Welcome Guest [Log In] [Register]
Welcome to Natural Hazards Forum. We hope you enjoy your visit.


You're currently viewing our forum as a guest. This means you are limited to certain areas of the board and there are some features you can't use. If you join our community, you'll be able to access member-only sections, and use many member-only features such as customizing your profile, sending personal messages, and voting in polls. Registration is simple, fast, and completely free.


Join our community!


If you're already a member please log in to your account to access all of our features:

Username:   Password:
Add Reply
Ebola Crisis
Topic Started: 23 Mar 2014, 12:52 AM (2,807 Views)
skibboy
Member Avatar

22 March 2014

Guinea deaths: Ebola blamed for deadly fever outbreak

Posted Image
Ebola was first identified in the Democratic Republic of Congo in 1976

The Ebola virus has been identified as the cause of an outbreak of haemorrhagic fever now believed to have killed nearly 60 people in southern Guinea, government officials say.

Scores of cases have been recorded since the outbreak began early last month.

There is no known cure or vaccine for the highly contagious Ebola virus.

It is spread by close personal contact with people who are infected and kills between 25% and 90% of victims.

Symptoms include internal and external bleeding, diarrhoea and vomiting.

Outbreaks of Ebola occur primarily in remote villages in Central and West Africa, near tropical rainforests, the World Health Organization says.

Analysts suggest it has never been recorded in Guinea before.

Recent years have seen outbreaks in Uganda and Democratic Republic of Congo.

'Overwhelmed'

"We got the first results from Lyon yesterday (Friday) which informed us of the presence of the Ebola virus as the cause of this outbreak," Guinean health ministry official Sakoba Keita told AFP.

"The Ebola fever epidemic raging in southern Guinea since 9 February has left at least 59 dead out of 80 cases identified by our services on the ground."

"We are overwhelmed in the field, we are fighting against this epidemic with all the means we have at our disposal with the help of our partners but it is difficult."

Medical aid charity Medecins sans Frontieres said on Saturday it would strengthen its team in Guinea and fly some 33 tonnes of drugs and isolation equipment in from Belgium and France.

Dr Armand Sprecher, an emergency physician and epidemiologist working with MSF in Guinea, told the BBC that doctors had to identify all patients with the disease and monitor anyone they had been in contact with during their illness.

The latest outbreak could be brought under control if people acted quickly, he said.

"Based on our history with these sorts of outbreaks it will happen. Ideally, sooner rather than later," said Dr Sprecher.

"The more quickly we can contain this the fewer cases we'll have, then the smaller the scale of the epidemic. That's the idea of going in as strong as we can early on."

Source: Posted Image
Offline Profile Quote Post Goto Top
 
Replies:
skibboy
Member Avatar

Report: Ebola outbreak probably started with 2-year-old in Guinea

By Madison Park, CNN
August 11, 2014

(CNN) -- The worst outbreak of Ebola, which has killed 961 people and triggered an international public health emergency, may have started with a 2-year-old patient in a village in Guinea.

About eight months ago, the toddler, whom researchers believe may have been Patient Zero, suffered fever, black stool and vomiting.

Just four days after showing the painful symptoms, the child died on December 6, 2013, according to a report published in The New England Journal of Medicine.

Scientists don't know exactly how the toddler contracted the virus.

Ebola is spread from animals to humans through infected fluids or tissue, according to the World Health Organization.

"In Africa, infection has been documented through the handling of infected chimpanzees, gorillas, fruit bats, monkeys, forest antelope and porcupines," WHO says, though researchers think fruit bats are what they call the virus's "natural host."

Researchers who published the paper this year found a chain of illnesses in the toddler's family.

After the child's death, the mother suffered bleeding symptoms and died on December 13, according to the report.

Then, the toddler's 3-year-old sister died on December 29, with symptoms including fever, vomiting and black diarrhea.

The illness subsequently affected the toddler's grandmother, who died on January 1, in the family's village of Meliandou in Guéckédou.

The area in southern Guinea is close to the Sierra Leone and Liberia borders.

The illness spread outside their village after several people attended the grandmother's funeral.

Funerals tend to bring people in close contact with the body.

Ebola spreads from person to person through contact with organs and bodily fluids such as blood, saliva, urine and other secretions of infected people.

It has no known cure.

Two of the funeral attendees appeared to bring back the virus to their village, and it spread to health care workers and other family members who took care of infected patients.

"A health care worker from Guéckédou with suspected disease, seems to have triggered the spread of the virus to Macenta, Nzérékoré, and Kissidougou in February 2014," stated the report, noting that more Guinea towns were affected.

Clusters of the disease popped up in early 2014 in these areas, with the initial patients suffering fever, vomiting and severe diarrhea, according to the report.

Hemorrhaging was less frequent, the report noted.

In early March, the Ministry of Health in Guinea and Doctors Without Borders in Guinea were notified about the disease clusters.

Health investigators arrived that month and began tracing the disease by examining hospital documents and conducting interviews with affected families and villagers.

Ebola has now spread to Liberia, Sierra Leone and Nigeria, prompting global concerns.

The report about the emergence of Ebola in Guinea was authored by dozens of international doctors and researchers from institutions in France, Germany, Guinea, WHO and Doctors Without Borders.

Source... Posted Image
Offline Profile Quote Post Goto Top
 
skibboy
Member Avatar

12 August 2014

Ethical to use untested Ebola drugs, says WHO

Posted Image
The outbreak has killed over 1,000 people

Untested drugs can be used to treat patients infected with the Ebola virus, the World Health Organization says.

The WHO said it was ethical in light of the scale of the outbreak and high number of deaths - more than 1,000 people have died in West Africa.

The statement was made after its medical experts met in Switzerland on Monday to discuss the issue.

But officials warned there were very limited supplies of potential treatments.

The WHO said where experimental treatments are used there must be informed consent and the results of the treatment collected and shared.

In a statement, it said: "In the particular circumstances of this outbreak, and provided certain conditions are met, the panel reached consensus that it is ethical to offer unproven interventions with as yet unknown efficacy and adverse effects, as potential treatment or prevention."

But the organisation conceded there were still many questions to be answered including how data could be gathered effectively while the focus remained on providing good medical care.

It was also unclear where the funding for the treatment would come from.

Last week the WHO declared the Ebola outbreak was a global health emergency.

Posted Image

The move came as Liberia said it was getting an experimental drug, Zmapp, after requests to the US government.

But the WHO said there were only 12 doses.

Zmapp has been used on two US aid workers who have shown signs of improvement, although it is not certain what role the medication played in this.

A Roman Catholic priest, infected with Ebola in Liberia, who died after returning home to Spain is also thought to have been given the drug.

However, the drug has only been tested on monkeys and has not yet been evaluated for safety in humans.

______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

What drugs exist currently ?

There a handful of drugs that have been shown to work well in animals.

One is Zmapp - the drug requested by the Liberian government.

This contains a cocktail of antibodies that attack proteins on the surface of the virus.

Only one drug has moved onto early safety testing in humans.

Known as TKM-Ebola this interrupts the genetic code of the virus and prevents it from making disease causing proteins.

The drug was trialled in healthy volunteers at the beginning of 2014 but the American medicines regulator asked for further safety information.

The manufacturer says human studies may soon resume.

Another option would be to use serum from individuals who have survived the virus - this is a part of the blood that may contain particles able to neutralise the virus.

Vaccines to protect against acquiring the disease have also been shown to work in primates.

American authorities are considering fast-tracking their development and say they could be in use in 2016.

Trials are likely to start soon according to the WHO.

But experts warn ultimately the only way to be sure a drug or vaccine is effective is to see if it works in countries affected by Ebola.

______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
There is no cure for Ebola, which has infected at least 1,779 people since the outbreak was first reported in Guinea in February.

'Hard place'

The Liberian government said it was aware of the risks associated with Zmapp, but the alternative was to allow many more people to die.

"The alternative for not testing this is death, a certain death," Information Minister Lewis Brown told the BBC.

"This is not even the rock and the hard place for us.

"We think those who have been infected should be given the chance to have that tested on them if they give their consent to do so.

"We know there may be risks associated with it," the minister added, "but choosing a risk and choosing dying I am sure many would prefer to see that risk happen".

Ebola's initial flu-like symptoms can lead to external haemorrhaging from areas like eyes and gums, and internal bleeding which can lead to organ failure.

Patients have a better chance of survival if they receive early treatment.

Source... Posted Image
Offline Profile Quote Post Goto Top
 
skibboy
Member Avatar

13 August 2014

Ebola outbreak: Kenya at high risk, warns WHO

The World Health Organization (WHO) has classified Kenya as a "high-risk" country for the spread of the deadly Ebola virus.

Kenya was vulnerable because it was a major transport hub, with many flights from West Africa, a WHO official said.

This is the most serious warning to date by the WHO that Ebola could spread to East Africa.

The number of people killed by Ebola in West Africa has risen to 1,069, the WHO said in its latest update.

Fifty-six deaths and 128 new cases were reported in the region in the two days to 11 August, it added.

Canada said it would donate up to 1,000 doses of an experimental Ebola vaccine to help fight the outbreak.

Airport health checks

In Sierra Leone, a doctor who treated patients infected with Ebola has died, reports the BBC's Umaru Fofana from the capital, Freetown.

Posted Image
Women have been holding daily prayers in Liberia for people affected by Ebola

Dr Modupeh Cole is the second Sierra Leonean doctor to die of the disease.

In Nigeria, Africa's most populous state, a third Ebola-related death was reported on Tuesday.

