China issues Ebola health guidelines

Source: Xinhua | August 24, 2014, Sunday |  

THE Chinese government has issued new guidelines on dealing with Ebola, in response to the ongoing epidemic in West Africa.
The National Health and Family Planning Commission on Thursday distributed to 31 provincial health departments a protocol for the diagnosis, treatment and fast response to the virus.
The document outlines the symptoms of the disease, and advises medical workers on how to handle suspected cases, treat confirmed cases and the circumstances under which a person might be released under observation.
On Tuesday, the commission issued similar guidelines to border control agencies on how to transfer suspected Ebola cases and people under medical observation.
Dong Xiaoping, a research fellow at the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention, said earlier this month that customs checks should be strengthened as the virus could enter China, but the possibility of an outbreak in the country is extremely low.
Also on Thursday, the commission banned Ebola-related experiments in the country without government approval.
It ordered virus nurturing and animal infection tests to be conducted only in labs with biosafety level-4 standards and that waste from Ebola experiments be sterilized prior to disposal.
Also, the packaging and transportation of Ebola samples must be done according to first-class standards, it said.
Ebola has killed more than 1,400 people in West Africa this year. The World Health Organization on Friday said the scale of the outbreak has been underestimated.  http://www.shanghaidaily.com/national/China-issues-Ebola-health-guidelines/shdaily.shtml

Briton In Sierra Leone Tests Positive For Ebola

5:46pm UK, Saturday 23 August 2014

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The Department of Health says a Briton living in Sierra Leone has tested positive for the ebola virus.

The Department of Health said medical experts were assessing the situation "to ensure that appropriate care is delivered" and that consular assistance was being provided.
Professor John Watson, deputy chief medical officer, said: "The overall risk to the public in the UK continues to be very low. Medical experts are currently assessing the situation in Sierra Leone to ensure that appropriate care is provided.
"We have robust, well-developed and well-tested NHS systems for managing unusual infectious diseases when they arise, supported by a wide range of experts."
Journalist Katie Mark, who has just returned from Sierra Leone where she travelled to a village at the epicentre of the outbreak, told Sky News that people in the country are sometimes too frightened to report the virus.
"There are not enough resources being put into stopping the spread of Ebola. If someone dies the body can be sitting there for up to eight days and in that time the disease can spread further.
There is not enough knowledge about the virus and people are scared to report it.
"They see ebola as a death sentence, that if the family is going to die they would rather they die at home. They do not realise that if they get treatment their chance of survival is greatly increased."
The current outbreak of ebola has lea to 2,615 confirmed cases and 1,427 deaths.
More follows...  http://news.sky.com/story/1323650/briton-in-sierra-leone-tests-positive-for-ebola

Briton living in Sierra Leone contracts Ebola virus

Last updated Sat 23 Aug 2014

A British national living in Sierra Leone has tested positive for the Ebola virus and is currently being assessed by medical experts, the Department of Health has said.
Professor John Watson, Deputy Chief Medical Officer, said:

The overall risk to the public in the UK continues to be very low. Medical experts are currently assessing the situation in Sierra Leone to ensure that appropriate care is provided.
We have robust, well-developed and well-tested NHS systems for managing unusual infectious diseases when they arise, supported by a wide range of experts.

– Professor John Watson, Deputy Chief Medical Officer
http://www.itv.com/news/update/2014-08-23/briton-living-in-sierra-leone-contracts-ebola-virus/ 

Possible Ebola patient quarantined at Maisonneuve-Rosemont Hospital

Hospital's infectious diseases department says precautions must be taken even if chance of Ebola is slim

A patient has been quarantined at Maisonneuve-Rosemont Hospital as a precaution after they exhibited some — but not all .The patient recently returned from a trip to West Africa and had a fever.

Maisonneuve-Rosemont Hospital quarantined the patient after they came back from West Africa exhibiting some symptoms of Ebola. (Radio-Canada)

The hospital issued a statement on Saturday morning saying that it had quarantined the patient as a precaution, although they believe the chances of the person actually having Ebola are quite slim.
Dr. Karl Weiss, chief of the hospital’s infectious diseases department, said the patient’s tests are being run through a lab in Winnipeg. He said the results would be announced as soon as they are returned to Maisonneuve-Rosemont Hospital.
"You can't take any chance, so this is what happened with someone who just returned from Guinea within the last 21 days, came to the hospital with fever and other general symptoms — non-specific symptoms —  and because of that we have no choice but to put in place a certain protocol and make sure," Weiss said.
He would not reveal any details about the patient, citing doctor-patient confidentiality.
Public health officials said they are following the possible cases of Ebola in Quebec very closely and that they have asked the entire health care network to be vigilant in identifying signs of the viral infection.  http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/montreal/possible-ebola-patient-quarantined-at-maisonneuve-rosemont-hospital-1.2744915

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In Freetown, the capital of Sierra Leone, public hospitals are on their knees. Only Emergency medical facilities are fully functional.

According to the latest report of the Ministry of Health of Sierra Leone, are 783 confirmed cases of Ebola in the country, only 20 in Freetown.
Nevertheless, in the capital area, our surgical center and our pediatric center were the only ones healthcare facilities fully functional.

The local children's hospital, Ola During Children's Hospital, is closed; the Connaught Hospital works in a discontinuous manner due to the absence of medical and nursing staff, frightened by the spread of the disease and the fear of contracting the virus. The last official report of the 'World Health Organization states that 52 health workers in the country were infected with the Ebola virus, 28 of them died.
Private hospitals are closed since last week: I'm not ready to deal with the emergency and have no obligation to remain open.

Because of the emergency Ebola, the already weak health system in Sierra Leone is collapsing. A suffer the consequences is the population that is unable to receive the care they need: malaria, typhoid, infections, surgical emergencies continue to be a daily problem for the population, but is no longer any kind of assistance in public health facilities.
In this emergency situation, we continue to provide surgical and pediatric, being the only point of reference was working in the city.

