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| Ebola Crisis | |
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| Tweet Topic Started: 23 Mar 2014, 12:52 AM (2,806 Views) | |
| skibboy | 23 Mar 2014, 12:52 AM Post #1 |
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22 March 2014 Guinea deaths: Ebola blamed for deadly fever outbreak ![]() 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:
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| skibboy | 27 Aug 2014, 11:49 PM Post #76 |
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27 August 2014 Ebola outbreak: Nigeria closes all schools until October ![]() Children in Nigeria will be away from school for a further six weeks All schools in Nigeria have been ordered to remain shut until 13 October as part of measures to prevent the spread of the deadly Ebola virus. The new academic year was due to start on Monday. But the education minister ordered the closures to allow staff to be trained on how to handle suspected Ebola cases. Five people have died of Ebola in Nigeria. The West Africa outbreak has centred on Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone, killing more than 1,400 people. It is the largest ever outbreak and has infected an estimated 2,615 people. About half of those infected have died. ______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ Nigerian voices: Ali Sadiq, public servant based in Abuja "The postponement of the schools' resumption by the federal government is a good move but the extension is too long. I can't imagine my two kids wasting six more weeks at home. Two to three weeks would have been enough for all that." ______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ It spread to Nigeria - Africa's most populous country - in July, when a man infected with Ebola flew from Liberia to Lagos. The head of the African Development Bank (AFDB), Donald Kaberuka, has called on airline companies to restart their services to the worst-affected countries. Several African countries and airlines have banned flights to Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone despite World Health Organization (WHO) advice that travel bans do not work. ![]() The outbreak has overwhelmed struggling health systems in some of the world's poorest countries Air France has now announced it is suspending flights to Sierra Leone from Thursday, following a request by the French government. The virus is not airborne and is spread between humans through direct contact with infected bodily fluids. "It is very important that as you combat Ebola, we also continue to ensure that ordinary economic activity is not disputed," Mr Kaberuka told BBC Africa on a visit to Sierra Leone. 'Cataclysmic' The Nigerian government says it hopes its efforts to contain the virus are working, as there is only one confirmed case of Ebola remaining. "All state ministries of education are to immediately organise and ensure that at least two staff in each school, both private and public, are trained by appropriate health workers," said Education Minister Ibrahim Shekarau. Mr Kaberuka said the AFDB had signed an agreement with the WHO to quickly release $60m (£36m) of funds to help with the immediate fight against Ebola. He described the situation as "cataclysmic" as many health workers were being infected with Ebola. "It is decimating the health sector," he said. "There are many other diseases right now not being attended to because Ebola has overstretched the capacity of the health sector." On Tuesday, the WHO said the "unprecedented" number of doctors and nurses infected was due to a shortage of protective equipment and staff. Only one or two doctors are available for 100,000 patients in some of the affected countries. The bank chief said after the Ebola emergency was over, it was important that these countries health systems were strengthened, which the AFDB could do through budget support. ![]() A Senegalese epidemiologist has been flown to Hamburg from Sierra Leone for treatment Meanwhile, a WHO epidemiologist from Senegal who contracted Ebola while working in Sierra Leone has been flown to Hamburg in Germany for treatment. He had been working at an Ebola testing centre in Kailahun, one of the worst-affected districts in eastern Sierra Leone which is currently under blockade. The WHO says the laboratory in Kailahun has been temporarily closed. There have been 392 Ebola deaths in Sierra Leone, according to the latest UN figures released on 22 August. Source:
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| skibboy | 28 Aug 2014, 01:29 AM Post #77 |
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Liberia sacks ministers who left amid Ebola outbreak![]() © Zoom Dosso, AFP | Nurses search for a man infected with the Ebola in Monrovia, August 2014 Text by NEWS WIRES 2014-08-27 Liberia's leader has sacked ministers and senior government officials who defied an order to return to the west African nation to lead the fight against the deadly Ebola outbreak, her office said on Tuesday. President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf had told overseas ministers to return within a week as part of a state-of-emergency announcement on August 6, warning that extraordinary measures were needed "for the very survival of our state". Sirleaf "directed that all officials occupying ministerial level positions or equivalent -- senior and junior -- managing directors, deputy/assistant directors or equivalent, commissioners et cetera who violated the orders are hereby relieved of their positions," her office said in a statement. It did not say how many ministers were affected or who had been fired. But a government insider clarified that only deputy ministers and senior officials were involved in the dismissal, and not cabinet-level ministers. United Nations officials have pledged to step up efforts against the lethal tropical virus, which has infected more than 2,600 and killed 1,427 since the start of the year. The World Health Organization said on Monday more than 120 health workers across west Africa had died during the "unprecedented" outbreak, and more than 240 had been infected. In Sierra Leone, the WHO has temporarily pulled back its health workers from the Kailahun post after one of them was infected and an investigation is under way to prevent further infections before sending a team back there. "This was the responsible thing to do. The field team has been through a traumatic time through this incident," said Dr Daniel Kertesz, WHO representative in Sierra Leone, in a statement. And late Tuesday Nigeria announced that it was delaying the resumption of classes in all primary and secondary schools by a month due to the Ebola outbreak. "This is to ensure that adequate preventive measures are put in place before students resume," said Education Minister Ibrahim Shekarau. Meanwhile the African Development Bank warned Tuesday the epidemic could cut economic output in the three worst-hit countries, as well as neighbouring Ivory Coast, by between one and 1.5 percent of gross economic product. "If people don't start worrying about agriculture, there is going to be a food crisis. That will be the first direct impact on farmers in this region," said president Donald Kaberuka. Second Ebola front A second front has opened up in Africa's struggle with Ebola, after the Democratic Republic of Congo said on Tuesday it was preparing for a "battle of at least three months" after 13 people died after contracting the virus in the remote northeast. Congolese authorities said the outbreak concerned Zaire Ebola, the species that is ravaging west Africa, but said the two outbreaks were not linked. The United Nations' Ebola envoy David Nabarro, in Guinea's capital Conakry on Tuesday on the third leg of a tour of the region, has described the fight against the epidemic as a "war" which could take six more months. "I understand that the situation is more or less stable in Guinea," he said. "But with the surge of new outbreaks of the epidemic in recent weeks, there is an urgent need to consider a regional humanitarian rapid large-scale operation to stop the epidemic in a maximum period of six months." Guinea, where the disease was first discovered, has reported 406 deaths, Sierra Leone 392 and Nigeria five, the WHO said on Friday. Deaths likely underestimated Liberia has suffered the worst effects of the outbreak, registering 624 deaths. Sirleaf's office said she met a delegation of the United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, including its global head Tom Frieden, on Monday to discuss combatting the epidemic. Frieden was quoted as saying there was an urgent need for more treatment facilities. The WHO estimates its count of the infected and dead is likely far too low, due in part to community resistance to outside medical staff and a lack of access to infected areas. The Nigerian health ministry said Tuesday that two more people had been released from isolation after recovering from Ebola, leaving only one living patient with the disease in the country. Elsewhere in the region, the Ivory Coast has closed its borders with Guinea and Liberia, just days after Senegal did the same with Guinea, while South Africa has banned entry for non-citizens arriving from Sierra Leone, Guinea and Liberia. Ivorian Health Minister Raymonde Goudou Coffie told journalists in Abidjan that it was "uncanny" that the country has so far no reported cases of Ebola which is ravaging neighbouring Guinea and Liberia. Source: (AFP)
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| skibboy | 28 Aug 2014, 10:55 PM Post #78 |
