Pauline Cafferty .

[anneasquith]

condition has stabilised............. great news .

[New Judge]

So tell me what's untrue about the two points raised in my latest post, Sir O, and I might take the time to consider your remarks.

[anneasquith]

lets hope no news is good news, and this lady continues to improve.

[jim360]

NJ, on this you are utterly wrong -- it is precisely because of volunteers like Pauline Cafferkey that we in the UK have little to fear now about Ebola. In the middle of 2014, when very few people cared about what was going on "over there", the result was an epidemic that was rapidly spiralling out of control. The volunteer effort is now leading, gradually, to this no longer being the case, and in two of the three countries the growth rate seems to be slowing.

Without so many volunteers, on the other hand, the epidemic was growing at an alarming and indeed exponential rate, with no sign of slowing. Thankfully in late 2014 the volunteer effort did step up, and the disease is on the verge of being contained (although the WHO continues to sound a note of caution, as well it should).

She has brought Ebola to the UK in only a technical sense, and there is only a negligible risk of the disease spreading here, so her actions haven't threatened our own lives -- only hers, and then only for the right reasons.

[New Judge]

I hope you're right, Jim. But I disagree that she has brought it here "in the technical sense". It wasn't here before she brought it here, she has it, she risked the health of people on her flight back from Africa, of those on her onward flight to Scotland, and of those now treating her (because that's how she caught it). I don't quite know how that is "technical".

The way to prevent the disease spreading to this country is to prevent people travelling here from the infected areas, not to encourage them to go there and bring it back.

I am fundamentally at odds with most people on this issue. There is plenty of voluntary medical work that people who are so disposed can undertake in the UK.

[Peter Pedant]

// that is a direct result of a person returning to the UK from an infected area having gone there and deliberately mixed with infected people. //

some of these comments are unworthy

Linking NHS issues with med charity work is one of them

The nurse turned herself in when she felt ill and unwell ( so therefore followed guidelines ) and some dim witted triage personnel repeatedly told her it was safe to travel ..... duuuh.

[ same thing happened in the texas case ]

[Sqad]

NJ.
I agree with Jim. The control of Ebola is a world wide problem and can only be successfully controlled at source......in West Africa.
To wait for it to arrive at any particular extra-African country is folly and these medical workers are certainly brave.

But, NJ, you are correct.......Ebola virus is in the UK and the next 2 weeks will tell us if it is going to take up residence.

[Peter Pedant]

I am sorry sqad - you have failed your path and bact course and need to retake.

\ebola isnt resident here - anymore than dengue, chinkungunya or any of the others ones that Torpical Diseases see and we hear nothing about

[Sqad]

PP...read my post again.......I didn't say that Ebola was resident here.

[jim360]

The good thing is that because of all the volunteers from the UK and elsewhere who have gone over to fight Ebola, we'll never be able to see how dangerous it would have been to ignore it. Ain't that always the way? But this was a disease that had to be tackled, and tackled fast, and the only way to do that was for volunteers to go over to the affected countries and work to contain the epidemic. This is what has happened, and the result is that we are many times more safe now than we would have been otherwise. Even if the disease has arrived here after all, it's arrived in the form of just a handful of cases, rather than several.

There is no escaping the fact that we needed to tackle this disease. For the rest of the world to ignore the problem would be the worst possible idea, and thank goodness that eventually the Western World came to its senses.

[Sqad]

Jim...exactly.

[Peter Pedant]

If I rang up public health and said I have returned from West Africa and feel unwell, I wouldnt expect to be told to hop on the bus and go to my Mum's ( no not because she died in 1994 ... )

There have been failures and McCafferty's actions arennt some of them.

[237SJ]

...likewise, if you told the crew on either aircraft that you feel unwell and you have been in contact with Ebola patients, the Port Health Authority would meet the aircraft and then you might not be released into the general community.