Threat of Ebola outbreak highest at big US airports, alliance says

A non-profit organization has developed global maps using airline flight route data to calculate and predict the potential arrival of Ebola hemorrhagic fever virus from infected travellers in West Africa.

The EcoHealth Alliance has collected data from flight schedules from infected countries Liberia, Guinea, Sierra Leone, and Nigerian, along with data from Morocco, and Ghana, and found the highest risk countries for the Ebola outbreak in West Africa, are the US and much of Europe.
EcoHealth Alliance's modeling team says New York's JFK International Airport, Washington Dulles International Airport, Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport, Houston's George Bush Intercontinental Airport and Boston Logan International Airport are at highest risk - as they are the top US airports with direct flight arrivals from the region.
Dr William Karesh, executive vice president of health and policy at EcoHealth Alliance, comments: “It's easy to point the finger at wildlife as the reservoirs of disease, but the real culprit in this scenario is human interaction with wildlife from bushmeat hunting, illegal wildlife trade, habitat destruction and deforestation.”
The global maps prepared by EcoHealth Alliance scientists explain how Ebola may spread via international flight routes, and the alliance says other countries most at risk include the UK, Netherlands, Germany, France, Switzerland, Denmark, Portugal, Austria, Ireland, Italy, Spain, Senegal, Ghana, Gambia, Israel, UAE, Qatar, and Japan.
The EcoHealth Alliance says the capacity of diseases to spread via traveling passengers varies significantly and scientists cannot predict the actual date or times of the plausible arrival of the Ebola virus via an infected traveller.
Scientists can estimate the relative risk of the virus spreading from country to country by identifying the most direct entry points.
Many gateways across the globe have already taken out measures to prevent the disease, by banning flights from East African countries, and carrying out health screening checks on passengers arriving on flights.
Last week, the World Health Organization (WHO) declared the Ebola outbreak in West Africa to be an international public health emergency. http://www.airport-world.com/news/general-news/4294-threat-of-ebola-outbreak-highest-at-big-us-airports-health-alliance-says.html

Ebola outbreak worsens

Added on August 15, 2014CNN's David McKenzie talks about dire warnings coming from aid agencies comparing the Ebola crisis to virtual war zones.
http://www.cnn.com/video/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+rss%2Fcnn_freevideo+%28RSS%3A+Video%29#/video/world/2014/08/15/id-mckenzie-ebola-update.cnn 

Ebola epidemic halts Ivory Coast calls

15 Aug 2014

Port authorities fear the Ebola outbreak could reach Abidjan

The African ports of Abidjan and San Pedro in Ivory Coast are thought to be the first to deny entry to vessels arriving from a country which is experiencing an outbreak of Ebola.

With the virus disease spreading fast, Port autonome d’Abidjan (PAA) has made the decision to turn vessels away until further notice, and nearby San Pedro has now followed suit.
In addition, PAA is asking that any vessel which has an ill person onboard, particularly if the symptoms are similar to those caused by Ebola, should report so to the port authorities, regardless of whether the vessel came from a port in a country suffering an outbreak or not.
Vessels that report any incident to the port authorities may be subjected to up to 21 days quarantine.
At San Pedro, vessels are being asked to disclose a report of their latest sanitary control and photocopies of on the onboard medical consults registry for the past 20 days prior to arrival. Once at berth, representatives of the port’s health authorities will perform a systematic medical screening of the crew, and in case of suspicions, the yellow flag must remain visible and no one will be allowed in or out of the ship.
Marine insurance companies The Swedish Club and Skuld have released details of the changes on their website and are urging members to contact them should any Ebola-related issues occur onboard.
Members due to call at West Africa are also urged to advise their chartering teams so they can avoid a fixture which would see a vessel call at a port in a country with Ebola first, and subsequently call at Abidjan.
Will other African ports follow suit?

http://www.portstrategy.com/news101/world/africa/ebola-epidemic-halts-ivory-coast-calls

Germ-Killing Robots Deployed to the Republic of Liberia To Aid in Battle Against Ebola Virus TRU-D

SmartUVC inventor travels to Ebola hotspots with UV disinfection devices

MEMPHIS, Tenn., Aug. 15, 2014 /PRNewswire/ -- Two 5-foot-5 superbug-slaying machines were deployed from the United States yesterday en route to JFK Hospital and ELWA Hospital in Monrovia, Republic of Liberia, where they will aid in the fight against the deadly Ebola virus outbreak.

Photo - http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20140814/136426

The devices, known as TRU-D SmartUVC(TM), will help disinfect health care environments where Ebola patients are being treated. TRU-D is the only portable UV disinfection device on the market with Sensor360™ technology, which calculates the time needed to react to room variables – such as size, geometry, surface reflectivity and the amount and location of equipment in the room – and effectively deliver a lethal dose of UV-C light during a single cycle from a single, central location in the room. It works by generating UV light energy that modifies the DNA structure of viral pathogens, like Ebola, so that they cannot reproduce....

Dr. Jeffery L. Deal, TRU-D's inventor and a Fellow in the Royal Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene, will travel to the Republic of Liberia on Monday, Aug. 18 to lead the deployment of both TRU-D units by training hospital staff to operate the devices in a number of hospital environments and monitor progress for successful disinfection.

Deal will join dozens of disease specialists dispatched by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to help stop the spread of the largest recorded outbreak of the Ebola virus in history. Both TRU-D units that will be used in the Liberian hospitals were just released from a 28-month-long CDC-funded study conducted by the Duke University Prevention Epicenter Program, the most comprehensive evaluation of the real-world application of UV-C disinfection to date.

"We developed TRU-D SmartUVC technology to combat the devastating http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/germ-killing-robots-deployed-to-the-republic-of-liberia-to-aid-in-battle-against-ebola-virus-271378071.html

Doctors Without Borders Builds Largest Ebola Relief Center

August 14, 2014

Doctors Without Borders, A French-founded humanitarian-aid non-governmental organization is building the largest isolation center ever right now for Ebolavirus patients. The center is being built in Monrovia, Liberia’s capital. Monrovia is becoming a new area of concern due to the fact that the majority of new cases are of Ebolavirus are found there. The facility will feature 120 beds and is planned to be open this weekend. Before the Doctors With Borders operation there were only 2 Ebola centers in Liberia, Which were run by Christian organizations until a few of their workers became infected, leading to the decision to suspend their efforts. http://www.hibiscuscollective.com/#!Doctors-Without-Borders-Builds-Largest-Ebola-Relief-Center/colb/A25540E8-077C-4FD6-92F9-E5D53616C57C

Emergency food drops eyed for quarantined Ebola region of W.Africa

A U.N. convoy of soldiers passes a screen displaying a message on Ebola on a street in Abidjan 

 