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28 August 2014 Ebola outbreak: WHO warns that virus could infect 20,000 ![]() Bruce Aylward, a top WHO official, said the number of cases could be much higher than reported The World Health Organization says the deadly Ebola outbreak in West Africa could infect more than 20,000 people before it is brought under control. The UN agency said the number of cases could already be four times higher than the 3,000 currently registered. It also called on airlines to resume "vital" flights across the region, saying travel bans were threatening efforts to beat the epidemic. So far, 1,552 people in Liberia, Sierra Leone, Guinea and Nigeria have died. Unprecedented scale Announcing a WHO action plan to deal with the outbreak, Bruce Aylward said "the actual number of cases may be 2-4 fold higher than that currently reported" in some areas. The WHO assistant director-general said the possibility of 20,000 cases "is a scale that I think has not ever been anticipated in terms of an Ebola outbreak". "That's not saying we expect 20,000... but we have got to have a system in place that we can deal with robust numbers," he added. The WHO plan calls for $489 million (£295m) to be spent over the next nine months and requires 750 international workers and 12,000 national workers across West Africa. ![]() A top WHO official says flight bans will not stop the virus spreading, but are harming efforts to fight it On Thursday, Nigeria confirmed its first Ebola death outside Lagos, with an infected doctor in the oil hub of Port Harcourt dying from the disease. Operations have not yet been affected in Africa's biggest oil producer, but a spokesman for Shell's Nigerian subsidiary said they were "monitoring the Ebola outbreak very closely". Health ministers from across West Africa are meeting in Ghana at an extraordinary meeting of the Economic Community of West African States (Ecowas) to discuss how to prevent the virus from spreading further. Officials at the Ecowas session backed the WHO's call for flight bans to be ended and called for states to reopen their borders to make it easier for health workers to access affected areas. ![]() Earlier Mr Aylward insisted bans on travel and trade would not stop the spread of Ebola, saying they were "more likely to compromise the ability to respond". Despite rumours to the contrary, the virus is not airborne and is spread by humans coming into contact with bodily fluids, such as sweat and blood, from those infected with virus. The BBC's West Africa correspondent Thomas Fessy says medical agencies are struggling to cope with an increasing number of cases and growing hostility from communities in certain affected areas. Efforts to prevent the virus spreading are unlikely to see any results given that most treatment centres are already operating at full capacity, our correspondent adds. Meanwhile, British medical charity Wellcome Trust and pharmaceuticals giant GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) said safety trials on an experimental Ebola vaccine are being fast-tracked. GSK says it plans to build up a stockpile of up to 10,000 doses for emergency deployment if results from the trials, which could begin as soon as next month, are good. Source:
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| skibboy | 28 Aug 2014, 11:23 PM Post #79 |
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28 August 2014 Genetic clues to spread of Ebola By Helen Briggs Health editor, BBC News website ![]() Experts at Kenema Government Hospital in Sierra Leone have been monitoring the outbreak Scientists have tracked the spread of Ebola in West Africa, revealing genetic clues to the course of the outbreak. Genetic analysis of patient samples suggests the virus spread from Guinea to Sierra Leone at a single funeral. The virus is mutating and must be contained rapidly, warn African and US experts. But they say there is no evidence the virus is changing its behaviour. The current outbreak is the largest ever, with more than 3,000 cases. The number of cases could exceed 20,000 before the outbreak is stemmed, according to the World Health Organization. "We've uncovered more than 300 genetic clues about what sets this outbreak apart from previous outbreaks," said Stephen Gire from the Broad Institute and Harvard University in the US. ![]() The isolation ward at Kenema Government Hospital in Kenema, Sierra Leone "Although we don't know whether these differences are related to the severity of the current outbreak, by sharing these data with the research community, we hope to speed up our understanding of this epidemic and support global efforts to contain it." The data, published in Science, suggests the virus made the leap from animals to humans only once in the current outbreak. The strain emerged in Central Africa in the past 10 years, probably carried by animals such as fruit bats or primates. The first human cases appeared in Guinea, then the disease spread to Sierra Leone, reportedly at the funeral of a traditional healer. There is evidence the virus is mutating, "underscoring the need for rapid containment", the team writes in Science. "The longer the outbreak happens, the more opportunity the virus has to accumulate mutations," Dr Gire told the BBC. But he said there was no evidence at present that the virus was changing its behaviour and becoming better adapted to humans. Commenting on the research, Prof Jonathan Ball, a virus expert at Nottingham University, said: "Clearly this virus is evolving, but what's not clear is whether or not the mutations it's accumulating affect the way it behaves." The genetic samples came from 78 patients at a hospital in Sierra Leone who were infected in May and June. These were compared with existing virus samples from Guinea. Five of the 58 experts named on the paper died from Ebola in Sierra Leone during the study. Source:
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| skibboy | 29 Aug 2014, 11:22 PM Post #80 |
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29 August 2014 Ebola outbreak: Senegal confirms first case ![]() Senegal had already closed its borders to neighbouring Guinea to try to stop the spread of the virus Senegal's health minister has confirmed a first case of Ebola, making it the fifth West African country to be affected by the outbreak. Awa Marie Coll Seck told reporters on Friday that a young man from Guinea had travelled to Senegal despite having been infected with the virus. The man was immediately placed in quarantine, she added. The current outbreak, which began in Guinea, has killed more than 1,500 people across the region. At least 3,000 people have been infected with the virus. The World Health Organization (WHO) has warned it could get much worse and infect more than 20,000 people. Guinea riot Senegal had previously closed its border with Guinea in an attempt to halt the spread of Ebola, but the frontier is porous. ![]() The affected countries have been running public information campaigns to warn about Ebola It had also banned flights and ships from Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone - the three worst-hit countries. The Guinean student sought treatment at a hospital in Senegal's capital Dakar on Tuesday, but did not tell staff he had had contact with Ebola patients in his own country. On Wednesday, the Guinean health services reported "the disappearance of a person infected with Ebola who reportedly travelled to Senegal," according to Senegal's health minister. She said the missing person was quickly identified as the Guinean student and he was immediately quarantined. Concerned residents in Dakar are reported to have reacted to the news with anger. According to Reuters, one host on a Senegalese radio station asked: "When you are sick, why do you leave your own country to export the disease to another?" Prof Peter Piot, who co-discovered Ebola in 1976, said the case "is not unexpected" and all countries in the region should be preparing for the worst "I think it illustrates the ineffectiveness of closing borders and cancelling flights. People will still find a way to get around," Mr Piot told the AP news agency. ![]() Treatment centres in the affected West African states are already said to be operating at full capacity Senegal, a major transit hub for aid agencies, has a large Guinean population. In Guinea, a 24-hour curfew has been imposed in the second city, Nzerekore, because of a riot after the main market was sprayed with disinfectant in an attempt to halt the spread of the virus. The exact cause of the riot is not clear - some people reportedly feared the spray would spread Ebola, while other chanted: "Ebola is a lie". Police responded by firing tear gas. The city is the capital of the Forest Region, where the Ebola epidemic has its epicentre - near the town of Gueckedou. However the BBC's Alhassan Sillah in Guinea says the town has miraculously remained free of Ebola so far. There have been relatively few cases in Guinea recently, with far higher infection rates in Liberia and Sierra Leone, and six deaths in Nigeria. ![]() On Thursday, the WHO unveiled a plan aimed at stopping transmission of the virus in the next six to nine months. Among its recommendations, it said countries affected should conduct exit screening to prevent the disease from spreading to a further 10 countries. The plan calls for $489m (£295m) to be spent over the next nine months and requires 750 international workers and 12,000 national workers across West Africa. Source:
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| skibboy | 30 Aug 2014, 01:02 AM Post #81 |
