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 (2,803 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

Nurse describes Ebola quarantine ordeal: 'I was in shock. Now I'm angry'

By Elizabeth Cohen, Leslie Holland and Josh Levs, CNN
October 26, 2014

Posted Image
Quarantined nurse slams new policy

(CNN) -- Kaci Hickox, a nurse placed under mandatory quarantine in New Jersey, went on CNN on Sunday and criticized the "knee-jerk reaction by politicians" to Ebola, saying "to quarantine someone without a better plan in place, without more forethought, is just preposterous."

Hickox, an epidemiologist who was working to help treat Ebola patients in Sierra Leone, has tested negative twice for Ebola and does not have symptoms, she said.

"This is an extreme that is really unacceptable, and I feel like my basic human rights have been violated," Hickox told CNN's Candy Crowley on "State of the Union."

She described herself as "physically strong" but "emotionally exhausted."

"To put me through this emotional and physical stress is completely unacceptable," she said.

She slammed New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie for describing her as "obviously ill."

"First of all, I don't think he's a doctor; secondly, he's never laid eyes on me; and thirdly, I've been asymptomatic since I've been here," Hickox told Crowley Sunday.

In a separate interview with CNN Senior Medical Correspondent Elizabeth Cohen, Hickox elaborated on what she thought of Christie's assessment of her medical condition.

"I'm sorry, but that's just a completely unacceptable statement in my opinion. For (Christie) -- a politician who's trusted and respected -- to make a statement that's categorically not true is just unacceptable and appalling."

Hickox told Crowley that mandatory quarantine is "not a sound public health decision" and that public health officials -- not politicians -- should be making the policies related to Ebola and public safety.

"For the first 12 hours, I was in shock. Now I'm angry," she added.

On Sunday afternoon, Norman Siegel, Hickox's attorney, told CNN that he will be filing papers in court for Hickox to have a hearing no later than five days from the start of her confinement.

Siegel, a New York lawyer and former director of the New York Civil Liberties Union, said Hickox's quarantine is based on fear.

"People are panicking, and people are scared," he said.

In a Sunday evening news conference, New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio commented briefly on Hickox's case, saying that "what happened to her was inappropriate."

"This hero was treated with disrespect and was not given a clear direction."

"We owe her better than that, and all the people who do this work, better than that," he added.

'To put me in prison is just inhumane'

Hickox arrived in Newark Liberty Airport on Friday afternoon and after a seven-hour wait at the hospital.

She was put in an isolation tent inside University Hospital in Newark.

She's twice tested negative for Ebola, including a test at the Centers for Disease Control in Atlanta.

Hickox says she has asked repeatedly but hasn't been told how long she'll be held at the hospital.

"To put me in prison," she said, "is just inhumane."

On Fox News Sunday morning, Christie said he had "no second thoughts" about New Jersey's mandatory quarantine for health care workers.

"I believe that folks who want to take that step and are willing to volunteer also understand that it's in their interest and the public health interest to have a 21-day period thereafter if they've been directly exposed to people with the virus," he said.

Christie also told "Fox News Sunday" that a voluntary system of quarantine isn't reliable.

"I don't believe that when you're dealing with a serious situation like this that we can count on a voluntary system; this is the government's job."

At a news conference Saturday, the governor said, "I'm sorry if in any way she was inconvenienced, but inconvenience that could occur from having folks that are symptomatic and ill out amongst the public is a much, much greater concern of mine. I hope she recovers quickly."

Hickox said she has nothing to recover from.

Her temperature is normal, and she feels fine.

"Everyone keeps asking how I'm feeling physically and of course I'm fine physically, but I don't think most people understand what it's like to be alone in a tent and decisions are being made that don't make sense and show no compassion," Hickox said, starting to cry.

"I just feel like fear is winning right now, and when fear wins, everyone loses."

Her life in quarantine

She's not allowed to have her luggage and was given paper scrubs to wear.

Hickox said she has no shower, no flushable toilet and the hospital gave her no television or any reading material.

Mostly, she says, she stares at the walls.

On Sunday afternoon, the hospital issued an update saying "the patient has computer access, use of her cell phone, reading material (magazines, newspaper) and requested and has received take-out food and drink."

Hickox said she's not allowed to see her lawyer or anyone else.

"The tent has a window, and doctors talk to me in normal clothes from outside the window," she says. "So if there's no risk to them talking to me from outside the window, it doesn't make any sense that my lawyer wouldn't be able to do the same."

A spokeswoman for the hospital said staff is trying to make Hickox comfortable.

"While we understand that the required quarantine is an inconvenience, it is our primary goal to make sure the patient is as comfortable as possible. We have given our prompt attention to provide the patient with basic needs and to accommodate additional requests made by the patient," said Stacie Newton, spokesperson for University Hospital in Newark.

Hickox said she worries that her experience will discourage other aid workers from going to West Africa to help quell the Ebola outbreak.

Hickox said she would welcome Christie to visit her in the hospital.

"Maybe he could tell me what 'obviously ill' means. That would be great," she said.

She added that she doesn't regret her trip to help Ebola patients in Africa.

"Someone asked me earlier would I do this again if I knew what would happen, and my answer is categorically yes," she said. "I feel incredibly privileged to be able to do this work."

After hearing Hickox's phone interview with Candy Crowley on Sunday, New Jersey Health officials emailed CNN's "State of the Union" to refute some of the claims made by Hickox.

In the email, Donna Leusner, communications director for the New Jersey Department of Health, wrote that Hickox did receive reading materials and got computer access.

Leusner also wrote that "the patient was given a copy of the quarantine order on Friday and is receiving regular updated information."

CNN's Chelsea J. Carter and Kristina Sgueglia contributed to this report.

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

26 October 2014

Concerns mount over US Ebola quarantine

Posted Image
© AFP/File / by Naomi Seck | Police set up a barrier in front of The Gutter bowling alley, where Craig Spencer visited before being quartantined, in Brooklyn, New York, on October 24, 2014

WASHINGTON (AFP) - A controversial decision to impose Ebola quarantines in three US states sparked criticism Sunday it will discourage badly needed health workers from volunteering in the crisis in West Africa.

More than 4,900 people have died in the worst ever outbreak of the hemorrhagic virus, most in Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone.

Strict new rules in New York, New Jersey and Illinois requires a three-week quarantine for anyone exposed to the disease, because symptoms can develop any time within that period after exposure.

But health authorities say this measure is unnecessarily strict and could be counterproductive.

"The best way to protect us is to stop (the outbreak) in Africa, and one of the best ways to stop it in Africa is to get health workers who are going there and helping them with their problem," National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases director Anthony Fauci told CNN Sunday.

But "when they come back, they need to be treated in a way that doesn't disincentivize them from going there," he said, speaking on CNN's State of the Union talk show.

Fauci stressed that the scientific evidence "tells us people who are not ill, who don't have symptoms, with whom you don't come into contact with body fluids, they are not a threat, they are not going to spread it."

But New Jersey Governor Chris Christie defended his state's mandatory quarantine, calling it necessary "to protect the public health of the people of New Jersey."

Speaking on Fox News Sunday, Christie said: "I think this is a policy that will become a national policy sooner rather than later."

He rejected arguments it would discourage health workers from travelling to the most impacted zone to help, saying "I believe that folks who want to take that step, willing to volunteer, also understand it's in their interests and the public health interests to have a 21-day" quarantine.

New York, New Jersey and Illinois ordered the mandatory measure on Friday.

New Jersey has already isolated a nurse who arrived at Newark with a recent history of treating patients with Ebola in West Africa, but who has tested negative for the virus.

- 'Haphazard and not well thought out' -

Kaci Hickox, in an account in the Dallas Morning News, complained she was made to feel "like a criminal" and said she was "scared for those who will follow me."

"I am scared about how health care workers will be treated at airports when they declare that they have been fighting Ebola in West Africa. I am scared that, like me, they will arrive and see a frenzy of disorganisation, fear and, most frightening, quarantine."

US envoy to the United Nations Samantha Power has also expressed concern the new quarantine policies were "haphazard and not well thought out".

"We cannot take measures here that are going to impact our ability to flood the zone" with health workers, Power said Sunday during a stop in Guinea.

Fauci said Sunday, on ABC This Week: "As a scientist and as a health person, if I were asked, I would not have recommended" the quarantine.

He emphasized it is possible to monitor at-risk people by having "somebody taking your temperature, asking you if you have symptoms."

"There's a big, big difference between completely confining somebody that they can't even get outside and doing the appropriate monitoring based on scientific evidence," he said on CNN, insisting "our first goal is to protect the American people."

