Ebola nurse Kaci Hickox isn't spreading disease like you do: Column
Chances are, you have spread a deadly illness among your friends and colleagues. You'll likely do it again.
Public fury is building as Maine authorities try to maintain quarantine for an asymptomatic nurse returning from caring for Ebola patients in West Africa. While the nurse, Kaci Hickox, insists she poses no risk to others, since even Ebola-infected persons are not contagious prior to developing symptoms — a position that is supported by the CDC, the NIH, the WHO, and many of the world's leading Ebola experts —others believe that she is expressing willful disregard for the health of the general public.
As we think about the best ways to limit Ebola transmission, and how to treat those people who might be at risk for Ebola infection, let's acknowledge that each of us has, at some point, transmitted an infectious disease to someone else. When sick kids go to school and when sick grownups take the subway to work, they put others at risk. Whereas science indicates that the transmission of Ebola viral particles requires contact with infected bodily fluids, the sharing of respiratory viruses does not. Many respiratory viruses can aerosolize and become airborne such that every cough and sneeze can transmit disease.
Outside of the hospital, we don't worry so much about transmitting "colds" and "flu," because these diseases are generally perceived as low risk and inevitable. However, both of these perceptions are inaccurate.
An upper respiratory infection might just be an annoyance to you, but it could have severe consequences for an infant or someone with a pre-existing lung disease, such as asthma. Influenza kills thousands of people every year. Infants, pregnant women, the elderly, and people with immune systems weakened by chemotherapy or other drugs may be at especially high risk. This is why when health care professionals treat patients with common respiratory infections in the hospital, it's a big deal: depending on the bug, the CDC recommends masks, face shields, gloves and/or full body gowns.
Simple behaviors will protect you personally as well as protecting others against the risks of contagious diseases – including Ebola, but also the large number of other more common illnesses. There are steps that everyone can take to minimize the chances that they will be disease vectors this fall and winter. These include washing your hands, covering your coughs, keeping sick kids home from school, minimizing exposure to others if you're sick, keeping your distance when you are contagious (influenza may spread to others who are up to six feet away), and making sure you are up-to-date on your vaccinations. It's hard to understand how anyone could be bemoaning the lack of an Ebola vaccine while also avoiding immunization for influenza or for measles.
When a toddler coughs or vomits on his or her caregiver, no reasonable person blames the kid. But being cavalier about the risk of transmitting a potentially dangerous infectious disease to vulnerable people, just because you're pretty sure it won't be a problem for you, personally – now isn't that childish?
Next time someone suggests that Ebola caregivers aren't doing enough to safeguard the public from the disease they've risked their lives to treat, think about whether you're doing what you can to protect public health. We're all in this together.
Elizabeth Oelsner is a general internist and respiratory epidemiologist at Columbia University.
In addition to its own editorials, USA TODAY publishes diverse opinions from outside writers, including ourBoard of Contributors.To read more columns like this, go to the opinion front page or follow us on twitter @USATopinion or Facebook.