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Experimental Ebola drug ‘ZMapp’ heals all monkeys in study![]() © AFP | Ebola health workers in Monrovia, Liberia. Text by NEWS WIRES 2014-08-29 An experimental Ebola drug healed all 18 monkeys infected with the deadly virus in a study, boosting hopes that the treatment might help fight the outbreak raging through West Africa – once more of it can be made. The monkeys were given the drug, ZMapp, three to five days after they were infected with the virus and when most were showing symptoms. That is several days later than any other experimental Ebola treatment tested so far. The drug also completely protected six other monkeys given a slightly different version of it three days after infection in a pilot test. These two studies are the first monkey tests ever done on ZMapp. “The level of improvement was utterly beyond my honest expectation,” said one study leader, Gary Kobinger of the Public Health Agency of Canada in Winnipeg. “For animal data, it’s extremely impressive,” said Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, which had a role in the work. It’s not known how well the drug would work in people, who can take up to 21 days to show symptoms and are not infected the way these monkeys were in a lab. Several experts said it’s not possible to estimate a window of opportunity for treating people, but that it was encouraging that the animals recovered when treated even after advanced disease developed. The study was published online Friday by the journal Nature. ZMapp had never been tested in humans before two Americans aid workers who got Ebola while working in Africa were allowed to try it. The rest of the limited supply was given to five others. There is no more ZMapp now, and once a new batch is ready, it still needs some basic tests before it can be tried again during the African outbreak, Fauci said. “We do need to know what the proper dose is” in people and that it’s safe, he said. Ebola has killed more than 1,500 people this year and the World Health Organization says there could be as many as 20,000 cases before the outbreak is brought under control. On Friday, it spread to a fifth African country – Senegal, where a university student who traveled there from Guinea was being treated. There is no approved vaccine or specific treatment, just supportive care to keep them hydrated and nourished. Efforts have focused on finding cases and tracking their contacts to limit the disease, which spreads through contact with blood and other fluids. ZMapp is three antibodies that attach to cells infected with Ebola, helping the immune system kill them. Of the seven people known to have been treated with ZMapp, two have died – a Liberian doctor and a Spanish priest. The priest received only one of three planned doses. The two Americans recovered, as have two Africans who received ZMapp in Liberia – a Congolese doctor and a Liberian physician’s assistant who were expected to be released from a treatment center on Saturday. A British nurse also got the drug, reportedly the two unused doses left over from treating the Spanish priest. Doctors have said there is no way to know whether ZMapp made a difference or the survivors recovered on their own, as about 45 percent of people infected in this outbreak have. ZMapp’s maker, Mapp Biopharmaceutical Inc., of San Diego, California, has said the small supply of the drug is now exhausted and that it will take several months to make more. The drug is grown in tobacco plants and was developed with U.S. government support. Kobinger said it takes about a month to make 20 to 40 doses at a Kentucky plant where the drug is being produced. Officials have said they are looking at other facilities and other ways to ramp up production, and Kobinger said there were plans for a clinical trial to test ZMapp in people early next year. The monkey study involved scientists from the Canada health agency, Mapp Biopharmaceutical, the U.S. National Institutes of Health and the United States Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Disease. Eighteen monkeys were given lethal amounts of Ebola in a shot, then received three intravenous doses of ZMapp, given three days apart starting three to five days after they were infected. Some were showing severe symptoms such as excessive bleeding, rashes and effects on their liver. All treated with ZMapp survived; three other infected monkeys who did not get the drug died within eight days. Primates have been good stand-ins for people for many viral diseases, but how well they predict human responses to Ebola, “we just don’t know,” said Dr. Cameron Wolfe, a Duke University infectious disease specialist. The study also “tells us nothing about side effects” people might have, he added. Still, it was encouraging that even monkeys with severe symptoms got better, said Wolfe and Erica Ollmann Saphire, a Scripps Research Institute professor who has worked with some of the study leaders on antibodies to Ebola. “The treatment window in humans needs to be established in a well-controlled trial” that also would explore the correct dose of ZMapp in people, Saphire wrote in an email. “Given its tremendous efficacy in the nonhuman primates, I don’t see how it couldn’t be helpful in people.'' Source: (AP)
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| skibboy | 30 Aug 2014, 11:10 PM Post #82 |
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Two Liberian medical workers discharged after recovering from Ebola By Nima Elbagir and Joshua Berlinger, CNN August 30, 2014 ![]() A health worker wearing a protective suit conducts an Ebola prevention drill at the port in Monrovia on Friday, August 29. Health officials say the current Ebola outbreak in West Africa is the deadliest ever. Voinjama, Liberia (CNN) -- Two more medical workers have survived Ebola. Dr. Senga Omeonga and physician assistant Kynda Kobbah were discharged from a Liberian treatment center on Saturday after recovering from the virus, according to the World Health Organization. They were given ZMapp -- the experimental drug that's credited with saving the lives of two Americans infected with Ebola. Officials said that early treatment was key to the recovery of the Liberian medical workers. Both indicated that they will return to work soon. The WHO says that they were received by Liberia's president after being discharged. A third person who was infected and treated with ZMapp died last Sunday. The lethal virus has spread to five countries in West Africa -- Liberia, Guinea, Sierra Leone, Nigeria and Senegal -- during this year's outbreak. Senegal confirmed its first case of the virus on Friday, one week after closing its border with Guinea, the Senegalese Press Agency reported. There have been 3,069 probable, confirmed and suspected cases of Ebola in West Africa -- more than 40% of which have occurred within the past three weeks, according to the WHO. Some 1,552 of those have died. CNN's Nima Elbagir reported from Voinjama while Joshua Berlinger reported and wrote in Atlanta. Source:
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| skibboy | 31 Aug 2014, 11:55 PM Post #83 |
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31 August 2014 Widow of Nigeria's sixth Ebola victim also has virus AFP The widow of a doctor who died from Ebola in Nigeria's oil city of Port Harcourt has also tested positive for the virus, the state government said on Sunday. Rivers State health commissioner Sampson Parker said test results showed the woman had the disease, which claimed the life of her husband, Ike Enemuo, on August 22. Enemuo fell ill and died after treating an official from the ECOWAS regional bloc who travelled to Port Harcourt after having contact with a Liberian man who brought the virus into Nigeria. The doctor was the sixth to die from the virus in Nigeria and the first outside Lagos, raising fears about the spread of the haemmorhagic fever just as it was thought to have been contained. Sampson said three patients -- another doctor, a pharmacist and a woman who had contact with Enemuo at the hospital where he died -- had been taken to a specialist treatment centre outside the city. Enemuo's widow was at an isolation unit in Lagos, he added. "They have not been confirmed (as having Ebola) and we are waiting for the result of the investigation," he told a news conference. Some 200 primary and secondary contacts have been traced, although about 60 had yet to be spoken to, he added. None of them had shown symptoms, he said. "We are concentrating on the names we have to capture in our (monitoring) activities but the good news is that we have been making good progress in checking the spread of Ebola," he said. Parker said early detection and treatment was vital, appealing for anyone who had contact with Enemuo, his clinic, the ECOWAS official or the hotel where he stayed to contact them immediately. Of the 15 confirmed cases in Ebola, seven of the patients recovered, the government in Abuja has said. The ECOWAS official is also thought to have recovered. Nigeria is one of five countries in West Africa hit by Ebola, although the majority of the more than 1,500 deaths since the start of the year have been in Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea. Source:
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| skibboy | 1 Sep 2014, 12:13 AM Post #84 |
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31 August 2014 Sweden discovers suspected case of Ebola: official AFP ![]() Health care workers wearing protective suits work at the Elwa hospital, where Ebola patients are treated, on August 30, 2014 in Monrovia, Liberia A suspected case of the Ebola virus has been discovered in the Swedish capital Stockholm, a local official told AFP on Sunday. "So far it's just a suspected case," the official said, without giving more details. The person fell ill after visiting an area known to be hit by the virus and is now being held in isolation, the newspaper Svenska Dagbladet reported on its website. Aake Oertsqvist, a specialist in infection control responsible for the Stockholm area, was quoted as saying the risk of an Ebola outbreak in Sweden was "very low". "The virus is not airborne, but is spread among humans through direct or indirect contact via blood and other fluids," he was quoted as saying. Source:
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| skibboy | 2 Sep 2014, 12:25 AM Post #85 |
