Ebola Reaches the United States

       It was not a question of "if", it was just a question of when.  A man in Dallas is the first person to be diagnosed with the Ebola virus on American soil.  The man flew the final two legs of his journey from Monrovia, Liberia to Dallas on Continental Airlines.  The man first arrived at the hospital last Thursday night, at the time he had a low-grade fever and abdominal pain.  No symptoms that indicate a potential isolation situation.  The Liberian National, Thomas Eric Duncan, is 42 years old and was on his first trip to the United States where he is visiting family and friends.  He was formerly sent home with antibiotics, however two days later he returned to the facility where he tested positive for the virus.  A key fault was that no travel history was communicated on the man's first visit to the emergency.  

Texas Health Presbyterian - Dallas, the hospital where
 the victim is contained currently

       Symptoms of the virus include high fever, headache, vomiting amongst others.  However, unlike the flu the virus cannot be spread before symptoms show up, additionally the virus does not spread through the air.  Typically symptoms appear 2 to 21 days after contracting the virus, and the virus is spread by the transmission of bodily fluid, most commonly sweat.  Two American healthcare workers were hospitalized after contracting Ebola in West Africa and were treated with the experimental drug ZMapp.  Since, they have both recovered.  

       Every person who travels by air is screened before departure and arrival in Liberia, Guinea and Sierra Leone.  However, since the man began feeling ill days after he arrived in the US, it is unlikely that these tests would have turned up anything.  Additionally, the paramedics who transported the patient to the hospital have been isolated and yet have not shown any symptoms of the disease.  The ambulance which the patient was transported in has also been quarantined however not until after another two days of operation.  A disease control team is on the ground in Dallas, identifying whoever was in direct contact with Duncan and monitoring them twice per day for 21 days.  

       It was bound to happen, we all knew that.  However, the fact that a victim of the virus had been denied entry the first time while trying to be admitted to the hospital is frightening.  It is only when he returned showing more symptoms of Ebola that he was admitted.  Though he was only showing minor symptoms they were still symptoms.  The biggest fault, I believe, is that nobody along his encounters with medical personnel asked him of any recent travels.  This put the community at risk for another two days until he returned.  In the United States, where the healthcare is privatized, I think that there are certain things that should be uniform amongst all hospitals and that includes foreign travel histories.  Luckily, Ebola is transmitted not by air, but by fluids which most would think makes it much more difficult to contract the disease.  But sweat is exchanged all the time, even in a simple gesture of a hug or handshake, sweat is transferred.  In such a climate like that of Coastal West Africa with hot and humid weather, I believe that disease is just as bad being transmitted this way.  How they isolate victims is important, and that is why the virus is not being contained, the containment facilities need to be improved.  Until this happens, Ebola will not be contained, and time is running out.  

 William Deo

Adapted From: 
http://www.cnn.com/2014/10/01/health/ebola-us/index.html?hpt=us_c2