"Yesterday afternoon we received a 2 year old boy unconscious for cerebral malaria. Subjected We malaria treatment. Towards evening, when I finally was hemodynamically stable, we decided to move it to the 'Ola During Children's Hospital because our hospital was packed.
Upon our arrival, we found the gate closed: we were told that there was none, "says Luca Rolla, coordinator of the Program in Sierra Leone.
To provide care to the greatest number of children, even the guest normally dedicated to relatives of hospitalized patients has been temporarily transformed into a lane to increase the number of beds available.

The Military Hospital in Freetown Emergency asked to train the military on the use of personal protective equipment to treat patients potentially infected by the virus.
With the declaration of a state of emergency last July 30, in fact, Sierra Leone had decided to mobilize the military to ensure compliance with the security procedures for the prevention of the spread of Ebola.

Since the beginning of the epidemic, we isolated 6 patients Fortunately, none of which were affected by the virus. To cope with the danger of contagion, the staff keeps the utmost care in the use of protective devices: a surgical center in the risk of contact with biological fluids is very high. We have limited visits from relatives and we have set up two tents for shelter insulation where suspected cases.  https://translate.google.com/translate?sl=auto&tl=en&js=y&prev=_t&hl=en&ie=UTF-8&u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.emergency.it%2Fsierraleone%2Febola.html%3Futm_source%3Dtwitter%26utm_medium%3Dsocial%26utm_content%3Dallistante%26utm_campaign%3Dsierra-leone&edit-text=

Montreal patient being tested for Ebola virus

By The Canadian Press on August 23, 2014

MONTREAL - A patient has been placed in isolation at a Montreal hospital after showing symptoms consistent with the often deadly Ebola virus.
The director of infectious diseases at Maisonneuve-Rosemont Hospital says the man recently returned from Guinea, one of the West African countries hit by an outbreak of the virus.
Dr. Karl Weiss says test samples have been sent to the National Microbiology Laboratory in Winnipeg.
Weiss says the hospital has followed a strict protocol and other patients aren't at risk.
Earlier this month a patient at a hospital in Brampton, Ont. was also placed in isolation over fear the person had contracted the virus, but ended up testing negative.
More than 1,400 people have died so far in the largest Ebola outbreak on record.http://blackburnnews.com/bri-national/2014/08/23/montreal-patient-being-tested-for-ebola-virus/

Ebola: another patient raises doubts in Montreal

The Maisonneuve-Rosemont Hospital

Maisonneuve-Rosemont Hospital in Montreal placed a patient in isolation to conduct tests and make sure it did not contract Ebola, said the facility in a release Saturday.

The patient, who has symptoms of a fever, stayed in one of Africa's western regions, where the disease wreaked havoc in recent months.
"The authorities consider that it is very probable that it is a case of Ebola since the patient did not have all the criteria of infection, but want to eliminate any doubt as to a possible infection" may reads the statement.
This is not the first possible case of Ebola infection to be supported by the Canadian health authorities since the beginning of the crisis in the West Africa. Tests conducted there two weeks on a patient quarantined in Brampton, Ontario, in the end were negative.
The latest report of the World Health Organization indicates that the epidemic has killed 1,427 in West Africa so far. https://translate.google.com/translate?sl=auto&tl=en&js=y&prev=_t&hl=en&ie=UTF-8&u=http%3A%2F%2Fici.radio-canada.ca%2Fregions%2FMontreal%2F2014%2F08%2F23%2F001-cas-possible-ebola-maisonneuve-rosemont.shtml&edit-text=

President Jonathan Sick, Flown To Hospital In Germany??

Published On: Sat, Aug 23rd, 2014
Africa / Health | By NewsRescue

EBOLA: President Jonathan Sick, Flown To Hospital In Germany

• Panic over Ebola
• Nigeria’s health care system is kept in a deplorable state hence the affluent and government officials fly abroad for every headache or stomach upset

Contrary to official claims that President Goodluck Jonathan travelled to Germany on a private visit, LEADERSHIP authoritatively gathered yesterday that the president actually took ill and left for Germany to seek medical care.
Efforts to get a confirmation from the Presidency failed up until the time of going to press, as several calls to his spokesman, Dr Reuben Abati, did not go through and he didn’t respond to an email enquiry either.http://newsrescue.com/ebola-presiden...#axzz3BDuTy2Ca

WHO: Number of People Infected By Ebola Virus Could be Much Greater

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lmlQqtLIUGE

Health Officials Sending Ebola Advisories To U.S. Colleges - Cavuto

Concern Grows Over Spread of Ebola in Liberia: This Just In

Ebola: Liberia Food Distribution

Medics administered first aid to Shaki Kamara (far left) and two other young men before the 16-year-old was rushed to JFK and one other hospital before he finally bled to death at Redemption Hospital

Defense Officials Claim Shaki Kamara’s Corpse

Fri, 08/22/2014 - 22:16 admin

Under Tight Security

By: 

