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AIBU?

to be a little bit nervous about the Ebola patient coming to UK?

61 replies

Frontier · 24/08/2014 15:48

www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-28919831

Obviously he needs to come home and I'm sure all the right isolation procedures are being followed. I really hope he makes a full and speedy recovery and I am in awe of the people who will be caring for him but.....

OP posts:
CarmineRose1978 · 24/08/2014 15:51

I wouldn't want to be one of his doctors, I have to admit. They are very brave and admirable.

I'm less worried about a known sufferer being flown in with appropriate quarantine precautions than a random who's incubating the disease all unknowingly coming in from one of the affected countries via a commercial flight from an unaffected country... If that makes sense.

landrover · 24/08/2014 15:53

I totally agree with you. When I read the report this morning I was concerned, really? no chance of it spreading, because of the precautions being taken? Hmmmm!!

Summerisle1 · 24/08/2014 15:53

I'm also far less worried about this, identified, Ebola patient being flown here in the strict quarantine conditions that'll pertain than I am about someone just arriving from an infected country and disappearing off the radar. That's a much more risky prospect.

ChaffinchOfDoom · 24/08/2014 15:55

the US, Canada and Spain and parts of UAE have all nursed their own citizens without further outbreaks - I'm sure we're up to it
nothing to worry about

FabULouse · 24/08/2014 15:55

This reply has been deleted

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picnicbasketcase · 24/08/2014 15:56

Isn't it spread by bodily fluid contact? I'd just say no if he offers to spit in your mouth.

ChaffinchOfDoom · 24/08/2014 15:56

60% chance of dying with this strain

PotteringAlong · 24/08/2014 16:01

Unless you're planning on sharing bodily fluids with Him I wouldn't worry.

Do you worry about randomly catching HIV as you walk down the street?

CarmineRose1978 · 24/08/2014 16:02

Also, Fab, depending on his job, he might very well have expensive insurance which is paying for his treatment. I have a friend in South Sudan who has to pay £1500 per year for health insurance in case of things like this (or injuries received in conflicts etc). Even if UK taxpayers are paying for it, so what? If anyone of us caught something nasty in the tropics, I bet we'd all be very glad to be flown home and treated here.

Frontier · 24/08/2014 16:04

No, I don't Pottering because we know what precautions to take for that one and we know the "epidemic" that we were sacred of in the 80s never happened.

This is new and therefore scary. It's not this specific patient threatening me that worries me, it's it getting out. Which rationally I know is unlikely but even so.

OP posts:
ChaffinchOfDoom · 24/08/2014 16:05

the only thing is the WHO saying they didn't want it to run for a long time in the human population as there is a progressively higher risk of it mutating

we don't really want it mutating

BoredPanda · 24/08/2014 16:05

One of my ex colleagues is working in Sierra Leone, I think once it is known and contains, we should be safe- like the US, Spain and so on. I would be terrified if I was a doctor though.

Mrsjayy · 24/08/2014 16:35

Aids was unknown and scary back then this patient is being treated the same way as people with hiv in the 80s unless you are going to be in fluidly contact with this patient there is nothing to worry about

ArabellaTarantella · 24/08/2014 16:46

I'd stay indoors for the next 6 weeks OP - just to make sure, you understand.

PacificDogwood · 24/08/2014 16:50

YANBU to 'feel a little nervous', but I don't see what other moral option there was?
I am very glad he will be giving the best chance to survive.

MrsBoldon · 24/08/2014 17:16

Why are people getting so worried about this?. Is it the media whipping up panic?.

It's the last thing we need to be worried about here.

Purpleroxy · 24/08/2014 17:22

Honestly I would try to forget about it. It was ok when the US took home their ill people and got them sorted, presumably we are going to follow the same procedure and use the drug to get our person sorted. It's out of your control, there is nothing you can do so best to forget about it.

Frontier · 24/08/2014 17:28

Yes, that's exactly what I said Pacific. Of course he needs to come home, I would be horrified if "we" said he couldn't.

I'm not worried about catching anything from this poor man, more the concern that once it's here we don't know what we're facing. I'm not even specifically worried about me, more the general fear of a epidemic if it should escape from quarantine.

I know it's unlikely, it's just made me feel a bit anxious.

OP posts:
PacificDogwood · 24/08/2014 17:31

We do know what we're facing.
Ebola virus is not a new thing as such.
I have to confess too that as a HCP I'd be quite excited if I were involved in his care. Scared for my personal safety, but not about anything that the nation/society as a whole might be worried about.
There's a reason why I don't work in microbiology research.

MrsBoldon · 24/08/2014 17:34

I used to work with someone who had leprosy - that was quite interesting and more people have it in the UK than you'd think!.

OhYouBadBadKrillitane · 24/08/2014 17:47

I do think it's very sad that so many other people won't be able to have the chance this patient has. I'm not nervous though and it does give the medics a chance to use best practice and see what sort of medical care really does help people with ebola, other than just the supportive care and fluids that is being offered to most patients who have this disease.

Stratter5 · 24/08/2014 17:50

Nigeria hasn't seen an explosion of Ebola cases, despite the death of Patricj Sawyer there; the few subsequent infections have been amongst medical staff, who treated him prior to his diagnosis. If Nigeria can contain it, so can we.

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SlowlorisIncognito · 24/08/2014 19:19

The mortality rate for the current outbreak is closer to 55% than 90%. The disease is only spreading in areas with poor sanitation and infrastructure, and it is being aided in spreading by local practices such as bathing the dead before burial.

There's very unlikely to be an epidemic in this country- people are only contagious after they show symptoms, and it can only be spread by contact with bodily fluids. Even simple things like hand washing with soap can kill the virus as well. As we have good sanitation and quarantine procedures, it's very unlikely that Ebola could spread in this country. It's spread is fairly similar to something like hepatitis- and most people in the UK aren't worried about catching that!

To be perfectly honest, you are far more likely to die from the flu than you are from Ebola (there's also more likely to be a flu epidemic).

Stratter5 · 24/08/2014 19:37

Agree, it's flu that terrifies me. Not Ebola.

Albertatata · 24/08/2014 20:11

I think it is very sad that westerners are able to be flown back to their countries at great expense and cherry pick the most expensive drugs whereas people are dying in poor sanitised and poorly run quarantine facilities in Africa. It seems quarantine is only truly quarantine if you are poor, black & African.

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