So far there have been nine cases of Ebola in the United States, most among health workers who volunteered in Africa, with only one death.

In the most recent case, the first in New York, doctor Craig Spencer, 33, tested positive a week after returning from Guinea.

Although he was monitoring for symptoms, he spent the days prior to falling ill moving around the city, including riding the subway and going bowling the night before he developed a fever, raising public fears he could have infected others.

But health authorities have said the risk is extremely low.

Ebola is spread though close contact with the sweat, vomit, blood or other bodily fluids of an infected person.

by Naomi Seck

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

27 October 2014

Ebola outbreak: US advises against quarantine

Posted Image
A nurse was held in isolation at University Hospital in Newark

US health officials will actively monitor health workers who have treated Ebola patients in West Africa, under new rules.

Updated guidelines issued on Monday will require most medics to be checked for symptoms for 21 days but will not require quarantine or isolation.

The UN Secretary General has condemned enforced quarantine measures.

The current Ebola outbreak in West Africa has infected more than 10,000 people and killed almost 5,000.

The US announcement comes after a nurse who complained about her quarantine in New Jersey was allowed to return home.

In response, UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon said those seeking to help in affected areas "should not be subjected to restrictions that are not based on science".

"Those who develop infections should be supported, not stigmatised."

People are not contagious until they develop Ebola symptoms.


In other developments:

-the husband of a Spanish nurse who recovered from Ebola has been sharply critical of Spain's government

-the UN's chief of Ebola mission has told the BBC the outbreak is likely to get worse

-a five-year-old boy has tested negative for Ebola in New York after visiting West Africa and developing a fever

-in the US, the Pentagon says about a dozen US troops returning from West Africa are being isolated at a base in Italy


The new rules to allow monitoring of at-risk people were announced as concern grew over the treatment of those who had travelled to Ebola areas.

Three US states including New Jersey had said they would require a 21-day quarantine for all health workers who have had contact with Ebola patients.

The move came in response to a New York doctor who fell ill with the Ebola virus last week, the morning after he had travelled on the subway and been bowling.

On Monday, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) issued fresh guidance for travellers and health workers returning from West Africa, where the outbreak has claimed more than 4,000 lives.

It set out four risk categories, and put most healthcare workers returning from the epidemic-hit region as at "some risk" of infection.

CDC director Dr Tom Frieden said workers considered to be at high risk or some risk would be required to be "actively" monitored for symptoms for 21 days.

Those at highest risk are anyone who's had direct contact with an Ebola patient's body fluids.

Even if they have no symptoms, they should avoid commercial travel and large public events, Dr Frieden said, adding that voluntary quarantine was enough.

Posted Image
Kaci Hickox was working with Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) in Sierra Leone before her return to the US

Nurse Kaci Hickox said she was made to feel like a criminal after being quarantined in Newark as she returned from Sierra Leone last Friday.

She was released on Monday and flown back to her home in Maine.

The New Jersey health department said Ms Hickox had tested negative for Ebola on Saturday and had been free of symptoms for 24 hours.

State Governor Chris Christie defended his state's quarantine procedures and said that Ms Hickox had arrived in the US with a temperature - something the nurse denies.

More than 10,000 people have contracted the Ebola virus, with 4,922 deaths, according to the World Health Organization's latest figures.

All but 27 of the cases have occurred inside Sierra Leone, Liberia and Guinea.

The virus spreads through close contact and health officials say stopping the spread of the disease in the areas hardest hit by the outbreak will prevent Ebola's spread to other countries.

Posted Image
New York Mayor Bill de Blasio said the treatment of Ms Hickox was inappropriate

Dr Frieden told reporters on Monday the CDC was "looking forward" to working with states to put in place appropriate guidelines for returning workers.

But he said the agency was "concerned about some policies" being put into place.

Separately, the Pentagon has said about a dozen US troops retuning from West Africa are being isolated at a base in Italy "out of an abundance of caution".

Pentagon spokesman Col Steven Warren told reporters none of the soldiers displayed symptoms of Ebola.

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

Forcibly quarantined Ebola nurse leaves US hospital

2014-10-27

A US nurse who was forcibly quarantined upon arriving in New Jersey after returning from treating Ebola patients in Africa was discharged on Monday after the Obama administration criticised the strict quarantine policies adopted by some US states.

A US nurse, whose enforced quarantine in New Jersey sparked a furious backlash after she returned from treating Ebola patients in West Africa, was discharged on Monday, officials said.

Kaci Hickox complained bitterly about being placed under mandatory quarantine Friday, claiming she was made to feel like a criminal after being isolated in a tent without a shower or flush toilet.

Republican New Jersey Governor Chris Christie announced that the nurse was being released, a day after New York reversed strict new quarantine orders under pressure from the Obama administration.

A spokeswoman for University Hospital in Newark, where Hickox was held in a tent outside the main building and made to wear paper scrubs, confirmed that she left shortly after 1:00 pm.

White House spokesman Josh Earnest on Monday criticized her confinement and praised Hickox for her bravery in travelling to West Africa in a bid to treat patients suffering from the virus.

"Her service and commitment to this cause is something that should be honored and respected, and I don't think we do that by making her live in a tent for two or three days," he said Monday.

Christie's office and New Jersey's department of health said the patient remained symptom free after testing negative for Ebola, and would be driven to her home state of Maine by private carrier -- not via public transport or commercial jet.

Hickox, who had been helping treat patients in Sierra Leone before flying home via Newark International Airport, was kept in a tent equipped with a bed, non-flush chemical toilet and no shower.

"I feel like my basic human rights have been violated," she told CNN on Saturday, insisting she was not contagious because she has shown no symptoms and tested negative for the disease.

Criticized by UN chief

Christie's office said that "every effort" had been made to ensure that she remained comfortable, with access to a computer, cell phone, reading material and "nourishment of choice."

UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon on Monday became the latest public figure to voice concern over quarantine restrictions, saying they put unnecessary pressure on health care workers.

"They should not be subjected to restrictions that are not based on science. Those who develop infections should be supported, not stigmatized," he said.

Officials at the White House believe the rules could also deter health workers from helping fight the epidemic in West Africa.

"We want to make sure that whatever policies are put in place in this country to protect the American public do not serve as a disincentive to doctors and nurses from this country volunteering to travel to West Africa to treat Ebola patients," said Earnest.

Separately, the governors of Maryland and Virginia, states bordering the federal capital Washington, said travellers arriving from the worst hit countries would be subject to 21-day home monitoring.

On Monday, a five-year-old child was being tested for Ebola at Bellevue Hospital, where New York's first confirmed case of the disease, Craig Spencer, is being treated in isolation.

The child developed a low grade fever on Monday morning after being admitted to hospital, the city health department said.

The African Advisory Council of the Bronx said Monday that two Senegalese children were admitted to hospital after being beaten up and called Ebola at a school in the Bronx on Friday.

On Sunday, the state of New York state ended a mandatory isolation period for people who had no contact with an infected patient but who were returning from Ebola-stricken countries in West Africa.

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

28 October 2014

Ebola outbreak: Sierra Leone angry at Australia visa ban

Posted Image
There have been 4,922 deaths from the Ebola virus, according to the World Health Organization's latest figures

Sierra Leone has condemned Australia's decision to suspend entry visas for people from Ebola-affected countries in West Africa as "counterproductive" and "discriminatory".

The move has also been criticised by Amnesty International.

And UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon has said travel restrictions will severely curtail efforts to beat Ebola.

Nearly 5,000 people have died from the virus, the vast majority of them in Sierra Leone, Liberia and Guinea.


In other developments:

-Eighty-two people who had contact with a toddler who died in Mali are now being monitored

-A Dallas nurse who contracted Ebola in the US from a Liberian patient but is now free of the virus has been discharged from hospital

-New US federal guidelines say medics returning from treating Ebola patients in West Africa should be monitored but not placed in quarantine - but some states say they will continue with their quarantine polices

-President Barack Obama has said policy for returning medics should be based on science and not fear - he said it was important not to discourage US frontline workers from fighting Ebola

-Separately, the US Army has imposed a 21-day monitoring period for all soldiers returning from the region


'Protect Australians'

The Australian government announced on Monday that it was cancelling non-permanent or temporary visas held by people from the affected countries who were not yet travelling, and that new visa applications would not be processed.

Permanent visa holders yet to arrive in Australia must undergo a 21-day quarantine process before departure.

Immigration Minister Scott Morrison told parliament: "The government's systems and processes are working to protect Australians."

But Sierra Leone's Information Minister Alpha Kanu described the move as "too draconian", insisting that measures put in place at Sierra Leone's Freetown airport had successfully prevented anyone flying out of the country with Ebola.

