American possibly exposed to Ebola to be monitored at Nebraska hospital

nbc ^ | Dec. 29, 2018 / 1:54 PM PST | Kalhan Rosenblatt

[Darksheare]

Pretty good summary of her attitude.
And her statements.

[flamberge]

The man is not officially a patient at Nebraska Medicine, but will be monitored there for two weeks, hospital officials said.

I was under the impression that 21 days was considered the minimum safe quarantine period for possible Ebola infection. And some epidemiologists recommend a 40-day quarantine.

The hospital statement appears remarkably optimistic. Why?

I wonder how this "not-an-official-patient" was first identified and by what authority he was sequestered in the hospital. The news story appears void of such details. Perhaps the CDC is actually keeping track of people entering and exiting the latest hot zone. It might be helpful to know if this is so.

[Does so]

From the article:

“This person may have been exposed to the virus

but is not ill and is not contagious,”

So, if he becomes ill—then what?

[bgill]

This not official patient isn’t officially on the books so they don’t have to tell the public? Whatever, something is fishy.

[Jim Noble]

It appears that Ebola patients are highly contagious only in the few days before death.

The Dallas patient lived in an (illegal) apartment with 19 other people, and even went to the ER once sick with Ebola and returned to the apartment before his final trip to the hospital, and 0/19 housemates were infected.

The nurse he infected flew to Cleveland while well, got sick and flew back to Dallas with a fever, zero secondary cases up or back.

The Lagos index case stormed onto a plane in Freetown (he was denied boarding because he was sick), flew 2 1/2 hours to Lagos, vomited onto his seatmate, and was taken into custody in Lagos. Except for the seatmate, there were no infections on the plane.

The NY doctor was all over Manhattan, developed a fever and rode the subway to Brooklyn to go bowling, and checked into Bellevue the next day, with zero secondary cases.

The very high attack rate in the West Africa event was related in part to the funeral practices of the Mende people, and the outbreak was brought under control when they were finally convinced, or forced, to accept body retrieval and cremation without a funeral.

[Yaelle]

I remember. I wasn’t sure if maybe a bullet was dodged. You can have sex with someone hiv+ too and not get it. It isn’t a great idea, though.

[flamberge]

Except for the seatmate, there were no infections on the plane.

..and except for one of the flight attendants, and all of the health care workers who removed the passenger from the plane. All of them died later.

Nothing to worry about, I am sure.