Ebola Strong

http://apnews.excite.com/article/20140803/us-med-ebola-americans-64fa12cad2.html

excite news


US doctor with Ebola in Atlanta for treatment

Aug 2, 10:08 PM (ET)

By RAY HENRY and MIKE STOBBE

ATLANTA (AP) — The first Ebola victim to be brought to the United States from Africa was safely escorted into a specialized isolation unit Saturday at one of the nation's best hospitals, where doctors said they are confident the deadly virus won't escape.

Fear that the outbreak killing more than 700 people in Africa could spread in the U.S. has generated considerable anxiety among some Americans. But infectious disease experts said the public faces zero risk as Emory University Hospital treats a critically ill missionary doctor and a charity worker who were infected in Liberia.

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has received "nasty emails" and at least 100 calls from people saying "How dare you bring Ebola into the country!?" CDC Director Dr. Tom Frieden told The Associated Press Saturday.

"I hope that our understandable fear of the unfamiliar does not trump our compassion when ill Americans return to the U.S. for care," Frieden said.

Dr. Kent Brantly and Nancy Writebol, who will arrive in several days, will be treated in Emory's isolation unit for infectious diseases, created 12 years ago to handle doctors who get sick at the CDC, just up the hill. It is one of about four in the country, equipped with everything necessary to test and treat people exposed to very dangerous viruses.

In 2005, it handled patients with SARS, which unlike Ebola can spread when an infected person coughs or sneezes.

In fact, the nature of Ebola — which is spread by close contact with bodily fluids and blood — means that any modern hospital using standard, rigorous, infection-control measures should be able to handle it.

Still, Emory won't be taking any chances.

"Nothing comes out of this unit until it is non-infectious," said Dr. Bruce Ribner, who will be treating the patients. "The bottom line is: We have an inordinate amount of safety associated with the care of this patient. And we do not believe that any health care worker, any other patient or any visitor to our facility is in any way at risk of acquiring this infection."

Brantly was flown from Africa to Dobbins Air Reserve base outside Atlanta in a small plane equipped to contain infectious diseases, and a small police escort followed his ambulance to the hospital. He climbed out dressed head to toe in white protective clothing, and another person in an identical hazardous materials suit held both of his gloved hands as they walked gingerly inside.

"It was a relief to welcome Kent home today. I spoke with him, and he is glad to be back in the U.S.," said his wife, Amber Brantly, who left Africa with their two young children for a wedding in the U.S. days before the doctor fell ill.

"I am thankful to God for his safe transport and for giving him the strength to walk into the hospital," her statement said.

Inside the unit, patients are sealed off from anyone who doesn't wear protective gear.

"Negative air pressure" means air flows in, but can't escape until filters scrub any germs from patients. All laboratory testing is conducted within the unit, and workers are highly trained in infection control. Glass walls enable staff outside to safely observe patients, and there's a vestibule where workers suit up before entering. Any gear is safely disposed of or decontaminated.

Family members will be kept outside for now.

The unit "has a plate glass window and communication system, so they'll be as close as 1-2 inches from each other," Ribner said.

Dr. Jay Varkey, an infectious disease specialist who will be treating Brantly and Writebol, gave no word Saturday about their condition. Both were described as critically ill after treating Ebola patients at a missionary hospital in Liberia, one of four West African countries hit by the largest outbreak of the virus in history.

There is no proven cure for the virus. It kills an estimated 60 percent to 80 percent of the people it infects, but American doctors in Africa say the mortality rate would be much lower in a functioning health care system.

The virus causes hemorrhagic fever, headaches and weakness that can escalate to vomiting, diarrhea and kidney and liver problems. Some patients bleed internally and externally.

There are experimental treatments, but Brantly had only enough for one person, and insisted that his colleague receive it. His best hope in Africa was the transfusion of blood he received including antibodies from one of his patients, a 14-year-old boy who survived thanks to the doctor.

There was also only room on the plane for one patient at a time. Writebol will follow in several days.

Dr. Philip Brachman, an Emory public health specialist who led the CDC's disease detectives program for many years, said Friday that since there is no cure, medical workers will try any modern therapy that can be done, such as better monitoring of fluids, electrolytes and vital signs.

"We depend on the body's defenses to control the virus," Dr. Ribner said. "We just have to keep the patient alive long enough in order for the body to control this infection."

Just down the street from the hospital, people dined, shopped and carried on with their lives Saturday. Several interviewed by the AP said the patients are coming to the right place.

"We've got the best facilities in the world to deal with this stuff," said Kevin Whalen, who lives in Decatur, Ga., and has no connection to Emory or the CDC. "With the resources we can throw at it, it's the best chance this guy has for survival. And it's probably also the best chance to develop treatments and cures and stuff that we can take back overseas so that it doesn't come back here."










http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1349235/quotes

IMDb


The Stand (TV Mini-Series)

The Plague (1994)

Quotes


Maj. Jalbert: Sir, we found him. We located Campion. He crash-landed late last night at a gas station on the outskirts of a one-stoplight town in east Texas.

Gen. Starkey: He made it halfway across the country in only 12 hours? How the hell did he do that?

Maj. Jalbert: I don't know. But right now, we have a shot at containing this.

Gen. Starkey: Is he alive or dead?

Maj. Jalbert: He's dead.

Gen. Starkey: Oh my God. Denninger says that this stuff has a communicability level of 99.4%! You know what that means? Any chance we had at containing by the book went out the window when Campion stopped to buy gas or his first take-out hamburger!










http://www.cswap.com/1971/The_Omega_Man/cap/en/25fps/a/00_54


The Omega Man


:54:00
Once I caught one
of Matthias' people last year...

