I'm sympathetic to these infected humanitarians, but is this really such a good idea?

Source: Flight leaves for Liberia to evacuate Americans infected with Ebola

The fear began just after news broke Thursday that a long-range business jet with an isolation pod left the United States for Liberia, where it will evacuate two Americans infected with Ebola.

Twitter exploded with questions about the deadly virus, which according to the World Health Organization is believed to have killed hundreds in four West African nations. And with reaction to news that two infected Americans would soon be on their way back to the United States.

"Why are they doing this?" Robin Hunter asked in a post on Twitter.

While U.S. officials have remained mum on the issue, a source told CNN that a medical charter flight left from Cartersville, Georgia, on Thursday evening.

A CNN crew saw the plane depart shortly after 5 p.m. ET. The plane matched the description provided by the source, who spoke on condition of anonymity. It was not immediately known when the two Americans -- identified by the source as Dr. Kent Brantly and Nancy Writebol -- would arrive in the United States, or where the plane would land.

Okay, despite working in a hospital, I am not a clinician or scientist. I don't understand the complete workings of the Ebola virus. But I do have a basic grasp of epidemiolgy and infection control, and Ebola is one really scary virus with dread consequences if it escapes control, Is it worth the risk? Also, several aid agencies are recalling their personnel from these countries, and that brings with it the chance that an infection will be missed until others are exposed. I assume quarantines will be imposed as a precaution, but still...this very well could be the way a terrible regional epidemic spreads to other areas. Yes, precautions can be taken, but no attempts at infection prevention can be considered foolproof, and it only takes one patient zero who slips through the precautions and you have a much bigger epidemic on your hands, in a disease which kills horribly and with a high mortality rate (50%-90%, depending on the strain), with no vaccine, and no assured and efficacious cure.

Public health, not censorship

Library burned books in 1905

In 1905 the Grand Island, Nebraska, public library burnt books. A library burning books, you say? No, it wasn't censorship, or some response to a community outcry. The reason why Austen's Sense and Sensibilty and other works were burnt was because of concerns over scarlet fever and its transmission (you know, the same reason the toys of The Boy were taken away in The Velveteen Rabbit).

An interesting bit of history, that. I know in medical libraries we often face infection control in terms of library book carts that go from unit to unit, especially to the immunosuppressed, such as cancer patients. It's a perennial request on the medical librarian list, MEDLIB-L.

I'm appalled

YKWIA told me about this, and I was floored. I'm not a health professional, even though I work in a hospital. But I know you don't reuse needles without exponentially increasing the risk of Hepatitis B and C and HIV transmission.

So how could normal, licensed health professionals either not know to do this, or had such disregard for human life that they did it anyway? We're not talking about somewhere in a Third World country. It happened in Las Vegas.

Vegas Clinic May Have Sickened Thousands

40,000 people have been told they may have contracted a disease through this clinic. That's a good-sized town's worth of people.

Hepatitis C is the greatest concern, because it's not curable at this point, can damage the liver to the point of death, and is far easier to get than HIV.

Staff have apparently said they were told to reuse syringes as part of an unwritten policy. That doesn't let them off the hook. The moment they were told that, they should have resigned their positions and blown the whistle on the centre.

Amid hepatitis scare in Nevada, 5 nurses hand in licenses

According to that article, the Las Vegas Sun said Nevada 'ranks among the worst in the nation for numbers of doctors and nurses per capita, the number of uninsured patients, and the number of unvaccinated children'. (The quoted article was no longer available via link). Apparently it's not very good on overseeing these type of endoscopy/surgical clinics that operate apart from a hospital, either.

The authorities have closed two more clinics owned by the same company, leaving one other open for now.

Agh. This is something that deserves more than losing licences or being sued. This should be a criminal negligence case at the very least.