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1 September 2014 British Ebola patient 'pretty well' By James Gallagher & Branwen Jeffreys BBC News The parents of the first British person to contract Ebola during the outbreak in West Africa say he is recovering well. William Pooley, 29, has spent the last week in a special isolation unit at Royal Free Hospital in London. His parents, Robin and Jackie, say they knew he was improving when he ordered a "bacon butty" and praised the "world class" care at the hospital. More than 1,500 people have died since the outbreak started in Guinea. Mr Pooley was volunteering as a nurse in Sierra Leone when he was infected. But he did not tell his parents until it was confirmed that he was going to be flown home. His mother, Jackie, said: "We were at our niece's wedding and he phoned, we were out in the grounds and the photos were being taken. "We assumed he'd phoned to wish his cousin every happiness." The phone was passed around family members, but his father, Robin, thought William was sounding "flat" and that there was something wrong. He said: "So fairly soon I rang him back and he told me. At which point the first thing in mind is, 'We can't spoil the day.'" He told his wife later and they made an early exit from the wedding. The flight Mrs Pooley described it as a "very stressful" and anxious time when "all the worst case scenarios" were running through her mind. Initially the family were worried that Mr Pooley would not make it to the plane as he had to travel 160 miles through countless checkpoints to the airport in the capital of Sierra Leone, Freetown. She told the BBC: "It wasn't until the plane had taken off that we breathed a very, very small sigh of relief, we knew he was on his way home." He was flown back to the UK on an RAF plane on Sunday 24 August and taken to the Royal Free Hospital. ![]() Mr Pooley is being treated at a specialist isolation unit at London's Royal Free Hospital He is still being kept in an isolation unit. His family can talk to him through a telephone link and see him "indistinctly" through the layers of glass and the polythene designed to stop the deadly disease spreading. Doctors have treated him with the experimental drug ZMapp. Robin Pooley said: "He's a lot better than we thought he might have been, we've only got what the medics tell us, but he's got a little step in there which the physio gave him so he can rebuild his strength, that in itself is a good enough sign I think, but he seems to be pretty well actually. "And his appetite's back, it came back with a bacon butty one morning for breakfast." The disease is largely contained to Guinea, Liberia, Nigeria, and Sierra Leone where there have been 3,070 cases and 1,552 deaths. The World Health Organization has warned as many as 20,000 people could be infected before the outbreak is over. "He's very aware of what he left behind," said Mrs Pooley. "We're very glad he's here because the care is second to none." The family said they were feeling much "happier now than we did in a week ago" and in the long-term hope he will make a full recovery. But for now they just want him home: "We should be delighted when that day comes." Source:
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| skibboy | 2 Sep 2014, 01:14 AM Post #86 |
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02 September 2014 Nurses go on strike in Ebola-hit Liberia AFP ![]() Women stop to clean their hands with sanitiser before entering the John Fitzgerald Kennedy hospital in Monrovia on September 1, 2014 Nurses at Liberia's largest hospital went on strike on Monday, demanding better pay and equipment to protect them against a deadly Ebola epidemic which has killed hundreds in the west African nation. John Tugbeh, spokesman for the strikers at Monrovia's John F Kennedy hospital, said the nurses would not return to work until they are supplied with "personal protective equipment (PPEs)", the hazmat-style suits which guard against infectious diseases. "From the beginning of the Ebola outbreak we have not had any protective equipment to work with. As result, so many doctors got infected by the virus. We have to stay home until we get the PPEs," he said. The Ebola virus, transmitted through contact with infected bodily fluids, has killed more than 1,500 people in four countries since the start of the year -- almost 700 of them in Liberia. A high proportion of the deaths -- almost a tenth -- have been among health workers and the World Health Organization has warned that the outbreak is set to get a lot worse, predicting up to 20,000 cases before it is brought under control. The surgical section at JFK is the only trauma referral centre in Liberia and a long-term dispute would severely damage the country's capability to respond to the Ebola crisis. The hospital closed temporarily in July over the infections and deaths of an unspecified number of health workers who had been treating Ebola patients. "We need proper equipment to work with (and) we need better pay because we are going to risk our lives," Tueh said. It was not immediately clear how large the striking group was, or what contingency plans were in place at the hospital, which has not made a statement on the action. Source:
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| skibboy | 3 Sep 2014, 12:16 AM Post #87 |
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2 September 2014 Ebola response lethally inadequate, says MSF By James Gallagher Health editor, BBC News website ![]() Nurses helping man with Ebola A global military intervention is needed to curb the largest ever Ebola outbreak, according to the medical charity Medecins Sans Frontieres. In a damning criticism of world leaders, it says the global response has so far been "lethally inadequate". The charity said countries were turning their back on West Africa and merely reducing the risk of Ebola arriving on their shores. More than 1,550 people have died in the outbreak which started in Guinea. At least 3,000 people have been infected with the virus, but the World Health Organization (WHO) has warned that more than 20,000 people are likely to be infected. 'Coalition of inaction' In a speech to the United Nations, the international president of MSF, Dr Joanne Liu, said repeated calls for help had been ignored. She said: "Six months into the worst Ebola epidemic in history, the world is losing the battle to contain it. "Leaders are failing to come to grips with this transnational threat. "The WHO announcement on August 8 that the epidemic constituted a 'public health emergency of international concern' has not led to decisive action, and states have essentially joined a global coalition of inaction." MSF said military and civilian teams capable of dealing with a biological disaster were needed immediately as the spread of Ebola "will not be prevented without a massive deployment". ![]() Healthcare workers visit a village It is calling for more field hospitals with isolation wards to be set up, trained healthcare workers to be sent to the region and air support to move patients and medics across West Africa. Dr Liu added: "States with the required capacity have a political and humanitarian responsibility to come forward and offer a desperately needed, concrete response to the disaster unfolding in front of the world's eyes. "Rather than limit their response to the potential arrival of an infected patient in their countries, they should take the unique opportunity to actually save lives where immediately needed, in West Africa." The charity said that at one site in Monrovia, in Liberia, it had been able to set up an isolation facility with 160 beds, but said they were "overwhelmed" with growing queues and needed an additional 800 beds. In other developments: -31 people have now died from a separate Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo, says the World Health Organization (WHO) -The UN's Food and Agriculture Organization has warned outbreak is putting food harvests in West Africa "at serious risk". -Nurses in Liberia's largest hospital are on strike, refusing to return to work until they are issued with protective equipment -After a Guinean student with Ebola escaped from a clinic in his homeland and took Ebola to Dakar, Senegal's president said if the student were not sick "he would be before the courts" -Ivory Coast's government allows Sierra Leone's football team to play an Africa Nations Cup qualifier in Abidjan despite the travel ban imposed over the Ebola outbreak The MSF criticism echoes earlier remarks from the president of the World Bank, Jim Yong Kim. In a newspaper column he said the outbreak would have been easily contained if it had hit a major Western city. He said the crisis in West Africa was down to a "disastrously inadequate response" from countries with the resources to help. "We need international organisations and wealthy countries that possess the required resources and knowledge to step forward and partner with West African governments to mount a serious, co-ordinated response," he said. Also speaking the the United Nations, the director-general of the World Health Organisation Dr Margaret Chan said: "Ebola has become a global threat which requires urgent global efforts in solidarity with the affected countries. "The outbreak will get worse before it gets better and it requires a well-coordinated big surge and huge scale-up of outbreak response urgently." Source:
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| skibboy | 3 Sep 2014, 02:05 AM Post #88 |
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02 September 2014 Travel restrictions could worsen Ebola crisis: experts AFP ![]() Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) medical staff wearing protective clothing treat the body of an Ebola victim at their facility in Kailahun, on August 14, 2014 Travel restrictions could worsen West Africa's Ebola epidemic, limiting medical and food supplies and keeping out much-needed doctors, virologists said Tuesday as the disease continued its deadly spread. The worst-ever outbreak of the haemorrhagic fever, which has hit Sierra Leone, Liberia, Nigeria and Guinea the hardest, has seen airlines cancel flights and several countries barring people from affected nations. "If we impose an aerial quarantine on these countries, we undermine their fight against the epidemic: the rotation of foreign medical staff and distribution of supplies, already inadequate, will become even more difficult," said Sylvain Baize, head of the Pasteur Institute's viral haemorrhagic fever centre in Lyon, France. This should be weighed against a "very limited" risk of infection for flight crews, given that the virus can only be passed on once symptoms appear and only through physical contact with the body fluids of someone who is ill, he told AFP. The World Health Organisation has appealed for the reversal of flight cancellations to West Africa, where Ebola has killed more than half of the 3,000-plus people it has infected. There is no vaccine or licenced cure. Air France has suspended its service to Freetown, and British Airways its flights to Freetown and Monrovia. Royal Air Morocco is now the only airline providing a regular service to the capitals of Sierra Leone and Liberia, while Brussels Airlines offer an irregular schedule. South Africa has issued a ban on non-citizens travelling from Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone, Saudi Arabia has stopped granting visas to workers from these countries, and several West African neighbours closed their land borders with worst-affected states. "Ebola virus is an infection