"It is discriminatory in that... it is not [going] after Ebola but rather it is... [going] against the 24 million citizens of Sierra Leone, Liberia and Guinea. Certainly, it is not the right way to go," he told Reuters news agency. "This measure by the Australian government is absolutely counterproductive."

Posted Image
World Bank President Jim Yong Kim made an emotional appeal for help

Posted Image
Health workers arrive to pick up the body of a young victim in Freetown, Sierra Leone

Ugandan government spokesman Ofwono Opondo said: "Western countries are creating mass panic which is unhelpful in containing a contagious disease like Ebola.

"If they create mass panic... this fear will eventually spread beyond ordinary people to health workers or people who transport the sick and then what will happen? Entire populations will be wiped out."

Amnesty International said Australia was taking a "narrow approach".

A spokesman for the human rights group said the ban made no sense from a health perspective but ensured that vulnerable people were trapped in a crisis area.

'Fear factor'

Meanwhile, the president of the World Bank has appealed for thousands of medical workers to volunteer and help contain the growing Ebola outbreak in West Africa.

Jim Yong Kim said at least 5,000 medics and support staff were needed to beat the disease.

Many potential recruits were too scared to travel to West Africa, he added.

Mr Kim was speaking during a visit to Ethiopia, where he accompanied the UN secretary general and African Union chairwoman Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma.

"Right now, I'm very much worried about where we will find those healthcare workers," he said.

"With the fear factor going out of control in so many places, I hope healthcare professionals will understand that when they took their oath to become a healthcare worker it was precisely for moments like this," he added.

Mr Ban said that transmission rates in West Africa continued to outstrip the pace of the international response.

On Tuesday, Mr Obama backed updated guidelines issued the day before for people returning from West Africa to the US.

He said he did not want strict US quarantine policies to discourage "heroic" American healthcare workers from dealing with the virus at source.

"America is not defined by fear, it's defined by possibility," he said.

There have been 4,922 deaths from the Ebola virus, according to the World Health Organization's latest figures.

All but 27 of the cases have occurred inside Sierra Leone, Liberia and Guinea.

The virus spreads through close contact and health officials say stopping the spread of the disease in the areas hardest hit by the outbreak will prevent Ebola's spread to other countries.

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

29 October 2014

Ebola crisis: Infections 'slowing in Liberia'

The World Health Organization (WHO) says there has been a decline in the spread of Ebola in Liberia, the country hardest hit in the outbreak.

The WHO's Bruce Aylward said it was confident the response to the virus was now gaining the upper hand.

But he warned against any suggestion that the crisis was over.

The WHO later said the number of cases globally had risen more than 3,000 to 13,703 since its last report, but that this was due to reporting reasons.

The number of deaths was put at 4,920, roughly the same as the last report four days ago. All but 10 of the deaths have been in Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea.


In other developments:

-A US man sues after his daughter's school in Connecticut bars her from attending amid fears she may have been exposed to Ebola

-US Defence Secretary Chuck Hagel says US troops returning from Ebola missions will be kept in isolation for 21 days

-US joins 30 other nations from the Americas at an Ebola conference in Cuba

-In UK, an umbrella of charities - Disasters Emergency Committee - is to launch an Ebola appeal


'Pet tiger'

The latest WHO figure of 13,703 cases is a significant leap on its previous situation report on Saturday, which showed cases rising above 10,000 for the first time - to 10,141.

But Dr Aylward, the WHO's assistant director general, said that this increase was due to data being updated with old cases, rather than new cases being reported.

Saturday's situation report put the death toll at 4,922.

The similar death toll in the latest report was mainly a result of a revision of the Liberian statistics.

Posted Image
Health workers have been collecting fewer bodies in Liberia

Cases there rose from 4,655 to 6,535 but reported deaths dropped from 2,705 to 2,413.

Deaths in Guinea rose from 926 to 997 and in Sierra Leone from 1,281 to 1,500.

Liberia's Red Cross said its teams collected 117 bodies last week, down from a high of 315 in September.

Treatment centres also have empty beds available for patients.

Dr Aylward said : "It appears that the trend is real in Liberia and there may indeed be a slowing."

"Do we feel confident that the response is now getting an upper hand on the virus? Yes, we are seeing a slowing rate of new cases, very definitely."

Dr Aylward said there had been "a huge effort to inform the population about the disease, to change the behaviours that put them at risk".

And he said there had been "a real step up in the work to put in place safe burials".

But Dr Aylward said the data was still being examined and cautioned against thinking the crisis was over.

Posted Image
South Africa's Patrice Motsepe is donating $1m to Guinea to help the country fight Ebola

Posted Image

He said: "A slight decline in cases in a few days versus getting this thing closed out is a completely different ball game.

"It's like saying your pet tiger is under control."

Later, US President Barack Obama praised the progress made in Liberia, but also warned: "This is still a severe, significant outbreak... We've got a long way to go."

He said again that the disease had to be tackled at its source in West Africa, adding: "If we don't deal with the problem there, it will come here."

Until Ebola was contained, he said, there could be more individual cases in the US.

Magnate's gift

On Wednesday, South Africa's first black billionaire, Patrice Motsepe, donated $1m (£620,000) to Guinea to help the country fight Ebola.

The mining magnate said he hoped it would assist with clinical management, social mobilisation and other key steps in controlling the deadly virus.

His donation was announced as the US welcomed the international aid effort.

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

30 October 2014

Ebola outbreak: Maine will try to enforce Hickox quarantine

The governor of Maine has vowed to exercise the "full extent" of his authority to quarantine a nurse who treated Ebola patients in Africa.

Paul LePage said negotiations with Kaci Hickox, who went for a bike ride on Thursday morning, had broken down.

Her lawyers said they had not yet been served by a court order to enforce the 21-day quarantine but would fight it.

Nearly 5,000 people have died of Ebola, but only nine patients have been treated for the virus on US soil.

More than 13,700 people have been infected in total, the vast majority in the West African countries of Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea.

Ebola, which is only spread through close contact with the bodily fluids of a sick patient, has an incubation period of up to 21 days.

People are not infectious until they show symptoms, usually a fever.


In other developments:

-a UK ship has arrived in Sierra Leone carrying food, medical equipment and 32 pick-up trucks, to help keep hard-pressed Ebola treatment centres in operation

-speaking in Brussels after a trip to West Africa, US Ambassador to the UN Samantha Power has said the world must do more to confront "the greatest public health crisis ever"

-North Korea has instituted a 21-day quarantine for any foreign national arriving from any country

-the World Bank said it would immediately provide $100m to fund the deployment of more health workers to West Africa


US officials are at odds over whether American healthcare workers who return from treating Ebola patients in West Africa should be forced into quarantine.

One of these workers, Dr Craig Spencer, travelled around New York City before he fell ill. He is currently in isolation in hospital.

Posted Image

After his case was announced, New York, New Jersey and other states ordered the mandatory quarantine of healthcare workers who had been exposed to Ebola patients.

But President Barack Obama has warned that overly restrictive measures could discourage volunteering in West Africa.

Governor LePage said the state was willing to agree to arrangements that would have allowed Hickox to go for walks, runs and bicycle rides.

Posted Image
Samantha Power (right) met Ebola survivors in Guinea

But she would be prevented from going into public places or coming within three feet (less than a metre) of other people.

But the governor said discussions with Ms Hickox, 33, had failed.

His office did not disclose what steps it would take to force her compliance, but said, "Maine statutes provide robust authority to the state to use legal measures to address threats to public health".


Ebola cases outside West Africa
Posted Image

Ms Hickox returned to the US on Friday, landing at Newark International Airport and immediately placed in an isolation tent outside a local hospital.

After showing no fever or other symptoms for a 24-hour period, she was discharged and brought to Maine, where she lives in a house in a rural area.

On Thursday morning, Ms Hickox left her home on a bicycle, followed by police officers who monitored her movements but who are unable to detain her until they have a court order.

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has condemned the actions of US states ordering medics to be isolated.

"Returning health workers are exceptional people who are giving of themselves for humanity," he said.

"They should not be subjected to restrictions that are not based on science."

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

30 October 2014

Experts urge caution over Ebola hopes

Posted Image
© AFP / by Zoom Dosso | Chart showing the growth of worldwide Ebola cases since March

MONROVIA (AFP) - Health authorities called Thursday for renewed vigilance over the Ebola epidemic and caution over claims it is retreating as the World Bank announced a $100-million fund for more health workers.

The warning follows an announcement by World Health Organization (WHO) that data from funeral directors and treatment centres indicated lower admission rates and burials in Liberia, the nation hit hardest by the killer virus.