In other developments:

-Germany has ordered all its citizens, except health workers, to leave Guinea, Sierra Leone and Liberia, the three states where the outbreak has been the deadliest.

-Guinea-Bissau has decided to shut its border with Guinea, Reuters news agency reports.

-Ghana has delayed the opening of universities and colleges by at least two weeks to put in place measures to screen students arriving from Ebola-hit countries.

-The African Union has pledged $1m (£600,000) to help fight the disease.

The WHO's country director for Kenya, Custodia Mandlhate, said the East African state was "classified in group two; at high risk of transmission".

Health checks at the main airport in the capital, Nairobi, have been stepped up in recent weeks.

'Global resource'

The Kenyan government said it would not ban flights from the four countries hit by Ebola.

Posted Image
Strict precautions must be observed when burying those who have died of Ebola

"We do not recommend ban of flights because of porous borders," health cabinet secretary James Macharia said.

Kenya receives more than 70 flights a week from West Africa.

The West African regional body, Ecowas, said one of its officials, Jatto Asihu Abdulqudir, had died of Ebola in Nigeria.

The 36-year-old had been in contact with Patrick Sawyer, the Liberian government employee who was the first to be killed by the virus in Nigeria on 25 July, Ecowas said in a statement.

Mr Sawyer had flown in from Liberia, when he was diagnosed with Ebola after collapsing at the airport in Lagos, the biggest city in sub-Saharan Africa.

Posted Image
Graphic: Cumulative death toll for the 2014 outbreak

This is the first time West Africa has been affected by Ebola - previous outbreaks have affected East and Central Africa.

There have been 1,975 confirmed, probable and suspected Ebola cases in West Africa since it was identified in February, according to the WHO.

There is no cure for Ebola and the WHO has declared the outbreak a global health emergency.

On Tuesday, it approved the use of untested drugs on Ebola patients.

However, experts say supplies of both the vaccine and the experimental drug Zmapp are limited and it could take months to develop more supplies.

Dr Gregory Taylor, deputy head of Canada's Public Health Agency, said he saw the vaccines as a "global resource".

He said he had been advised that it would make sense for healthcare workers to be given the vaccine, given their increased risk of contracting the disease.

Zmapp has been used on two US aid workers who have shown signs of improvement, although it is not certain what role the medication played in this.

A Roman Catholic priest, infected with Ebola in Liberia, who died after returning home to Spain is also thought to have been given the drug.

Source: Posted Image
Offline Profile Quote Post Goto Top
 
skibboy
Member Avatar

14 August 2014

Ebola crisis: Air travel is low risk, says WHO

Posted Image
Kenya, as a major transport hub in Africa, is on high alert to prevent the spread of the deadly virus

The risk of transmission of Ebola during air travel remains low, says the World Health Organization (WHO).

Unlike infections such as influenza, Ebola was not airborne, it said.

As a consequence, Kenya Airways has rejected pressure to suspend its flights to the Ebola-hit states of West Africa where more than 1,000 people have died of the virus this year.

Meanwhile, two people have died in Nigeria after drinking a salt solution rumoured to prevent Ebola infection.

The BBC's Ishaq Khalid in Nigeria says text messages began circulating in Nigeria towards the end of last week recommending that people drink and bath in a salt solution as a way to stop getting the virus, for which there is no cure or vaccine.

Posted Image
Those who had contact with the Liberian government employee who died have been isolated in Lagos

Despite the health minister scotching the rumour, many people have been admitted into hospital after drinking salt water.

Dr Joseph Lumba, the director of public health in the central Nigerian state of Benue, told the BBC that two patients had died in Makurdi city hospital on Wednesday.

But he also said such admissions were now lower following an intensive public campaign to dispel the salt myth.

A fourth Ebola death has been now been recorded in Nigeria, Africa's most populous nation.

An official at Nigeria's National Disease Control Centre told the BBC the victim was another nurse who had come into contact with Liberian government employee Patrick Sawyer, who brought the disease to the city of Lagos in July.

Ebola is transmitted by direct contact with the body fluids of a person who is infected.

Initial flu-like symptoms can lead to external haemorrhaging from areas such as eyes and gums, and internal bleeding which can lead to organ failure.

'Too sick to travel'

On Wednesday, a WHO official had said that Kenya had been classified as a "high-risk" country for the spread of the deadly Ebola virus because the East African nation was a major transport hub, with many flights from West Africa.

But on Thursday, Dr Isabelle Nuttall, director of WHO global capacity alert and response, said the agency was advising against trade or travel bans to and from affected countries.

Posted Image
The Spanish health ministry is printing signs about Ebola to be put in airports

Usually Ebola victims were too unwell to travel, and as a result, the likelihood of other passengers and crew having direct contact with them was small, Dr Nuttall said.

"Because the risk of Ebola transmission on airplanes is so low, WHO does not consider air transport hubs at high risk for further spread of Ebola," she added.

Instead, countries should identify and care for travellers originating from known Ebola-infected areas who arrive at airports or major land crossing points with "unexplained fever and other symptoms", the WHO said.

The outbreak began in Guinea in February and has since spread to Liberia, Sierra Leone and Nigeria, which have all declared a national health emergency.

There have been a total of 1,069 lives lost to the virus and 1,975 cases, according to latest WHO figures.

Source: Posted Image
Offline Profile Quote Post Goto Top
 
skibboy
Member Avatar

14 August 2014

Ebola outbreak: Guinea declares emergency

Posted Image
Guinea was the first country to be hit by the epidemic earlier this year

Guinea has a declared a national health emergency as it battles to curb the spread of the deadly Ebola virus.

This meant tighter border controls, the immediate isolation of anyone suspected to have Ebola and a ban on moving bodies from one town to another, state radio reported.

Ebola has killed more than 1,000 people in West Africa amid fears that it could spread to East Africa.

This is the deadliest outbreak since the disease was discovered in 1976.

There is no cure for Ebola, but the first consignment of the experimental drug, ZMapp, has arrived in Liberia from the US, reports the BBC's Jonathan Paye-Layleh from the capital, Monrovia.

On Tuesday, the World Health Organization (WHO) approved giving patients untested drugs.

Ebola's initial flu-like symptoms can lead to external haemorrhaging from areas such as eyes and gums, and internal bleeding which can lead to organ failure.

Patients have a better chance of survival if they receive early treatment.

Nurse 'skipped quarantine'

The outbreak began in Guinea in February and has killed 377 people in the country.

It has since spread to Liberia, Sierra Leone and Nigeria, which have all declared a national health emergency, claiming a total of 1,069 lives by Wednesday, according to WHO.

Guinea's President Alpha Conde, in a statement read out on state radio, said people who had been in contact with Ebola victims were "formally banned from leaving their homes until the end of their surveillance period".

Anyone who contravened the measures would be considered "a threat to public health and will face the might of the law", the statement said.

In Nigeria, where a third person died of Ebola on Tuesday, Health Minister Onyebuchi Chukwu said a doctor had been infected, bringing to 11 the number of confirmed cases in Africa's most populous state.

The doctor had initially treated Liberian government employee Patrick Sawyer, who brought the disease to Nigeria's main city, Lagos, last month and died in quarantine, Mr Chukwu said.

He added that a nurse who also caught Ebola from Mr Sawyer was in an isolation ward in Lagos - the only place in Nigeria so far affected by Ebola.

Posted Image
Bodily fluids spread the virus

On Wednesday, Nigeria's information minister said the nurse had been brought back to Lagos after disobeying medical instructions by travelling to the eastern city of Enugu.

Labaran Maku said 21 people who had contact with her in Enugu were "being watched" but the health minister said the number was six.

In other developments:

-Nigeria has withdrawn from the Youth Olympics in China, due to start on Saturday, after Chinese officials quarantined its athletes

-Korean Air Lines says it will stop flying to Kenya from 20 August after WHO identified it as a "high-risk" country for the spread of Ebola.

-Kenya Airways has rejected pressure from the local medical association to suspend all flights to Ebola-hit states, saying the WHO has not recommended a ban on air travel.

This is the first time West Africa has been affected by Ebola - previous outbreaks have affected East and Central Africa.

Source: Posted Image
Offline Profile Quote Post Goto Top
 
skibboy
Member Avatar

15 August 2014

Ebola crisis to last 'at least six months' - MSF

The outbreak of Ebola in West Africa will take at least six months to bring under control, medical charity Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) says.

Speaking in Geneva, MSF President Joanne Liu said the situation was "deteriorating faster, and moving faster, than we can respond to".

Earlier, the World Health Organization (WHO) said the scale of the outbreak appeared to be "vastly underestimated".

It said that "extraordinary measures" were needed.

The epidemic began in Guinea in February and has since spread to Liberia, Sierra Leone and Nigeria.

On Friday, the death toll rose to 1,145 after WHO said 76 new deaths had been reported in the two days to 13 August. There have been 2,127 cases reported.

Ms Liu said that although Guinea was the initial epicentre, the pace there had slowed, and other countries - particularly Liberia - were now the focus.

"If we don't stabilise Liberia, we will never stabilise the region," she said.

Posted Image
Health systems in West Africa are being severely strained by the Ebola outbreak

"In terms of timeline, we're not talking in terms of weeks, we're talking in terms of months. We need a commitment for months, at least I would say six months, and I'm being, I would say, very optimistic."

Ms Liu also called for more action from the international community and stronger leadership from WHO - the UN's health agency.

"All governments must act. It must be done now if we want to contain this epidemic," she said.

Ebola is transmitted by direct contact with the body fluids of a person who is infected.