that, understandably, provokes great fear and apprehension. So perhaps it is not surprising that some states or carriers are imposing travel bans," University of Nottingham virology professor Jonathan Ball told AFP. "However, it's important to get the risk into perspective. Provided that the necessary airport exit and border monitoring takes place (for people displaying symptoms), then the risk of export of Ebola virus is limited. "Even in the rare event of an exported infection, provided countries know how to identify a possible infection, then respond appropriately, the risk of wider infection...is low." The current outbreak, the biggest since Ebola was first identified in the former Zaire in 1976, was detected in Guinea in March, from where it spread to Liberia, Sierra Leone, Nigeria and most recently Senegal. An outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo is believed to be unrelated the West African epidemic. - Don't close your eyes - Experts say the focus should be on helping affected countries contain the virus, and preparing themselves to deal with any cases that may arrive. The best approach is to try and contain the epidemic by isolating as many infected people as quickly as possible and tracking down and monitoring everyone they had been in contact with. "Closing the borders is like closing your eyes," said Michael Kinzer of the US-based Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), who led a recent surveillance and advisory Ebola mission to Guinea. "It makes more sense for countries to spend their money and energy on preparing their health systems to recognise an Ebola case and respond correctly... so that the virus does not spread." Liberia and Sierra Leone were in special need of assistance, added Baize. With not enough hospital beds available to isolate patients, the virus remain out there, passing from person to person. "There are not enough teams on the ground to go out searching for patients in the furthest corners of villages and towns," he said. On Tuesday, the UN's Food and Agriculture Organization warned of "grave food security concerns" through the disruption of cross-border trade. Source:
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| skibboy | 4 Sep 2014, 12:03 AM Post #89 |
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3 September 2014 Ebola death toll passes 1,900, says WHO ![]() The outbreak has brought cases to five countries in West Africa The World Health Organisation (WHO) says more than 1,900 people have now died in West Africa's Ebola outbreak. WHO head Margaret Chan said there were 3,500 confirmed or probable cases in Guinea, Sierra Leone and Liberia. "The outbreaks are racing ahead of the control efforts in these countries," she said. On Thursday the WHO is holding a meeting to examine the most promising treatments and to discuss how to fast track their testing and production. Disease control experts, medical researchers, officials from affected countries, and specialists in medical ethics will all be represented at the meeting in Geneva. The WHO has previously warned that more than 20,000 people could be infected before the outbreak of the virus is brought under control. Ms Chan described the outbreak as "the largest and most severe and most complex we have ever seen". "No one, even outbreak responders with experience dating back to 1976, to 1995, people that were directly involved with those outbreaks, none of them have ever seen anything like it," she said. Forty per cent of the deaths have occurred in three weeks leading up to 3 September, the WHO says. ![]() Medical charities have called for the international response to the outbreak to be stepped up 'Losing the battle' On Wednesday Nigeria reported two further cases in the city of Port Harcourt. There had previously only been one case outside the city of Lagos, where five people have died from the virus. "The outbreak of Ebola virus disease in Port Harcourt has the potential to grow larger and spread faster than the one in Lagos," the WHO warned. Also on Wednesday, the first British person to contract Ebola during the outbreak was discharged from hospital after making a full recovery. On Tuesday medical charity Medecins Sans Frontieres warned that a global military intervention was needed to combat the outbreak. MSF condemned the global response so far as "lethally inadequate" and said the world was "losing the battle" to contain the outbreak. It has called for military and civilian teams capable of dealing with a biological disaster to be deployed immediately, as well as for more field hospitals with isolation wards to be set up, trained healthcare workers to be sent to the region and air support to move patients and medics across West Africa. Source:
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| skibboy | 4 Sep 2014, 12:46 AM Post #90 |
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3 September 2014 British Ebola patient discharged By James Gallagher Health editor, BBC News website The first British person to contract Ebola during the outbreak in West Africa has been discharged from hospital after making a full recovery. William Pooley, 29, has been treated in a special isolation unit at the Royal Free Hospital in London. Mr Pooley was given the experimental drug ZMapp and has praised the "world class" care at the hospital. About half of the 3,000 people infected in the outbreak, which started in Guinea, have died. The pace of the outbreak has been accelerating with more than 40% of cases in the past three weeks. Mr Pooley was working as a volunteer nurse in one of the worst affected countries, Sierra Leone, when he contracted the virus. He is unsure when he became infected, but started feeling sick and needed a blood test. He recalled the moment his fears were confirmed: "I was woken early that evening by one of the World Health Organization doctors and immediately I knew it was bad news. "I was worried that I was going to die, I was worried about my family and I was scared." 'Very lucky' ![]() Mr Pooley has been treated at a specialist isolation unit at London's Royal Free Hospital He was flown back to the UK by the RAF on Sunday 24 August. Mr Pooley was in the earlier stages of the disease. He had a high temperature but was not bleeding. He said: "I was very lucky in several ways; firstly in the standard of care I received, which is a world apart from what people are receiving in West Africa at the moment. "And my symptoms never progressed to the worst stage of the disease, I've seen people dying horrible deaths, I had some unpleasant symptoms, but nothing compared to the worst of the disease." He was treated with the experimental Ebola drug ZMapp, a 12-hour infusion of antibodies, that has been given to only six other patients. It is not clear if the infusion helped, but levels of the virus in his bloodstream did fall significantly after the treatment. Dr Michael Jacobs, an infectious diseases consultant at the hospital, said: "He is not infectious to anyone else now. The virus is cleared from the body, and there is no risk to the wider community in any way." He said the isolation unit Mr Pooley had been kept in was going through chemical decontamination. "This unit is always there, it's business-as-usual for us, we were prepared for this to happen and we're prepared if it happens again." Heroes The global response to the disease has been "lethally inadequate", according to the charity Medecins Sans Frontieres. Estimates suggest up to 20,000 people will be infected during this outbreak. Mr Pooley praised the efforts of other people working on the ground. "It's just heroic what they're doing, they know what might be facing them," he said. "In the face of quite likely a horrible death, they're continuing to work all day, every day helping sick people, it's amazing." He said it had felt "natural" to go and help in West Africa, that he had no regrets and was "more committed than ever to nursing". Mr Pooley is heading back to Eyke in Suffolk with his family this afternoon. "They incinerated my passport, so my mum will be pleased to know I can't go anywhere," he added. Source:
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| skibboy | 6 Sep 2014, 12:06 AM Post #91 |
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5 September 2014 Use Ebola survivors' blood - WHO By James Gallagher Health editor, BBC News website ![]() Blood from people who had Ebola could be used as a treatment The blood of patients who recover from Ebola should be used to treat others, the World Health Organization has announced. West Africa is facing the largest Ebola outbreak in history and more than 2,000 people have died. A global group of experts have been meeting to assess the experimental therapies that could contain Ebola. The WHO also announced that Ebola vaccines could be used on the frontline by November. Blood medicine People produce antibodies in the blood in an attempt to fight off an Ebola infection. In theory, those antibodies can be transferred from a survivor into a sick patient to give their immune system a boost. However, large scale data on the effectiveness of the therapy is lacking. Studies on the 1995 outbreak of Ebola in Democratic Republic of Congo showed seven out of eight people survived after being given the therapy. __________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ Ebola casualties Up to 5 September 2,105 Ebola deaths - probable, confirmed and suspected 1,089 Liberia 517 Guinea 491 Sierra Leone 8 Nigeria Source: WHO __________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ Dr Marie Paule Kieny, an assistant director general at WHO said: "We agreed that whole blood therapies may be used to treat Ebola virus and all efforts must be invested to help infected countries to use them. "There is a real opportunity that a blood-derived product can be used now and this can be very effective in terms of treating patients." She said that it was the one positive aspect of so many people being infected. "There are also many people now who have survived and are doing well. They can provide blood to treat the other people who are sick." Vaccines There is no clinically proven drug or vaccine to treat Ebola, but many are in the experimental stage. Around 150 experts have spent the last two days investigating how to fast-track promising experimental drugs to make them available in West Africa as soon as possible. Ebola vaccine trials started in the US this week and will be extended to centres in the UK, Mali and Gambia in the coming weeks. ![]() The first person to take part in a vaccine trial was a 39-year-old in the US The WHO said safety data would be ready by November 2014 and, if it proved safe, would be used in West Africa immediately. Healthcare workers and other frontline staff would be prioritised for vaccination, the WHO said. Experimental drugs - such as ZMapp, which has been used in seven patients including a British volunteer nurse - were also assessed. However, the supplies of all the experimental drugs are very limited, if not exhausted. The WHO said efforts were underway to increase production, but it would take several months. Dr Jesse Goodman, from Georgetown University Medical Center in the US, took part in the meeting. He said: "This is a unique opportunity to identify what new treatments and vaccines can really help people and then potentially accelerate their use. "We don't want to end up after this outbreak not knowing how best to prevent or treat the next one." Yet the WHO warned that all the talk of experimental therapies must not detract from the proven methods of infection control which have defeated all previous outbreaks. Meanwhile, officials in Nigeria have decided to reopen schools in the country from 22 September. They were closed as a precaution to prevent the spread of the virus. Source:
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| skibboy | 6 Sep 2014, 12:53 AM Post #92 |
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5 September 2014 Third American with Ebola arrives for treatment in Nebraska ![]() Dr Richard Sacra was not treating Ebola patients A US aid worker infected with Ebola in Liberia has arrived in Nebraska for treatment in an isolation unit. Dr Rick Sacra, 51, a family doctor from Massachusetts, worked at the same hospital as the two other infected Americans, who are now recovering. One of them, Nancy Writebol, said resources at the hospital were insufficient to protect workers. The outbreak has killed more than 1,900 people and infected at least 3,500 in five West African countries. There have been 3,500 confirmed or probable cases in Guinea, Sierra Leone and Liberia. "The outbreaks are racing ahead of the control efforts in these countries," WHO chief Margaret Chan said. ![]() Nancy Writebol was flown to the US for treatment after being infected with Ebola in Liberia Nancy Writebol, who was flown to Atlanta for treatment last month, told the Associated Press news agency charities alone cannot handle the response to the disease. Mrs Writebol and her husband David said about 250 employees at the hospital where she and Dr Sacra worked used thousands of disposable protective suits each week, but it was not enough to protect those doing the initial screenings for Ebola in an emergency room. "We don't have enough personal protective safety equipment to adequately be able to safely diagnose if a patient has Ebola," David Writebol said, adding Ebola has "overwhelmed the supply chain". Nurses in Liberia's largest hospital are on strike, refusing to return to work until they are issued with protective equipment. Dr Sacra, 51, was not treating those infected with Ebola, but delivering babies and treating other patients. He had flown to Liberia shortly after Mrs Writebol and another aid worker were infected. His plane landed early on Friday morning at a Nebraska Air Force base, arriving at hospital 40 minutes later by ambulance. He will be treated at a 10-bed special isolation unit at the Nebraska Medical Center in Omaha, the largest of four such units in the US. ![]() A health worker sprays disinfectants on a man suspected of dying of Ebola in Liberia Dr Sacra went into isolation after his temperature rose, but was well enough on Wednesday to be sending emails, a spokesperson for his aid organisation, SIM, said. Doctors at the Nebraska hospital said he was able to board the plane to the US under his own power. Ebola is only spread through close contact but there is no cure for the infection. The fatality rate for this outbreak has been almost 50%, according to the World Health Organization (WHO). The director of the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has called for the international community to step up its response, specifically a $490m (£298m) appeal from the WHO. The US Agency for International Development (USAID) which has directed the US response, has airlifted medical emergency supplies, including chlorine and gloves, to Liberia. "The window of opportunity to stop Ebola from spreading widely throughout Africa and becoming a global threat for years to come is closing, but it is not yet closed," Dr Tom Frieden, who recently returned from West Africa, said in a statement "If the world takes the immediate steps - which are direct requests from the frontlines of the outbreak and the presidents of each country - we can still turn this around." His comments echo similar criticism by medical charity Medecins Sans Frontieres, who have said world leaders' response has been "lethally inadequate". Source:
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| skibboy | 6 Sep 2014, 11:21 PM Post #93 |
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6 September 2014 Sierra Leone's Ebola lockdown will not help, says MSF ![]() Analysts say enforcing the lockdown in crowded areas will be difficult A three-day lockdown announced by Sierra Leone to combat Ebola will not help contain the virus, medical charity Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) says. The charity said a lockdown would force people underground, destroy trust between doctors and the public and ultimately help spread the disease. Sierra Leone officials say the measure, due to begin on 19 September, will let health workers isolate new cases. About 2,100 people in Sierra Leone, Liberia and Guinea have so far died. MSF, whose staff are helping to tackle the outbreak, said in a statement that quarantines and lockdowns "end up driving people underground and jeopardising the trust between people and health providers". "This leads to the concealment of potential cases and ends up spreading the disease further," the group said. __________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ Umaru Fofana, BBC News, Freetown Information Minister Alpha Kanu admits the lockdown is an extraordinary measure that will cause huge inconvenience, but he says it is needed to stem the spread of a disease which has killed over about 500 of his people. Despite criticism from MSF, Mr Kanu insists that the measure "will minimise the spread of the virus", and he is urging people to stock up on food, telling them: "We did it during the war." Never since the rebel invasion of Freetown in 1999 have I seen fear on the faces of people like in recent times. Even so, many people feel three days is too long to be asked to stay indoors. Many others feel three days is too short to achieve the government's aim of restricting the virus. __________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ ![]() Ebola has caused widespread fear in Freetown Sierra Leonean officials earlier said more than 20,000 people would be deployed to make sure residents stayed indoors. Health ministry spokesman Sidie Yahya Tunis told the BBC he did not expect the public to object. "You follow or else you'll be breaking the law. If you disobey then you are disobeying the president," he said. The BBC's West Africa correspondent Thomas Fessy says the Sierra Leone population's willingness to obey will be key for the plan to succeed. A forcible implementation is likely to raise human rights issues and could potentially spark violent demonstrations, he says. Last month, Liberia sealed off a large slum in the capital, Monrovia, for more than a week in an attempt to contain the virus. The disease infects humans through close contact with infected animals, including chimpanzees, fruit bats and forest antelope. It then spreads between humans by direct contact with infected blood, bodily fluids or organs, or indirectly through contact with contaminated environments. Officials in Nigeria have meanwhile decided to reopen schools in the country from 22 September. They were closed as a precaution to prevent the spread of the virus. Source:
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| skibboy | 7 Sep 2014, 12:21 AM Post #94 |
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06 September 2014 DR Congo Ebola death toll climbs to 32 AFP ![]() The Democratic Republic of Congo upped its death toll from Ebola to 32 but insisted the outbreak, separate from an epidemic raging in west Africa, could be contained in its remote forest hotspot "We have registered 32 deaths," one up from a toll issued on Tuesday, Health Minister Felix Kabange Numbi told a press conference. Kabange tallied 59 likely or confirmed cases of the tropical fever, saying the "big challenge" was to survey suspicious cases in order to staunch the contagion. Three hundred and thirty-six people have had contact with Ebola sufferers or the bodies of victims, up from 285 on Tuesday, he said. The DRC has given itself 45 days to break the transmission train of the virus, which can spread by contact with bodily fluids and has killed more than 2,000 people in four West African nations this year. But Kabange said the outbreak in DRC -- where Ebola was first discovered in 1976 near the river of the same name in what was then Zaire -- "remains contained". He recently returned from a trip to the affected region, near the city of Boende some 800 kilometres (500 miles) northwest of Kinshasa in Equateur province. Authorities have implemented "protected burials" for any funeral, irrespective of whether the victim died from Ebola, in the 23 villages affected by the outbreak, he said. While the outbreak is located far from urban centres in the heart of dense equatorial forest, reducing the risk of contagion, its remoteness has made aid delivery a particular challenge. Decades of neglect have devastated road and rail infrastructure, also hampering efforts to quarantine patients. Kabange said aid groups had established "an air drop in order to deliver medical supplies". Last week, the UN announced it had released $1.5 million (1.3 million euros) to help the government in Kinshasa combat the outbreak, with the prospect of doubling that sum. Source:
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| skibboy | 9 Sep 2014, 12:29 AM Post #95 |
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8 September 2014 Ebola crisis: Liberia 'faces huge surge' says WHO ![]() Ebola treatment facilities in Liberia are overflowing with patients, the WHO says Ebola is spreading exponentially in Liberia, with thousands of new cases expected in the next three weeks, the World Health Organization (WHO) says. Conventional methods to control the outbreak were "not having an adequate impact", the UN's health agency added. At least 2,100 people infected with Ebola have died so far in the West African states of Guinea, Liberia, Sierra Leone and Nigeria this year. The WHO says 79 health workers have been killed by the virus. Organisations combating the outbreak needed to scale-up efforts "three-to-four fold", the WHO said. It highlighted Liberia's Montserrado county, where 1,000 beds were needed for infected Ebola patients but only 240 were available, leading to people being turned away from treatment centres. Transmission of the virus in Liberia was "already intense", and taxis being used to transport infected patients appeared to be "a hot source of potential virus transmission", the WHO said. "As soon as a new Ebola treatment facility is opened, it immediately fills to overflowing with patients, pointing to a large but previously invisible caseload," it added. "When patients are turned away... they have no choice but to return to their communities and homes, where they inevitably infect others." The international response to the crisis has been stepped up, with the UK and US both promising to open new treatment centres in West Africa. The British military said it would build a 50-bed centre near Freetown, the capital of Sierra Leone, while the US announced that it would send a 25-bed field hospital to Liberia at a cost of $22 million. __________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ Analysis: James Gallagher, BBC health editor ![]() Three countries - Guinea, Sierra Leone and Liberia - are at the heart of the Ebola outbreak, but Liberia is suffering the most by far. Why this is the case is not completely understood. Finding the answer will be a critical part of tackling the outbreak. Variations in burial practice - which can include touching the body and eating a meal near it - are being investigated. There are also questions about trust in the authorities and how the risk of Ebola is being communicated. Riots erupted in the West Point slum, with some reports suggesting protesters believed Ebola was a hoax. Another aspect is the state of the healthcare system, which was left in ruin by the civil war. Liberia had one doctor per 100,000 people before Ebola killed several staff. The response has also been lacking. In the capital Monrovia there are 240 beds, but experts say they need more than 1,000. Patients without a bed have no choice but to go back home, where they may spread the virus. __________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ The Ebola disease spreads between humans by direct contact with infected blood, bodily fluids or organs, or indirectly through contact with contaminated environments. Conventional means of controlling the outbreak, which include avoiding close physical contact with those infected and wearing personal protective equipment, were not working well in Liberia, the WHO said. ![]() A street artist paints a mural informing people of the symptoms of Ebola in the Liberian capital Monrovia However, they appeared to be more effective in "areas of limited transmission" such as Nigeria and Senegal, it added. Local communities, especially those in rural areas, had been able to slow the transmission when they put in place their own protective measures, the WHO statement said. 'Economic impact' Also on Monday, the African Union urged its member states to lift travel bans imposed to contain the virus, saying that the bans could hurt the region's economy. "We must be careful not to introduce measures that may have more... social and economic impact than the disease itself," commission chief Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma said in quotes carried by AFP news agency. The current outbreak has mortality rate of about 55%. Liberia has the highest number of reported cases and deaths, with more than 1,000 casualties so far. Hundreds have also died of the virus in Guinea and Sierra Leone. There have been at least eight deaths in Nigeria. One case has also been confirmed in Senegal but there have been no deaths so far. ![]() Source:
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| skibboy | 9 Sep 2014, 02:10 AM Post #96 |
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08 September 2014 Sierra Leone to visit every home to track down Ebola dead AFP ![]() A Medecines san Frontieres medical worker feeds a child with the Ebola virus at a facility in Kailahun, Sierra Leone, on August 15, 2014 Sierra Leone announced plans on Monday to visit every home in the country of six million to track down people with Ebola and remove dead bodies. More than 20,000 volunteers will go door-to-door as part of a three-day curfew announced on Saturday, Steven Ngaoja, the head of the country's Ebola Emergency Operations Centre, told a news conference in Freetown. "From September 19 to 21, every household in the country will be visited. About 21,400 trained volunteers will be involved in the house-to-house sensitisation activity," Ngaoja said. "Likely Ebola cases will be identified or dead bodies will be referred to contact tracing, referral or burial teams." The worst-ever outbreak of Ebola has claimed 491 lives in Sierra Leone, one of three countries at the epicentre of the epidemic which has so far killed more than 2,000 people. The government said on Saturday pedestrians and vehicles would be barred from the streets, except on essential business, for 72 hours starting from September 19 "to ensure that the dreaded disease is checked". Ngaoja told reporters President Ernest Bai Koroma would address the nation on September 18, officially declaring a "sit-at-home three days for family reflection, prayers and education while families will be visited by campaign teams". "We have no choice but to go into it with great commitment and determination," Koroma said in a nationwide address broadcast on Monday. "We must make sure that we put Ebola behind us. We have to prepare the minds of our people that making a sacrifice for three days and living for another 20 or more years is better than not making the sacrifice and you die within 21 days." He recorded the speech at a weekend meeting of cabinet ministers and other politicians, aid agencies including Medecines san Frontieres (MSF) and the UN's World Health Organization (WHO). The announcement of the curfew has proved controversial, with MSF claiming it would not halt the spread of Ebola and could actually make things worse as more cases are driven underground. The WHO has said it is hopeful a vaccine could be available for health workers to use by November. Source:
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| skibboy | 9 Sep 2014, 11:33 PM Post #97 |
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9 September 2014 Ebola outbreak 'threatens Liberia's national existence' ![]() More than 1,000 people have already died from the virus in Liberia alone Liberia is facing a "serious threat" to its national existence as the deadly Ebola virus "spreads like wildfire" there, its defence minister says. Brownie Samukai told the UN Security Council that the international response to the crisis was "less than robust". The World Health Organization (WHO) has warned that thousands more cases could occur in Liberia, which has been worst hit by the West Africa outbreak. Some 2,288 people have died from Ebola in Liberia, Guinea and Sierra Leone. The WHO says half of these deaths occurred in the three weeks running up to 6 September. In Nigeria, eight people have died out of a total 21 cases, while one case has been confirmed in Senegal, with no deaths. Infected health workers Liberia's defence minister warned on Tuesday that the country's weak health system was already overwhelmed by the number of cases. Mr Samukai told UN Security Council members that Liberia lacked "infrastructure, logistical capacity, professional expertise and financial resources to effectively address this disease". ![]() The WHO has appealed to health agencies to scale up efforts to combat the world's worst Ebola outbreak "The deadly Ebola virus has caused a disruption of the normal functioning of our state," he said. Separately on Tuesday, the UN's envoy in Liberia said that at least 160 Liberian health workers had contracted the disease and half of them had died. Karin Landgren described the outbreak as a "latter-day plague" that was growing exponentially. She added that health workers were operating without proper protective equipment, training or pay, in comments to the UN Security Council. "Liberians are facing their gravest threat since their war," Ms Landgren said. "I don't think anybody can say right now that the international response to the Ebola outbreak is sufficient," US ambassador to the UN Samantha Power said after the Security Council briefing. 'Insufficient response' Ebola spreads between humans by direct contact with infected blood, bodily fluids or organs, or indirectly through contact with contaminated environments. Unlike other West African nations affected by the outbreak, efforts to contain the virus in Liberia were not working well, the WHO has said. The reason for this remains unclear; however, experts say it could be linked to burial practices, which can include touching the body and eating a meal near it. ![]() A fourth US aid worker has contracted the virus and is receiving treatment at Emory University hospital There are also not enough beds to treat Ebola patients, particularly in the capital Monrovia, with many people told to go back home, where they may spread the virus. The WHO is calling on organisations combating the outbreak in Liberia to scale up efforts "three-to-four fold" to control the outbreak. The US says it will help the African Union mobilise 100 African health workers to the region and contribute an additional $10m (£6.2m) in funds to deal with the outbreak. The announcement comes as a fourth US aid worker infected with the deadly virus was transported to a hospital in Atlanta for treatment. The identity of the aid worker has not yet been revealed. Two other aid workers who were treated at the same hospital have since recovered from an Ebola infection. UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon says he will hold a meeting on the international response to the Ebola crisis on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly this month. Source:
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| skibboy | 10 Sep 2014, 12:59 AM Post #98 |
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09 September 2014 Ebola has killed 2,288, nearly half in past 21 days: WHO AFP ![]() A Medecines sans Frontieres medical worker feeds a child with the Ebola virus at a facility in Kailahun, eastern Sierra Leone, on August 15, 2014 The Ebola epidemic in west Africa has claimed 2,288 lives, the World Health Organization said Tuesday, stressing that nearly half had died in less than a month. As of September 6, 2,288 people had died in Guinea, Sierra Leone and Libera out of 4,269 cases, the UN's health agency said, pointing out that 47 percent of the deaths and 49 percent of the cases had come in the prior 21 days. Another eight people have died in Nigeria out of 21 cases, while one case of Ebola has been confirmed in Senegal, WHO said. Source:
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| skibboy | 10 Sep 2014, 11:35 PM Post #99 |
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10 September 2014 New money added to emergency response to Ebola outbreak By Jane Dreaper Health correspondent, BBC News ![]() Health agencies have warned of an exponential surge in the number of Ebola cases in Liberia More money has been announced to help the emergency response to the Ebola outbreak in West Africa. The Gates Foundation is committing $50m to help step up efforts to tackle the deadly virus in the affected countries. This comes on top of other funds announced by the UK and US governments, as well as the European Union. But some aid charities say that the most urgent need in Africa is for expert teams in bio-hazard containment. The Gates Foundation - set up by the Microsoft founder Bill Gates and his wife Melinda - says it will immediately release "flexible funds" to United Nations agencies and other organisations involved in the work against Ebola, so they can buy badly needed supplies. And it says it will work with partners to speed up the development of drugs and vaccines against the virus, which has claimed almost 2,300 lives so far. Nearly half of the deaths have been in Liberia. The country's defence minister has said it is facing a threat to its national existence. And Sierra Leone's finance minister said the Ebola crisis had devastated the economy. The CEO of the Gates Foundation, Sue Desmond-Hellmann, said: "We are working urgently with our partners to identify the most effective ways to help them save lives now. "We also want to accelerate the development of treatments, vaccines and diagnostics that can help end this epidemic and prevent future outbreaks." Wednesday's announcement is the latest financial commitment from international donors. 'Lethally inadequate' Britain has already committed support worth $40m. Earlier this week, the UK's Department for International Development said it would set up a 62-bed medical treatment centre in Sierra Leone, to open within eight weeks. The European Union has announced funding worth $180m to help the governments in West Africa strengthen their health services - and to help local people by securing food and water supplies. The US government has spent more than $100m in response to the outbreak. This includes funding for more than 100 extra African health workers to help run treatment units in Liberia, Guinea, Sierra Leone and Nigeria. But the medical charity Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) has warned about a "lethally inadequate" international response, saying disaster response teams needed to be dispatched in collaboration with the affected African countries. Its international president, Dr Joanne Liu, said last week: "While funding announcements, roadmaps, and finding vaccines and treatments are welcome, they will not stop the epidemic today. "It is imperative that states immediately deploy civilian and military assets with expertise in biohazard containment." According to the latest figures from the World Health Organization, there have been more than 4,000 cases in Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone. In Nigeria, there have been 21 cases and 8 deaths. In Senegal, one case has been confirmed. An official in Senegal said on Wednesday that the 21-year-old student who arrived from neighbouring Guinea last month had recovered. Source:
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| skibboy | 12 Sep 2014, 01:02 AM Post #100 |
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Ebola survivor donates blood to infected American By Jen Christensen, CNN September 11, 2014 ![]() New Ebola vaccine being tested (CNN) -- Dr. Rick Sacra and Dr. Kent Brantly were both infected with Ebola while working in Liberia with the aid organization Serving in Mission. Both were evacuated back to the United States for care. But the two doctors also have another thing in common: They have the same blood type. That little fact could be life-saving for Sacra. Brantly, who tested negative for the deadly virus after several weeks of treatment, recently flew to Nebraska where Sacra is in isolation and donated his blood. Doctors treated Sacra with this plasma on at least two occasions. Doctors believe Brantly has antibodies that Sacra lacks, but his immune system needs to help him fight the deadly virus. "They are so similar it didn't surprise me that they were the same blood type," said his Sacra's spouse, Debbie Sacra. Sacra's doctors at the University of Nebraska Medical Center in Omaha said their patient is improving every day. "We were down to the last shot and it worked out great," Dr. Phil Smith said at a press conference Thursday about finding a blood match. "We were hoping to jump start his immunity." At this point, doctors don't feel like Sacra will relapse, but they've been cautious about predicting success. Doctors in Africa told them there is typically a "honeymoon period" for patients after which they often get dramatically worse. Sacra, however, has gotten better daily. Dr. Angela Hewlett said his condition has been moved up to "good" from "stable." In addition to the blood transfusion, doctors are giving Sacra aggressive supportive care to help his immune system fight the virus, including electrolytes and IV fluids. The Nebraska doctors have also given Sacra an experimental drug that they will not name. He has received it every day, and his doctors say they believe it is helping. The American patients at Emory University Hospital in Atlanta -- Brantly and Nancy Writebol -- were given an experimental drug called ZMapp, which was developed by the biotech firm Mapp Biopharmaceutical Inc. The drug had shown promise in small experiments with monkeys, but had not been given to humans until doctors tried it in the Emory patients. Doctors there credit the drug with playing a role in their patients' successful recoveries, but the company has said there are no more doses of the drug available. It's possible Sacra has received another experimental drug that's in production called TKM-Ebola. Nebraska doctors think the current treatment has helped Sacra's condition significantly. The first day, Smith said, was "pretty rocky." Sacra's spouse said he had to be sedated on the flight over. On the second day of treatment he was already showing signs of improvement, even with some "abnormalities in his organ systems." On the third day Smith told his colleagues that he liked "the way this is going." His doctors still want Sacra to eat more. Debbie Sacra said he is still weak. On Wednesday the hospital put an exercise bike in his room that he rode for 10 minutes before tiring out. Sacra used to ride 15 to 35 miles in one day, at least a few times a week. Because doctors still know so little about how to defeat the Ebola virus, Smith said Sacra, as a physician, has been a particularly helpful patient. He has been able to give detailed reports about his symptoms. Debbie Sacra said the CDC has told her that they are still trying to find out how her husband got sick in the first place. He was in Liberia treating patients in an obstetrics clinic in Monrovia, not working directly with Ebola patients. The CDC believe it happened during an emergency at the hospital, Sacra said. So far, no one else at Sacra's clinic has gotten sick. Sacra has done missionary health work for the past 25 years. He had flown to Monrovia in August after learning his colleagues from SIM had gotten sick. Sacra worried Ebola would cause a "domino effect" on the already vulnerable Liberian health care system and that people with common ailments wouldn't get help. When Sacra arrived in Monrovia, that's exactly what he found. His spouse said there wasn't a single pair of latex gloves to buy in the entire city. Without protective equipment, medical clinics shut down. She says Sacra drove from hardware store to hardware store looking for boots to protect his staff. When he was finally able to open the clinic, for some it was too late. She says dozens of pregnant women who needed Cesarean sections turned up at the clinic after having failed to find help anywhere else in the city. By the time these women arrived at Sacra's clinic "only the mothers' lives could be saved." Thankful for the support, but also a little embarrassed by the all the attention, Sacra and his spouse asked that Americans remember people are struggling with Ebola in Africa too. "He wants you to share his burden for the people of Liberia and West Africa," Debbie Sacra said. "Every day and every week that we don't do what we can to stop Ebola in West Africa, we are risking the possibility that it will not stay in West Africa." Source:
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3:24 PM Jul 11