(NaturalNews) When "patient zero" first showed up at Presbyterian Hospital in Dallas with what have now been determined to be some of the early symptoms of Ebola, he was reportedly turned away by hospital staff, who handed him a regimen of antibiotics and told him to basically just go home and sleep it off.

Besides its uselessness for the task at hand -- antibiotics obviously don't work against Ebola -- this common medical reflex is a perfect example of the type of rampant antibiotic abuse that leads to the proliferation of "superbugs." And it could be the same action that, once again, sparks another widespread pandemic.

According to Bloomberg, Thomas Eric Duncan, the Liberian national who inaugurated the arrival of Ebola into the U.S., had attempted to admit himself to Presbyterian Hospital two days after he began to develop symptoms on September 24. Duncan first arrived in the U.S. just four days prior on September 20.

Officials say he most likely came into contact with between 12 and 18 other people during that small window of time. But up to 100 individuals in the Dallas area are now being monitored to see if they develop symptoms.

"Any infectious disease is just a plane ride away in our society now" was the sober response given by Robert Glatter, an emergency room physician at Lenox Hill Hospital in New York, in a statement to Bloomberg. Glatter is not involved in the ongoing Dallas investigation.

"It's bound to happen, especially because the protocol to screen people at airports is not strict now," he added. "We need to be careful to pay attention to travelers now with this index case in the U.S."

CDC launches campaign to end antibiotic abuse

What makes the situation even more disturbing is that Duncan told a nurse at Presbyterian Hospital that he had traveled from West Africa, the epicenter of the current Ebola outbreak. This crucial information was ignored, and Duncan ended up returning to the Ivy Apartments off Fair Oaks Ave. with antibiotics in hand, potentially infecting his family and friends along the way.

Since Ebola is a viral condition, antibiotics, which fight bacteria, can't effectively treat it. Antibiotics can and do create bacterial resistance every time they are used, however, which means that, if Duncan actually took them as prescribed, then he only helped contribute to the superbug epidemic while doing nothing for his actual condition.

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) finally acknowledged back in 2010 that antibiotic misuse and abuse is a major problem. The agency launched a campaign at the time that it said would help address the situation, one of the primary goals of which includes increased funding for the development of new antibiotics.

Part of the problem right now is that drug companies are incentivized to push antibiotics for all sorts of unapproved conditions, which apparently now includes Ebola. The CDC says the result of this industry pressure is that hospitals grossly overprescribe antibiotics, which creates an environment for the rapid growth and spread of superbugs.

"Wasteful use of these antibiotics in doctors' offices and hospitals has created an environment that gives fast-adapting microbes the advantage," Boston.com reported. "And that overuse has led to a dire situation in which common antibiotics can no longer be relied upon to offer a fast and effective cure."

To learn more about how to prepare for a potential Ebola crisis here in the U.S., be sure to check out the Natural News BioDefense.com resource:
BioDefense.com.

Sources:

http://www.bloomberg.com

http://www.boston.com

http://www.nytimes.com

http://www.mayoclinic.org

http://www.biodefense.com

http://washpost.bloomberg.com

http://science.naturalnews.com