To: Kenneth E. Phillipps who wrote (173478 ) 10/12/2014 12:22:54 PM From: tonto 2 RecommendationsRecommended By
Read Replies (1) | Respond to Kenneth, we are concerned about false negatives...not false positives...October 6, 2014 by WashingtonsBlog Multiple Tests On Suspected Ebola Victims Before Releasing ThemNewsweek notes :the diagnostic test came back negative , that worry was banished, and Omeonga and his colleagues began caring for the director as they would a typhoid or malaria patient. “We wore gloves, but we were not very strict at all.”the first test was a false negative [i.e. the test erroneously showed that the person did not have Ebola, when he did]. Suddenly, everyone who had cared for him was a possible Ebola case. The hospital became a quarantine zone. The director died on August 2, the same day Omeonga began to feel sick. Of the 20 health workers who had been in contact with him during that week, 15 came down with Ebola a short while later, including Omeonga. Nine of Omeonga’s colleagues died. He and five others survived.notes :PCR assay, which was used by Emory physicians in deciding when to discharge two patients from Emory University Hospital.said last week:PCR test of blood.noted in 2002 that the PCR test can yield false negatives for viral hemorrhagic fevers such as Ebola:noted in August (on page 2):false negative result should especially be considered if the patient’s recent exposures or clinical presentation indicate that Ebola Zaire virus infection is likely, and diagnostic tests for other causes of hemorrhagic illness are negative.more than once before any suspected Ebola victims are released.
