I am so sick of hearing about this Ebola thing. The misinformation and overreaction is mind blowing. I have been trying to ignore it, but this article really pushed me over the edge…
This article says that EBOLA nurses are as brave as soldiers. Oh stop it! Seriously? Before you flip out on me and exit out of this, let me tell you where I am coming from. My wife is a nurse. She works in OB and delivers babies. My I am not debating that nurses are not brave, they most certainly are, my issue is with the emphasis on Ebola. In addition to having the ability to read a Wikipedia page on Ebola, I have talked with my wife about the topic. Just yesterday she was all upset because her mom was arguing with her about it. Her mother is all worried about her catching Ebola and she shrugs it off.
Before I go further into this, I will explain what my wife does and why her mother is concerned. Working in OB her job is to care for mothers that are about to give birth and caring for her and the baby afterwards. She assists throughout the entire process and occasionally delivers the baby herself when the doctor does not get there in time. Anyone that has given birth or seen a birth knows that it is very messy. There is always blood involved and often urine and feces involved. After the baby is born, there is the afterbirth, which is when the placenta comes out. It is a very messy job that involves a lot of bodily fluids. Of course my mother-in-law is aware of this which is why she is freaking out over the entire thing.
Another thing that is scary is that many of her patients are immigrants or not citizens at all. Just the other day she delivered a baby of an African woman. The woman lived in Africa and came to the United States only to have the baby. She was able to do this because she had family in the country. Why is my wife not overly concerned about Ebola even though this very patient could have had it? Simple…training.
Most nurses these days have four year degrees in nursing. My wife has a BS in Nursing. They train nurses for four years on how to deal with sick people. They teach the dangers of contact with bodily fluids on top of having protocol. They have things such as the double glove method to keep nurses from getting in contact with fluids. In my wife’s job there certainly are cases when she gets fluids on bare skin, and when she does she quickly cleans it off with alcohol wipes.
The reality is there are TONS of diseases one can catch being a nurse, many of them much easier to catch than Ebola. Anyone that has read a Wikipedia page would know Ebola is not airborne, but is transmitted by blood and other bodily fluids. It is comparable to HIV and hepatitis and is getting about the same reaction as HIV got when that was the thing. According to Amesh Adalja, MD, an infectious disease expert at the University of Pittsburgh, “it takes effort to get infected with both of these viruses [HIV and Ebola,]”
When I asked my wife what she is most concerned about when it comes to her job, her answer was Tuberculosis, which can be spread through the air. She said she is more worried about hepatitis, than Ebola, when it comes to blood.
Are nurses courageous? Of course, they come in contact with things that can kill people every day! To paint these Ebola nurses as heroes is a real slap in the face to all of the other nurses. If you want to recognize nurses for their heroic jobs, I will be the first one to voice my support, but stop acting if few nurses were doomed to be infected, as if they were standing there with their mouths open with the patient puking into them.
Like Dr. Amesh Adalja said, it takes effort to get it. He is not suggesting that these nurses were trying to get sick, simply that if they would have been following standard procedure (of what should have been) and using their medical training, there should be no reason they were infected. No one wants to see someone get sick and potentially die when they were caring for someone but stop feeding this media-driven craze over Ebola and stop painting “Ebola nurses” as heroes when my wife, and the nurses she works with, could face a dozen things could kill them TONIGHT.
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