Initial flu-like symptoms can lead to external haemorrhaging from areas such as eyes and gums, and internal bleeding which can lead to organ failure.

The WHO - which declared a global health emergency last week - recently said the risk of transmission of Ebola during air travel remained low, as the disease is not airborne.

As a consequence, Kenya Airways has rejected pressure to suspend its flights to the Ebola-hit states of West Africa.

______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Kenyan media response to continued flights to West Africa

Mutuma Mathiu in The Daily Nation describes the move as "reckless" while The Star says the airline is "holding on to its lucrative West African routes as if they were the only business on its portfolio".

"The government needs to get serious. An Ebola outbreak… would result in serious long term-damage" to the national brand, it continues.

The Standard notes that while it makes business sense for Kenya Airways to take advantage of West African destinations, the "economic escapade could be costly. The safety of Kenyans supersedes any profits and must come first."

However, George Bodo in Kenya's Business Daily recalls the carrier's ailing share prices.

"In calling on Kenya Airways to suspend nearly half of its high-margin flights, someone should, ideally, be ready with some form of compensation. Otherwise, its stock price will continue being more vulnerable in the coming weeks."

BBC Monitoring

______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

The WHO said in a statement that its staff had seen evidence that the number of reported cases and deaths did not reflect the scale of the crisis.

Spokesman Gregory Hartl said experts going house-to-house in Kenema, Sierra Leone, in search of infected people were discovering more cases.

"There are probably a lot of patients out there that we haven't traced or contacted yet," he said.

He said that an 80-bed treatment centre that recently opened in Liberia's capital Monrovia filled up immediately and that the next day, dozens more people turned up to be treated.

Liberia's Assistant Health Minister Tolbert Nyenswah told the BBC that a new treatment centre opening just outside Monrovia on Saturday would have about 120 beds and could be expanded to 300.

Tarnue Karbbar, of the aid group Plan International in northern Liberia, said medical teams were not able to document all the cases erupting.

He said many of the sick were being hidden at home by relatives, and many victims were buried before teams could get to the area.

Posted Image
School classrooms have been pressed into use as Ebola isolation wards in Monrovia, Liberia

Liberian President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf told the BBC on Friday that 355 people had so far died of Ebola in the country, including health workers.

She rebuffed criticism that Liberia had been too slow in declaring an emergency.

"The government has been doing its best; trying to make sure that we get the right supplies; getting technical help; the expertise that is required to be able to train up people to deal with this, and to avoid putting people at risk including health workers," she said.

The outbreak is also affecting the Youth Olympic Games about to start in China.

The International Olympic Committee (IOC) has ruled that athletes from Ebola-hit countries will not be allowed to compete in combat sports or in the pool, and Sierra Leone and Nigeria have withdrawn from the Games.

Source: Posted Image
Offline Profile Quote Post Goto Top
 
skibboy
Member Avatar

WHO: Evidence shows Ebola crisis 'vastly' underestimated

By Faith Karimi, CNN
August 15, 2014

Posted Image
Canada offers up to 1,000 Ebola vaccines

(CNN) -- The magnitude of the Ebola crisis in West Africa is "vastly" underestimated, the World Health Organization warned this week, as the death toll steadily climbed.

Ebola has infected at least 2,127 people in Nigeria, Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone since the outbreak began this year.

Of the victims, 1,145 have died, according to the WHO.

It said the number reflects the count as of Wednesday.

"The outbreak is expected to continue for some time," the WHO said in a statement Thursday. "Staff at the outbreak sites see evidence that the numbers of reported cases and deaths vastly underestimate the magnitude of the outbreak."

Though the United Nations agency did not provide an estimate of unreported cases, it said it's teaming up with the affected countries to gather more intelligence from the ground.

"WHO is mapping the outbreak, in great detail, to pinpoint areas of ongoing transmission and locate treatment facilities and supplies," the statement said.

It's also working with other agencies, including the World Food Program, to feed about 1 million people quarantined in villages in Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone.

"Our team are not in direct contact with Ebola quarantine and treatment centers," said Fabienne Pompey, spokeswoman for World Food Program. "We deliver food to the medical staff and they are in charge of the distribution."

As experts scramble to contain the outbreak, health officials are considering the use of experimental treatments and vaccines, since no proven ones exist.

Ebola spreads through contact with organs and bodily fluids such as blood, saliva, urine and other secretions of infected people.

The deadly virus causes viral hemorrhagic fever, which affects multiple organ systems.

Early symptoms include sudden onset of fever, weakness, muscle pain, headaches and a sore throat.

They later progress to vomiting, diarrhea, impaired kidney and liver function, and sometimes internal and external bleeding.

Two Americans are undergoing treatment for Ebola, which they contracted while helping patients in Liberia.

They were transferred to an isolation unit at an Atlanta hospital and appear to be recovering.

In a separate case, a Spanish priest who contracted the disease in Liberia died this week.

CNN's Brent Swails contributed to this report.

Source: Posted Image
Offline Profile Quote Post Goto Top
 
skibboy
Member Avatar

16 August 2014

Kenya to close borders to travellers from Ebola states

Posted Image
Medecins Sans Frontieres says the outbreak will take at least six months to bring under control

Kenyan officials say the country is closing its borders to travellers from Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone in response to the deadly Ebola outbreak.

Kenya's health secretary said Kenyans and medical workers flying in from those states would still be allowed in.

Kenyan Airways says it will stop flights to Liberia and Sierra Leone when the ban comes in on Wednesday.

The World Health Organisation (WHO) says Kenya is at "high risk" from Ebola because it is a major transport hub.

The epidemic began in Guinea in February and has since spread to Liberia, Sierra Leone and Nigeria.

On Friday, the death toll rose to 1,145 after the WHO said 76 new deaths had been reported in the two days to 13 August.

There have been 2,127 cases reported in total.

Posted Image
Health officials say the risk of transmission of Ebola during air travel is low

Earlier, Kenya's health ministry said four suspected cases of Ebola in the country had tested negative for the virus.

The cases had involved a Liberian national and two Nigerians who had recently travelled to Kenya as well as a Zimbabwean.

Kenyan Airways said it had decided to cancel flights to Liberia and Sierra Leone's capitals after advice from Kenya's government.

It said all passengers booked on the suspended flights would get a full refund.

The company said its flights to Nigeria were not affected by the suspension.

'Strict checks'

Announcing the government's decision, Kenyan Health Minister James Macharia said it was "in the interest of public health".

He warned that Kenyans and health workers who had returned from the three west African states would face "strict checks" and would be quarantined if necessary.

On Friday, medical charity Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) said the outbreak would take at least six months to bring under control.

MSF President Joanne Liu said the situation was "deteriorating faster, and moving faster, than we can respond to".

The WHO also admitted that the scale of the outbreak appeared to be "vastly underestimated" and said "extraordinary measures" were needed to contain it.

Ebola is transmitted by direct contact with the body fluids of a person who is infected.

Initial flu-like symptoms can lead to external haemorrhaging from areas such as eyes and gums, and internal bleeding which can lead to organ failure.

The WHO says the risk of transmission of Ebola during air travel remains low.

Source: Posted Image
Offline Profile Quote Post Goto Top
 
skibboy
Member Avatar

17 August 2014

Ebola crisis: Confusion as patients vanish in Liberia

Posted Image
Police fired warning shots but failed to disperse several hundred people around the Ebola centre in Monrovia

There are conflicting reports over the fate of 17 Ebola patients who vanished after a quarantine centre in the Liberian capital Monrovia was looted.

An angry mob attacked the centre in the city's densely populated West Point township on Saturday evening.

A senior health official said all of the patients were being moved to another medical facility.

But a reporter told the BBC that 17 had escaped while 10 others were taken away by their families.

More than 400 people are known to have died from the virus in Liberia, out of a total of 1,145 deaths recorded by the World Health Organization.

Assistant Health Minister Tolbert Nyenswah said protesters had been unhappy that patients were being brought in from other parts of the capital.

Other reports suggested the protesters had believed Ebola was a hoax and wanted to force the quarantine centre to close.

The attack at the Monrovia centre is seen as a major setback in the struggle to halt the outbreak, says the BBC's Will Ross, reporting from Lagos.

Health experts say that the key to ending the Ebola outbreak is to stop it spreading in Liberia, where ignorance about the virus is high and many people are reluctant to cooperate with medical staff.

'All gone'

Mr Nyenswah said after the attack that 29 patients at the centre were being relocated and readmitted to an Ebola treatment centre located in the facility of the country's John F Kennedy Memorial Medical Center.

However, Jina Moore, a journalist for Buzzfeed who is in Monrovia, told the BBC that 10 people had been freed by their relatives on Friday night and 17 had escaped during the looting the next day.

Rebecca Wesseh, who witnessed the attack, told the AFP news agency: "They broke down the door and looted the place. The patients have all gone."

Posted Image
The crowd were reportedly angry that an Ebola isolation centre had been set up in their neighbourhood

The attackers, mostly young men armed with clubs, shouted insults about President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf and yelled "there's no Ebola", she said, adding that nurses had also fled the centre.

The head of the Health Workers Association of Liberia, George Williams, said the unit had housed 29 patients who "had all tested positive for Ebola" and were receiving preliminary treatment.

Confirming that 17 had escaped, he said that only three had been taken by their relatives, the other nine having died four days earlier.

Fallah Boima's son was admitted to the ward four days ago, and seemed to be doing well, but when the distraught father arrived for his daily visit on Sunday his son was nowhere to be seen, AFP adds.