August 14, 2014. REUTERS/Luc Gnago

Thu, 14 Aug 2014 22:10 GMTHunger is spreading fast as farmers die leaving crops rotting in fields. Truckers scared of the highly infectious disease halt deliveries. Shops close and major airlines have shut down routes, isolating large swathes of the countries.
The Mano River region, home to about 1 million people and an epicenter for the deadly disease, is a major concern and the issue was raised on Wednesday with U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki Moon, said Tim Evans, senior director for health at the World Bank.
"There has been a lot of inflation in food prices and a lot of difficulty in getting food to the quarantined population," he said in an interview.
The World Bank, along with the UN and the World Health Organisation, is urgently assessing how to make emergency food deliveries, or they face the danger of a deepening health crisis from malnutrition and the spread of other diseases, he said.
"This is emerging as an important part of the immediate response," Evans said. "We are looking at exactly what the needs are and where, and then looking at how we contribute to making sure that food gets to the right places."
Meanwhile, the United Nation's World Food Programme said it has declared Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone - the three countries reeling from over 1,000 deaths from Ebola - a Level Three food emergency, its highest threat. It is urgently mobilising teams to get food into the area and prevent widespread hunger and deaths.
"We are pulling out all the stops," said Steve Taravella, WFP spokesman in Washington.
His agency already is extraordinarily stretched. Never before has it faced six top-level emergencies all at once - in Syria, Iraq, South Sudan, Cameroon, Central African Republic and now the Ebola hit-countries.
"It is a dramatic, profound situation," he said.
For West Africa, the stability of the whole region is at stake if hunger and disease spread uncontrolled, said Evans.
"It certainly is a threat to national security," he said, stressing that a comprehensive response is needed.
But for Nigeria, the World Bank director expressed optimism it has acted promptly to contain spread of the Ebola by reaching those who came into contact with its first victim there.
"It suggests at this point that it is relatively contained," he said.
Longer term, the Ebola outbreak has exposed the danger from chronic underfunding of national healthcare systems and the need to invest in regional laboratories to test and manage infectious diseases, he said.
Most countries fell far short of a 2000 pledge, known as the Abuja Declaration, to devote 15 percent of their budgets to healthcare. The World Bank "absolutely" expects more lending for health in the years ahead, Evans said.  http://www.trust.org/item/20140814220245-ij11z/

Ebola: UNILAG Consultant Virologist says Virus Particles Can be Transmitted by Air

Thursday, 14 August 2014

In an interview with Sahara TV, Professor Sunday Aremu Omilabu – the Consultant Virologist College of Medicine, University of Lagos, speaks on the Ebola outbreak in Nigeria.
And although the WHO, UNICEF and other foreign agencies and health officials have confirmed that the virus is airborne, Omilabu claims that particles can be transmitted by air http://otohmillar.blogspot.com/2014/08/ebola-unilag-consultant-virologist-says.html

Ebola Virus Particles Can Be Transmitted By Air-Prof. Omilani

WHO Ebola news

WHO Ebola news

14 August 2014

The outbreak of Ebola virus disease in West Africa continues to escalate, with 1975 cases and 1069 deaths reported from Guinea, Liberia, Nigeria, and Sierra Leone.

No new cases have been detected in Nigeria following the importation of a case in an air traveller last month. Extensive contact tracing and monitoring, implemented with support from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), has kept the number of additional cases small.

Elsewhere, the outbreak is expected to continue for some time. WHO’s operational response plan extends over the next several months. Staff at the outbreak sites see evidence that the numbers of reported cases and deaths vastly underestimate the magnitude of the outbreak.

WHO is coordinating a massive scaling up of the international response, marshalling support from individual countries, disease control agencies, agencies within the United Nations system, and others.

The World Food Programme is using its well-developed logistics to deliver food to the more than one million people locked down in the quarantine zones, where the borders of Guinea, Liberia, and Sierra Leone intersect. Several countries have agreed to support the provision of priority food staples for this population.

Practical on-the-ground intelligence is the backbone of a coordinated response. WHO is mapping the outbreak, in great detail, to pinpoint areas of ongoing transmission and locate treatment facilities and supplies. Good logistical support depends on knowing which facilities need disinfectants or personal protective equipment, where new isolation facilities need to be built, and where the need for more health-care workers is most intense.

CDC is equipping the hardest-hit countries with computer hardware and software that will soon allow real-time reporting of cases and analysis of trends. This also strengthens the framework for a scaled-up response.

Today, WHO Director-General Dr Margaret Chan held discussions with a group of ambassadors from Geneva’s United Nations missions. The meeting aimed to identify the most urgent needs within countries and match them with rapid international support.

These steps align with recognition of the extraordinary measures needed, on a massive scale, to contain the outbreak in settings characterized by extreme poverty, dysfunctional health systems, a severe shortage of doctors, and rampant fear.http://www.who.int/csr/disease/ebola...w-20140814/en/

Ebola outbreak: US orders embassy families out of Sierra Leone

....The news came as President Barack Obama said he called the presidents of Liberia and Sierra Leone Thursday to discuss the Ebola outbreak in West Africa, the White House said.
Mr Obama made calls to Presidents Ellen Johnson Sirleaf of Liberia and Ernest Bai Koroma of Sierra Leone.
"In his conversations with both leaders, the president underscored the commitment of the United States to work with Liberia, Sierra Leone, and other international partners to contain the outbreak and expressed his condolences for the lives lost," the White House said.
The death toll from the epidemic reached 1,069 on Wednesday, according to the World Health Organisation... http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/ebola/11035267/Ebola-outbreak-US-orders-embassy-families-out-of-Sierra-Leone.html

A big cup of KOOLAID for you

.....At a hastily convened news conference in Geneva, where the health organization is based, Isabelle Nuttall, its director of global responses, repeated earlier advice that “air travel even from Ebola-affected countries is low-risk for Ebola transmission.”

Moreover, she said, the risk was low even for countries or airports that have high volumes of air travel to nations affected by the epidemic.

Ms. Nuttall confirmed that airports in the affected countries were already screening travelers for any signs of fever or other symptoms. She emphasized that unlike influenza or tuberculosis, Ebola is not spread by airborne transmission of germs, only by contact with the bodily fluids of someone who is contagious.

“A person who has no sign of the disease is not contagious, is not transmitting the disease to others,” she said.

.... In another Twitter message meant to dispel any misunderstandings about contagion by air travel, the W.H.O. said, “The chance of having someone who is sick with Ebola getting in a plane is small.”....

 .

 I can see I need to call bull shit on many recent statements..

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/08/15/world/africa/ebola-epidemic-plane-korean-airlines.html?_r=0 

Ebola crisis prompts evacuation order of U.S. embassy family members in Freetown

August 14 at 3:03 PM

The State Department on Thursday ordered family members of U.S. embassy employees in Sierra Leone to evacuate the country’s capital, Freetown, due to worries that the ongoing Ebola crisis is overwhelming medical facilities there.
“The embassy [in Sierra Leone] recommended this step out of an abundance of caution, following the determination by the Department’s Medical Office that there is a lack of options for routine health care services at major medical facilities due to the Ebola outbreak,” State Department spokeswoman Marie Harf said in a statement.
The agency added that it is “reconfiguring” staff at the embassy in Freetown “to be more responsive to the current situation.” That includes focusing on helping U.S. citizens in the country, as well as working with Sierra Leone’s government and international health and non-government relief organizations.
“We remain deeply committed to supporting Sierra Leone and regional and international efforts to strengthen the capacity of the country’s health care infrastructure and system,” Harf said, “specifically, the capacity to contain and control the transmission of the Ebola virus, and deliver health care.”
Earlier this month, the U.S. government also ordered family members of the embassy in Liberia to leave that country’s capital, of Monrovia. The agency cited similar concerns about the deteriorating public health system there as the outbreak worsened. 
 