Yewa Sandy

The Ministry of Defense today whisked away the body of the late Shaki Kamara, 16, who was wounded by a stray bullet on Wednesday, August 20, 2014, during the West Point riot.
The teenagers’ body was seen wrapped in a white hospital bed sheet and protective plastic as it was being placed into a Striker Funeral Home vehicle.
Heavily armed security forces, including the Liberian National Police, stood by inside and around the hospital premises as they prepared to take his body away.
When asked by the Daily Observer as to why such tight security was needed for the removal of a teenager’s body, an officer, who asked not to be named stated, “It’s to make sure that no one tries taking the body away from us while we’re moving it.”
The late Shaki Kamara was admitted at Redemption hospital hours after he was allegedly wounded on August 20, 2014.
According to his uncle Favor Blamo, the teenager was shot in his right leg during an alleged stone throwing and gun shooting battle between residents of WestPoint and the AFL/LNP.
“ They fired at him on the legs, and he was brought to Redemption hospital on the same day. We went there and the hospital people said we should come later; and that’s how it’s been since we’ve been coming here,” the uncle explained.
It’s said by sources that the late Shaki had lost a lot of blood upon his arrival, and the family was told that he needed blood but to no avail.
“He died Thursday by 3pm. He bled for so long and ended up dying because of it. They requested for blood and no one was there to give him blood,” Mr. Blamo lamented.
The family said Shaki had first been taken to the J. F. Kennedy Medical Center in Sinkor, where he was refused treatment. They then took him to other hospitals, who also refused to treat him.
He was finally accepted at Redemption, where he lay in his pains, bleeding until he died.
His mother, Eva Nah, said she had sent her son to buy tea and bread in the morning. It was while returning that he was caught up in the melee in West Point Wednesday morning, when he was shot in both legs.
When Shaki’s sister, sent by her mother, Ms. Eva Nah, went to the Redemption Hospital to find her brother, she found him lying dead on the floor in a pool of blood, without having received any medical attention since the Wednesday morning when he was reportedly shot.
Photos in possession of the Observer show that at least two other young men sustained injuries, one to the stomach.
Today, a Redemption Hospital employee escorted our reporter onto the hospital’s premises to observe the removal of the late Shaki.
Two medical officials were seen wearing protective suits as they placed the corpse into the Striker funeral vehicle.
The Defense Ministry Deputy for Operations, St. Jerome Larbelee, upon identifying our reporter, seized her camera.
“I should arrest you,” he threatened our young female reporter. “Who told you to come here? The way things are done in America is not how we do them here. I have to make sure you don’t have anything in that camera that will interfere with what we are doing.”
According to our reporter, the Defense official stated that the operation of removing the late Shaki’s body was being done under tight security. “He said I shouldn’t have breached it,” the reporter told us.
Meanwhile, the family of the late Shaki claims they have been trying effortlessly to reclaim his body for burial since his demise.
Shaki’s sister, who went to the hospital to inquire about her brother’s body, told the Observer what authorities told her.
“I spoke with the Deputy Minister of Operations at Defense myself and told him that we wanted to see [Shaki’s] body while they were taking it away. I was told to go to my mother in West Point for any information that I wanted. My mother Mary, who Shaki was living with, said that they want to have a State burial for him.
“Small boy like that, why should he have a State burial? It’s not right. We should have right to his body,” Shaki’s sister, Evon Kamara, explained to the Daily Observer.
The late teenager’s aunt, who was also on the scene, confirmed Evon’s account of events. “They didn’t tell us anything. Police told us they came for body and also told us that they’re taking it to funeral home. They told us we can’t take it and government owns it. We begged and they refused,” Rachel Johnson told the Observer.
Meanwhile, the family has yet to understand why they have lost privileges to the body of the late Shaki Kamara. They have also stated that due to financial constraints, they were unable to follow the body to Striker Funeral Parlor immediately after his body was taken.
As for our reporter, she has yet to receive the items that were seized from her during her coverage of this story. Mr. Larbelee threatened to delete the footage on her camera before it could be returned. Higher ups at the Defense Ministry, however, upon intervention from their bosses, assured the Observer’s Managing Director, Kenneth Y. Best, that the camera would be returned intact. http://www.liberianobserver.com/security/defense-officials-claim-shaki-kamara%E2%80%99s-corpse

Manila pulling out troops from Liberia amid Ebola threat

Agencies

Published — Saturday 23 August 2014

Last update 23 August 2014 1:03 pm

MANILA: The Philippines on Saturday said it is withdrawing its peacekeeping troops from Liberia and will bring home its troops from the Golan Heights when their tour of duty ends in October.
Department of National Defense spokesman Peter Paul Galvez said the peacekeepers would be “repatriated as soon as possible” because of the worsening Ebola outbreak in West Africa that has killed almost 1,500 people...
“Amidst the volatile security environment in the Middle East and West African region, the Philippines prioritizes the safety and security of its troops, but remains committed to the peace keeping missions of the Union Nations,” Galvez said in a statement.
The Philippines has about 800 to 1,000 soldiers and police officers serving under the United Nations flag in conflict and disaster-stricken areas, including Haiti, Sudan, East Timor, Cote d’Ivoire and the Korean peninsula...
The Philippines has been sending soldiers to Liberia since 2003. A Philippine seaman is being monitored in Togo for signs of the disease but authorities say the country is still Ebola-free, despite dozens of workers returning from Liberia....
http://www.arabnews.com/news/world/619641

W. Point Victim’s Mom Wants Corpse; Ebola Patients in Limbo

Written by FPA Staff Report

Published: 23 August 2014

Monrovia - On Wednesday, a fracas between state security forces led by the Armed Forces of Liberia and Liberian National Police on one hand and some residents of West Point on the other led to shooting and throwing of stones and other objects leaving at least three wounded.

A 15-year-old-boy, Sackie Kamara wounded in both legs later died at the Redemption Hospital where he is said to have bled profusely prior to his death.

The Government of Liberia through defense Minister Brownie Samukai has said the boy sustained the injury from the stampede despite the images and videos showing that the wound in one of the boys’ legs was deep to be sustained through the stampede.

On Friday, Eva Nah, mother of the late Sackie said she is demanding that the government allow her to view the dead body of her son. Eva told FrontPageAfrica that on Wednesday morning she sent her son to buy tea for early morning breakfast only to hear later that he was shot by security officers.

“They fired my son, I just sent the boy to buy tea that morning and people telling me they fired my son, they don’t want me to see his body, I feel so bad”, Eva told FPA.

The grieving mother has said since the West Point Isolation center incident her son has not left the house until the shooting incident and is therefore demanding to have access to his body. West Point Community Chairman Paul Kieh also expressed frustration at the manner in which state security forces reacted to the incident which he said involved shooting live bullets at civilians.

“I believe more people got shot by the soldiers, but some are not known yet,” Kieh said. An uncle to Sackie who preferred to be called Gabriel also expressed anger at the action of state security forces. “They were just shooting not only in the air”, Gabriel said.

Early Friday morning, FPA received a call from West Point that another boy allegedly shot in the stomach was very ill and his father wanted to speak to the press, but before arrival, some neighbors said the boy and his father have left the area and he has been taken for treatment to an unknown location. The government has maintained through Minister Samukai that it did not mandate security forces to shoot and kill.

‘Superficial wound’ leads to death

On Wednesday Minister Samukai said the boy sustained the cut from the barbed wire that was used for the blockade. “The wound is a superficial wound, a wound in which the individual was jumping or was running or through the stampede wounded himself,” said Samukai.