But international aid agency Doctors Without Borders said the slowdown could be due to sick people not being picked up because of a lack of ambulances and so they were being omitted from the statistics.

The charity, known by its French initials MSF, said "mandatory cremation of dead bodies and a poor ambulance and referral system could also be reasons for this decrease in admissions".

"It is too soon to draw conclusions on the reduction of Ebola cases in Monrovia," Fasil Tezera, MSF head of mission in Liberia, said in a statement.

WHO assistant director-general Bruce Aylward told reporters in Geneva on Wednesday that labs were seeing a "plateauing or slight decline" in the number of confirmed cases -- but warned that the crisis was far from over.

Liberia welcomed the possibility of a turning-point in the outbreak but echoed the call for caution issued by the WHO and MSF.

Deputy health minister Tolbert Nyensuah said that even if it managed to achieve no new cases, Liberia would not be able to consider itself Ebola-free until neighbours Guinea and Sierra Leone had eradicated the virus.

The outbreak has claimed almost 5,000 lives, according to the WHO -- almost all in Liberia, Guinea and Sierra Leone -- while the number of cases registered worldwide has soared to 13,703.

- Economies 'devastated' -

World Bank President Jim Yong Kim announced the $100-million (80-million-euro) donation, describing it as a "first down payment", as he visited the UN Mission on Ebola Emergency Response headquarters in Ghana.

"We have to end this epidemic, there's just no other way around it. We've got to get to zero," he said, admitting the world had reacted too slowly and describing the economies of the three worst-hit countries as "devastated".

The outbreak has taken a huge toll on health workers in the region, with 272 deaths, most of them in Liberia and Sierra Leone.

US nurse Kaci Hickox, who recently returned from Sierra Leone, has vowed to fight an order by the state of Maine to remain at home for the final 12 days of her 21-day quarantine period.

A British navy ship arrived in the country's capital Freetown on Thursday laden with 350 personnel and equipment to treat victims of the deadly virus.

"There was lots of anxiety from us as well as from our relatives and loved-ones about coming to Sierra Leone to fight the Ebola virus," Commander Ross Spooner, from Royal Naval Air Station Culdrose, told AFP.

"We have taken all precautions and understood the situation. Berthing in Freetown today, the mood of the personnel is one of a desire to get started on the job and to see that Ebola is kicked out."

Samantha Power, the US envoy to the UN said west Africa is showing "the first tangible signs" that Ebola will be beaten, after she completed a tour of the region this week.

- Malaria threat -

Though there are "alarming gaps in our collective response", foreign aid and a stronger local response were beginning to make a difference, Power said.

But the virus continues to spread fear as far away as east Asia, with China particularly "vulnerable" to an outbreak, according to Ebola co-discoverer Peter Piot, due to soaring economic migration to Africa.

The Philippines has urged hundreds of its citizens to leave Ebola-hit west African nations, as it announced anyone who returned would be placed under a 21-day quarantine.

Further east, North Korea said it intended to quarantine all foreigners entering the country for 21 days, no matter what their country of origin.

While the outbreak is inspiring fear across the world, it is also devastating the response to other deadly diseases at its epicentre, where healthcare systems are said to have collapsed.

MSF warned that Ebola had made obtaining treatment for malaria almost impossible in Liberia, with the majority of general wards closed because staff are too afraid to work.

MSF has begun distributing anti-malarials to around 300,000 people in the city's poorest, most densely-inhabited neighbourhoods.

"The objective is also to eliminate the risk that patients with fever, suspected of having Ebola, will end up in Ebola treatment centres in contact with infected persons," said Chibuzo Okonta, MSF's deputy director of emergency programmes.

Malaria remains the leading cause of death in Liberia, with 1.7 million cases in 2012 according to the health ministry, 1,800 of them fatal.

by Zoom Dosso

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

31 October 2014

Maine judge: No forced quarantine for nurse Kaci Hickox

Posted Image
Nurse Kaci Hickox (left) and boyfriend Ted Wilbur appeared in Maine following the judge's ruling

A judge in the US has ruled in favour of a nurse fighting a state quarantine order since returning from treating Ebola patients in West Africa.

Judge Charles LaVerdiere ruled Kaci Hickox did not need to be isolated or restricted in her movements because she is not showing symptoms of the virus.

It came hours after UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon condemned discrimination against aid workers.

And it was a blow to the Maine governor who had sought a 21-day quarantine.

The judge said the nurse must comply with health officials over monitoring but does not need to stay away from public places, as the state had requested.

Governor Paul LePage said he disagrees with the court's findings but will comply.

"As governor, I have done everything I can to protect the health and safety of Mainers," he said on Friday.

"The judge has eased restrictions with this ruling and I believe it is unfortunate. However, the state will abide by law."

The state of Maine had gone to court to impose restrictions on the nurse until 10 November, when the 21-day incubation period for Ebola was set to expire.

Following the ruling, Ms Hickox called it "a good day", but that her "thoughts, prayers and gratitude" were with those battling the virus in West Africa.

More than 13,700 people have been infected in total, the vast majority in the West African countries of Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea.

Nearly 5,000 people have died of Ebola, but only nine patients have been treated for the virus on US soil.

Ebola, which is only spread through close contact with the bodily fluids of a sick patient, has an incubation period of up to 21 days.

People are not infectious until they show symptoms, usually a fever.

US officials are at odds over whether American healthcare workers who return from treating Ebola patients in West Africa should be forced into quarantine.

One of these workers, Dr Craig Spencer, travelled around New York City before he fell ill. He is currently in isolation in hospital.

After his case was announced, New York, New Jersey and other states ordered the mandatory quarantine of healthcare workers who had been exposed to Ebola patients.

But President Barack Obama has warned that overly restrictive measures could discourage volunteering in West Africa.

On Thursday, the medical charity Doctors Without Borders warned some mandatory US state Ebola quarantine measures are having a "chilling effect" on its work.

The group has said it may shorten some assignments to West Africa as a result of recent state restrictions.

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

31 October 2014

UN chief defends returning Ebola aid workers

UN chief Ban Ki-moon has said discrimination against aid workers who return home from the Ebola crisis in West Africa is "unacceptable".

Strict quarantine rules are hampering aid efforts when more health workers are needed in order to deal with the crisis, he told BBC News in Nairobi.

International efforts have been insufficient but are now "catching up", the UN secretary general added.

"We have been really trying to mobilise in a massive way," he said.

Mr Ban told the BBC's Dennis Okari that the World Health Organization (WHO) and scientists around the world were trying to develop vaccines.

The UN's main objectives included stopping the virus, finding a treatment and preventing the spread of Ebola, he said.

Posted Image
MSF has warned that mandatory quarantines of health workers are causing 'anxiety'

'Rising anxiety'

The medical charity Doctors Without Borders (MSF) warned on Thursday that some mandatory US state Ebola quarantine measures were having a "chilling effect" on its work.

"There is rising anxiety and confusion among staff members in the field over what they may face when they return home upon completion of their assignments in West Africa," executive director Sophie Delaunay, told Reuters news agency.

One of the charity's volunteers defied orders by the US state of Maine that she remain quarantined in her house after being in Sierra Leone.

The nurse, Kaci Hickox, who recently returned to the US from treating Ebola patients in Africa, argued that the measure contravened her civil rights as she does not have the virus.

In what her lawyer called "a terrific win", a judge has now ruled simply that she should co-ordinate travel with officials so that she can continue to be monitored, and she must report any symptoms.

"I am very satisfied by the decision," Ms Hickox told reporters, praising a "good compromise" that "offers human treatment to health care workers coming back".

US President Barack Obama has warned that overly restrictive measures could discourage volunteering in West Africa.


In other developments:

-A UK ship arrived in Sierra Leone carrying food, medical equipment and 32 pick-up trucks to help keep hard-pressed Ebola treatment centres in operation

-Speaking in Brussels after a trip to West Africa, US ambassador to the UN Samantha Power said the world must do more to confront "the greatest public health crisis ever"

-North Korea instituted a 21-day quarantine for any foreign national arriving from any country

-The World Bank said it would immediately provide $100m to fund the deployment of more health workers to West Africa


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

1 November 2014

Ebola crisis: Canada visa ban hits West Africa states

Posted Image
Most of those in Ebola-affected areas are not in a position to travel to countries such as Canada

Canada is to suspend visa applications from residents and passport-holders from West African countries in the grip of the Ebola outbreak.

The decision follows a similar decision by Australia, which drew criticism from the World Health Organization (WHO).

The ban would apply to countries with "widespread and persistent-intense transmission", Canada said.

Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea are battling to contain Ebola, which has killed almost 5,000 people.

