AZ man ignores his doctor's order, may now be quarantined for life

[alnorth]

http://blogs.usatoday.com/ondeadline...tined_for.html

Apparently this guy has some horrible deadly mutated strain of tuberculosis, and the doctors told him he must continue treatment and wear a mask anytime he is outside his house for the rest of his life or until cured.

However, after he stopped taking the medicine and started eating out publicly without the mask, the cops grabbed him. He is now confined in a hospital, under guard in a special isolated room with controlled air flow, etc. Because he apparently can no longer be trusted to take care of himself and voluntarily self-quarantine, the doctors have now said that his disease has become resistant to treatment and mutated to the point where it is too risky to allow him out of confinement until he dies or is cured.

What do you think? The guy says he was confused and didnt understand how serious it was, but if I was in this situation I sure as hell would do every damn thing the doctor told me to avoid a possible confinement for life.

[jidar]

That's the breaks, if he's deadly and needs to be quarantined that's just how it is.

I mean you're not going to let the guy walk around if he could pass a fatal disease on to people through the air.

[Valiant]

Is it PC to say ship him to the middle east???

[Skip Towne]

Originally Posted by Valiant

Is it PC to say ship him to the middle east???

Rep

[Ebolapox]

Originally Posted by Valiant

Is it PC to say ship him to the middle east???

there's a problem with that... with air travel being what it is now, any form of biological warfare could VERY EASILY backfire on us-- yeah, it would kill a lot of them (that's not morbid, is it?), but if just one infected person catches one of thousands of flights to ANYWHERE in the 'western' world, spreads it to a couple of people traveling other places, then you have a possible pandemic on your hands

which aren't good for the human race period... the last few 'true' pandemics were in 1918 (swine flu, of which avian flu is related) and europe in the fourteenth century--bubonic plague... you think people panic at the threat of terrorism? just imagine how much people would panic if people were dying by the millions worldwide and our infrastructure collapsed under the weight of unpreparedness (one can never be ready enough for a global plague)

[oldandslow]

Originally Posted by H5N1

there's a problem with that... with air travel being what it is now, any form of biological warfare could VERY EASILY backfire on us-- yeah, it would kill a lot of them (that's not morbid, is it?), but if just one infected person catches one of thousands of flights to ANYWHERE in the 'western' world, spreads it to a couple of people traveling other places, then you have a possible pandemic on your hands

which aren't good for the human race period... the last few 'true' pandemics were in 1918 (swine flu, of which avian flu is related) and europe in the fourteenth century--bubonic plague... you think people panic at the threat of terrorism? just imagine how much people would panic if people were dying by the millions worldwide and our infrastructure collapsed under the weight of unpreparedness (one can never be ready enough for a global plague)

Excellent post.

Further, the question is not "if" it will happen, but when.

The largest pandemic ever, however, happened on this continent. Native Americans were not overrun by superior tech - but by animal domestication. Europeans had more immunity to small pox (which came from cattle) than Native Americans (who had no immunity because they had no cattle to domesticate and thereby had not evolved in a way to prevent mass deaths.) There are some pretty good estimates out there that say 75-100 million Indians died after contact with Europeans.

[Ebolapox]

eh, shoulda listened to the doctor--they generally know what they're talking about

[kstater]

Could he be considered a Darwin candidate?

[Rain Man]

That's an amazing story. I didn't know that stuff like this happened. I hope he gets a lot of cable channels.

[Ebolapox]

Originally Posted by Rain Man

That's an amazing story. I didn't know that stuff like this happened. I hope he gets a lot of cable channels.

it happens, but it's very rare

[chagrin]

Pretty creepy, he's patient Zero for some mysterious strain of the marburg virus, WE'RE DOOMED!!

[Ebolapox]

Originally Posted by chagrin

Pretty creepy, he's patient Zero for some mysterious strain of the marburg virus, WE'RE DOOMED!!

marburg virus?!?

I'd think you'd pick one of the strains of ebola--after all, ebola zaire kills around 90% of people who get it, as opposed to the 25% that marburg kills

fun fact: marburg hemmorhagic fever was named after a town in germany, marburg, that had an outbreak of marburg (in the family of viruses known as filoviridae) in 1967--five out of 19 people who were exposed to green monkey tissue died

so it's lethal, but not as lethal as other viruses you could've used

[chagrin]

Originally Posted by H5N1

marburg virus?!?

I'd think you'd pick one of the strains of ebola--after all, ebola zaire kills around 90% of people who get it, as opposed to the 25% that marburg kills

fun fact: marburg hemmorhagic fever was named after a town in germany, marburg, that had an outbreak of marburg (in the family of viruses known as filoviridae) in 1967--five out of 19 people who were exposed to green monkey tissue died

so it's lethal, but not as lethal as other viruses you could've used

That was my "Millennium" reference, sorry

[Ebolapox]

Originally Posted by chagrin

That was my "Millennium" reference, sorry

eh, sorry-- I'm too much of a science geek to let a virus reference like that slip

[chagrin]

Originally Posted by H5N1

eh, sorry-- I'm too much of a science geek to let a virus reference like that slip

Yeah, I can dig it; in the show, it was a hybrid of the Marburg that 100% fatal, pretty cool TV show - glad to know that the Marburg doesn't actually make you sweat blod, umm...or does it?