Harf said that embassies with consular services remain open, and that the agency is “taking a look” at situation in Guinea to determine whether family members of U.S. personnel there also should be evacuated.
Previously, the Peace Corps and some international aid groups have temporarily pulled hundreds of volunteers and employees out of affected areas...
http://www.washingtonpost.com/national/health-science/ebola-crisis-prompts-evacuation-order-of-us-embassy-family-members-in-freetown/2014/08/14/7e6aa49e-23d4-11e4-8593-da634b334390_story.html?Post+generic=%3Ftid%3Dsm_twitter_washingtonpost 

Ebola Update

Published on Aug 14, 2014

Africa's most populous country on Thursday confirmed its 11th case of the Ebola virus. For the latest information on the West Africa Ebola epidemic is Africa 54 health correspondent Linord Moudou. Later, Linord talks via Skype with James Kambaki, head of Human Resources & Field Recruitment of Medecins Sans Frontieres, MSF, from Johannesburg, South Africa.  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=whs_LNGvcv4

Travelers Stranded at Guinea Border Crossing

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DtvY7Iqry8g#t=43

Another nurse dies of Ebola in Lagos

The Federal Government has confirmed the death of another nurse who had primary contact with the late American- Liberian, Patrick Sawyer, on Thursday.
A statement issued by the Minister of Health, Prof.Chukwu Onyebuchi, in Abuja on Thursday, noted that the nurse is the fourth person to have died of the Ebola Virus Disease in the country.
Chukwu noted that she was one of the health workers that had primary contact with Sawyer at the First Consultants Hospital in Obalende, Lagos.
He said, “The fourth death recorded today was a Nigerian nurse who participated in the initial management of the index case. We have now recorded 10 confirmed cases of Ebola Virus Disease. Out of these, four have died and eight are currently under treatment.”
The minister also apologised for the error in the number of confirmed cases given to journalists at a press briefing organised by the Federal Ministry of Health in Abuja earlier in the day.
Chukwu noted, “It is important to note that the number of confirmed cases remains 10 as at today and not 11 as earlier announced this morning. We regret the error which arose from double counting in the process of communicating the additional death from the operational centre in Lagos to the Federal Ministry of Health.”
One of the doctors on the team of experts managing confirmed cases at the Ebola Ward of the Mainland hospital, Lagos, had earlier confirmed that the nurse had died due to the exposure she had with Sawyer when he was admitted at the private hospital in Lagos.
The reliable source said, “We lost her in the early hours of today after much effort. She was one of the people that helped him when he was vomiting and stooling. That was when she contracted it.”
The doctor also disclosed that two other health workers that have now been quarantined are in critical condition. http://dailyindependentnig.com/2014/08/another-nurse-dies-ebola-lagos-fg/

BREAKING: Jonathan fires all resident doctors

By Ameh Comrade Godwin on August 14, 2014President Goodluck Jonathan has fired all the resident doctors in Nigerian hospitals.
This was contained in a directive by His Excellency to the Federal Ministry of Health to suspend all residency training programme for Nigerian doctors.
The directive was stated in an internal memo dated August 13 and signed by the Permanent Secretary, Federal Ministry of Health, L.N. Awute, to federal hospitals. Awute said the sack came following an appraisal of the challenges currently facing the health sector.
“Mr. President, Dr. Goodluck Ebele Jonathan, GCFR has suspended the Residency Training Programme for Doctors in Nigeria indefinitely for the purposes of appraising the challenges facing the health sector”. Mr. Awute said.
DailyPost gathered that the development is not unconnected with the outbreak of Ebola Virus Disease in the country and insistence of the Nigerian Medical Association, NMA, to go on with their strike despite the national health challenge.
http://dailypost.ng/2014/08/14/breaking-jonathan-fires-resident-doctors/

#Ebola Scare: Gov't bans international conferences in Ghana for three months

Thursday, 14 August 2014

Source: myjoyonline.com

All international conferences scheduled to be hosted in Ghana between now and the next three months have been cancelled, government has announced.

According to Communications Minister, Dr. Edward Omane-Boamah, the decision forms part measures being implemented by government to prevent the spread of the deadly virus into the country.

Ebola has claimed over 1,000 lives across West Africa since the latest outbreak was first reported in March this year, with Guinea, Sierra Leone and Liberia being the hardest hit countries while Nigeria has reported a number of cases and three deaths.

Ebola is introduced into the human population through close contact with the blood, secretions, organs or other bodily fluids of infected animals.

Government on Thursday directed the release of Ghc6 million to fight the world’s deadliest epidemic which has no known cure. Government also announced plans to procure 10,000 protective gears for frontline workers in health, immigration and other agencies who are most likely to encounter a possible victim.

“Also, the President advised that consistent with the decision of the ECOWAS Commission that all meetings and missions be suspended unless absolutely essential and well-guided, a three (3) month moratorium be placed on all international conferences and international gatherings which have the potential of spreading the Ebola Virus,” Dr. Edward Omane Boama, Communications Minister, told Joy News.

“…reviewing the situation in the sub-region (over 1,700 suspected and confirmed cases with associated mortalities) government felt the need to scale up the response…so we will be able to respond,” the Minister added.

http://www.ghanaweb.com/GhanaHomePage/NewsArchive/artikel.php?ID=321220

Freetown's slums ill-prepared for Ebola spread

by Frankie Taggart

From a hillside rising high above the fetid orange sludge of Freetown's largest slum, it is hard to imagine a place more ill-equipped to deal with an outbreak of Ebola. Kroo Bay-a cramped beachfront township of 15,000 where disease is rife and most people die before middle age—is emblematic of the threat facing Sierra Leone's capital.
"This is a slum area. We have many gutters, and bacteria and germs. We have many problems in this community, even without Ebola," says father-of-six Hassan Sesay, 38, a lifelong resident.
The death toll in the worst epidemic of Ebola since its discovery four decades ago stands at 1,069.
Nearly 2,000 people have been infected in Sierra Leone, Guinea, and Liberia.
Freetown, an overcrowed city of 1.2 million people, has so far avoided catastrophe, with most of Sierra Leone's 783 cases cropping up in the remote forests of the east.
More than 30 of the city's medical workers were placed in quarantine this week, however, sparking fears that a wave of cases is about to sweep in.
Many of Kroo Bay's inhabitants confess that they now spend much of their free time hiding in their densely-packed zinc and wood shanties.
While poverty has been their most pressing concern since the end of a ruinous 1991-2002 civil war, now they say they worry about infection.
"Everyone is feeling bad when they see what Ebola can do," says mother-of-two Moussu Diallo, 20.
"I have never seen anyone with the virus but I worry for my children."
Putrid water
Kroo Bay is home to artisanal fishermen, cobblers, tin smelters who make pots and pans from the dented metal of abandoned cars, bakers and carpenters.
Pigs poke around in the mud which passes for paving between the huts while women bathe in the open and children wash clothes in the torrential rain.
There is no electricity or running water, one health clinic and only four toilets.
Infectious diseases have a history of spreading like wildfire through the former fishing settlement, named after migrants from the Kru tribe in neighbouring Liberia who settled in the 1960s.
Freetown's more affluent residents dump their rubbish on the banks of the Crocodile River which flows past Kroo Town and mountains of plastic get washed up in the slum.