“The intention was not to harm anyone but just to keep the crowd away, instead of the crowd stoning and trying to hurt. Understand that people are beating up health workers and they have attacked a police vehicle and attacked security personnel. We cannot sit there, that is why we issued the warning shots to keep them away.”

The Armed Forces of Liberia, Public Affairs Officer Dessaline Allison admitted that there was shooting in the air to disperse the crowd and three persons got wounded.
State radio, the Liberia Broadcasting System is defending that the boy died from stampede and was not shot with live bullets.

No space for 23 suspected Ebola patients

In a related Ebola development, FPA gathered late Saturday that six ambulances filled with suspected Ebola patients collected from several communities around Monrovia could not get space at both the JFK and ELWA Ebola centers.

An individual on one of the ambulances, Gordon Kamara said the six ambulances with 23 suspected Ebola patients were all parked at ELWA with no space and said three died on the scene. Kamara said a three month old baby and his mother were amongst the suspected Ebola patients waiting to be attended to. http://frontpageafricaonline.com/index.php/politic/2755-w-point-victim-s-mom-demands-son-s-corpse-ebola-patients-wander

Ecowas to hold emergency meeting over Ebola in Accra

Despite a three-month moratorium on all international conferences in Ghana, an emergency meeting of the Authority of Heads of State and Government of the Economic Community of West African States (Ecowas) is likely to be held in Accra.

That meeting will be held “if it is necessary” and will follow a meeting of the sub-region's health ministers.

This was disclosed by President John Dramani Mahama on Friday, August 22 when he welcomed the Executive Director of the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV and AIDS (UNAIDS) to the Flagstaff House, Kanda... http://www.ghanaweb.com/GhanaHomePage/NewsArchive/artikel.php?ID=322580

Katie Couric Interviews the President of Liberia About the Country's Ebola Crisis

http://news.yahoo.com/video/katie-couric-interviews-president-liberia-170226060.html

Katie Couric News Video 23:23 mins

Yahoo Global News Anchor Katie Couric spoke with Liberia's President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf regarding the Ebola outbreak in her country.

Monrovia crematorium cannot cope with Ebola surge: Red Cross

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Monrovia's crematorium, seen on August 14, 2014

Monrovia (AFP) - The crematorium in the Liberian capital Monrovia is struggling to deal with the dozens of Ebola victims whose bodies are being brought each day, the Red Cross said Thursday.

Fayah Tamba, the secretary-general of the Liberian division of the charity, said workers were having to return corpses to a hospital in the city after being told there was not the capacity to cremate all the victims.

She told a local radio station that she believes it may now be necessary for international organisations to take over responsibility for handling the crisis from the national authorities.

Liberia has seen the biggest toll among the four west African countries hit by Ebola, with 576 deaths from 972 diagnosed cases to date.

Speaking just hours before a UN-appointed doctor was due to arrive in the region to help combat the spread of the disease, Tamba said that Liberia also needed help to deal with the dead.

"We are constrained... On Saturday our team was able to collect up to 41 bodies. On Sunday they collected up to 37 bodies. The crematorium did not have the capacity to cremate all these bodies, so we had to... carry them (back) to ELWA," the hospital in the capital, she told a local radio station.

"The next morning we had to make sure to carry these bodies to the crematorium and make sure they were cremated before we could start collecting new ones," she said.

She suggested that international assistance might now also be helpful as the country struggles to contain the outbreak.

"As it is today, based on our experience, when you have a situation of this calamity, of this magnitude, we think it is important for us to have an international organisation that will coordinate the humanitarian intervention," she said.

Her comments came after a chaotic day in Liberia's capital on Wednesday, with violence erupting in an Ebola quarantine zone after soldiers opened fire and used tear gas on protesting crowds.

Liberian President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf had ordered a nightime curfew and the quarantine of Monrovia's West Point slum and Dolo Town, to the east of the capital, in a bid to stem the outbreak.

According to the latest figures from the World Health Organization, the Ebola outbreak -- the worst ever-recorded -- has killed at least 1,350 people, 576 in Liberia, 396 in Guinea, and 374 in Sierra Leone. http://news.yahoo.com/monrovia-crematorium-cannot-cope-ebola-surge-red-cross-181407311.html

Ecuador: Government reports "cases of hemorrhagic fever of unknown origin"

published there 11 minutes, | Last Update August 22, 2014 at 7:17

Haemorrhagic fever of unknown origin killed 13 people, including five members of the medical profession, to Djerba, in the territory of Boende, Equateur province. The Health Minister, Felix Kabange Numbi, announced Friday, Aug. 22, in Kinshasa. He held a press conference after staying in the health areas affected by the disease. According to the Minister Kabange this hemorrhagic fever was preceded by an outbreak of malaria and bloody diarrhea, which killed more than 60 people in this region.
"We arrived at Boende and we went in the sector Djera, which is the most affected. We can say here that there are suspected cases of hemorrhagic fever of unknown origin, "he said.
Among the 13 victims of hemorrhagic fever, there is one doctor, two nurses hold, a medical officer and a waiter.
Kabange Numbi assured that the DRC government has taken all measures to stop the chain of infection.
"We have distributed protective equipment in all four health areas concerned, we have drugs to them. And we began to monitor cases pending laboratory results, "said he said.
Eight samples were deposited at the National Institute of Biomedical Research (INRB) and samples will also be sent in Franceville, Gabon, for quality control, the minister said, assuring that the situation is under control.
"We hope that in 7-8 days to come, we will have the diagnosis. I want to assure you that Boende, it's quiet. There is no panic, "Has he said.
Onsite Boende, commission communication was established to inform enough people about hygiene measures to deal with this epidemic.  https://translate.googleusercontent.com/translate_c?depth=1&hl=en&ie=UTF8&prev=_t&rurl=translate.google.com&sl=auto&tl=en&u=http://radiookapi.net/actualite/2014/08/22/equateur-le-gouvernement-signale-des-cas-de-fievre-hemorragique-dorigine-indeterminee/&usg=ALkJrhgDGyJuk9tBuPiVE8MaEDnJnzXthA

Phuket Airport reports 7 people arriving from Ebola-hit countries

Added by TN on August 22, 2014.BANGKOK, 22 August 2014 (NNT) – Authorities at Phuket International Airport are on a lookout for more suspected Ebola cases as special monitoring is being kept on seven passengers who recently arrived at the airport from Ebola-affected countries.
According to the supervisor of the disease control checkpoint at Phuket International Airport, joint efforts have been made with airport immigration officials since August 1 in screening arriving passengers for records of travel to West African countries hit by an Ebola outbreak, namely Guinea, Liberia, Sierra Leone and Nigeria.  http://www.thailandnews.co/2014/08/phuket-airport-reports-7-people-arriving-from-ebola-hit-countries/

Senegal closes border as UN warns on Ebola flare-up

Senegal has become the latest country to seal its border with a west African neighbour to ward off the deadly Ebola virus, as the new UN pointman on the epidemic said preparations must be made for a possible flare-up of the disease.

