Okay, this is probably nothing BUT you won't hear about it from our media. It comes, as usual, from
The DailyMail:The third US patient to be treated for Ebola on American soil has been isolated again in hospital after suffering a persistent cough and fever.
Dr Rick Sacra, 51, who contracted the deadly virus while working in Liberia was readmitted to UMass Memorial Medical Center in Worcester, Massachusetts, two weeks after he was cleared.
He was treated at the University of Nebraska Medical Center for the infection last month and was released.
Doctors are said to be performing tests on him to make sure Ebola has not returned, however they claim he has not relapsed - also stressing that the public should not be concerned.
Medical Director Dr Phil Smith told WCVB: 'Even though the likelihood of Dr. Sacra having a relapse of Ebola is extremely low, doctors will run tests to be 100 percent sure.
'Because of his recent battle with the Ebola virus, his immune system is compromised. The symptoms he has are indicative of a respiratory illness and are not those of someone suffering from Ebola,' he added.
The public should not be concerned and yet, they put him in isolation.
Here's the thing: This doctor is a decent guy. He was over there in Liberia risking his life to save people who he did not know. I respect that. A lot. He knew the risks and probably took all of the right precautions and
still got infected. For reasons I do not understand he was permitted to come back to the US and receive treatment. And it looked like it worked out...he beat the odds and is alive today instead of dead. I was and am glad that he did not die.
So...now that that's been said...what if he didn't really beat ebola but merely knocked it back for a while? What if it went dormant in his system and is now re-emerging? Or what if it mutated in response to the experimental drugs he received and is now back in some other form? The experts are reasonably sure that ebola can't come back in his system but a lot of other experts claimed that ebola couldn't happen here in the US, either. So...I'm not exactly ready to bet the farm on the word of ebola experts.
I hope, for obvious reasons, that the doctor is going to be alright and that he is not suffering a relapse of his ebola infection. But it really pisses me off at just how casual the healthcare experts are treating this (overall ebola) situation. I have a looming sense of doom with this. It's probably because of the reading that I have done recently ("The Hot Zone") which has seriously gotten my attention as to how incredibly dangerous this disease is. I sure wish that our "leaders" were as scared of ebola as I am.