"I don't know where he is and I am very confused," he said. "He has not called me since he left the camp. Now that the nurses have all left, how will I know where my son is?"

'Stupidest thing'

Ebola is spread by contact with an infected person's bodily fluids, such as sweat and blood, and no cure or vaccine is currently available.

Blood-stained mattresses, bedding and medical equipment were taken from the centre, a senior police officer told BBC News, on condition of anonymity

"This is one of the stupidest things I have ever seen in my life," he said. "All between the houses you could see people fleeing with items looted from the patients."

The looting spree, he added, could threaten to spread the virus to the whole of the West Point area.

Described as a slum, there are an estimated 50,000 people in the West Point neighbourhood.

The Ebola epidemic began in Guinea in February and has since spread to Liberia, Sierra Leone and Nigeria.

On Friday, the death toll rose to 1,145 after the WHO said 76 new deaths had been reported in the two days to 13 August.

There have been 2,127 cases reported in total.

Source: Posted Image
Offline Profile Quote Post Goto Top
 
skibboy
Member Avatar

18 August 2014

Ebola crisis: Liberia confirms West Point patients missing

Posted Image
This man carried a young girl out of the West Point health facility on Saturday

Following earlier denials, Liberia has admitted that 17 suspected Ebola patients are "missing" after a health centre in the capital was looted.

The government had sought to reassure people, saying all the patients had been moved to another health facility.

But Information Minister Lewis Brown told the BBC that 17 inmates had gone "back into their communities".

The World Health Organization (WHO) has called for exit screenings on all travellers from affected countries.

It wants checks at airports, sea ports and major land crossings.

Several airlines have already stopped flying to Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone - the countries worst affected by the world's most deadly outbreak of Ebola, which has no known cure.

Cameroon has closed its land, sea and air borders with Nigeria, which also has several cases of Ebola, reports said.

The virus has killed 1,145 people this year, the World Health Organization says.

Posted Image
Security has been stepped up at health centres treating Ebola patients in Liberia

Meanwhile, the UN's chief co-ordinator in Sierra Leone, David McLachlan-Karr, told the BBC that Ebola had spread to 12 out of 13 of the country's districts.

"While Sierra Leone was the last affected of the three Mano River countries to have confirmed [cases] of Ebola, now it's the country with the most cases," he said.

There have been at least 810 cases of Ebola reported in Sierra Leone, including 348 deaths, according to WHO figures.

'Greatest setback'

In Liberia, Assistant Health Minister Tolbert Nyenswah said protesters in the West Point district attacked a quarantine centre on Saturday because they were unhappy that patients were being taken there from other parts of the capital, Monrovia.

Other reports suggested the protesters had believed Ebola was a hoax and wanted to force the centre to close.

Mr Nyenswah had said that all the suspected patients had been transferred to an Ebola treatment centre in the John F Kennedy Memorial Medical Center in Monrovia.

But on Monday, the information minister said 17 of the 37 patients were unaccounted for.

He said the authorities were now trying to track them down but said he was confident they would return.

"Most of the people that went into this holding facility came there voluntarily," he told the BBC.

"So our impression is that they still want to be [there], but they were forcibly removed by vandals and looters, not because they wanted to leave; so we are sure that they will return."

He said the attack on the quarantine centre was Liberia's "greatest setback" since the Ebola outbreak began.

Source: Posted Image
Offline Profile Quote Post Goto Top
 
skibboy
Member Avatar

18 August 2014

WHO sets up Ebola task force with global airline and travel sector

AFP

Posted Image
A doctor of the national public health institute controls the temperature of people at the airport, in Abidjan on August 13, 2014, as part of protective measures against the Ebola virus

The World Health Organization said Monday that it had set up a task force with the global airline and tourism industry in an effort to contain the spread of Ebola.

The UN agency said it was working hand in hand with the International Civil Aviation Organization, the World Tourism Organization, Airports Council International (ACI), the International Air Transport Association and the World Travel and Tourism Council.

The goal, it said in a statement, was to "support the global efforts to contain the spread of the disease and provide a coordinated international response for the travel and tourism sector".

It added that the task force would "monitor the situation and provide timely information to the travel and tourism sector as well as to travellers".

The first closed-door session of the task force took place on August 13, the WHO told AFP.

On August 8, the WHO declared a global public health emergency over the outbreak of Ebola, a deadly and highly contagious virus which has spread since the beginning of the year from Guinea to Liberia, Sierra Leone and Nigeria.

Concerns over air travel were heightened because the outbreak in Nigeria was traced back to an ill traveller who flew from Liberia and infected contacts in Lagos.

In Monday's statement, the WHO reiterated that it does not recommend any ban on international travel or trade due to the Ebola outbreak, which has infected more than 2,100 people so far and killed 1,145.

The haemorrhagic disease is spread by direct contact with blood and other body fluids of infected living or dead persons or animals.

"The risk of transmission of Ebola virus disease during air travel is low," it said, underlining than unlike influenza or tuberculosis, Ebola is not spread by breathing airborne particles from an infected person".

"Travellers are, in any event, advised to avoid all such contacts and routinely practice careful hygiene, like hand washing," it said.

"The risk of getting infected on an aircraft is also small as sick persons usually feel so unwell that they cannot travel and infection requires direct contact with the body fluids of the infected person," it added.

To head off potential risks, the WHO reaffirmed that affected countries should "conduct exit screening of all persons at international airports, seaports and major land crossings, for unexplained febrile illness consistent with potential Ebola infection".

Anyone with an illness consistent with Ebola should not be allowed to travel, unless the journey was part of a medical evacuation, nor should people who have had contact with an Ebola case, it said.

The WHO underlined that most infections occurred in communities battling the disease or in health centres.

"The risk of a traveller becoming infected with the Ebola virus during a visit to the affected countries and developing disease after returning is very low, even if the visit includes travel to areas in which cases have been reported," it said.

Source: Posted Image
Offline Profile Quote Post Goto Top
 
skibboy
Member Avatar

19 August 2014

Ebola crisis: Doctors in Liberia 'recovering after taking ZMapp'

Three doctors in Liberia with Ebola who started taking an experimental drug last Thursday are showing remarkable signs of improvement, a minister says.

ZMapp was first given earlier this month to two US aid workers, who were flown home for treatment from Liberia.

Ebola has no cure but the World Health Organization (WHO) has ruled that untested drugs can be used in light of the scale of outbreak in West Africa.

Since the beginning of the year, 1,229 people have died of the virus.

It is transmitted by direct contact with the body fluids of an infected person.

Initial flu-like symptoms can lead to external haemorrhaging from areas such as eyes and gums, and internal bleeding which can cause organ failure.

The outbreak began in Guinea and has since spread to Liberia, Sierra Leone and Nigeria.

Posted Image

Health officials in Guinea say the country has suffered a setback in its fight against the epidemic, seeing a resurgence of cases in the town of Macenta.

The BBC's Alhassan Sillah in Guinea says the town had not had any cases for two months, and the authorities had dismantled all Ebola facilities in that area.

______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________


Analysis: Umaru Fofana, BBC News, Sierra Leone

Fighting the myths and fear surrounding Ebola is as tough as fighting the disease itself.

They range from the bizarre to the ridiculous: Some see it as the culmination of some bio warfare gone awry; others say it is a cannibalistic ritual.

In the latest flashpoint - some people in Lunsar, about 120km (74 miles) east of the capital, Freetown, say the new cases are not Ebola patients at all.

In fact, they insist that witches are flying around the country in aircraft and one of these crashed causing casualties.

All this, and the notion that an Ebola patient cannot recover, have led many sick people to stay at home, hoping they have something else.

This is despite the fact that about 30% of patients have recovered.

The authorities have been encouraging those who become ill to report to hospitals for testing and treatment, if needed.

But as the messengers are distrusted, the message is not getting through.

______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________


The health authorities believe that Guineans returning from neighbouring Liberia are carrying the virus.

In Liberia, Information Minister Lewis Brown said the government only received a small number of ZMapp doses and gave them to one Nigerian and two Liberian doctors who had caught Ebola whilst helping save the lives of other victims of the virus.

Posted Image
Public awareness campaigns are being stepped up across the region as some people believe Ebola is a hoax

Two US missionaries who received doses of the medicine are also reportedly recovering, but a 75-year-old Spanish priest who contracted Ebola in Liberia died in Spain last week despite being given the drug.

The US pharmaceutical company that makes the drug says it has for now run out of it, so the only way to stop the current outbreak is to isolate the victims and those who have come into contact with them.

Mr Brown also said 17 suspected Ebola patients who went missing after a health centre in the capital was attacked have been found.

In Nigeria, which has had four fatal Ebola cases, health officials say five people have now recovered from the virus and have been discharged from hospital in Lagos. Another three are still being treated.

______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________


Ebola Virus Disease (EVD)

Posted Image
Fruit bats are believed to be a major carrier of the Ebola virus but do not show symptoms

-Symptoms include high fever, bleeding and central nervous system damage

-Fatality rate can reach 90% - but current outbreak has about 55%

-Incubation period is two to 21 days

-There is no vaccine or cure

-Supportive care such as rehydrating patients who have diarrhoea and vomiting can help recovery

-Fruit bats, a delicacy for some West Africans, are considered to be virus' natural host

______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________


Since the outbreak spread to Nigeria in July, when a person infected with Ebola flew from Liberia to Lagos, several airlines have stopped flights to the worst-affected countries.

Kenya's ban on people from Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone entering the East African nation comes into force on Wednesday - and Cameroon has closed its land, sea and air borders with Nigeria.