:54:03
and tried everything
on the shelves on him.

:54:19
He damn near killed me...

:54:20
and then he died very badly himself.










JOURNAL ARCHIVE: 9/18/2006 2:18 PM


Then, as usual, they dumped me off at the hospital. I don’t even remember them asking me any substantive questions. That was the time the paramedic told me I had high-blood pressure as I was waiting in the ER while strapped on the gurney.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Delta_force


[JOURNAL ARCHIVE 18 September 2006 excerpt ends]










http://www.chron.com/CDA/archives/archive.mpl?id=1994_1236513

chron Houston Chronicle Archives


Houston Chronicle News Services

FRI 11/04/1994 HOUSTON CHRONICLE


On Thursday, in an interview on the CBS News program "This Morning," Smith said that she had agreed to let the authorities search her home on Wednesday but that she did not know what they were looking for.

With her husband by her side for the interview, she denied knowing anything about the whereabouts of their two sons.

"I did not have anything to do with the abduction of my children," Smith said in the interview.

"I don't think that any parent could love my children more than I do, and I would never even think about doing anything that would harm them," she added. "It's really painful to have the finger pointed at you when it's your children involved."










http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0096073/quotes

IMDb


The Seventh Sign (1988)

Quotes


Old Priest: It is you, Morrell. But that was seventy years ago!

Father Lucci: That was just yesterday to me.










http://www.weather.com/news/weather-forecast/late-july-summer-cool-down-20140724

The Weather Channel


July Cooldown Part Two: Polar Plunge Return

Nick Wiltgen and Chrissy Warrilow Published: Aug 1, 2014, 2:10 PM EDT weather.com

On the heels of one July polar invasion, yet another major cooldown is here to wrap up July.

A large southward dip in the jet stream, also known as a trough, pumped in cool air from Canada into much of the central and eastern U.S. High temperatures were more than 20 degrees below average for this time of year in some areas, and most of the region saw at least one or two days with temperatures 5 to 10 degrees below average -- a noticeable difference at a time of year when many of us spend the most time outdoors.

What was notable about this cooldown is not just the fact that it took place in mid-summer, but that it resulted from a pattern that seemed to be frequently repeating.

The same jet stream pattern this week showed up not only in mid-July, but during much of the January-June time frame as well. As a result, much of the country east of the Rockies was much cooler than average for the first half of 2014, while the West was unusually warm.










http://web.archive.org/web/20060812025725/http://time-proxy.yaga.com/time/archive/printout/0,23657,944914,00.html


Science

Another Ice Age?

Monday, Jun 24, 1974

In Africa, drought continues for the sixth consecutive year, adding terribly to the toll of famine victims. During 1972 record rains in parts of the U.S., Pakistan and Japan caused some of the worst flooding in centuries. In Canada's wheat belt, a particularly chilly and rainy spring has delayed planting and may well bring a disappointingly small harvest. Rainy Britain, on the other hand, has suffered from uncharacteristic dry spells the past few springs. A series of unusually cold winters has gripped the American Far West, while New England and northern Europe have recently experienced the mildest winters within anyone's recollection.

As they review the bizarre and unpredictable weather pattern of the past several years, a growing number of scientists are beginning to suspect that many seemingly contradictory meteorological fluctuations are actually part of a global climatic upheaval. However widely the weather varies from place to place and time to time, when meteorologists take an average of temperatures around the globe they find that the atmosphere has been growing gradually cooler for the past three decades. The trend shows no indication of reversing. Climatological Cassandras are becoming increasingly apprehensive, for the weather aberrations they are studying may be the harbinger of another ice age.

Telltale signs are everywhere —from the unexpected persistence and thickness of pack ice in the waters around Iceland to the southward migration of a warmth-loving creature like the armadillo from the Midwest.Since the 1940s the mean global temperature has dropped about 2.7° F. Although that figure is at best an estimate, it is supported by other convincing data. When Climatologist George J. Kukla of Columbia University's Lamont-Doherty Geological Observatory and his wife Helena analyzed satellite weather data for the Northern Hemisphere, they found that the area of the ice and snow cover had suddenly increased by 12% in 1971 and the increase has persisted ever since. Areas of Baffin Island in the Canadian Arctic, for example, were once totally free of any snow in summer; now they are covered year round.

Scientists have found other indications of global cooling. For one thing there has been a noticeable expansion of the great belt of dry, high-altitude polar winds —the so-called circumpolar vortex










http://www.kpcnews.com/columnists/matt_getts/kpcnews/article_dcc53031-977e-5735-ab11-93036650b6a7.html

kpc NEWS.com


Where’s the heat?

Posted: Tuesday, July 29, 2014 11:00 pm Updated: 6:36 am, Wed Jul 30, 2014.

By Matt Getts

It’s not often that one has to run the car’s heater in the last week of July.

But that was the case Tuesday morning.

What has happened to baking sidewalks, crowded pools and long lines at the ice cream shop?

In general terms, the media has credited the polar vortex with the unseasonably cool temperatures this summer. That would be incorrect, according to The Weather Channel’s website.

“It’s more accurate to say that the anomalously cold air is related to the circumpolar vortex in the troposphere,” the website said, “the lower layer of the atmosphere, which is a pattern of winds that feature a broad, irregular generally west-to-east flow around the pole, rather than a flow that’s consistently centered right at the pole like the stratospheric polar vortex.”










http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0099348/quotes

IMDb


Dances with Wolves (1990)

Quotes


Timmons: Why don't you put that in your book?



- posted by H.V.O.M - Kerry Wayne Burgess 07:49 AM Pacific Time Spokane Valley Washington USA Sunday 03 August 2014