The WHO said on Friday that 4,951 people had died during the current outbreak, with 13,567 reported cases up to 29 October.

'Ebola panic'

Although Canada currently has no cases of Ebola, the country's federal citizenship ministry said "the introduction or spread of the disease would pose an imminent and severe risk to public health".

A government spokesman said the move was less restrictive than Australia's plan, with the ability to grant visas on a case-by-case basis retained.

The ban would also not apply to Canadians travelling from the Ebola zone - allowing health workers and volunteers to return home.

There are no direct flights to Canada from the three worst-affected countries, and the numbers of annual visitors from those states is understood to be small.

The WHO opposes travel bans as a method of containing Ebola.

David Fidler, a professor at Indiana University in the US, told Canadian media that the government's move undermined international regulations drawn up after the Sars outbreak of 2003.

"The whole thing that so many years and so many efforts and so much money was spent on just seems to be disintegrating in this Ebola panic," he told CBC News.

Meanwhile, in the US a judge has ruled in favour of a nurse fighting a state quarantine order since returning from treating Ebola patients in West Africa.

The judge said Kaci Hickox did not need to be isolated or restricted in her movements because she is not showing symptoms of the virus.

Canada's visa ban comes as trials get under way in Switzerland on the latest round of testing of an experimental vaccine.

The vaccine, jointly developed by US disease authorities and pharmaceutical firm GlaxoSmithKline, is already being tested on volunteers in the US, UK and Mali.

The testing will take place at Lausanne University and will be co-ordinated by the World Health Organization (WHO).

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

2 November 2014

Ebola in Sierra Leone 'spreading quickly' - campaign group

Posted Image
In Freetown, Sierra Leone's capital, Ebola cases are six times higher than two months ago

Ebola cases are continuing to rise "frighteningly quickly" in areas of Sierra Leone, an international campaign group has said.

The Africa Governance Initiative (AGI) found that in rural parts of the country the virus is spreading nine times faster than two months ago.

In Liberia, however, the rate of new cases appears to have slowed.

AGI's findings come after World Health Organization officials told the BBC the number of new cases is levelling off.

Though Sierra Leone's rural areas have been worst hit, the group says the spread of Ebola is also increasing in the capital Freetown - which is recording six times more cases per day compared to two months ago.

The virus has only started to slow in one region of Sierra Leone, Bombali in the country's north.

______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________


Ebola deaths in West Africa

Up to 29 October

4,951
Deaths - probable, confirmed and suspected
(Includes one death in US and one in Mali)

2,413 Liberia

1,510 Sierra Leone

1,018 Guinea

8 Nigeria

Source: WHO

______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________


AGI - an organisation set up by former UK Prime Minister Tony Blair that operates in the affected countries - says it is not sure why cases are slowing in Liberia.

But the group says burial management has "improved significantly" in both Liberia and Sierra Leone.

Half of all Ebola infections are thought to come from the bodies of victims.

AGI Chief Executive Nick Thompson said: "The picture is certainly changing but that's all we can say for sure at the moment.

"The pace of the spread in rural Sierra Leone shows we still have no time to lose."

On Friday 31 October the WHO said there had been 13,567 cases since the outbreak began, with 4,922 confirmed people to have died from the disease.


Cumulative deaths up to 29 October

Posted Image
Note: figures are occasionally revised down as suspect or probable cases are found to be unrelated to Ebola

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

03 November 2014

UN head slams 'unnecessary' Ebola restrictions on health workers

Posted Image
© AFP/File | A Liberian health worker in protective gear has her name written on her forehead at a Medecins Sans Frontieres (Doctors Without Borders) Ebola treatment centre in Monrovia, on October 18, 2014

VIENNA (AFP) - UN chief Ban Ki-moon warned Monday against "unnecessarily" strict restrictions on health workers returning from treating Ebola patients, in an apparent reference to quarantines and visa bans by some Western nations.

"There are some unnecessarily extra restrictions and discriminations against health workers. These people are ... risking their own lives," Ban told a news conference in Vienna.

Without naming any country, Ban said that these "unnecessarily strong and strict restrictions" included "quarantine for health workers ... not based on science and medical evidence".

"That is my honest and urgent opinion to the international community," he said, stressing however that people with Ebola symptoms "should be immediately treated and supported".

Experts say quarantining medical professionals who have shown no symptoms of the virus is counter-productive and could deter other workers from helping contain west Africa's Ebola crisis.

In a case which attracted international criticism, New Jersey Governor Chris Christie kept a nurse in an isolation tent for three days after she flew back from Sierra Leone.

Meanwhile Canada and Australia controversially announced last week that they were suspending visa applications from Ebola-hit west African nations.

Almost 5,000 people have been killed by Ebola, according to the World Health Organization, which has recorded more than 13,000 cases but admits the real number of could be could be much higher.

Ban was speaking at a UN conference of developing landlocked countries in the Austrian capital.

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

Ebola crisis: Kaci Hickox and Maine reach agreement

The US state of Maine has reached an agreement with a nurse who was briefly quarantined after treating victims of Ebola in West Africa.

Kaci Hickox has tested negative for Ebola twice and has no symptoms, but Maine officials went to court to try to bar her from crowded public places.

The deal complies with Friday's ruling by a judge that she should be free to travel but must monitor her health.

Only one person in the US is currently being treated for Ebola in New York.

"I am not going to sit around and be bullied around by politicians and be forced to stay in my home when I am not a risk to the American public," said Ms Hickox.

Ms Hickox travelled to Sierra Leone with the Doctors Without Borders medical charity when the outbreak erupted.

Posted Image
Ms Hickox was forced to stay in a tent in Newark, New Jersey

Upon her return to New Jersey on 24 October she was quarantined in a tent outside a hospital in the city for the weekend despite not showing any symptoms.

The following Monday she was released to return to Maine where she was monitored at her boyfriend's house in Fort Kent.

Fears of infection

The recent infection of a doctor in New York who had returned from Guinea has sparked a debate in the US over isolation policies for healthcare workers who have been from West Africa.

Dr Craig Spencer had travelled on the subway and been bowling the night before he developed a fever, which is the point when people become contagious.

The governors of New York and New Jersey introduced mandatory quarantines as a result.

Posted Image
Mayor Bill de Blasio ate at The Meatball Shop where an Ebola patient dined, to try restore calm to the city

The mayor of New York however, took steps to try to quell fears of contagion by following in Dr Spencer's footsteps.

Mayor Bill de Blasio rode the subways, had dinner at The Meatball Shop restaurant where Dr Spencer ate and visited Bellevue Hospital Center's isolation chamber.

The UN Secretary General Ban Ki Moon has warned against "unnecessarily" strict restrictions on healthcare workers returning from West Africa, saying that their efforts were critical in the fight against the outbreak.

However, nearly 75% of Americans surveyed in a Reuters and Ipsos Mori poll said that they believed that healthcare workers who returned to the US after treating Ebola victims in West Africa should be quarantined.

Meanwhile a US teacher at a private school in Louisville, Kentucky has resigned instead of taking paid leave because of fears over Ebola.

Susan Sherman, a teacher at St Margaret Mary Catholic School is also a registered nurse and recently returned from a medical mission trip to Kenya, Louisville's The Courier-Journal reported.

Although Kenya is in eastern Africa and has not yet had any reported cases of Ebola, the school reportedly asked Ms Sherman to take three weeks of paid leave after parents raised concerns.

Meanwhile a doctor in Sierra Leone has died of Ebola, the fifth local doctor to die of the disease there.

Dr Godfrey George from the Kambia Government Hospital died two days after he had tested positive, a senior doctor confirmed to the BBC's Umaru Fofana in Freetown.


Posted Image
Figures accurate from 4-6 October, depending on country. Death toll in Liberia includes probable, suspect and confirmed cases, while in Sierra Leone and Guinea only confirmed cases are shown

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

5 November 2014

Ebola outbreak: Barack Obama 'to ask Congress for $6bn'

President Barack Obama is to ask Congress for $6.2bn (£3.9bn) to fight Ebola in West Africa and to avoid it spreading in the US, officials say.

He is requesting $4.5bn in immediate response funds and more than $1.5bn for a contingency fund.

The request comes as the World Health Organization (WHO) released its latest report, putting the number of cases at 13,042 and the deaths at 4,818.

All but 27 of the deaths have been in Liberia, Guinea and Sierra Leone.

The death toll represents a second consecutive downward revision by the WHO, as it continues to adjust its reporting.

In Guinea, the figures show a rise in cases from 1,667 in the 31 October report to 1,731 now.

Deaths rose from 1,018 to 1,041.