An outbreak of cholera across the capital's poorest housing areas two years ago killed almost 400 people.
It rains six months of the year in Freetown, one of the world's wettest cities, and Kroo Bay lies at the bottom of the steep hill on which it was built.
Putrid water inundates the slum every summer and brings rats, malaria, cholera, dysentery and respiratory infections.
Life expectancy, at 35, is around 10 years below the nationwide average.
But for all the hardships of daily life, Kroo Bay has remained a vibrant, bustling, noisy place—until Ebola.
Economics student Mohamed Kamara, the son of Kroo Bay's village chief, says that while he and his friends used to meet regularly, the socialising has stopped.
"We are not moving around now. We sit at home talking about Ebola and how it spread," the 24-year-old tells AFP.
"I have to stay at home so that I don't contract the disease."
'Filled with fear'
El Hadji Abubakar, the township's Islamic leader, says people only venture out to worship, because they are "filled with fear and panic that this sickness will come".
The 62-year-old imam, echoing every resident interviewed by AFP, says the community is well educated about Ebola and how the dangers can be minimised.
Yet there is no evidence that the people of Kroo Bay are taking any serious precautions other than staying at home.
None of the measures seen in other parts of Freetown—the ubiquitous buckets of chlorine, the latex gloves—can be seen in the slum.
Abubakar suggests that people may be putting their faith in a higher power.
"People are still going to the mosque, of course. They go and pray to God," he says.
The government was berated for what was seen as an inadequate early response to the Ebola crisis.
In a particularly unedifying episode, a tourism ministry official was upbraided by the local media accusing him of urging journalists to stop reporting "negatively" on the outbreak.
Ministers have reacted with greater urgency since President Ernest Bai Koroma announced a state of emergency, however, deploying troops to enforce quarantines of Ebola-hit areas.
The prisons chief raised the alarm on Wednesday over the threat to the country's 3,500 inmates from new detainees bringing in Ebola.
No cases have been reported in the overcrowded prison system yet, said Sampha Bilo Kamara.
But he warned that there was an "urgent need" for protective clothing and training for wardens and medical staff handling new inmates.
AFP sought interviews with Sierra Leone's chief medical officer and deputy health minister but they were unavailable to comment.
The reason—as grimly ironic as it is tragic—is that they were mourning Modupeh Cole, a leading physician and Ebola expert who died on Wednesday after contracting the virus in Freetown. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2014-08-freetown-slums-ill-prepared-ebola.html

Ebola: Doctors with Africa, 7 patients died so far in Pujehun

Published: 08/14/2014

Rome, 14 August - (AdnKronos Health) - "A Pujehun, where Doctors with Africa Cuamm work in the hospital and in the territory, so far there have been 7 deaths from Ebola." Was reported by John Putoto, head of programming of Doctors with Africa Cuamm, just returned from Sierra Leone where he went to support the work of the team on the field.
"Three patients suspected - added Putoto - have tested positive and died. A suspected case, which is also positive, is still alive and hospitalized, 4 people have died from contacts with infected patients. Three are centers (hot spots) in the district as mapped places affected by the epidemic. They expect other cases. Albeit with a small reduction in staff, the Cuamm decided to stay. " (Continued)  https://translate.google.com/translate?sl=auto&tl=en&js=y&prev=_t&hl=en&ie=UTF-8&u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.adnkronos.com%2Ffatti%2Fcronaca%2F2014%2F08%2F14%2Febola-medici-con-africa-pujehun-finora-pazienti-morti_4luC2ziRz6V9LD7GSPUDVJ.html&edit-text=

#Ebola: Nurse that campaigned for the release of Zmapp drug dies

by S’ola Filani
A nurse, Justina Obi Ejelonu, that  attended to late Liberian Patrick Sawyer while he was ill at the First Consultant hospital in Lagos, has died.

25 year old Justina was one of the primary contacts with Patrick Sawyer at a Lagos Hospital where he received treatment after he was rushed from the Murtala Muhammed Airport in Lagos.

Justina, who shared her story and experience with Patrick Sawyer at the weekend, died a few hours ago in a quarantine facility in Lagos.

Ms. Ejelonu was very vocal in the campaign for the release of the ZMapp experimental drug to Nigerian Ebola disease patients. Her relatives confirmed the news.

May her soul rest.  http://ynaija.com/site/ebola-nurse-campaigned-releases-zmapp-drug-dies/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=ebola-nurse-campaigned-releases-zmapp-drug-dies

First suspected Ebola case in Johannesburg?

14.8.2014 03.02 pm

There is a suspected case of Ebola at the Rahima Moosa Hospital, west of Johannesburg, DA Gauteng health spokesperson Jack Bloom claimed on Thursday.

Bloom claimed he had received information regarding a possible case at the hospital.
“The patient is from Guinea and is presently being kept in isolation. If it is a confirmed Ebola case then the patient will be transferred to the Charlotte Maxeke Johannesburg Hospital which has been designated to treat Ebola with all due safeguards,” he said.
The national health department could not immediately confirm this to be true and health spokesperson Joe Maila said he would comment at a later stage.
“This is a serious situation. The Gauteng Health Department must provide full information to allay public fears, and tracing must be done to find any people who were in close contact with this particular patient,” said Bloom....http://citizen.co.za/228640/first-su...-johannesburg/

Exclusive Report: Ebola patients being treated like prisoners— *Justina Ejelonu

Professional Journalist: IQ4News 

Nigeria 

Thursday, 14 August, 2014 - 12:59

Source: JOK

Ebola victim, late Justina

In this exclusive report, IQ4News Prince Dickson speaks to Ebola victim, Nurse Justina, barely 24 hours before her death at the quarantine centre at the Mainland Hospital Yaba, Lagos.

