Ebola Patient Identifies Major Security Risks

On October 8^th a Liberian man diagnosed with Ebola died at Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital. Thomas Eric Duncan died of this fatal disease and it was reported that one of his nurses came down with a fever, then was able to board a plane. On October 16^th Michael Gerson, an opinion writer for The Washington Post, states 3 ways in which, "Ebola Challenges America's Ability to Adapt."

He starts by mentioning that the infectiousness of Ebola increases as the patient (Thomas Eric Duncan) grows sicker. None of the other people reported to be with Thomas Duncan contracted the disease even in tight quarters. Gerson believes that the safety of the health-care workers was not properly protected. The hospital should have gone to greater lengths to protect its workers from such a contagious disease.

Secondly, he identifies how proper protection for health-care workers is a skill that not every hospital has. The Dallas hospital protocols on this type of situation were either non-existent or changed constantly after Duncan arrived. Gerson writes that, “Any crack in a glove, any touching of the eye,” can be enough to spread Ebola and that many hospitals are, “poorly prepared to take very ill Ebola patients.” Gerson thinks to properly handle another situation like this there either needs to be Federal “Ebola SWAT teams” or proper transfer of such patients to a competent facilities.

Thirdly, he states that the federal response to the situation had a serious weakness. The CDC ( Center for Disease Control and Prevention) assumed that the Dallas hospital would have no trouble isolating its Ebola patient. Obviously, this assumption was incorrect. Gerson blames the CDC for letting a nurse who was exposed to Duncan, board a plane with a fever.

Gerson's main questions are, “Can government learn from its mistakes? And will it be allowed to? “ He also mentions that even with an election coming up, he hopes that the government can find the time to strengthen the protocols of the CDC.

He ends the article with some perspective. The World Health Organization says by the end of the year there could be 10,000 new cases of Ebola in West Africa each week. Even though the outbreaks usually occur in secluded places in Africa, with the possible collapse of Liberia, Guinea, or Sierra Leone refugees could spread the disease to more populous places quite quickly.

I think that Michael Gerson makes a good argument that even though it's election season and this type of case doesn't come up that often, America needs to correct a few things to help protect our country from such diseases. Gerson lays out three ways in which we could have done things better, he asks if America can correct these issues, and he ends with an alarming statistic on Ebola in Africa. I believe the CDC made this biggest mistake in this situation. Protocols should be practiced and precautions should have been taken to quarantine the patient and protect the health-care workers.