I'm sick of the talk and I want action.

I'm tired of being told everything will be ok.

A series of major mistakes have been made which affect Americans in huge proportion.

Let me backtrack.

Ebola Hemorrhagic Fever is a virus which emerged in Sudan and Zaire in 1976. According to the Centers for Disease Control, Ebola is a severe, often fatal disease in humans and nonhuman primates such as monkeys, gorillas and chimpanzees.

On Sept. 16, the President of the United States, Barack Obama, made the following statement.

"First and foremost, I want the American people to know that our experts, here at the CDC and across our government, agree the chances of an Ebola outbreak here in the United States are extremely low. We've been taking the necessary precautions, including working with countries in West Africa to increase screening at airports so someone with the virus doesn't get on a plane for the United States," Obama said.

Well apparently that didn't work.

"In the unlikely event someone with Ebola does reach our shores, we've taken new measures so we're prepared here at home. We're working to help flight crews identify people who are sick, and more labs across our country now have the capacity to quickly test for the virus. We're working with hospitals to make sure they are prepared, and to ensure our doctors, our nurses and our medical staff are trained, are ready and are able to deal with a possible case safely."

That didn't work either.

Fast forward to Oct. 1.

According to the Associated Press, Dr. Mark Lester, with the Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital, Dallas, confirmed Oct. 1 a nurse asked an infected Ebola patient on his first visit to the hospital whether he had been in the area affected by the African Ebola outbreak but the information was not fully shared with the entire team at the hospital.

They sent him home with an antibiotic.

Good thing the president added extra precautions.

Now approximately 100 people are at risk because they were potentially exposed to the Ebola virus.

I know plenty of doctors and nurses; they are sons, daughters, grandchildren and parents. They would never put themselves or others at risk. So what was the nurse thinking who didn't share the information? Where was the training?

"At the request of the Liberian government, we're going to establish a military command center in Liberia to support civilian efforts across the region similar to our response after the Haiti earthquake. It's going to be commanded by Major General Darryl Williams, commander of our Army forces in Africa. He just arrived today and is now on the ground in Liberia. And our forces are going to bring their expertise in command and control, in logistics, in engineering. And our Department of Defense is better at that, our Armed Services are better at that than any organization on Earth," Obama said.

Great. Let's send our military to Liberia and put more of our Americans at risk.

In Africa, confirmed cases of Ebola have been reported in Guinea, Liberia, Sierra Leone, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Gabor, South Sudan, Ivory Coast, Uganda, Republic of the Congo and South Africa.

On Oct. 2, CDC Director Tom Frieden said in this age of global travel, "we anticipated that a traveler from a country with an Ebola outbreak would come to the United States and develop symptoms once they arrived. But from everything we know now, there appears to be no risk that anyone on this patient's flights from Liberia to the United States was exposed to the virus."

CNN interviewed a representative with the Liberia Airport Authority who said each traveler is required to answer a health questionnaire about their exposure to people with the Ebola virus and have their temperature taken three times before boarding a plane.

News reports said the patient in Texas, Thomas Eric Duncan, allegedly lied on his health questionnaire. As of Oct. 5, he was listed in critical condition.

The CDC says Ebola is transmitted through direct contact with the blood or secretions of an infected person and exposure to objects, such as needles, contaminated with infected secretions.

Symptoms include fever, headache, joint and muscle aches, weakness, diarrhea, vomiting, stomach pain and lack of appetite. The CDC reports some patients may experience a rash, red eyes, hiccups, cough, sore throat, chest pain, difficulty breathing, difficulty swallowing and bleeding inside and outside of the body. Symptoms may appear anywhere from two to 21 days after exposure to the Ebola virus. The CDC said eight to 10 days is most common.

"Clinicians on the front lines have been one key to our safety: identifying patients with both a history of travel and symptoms indicating they might have Ebola, immediately isolating them, consulting their local or state health departments, and getting the patients tested as needed," Frieden said. "Indeed, since the outbreak began in Africa, CDC has consulted with state and local health departments on almost 100 cases in which travelers had recently returned from West Africa and showed symptoms that might have been caused by Ebola. Of those cases, 14 were considered to be truly at risk. Specimens from 13 were tested and Ebola was ruled out in all 13 cases."

That was before the CDC labs "confirmed our nation's first U.S.-diagnosed Ebola patient."

"I understand this can be deeply troubling news, especially after what we have witnessed what has occurred with the outbreak in West Africa. But there are distinct differences in what will happen here," Frieden said. "The United States has a strong health care system and dedicated public health professionals all hard at work right now to make sure this case will not threaten the community at large, or the nation. A person who is sick from Ebola virus disease can be cared for in U.S. hospitals when the patient is isolated in a private room with a private bathroom and contact with them is highly controlled. Every health care worker must meticulously follow every single infection control protection we recommend."

I have a better idea.

Since we cannot be sure travelers will tell the truth on a questionnaire or overdose on Tylenol before boarding a plane to pass a temperature test, let's restrict all travel from those affected countries to the United States and to those areas until this epidemic is under control. Those wishing to travel to the United States must stay in a luxury holding area for 30 days to be certain they do not carry the disease.

Is 30 days too much time to ensure the safety and well-being of citizens of the United States and other countries?

I think not.

Debbie

Galbraith

editor

East Penn Press

Salisbury Press