if he'd been isolated and admitted immediately, and then sent to one of the 4 BSL-4 hospitals where they are prepared and know what they're doing, he might have had a fighting chance. There still would have been no Zmapp, and Dr. Brantly is type A, whereas Duncan was type B, so no plasma w/antibodies available. But the doctors at Nebraska and Emory had already reviewed the available experimental treatments treating the other patients and would have been faster at picking his best options. And treating experimentally sooner would have enabled them to choose a more aggressive treatment, before the infection left him as fragile as he was once his organs were failing.
His death will not be in vain, though. While that hospital has been caught totally with their pants down and is losing business daily as a result, hospitals around the country are waking up, taking notice and planning for possible cases.
The CDC was also caught totally with their pants down. Hopefully they will bring their protocol up to WHO standards. That is what the main hospital in the chain I'm involved with is doing -- following WHO protocols that are much more stringent than the CDC's.
And more important, hopefully this will bring them the funding desperately needed so this sort of slip up doesn't happen again any time soon. WHO, CDC, etc. brought SARs under control quickly and the avian flu scare never materialized, so I think people got complacent.
Americans who have been ignoring the tragedy that's been unfolding for months in W. Africa are finally at least waking up to it, although I expect once the media dies down they'll forget about it again. 
In the meantime, the more I read about what the nurses went through -- the total lack of protocol, followed by inadequate protocol and in some cases dangerous makeshift arrangements -- it's a relief they're being treated at the BSL-4 hosptials.
Edit history
Recommendations
0 members have recommended this reply (displayed in chronological order):
= new reply since forum marked as read