EBOLA SPREADS TO THE UNITED STATES

There was an uproar when confirmed American Ebola victims Dr. Kent Brantley and Nancy Writebol were transported to Emory Hospital in Atlanta, Georgia, from Liberia in the late summer of 2014. Ebola had not touched America in this way before–it had always been something contained on a continent hundreds of miles from home.

Emory Hospital proved to be an effective container for the disease. Neither Brantley or Writebol contaminated any of the medical staff, and in a matter of weeks, both recovered and were sent home with no trace of it remaining. Indeed, patients who survive the virus receive, at least for ten years, immunity from the same Ebola strain.

TIP

Patients who survive the virus receive, at least for ten years, immunity from the same Ebola strain.

Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital in Dallas, however, did not have the same resources and capabilities. When Thomas Duncan first came to the hospital, he was sent home with antibiotics despite having a fever of 103 degrees and admitting to his recent arrival from the Ebola zone. At this point, he had already been incubating the disease for several days. Two days later, he returned to the hospital where he was diagnosed with Ebola on September 28, 2014, but by October 8 he was dead.

Thomas Duncan was a courier service driver in Liberia’s capital, Monrovia. He had traveled to the United States to visit his former girlfriend and their nineteen‑year‑old son. Shortly before he left West Africa, Mr. Duncan had taken Marthalene Williams, a young Ebola patient, to a hospital where she was turned away due to lack of space. He then helped carry her home. Ms. Williams died of Ebola several hours later in his presence. As an aside, her brother, who had also helped carry her to and from the hospital, died from Ebola several days later.

A statement from the hospital’s administration said, “We have made changes to our intake process as well as other procedures to better screen for all critical indicators of Ebola virus.” However, the failure of the hospital was multifold. It should have demanded an immediate transfer of Mr. Duncan to one of the four high‑risk infectious disease centers in the United States instead of handling the case itself. It should have instituted a rigorous training program to educate the nurses and other staff. The first two days of Mr. Duncan’s admission, nurses wore wearing little protective gear while performing their duties. It is rumored that infected waste like bedding was piled to the ceiling of the hospital room.

What will be the fate of the people who cared for the medical staff stricken with the deadly virus? Ebola has been particularly cruel to health‑care workers, with hundreds in West Africa contracting and dying from the disease.