By Prince Dickson
New worrying information from Nigeria suggests that damage from the disease may go far beyond deaths from the Ebola virus itself, as IQ4News speaks to a patient in quarantine and other health personnel, in this exclusive report.
IQ4News investigation reveals that Ebola could potentially claim more victims by damaging an already-weak local health systems, and its ability to respond to other medical problems, from malaria to emergency C-sections.
The ebola-driven rise in deaths from those other maladies may outpace the deaths from ebola itself. At the moment the Nigerian medical and Dental Association is embroiled in politics with itself over a now 6 weeks old strike.
The effect of the loss of services may be severe. Even before the Ebola outbreak, Nigeria was ranked low in the world for maternal and child mortality.
Mainland Hospital, Yaba
One of the patients, Nurse Justina that had primary contact exclusively spoke with IQ4News, she said "we are not being treated at all, it looks more of a prison, every now and then, the doctors come in and out, and we are given intravenous and antibiotics."
The nurse who was a student at the Ebonyi University Teaching Hospital, while the current Minister for Health, Professor Onyebuchi Chukwu was Chief Medical Director asked government to act fast and decisively.
Asked if there were cases of recovery from the virus, Justina insisted that while some of them were stable, it cannot be referred to as recovery, “some of us can barely talk, at a point our phones were taken from us, so we don’t talk” she added, her voice very weak.
IQ4News made contact with a group (Igboville) that was responsible for buying and sending oxygen canister to a few of those quarantined.
According to a health official at the facility who did not want her name mention but confirmed the situation said the damage to the health care system is the "biggest threat" that the Ebola outbreak poses to Nigeria.
"Here we are just managing the patients in quarantine, we are not treating them and that is sad," she told IQ4News.

She added that despite all the effort of government, the security even around the quarantine patients is poor, and that explains why even one patient got away and went to Enugu, and now we have cases in the state.
An expatriate doctor also spoke with IQ4News, “a lot of things are not done ethically here, I do not think I see real heroes here, apart from the patients that are battling to survive.”
Another medical personnel confirmed that a lot of supplies were lacking, we have made lists but nothing has been provided.
IQ4News put a call to the Director of Communication and community Mobilization at the Nigeria’s Emergency Center on EVD Professor. Adebayo Onajole who had told reporters that some patients were recovering but no response.
Government story
The Nigerian government says it is doing all it can do, according to Minister for Information Labarn Maku, in a phone chat with IQ4News said that the entire cabinet meeting was devoted to discussing effort at containing the virus.
"We have quarantined those that had primary contact with Sawyer, and doing the best in line with global best medical practices in Lagos, it is not true that we just quarantined them without treatment", he added.
He assured that even the nurse that disobeyed medical advice and traveled is being monitored, including those that made contact with her.
IQ4News investigation shows that there are only three Ebola isolation units in the country, and there are no specialized hospital facilities where infected patients are treated. The government strategy overlooks growing shortages of other vital health resources.
The health system is one that suffers shortages of everything from latex gloves to the reagents needed for laboratory tests.
Problems
Dr. Hassan Lantana told IQ4News that already "we have on several occasion battled an acute shortage of blood, especially during Boko Haram attacks and now blood donations cannot be collected safely during the Ebola outbreak.

People are scared

As it is according to a health official at the teaching hospital in Idi Araba, Lagos "The Ebola virus has caused significant, dramatic declines in service delivery at the health facility in the past month, because people are rightfully scared to go to the health facility right now."
John Okiyi Kalu, of the Igboville/Oganiru Ndigbo Foundation on the death of *Justina muttered on phone, “the Nigerian state failed Justina, while the world watched and didn’t care enough.”
*Justina Ejelonu passed on few hours after this story was published.
Her last facebook posting reads…” "I never contacted his fluids. I checked his Vitals, helped him with his food, (he was too weak)...I basically touched where his hands touched and that’s the only contact. Not directly with his fluids. At a stage, he yanked off his infusion and we had blood everywhere on his bed...but the ward maids took care of that and changed his linens with great precaution…"http://www.iq4news.com/iq4news-nigeria/exclusive-report-ebola-patients-being-treated-prisoners-justina-ejelonu

Bleach and a robot used to disinfect ebola victim’s Madrid hospital room

Madrid 14 AGO 2014 - 14:46 CEST

New tests confirm late Spanish priest Miguel Pajares’ colleague Juliana Bonoha is not infected

The Madrid hospital room in which Spanish priest Miguel Pajares spent the last five days of his life battling the ebola virus began to be disinfected on Wednesday. The task was first undertaken by a team from the Carlos III public hospital using bleach and then by a robot belonging to the same US company that cleaned the Washington, D. C. central post office after the 2001 anthrax attacks and also helped prevent the spread of infection in the aftermath of the Hurricane Katrina tragedy in New Orleans in 2005. The hospital has not disclosed the cost of the procedure.
Staff at the center used bleach and disinfectant gas to clean the installations and burnt materials used by both Pajares, who died from the disease on Tuesday, and sister Juliana Bonoha Bohé, who was repatriated to Spain from Liberia alongside him last week. New tests on Thursday confirmed that the 65-year-old Spanish nun has not been infected by the ebola virus, though she will remain in hospital until the 21-day incubation period has passed.
The firm Steris Iberia is in charge of completing the decontamination process in the room that Pajares occupied. Its technicians sealed the room, leaving in it a robot “similar to a large shopping cart” that is controlled by a computer from outside, explained the company’s head of business, Miguel Ángel Valdeolivas.

The machine discharges vaporized hydrogen peroxide that “eliminates all microorganisms within five or six hours,” said Julían Pons, a engineer for the company. It marks the first time that the subsidiary of the US firm, which has been operating in Spain for the last 30 years, has had to eliminate the ebola virus, although it regularly works with hospitals, pharmaceutical companies and arms companies. The disinfection work is due to be completed on Thursday.
Meanwhile, the funeral of 75-year-old Pajares, the first person to die of ebola outside of Africa, took place in the chapel of the San Rafael hospital in Madrid on Wednesday. Forty relatives, friends, members of the clergy and politicians, including Health Minister Ana Mato, attended the ceremony. http://elpais.com/elpais/2014/08/14/inenglish/1408018965_708026.html

 

  on August 14, 2014   /   in News 11:19 am   /  
 Aviation Authorities, Wednesday night, turned back a corpse flown into the country from Egypt at  the Malam Aminu Kano International Airport. Airport officials disallowed the family of the deceased from collecting the body flown in aboard Egypt Air at about 11.30 pm. 

Airport sources confided in Vanguard that the stand by Nigerian officials was in compliance with the Federal Government directives that banned the transportation of corpses within and outside the country – a move to check the spread of Ebola Virus Disease. The source explained that “though Egypt is not among the countries with the Ebola outbreak, it is better to take precautionary measures by not entertaining any exception in the movement of corpses in the country.” The source revealed that the corpse is that of  a Nigerian who had gone to the Pharaoh’s country for medical treatment.” “We plead with the family members who had turned up at the Airport to received his corpse to bear with us in the face of a big national question that requires the understanding of citizens to surmount”, the source explained.
 When contacted, Avaition Skokesman, Alhaji Yakubu Datti, decline to comment on the issue but asked Vanguard to seek confirmation from the Federal Ministry of Health.  Datti Said; ” the airport is run by a combination of official drawn from strategic ministries and since your enquiry bothers on health, I would advise you cross check your facts from Federal Ministry of Health”.http://www.vanguardngr.com/2014/08/ebola-fg-turns-back-corpse-flown-egypt/?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=twitter

Ebola: FG turns back corpse flown in from Egypt

on August 14, 2014   /   in News 11:19 am   /   Comments

By Abdulsalam Muhammad

KANO – Aviation Authorities, Wednesday night, turned back a corpse flown into the country from Egypt at  the Malam Aminu Kano International Airport.