______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________


Analysis: James Gallagher, Health editor, BBC News website

This is not just the biggest Ebola outbreak in history, it is bigger than every other outbreak combined.

The world was slow to respond and for many months the virus spread out of control in West Africa.

But the first glimmers of hope are now being witnessed.

There is cautious talk that the number of new cases is beginning to level off and it is hoped they will not go above their current level of around 1,000 per week.

The WHO says the number of new cases may already be falling in Liberia.

If the huge investment on the ground can genuinely start to reduce the rate of new infections then it will be the first time in this deadly outbreak that the response has actually matched the virus.

______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________


There was a fall in cases in Sierra Leone from 5,338 to 4,759, with reported fatalities down from 1,510 to 1,070.

In Liberia, the hardest-hit nation, cases fell from 6,535 to 6,525 but deaths rose from 2,413 to 2,697.

The WHO continues to warn that there may be under-reporting of deaths.


In other developments on Wednesday:

-A 92-bed British-run facility to treat people with Ebola is opening in Sierra Leone

-German doctors treating an Ebola patient say his condition has significantly improved.
The man - believed to be a Ugandan aid worker - was in a critical condition when he was flown to a hospital in Frankfurt from West Africa four weeks ago

-Teresa Romero, the Spanish nurse who became the first person known to have contracted Ebola outside West Africa in the latest outbreak, has given an emotional account of her ordeal as she left hospital


WHO director

Mr Obama's request for funding is the first since Republicans made significant gains in the mid-term elections.

White House officials said Mr Obama wanted at least $2bn for the US Agency for International Development; at least $2.4bn for the Department of Health and Human Services and more than $1.5bn for the contingency fund.

The Pentagon would also get more cash.

Posted Image

Republican House Speaker John Boehner's office said the request would be assessed.

"We'll continue to work with our members and the administration to ensure we are doing everything we can to protect the public from a deadly disease,'' Mr Boehner's spokesman Kevin Smith said.

The WHO says there have been four cases of Ebola in the US, including a Liberian man who died in Texas in October.

Two nurses who treated him contracted Ebola and have since recovered.

A US doctor who returned from Guinea is still being treated in New York.

The WHO on Wednesday also announced it had elected a new director for Africa, Matshidiso Moeti.

Dr Moeti is from Botswana and a veteran WHO official.

She said after the election was announced in Benin: "I hope that the situation will be improved by the time I take office in February."

Dr Moeti will replace Luis Gomes Sambo, who has been in the post since 2005.

A leaked internal WHO report last month criticised the organisation for underestimating the impact of Ebola in its early stages and for arguments with medical charity Medecins Sans Frontieres.


US and international treatment centres

Posted Image

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

6 November 2014

Ebola outbreak: UN 'lacks resources' to fight deadly virus

The head of the UN mission charged with fighting Ebola in West Africa has told the BBC he does not yet have the resources necessary to defeat it.

Tony Banbury said more help was urgently needed, despite significant contributions from the UK, China, Cuba and the US.

But he was hopeful of achieving the target of 70% bed space for new cases and 70% safe burials by December.

The confirmed death toll is now 4,818, says the World Health Organization.

The numbers are down since the WHO previously reported figures last Friday, as it says it has changed the way the figures are collated.

But it said in the countries worst affected by the outbreak - Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea - transmission remained "persistent and widespread, particularly in the capital cities".


In other developments:

-West African heads of state are meeting in Ghana for a special meeting to review the regional response to the crisis.

-The International Finance Corporation, part of the World Bank, has announced an initiative to provide at least $450m (£281m) in commercial financing to enable trade, investment, and employment in Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone


Mr Banbury was speaking at the UN headquarters for Ebola response in Ghana, which has not been affected by the epidemic, at the end of a regional tour.

He told the BBC it was difficult to say if the spread of the disease was slowing as it was a "very mixed picture".

In Liberia's capital, Monrovia, there was a decline but there was "significant acceleration" elsewhere.

The WHO says that of the planned 4,707 beds in Ebola treatment centres, only 22% are operational - blaming delays on insufficient numbers of foreign medical teams.

"The bed space issue is huge," Mr Banbury admitted, but he said he hoped that by reducing the numbers of people becoming infected, the UN would eventually be able to reach its targets.

He said his organisation did not yet have the capacity to defeat the disease.

"It's not here yet. There are still people, villages, towns [and] areas that [are] not getting any type of help right now and we definitely don't have the response capability on the ground now from the international community," he said.

At the same time, he mentioned contributions from the UK, which opened a new Ebola centre in Sierra Leone on Wednesday, and added that the US, China and Cuba had all sent significant numbers of soldiers or medics.

Ghana's Health Minister Kwaku Agyemang-Mensah has welcomed the recent progress made in the fight against Ebola but also warned that West African health systems will still need help in the longer term.

"We... must also look forward to the reconstruction of our countries in revamping the health infrastructure and the health system," he said ahead of the meeting of the West African regional body, Ecowas, in Ghana.

Liberia and Sierra Leone have been worst affected, partly because their health systems were destroyed in civil wars.

In Liberia, a 25-bed Ebola centre set up by the US army to treat healthcare workers was officially opened in Monrovia on Wednesday by President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf.

According to the WHO, 546 healthcare workers have been infected with Ebola since the outbreak began, of whom 310 have died.

The Liberian president said these frontline staff would now have a "refuge".

"You all know that those have suffered - we say 'most' - because they were trained to preserve life and they gave life," she said.

"The doctors and the nurses and... key healthcare workers who actually went out there not knowing what they were dealing with but demonstrating their professionalism and their service and they paid the ultimate price."

Ebola deaths and new cases
Posted Image

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

06 November 2014

Ebola toll too low, thousands of bodies likely missing: WHO expert

Posted Image
© AFP/File | A team of funeral agents specialised in the burial of victims of the Ebola virus put a body in a grave at the Fing Tom cemetery in Freetown, on October 10, 2014

GENEVA (AFP) - The raging Ebola outbreak has likely killed far more than the 4,818 deaths reported by the World Health Organization, an agency expert acknowledged Thursday, warning thousands of bodies were likely missing.

"There are lots of missing deaths in this epidemic," Christopher Dye, WHO's strategy chief, told AFP, estimating that around 5,000 bodies could be missing from the count.

This assessment, he said, was based on the knowledge that the fatality rate in the epidemic centred in Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone stands at about 70 percent.

Yet the WHO estimated Wednesday that a total of 13,042 people had so far been infected with the deadly virus, meaning many of the deaths must be going unrecorded.

Dye said the likely explanation was that many people were burying their Ebola dead in secret, perhaps to avoid having authorities interfere with burial customs like washing and touching the deceased widely blamed for much of the transmission.

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

7 November 2014

Ebola outbreak: MSF confirms case decline in Liberia

Posted Image
Liberia has seen more Ebola deaths than the other affected countries but there are now some positive signs

Liberia has seen a significant reduction in the number of new Ebola cases, the medical charity Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) has confirmed.

It said one of its treatment centres in Liberia has no cases at all at the moment - but warned Ebola was still on the rise in Guinea and Sierra Leone.

MSF, which employs thousands of staff across West Africa, is seen as the best-informed authority on Ebola.

Nearly 5,000 people out of about 14,000 cases have been killed by the virus.

Chris Stokes, the head of MSF's Ebola response, told the BBC that the decrease in the number of cases in Liberia presented an opportunity for health workers to step up their work.

But he said the disease could "flare up" again, pointing to Guinea, where the number of cases is rising again despite two significant lulls.

For the disease to be contained, Mr Stokes added, it needed to be tackled in Liberia, Guinea and Sierra Leone at once.

Posted Image
The WHO has said greater efforts there to make funerals safer are aiding the first to contain the virus

Of the West African countries hit by the 11-month outbreak, Liberia has seen the most deaths.

But last weekend its health ministry said two-thirds of the 696 beds in the country's treatment centres were empty.

The BBC's Mark Doyle in the Ghanaian capital Accra, where the UN's Ebola response is being run from, says the reason behind the decline of cases in Liberia is unclear.

Liberia's government has been running an awareness campaign, advertising the best health practices and installing hand washing stations at buildings across the country.

A new 25-bed Ebola centre in Monrovia, which was built by the US army, was also opened by President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf on Wednesday.

'UN needs more help'

Despite significant contributions from the US, the UK, China and others, the head of the UN mission charged with fighting Ebola says more help is urgently needed.

"There are still people, villages, towns [and] areas that [are] not getting any type of help right now," Tony Banbury told the BBC on Thursday.

The World Health Organization (WHO) said on Friday that the death toll from the epidemic had risen to 4,950 out of 13,241 cases in West Africa.