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A Liberian soldier watches as policemen deploy in Monrovia's West Point slum as part of quarantine measures to contain the spread of Ebola. (AFP/Zoom Dosso)

DAKAR: Senegal has become the latest country to seal its border with a west African neighbour to ward off the deadly Ebola virus, as the new UN pointman on the epidemic said preparations must be made for a possible flare-up of the disease.
Senegal's decision to close its land border with Guinea, announced by the interior ministry on Thursday (Aug 21), is part of intensifying efforts to contain the outbreak that has killed 1,350 people since March in Guinea, Liberia, Nigeria and Sierra Leone.
David Nabarro, a British physician who the United Nations appointed last week to coordinate the global response to the crisis, was in the Liberian capital Monrovia on Friday for the second day of a tour of the region.
"We're either close to a plateau, but then we'll drop, or we're in a phase - an inflexion point - where it is going to increase, and I absolutely cannot tell," Nabarro told AFP during a stopover at Conakry airport en route to Monrovia.
He said he was determined to "ensure that every piece of our apparatus is at its optimum so it could deal possibly with a flare-up if that's necessary". Nabarro is also due to visit Freetown, Conakry and Abuja in Nigeria during the trip, where he is tasked with revitalising the health sectors of Ebola-hit countries.
Authorities have been hampered in their fight against Ebola by the deaths of several top health officials and numerous frontline doctors to the virus. However, two American missionaries who contracted Ebola while treating patients in Liberia and were taken to the US for treatment, have left hospital after making a full recovery.
Kent Brantly, 33, and Nancy Writebol, 60, were given experimental drugs before being airlifted to a hospital in Atlanta where they were treated for the last three weeks.
"The discharge from the hospital of both these patients poses no public health threat," said Bruce Ribner, director of Emory Hospital's Infectious Disease Unit.
LIBERIA CREMATORIUM OVERFLOWS
Liberia, which has seen the biggest toll in this epidemic with 576 deaths, has witnessed chaotic scenes in recent days following a surge in cases.
The Red Cross said the crematorium in Monrovia was struggling to deal with the dozens of bodies being brought in each day. Workers were having to return corpses to a hospital in the city because they "did not have the capacity to cremate all the bodies", Fayah Tamba, the head of the charity's Liberian office, told a local radio station.
Her comments came a day after troops used tear gas to disperse protesting crowds after President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf ordered a night-time curfew and quarantine zone in Monrovia's West Point slum and Dolo Town, to the east of the capital.
Fear of the virus spreading to other continents has seen flights to the region cancelled, and authorities around the world have adopted measures to screen travellers arriving from affected nations.
Air France is one of the few airlines running daily routes to and from Sierra Leone. On a flight this week from Freetown to Paris, via the Guinean capital Conakry, fear of the virus was ubiquitous.
"I had to close my textile shop and return to China," said Wu Guo Gang, 60, on the flight with his wife. "Many Chinese are leaving. If they stay, they may die.”
The couple is leaving behind a business in Freetown as well as their family home. They said they would stay with their son in southern China until the crisis was over.
Other passengers spoke of having to pay for costly diversions due to the many airlines not travelling to the region.
DR CONGO FEVER
UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon's special representative for Liberia, Karin Landgren, said West Africa was in urgent need of international medical personnel as well as basic supplies including chlorine, gloves and body bags.
"Health-care systems in the most affected countries were weak before the outbreak. Now they are overwhelmed," she said.
Meanwhile, as fears grow that the outbreak will spread across Africa and beyond, DR Congo's Health Minister Felix Kabange Numbi said a haemorrhagic fever of unknown origin had killed 13 people in the country's northwest in the past two weeks.
"All 13 people who have died suffered from a fever, diarrhoea, vomiting and, in a terminal stage, of vomiting a black matter," he said.
The first victim was a pregnant woman and the 12 others - including five medics - died after coming into contact with her. About 80 people who had contact with the deceased are also under observation. Samples taken from the victims are to be tested to find the exact strain of the pathogen and results are expected in a week.  http://www.channelnewsasia.com/news/health/senegal-closes-border-as/1325522.html

Possible case of Ebola in Catalonia

Barcelona (ACN) .- The Department of Health of the Government has detected a possible case of Ebola in Catalonia, according to a press announcement urgently called for at half past six in the evening. The press conference will take place at the Public Health Agency of Catalonia, Roc Boronat the streets of Barcelona, where will all the details of the case. It was unclear where the event would have taken place, under what circumstances or what hospital the patient is admitted. So far there have been several warnings for possible cases of Ebola in different parts of the state, but all were negative.

[link to acn.cat]

Ebola spreads in Liberia, the UN and MSF are preparing for a worsening

August 22, 2014 0

Monrovia - The United Nations and Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) were preparing Friday to risk of a new outbreak of the Ebola outbreak in Liberia, where the virus has now spread to the whole country.