Airport officials disallowed the family of the deceased from collecting the body flown in aboard Egypt Air at about 11.30 pm.

Airport sources confided in Vanguard that the stand by Nigerian officials was in compliance with the Federal Government directives that banned the transportation of corpses within and outside the country – a move to check the spread of Ebola Virus Disease.

The source explained that “though Egypt is not among the countries with the Ebola outbreak, it is better to take precautionary measures by not entertaining any exception in the movement of corpses in the country.”

The source revealed that the corpse is that of  a Nigerian who had gone to the Pharaoh’s country for medical treatment.”

“We plead with the family members who had turned up at the Airport to received his corpse to bear with us in the face of a big national question that requires the understanding of citizens to surmount”, the source explained.

When contacted, Avaition Skokesman, Alhaji Yakubu Datti, decline to comment on the issue but asked Vanguard to seek confirmation from the Federal Ministry of Health.

 Datti Said; ” the airport is run by a combination of official drawn from strategic ministries and since your enquiry bothers on health, I would advise you cross check your facts from Federal Ministry of Health”.

- See more at: http://www.vanguardngr.com/2014/08/ebola-fg-turns-back-corpse-flown-egypt/?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=twitter#sthash.UF3oyXQk.dpuf

The U.S. Department of State has said that no Ebola-related travel restrictions have been issued by the agency for Nigeria, Guinea and Sierra Leone.
A “factsheet’’ issued by the state department on its response to Ebola virus, said the agency only issued a travel warning on August 7, 2014 against non-essential travel to Liberia.
“Due to a lack of options for routine health care services, the Department of State ordered the departure of family members residing with embassy staff in Monrovia to begin Aug. 8, 2014″.http://dailypost.ng/2014/08/12/us-says-ebola-related-travel-restrictions-nigeria-guinea-sierra-leone/?wt=3

Nigeria-Commercial Sex Workers Lament Low Patronage, Warn Members

Commercial sex workers, otherwise known as prostitutes in Nigeria have sent out strong warnings to its members across the country to be careful of the deadly Ebola disease.

The group, operating under the aegis of Association of Nigerian Prostitutes, ANP, handed this warning after a meeting held in Lagos on Monday.



Some of its leaders who met in the state had in a statement warned its members to be well protected in the cause of doing their business to avoid contacting the deadly disease.

According to the statement, “Some of us met yesterday in Lagos to discuss on how to sensitize our members against the disease and we are calling on them to be very careful, if possible ‘hang boot’ for now till the federal government finds a lasting solution to the killer virus.
 
“Once a member contracts the dreaded virus, the entire country is in trouble, and to avoid that, we want both customers and patrons to be very careful.
 
”We will still be meeting in Agege, Lagos on Wednesday (today) to campaign against the killer disease, but we are still using this medium to call on all members of ANP to be guided accordingly as the government battles to conquer the disease.”

Some commercial sex workers are angry as a result of the outbreak of the Ebola disease in the country.

Our reporter observed that nightclubs and brothels across Lagos State have been experiencing declining patronage since the disease hit the West African country.

A commercial sex worker who gave her name as Franca lamented that since the late Liberian, Patrick Sawyer imported the disease into the country, customers no longer come as usual.

According to the diminutive lady, “That Sawyer abi na Suya sef, na Satan go punish am. The guy na bad market. Since this Ebola disease enter Nigeria, customers have been running from us.”
Asked if she’s not afraid of contacting the disease, Franca who claimed to be a student of a private polytechnic replied: “Ebola or no Ebola, man pikin must survive.” http://temmytopeajayi.blogspot.com/2014/08/ebola-commercial-sex-workers-lament-low.html

Breaking: Ebola goes out of control as 21 quarantined in Enugu - FG

...The minister explained that the nurse disobeyed medical instructions and traveled to Enugu.

He said: "All those who had primary contact (with Sawyer) have been quarantined. Secondary contacts have also been traced.

"So far, the number of people that have been traced is 198. Out of this number, 177 are in Lagos and have been traced. Some are in quarantine, some are being monitored by health specialists.

"21 persons in Enugu are also being watched. This is because one of the nurses that was involved with the treatment of the index case unfortunately, disobeyed medical instructions and somehow traveled to Enugu. All those who she was in contact with, including her husband, are under quarantine. The medical teams have been able to trace all those who made contact with her".
Maku said health workers had been deployed to all the border units in the country, adding that "All the entry points into this country and exit points, we've port health workers that are working in our airports and seaports. We're calling on citizens specifically to cooperate. If health workers say you've had contact with A,B,C, don't move to anywhere, respect that judgment. It's very important. In one or two cases where we've had disobedience, we lost one of them and this one now moved with it to another place (Enugu)...http://dailytrust.com.ng/daily/top-stories/31603-breaking-ebola-goes-out-of-control-as-21-quarantined-in-enugu-fg

Thailand Adds Ebola As Hazardous Infectious Disease

BANGKOK, Aug 13 (Bernama) -- The Thai Ministry of Public Health has declared the Ebola virus disease (EVD) the sixth hazardous infectious disease in the country, which required reports to authorities on every case detected, Thai News Agency (TNA) reported.

Permanent Secretary for Public Health Dr Narong Sahamethapat told journalists that the declaration was signed on Wednesday and will take effect one day after it is published in the Royal Gazette.

Dr Narong said that EVD was included in Thailand's list of hazardous infectious diseases, in addition to smallpox, yellow fever, meningococcal meningitis, cholera and severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS).

Dr Narong said the Thai Ministry of Public Health has also declared Guinea, Sierra Leone, Liberia and Nigeria's Lagos City as contagious areas.

This is aimed at warning people to be on high alert against those entering Thailand from the affected areas, especially during their first 21-day entry, although travels to the areas have not yet been banned.

According to the senior official, 483 people arrived in Thailand from the EVD-prone areas over the past 79 days, but all of them remained healthy.

Meanwhile, the Geneva-based World Health Organisation (WHO) reported that there have been 1,848 EVD patients so far, 1,013 of them have died, noting, however, that the EVD fatality rate has already dropped to 60 per cent, thanks to experienced medical personnel and more precautions now, TNA said. http://www.bernama.com/bernama/v7/ge/newsgeneral.php?id=1060165

UK-Two tested for deadly virus Ebola at Birmingham hospital-NEGATIVE

Two tested for deadly virus Ebola at Birmingham hospital

By Sutton Coldfield Observer | Posted: August 13, 2014

Read more: http://www.suttoncoldfieldobserver.co.uk/tested-deadly-virus-Ebola-Birmingham-hospital/story-22718677-detail/story.html#ixzz3AHoRKMKl
A Birmingham hospital that is part of the same trust that runs Good Hope Hospital has tested two people for the deadly virus Ebola in the past 48 hours.
A Heartlands Hospital spokesperson has confirmed two people underwent tests but reassured the public they both tested negative for the virus and similar conditions. The spokesperson maintained there are no suspected cases at the hospital but they are working closely on work for situations should the virus arise.
“Two people have undergone routine tests at Birmingham’s Heartlands Hospital in the last 48 hours and tested negative for Ebola and similar imported conditions.We cannot disclose any further information about those cases due to patient confidentiality.
“It is routine when dealing with patients showing certain symptoms who have recently travelled from particular countries for them to be assessed for imported conditions such as Ebola.


