SMALLPOX SCARE AT BROOKLYN HOSPITAL

NY Post ^ | 8/5/02 | ALY SUJO and DAN KADISON

[hellinahandcart]

A terrifying scare over a possible outbreak of deadly smallpox at a Brooklyn hospital prompted health officials to quarantine its emergency room and briefly shut down the entire building yesterday.

The shutdown ended after officials who had rushed to Beth Israel Medical Center of Brooklyn determined that the scare was a false alarm.

[hellinahandcart]

On the one hand, I am happy that there IS a protocol for these things in city emergency rooms.

On the other hand, I would have thought that doctors would be able to immediately see the difference between smallpox and "something to be handled by a dermatologist". It would also be nice if the article had told us the NAME of this man's skin malady, if it is that easily confused with smallpox.

[Black Agnes]

Aie, ping!

[firebrand]

Heard this on the radio last night and went nuts. They didn't say right away that it WASN'T smallpox. I'm going to sue them for the cost of my next carton of Valium.

[hellinahandcart]

I'm going to sue them for the cost of my next carton of Valium.

You get it by the carton? =>:@

Pass some over this way, will ya? Yoou've got plenty to spare...

[Kozak]

On the other hand, I would have thought that doctors would be able to immediately see the difference between smallpox and "something to be handled by a dermatologist". It would also be nice if the article had told us the NAME of this man's skin malady, if it is that easily confused with smallpox.

The problem is that early in the course there is not much to distinguish it from any number of illnesses. Initially it looks for all the world like the "flu" with fever and musl ache. ven when the rash first appears its a tough diagnosis, especially since almost NONE of us has ever seen a real case....

[hellinahandcart]

when the rash first appears its a tough diagnosis, especially since almost NONE of us has ever seen a real case....

Yeah, but the pictures of real cases are pretty unforgettable.

What I'm saying is that there must be some way to rule it out visually, since the quarantine was, after all, lifted in an hour. About the time it would take to get a city health official over to Brooklyn to say "You gotta be kidding me"...

[Terridan]

Another reason, for the sake of National Security, to close our borders AND UNIVERSITIES to nations sympathetic to Islam and the Al Qaeda.

[Kozak]

That WAS a real picture I posted. It's just early in the course. Those memorable ones are when the disease is well advanced. There are criteria to distinguish smallpox based on the appearance and location of the rash, but again for the vast majority of us if we ever see it (GOD FORBID!) it will the first time.

[eastforker]

I came down with shingles 2 years ago,and the pain and the looks of it at first had the doctors kind of scared.I am 47 bu look like I'm 35 ans shingles don't usualy hit till after 50.

[Sweet_Sunflower29]

Smallpox *BUMP*

[MinuteGal]

One set of my grandparents came over on a ship filled with Irish and German immigrants in the early 1900's. I was fortunate to find their names on the ship's original manifesto, thanks to the Ellis Island records web site.

Boy, on the form that they had to fill out they had to declare if they even had a hangnail, senility, handicap or disease.

Today, even someone with Poe's Masque of the Red Death can come right in. Even Typhoid Mary would be greeted with a Welcome Wagon goody bag.

Leni