The recently installed MSF center in Monrovia, Liberia's capital, is still being expanded to almost quadruple its capacity, found the AFP correspondents.
"We currently have about 60 patients for a capacity of 120 beds, so we still have some space," said an on-site coordinator for MSF, Henry Gray.
"And we are now expanding our site. In the next 10 days we hope to have a site up to 400 patients, "he said.
The coordinator of the UN against the epidemic, Dr. David Nabarro, said Thursday AFP to set a target to health facilities in the state of "power face an outbreak if necessary" added at the beginning of his tour in the four affected countries (Liberia, Guinea, Sierra Leone, Nigeria).
The British epidemiologist, arrived in the night in Monrovia, where he was to hold a press conference at the end of the afternoon, said not being able to predict whether the spread peaked and would continue to increase.
As an early response bleak, cases have been discovered in the area alone until spared southeastern Liberia, near the border with Côte d'Ivoire.
The union's general secretary of Health Services, George Williams, reported "two dead Gbokon-jelee" a city that attracts many gold dealers across Liberia and even Ivory Coast, noting that "It was the last region untouched by Ebola."
The medical officer in the region, George Daouda, confirmed a confirmed Ebola cases.
"The health systems of the major countries affected were low before the outbreak of the epidemic. Now they are overwhelmed, "said the Special Representative of the UN Secretary General for Liberia, Karin Landgren, noting the lack of hygiene equipment and protection.
- Get into the cradle of Ebola -
In Sierra Leone, the parliament passed emergency legislation punishing with imprisonment up to two years who 'hides contaminated with Ebola patient or other contagious disease of same nature. "
"We are dismayed by the slow response of some of our development partners, and the abandonment and isolation imposed by those we considered to be our best friends at the subregional, regional and global," said the Head of the parliamentary majority, Ibrahim Bundu. He was referring to the border closure by several African countries, including Senegal and South Africa.
Russia joined the international mobilization: a plane of the Russian Ministry of Emergency Situations carrying a team of virologists and a mobile laboratory arrived Friday in Conakry, capital of Guinea.
A new concern has emerged on the mainland, in, from the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), in Equateur province (northwest) where the Ebola virus was discovered in 1976.
The government announced Thursday the deaths of 13 people, victims of a "hemorrhagic fever of unknown origin" since August 11.
But WHO and MSF was premature to blame hemorrhagic fever.
"Many died with bleeding symptoms, but it also has severe malaria who can give these symptoms, or typhoid fever," told AFP on condition of anonymity, an official of the WHO based in Kinshasa.
Sampling was carried out and the results are expected "in seven days," according to Congolese Health Minister Felix Kabange Numbi.
"In the region of Ecuador, there is an outbreak of febrile gastroenteritis with hemorrhage", said a spokesman for the WHO in Geneva, Fadela Chaib.
Nigeria, the least affected, with five deaths for 14 cases, nevertheless announced two new cases, "the first two secondary contamination," the wives of men who have been in contact with the Liberian official who introduced the virus into the the most populous country in Africa.
This unprecedented epidemic in the history of Ebola has killed at least 1,350 people, including 576 in Liberia, Guinea and 374 396 in Sierra Leone, according to the latest report of WHO, ended Aug. 18. https://translate.google.com/translate?sl=auto&tl=en&js=y&prev=_t&hl=en&ie=UTF-8&u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.sene24h.com%2Finternational%2Febola-setend-au-liberia-lonu-et-msf-se-preparent-a-une-aggravation%2F&edit-text=

Why the Ebola outbreak has been underestimated

Situation assessment - 22 August 2014

The magnitude of the Ebola outbreak, especially in Liberia and Sierra Leone, has been underestimated for a number of reasons.
Many families hide infected loved ones in their homes. As Ebola has no cure, some believe infected loved ones will be more comfortable dying at home.
Others deny that a patient has Ebola and believe that care in an isolation ward – viewed as an incubator of the disease – will lead to infection and certain death. Most fear the stigma and social rejection that come to patients and families when a diagnosis of Ebola is confirmed.
These are fast-moving outbreaks, creating challenges for the many international partners providing support. Quantities of staff, supplies, and equipment, including personal protective equipment, cannot keep up with the need. Hospital and diagnostic capacities have been overwhelmed.
Many treatment centres and general clinics have closed. Fear keeps patients out and causes medical staff to flee.
In rural villages, corpses are buried without notifying health officials and with no investigation of the cause of death. In some instances, epidemiologists have travelled to villages and counted the number of fresh graves as a crude indicator of suspected cases.
In parts of Liberia, a phenomenon is occurring that has never before been seen in an Ebola outbreak. As soon as a new treatment facility is opened, it is immediately filled with patients, many of whom were not previously identified. This phenomenon strongly suggests the existence of an invisible caseload of patients who are not being detected by the surveillance system.
For example in Monrovia, Liberia’s capital, an Ebola treatment centre with 20 beds, which opened last week, was immediately overwhelmed with more than 70 patients.
An additional problem is the existence of numerous “shadow-zones”. These are villages with rumours of cases and deaths, with a strong suspicion of Ebola as the cause, that cannot be investigated because of community resistance or lack of adequate staff and vehicles.
In some areas, most notably Monrovia, virtually all health services have shut down. This lack of access to any form of health care contributed to the mobbing incident on Saturday at an Ebola holding facility in the West Point township, Liberia’s most disease-prone slum.
Rumours spread that the holding facility, hastily set up by local authorities in an abandoned schoolhouse, was actually a clinic for general health care. People from other communities brought their ailing family members there, where they were housed together with suspected Ebola patients.
The presence of patients from these other communities was resented by the West Point community, and this resentment contributed to the riot and subsequent looting, in which potentially contaminated materials were carried into these communities.
WHO epidemiologists in Sierra Leone and Liberia are working with other agencies, including Médecins Sans Frontières (Doctors without Borders) and the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, to produce more realistic estimates and thus communicate the true magnitude of needs. http://www.who.int/mediacentre/news/ebola/22-august-2014/en/

Nigeria confirms two new cases of Ebola, 14 in total

Fri Aug 22, 2014 12:21pm GMT

 

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LAGOS (Reuters) - Nigeria confirmed two new cases of Ebola, both in patients who caught the disease from people who were primary contacts of the Liberian man who first brought it to Lagos, the health minister said on Friday.
The total number of recorded cases in the country is now 14, Health Minister Onyebuchi Chukwu told a news conference. http://af.reuters.com/article/topNews/idAFKBN0GM12K20140822

Ecuador: the unknown disease has killed 10 more

  Last Update August 22, 2014 at 7:56

Residents Twa (pygmy) Bikoro near Lake Tumba, in Ecuador, in 2005.

