Ok..its just one more death from Ebola.
CDC estimates that Ebola virus has been reported so far in 8033 cases globally with 4461 lab confirmed cases and 3865 deaths. Predictions of a pandemic are rife and the figures are staggering. WHO writes that the average case fatality in Ebola is around 50% and has varied from 25% to 90% in past outbreaks. And we in the US have been scared, terrified, comforted that we have a very expensive and solid health care with the best research (at least most funded!!); and at times we also are paranoid about all those nasty diseases beyond our borders aptly supporting the rhetoric- We need to secure our borders!! And in all these a death due to Ebola on our soil. Why?
Is this a moment to claim wryly that well, Ebola is a deadly virus or we should also look into the context, the circumstances in which TED died. Some questions/ facts that bother me are:
1. He was a Liberian. Did this play a role in his first contact with Texas methodist hospital?
2. He was African American/ Black. Did this play a role?
3. He probably had no insurance or if he had (very low probability), a low value one. Did this play a role?
4. How was his interaction when he first went to the Texas Methodist hospitals' reception? What questions were asked? Who treated him? Doctor? Nurse-practitioner? How was he billed?
5. What went through his and his girlfriend's family's mind when he developed fever?
6. Why did they wait before going to the hospital?
7. Why did he get the other drug after diagnosis? not the Zmapp...which the other 2 patients got in US and survived?
8. Did TED die from Ebola?
CDC estimates that Ebola virus has been reported so far in 8033 cases globally with 4461 lab confirmed cases and 3865 deaths. Predictions of a pandemic are rife and the figures are staggering. WHO writes that the average case fatality in Ebola is around 50% and has varied from 25% to 90% in past outbreaks. And we in the US have been scared, terrified, comforted that we have a very expensive and solid health care with the best research (at least most funded!!); and at times we also are paranoid about all those nasty diseases beyond our borders aptly supporting the rhetoric- We need to secure our borders!! And in all these a death due to Ebola on our soil. Why?
Is this a moment to claim wryly that well, Ebola is a deadly virus or we should also look into the context, the circumstances in which TED died. Some questions/ facts that bother me are:
1. He was a Liberian. Did this play a role in his first contact with Texas methodist hospital?
2. He was African American/ Black. Did this play a role?
3. He probably had no insurance or if he had (very low probability), a low value one. Did this play a role?
4. How was his interaction when he first went to the Texas Methodist hospitals' reception? What questions were asked? Who treated him? Doctor? Nurse-practitioner? How was he billed?
5. What went through his and his girlfriend's family's mind when he developed fever?
6. Why did they wait before going to the hospital?
7. Why did he get the other drug after diagnosis? not the Zmapp...which the other 2 patients got in US and survived?
8. Did TED die from Ebola?
Lala,
ReplyDeleteThese are excellent and piercing questions. While I have questions about his first contact with the Texas hospital, I realize now that I may not have been asking the right questions. I wanted to know why they would let him go when they discovered that he had been to Liberia (this was reported by a friend who spoke with TED, correct?) and showed up with symptoms consistent with Ebola (or the flu, etc etc). I, as I'm sure many did, placed blame on whomever did the intake. We know that someone's appearance can influence an individual's direct contact with the health care system.. so, like you ask in Q4, what were these interactions like? My understanding (which is currently being challenged by the news of the nurse that treated TED contracting Ebola) is that it is fairly difficult to get without fairly intense or invasive contact with someone inflicted. So, what was he doing In Liberia? When I ask these questions, I recognize that I am engaging in some victim blaming. Did he really reveal that he had traveled? (again, this may be based on an incomplete understanding of the situation). In the end, these are important questions that I am not sure the main stream media are interesting in asking.
My understanding is that he had arrived from Liberia about 5 days earlier before he started feeling sick. He reported at the health center and he spent five hours in the emergency department of a Dallas Presbyterian Hospital before being discharged. Infact there is several accounts of this story and no one can tell for sure which version is the original. Some say he did tell the nurses when his condition was worsening that he was in West Africa recently and did help a taxi driver to send a woman who had contracted the virus to hospital in Monrovia the capital of Liberia. It was at that point that his physician ordered for a thorough lab tests and it turned out that he was carrying the Ebola virus. I want to believe he did not know he was infected before entering the USA if not he would have been to the hospital first thing when he landed. Some people also argued that he knew that while in the US he would survive just like those physicians returnees who were treated. As I mentioned earlier, we don't really know the original stories for sure.... Now whether his ethnicity or race played a role in his death will be a different question to answer in my opinion. He had no insurance and did that prevent him from getting the needed attention in terms of care? Was the hospital and staff really equipped and prepared for Ebola case before Duncan showed up?
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