"Case incidence is declining in some districts in Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone, while steep rises persist in other districts," the UN agency said in a statement.

The WHO says at least one in five infections occur during the burials of Ebola victims and issued a guide this week to how best to conduct funerals.

The 17-page document provides step-by-step advice to health workers for both Christian and Muslim burials.

It includes guidance from a Muslim chaplain that the ritual washing of a body is not needed if that person has died from Ebola.

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

West Africa Ebola death toll rises to 4,950, says WHO

Posted Image
© AFP / Zoom Dosso | US soldiers teach medical workers how to effectively wear protective gear during a training session on fighting Ebola on November 7, 2014 at the police academy in Monrovia, Liberia

Text by FRANCE 24
2014-11-07

The death toll from the Ebola outbreak in the three West African countries worst hit by the disease has risen to 4,950 out of 13,241 cases, the World Health Organization (WHO) said on Friday.

“Case incidence is declining in some districts in Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone, while steep rises persist in other districts,” the United Nations agency said in a statement with its latest figures to November 4.

Shoring up defences in states neighbouring the three countries remains “critical”, it said.

The announcement came shortly after the WHO warned that the way burials of Ebola victims are carried out could be contributing to the spread of the disease.

The disease is most contagious right after a victim’s death, which means that traditional West African funerals, where families often touch the bodies, can cause it to spread rapidly.

Rates of Ebola infection have slowed in Liberia, where efforts have been made to make funerals safer, but are still rampant in Sierra Leone, said Pierre Formenty, the leader of the WHO’s Emerging and Epidemic Zoonotic Diseases team.

The Red Cross, which is leading the campaign for risk-free funerals, has conducted more than 2,200 burials in Liberia, but only 909 in Sierra Leone.

In Liberia’s capital city, Monrovia, the delay between death and burial averaged three days in August.

That period has now been reduced to less than 24 hours, meaning there is much less time for exposed bodies to infect anyone.

However, it has proved more difficult to spread the notion of safe funerals in areas of Sierra Leone, said Formenty.

“Monrovia was a capital, it was easier for us to be organised compared to the west part of Sierra Leone, where there have been some delays in organising the teams,” Formenty told a news conference.

The WHO published a protocol on Friday to guide burial teams on how to conduct safe and dignified burials, with a 12-point plan that includes guidance on how to put a corpse into a body bag and sanitise the family environment afterwards.

Source: (FRANCE 24 with REUTERS) Posted Image
Offline Profile Quote Post Goto Top
 
skibboy
Member Avatar

8 November 2014

Ebola outbreak: Africa sets up $28.5m crisis fund

Posted Image
Of the West African countries hit by the 11-month outbreak, Liberia has seen the most deaths

Top African business leaders have established an emergency fund to help countries hit by the Ebola outbreak.

A pledging meeting in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, raised $28.5m to deploy at least 1,000 health workers to Guinea, Sierra Leone and Liberia.

Experts say that if the disease is to be speedily contained, it needs to be tackled in these three countries.

Nearly 5,000 people out of about 14,000 cases have been killed by the virus, most of them in Liberia.

Speaking at the end of the Addis Abada meeting, African Union chairman Dlamini Zuma said the resources mobilised would be part of a longer term programme to deal with such outbreaks in the future.

The chairman of telecommunications giant Econet Wireless, Strive Masiyiwa, said that several companies had pledged money to the emergency fund - to be managed by the African Development Bank.

The Ethiopia meeting took place as Liberia was reported by the medical charity Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) on Friday to have seen a significant reduction in the number of new cases.

It warned, however, that Ebola was still on the rise in Guinea and Sierra Leone.

'Flare up'

Chris Stokes, the head of MSF's Ebola response, told the BBC that the decrease in the number of cases in Liberia presented an opportunity for health workers to step up their work.

Posted Image
The World Health Organization says that at least one in five infections occur during the burials of Ebola victims - it issued a guide this week to how best to conduct funerals

Posted Image
It is not clear why exactly the number of cases in Liberia has dipped - but it has been running an awareness campaign to advertise best health practices and install hand washing stations

But he said the disease could "flare up" again, pointing to Guinea, where the number of cases is rising again despite two significant lulls.

Of the West African countries hit by the 11-month outbreak, Liberia has seen the most deaths.

But last weekend its health ministry said two-thirds of the 696 beds in the country's treatment centres were empty.

Liberia's government has been running an awareness campaign, advertising the best health practices and installing hand washing stations at buildings across the country.

But despite significant contributions from the US, the UK, China and others, the head of the UN mission charged with fighting Ebola says more help is urgently needed.

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

09 November 2014

Rural Sierra Leone waits for help as Ebola does its worst

Posted Image
© AFP / by Anne Chaon | A child under quarantine sits outside a care center in Lokomasama, Sierra Leone, on November 8, 2014

LOKAMASAMA (SIERRA LEONE) (AFP) - Eleven months into the worst Ebola outbreak in history, the response to the epidemic in one of the worst-hit rural corners of Sierra Leone is being patched together with branches and bits of cloth.

This will be Lokamasama's new isolation centre, where the sick will be looked after and their relatives kept apart from other villagers.

"We have neither an ambulance nor a burial team," said Chief Maro Lamina Angbathor, the "paramount chief" of 368 villages in the province of Port Loko, three hours by road northeast of the capital Freetown.

He had called the town of Port Loko, an hour from Lokamasama, to ask for a burial team to take away the body of a man who had died that morning from the virus.

In the hours after death, Ebola victims' bodies are highly infectious, ticking time bombs to everyone around them.

"I called and called but without response," chief Angbathor said. The military are supposed to do the job -- but no one showed.

"That is why we need an ambulance here, so we can get this done immediately," said villager Abuke Kama, who was ready to volunteer himself to bury the dead.

With little help forthcoming from the central government, the chief took matters into his own hands and set up an isolation centre in the courtyard of the village school, already closed by Ebola.

Thirty volunteers were hanging plastic sheeting in an attempt to create a controlled entrance leading to 90 beds that will soon be set up in the classrooms.

Chief Angbathor hopes it will open in a week with staff provided by the World Health Organization and the government of the impoverished west African country, where 1,100 have died so far from the virus.

In front of the only dispensary in the area, "Dr Amara", in reality a health auxillary, points to six orphans -- two girls and four boys -- from the nearby hamlet of Kigbal lined up under a porch.

Another sister stands a little apart.

All are suspected of having the virus.

- Apocalyptic village -

The situation in Kigbal is nothing short of apocalyptic.

So far Ebola has killed 31 people in this settlement of 200 souls.

As the virus took hold, its inhabitants began to divide themselves between the healthy and the "condemned" -- with those with the disease left to fend for themselves on one side of the road running through the quarantined hamlet.

Those who did not survive have left 64 orphans.

No new case has been reported in Kigbal in two weeks, said chief Angbathor.

The homes of the dead have been condemned, and -- under his orders -- neighbours are not allowed to visit each nor leave the hamlet.

"Kigbal is a red zone," he said, with taxis warned not to pick up passengers there.

It will remain quarantined for 21 days, the incubation period of the virus.

Soon the survivors will be able to be tested and treated at Lokamasama, the chief hopes.

But for now "we have to wait for a team from Port Loko to take blood tests and send them to Freetown, where the results take a minimum of 72 hours," said Dr Kamara.

A doctor for an international relief agency, however, said the wait for results can be more like "eight or nine days."

An old man lies on a bench wracked by worry and grief.

His two wives have died of the disease, and his children have seemingly also been infected.

It is now 28 hours since the chief called Port Loko for help, and still no one has come.

But he still clings to hope that the situation will improve.

"The government said it will bring doctors and nurses here. When we have our own centre the tests will be much quicker," he said.

On Friday, UNICEF and the United Nations Children's Fund promised tents, beds and mattresses to support community isolation centres like the one set up in Lokamasama.

But it remains to be seen when -- like the ambulance from Port Loko -- this help will arrive.

by Anne Chaon

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

10 November 2014

Ebola outbreak: MSF says new Liberia tactics needed

By James Gallagher
Health editor, BBC News website

Posted Image

New rapid response tactics are needed to defeat the Ebola virus in Liberia, according to the charity Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF).

More than 6,600 people have been infected in the country, but figures suggest the number of new infections has started to fall.

MSF says it now has more hospital capacity than patients and called for a shift in tactics.

It wants rapid response teams to tackle Ebola hotspots when they flare up.

Liberia has been the worst-hit country in the Ebola epidemic with nearly half of all cases.

However, it is the first to begin to turn around its fortunes - the rate of new infections is continuing to increase in Guinea and Sierra Leone.