The unidentified illness plaguing the territory Boende in Equateur province has a total of 75 deaths, ten more than the previous record. Provincial authorities announced Thursday, Aug. 21. The delegation led by the Minister of Health and Acting Governor of Ecuador was still Watsikengo Thursday in the area of ​​health Djera, 25 kilometers Boende-center. In Mbandaka, the provincial capital, a crisis meeting was held. The meeting was attended by the Minister of Budget, Gertrude Ndjoli Bekombe, the provincial medical inspector, Franck Boembi, and representatives of public institutions, civil society and humanitarian partners.
The aim was to establish a committee of provincial struggle to cope with the disaster.
The last two victims of this disease were recorded Wednesday Watsikengo, said the interim medical inspector, Dr. Franck Boembi.
The latter still talking about a situation of alert in the province, pending the results of analysis of samples sent to the National Institute for Biomedical Research (INRB) in Kinshasa.
Another suspect case would be registered in Bongondjo area, Mbandaka. The husband of a 37-year old victim says his wife had a high fever and blood flows before dying. But no samples were taken from the body of the victim, buried immediately after his death.

Hygiene
Dr. Franck Boembi held recalled the essential hygiene collective and individual to deal with this crisis:
"You have to clean their hands after visiting the toilet and before eating; for moms, after changing the baby's diapers. And before any activity, always wash his hands. "
Participants at the crisis meeting further supported isolation of health areas affected by this disease, and the allocation of protective kits to caregivers.
Gertrude Ndjoli, inter alia, invited the media to convey messages of awareness about this disease.
"That there are not too many rallies. Avoid anything that is mourning, or going to touch the body of the deceased, "said she recommended. 

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DRC: results from the "unknown disease" is heavier than 75 dead

Published Friday, August 22, 2014 2:31 p.m.

Seventy-five people have died of an unidentified disease that is a hemorrhagic fever "of unknown origin" in Equateur province (north-west of the Democratic Republic of Congo), said Friday the UN radio Okapi citing provincial authorities.

This estimate is much higher than the one given Thursday by the Congolese Minister of Health, Dr. Felix Kabange Numbi.

Radio Okapi, a UN-sponsored, was reported Thursday in the death of 65 people in about four weeks in the health area Djera in the areas of health Wetsikengo, Lokalia Wafanya and in the territory of Boende a town about 300 km east of Mbandaka, the capital of Equateur province.

This "unknown disease" made ten more deaths, said Friday the radio.

A spokesman at the headquarters of the World Health Organization (WHO) in Geneva, Gregory Härtl has about him reported "cases of gastroenteritis."

According to Mr Numbi, some 80 people who were in contact with the deceased patients are followed at home.

The appearance of this disease comes amid an outbreak of Ebola hemorrhagic fever unprecedented since the emergence of the virus in 1976 - when two simultaneous outbreaks in Sudan and the DRC (then Zaire) - killed at least 1,350 dead on 2.473 cases in four countries in West Africa (Liberia, Sierra Leone, Guinea and most recently Nigeria).
Too early to talk about deadly hemorrhagic fever, according to WHO and MSF

It is too early to say that it is a hemorrhagic fever that has killed at least thirteen - or 75, according to UN radio Okapi - people in the northwest of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) warned Friday WHO and Doctors Without Borders (MSF).

"Many died with bleeding symptoms, but it also has severe malaria who can also give these symptoms, or typhoid fever," said an official of the World Health Organization (WHO) based in Kinshasa under the condition of anonymity told AFP.

"We are still waiting biological confirmations to determine what kind of disease it is," he told AFP Amandine Colin, communications officer for MSF in Kinshasa, whose teams are present in the affected area, Boende territory of the Province of Ecuador (northwest).

The Congolese Minister of Health, Dr. Felix Kabange Numbi said Thursday AFP that "13 people have died since August 11 hemorrhagic fever of unknown origin," stressing that it presented "in terminally ill, vomiting of blackish material. "

Samples have been taken and should be treated at the National Institute of Biomedical Research (INRB) and the laboratory in Franceville, Gabon, to determine the exact origin of the disease. "We should have the results in seven days," the minister said.
Friday, the death toll remained "unchanged", said Dr. Kabange Numbi told AFP, while the UN radio Okapi reported a record 75 deaths.

Lokolia and Watsikengo, distant thirty miles, are the epicenters of the disease. The authorities have created commissions to the patient monitoring, hygiene, sanitation and safe burials.  http://translate.google.com/translate?hl=en&sl=auto&tl=en&u=http%3A%2F%2F7sur7.cd%2Findex.php%2F8-infos%2F8473-rdc-le-bilan-de-la-maladie-inconnue-s-alourdit-a-75-morts%23.U_dU8rH3dac

70 die from illness in Congo, WHO denies Ebola link

Published August 21, 2014

At least 70 people have died in northern Democratic Republic of Congo from an outbreak of hemorrhagic gastroenteritis, the World Health Organization said on Thursday, denying that the illness was Ebola.
A WHO report dated Thursday and seen by Reuters said that 592 people had contracted the disease, of whom 70 died. Five health care workers, including one doctor, are among the dead.
"This is not Ebola," a WHO spokesman said in an email to Reuters on Thursday.
A local priest who asked not to be named said that the illness had affected several villages and estimated that the death toll was over 100 people.
Kinshasa sent its health minister, Felix Kabange Numbi, and a team of experts on Wednesday to the region after reports of several deaths.
The outbreak began in the remote jungle province of Equateur where the first case of Ebola was reported in 1976, prompting speculation that it was the same illness that has killed more than 1,350 people in an outbreak now raging in West Africa.
Symptoms of the two diseases are similar; they include vomiting, diarrhoea and internal bleeding. But the fatality rate for this outbreak of haemorrhagic gastroenteritis is much lower than the West Africa Ebola outbreak, at around 12 percent versus close to 60 percent.
The WHO, which sent representatives to the area on Wednesday together with the Congolese team of experts, said four samples would be flown from the town of Boende on Friday to the capital Kinshasa for further testing.
Medical charity MSF said it had also sent a team to Equateur province to assess the situation. MSF said it was too early to confirm what the disease was. http://www.foxnews.com/health/2014/08/21/70-die-from-illness-in-congo-who-denies-ebola-link/

Suspected Irish Ebola Case 'From Sierra Leone'

7:50pm UK, Thursday 21 August 2014

A man in Ireland who medics suspect may have died from Ebola is understood to have come from Sierra Leone, Sky sources have said.