Source: Posted Image
Offline Profile Quote Post Goto Top
 
skibboy
Member Avatar

19 August 2014

Ebola crisis: Liberia finds 'missing patients'

Seventeen suspected Ebola patients who went missing in Liberia after a health centre in the capital was attacked have been found, a minister has said.

"They were traced and finally they turned themselves in" at a treatment centre, Lewis Brown told the BBC.

The government had previously denied they were missing.

New UN figures show that 1,229 people have now died since the beginning of this year in the outbreak that has also hit Sierra Leone, Guinea and Nigeria.

The World Health Organization (WHO) says there were 84 deaths reported between 14 and 16 August.

Source: Posted Image
Offline Profile Quote Post Goto Top
 
skibboy
Member Avatar

20 August 2014

Ebola crisis: Liberian troops impose slum quarantine

Posted Image
West Point, Liberia's largest slum, lies on the Atlantic Ocean

Security forces in Liberia's capital Monrovia have deployed to enforce a quarantine in a large slum area in order to contain the spread of Ebola.

The move set off protests from angry residents in West Point and people gathered at roadblocks to complain.

The president has also ordered a countrywide night-time curfew as part of new anti-Ebola measures.

Since the beginning of the year, 1350 people have died of the virus in four West African countries.

New UN figures show that between 17 and 18 August, there were 221 new cases and 106 deaths.

A top Lagos doctor has just died of the virus, bringing the number of people who have died of Ebola in Nigeria to five, the health ministry said.

Colleagues said consultant Stella Ameyo Adadevo was the first medic to order that a sick patient from Liberia be tested for Ebola when he was admitted in July.

"We owe her a lot; she managed the situation like a thorough professional that she was. She had helped Nigeria to contain the epidemic in her own way," Akin Osibogun, the chief medical director at Lagos University Teaching Hospital, told Nigeria's Premium Times newspaper.

Posted Image
Forces from the police, army and fire service are being used to enforce the Ebola quarantine in Monrovia

Posted Image
Liberia is already under a state of emergency

Kenyan travel restrictions have now taken effect, blocking travellers from Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea - the three countries most affected by the outbreak. Earlier this week Cameroon shut its border with Nigeria.

______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________


At the scene: Nathalie Wakam, BBC Africa, Douala

The closure of the border between Cameroon and Nigeria because of the Ebola outbreak is affecting the busy car market in Douala, Cameroon's economic hub.

It is full of traders and mechanics, and is the place to go for anything vehicle-related.

Most of the dealers are Nigerian and import second-hand parts as well as new vehicles.

They understand the need for caution but are concerned about trade.

"Since last week our goods are there in the port in Calabar - there's no movement," one of them said.

The goods tend to be offloaded at Calabar, in southern Nigeria, shipped to other ports in Cameroon and then transported by road.

"We are pleading with the Cameroonian and Nigerian governments to seek solutions," another trader said.

The closure was officially announced on Monday, but cross-border activity has been affected since last week.

"There are families that have travelled to Nigeria for holidays and now they're supposed to come back for the resumption of school but they are blocked," a businessman explained.

______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________


'Teargas fired'

There is no known cure for Ebola, but the WHO has ruled that untested drugs can be used to treat patients in light of the scale of the current outbreak - the deadliest to date.

The experimental drug ZMapp has been used to treat several people who contracted Ebola in Liberia but the US firm that makes the drug says it has for now run out of it, so the only way to stop the current outbreak is to isolate the victims.

The BBC's Jonathan Paye-Layleh in Monrovia says troops are patrolling in West Point, the country's largest slum which is home to more than 50,000 and sprawls along the Atlantic coast. Ferries have been halted and coast-guard boats are monitoring the coastline.

A resident told the BBC that teargas was fired by police to disperse angry crowds.

Our reporter says fear and tension has been growing in the slum for days - a health centre was attacked on Saturday and residents feel not enough has been done to protect them.

"We have been unable to control the spread due to continued denials, cultural varying practices, disregard for the advice of health workers and disrespect for the warnings by the government," President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf said on Tuesday evening.

Dolo Town, about 40km (25 miles) from Monrovia, has also been put under quarantine and all entertainment centres are to be closed and video centres are to shut by 18:00 local time.

Source: Posted Image
Offline Profile Quote Post Goto Top
 
skibboy
Member Avatar

21 August 2014

US Ebola patient Kent Brantly 'thrilled to be alive'

One of the US aid workers who recovered from an Ebola infection is "thrilled to be alive" as he and another patient are discharged from hospital.

Dr Kent Brantly, 33, thanked supporters for their prayers at a news conference in Atlanta.

Nancy Writebol, 59, was discharged on Tuesday.

The two were brought to the US for treatment three weeks ago.

The outbreak has killed more than 1,300 people in West Africa, with many of the deaths occurring in Liberia.

'Not on radar'

"Today is a miraculous day," said Dr Brantly, who appeared healthy if pallid as he addressed reporters on Thursday at Emory University hospital.

"I am thrilled to be alive, to be well, and to be reunited with my family. As a medical missionary, I never imagined myself in this position."

He said Ebola "was not on the radar" when he and his family moved to Liberia in October.

After his family returned to the US as the Ebola outbreak tore through West Africa, he continued to treat Ebola patients and woke up on 23 July feeling "under the weather".

Dr Brantly said he lay in bed for nine days, getting progressively sicker and weaker.

On 1 August, he was flown to Atlanta for treatment at Emory.

Emory infectious disease specialist Dr Bruce Ribner said after rigorous treatment and testing officials were confident Dr Brantly had recovered "and he can return to his family, his community and his life without public health concerns".

The group for which he was working in Liberia, Samaritan's Purse, said they were celebrating his recovery.

"Today I join all of our Samaritan's Purse team around the world in giving thanks to God as we celebrate Dr Kent Brantly's recovery from Ebola and release from the hospital," Franklin Graham said in a statement.

Riots in Liberia

Nancy Writebol's husband David said in a statement that she was free of the virus but was significantly weakened.

The family decided to leave the hospital privately in order to allow her to rest and recuperate.

Meanwhile, South Africa on Thursday said non-citizens arriving from Ebola-affected areas of West Africa - the countries of Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone - would not be allowed into the country.

And police in Liberia's capital, Monrovia, fired live rounds and tear gas during protests after a quarantine was imposed to contain the spread of the deadly virus.

Residents of the capital's West Point slum area said the barbed wire blockade stops them buying food and working.

There is no cure for Ebola, one of the deadliest diseases known to humans, with a fatality rate in this outbreak of 50-60%.

But both Dr Brantly and Mrs Writebol received an experimental treatment known as ZMapp.

The drug, which has only been made in extremely limited quantities, had never been tested on humans and it remains unclear if it is responsible for their recovery.

ZMapp was also given to a Spanish priest, who died, and three Liberian health workers, who are showing signs of improvement.

Source: Posted Image
Offline Profile Quote Post Goto Top
 
skibboy
Member Avatar

22 August 2014

Ireland tests suspected Ebola case after death

AFP

Posted Image
Irish authorities are testing a "suspected case of Ebola virus" after a person who travelled to an affected area in Africa was found dead, the health service say

Irish authorities are testing a "suspected case of Ebola virus" after a person who travelled to an affected area in Africa was found dead, the health service said on Thursday.

"The public health department was made aware earlier today of the remains of an individual, discovered early this morning, who had recently travelled to the one of the areas in Africa affected by the current Ebola virus disease outbreak," the Health Service Executive (HSE) said in a statement.

"Until a diagnosis is confirmed, and as a precautionary measure, the individual's remains will stay in the mortuary pending the laboratory results."

The suspected case is in Donegal in northwest Ireland.

Test results are expected late on Friday.

The outbreak of the Ebola virus in West Africa is the largest ever and has killed 1,350 people in Liberia, Guinea, Sierra Leone and Nigeria since March.

"We await the outcome of the laboratory tests before we will know whether or not this individual had contracted Ebola virus disease," said Darina O'Flanagan, the head of the HSE health protection surveillance centre.

"The appropriate public health guidelines are being followed at every stage in this process as a precaution."

Source: Posted Image
Offline Profile Quote Post Goto Top
 
skibboy
Member Avatar

22 August 2014

Ebola crisis: Senegal defends Guinea border closure

Posted Image
Airports around the world are screening West African passengers to see if they have a fever

Senegal has defended the closure of its border with Guinea because of the Ebola outbreak, despite warnings that such measures are counterproductive.

The World Health Organization (WHO) says travel bans do not work.

Also on Friday, the WHO said 142 new cases of the disease had been reported since 19 August, as well as 77 deaths.

It said the crisis would take "several months" to combat.

The current Ebola outbreak has killed at least 1,350 people - more than any other.

Meanwhile in Liberia, a boy of 16 shot during a protest about a quarantine has died.

Shakie Kamara was one of three people injured on Wednesday, when security forces fired on a crowd protesting against blockades around the West Point slum.

