Ebola vs African TB - Or How To Hide
A Diagnosis Behind A Fever

The CDC has quietly lowered its “critical temperature” protocols for detecting a fever ‘characteristic’ for Ebola after one health care worker slid by with a low-grade fever — yet tested Ebola positive — So……

"We changed to 100.4 after the first nurse presented to hospital with symptoms of disease and her temp was not the 101.5 that Ebola patients usually present when they are having vomiting diarrhea, etcetera," CDC spokesman Thomas Skinner told the Daily Caller. 

In other words, the CDC decided to change its Ebola temperature criteria to a temperature of 100.4ºF or above.

100.4° F sounds like a nice round number. So let’s examine it.

On the National Health Service’s website, put up by the UK government, the now magically designated temperature of100.4ºF or above also appears — but not for Ebola. The page is describing temperatures characteristic for tuberculosis. (http://www.nhs.uk/Conditions/Tuberculosis/Pages/Symptoms.aspx) And, it might be added, temperatures “characteristic” for a dozen-and-a-half other illnesses

So much for the use of temperature as an Ebola criterion.

Subsequently, by October the 20^th — the World Health Organization (WHO) claimed that Nigeria, which used to have the highest ‘Ebola’ death rate in the world (See: http://rense.com/general96/ebooraf.html - was now “Ebola-free”…... suddenly “Ebola free.” Great, but can WHO say the same about the Ebola-like symptoms originating from African strains of Mycobacterium tuberculosis and Mycobacterium africanum —currently raging there? Perhaps next comes proclaiming West Africa “Tuberculosis-free”.

Extrapulmonary (outside of the lungs) tuberculosis is the most frequent cause of a prolonged Fever of Unknown Origin (FUO) and has been for a long, long time.^1,2 And in patients returning from areas where tuberculosis and malaria are common — such as Africa — the index of suspicion for these diseases should be elevated. The only question being…………are these diseases being looked for at all?

REFERENCES:

1. Kasper DL, Braunwald E, Fauci AS, Hauser SL, Longo DL, Jameson JL, Casademont J. Harrison’s Principles of Internal Medicine. 16th Edition. 2004. McGraw-Hill Professional Publishing. 2680 pp

2. Roth AR, Basello GM. Approach to the adult patient with fever of unknown origin.Am Fam Physician. 2003 Dec 1;68(11):2223-8.