World Health Organization contradicts CDC, Confirms Ebola Can Spread Via Indirect Contact

This may have already been posted elsewhere, forgive me if it has. There are just too many Ebola threads to keep up with. ( I did search and couldn't find this )

I found what looks like the initial timeline of Duncan's care from the Energy of Commerce on the House's website.

Committee Releases Dallas Ebola Timelines
October 17, 2014
Timelines of Events Surrounding Ebola Preparedness Efforts and First Emergency Room Visit of Thomas Duncan in Dallas Raise Concerns About Implementation and Quality of Treatment Plans
WASHINGTON, DC – The House Energy and Commerce Committee today released documents obtained in its investigation of the ongoing Ebola outbreak. The documents were submitted to the committee by Texas Health Resources. One outlines the preparedness timeline from August 1, 2014, through September 24, 2014, and the other document details the sequence of events at Thomas Duncan’s first visit to the Emergency Department on September 25, 2014.

PREPAREDNESS TIMELINE
The preparedness timeline indicates that on August 1, 2014, one of the components of the response plan includes, “Electronic Health Record includes a travel history question that should be completed on every patient.” The preparedness timeline goes through September 24, 2014, just one day before Duncan first arrived at the Texas Presbyterian Hospital Emergency Department.

DUNCAN EMERGENCY ROOM TIMELINE
The second document indicates that Duncan first arrived at the Emergency Department at 10:37 p.m. Triage began for Duncan at 11:36 p.m., at which point, “Obtaining the patient’s travel history was not part of the triage nurses’ process on September 25, 2014.” The timeline later showed that there was an RN assessment from 12:33 to 12:44 a.m. At that point, “The nurse documents that Mr. Duncan ‘came from Africa 9/20/2014’” and “RN states she recalls the discussion because of how long the plane flight was. (She had personal experience with very long plane flights). Attached no further significance to this travel history.”

The detailed timeline of events continues, “This information was not verbally communicated to the physician, as prompted by the EHR.” The Emergency Department physician performed his evaluation of Duncan from 12:52 to 1:10 a.m. The timeline recalls that the physician did access the EHR, but, “The record does not show which information the physician read, only which information was available.”

These data, as reflected in the EHR, reveal that Mr. Duncan and his companion advised
that he was a “local resident”, that he had not been in contact with sick people, and that
he had not experienced nausea, vomiting or diarrhea.

It looks like he didn't go into great detail about his travel history. If he sated just "Africa", and not a country IN Africa, it could be why he slipped through the cracks. Africa is a big continent with 47 countries. It seems it was Mr. Duncan and his "companion" are the ones who lied. Only if they had been honest the staff. They may have caught it giving him a better chance. All they had to do was say, "Yes, I'm from Liberia. My neighbor got sick and died a few day before I came here." Hopefully the staff would have, then, tested him. It's that lie that cost him and exposed American citizens.

However, the staff wasn't thorough, either. They should have inquired and documented the exact country visited. (It's not like the Ebola outbreak hasn't been on the news for months.) Maybe the CDC rhetoric about Ebola not coming here had a play in it. Who knows. But hindsight is 20/20.

There was also a hearing on the whole Ebola response if you have the time. (I didn't see this pop up in a search. Apologizes if already posted. )

a reply to: blackcatmagic

This is a great post. I'm new here, but seems to me it is worthy of being an OP all on its own (original post). Really appreciate you sharing it here. What a tragedy of errors.

a reply to: bludragin

Done.

Link to thread: Committee Releases Dallas Ebola Timelines

a reply to: blackcatmagic

Good find, we received an email about this time last week from i think the treating Infectious disease specialist that work on the Dallas case, from my quick look over what youve provided it appears youve covered most of it is what they said in the email will look again tomorrow at work and see if there is any major differences in what he said compared to the media reporting but will reply that in your thread.

In terms of this thread if people are interested i suggest to read the following blog, its written by a virologist down here and he does a pretty decent job of explaining the medical and scientific intricacies in a way that is easy to follow;
virologydownunder.blogspot.com.au...
specifically he talks about airborne, aerosol and droplets
virologydownunder.blogspot.com.au...
virologydownunder.blogspot.com.au...

there is plenty more on there that is good and lots of non-ebola stuff if your interested in the other ways infectious diseases are trying to kill us ;P

a reply to: bludragin

Im not sure if it was you that i was have the conversation with regarding sweat on surfaces?

I raised the issue today during our first walk through if a patient with sweaty hands touched a door knob or a pen to provide details etc. The senior infection control doctor that was with us said that there has never been live ebola isolated from sweat, i havent had a chance to look into this myself but he certainly seemed confident that at least if the person is moving around an ED then they are not in a late stage of illness and therefore the viral load is still quite low so highly unlikely to be of concern. The environmental health team said that everything would still be cleaned but they are also not too concerned about this scenario, main worry is if they were to have explosive diarrhea and vomiting... certainly glad im not the one cleaning that up :S

a reply to: D4rcyJones

Thanks for this added info. The National Nurses Union here in the US have created a national petition demanding biolevel 4 protocols be established at US hospitals asap in anticipation of Ebola cases. Was glad to see this. The NUN is really kicking ass.