Another Saudi national has brought a case of the deadly MERS virus to America. This story has been all over the national and local news since it broke two days ago.
See our coverage of the previous case in Indiana here ten days ago.
As we have said on previous occasions, if Americans don’t wise up to the security threats, the cultural challenges, the expense to taxpayers of opening our borders to the world, the one thing that will get their attention is the threat of deadly diseases their kids might contract at school, or they might pick up in a hospital or on the subway.
MERS is making the national news, but others, especially tuberculosis, are on the rise in the US immigrant population and the cases are reported only in the local media. See our Health issues category for more.
ORLANDO, Fla. (AP) — Employees at two Orlando hospitals who came in contact with a Saudi resident infected by the second confirmed U.S. case of a rare virus are being monitored for symptoms and have been told to stay home for two weeks, health officials said Tuesday.
Fifteen hospital workers at Dr. Phillips Hospital and another five employees at Orlando Regional Medical Center were being monitored at home for fever, chills and muscle aches, said Dr. Antonio Crespo, an official with the hospital system.
So far, none of them has tested positive for MERS, or Middle East Respiratory Syndrome. MERS is a respiratory illness that begins with flu-like fever and cough but can lead to shortness of breath, pneumonia and death.
The Saudi resident was being treated at Dr. Phillips Hospital, where he showed up at the emergency room May 8. Three days earlier, he had visited Orlando Regional Medical Center with a friend who went to the hospital for a test.
Two workers at Dr. Phillips Hospital, who were not identified, have shown flu-like symptoms recent days. One of them was sent home, and the other has been hospitalized in isolation. Both are awaiting test results that could come later this week. Crespo said MERS has been shown to have a 14-day incubation period.
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The White House said Tuesday that President Barack Obama had been briefed on the MERS cases in the U.S.
We would be so much better off as a nation without the Saudis money, oil, students and diseases!