Posted Image
West Point residents say they need to leave the slum to buy food and go to work

In other developments:

-In Nigeria, the health minister has announced two new cases of Ebola - spouses of people already infected; five of Nigeria's 14 cases have died, while another five have recovered and been discharged

-The British doctor named by the UN to co-ordinate the global response to the crisis told the AFP news agency the current outbreak was "either close to a plateau, but then we'll drop, or we're in a phase - an inflexion point - where it is going to increase, and I absolutely cannot tell"

-A WHO spokesman has told the BBC that a deadly fever which has killed at least 13 people in the Democratic Republic of Congo was not Ebola, saying it was febrile gastro-enteritis

-An Irishman who died after recently returning from Sierra Leone did not have the Ebola virus, health authorities have confirmed

______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________


WHO says Ebola outbreak underestimated because:

-Many families keep sick people at home, as there is no cure

-Many health centres have closed because medical staff have fled

-In Liberia, treatment centres are overwhelmed

-The existence of "shadow-zones", areas where there are reports of Ebola but which cannot be accessed because of local resistance or lack of staff

______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________


Senegal's Health Minister Dr Eva Marie Colle Seck told the BBC the travel ban would not affect humanitarian flights, and that the WHO was "learning, like everybody [else]".

Senegal also banned flights and ships from Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone - the three worst-hit countries - however, Dr Seck said humanitarian flights would not be affected.

Senegal's capital, Dakar, is a regional hub for West Africa and many doctors and medical supplies arriving from Europe or the US would pass through there before going to the affected countries.

Dr Seck told the BBC that the countries surrounding those affected were a "sentinel for the world" and had a duty to stop the virus spreading further.

But WHO spokesman Gregory Hartl told the BBC's Newsday programme that the borders in the region were porous, so any ban would be "impossible to enforce".

Mr Hartl said what was needed was more doctors and officials to help trace those infected with Ebola, and more mobile laboratories.

On Thursday, a Russian transport plane carrying a mobile lab and team of specialist medics such as virologists and epidemiologists flew to Guinea's capital Conakry.

The lab can test more than 100 samples daily.

Senegal first closed its border with Guinea in March when the outbreak started.

It was reopened in May after the situation in Guinea seemed to have stabilised but there has been a recent increase in the number of cases in the country.

Cameroon, Ivory Coast, Kenya and South Africa have also imposed travel bans.

Ebola has no known cure but some affected people have recovered after being given an experimental drug, ZMapp, however, supplies are now exhausted.

On Thursday, two US doctors were discharged from hospital after being given the drug, while three Liberian medics are also recovering well.

______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________


Ebola casualties

Up to 18 August

1,350

Total death toll

576 Liberia

396 Guinea

374 Sierra Leone

4 Nigeria

Source: WHO
______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Source: Posted Image
Offline Profile Quote Post Goto Top
 
skibboy
Member Avatar

22 August 2014

Last Ebola-free region of Liberia falls to virus

AFP

Posted Image
Shops remain closed in Monrovia's West Point slum as part of quarantine measures to contain the spread of Ebola on August 20, 2014

Every region of Liberia has now been hit by Ebola, officials said Friday, as other affected west African nations scrambled to contain the spread of the killer virus.

After seeing people fall to the deadly disease in area after area, Liberia said two people had succumbed to the virus in Sinoe province, the last Ebola-free bastion in a country that has seen the biggest toll with 576 deaths.

The virus has spread relentlessly through Liberia, Guinea and Sierra Leone over the past months, killing 1,350 people since March, and Nigeria has also been affected despite showing some progress in fighting the epidemic.

"(Sinoe) was the last area untouched by Ebola," George Williams, head of the Health Workers Association of Liberia, told AFP.

The country has witnessed chaotic scenes in recent days following a surge in the number of patients dying of the hemorrhagic fever.

Aid workers said crematoriums in the capital of Monrovia were struggling to deal with dozens of bodies arriving every day, and earlier this week, violence erupted in an Ebola quarantine zone in the capital after soldiers opened fire on protesting crowds.

In bad news for neighbouring Nigeria, officials said Friday that two more people had tested positive for Ebola, taking the total number of confirmed cases to 14, including five deaths.

The World Health Organization (WHO) said earlier this week that it was encouraged by the situation in Africa's most populous country, given that all of the confirmed cases came from a single chain of transmission.

But the country's health minister Onyebuchi Chukwu told a news conference in Abuja that the two new cases were the first to contract the virus from a secondary source.

- Flare up -

Most of the deaths in what has become the worst-ever outbreak of Ebola have occurred in Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone.

David Nabarro, a British physician appointed by the United Nations last week to coordinate the global response to the crisis, was in Monrovia on Friday for the second day of a tour of the region.

Speaking to AFP during a stopover at Conakry airport en route to Monrovia, he said he was determined to "ensure that every piece of our apparatus is at its optimum so it could deal possibly with a flare-up if that's necessary".

Nabarro is also due to visit Freetown, Conakry and Abuja during the trip, where he is tasked with revitalising the health sectors of affected countries.

Authorities in the region have been hampered in their fight against Ebola by the deaths of several top health officials and numerous frontline doctors to the virus.

No cure or vaccine is currently available for the deadly disease, which is spread by close contact with body fluids, meaning patients must be isolated.

However, two American missionaries who contracted Ebola while treating patients in Liberia left hospital in the United States in recent days after making a full recovery.

The two were treated with experimental drugs.

- 'They may die' -

The failure of west African countries to bring the epidemic under control has worried its neighbours and nations further afield.

Senegal on Thursday closed its land border with Guinea, where 396 people have died to date, in an attempt to stop the epidemic reaching it.

Many flights to the region have been cancelled, and authorities around the world have adopted measures to screen travellers arriving from affected nations.

Air France is one of the few airlines running daily routes to and from Sierra Leone.

On a flight this week from Freetown to Paris, via the Guinean capital Conakry, fear of the virus was ubiquitous.

"I had to close my textile shop and return to China," said Wu Guo Gang, 60, on the flight with his wife.

"Many Chinese are leaving. If they stay, they may die," he added.

In a further effort to contain the epidemic, Sierra Leone's parliament passed a law on Friday that imposes a two year jail term for anyone concealing an Ebola-infected patient.

Meanwhile, as fears grow that the outbreak will spread across Africa, DR Congo's Health Minister Felix Kabange Numbi said a fever of unidentified origin had killed 13 people in the country's northwest since August 11.

But a WHO official and the medical charity Doctors Without Borders (MSF) said Friday it was too soon to tell whether a haemorrhagic fever caused the deaths.

Ebola was first identified in 1976 in Equateur in the former Zaire, today the DRC.

Source: Posted Image
Offline Profile Quote Post Goto Top
 
skibboy
Member Avatar

23 August 2014

Ebola crisis: Sierra Leone law makes hiding patients illegal

Posted Image
World Health Organization experts say it will take months to bring the outbreak under control

Sierra Leone's parliament has passed a new law making it a criminal offence to shelter Ebola patients.

Those caught face up to two years in prison, the justice minister said.

The measure still needs to be approved by the president.

Earlier, Ivory Coast closed its land borders to prevent the spread of the deadly Ebola virus on to its territory.

The World Health Organization says the measures - taken by other countries as well - are counterproductive.

So far 1,427 people have died - more than in any other Ebola outbreak.

Posted Image
Already more people have died in this outbreak of Ebola than in any other

The number of cases now stands at 2,615.

The speed and extent of the Ebola outbreak in West Africa are "unprecedented", according to the WHO.

Elsewhere:

-A British national living in Sierra Leone has tested positive for the Ebola virus, the UK Department of Health said on Saturday

-The Philippines has ordered 115 troops to return home from peacekeeping operations in Liberia due to the outbreak.

______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________


WHO says Ebola outbreak underestimated because:

-Many families keep sick people at home, as there is no cure

-Many health centres have closed because medical staff have fled

-In Liberia, treatment centres are overwhelmed

-The existence of "shadow-zones", areas where there are reports of Ebola but which cannot be accessed because of local resistance or lack of staff

______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________


Shadow zones

Ivory Coast, the largest economy in francophone West Africa, had previously imposed a ban on flights to and from Sierra Leone, Liberia and Guinea.

"Faced with new outbreak sites and the reactivation of old sites... the Ivorian government decides to close its land borders with sister republics Guinea and Liberia," it said in a statement on Friday.

Posted Image
Food was distributed in the West Point area of Monrovia, where some residents have expressed anger over a quarantine

Posted Image
The WHO has said more medical resources are needed to halt the spread of the virus

Gabon, Senegal, Cameroon and South Africa have taken similar measures.

The WHO says travel bans do not work, and that what is needed is more doctors and officials to help trace those infected with Ebola, as well as more mobile laboratories.

On Friday, the WHO's Dr Keiji Fukuda expressed concern over so-called "shadow zones", areas which cannot be reached and where patients are not being detected.

The organisation confirmed 142 new cases of the disease had been reported since 19 August, as well as 77 deaths.

Speaking at a news conference in the Liberian capital Monrovia, Dr Fukuda said combating the disease would take "several months of hard work".

"We haven't seen an Ebola outbreak covering towns, rural areas so quickly and over such a wide area," he added.

Ebola has no known cure but some affected people have recovered after being given an experimental drug, ZMapp.

However, supplies are now exhausted.

On Thursday, two US doctors were discharged from hospital after being given the drug, while three Liberian medics are also recovering well.

Source: Posted Image
Offline Profile Quote Post Goto Top
 
skibboy
Member Avatar

23 August 2014

Briton in Sierra Leone 'tests positive for Ebola'

Posted Image
Sierra Leone has seen hundreds of deaths from the virus

A British national living in Sierra Leone has tested positive for Ebola, the Department of Health has said.

It is the first reported case of a Briton contracting the deadly virus during the recent outbreak.

Some 1,427 people have died since Ebola began spreading in West Africa at what the World Health Organization (WHO) has described as an "unprecedented" rate.

The Department of Health (DoH) said the overall risk to those in the UK continued to be "very low".

The number of cases in Africa since the outbreak began in March now stands at 2,615.

