The US is susceptible to a Ebola outbreak because a large percentage of the population is health care adverse. This grope of poor people has no health insurance or cannot afford the expense of a long term hospital stay because of sickness. This substantial segment of the population will ignore a high fever hoping that the fever will abate eventually.
Furthermore, the US hospital system has a low carrying capacity for Ebola victims because each hospital as just one or two isolation rooms available to confine new Ebola patents. There is a limit to the number of patients that the health system can support. Once the epidemic grows beyond that limit, total isolation of the sick is no longer possible with most victims roaming the streets as happens in Africa. A possible Ebola epidemic is one possible cost for society not providing a single payer government supported health care system. On Fri, Oct 3, 2014 at 2:05 PM, Brad Lowe <ecatbuil...@gmail.com> wrote: > Now it turns out this patient #1 knew he was infected.. and just > wanted world-class, spare-no-expense treatment in the US. I can't > blame him. > Time to cancel travel visas and ban non-humanitarian travel from > infected countries. > Some interesting tips and info at this site.. http://ebolaready.com/ > > > On Fri, Oct 3, 2014 at 12:36 AM, Eric Walker <eric.wal...@gmail.com> > wrote: > > I wrote: > > > >> Apparently the apartment has not yet been disinfected, because Texas is > >> having trouble finding a contractor to do the work. ... > > > > > > Some more interesting details from the article I forgot to link to [1]: > > > > The number of ~ 100 people who may have come into contact with the fellow > > with Ebola does not include secondary contacts. > > Hospitals may not necessarily dispose of waste material for Ebola > patients > > due to conflicting guidance from different federal agencies, so it may > just > > be allowed to pile up. > > Family members of the fellow were directed to stay at home but violated > the > > order. > > A family member of the man who went with him to the hospital the first > time > > claims that he emphatically told workers that he had been in Liberia. > This > > piece of information was not passed to the doctors who diagnosed him and > > sent him home; apparently they were confident enough in the entrance > > examination that they saw no need to follow up with the question on their > > own (this sounds a lot like the doctors passing the hot potato on to the > > nurses to avoid blame). > > > > Eric > > > > > > [1] > > > http://www.nytimes.com/2014/10/03/us/dallas-ebola-case-thomas-duncan-contacts.html > >
