Today, the Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary finally admitted that there may be other cases of Ebola in the United States.  Well, no shit Sherlock.  At the moment, Federal agencies are balancing the outflow of information.  Too much and there will be panic.  Too little and they will be marked as blatant liars.  On the same day (10/9/14), a patient who had recently traveled to Nigeria just checked himself into a Middletown, OH hospital for Ebola-like symptoms.  This is very close to the area in which I live.

Just as the videos say, since the patient doesn’t have a fever, his symptoms don’t qualify for his blood sample to be sent to the CDC for diagnosis.

Remember Patient Zero in the United States?  He came into a Dallas hospital with Ebola-like symptoms and they sent him home with some anti-biotics!  Perhaps his “screening” didn’t yield a reason for his blood to be sent to CDC? At least in this Middletown case, the individual is quarantined within the hospital.

However, this highlights what little resources the CDC actually has.  Patients must have all the symptoms before the CDC will allow their blood to be sent for analysis.  In my other article Flu or Ebola – Prepare for a Fear Pandemic, you will read that once Flu season hits, hospitals across the nation are going to be overwhelmed with individuals complaining of fever, muscle ache, vomiting and/or diarrhea.  Likewise, the CDC is going to be overwhelmed with sample overload.  Even if all these individuals don’t have Ebola, how are you going to quarantine them until the CDC gets the delayed results back?  I foresee us heading into a logistical nightmare for hospitals.

How do I feel about Ebola being so close to home?  Well, since it’s not yet confirmed, I’m still relatively comfortable.  I am however incredibly surprised to see an Ebola screening happen in Middletown, OH.  This is a relatively small city that’s not necessarily “diverse” in terms of ethnicity.  I would have not figured that there would be that many people in the area that traveled to Sub-Saharan Africa.  I would have thought we would see this surface in more populated cities like Miami, New York, LA, etc.

You just never know.  We all sit idly by watching events unfold on TV, and never think they can get this close to home.  If this is a confirmed case, I’m going to refer to the Ebola Protection Plan I generated several weeks ago.