Read more: http://www.suttoncoldfieldobserver.co.uk/tested-deadly-virus-Ebola-Birmingham-hospital/story-22718677-detail/story.html#ixzz3AHoOByX1
Read more at http://www.suttoncoldfieldobserver.co.uk/tested-deadly-virus-Ebola-Birmingham-hospital/story-22718677-detail/story.html#vVXVfO1M5L4pPxJb.99

Nigerian nurse skips Ebola quarantine to eastern city Enugu

11:10 a.m. EDT, August 13, 2014ABUJA (Reuters) - A nurse who had close contact with a Liberian Ebola patient skipped quarantine in Lagos and went to her home in the eastern city of Enugu, where she made contact with 20 other people, the government said on Wednesday.

Information Minister Labaran Maku said the nurse, herself a suspected case, and her 20 contacts were all under surveillance in Enugu, bringing the total number being watched in Nigeria to 189. http://www.sun-sentinel.com/health/sns-rt-us-health-ebola-nigeria-enugu-20140813,0,7417161.story

Ebola: Liberia, the sick were buried alive "Locked n their house"

  8/13/2014 4:40 p.m. at the by SudOuest.fr with AFP

For fear of the virus spreading, Liberian health workers immured alive a woman and her 12 year old daughter, both sick, until they die. The people fled the village

The virus has already killed more than 1,000 deaths in West Africa since the beginning of the epidemic © Photo AFP CARL DE SOUZA

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The afraid of Ebola transformed Ballajah, Liberia, ghost village, interspersed silent groans of those Sherrif Fatu, 12, cloistered an entire week with the body of his mother, "without food or water," before die in turn.
Haemorrhagic fever destroyed his family says Momoh Wile, the head of the village, about 150 km northeast of Monrovia, near the border with Sierra Leone.
According to the septuagenarian patriarch beard and white hair, the girl led an uneventful life with his father Abdullah Sherrif, 51, his mother Seidia Passawee Sherrif, 43, and his older brother, Barnie, 15.
Until 20 July, when the deadly virus was detected in his family, causing panic among the 500 people who have distanced themselves from the Sherrif and alerted the health authorities.
These slow in coming, the villagers protested by erecting barricades on the road to Sierra Leone. When the team from the Department of Health has finally arrived, the father had passed away for five days, the mother and daughter were sick, only son tested negative Ebola.
The teenager survived seven days near the body of his mother

Health workers have recovered and buried the body of Abdullah, they "asked us not to get close to the woman and her daughter," said Momoh Wile, "they sealed the doors and windows of the house on Women and his daughter. "
Seidia and Fatu "cried day and night, constantly begging people to bring them food but everyone was afraid" to approach the house where they remained "without food or water," he adds.
The mother died on August 3, the girl then remained cloistered with her ​​body and "it's August 10 that health workers came to" recover the remains for burial, said the patriarch, bursting into tears. "There are more than the girl remained, but she was crying."
The interior of the house is invisible from the street, the doors and windows had been caulked.
The moans of the girl tearing occasionally silence in which was now plunged almost deserted village, with narrow streets and rutted trash-strewn. Personal effects avaint been abandoned in a hurry in some homes with doors left open. The young Fatu finally died in the night of Monday to Tuesday. Always alone, without food or water.
"Nobody wants to approach me"

The people who fled were rejected by the people of the surrounding villages, also in the throes of psychosis Ebola still Momoh says Wile. All went into the forest.
As for the brother, Bernie, after testing negative for Ebola, he was prohibited from entering his house, according to the head of the village. Rejected by the people, he took refuge in an abandoned house, dismal.
Sought on this situation, he medical authorities did not want to comment immediately. President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf has declared August 6 the http://www.sudouest.fr/2014/08/13/eb...php&edit-text=

Indian doctors in Nigeria say being forced to treat Ebola patients - report

 Tue, 12 Aug 2014 10:01 GMT

NEW DELHI, Aug 12 (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - Four Indian doctors in Nigeria say they are being forced to treat Ebola patients against their will and have accused their employers of taking away their passports to stop them leaving the country, the Hindustan Times reported on Tuesday.
The doctors, who are working at the Primus Hospital in the Nigerian capital Abuja, said despite their fear of contracting the disease, they were ordered not to leave.
"We haven’t been provided with any security kits. Our passports have been impounded. When we spoke to the Indian High Commission, we were asked to come to the mission. But we were stopped by guards from leaving the hospital," one doctor was quoted as saying.
He said the Indian doctors were forced to work after local physicians – who have been on strike – refused to come back to work.
N.D. Khurana, CEO of Primus Hospital in India, confirmed the doctors were afraid of contracting the disease but said it was their duty to treat patients, adding it was "against medical morality" not to do so.
Government sources, however, told the newspaper that the situation has now been resolved with the intervention of the Indian High Commission in Nigeria. The doctors have agreed to work a few more days and then return to India.
The death toll from the world's worst outbreak of Ebola has climbed to 1,013, according to figures from the World Health Organization which has called its spread an international health emergency.
Nigeria's commercial capital Lagos has 10 confirmed cases of Ebola and two patients have died. Africa's most populous nation has declared a national emergency over the outbreak.
There are 40,000 Indians living in Nigeria and another 4,700 in the other affected West African countries - Guinea, Sierra Leone and Liberia.
Indian authorities fear a return of many of its citizens due to the outbreak will increase the risk of the disease being imported into the country and are introducing measures to screen and track travellers from the four nations.
A man who returned from Nigerian over the weekend displaying symptoms of upper respiratory tract infection has tested negative for Ebola, the health ministry said on Monday.
 

http://www.trust.org/item/20140812100106-n07mx/ 

Passenger Collapses & Dies at Murtala Muhammed International Airport Lagos

they say he was negative..

By: Temidayo Osikoya on 8/12/2014 04:15:00 pm / comment : 0

A Nigerian man who was getting ready to board a flight from Lagos to Accra collapsed and died yesterday at Murtala Muhammed International Airport (MMIA).
The man, who was identified as Akunne Osei, was waiting to collect the Yellow Card from airport health officials when he collapsed, Vanguard reports.
Osei was based in Ghana but had visited Lagos for business transactions. According to reports, he intended to return to Accra for medical treatment.
Speaking about the incident, General Manager, Corporate Communication, Federal Airport Authority of Nigeria, FAAN, Yakubu Dati, said:
“The passenger, Mr. Akunne Osei, took ill on Saturday, August 9 and started stooling. When the situation got worse, he called his doctor in Accra who instructed him to return to Ghana immediately for further treatment.
“During boarding formalities for his return trip to Accra, at the MMIA, Mr. Osei, who had become weak was subjected to Ebola virus test by port health officials, the result of which was negative.

