Ebola in Texas - while innocent refugee children from Honduras were stigmatized as "diseased"

I don't believe in the concept of "poetic justice". First of all, there's rarely a direct cause and effect with seeing justice done. Rather, justice is like watching grass grow, it takes a long time to come to fruition. Certainly, justice isn't "poetic", but more like an outcome after hearing a lot of rhetoric. 

Nevertheless, when the sad news broke about the first confirmed Ebola patient to be diagnosed in the US, happened to be in Texas....well, well well. My first thought was for thousands of immigrant refugee children from Honduras who were stigmatized by right wing anti-immigration zealots, harping about them bringing "diseases" to US soil, through Texas. 

One confirmed Ebola patient is now in Texas, but this person didn't arrive via Honduras as a child refugee.  

Perhaps poetic justice exists, after all.

Or course, whoever the Ebola victim is, we pray for a full recovery as well as the protection of anyone who was in contact with the afflicted person, before presenting at a Texas hospital with the symptoms. Health care workers at the Texas hospital where the Ebola patient is now under treatment are at risk for becoming infected with the virus. Undoubtedly, front line Texas health care workers will be subject to quarantine, until the incubation period of the virus expires.

Meanwhile, I have a hard time believing that the US is the only country where an Ebola patient has come down with the viral illness. There must be others, but the diagnosis is either being withheld or death was not attributed to the Ebola diagnosis.

CNN reports:
Atlanta (CNN) -- A patient being treated at a Dallas hospital is the first person diagnosed with Ebola in the United States, health officials announced Tuesday.

The unidentified man left Liberia on September 19 and arrived in the United States on September 20, said Dr. Thomas Frieden, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

At that time, the individual did not have symptoms. "But four or five days later," he began to exhibit them, Frieden said. The individual was hospitalized and isolated Sunday at Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital.

Citing privacy concerns, health officials declined to release any details about how the patient contracted the virus, what he was doing in Liberia or how he was being treated.

"I can say he is ill. He is under intensive care," Dr. Edward Goodman of the hospital told reporters.

The patient is believed to have had a handful of contacts with people after showing symptoms of the virus, and before being isolated, Frieden said. A CDC team was en route to Texas to help investigate those contacts.

The crew that transported the patient to the hospital has been isolated, the chief of staff for Dallas Mayor Mike Rawlings told CNN.

At the same time, Frieden sought to play down the risk to public health. There are currently no other suspected cases of Ebola in Texas.

"It's a severe disease, which has a high-case fatality rate, even with the best of care, but there are core, tried and true public health interventions that stop it," Frieden said.

"The bottom line here is that I have no doubt that we will control this importation or this case of Ebola so that it does not spread widely in this country," he said.

According to the CDC, Ebola causes viral hemorrhagic fever, which can affect multiple organ systems in the body and is often accompanied by bleeding.

Early symptoms include sudden onset of fever, weakness, muscle pain, headaches and a sore throat, each of which can be easily mistaken early on for other ailments like malaria, typhoid fever and meningitis.

Ebola is spread by direct contact with someone sick with the virus. That means people on the patient's flight are not thought to be at risk, as he did not begin to show symptoms until several days after arriving in the United States, Frieden said.

"The issue is not that Ebola is highly infectious. The issue with Ebola is that the stakes are so high," he told reporters.

There is no vaccination against Ebola, at this time.

Of Ebola's five subtypes, the Zaire strain -- the first to be identified -- is considered the most deadly.

The World Health Organization said preliminary tests on the Ebola virus in Guinea in March suggested that the outbreak there was this strain, though that has not been confirmed.

The Ebola virus causes viral hemorrhagic fever, which according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), refers to a group of viruses that affect multiple organ systems in the body and are often accompanied by bleeding.

The director declined to answer whether the patient in Texas is a U.S. citizen? He just said he was in Texas to visit family.

Frieden also declined to say, clearly, whether the patient is a man, although he referred to the person as "he" on multiple occasions.

A number of other Americans have been diagnosed with the disease in West Africa and then brought to the United States for treatment.

The Ebola outbreak has been centered in the West African countries of Guinea, Sierra Leone and Liberia, though there have been concerns about international air travel and other factors -- including the fact the symptoms might not appear until two to 21 days after one is infected -- may contribute to its spread.

More than 3,000 people in West Africa have died after being infected with Ebola, according to a World Health Organization reportfrom last week. The same report stated that there had been 6,553 cases of the virus overall, though the number is suspected to be much higher, given difficulties in tracking and reporting the disease.

"I have no doubt that we'll stop this in its tracks in the U.S. But I also have no doubt that as long as the outbreak continues in Africa, we need to be on our guard," said Frieden.