Ebola patient to be transferred to Atlanta's Emory hospital

[Divernan]

12. CDC has about two dozen staffers in West Africa to try to control outbreak;plans to send more.

That is the last sentence of the op's link, and significant in that if/when any of those workers are infected, they will surely be brought home as well.

The CDC is based in Atlanta, as is the Emory University Hospital. Odds are that any further American health care workers coming down w/ Ebola will be brought back there as well. I'd expect a condition for them volunteering for this dangerous assignment was that they would be brought home for treatment if necessary.

The disease needs to be stopped, and the CDC staffers are taking their lives in their hands to go to West Africa. I think they should be brought back to the USA for the best possible medical treatment. On the other hand I wouldn't set foot in Emory Hospital for any treatment. There's been a trend in US hospitals to assign nurses to double shifts. A friend's daughter/new R.N. was just hired and will be working 3 12 hour shifts a week. That results in tired people making errors, forgetting safeguards, etc. Never a good idea, but disastrous when in a high risk situation like caring for Ebola patients.

A hospital can have all the safety protocols in the world but underpaid, undertrained and/or overworked staff fail to follow them - that's why we have MRSA. It came to mind, because I just heard this afternoon that an 63 year old, former workmate of mine, who beat cancer several years ago, just died of a MRSA infection.