“No further attention was paid to him after his Ebola virus result read negative but the passenger later slumped and died around the port health office.” http://www.lasgiditimes.com/2014/08/passenger-collapses-dies-at-murtala.html

A top public health expert said U.S. officials are not prepared for a possible Ebola outbreak and do not even want to plan for contingencies

Days after experts said an Ebola outbreak in the U.S. may be "inevitable," Dr. Jane Orient, the executive director of the Association of American Physicians and Surgeons, said, "there are just many things about this virus that we do not know and yet we are assuming that it is not going to affect us here."

[snip]

Orient told host and Breitbart Chairman Stephen K. Bannon that there is currently "so much denial about" Ebola and, "we really do not know how serious it is." Orient said that there are, though, thousands of people from more than 100 different nations coming across the border "without any health screenings at all."


For instance, she said that the Center for Disease Control says that Ebola cannot be transferred in the air but Canada's health authorities believe it "could be transmitted via aerosol." In addition, she said "one man infected his wife 82 days after he recovered from it, and she died." Orient said "we don't even know if it is contagious before the person becomes sicks."

"I don't think that hospitals are prepared," she added.

She cited "limited isolation facilities" and physicians who are "not aware about what to look for." Doctors, she said, "are not being told you need to do a careful travel history or a contact history of people coming in" who have flu-like symptoms.

Orient also said that the "CDC talks to different stories." She said their message to the population is essentially, "it's not very contagious, don't worry." But when they transport a patient with Ebola, "they are wearing a spacesuit," she said.

The whole article is worth the read:
[link to www.breitbart.com]

Ebola virus in France? Patrick Balkany stated, the Department denied

Created: 11-08-2014 9:59 p.m.

HEALTH - MP and mayor of Levallois, Patrick Balkany, sent a written request to the Minister of Health Monday question. And says that many cases of people infected with Ebola virus have been reported on the French territory. MetroNews contacted by the Department of Health "categorically denies".

0

Despite the denial of the Ministry of Health, Patrick Balkany says that there are people infected with Ebola virus in France. Photo: AFP

MP and mayor of Levallois, Patrick Balkany, dropped a disturbing scoop Monday. In a written question to the Minister of Health, Marisol Touraine, and published on his blog , he says that many cases of people infected with Ebola virus have been reported in France.
"Madam Minister recently said that the risk of importing the virus in Europe and France was weak, adding that no imported cases had also been reported. According reliable medical sources, several cases have been reported on the French territory, "assures Patrick Balkany.
"There is only one medical source"
Contacted by MetroNews, Patrick Balkany and his wife, Isabelle, refused to give details. "This is a written question the minister just confirm this or deny," says Isabelle Balkany which however nuanced reliability of this information: "No there is only one medical source refuses to come forward. "
Also joined by MetroNews, the Ministry of Health "categorically denies" that information. "There is no recorded case in France, however we remain very vigilant," said an adviser to the minister. "This is very serious to deliver false information and moreover when can create panic," Has he said annoyed. Yet the couple Levallois confirmed and signed, "With the free, I do not see how France could be saved had been done we hit with Chernobyl.". https://translate.google.com/translate?sl=auto&tl=en&js=y&prev=_t&hl=en&ie=UTF-8&u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.metronews.fr%2Finfo%2Fvirus-ebola-en-france-patrick-balkany-l-affirme-malgre-le-dementi-du-ministere%2Fmnhk!tz4uQ5HsNXD9U%2F&edit-text=

Ebola Drug Supply Is Exhausted After Doses Sent to Africa

By Caroline Chen and Robert Langreth
Aug 11, 2014 5:10 PM ET

The Ebola drug given to two Americans and a Spanish priest has been sent to a West African country that requested it, and the supply of the medicine is now exhausted, its manufacturer said.
Mapp Biopharmaceutical Inc., based in San Diego, said it was told by U.S. health officials that the countries, including Nigeria and Liberia, had requested the drug, called ZMapp. The company said it has complied with every request for the drug that was authorized by legal and regulatory authorities. It said it provided the drug at no cost.
“It is our understanding that all patients offered treatment, treated, or expected to be treated were or are highly capable of providing informed consent for the use of an experimental drug not yet evaluated for safety in animals or people,” the company said in a statement.
The additional patients allocated the drug include medical doctors in two West African countries as well as the Americans and the Spanish priest.
The decision comes as a panel of ethicists convened today by the World Health Organization weighs the use of experimental drugs that have shown early promise against a disease that’s killed almost 1,000 people this year. The panel is considering whether the drugs, which haven’t been widely tested for safety, should be used in an outbreak where 40 percent of infected people survive and, if so, who should get them from what may be a limited supply.

‘First Effort’

“This is the first effort to have a long-overdue, transparent, public discussion about how to distribute life-saving medicines in an emergency,” said Arthur Caplan, director of the division of medical ethics at NYU Langone Medical Center, in a tel...  http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-08-11/ebola-drug-supply-is-exhausted-after-doses-sent-to-africa.html

Liberia: President Obama Approves the Use of Experimental Drug on Two Liberian Doctors undergoing Treatment for Ebola

The White House and the United States Food and Drug Administration have approved the request for sample doses of experimental Serum to treat Liberian doctors who are currently infected with the deadly Ebola virus disease.
According an Executive Mansion release, the approval was in response to an August 8, 2014 communication sent to President Barrack Obama by President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf in which she requested the experimental Serum to be used on the affected Liberian doctors.
The experimental drugs are to be brought in the country by a representative of the U.S. Government later this week.
Meanwhile, the Executive Director of the World Health Organization, Dr. Margaret Chan, has authorized the dispatch of additional doses of the experimental Serum to Liberia to support the treatment of affected doctors. The experimental Serum from the WHO will be brought in by one of its experts later this week.

http://allafrica.com/stories/201408113458.html

NJ teen evacuated from Liberian school shut by Ebola crisis

hattip Nawty bits!
Walter O'Brien | NJ.com
on August 11, 2014 at 12:10 PM
[link to www.nj.com]

WHARTON — A Morris County teen had just arrived back at the More Than Me girl's academy in Monrovia, Liberia in West Africa for a summer volunteering trip when the deadly Ebola outbreak forced the temporary closing of the school and her evacuation back to her New Jersey home....

When she arrived in Monrovia, there was already talk about sending volunteers home becasuse of the Ebola epidemic, but she said panic didn't set in until July 25. She was back in New Jersey by the July 30.

...
When she first found out the summer program would be canceled she thought she would stay in Monrovia to do other work for the school.

"But then all the volunteers were evacuated," she said. "First they bought me a ticket for Friday, then canceled it and made it for Wednesday."

Schroeder said that the international airport was crowded and chaotic while so many people were trying to get out of the country at once for the ebola exodus...http://www.nj.com/morris/index.ssf/2014/08/wharton_teen_evacuated_from_liberian_girls_school_for_ebola_scare.html?