated medical and public health infrastructure is supposed to be able to handle the situation. Like it did in Dallas? Time will tell whether any of Mr. Duncan’s contacts become infected (in addition to the Texas nurse who has tested positive). The Dallas public health department is supposed to be carefully following only about 18. How many more does it have the resources to track?

And if we have more than 10 or so patients, they can’t be treated in the bio-safety level 4 (BSL-4) facilities that the World Health Organization recommends for this pathogen.

[H/T WND]

Nurse Who Treated Ebola Patient Becomes Second Case in Dallas

For the first time, a person has contracted Ebola inside the United States, according to multiple news reports out of Texas. And it’s happened at the very hospital where Liberian national Thomas Eric Duncan died from the deadly virus.

And now, as CNN reports, that “confirmed” case of infection in a health care worker in Dallas may have led to yet another U.S. Ebola victim:

A “close contact” of the health care worker at Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital in Dallas who preliminarily tested positive for Ebola has been “proactively” placed in isolation, Texas Health Resources chief clinical officer Dan Varga said Sunday.

The Dallas Morning News says that further testing at the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) is being done to see if the “preliminary” diagnosis of Ebola in the hospital worker is, in fact, accurate.

No details about the infected worker have been released, including how or when the person came in contact with Thomas Eric Duncan, the first person diagnosed with Ebola in the U.S. Duncan died Wednesday in Dallas.

The worker was said to have been involved in Duncan’s second visit to the hospital, when he was admitted for treatment, and that worker was wearing protective gear.

“We knew a second case could be a reality, and we’ve been preparing for this possibility,” Dr. David Lakey, commissioner of the Texas Department of State Health Services, said in a statement Sunday morning.

“We are broadening our team in Dallas and working with extreme diligence to prevent further spread.”

Despite precautions, a number of health professionals and volunteers caring for Ebola victims have become infected in Africa and elsewhere outside the United States.

Again, via cnn.com:

Three countries — Sierra Leone, Guinea and Liberia — have been hardest hit. And many of those who care for the ill have also come down with the disease.

The World Health Organization estimates at least 416 health care workers have contracted Ebola, and at least 233 have died.

In reaction to the latest news out of Texas, twitter erupted:

Dallas doctor: New Ebola patient was 'following full CDC precautions…gown, glove, mask, and shield.' Still contracted virus.

— Byron York (@ByronYork) October 12, 2014

The infection of an American health care worker in an American hospital ought to puncture the pose of certainty about how Ebola spreads.

— Christian Vanderbrouk 🇺🇸🇮🇱🇺🇦 (@UrbanAchievr) October 12, 2014

Did the infected TX health care worker treat other patients after Duncan? http://t.co/BVNHaQ6fY3

— Laura Ingraham (@IngrahamAngle) October 12, 2014

[H/T Western Journalism]

Obama Considers Another Lawless Action to Override Congress and Close Gitmo

Here’s another sign that Democrats — namely Obama — have concerns about the results of the coming midterm elections. Obama has already stated he will enact executive orders to push amnesty for illegal aliens. Now there’s talk that Obama is weighing options to close the Guantanamo Bay unlawful enemy combatant detention facility. Does Obama believe that sometime between the November elections and the end of the 113th Congress term he must take an action?

As reported by the Wall Street Journal, “The White House is drafting options that would allow President Barack Obama to close the detention facility in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, by overriding a congressional ban on bringing detainees to the U.S.” senior administration officials said. Such a move would be the latest and potentially most dramatic use of executive power by the president in his second term. It would likely provoke a sharp reaction from lawmakers, who have repeatedly barred the transfer of detainees to the U.S. The discussions underscore the president’s determination to follow through on an early campaign promise before he leaves the White House, officials said, despite the formidable domestic and international obstacles in the way.

But just as with Obama’s intentions to grant amnesty — Article I, Section 8, Clause 4 of the US Constitution grants the power on matters of naturalization to Congress — so it is in the matter of GITMO. In Article I, Section 8, Clause 11 the Constitution states the Congress has the power, “To declare War, grant Letters of Marque and Reprisal; and make Rules concerning captures on Land and Water.”

So here we go again, President Obama — the Constitutional scholar – doesn’t appear to read, know or follow the document he was sworn to uphold and faithfully execute. Obama, by the rule of law, the Constitution, does not have the enumerated power to make any rules concerning these unlawful enemy combatants captured on land or water. As well, any actions he takes should resurrect the questions about Army SGT Bowe Bergdahl and the exchange of five senior members of the Taliban — another example of Obama’s lawlessness. Oh by the way, what is the status of Bergdahl’s investigation? But I digress…

The Wall Street Journal says, “administration officials say Mr. Obama strongly prefers a legislative solution over going around Congress (yeah, right). At the same time, a senior administration official said Mr. Obama is “unwavering in his commitment” to closing the prison—which currently has 149 inmates detained in connection with the nation’s post-9/11 war on terrorism—and wants to have all potential options available on an issue he sees as part of his legacy. However, a unilateral action “would ignite a political firestorm, even if it’s the best resolution for the Guantanamo problem,” said American University law professor Stephen Vladeck. Republicans are sure to oppose it, while Democrats could be split, he said.”

Obama fears what will happen if he doesn’t have Harry Reid running as his obstructionist come January 2015 — which means he’s looking at how much he can do by executive order and fiat as opposed to having to contend with a House and Senate held by the opposition GOP. It’s funny, after the midterm debacle of 1994, then-President Bill Clinton worked with a GOP House and Senate — with a constitutional conservative legislative agenda — and was able to balance the budget, create surpluses, and enact welfare reform. That is the nature of bipartisanship. And oh by the way, President Ronald Reagan was able to do likewise and enact a huge tax reform agenda with a Democrat House and Senate.

But Barack Hussein Obama is an intransigent ideologue and demagogue who refuses to admit being wrong or making mistakes and believes his political agenda and promises override the rule of law.

The Wall Street Journal says “Mr. Obama likely has two options for closing Guantanamo, should Congress extend the restrictions, which it could do after the midterm elections. He could veto the annual bill setting military policy, known as the National Defense Authorization Act, in which the ban on transferring detainees to the U.S. is written. While the veto wouldn’t directly affect military funding, such a high-stakes confrontation with Congress carries significant political risks. A second option would be for Mr. Obama to sign the bill while declaring restrictions on the transfer of Guantanamo prisoners an infringement of his powers as commander in chief, as he has done previously.” But that is a flawed argument since the Constitution does not grant Obama — or any Commander-in-Chief — powers to make rules concerning captures.

Perhaps we should send President Barack Hussein Obama Article I and Article II of the Constitution and require him to write a comparative essay — no more than 1000 words — to be printed in every major newspaper in America outlining the enumerated powers of the legislative and executive branches. Yep, perhaps, he could do that while in the air flying around the country doing fundraisers.

[H/T Allen B. West]