The virus, which is spread between humans through direct contact with infected blood, attacks internal organs and has no known cure.

Symptoms include high fever and bleeding, and up to 90% of cases result in death.

Flights suspended

In a statement, the DoH said medical experts were "assessing the situation to ensure that appropriate care is delivered".

Consular assistance is being provided, the statement added.

No further details have been given about the British national.

A decision will now have to be made over whether the patient should be flown back to the UK, said BBC Nigeria correspondent Will Ross.

Earlier this month, British Airways suspended flights to Sierra Leone and Liberia until at least the end of August.

The Foreign Office has said Britons should think carefully before travelling to Sierra Leone, Guinea or Liberia.

"General medical facilities throughout Sierra Leone are currently under severe strain due to the Ebola outbreak, and unable to provide the same standard of healthcare as in the UK," current advice states.

"Dedicated healthcare facilities for Ebola are overwhelmed."

'Low risk'

Deputy chief medical officer Prof John Watson said: "The overall risk to the public in the UK continues to be very low.

"We have robust, well-developed and well-tested NHS systems for managing unusual infectious diseases when they arise, supported by a wide range of experts."

Sierra Leone is bordered by Guinea to the north east and Liberia to the south east.

Ivory Coast, the largest economy in francophone West Africa, had previously imposed a ban on flights to and from Sierra Leone, as well as Liberia and Guinea.

On Friday, it was confirmed that an Irish engineer who died at home after returning from Sierra Leone did not have the virus.

And during the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow, athletes from Sierra Leone were checked for the disease, but tested negative.

On Thursday, two US doctors were discharged from hospital after being given an experimental drug, ZMapp, while three Liberian medics are also recovering well.

The current outbreak in West Africa is the deadliest occurrence since Ebola was discovered in 1976.

The WHO has declared a public health emergency and has warned the scale of the current outbreak has so far been underestimated.

As a result, the Sierra Leonean parliament passed a new law meaning anyone harbouring Ebola victims could face two years in prison.

Source: Posted Image
Offline Profile Quote Post Goto Top
 
skibboy
Member Avatar

24 August 2014

Ebola outbreak: DR Congo confirms two deaths

Authorities in the Democratic Republic of Congo say two people have died from Ebola in the country's north-west.

They are the first reported Ebola cases outside West Africa since the outbreak there began, although it is not clear if they are directly linked to that outbreak.

So far 1,427 people have died from the virus.

The speed and extent of the outbreak has been "unprecedented", the World Health Organization (WHO) says.

An estimated 2,615 people in West Africa have been infected with Ebola since March.

There is no known cure but some affected people have recovered after being given an experimental drug, ZMapp.

However, supplies are now exhausted.

Also on Sunday, a British health worker infected with Ebola in Sierra Leone was flown back to the UK on an RAF jet. It is the first confirmed case of a Briton contracting the virus during the current outbreak.

Posted Image
The US has sent medical supplies to help fight the outbreak in Liberia

Quarantine zone

Several people died in the past month after contracting an unidentified fever in the Equateur region of the Democratic Republic of Congo.

On Sunday, Health Minister Felix Kabange Numbi said two of eight fever victims had tested positive for Ebola.

He told the BBC a quarantine zone would be set up in a 100-km (62-mile) radius in Boende where the cases had been registered.

He said this marked the seventh outbreak in DRC.

The virus was first identified here in 1976 near the Ebola River.

Mr Numbi added that further tests were being carried out.

On Saturday, Sierra Leone parliament passed a new law making it a criminal offence to hide Ebola patients.

If approved by the president, those caught face up to two years in prison.

The move came after the Ivory Coast closed its land borders to prevent the spread of Ebola on to its territory.

The country has already imposed a ban on flights to and from Sierra Leone, Liberia and Guinea.

Gabon, Senegal, Cameroon and South Africa have taken similar measures.

The WHO says travel bans do not work, and that what is needed is more doctors and officials to help trace those infected with Ebola, as well as more mobile laboratories.

Last week, two US doctors were discharged from a hospital in Liberia after being given the ZMapp drug, while three Liberian medics are also recovering well.

Ebola is spread between humans through direct contact with infected bloodily fluids.

It is one of the world's deadliest diseases, with up to 90% of cases resulting in death.

Source: Posted Image
Offline Profile Quote Post Goto Top
 
skibboy
Member Avatar

24 August 2014

British Ebola patient arrives in UK for hospital treatment

A British man who contracted the Ebola virus in Sierra Leone has arrived back in the UK on board an RAF jet.

The healthcare worker landed at London's RAF Northolt in a specially-equipped C-17 aircraft and has been transported to an isolation unit at the Royal Free Hospital in north London.

The man is "not currently seriously unwell", a Department of Health spokesman said.

Health officials have stressed the risk to the UK remains "very low".

The DoH said the decision to return the patient to the UK was taken following "clinical advice".

Prof John Watson, DoH deputy chief medical officer, said they would be taken in a specially-adapted ambulance to a high level isolation unit - the only unit of its kind in the UK.

'Best care possible'

It is the first confirmed case of a Briton contracting the virus during the current outbreak, in which 1,427 people have died.

The World Health Organization has estimated 2,615 people in West Africa have been infected with Ebola since March.

Health officials reported the first cases outside West Africa - in the Democratic Republic of Congo - on Sunday.

The virus, for which there is no cure, is spread between humans through direct contact with infected bloodily fluids.

It is one of the world's deadliest diseases, with up to 90% of cases resulting in death.

A statement from Sierra Leone's health ministry said the Briton had been volunteering at a clinic in the Kenema district of the country.

Sidie Yayah Tunis, director of communications at the health ministry, said the patient had been flown out of the country's main airport in the town of Lungi on Sunday.

Posted Image
The Royal Air Force C-17 landed at RAF Northolt in north-west London at 21:00 BST

Posted Image
A specialist ambulance with police escort took the man to the Royal Free Hospital

Posted Image
The patient is "not currently seriously unwell", the Department of Health said

Dr Paul Cosford, director for health protection at Public Health England, said the man was being transferred with "all appropriate protocols promptly activated" by UK health agencies.

"Protective measures will be strictly maintained to minimise the risk of transmission to staff transporting the patient to the UK and healthcare workers treating the individual," he said.

He added: "UK hospitals have a proven record of dealing with imported infectious diseases and this patient will be isolated and will receive the best care possible."

'Well-tested system'

Prof Watson said the UK had "robust, well-developed and well-tested NHS systems for managing unusual infectious diseases".

"It is important to be reassured that although a case of Ebola in a British national healthcare worker residing in Sierra Leone has been identified and is being brought back to the UK the overall risk to the public in the UK remains very low," he said.

Dr Bob Winter, from NHS England, said preparations had been under way over the past few weeks to ensure any patient being repatriated to the UK received the best possible care.

The unit at the Royal Free in the Hampstead area of London has been prepared to treat people with highly infectious diseases.

Patients can be treated in a special tent, which is part of a normal ward, BBC News correspondent Andy Moore said.

The tent ensures medical staff can interact with the patient, but are separated by either plastic or rubber.

It has its own ventilation unit, which cleans air before it is released into the atmosphere.

Posted Image
The patient will be treated at a specialist isolation unit at London's Royal Free Hospital

Posted Image
American Dr Kent Brantly, who has recovered from the Ebola virus, said he was "thrilled to be alive"

It comes after two Americans recovered from Ebola and were last week discharged from hospital having been flown to the US and given an experimental drug.

Dr Kent Brantly, 33, and Nancy Writebol, 59, were flown from Liberia, in West Africa, to Atlanta, in the US, where they received an experimental treatment known as ZMapp.

Officials in Liberia have also said three medical staff have shown signs of improvement after taking the drug.

Health workers say the body has a greater chance of fighting off the virus if the patient seeks help fast and the symptoms are treated.

The Foreign Office this week issued updated travel advice, which urged Britons to assess the need to travel to Sierra Leone, Guinea and Liberia.

"General medical facilities throughout Sierra Leone are currently under severe strain due to the Ebola outbreak, and unable to provide the same standard of healthcare as in the UK," the travel advice said.

"Dedicated healthcare facilities for Ebola are overwhelmed."

Source: Posted Image
Offline Profile Quote Post Goto Top
 
skibboy
Member Avatar

25 August 2014

Ebola kills Liberia doctor despite ZMapp treatment

Posted Image
Liberia has had more Ebola deaths than any other country this year

A Liberian doctor has died despite taking an experimental anti-Ebola drug, Liberia's information minister says.

Abraham Borbor was one of three doctors in Liberia who had been given ZMapp and were showing signs of recovery.

ZMapp has been credited with helping several patients recover, including two US doctors.

More than 1,400 people have died from Ebola this year in four West African countries - Guinea, Liberia, Nigeria and Sierra Leone.

Dr Borbor "was showing signs of improvement but yesterday (Sunday) he took a turn for the worse," Liberian Information Minister Lewis Brown told the BBC.

"What this means for the drugs, I don't know," the minister added, without giving further details.

It is believed Dr Borbor died in the capital Monrovia.

He was the deputy chief medical doctor at the country's largest hospital.

Liberia has recently imposed a quarantine in parts of Monrovia to try to stop the spread of the virus.

Last Thursday, police fired live rounds and tear gas during protests among residents of the city's West Point slum.

Liberia has seen the most deaths - more than 570 - in what is now the worst Ebola outbreak in history.

UK isolation case

In a separate development on Monday, a UK volunteer nurse is being treated at a London hospital after contracting Ebola in Sierra Leone - the first confirmed case of a Briton contracting the virus in the current outbreak.