The suspected victim was a father of one aged between 43 and 45 was thought to have originally been from the Mountcharles area, outside Donegal town, County Donegal.
He was visiting his large family in Co Donegal when he was taken ill having previously been living in Dublin.
Local people said the man may have been receiving treatment for malaria when he died. 
It is understood he had recently returned from Sierra Leone.
One source said he had been working in the west African country for a telecommunications company and had returned within the last couple of weeks.  http://news.sky.com/story/1322708/suspected-irish-ebola-case-from-sierra-leone



...The man’s body has been isolated in the morgue of Letterkenny General Hospital.
A HSE statement said: “The appropriate national guidelines, in line with international best practice, are being followed by the public health team dealing with the situation. This means that the body of the deceased has been isolated to minimise the potential spread of any possible virus. Blood samples have been sent for laboratory testing to confirm whether or not this individual had contracted Ebola virus disease.
“Until a diagnosis is confirmed, and as a precautionary measure, the individual’s remains will stay in the mortuary pending the laboratory results which are expected late tomorrow... http://www.newsletter.co.uk/news/health/ebola-probe-after-man-s-body-found-in-donegal-1-6254741

DRC-unknown disease kills 65 people in 4 weeks Djera

Ecuador: an unknown disease kills 65 people in 4 weeks Djera

published there 12 hours, 9 minutes | Last Update August 21, 2014 at 9:35 |

The Minister of Public Health, Felix Kabange Numbi on 31/05/2013 in Kinshasa, during the official launch ceremony of the acceleration of the reduction of maternal mortality and child in the DRC framework. Radio Okapi / Ph. John Bompengo

An unidentified disease has killed 65 people in about 4 weeks in the area of ​​health Djera, Tshuapa district, 25 kilometers Boende-center in the province of Ecuador. The Minister of Public Health, Felix Kabange Numbi, the acting governor of Ecuador, Sébastien Impeto, as well as experts from the World Health Organization (WHO) arrived Wednesday, August 20 at Boende to investigate this disease, and care for patients.
Health sources on the ground say they have been alerted since July on a contagious disease that affects three areas of health Wetsikengo, Lokalia and Wafanya in Boende territory. The disease is characterized by severe diarrhea, fever and vomiting. According to the same health sources, four nurses, who cared for the sick, are among the victims.
Moreover, the disease would progress to the locality of Wetsikengo near Tshuapa River.
Teams of WHO and the health zone Boende, rushed to the scene, took samples which are being analyzed at the National Institute of Biomedical Research (INRB) in Kinshasa.
Pending the results of the examinations, the Minister Felix Kabange Numbi pledged to send another team of doctors in the health area of ​​Djera, about twenty miles of Boende.
This mission will still resample that will, from this weekend, to have more details on this illness, he said. https://translate.googleusercontent.com/translate_c?depth=1&hl=en&ie=UTF8&prev=_t&rurl=translate.google.com&sl=auto&tl=en&u=http://radiookapi.net/actualite/2014/08/21/equateur-mal-inconnu-fait-65-morts-en-4-semaines-djera/&usg=ALkJrhhGnjbNDlNzZ8FCnyu5zzR3QpMfSA

Death was to be expected, say doctors who treated ebola-infected priest in Spain

The team who looked after Miguel Pajares in Madrid say hardest part was lack of direct contact

• Priest brought back to Spain after contracting ebola dies in Madrid hospital

EFE 21 AGO 2014 - 18:07 CEST

Left to right: Doctors Germán Ramírez, Marta Arsuaga, Fernando de la Calle and Mar Lago treated Spanish ebola patient Miguel Pajares. / Kiko Huesca (EFE)

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The death of Spanish missionary Miguel Pajares from the ebola virus in Madrid was “to be expected” even though doctors fought to save his life “to the very end,” medics who treated him at the capital’s Carlos III Hospital have said.
Speaking to news agency Efe about being the first doctors to treat an ebola patient in Europe, tropical disease specialists Marta Arsuaga and Fernando de la Calle Prieto said that at first they hoped he might pull through despite the virus’s 80 percent mortality rate, since he was being treated in a more advanced health system.
For five days, the team managed to keep 75-year-old Pajares, who had been brought back to Spain after contracting the virus working in a hospital in Liberia, alive. “At that moment we all wanted him to pull through so badly ... but it is a very serious virus and the end was to be expected,” said Arsuaga.

Doctors have asked for the “utmost calm” from Spaniards

The hardest part about the treatment, she added, was the fact that they were unable to come into direct physical contact with the patient, as ebola can spread through touch. This meant wearing special suits to perform tasks such as keeping Pajares clean and checking his vital signs.
Just putting on the suit took 15 minutes, and taking it off took even longer because great care had to be taken not to touch any part of it. Both operations were performed inside a security lock separating the “clean” area from the “dirty” area where Pajares fought the infection.
Weariness would set in every half an hour. “The more time you spend in there, the higher the risk of making a mistake. That is why there were so many personnel at hand,” said Arsuaga.
Patient and doctors communicated through an intercom system.
De la Calle Prieto added that even Pajares’ tissue samples could not be analyzed the usual way in a lab. This forced doctors to rely on other “signs” that are typically used in traditional medicine.

Just putting on the safety suit took 15 minutes, and taking it off even longer

Asked whether the priest should have remained in Liberia rather than risk spreading ebola in Spain, the doctors said it had not been their decision to make.
“We came across a patient with ebola and we did the job we are trained to do. Why he was brought over, or whether it was right or wrong, has to do with existing agreements,” says Arsuaga.
Doctors also asked for the “utmost calm” from Spaniards and said it was “highly unlikely” that another confirmed case of ebola would be transferred to Spain, making the probability of the disease becoming infectious here “practically” zero.
As for the nun who was flown in along with Pajares, Juliana Bonoha, doctors have confirmed that so far she has not developed the disease and remains under close observation. http://elpais.com/elpais/2014/08/21/inenglish/1408630370_306675.html