Dr. Sanjay Gupta: A Real Life Superhero
From Mild-Mannered Reporter to Lifesaving Neurosurgeon
TJ: What is the current situation with Ebola?
GUPTA: There are a couple of different ways to answer that question. There is the center of where this all started in West Africa. You still have an ongoing situa- tion there with intermittent spikes in the number of cases in some of the locations in West Africa. You have some areas where you had cases that are now declaring them- selves disease-free, so there has been some real progress in those areas. I think, as has happened in the past, you can essentially declare countries Ebola-free, and that some of the public health practices that have been known to work in the past have started to show some impact in this present outbreak as well. But there is still a concern for being able to account for all of the cases and being able to do effective contact tracings. So it’s ongoing and it’s quite possible that we will still see more cases travel around the world.
TJ: In Japan, people often wear surgical masks during the flu and cold season. Would masks help prevent the spread of Ebola?
GUPTA: As far as Ebola goes, wearing a mask is not really going to help with that. It’s not an airborne disease. Masks for certain types of airborne viruses can be effective, but I think sometimes, more than anything else, they can serve as a reminder not for Ebola but for many pathogens that are essentially transmitted because someone touches a sur- face and then touches their mouth, nose or eyes. Even though a mask doesn’t cover your eyes, it is just a reminder not to do that. So I think there may be some virtue, but I don’t think masks help with Ebola.
TJ: What’s the situation in the United States now? Do we have Ebola completely under control?
GUPTA: There’s been no evidence of sec- ondary transmission beyond what we’ve seen in the past. There were the two nurses in Dallas. There have been other patients who were exposed in West Africa and then came here during the incubation period and have been monitored. Except for Mr. [Thomas] Duncan and subsequently the patients who came to Washington state quite ill and then passed away, all the other patients have survived. So you have a situation where you have shown that basic treatment like replac- ing fluids, treating bleeding disorders if there is one–those types of things really do seem to work. But I think it’s quite possible that we will have other patients with Ebola that are diagnosed in the United States. Every place in the world essentially could have cases until the situation is controlled in West Africa.
The complete article can be found in Issue #276 of the Tokyo Journal. Click here to order from Amazon.