Posted Image
William Pooley worked earlier this year as a volunteer at The Shepherd's Hospice in Sierra Leone

William Pooley, 29, returned to the UK on Sunday and is being kept in a special isolation unit.

Supplies of Zmapp are thought to have been used up and he is not currently being treated with the drug.

However, officials have not ruled the use of Zmapp or similar treatments.

His family said he was receiving "excellent care".

Meanwhile, Japan said it was ready to allow shipments of an experimental anti-viral drug to help combat the Ebola outbreak.

It is not clear whether T-705 (or Avigan) will actually work against Ebola, and no monkey or human trials of the drug have been done, the BBC's Rupert Wingfield-Hayes in Tokyo reports.

T-705 was developed by Japan's Toyama Chemicals company for use against new strains of influenza.

It was approved by the Japanese government earlier this year.

A company spokesman says the firm believes the similarity between flu viruses and Ebola means Avigan could be effective.

Japan says it is ready to ship Avigan even without approval by the World Health Organization.

Prison term warning

Ebola is spread between humans through direct contact with infected body fluids and several doctors and health workers have died.

It is one of the world's deadliest diseases, with up to 90% of cases resulting in death, although in the current outbreak the rate is about 55%.

The speed and extent of the outbreak was "unprecedented", the World Health Organization (WHO) said last week.

An estimated 2,615 people in West Africa have been infected with Ebola since March.

On Saturday, Sierra Leone's parliament passed a new law making it a criminal offence to hide Ebola patients.

If approved by the president, those caught face up to two years in prison.

Source: Posted Image
Offline Profile Quote Post Goto Top
 
skibboy
Member Avatar

26 August 2014

UK Ebola patient gets experimental drug

William Pooley, the first Briton to contract Ebola, has been given the experimental drug ZMapp.

His doctors say Mr Pooley is a "remarkable and resilient young man" and he "couldn't be in a better place".

The volunteer nurse from Eyke, Suffolk, was exposed to Ebola while working with patients in Sierra Leone.

He returned to the UK on Sunday and is being kept in a special isolation unit at the Royal Free Hospital in Hampstead, London.

The unit, for patients with highly infectious disease, is the only one of its kind in Europe.

A special tent ensures medical staff can interact with the patient but are separated by plastic and rubber.

Untested drug

Dr Michael Jacobs, consultant and clinical lead in infectious diseases at the Royal Free Hospital, said: "We have had the opportunity to give him the ZMapp treatment.

"It is an experimental medicine, we made that absolutely clear in our discussions with him."

Staff said he was given the first dose of ZMapp on Monday and further doses are expected to be given to him "in due course".

Dr Mike Jacobs added: "We are giving him the very best care possible. However, the next few days will be crucial."

The experimental drug Mr Pooley is receiving was previously given to two American aid workers who have now recovered from the virus.

But a Spanish priest and Liberian doctor who were also reported to have taken the medication died recently.

The medicine has only previously been tested on animals and experts say it is still unclear whether the drug boosts chances of recovery.

And stocks are extremely limited.

The company that manufactures the drug says all available supplies have been given out.

The team are now working to make more but says this process will take months.

Direct contact

Mr Pooley had worked as a volunteer providing palliative care at The Shepherd's Hospice in Sierra Leone from March until July.

He asked to be relocated to the Kenema Government Hospital to serve on the Ebola treatment ward after he heard reports that patients were being abandoned when health workers died from the virus.

There is no cure for Ebola but with treatment of the symptoms, and proper hydration, patients have a chance of survival.

The virus is spread between humans through direct contact with infected bodily fluids.

More than 2,600 people in Guinea, Liberia, Nigeria and Sierra Leone have been infected since March, including more than 240 health care workers.

Source: Posted Image
Offline Profile Quote Post Goto Top
 
skibboy
Member Avatar

Angry, scared and hungry: Inside the Ebola 'quarantine zone'

By Nima Elbagir and Laura Smith-Spark, CNN
August 26, 2014

Monrovia, Liberia (CNN) -- A red rope guarded by police marks the "quarantine line" around the West Point slum in the Liberian capital, Monrovia.

Beyond it, more than 70,000 people are trapped -- angry, scared and increasingly hungry -- as authorities seek to halt the spread of the deadly Ebola virus.

As soon as a CNN team crossed the line, it was swarmed by people desperate to be heard.

Since the government designated the slum an Ebola quarantine zone last week, there has been no way out.

Stuck without sanitation or running water, and with food supplies for many running low, people fear for their lives.

The quarantine measures were imposed after rioters looted an Ebola treatment center in the slum, claiming the virus was a government hoax.

A nurse at the center told CNN she arrived for her shift that night to find the center destroyed and not a patient to be found.

The center is slowly being rebuilt, but it lacks basic equipment and facilities.

Medical workers have to wash their protective gear for reuse and have little more than a squirt of bleach to rely on.

'I'm scared of everything'

It is the only refuge for the slum's frightened residents.

But the most that they can hope for is to be made comfortable while they wait either to overcome the virus -- or not.

Like many residents of West Point, Charming Fallah, a hairdresser, has to travel out of the township to make a living.

She is the only breadwinner for her two children and her elderly parents.

"Right now, my mother doesn't have anything," she told CNN. "First, I was the one that provided for her. But as time goes by, she's complaining the rice is finished. I just came from my parents' house and she has nothing."

Asked if she is more scared by the disease or by hunger, Fallah replied: "Both. That's what's worrying us. The hunger, the Ebola, everything. I'm scared of everything."

Her fears are far from unfounded.

Experts have described the West African outbreak, centered in Liberia, Guinea and Sierra Leone, as the worst in the history of the virus.

Doctors, nurses succumb

The World Health Organization said Monday that 120 health care workers have died in the Ebola outbreak, and twice that number have been infected.

Public health experts say several factors are to blame, including a shortage of protective gear and improper use of the gear they do have.

In a commentary released this week in the Annals of Internal Medicine, doctors from the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, wrote that personal protective gear made to shield health care workers from Ebola-contaminated fluids isn't being used properly.

The commentary says that even with the correct gear, a health care worker is at risk for infection if contaminated protective clothing is not removed correctly.

The Ebola virus is transmitted through direct or indirect contact between bodily fluids from an infected patient; that's why taking off the protective gear correctly is essential.

Dr. William Schaffner, chairman of the Department of Preventive Medicine at Vanderbilt University's School of Medicine, says following the proper sequence of removing protective gear can keep health care workers from infecting themselves.

The sequence is simple.

You start with the gloves, then take off the eye protection, gown and surgical mask.

Follow up with washing your hands.

Why is this particular sequence so important?

"Because if you leave your gloves on, and take off your eye protection first, you could pass the fluids from the gloves to your eye mucus," explains Schaffner. "No matter where you are, no matter what day of the week it is, never change the sequence of how you take the equipment off."

One or two doctors per 100,000 people

The fact that the disease has killed so many people working to care for infected patients is making it increasingly hard to combat the virus in West Africa, WHO said.

"It depletes one of the most vital assets during the control of any outbreak. WHO estimates that in the three hardest-hit countries, only one to two doctors are available to treat 100,000 people, and these doctors are heavily concentrated in urban areas."

The threat can mean other health facilities close, as staff members choose to stay home rather than risk their lives.

This means other medical needs, such as help with childbirth and malaria treatment, are neglected.

"The fact that so many medical staff have developed the disease increases the level of anxiety: if doctors and nurses are getting infected, what chance does the general public have?" the group wrote.
"In some areas, hospitals are regarded as incubators of infection and are shunned by patients with any kind of ailment, again reducing access to general health care."

The heavy toll is also making it harder to secure support from sufficient numbers of foreign medical staff, the group said.

Last week, a WHO health care worker was infected with Ebola in Sierra Leone.

The organization has temporarily pulled its health workers from the Kailahun post and has sent a team to review the incident.

"This was the responsible thing to do. The field team has been through a traumatic time through this incident," Dr. Daniel Kertesz, a WHO representative in Sierra Leone, said in a statement. "They are exhausted from many weeks of heroic work, helping patients infected with Ebola. When you add a stressor like this, the risk of accidents increases."

Blood and other bodily fluids

Ebola is one of the world's most virulent diseases and is transmitted through direct contact with blood or other bodily fluids of infected people.

The outbreak has forced various nations to take drastic action, including Ivory Coast, which has said it is closing borders it shares with Guinea and Liberia for an indefinite period.

Senegal also closed its borders over Ebola fears.

The closure includes any aircraft and ships traveling to Senegal from Guinea, Sierra Leone or Liberia.

Amid fears of the disease's spread, the Philippines recalled 115 peacekeepers from Liberia.

Dr. Peter Paul Galvez, a spokesman for the Philippines' Department of National Defense, said they would be repatriated as soon as possible.

They will be quarantined before departure for 21 days, then quarantined again in the Philippines for another 21 days.

Early symptoms of Ebola include sudden onset of fever, weakness, muscle pain, headaches and a sore throat.

These symptoms can appear two to 21 days after infection.

CNN's Kathy Quiano and Val Willingham contributed to this report.

Source: Posted Image
Offline Profile Quote Post Goto Top
 
1 user reading this topic (1 Guest and 0 Anonymous)
ZetaBoards - Free Forum Hosting
Create a free forum in seconds.
Learn More · Sign-up for Free
Go to Next Page
« Previous Topic · Disease · Next Topic »
Add Reply

Skin by OverTheBelow