The World Health Organization said it was feeling confident that it was getting the upper hand on the virus in Liberia.

MSF said that its treatment centre in the capital Monrovia had 250 beds but was treating just 50 patients.

Meanwhile a site in Foya, in the north of the country, has not had a single patient since 30 October.

MSF's head of operations in Liberia, Fasil Tezera, said: "The international response is finally getting off the ground.

"Isolation units in Monrovia and some other parts of the country now have adequate capacity and we must adapt the strategy if we want to stay ahead of the curve and beat the epidemic."

Sudden outbreaks of Ebola will continue to emerge in towns and villages in Liberia as the epidemic progresses.

Mr Tezera said: "Priority should be given to a more flexible approach that allows a rapid response to new outbreaks and gets the regular healthcare system safely up and running again."

Such teams would specialise in isolating patients, tracing those who came into contact with the sick, organising safe burials, decontamination and mobilising local communities.

US, Britain and other countries have been building treatment centres and training healthcare workers in the affected countries.

Hospitals

Alongside these teams, MSF called for efforts to support the few remaining hospitals in the country.

It is setting up Ebola screening points next to hospitals so that fear of Ebola does not force them to close.

In order to achieve their new strategy, MSF is calling on governments to be more flexible with the money they pledge to tackling Ebola.

Dr Nico Heijenberg, the MSF emergency coordinator, said: "Much of the international aid funding for the Ebola response is earmarked for specific projects.

"Instead, international donors and implementing organisations should deploy their resources with flexibility so that they can be used where they are needed most."

However, there remains concern that the number of cases could go up again in Liberia.

There have already been false dawns in Guinea, where the number of patients increased following earlier drops in hospital admissions.

Meanwhile in Liberia, President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf says four soldiers and their commanding officer will be punished after a boy was killed during protests against quarantine measures in Monrovia.

The boy was shot and others were injured in the incident in August.

A disciplinary board found the soldiers were "guilty of indiscretion and exhibited indiscipline".

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

12 November 2014

Ebola outbreak deaths pass 5,000

Posted Image
Health experts argue that the rate of new Ebola cases is more significant than the total death toll

The number of people killed by the worst outbreak of Ebola has risen to 5,160, the World Health Organization (WHO) says.

The frequency of new cases no longer appears to be increasing in Guinea and Liberia but remains high in Sierra Leone, the health agency added.

The Ebola outbreak is thought to have infected more than 14,000 people, almost all of them in West Africa.

The deaths of three more people in Mali have been reported in the past day.

"Transmission remains intense in Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone" and the frequency of new cases is still increasing in Sierra Leone, the WHO said in its situation report.

According to our correspondent Imogen Foulkes, the report suggests that the resources needed to contain the virus in Sierra Leone are not in place.

Only 19 of 53 planned treatment centres are operational, while out of the 370 trained burial teams required just 140 have begun work

Health experts have argued that the rate of new cases is more significant that the total death toll, as it reflects how fast the virus is spreading.

More than 2,830 people have died from Ebola in Liberia, with more than 1,100 deaths in both Guinea and Sierra Leone, the WHO said.

Mali has reported four deaths from Ebola, while there were eight reported Ebola deaths in Nigeria, and one in the US.

The total number of deaths has increased by 200 since the WHO's last situation report on 7 November.

______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________


Graphic showing cumulative death toll of latest Ebola outbreak

Posted Image
*Figures are occasionally revised down as suspect or probable cases are found to be unrelated to Ebola. Figures for Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea up to 9 November, while those for Mali, Nigeria and the US up to 11 November.

______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________


Workers on strike

Also on Wednesday, hundreds of health workers at an Ebola clinic in Sierra Leone went on strike, saying the government had failed to pay them an agreed weekly $100 (£63) "hazard payment".

The money was due to be paid in addition to salaries the staff receive from medical charity MSF, which runs the Ebola clinic.

The district medical officer says the staff will be paid on Friday for the first two weeks of November, the BBC's correspondent in Sierra Leone Umaru Fofana reports.

However, the backlog of payments is still being worked out, our correspondent adds.

On Wednesday afternoon, workers' representative Mohamed Mbawah said they had agreed to send a third of their staff back to the ward to offer minimal assistance "in the interest of the patients who are our people".

However, he stressed that the strike was still on, and said if the staff were not paid by Friday, "we still stop working completely".

Meanwhile, the US military said that it expected to send a total of 3,000 troops to Liberia to combat the Ebola outbreak.

The US had initially authorised up to 4,000 troops for the mission in Liberia.

However, Maj Gen Gary Volesky, who is leading the US military mission to fight Ebola in West Africa, told a Pentagon briefing there were a greater-than-expected number of contractors available in Liberia to provide support like construction work.

Source: Posted Image
Edited by skibboy, 13 Nov 2014, 12:34 AM.
Offline Profile Quote Post Goto Top
 
skibboy
Member Avatar

Ebola outbreak: 2nd person dies in Mali

By Faith Karimi and Marilia Brocchetto, CNN
November 12, 2014

Posted Image
Ebola vaccine clinical trials under way

(CNN) -- A nurse has died of Ebola in the Malian capital of Bamako, the health ministry said Wednesday, sparking fears that the nation has not yet defeated the deadly virus.

This is the second confirmed Ebola fatality in the West African country.

The first victim, a 2-year-old girl, died last month after she traveled to Mali with her grandmother from Guinea -- one of three countries hardest hit by the outbreak in the region.

The clinic where the nurse died has been quarantined, and the government has urged citizens to report suspected cases.

The first case prompted fears that the virus was spreading beyond Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea -- the three nations which have seen the most cases of Ebola.

Shortly after the toddler was diagnosed, dozens of people who came into contact with her were quarantined, including medical workers.

It's unclear whether the nurse was among those who were in contact with the child.

The virus has killed at least 4,960 people and infected more than 13,000, mostly in the three nations, according to the World Health Organization.

There is currently no cure or vaccine for Ebola.

As the world reels from the outbreak, scores of companies are fast-tracking tests for various vaccines, and hope to have millions of experimental doses by next year.

Scientists racing to stop the epidemic are trying various experimental drugs on patients, including ZMapp and TKM-Ebola.

Health care workers in affected nations will get the first opportunity to try the experimental vaccines, the WHO said.

Ebola is spread by direct contact with the bodily fluids of an infected person.

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

13 November 2014

Ebola outbreak: Liberia president lifts state of emergency

Posted Image
Liberia - along with Guinea and Sierra Leone - has been hit hard by the Ebola outbreak

Liberian President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf has lifted the state of emergency imposed to control an Ebola outbreak that has ravaged the country.

She said the move did not mean "the fight is over", although numbers of new infections were no longer increasing.

The confirmed death toll from the virus is now 5,160 people, almost all of them from Liberia, Guinea and Sierra Leone.

Meanwhile, clinical trials to find an effective treatment for Ebola are due to start in West Africa next month.

The medical charity Medicins Sans Frontieres (MSF), which has been helping lead the fight against the virus, says three of its treatment centres will host three separate research projects.

'New hotspots'

In nationwide address, President Johnson Sirleaf said that night curfews would be reduced and weekly markets could take place across Liberia.

Posted Image

She added that preparations were being made for the re-opening of schools.

The state of emergency imposed in August had allowed the local authorities to curb movement in the worst-hit areas of the country, including the capital Monrovia.

The lifting of the emergency comes after the World Health Organization (WHO) said "there is some evidence that case incidence is no longer increasing nationally in Guinea and Liberia".

However, some reports suggest that new fresh hotspots have emerged in Liberia, the Associated Press reports.

'Hope for patients'

In a separate development, MSF announced the new clinical trials: two in Guinea and another one in an unconfirmed location.

One trial will involve using the blood of recovered Ebola patients to treat sick people in the Guinean capital Conakry.

"This is an unprecedented international partnership which represents hope for patients to finally get a real treatment," said MSF spokeswoman Dr Annick Antierens.

About 400 people will take part in the trials, and they will be extended to other centres if the early results - expected in February 2015 - are promising.

The WHO announced in September that experimental treatments and vaccines for Ebola should be fast-tracked.

Two experimental vaccines, produced by GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) and the Public Health Agency of Canada, have already been fast-tracked into safety trials.

The GSK vaccine is being tested in Mali, the UK and the US. Research on the Canadian vaccine is also under way in the US.

Source: Posted Image
Offline Profile Quote Post Goto Top
 
1 user reading this topic (1 Guest and 0 Anonymous)
Go to Next Page
« Previous Topic · Disease · Next Topic »
Add Reply

Skin by OverTheBelow