‘Nimba May Be Quarantined’

Tue, 08/19/2014 - 07:07 admin

Ganta Mayor discloses as Ebola rages

By: 

Joaquin Sendolo

As the Ebola crisis worsens in the country, the City Mayor of Ganta, Dorr Cooper has disclosed that his city could be quarantined, and even the entire county if an increase in Ebola deaths and suspected cases is observed.
Speaking in an exclusive interview following a statement to a Baptist congregation last Sunday,  Mayor Cooper said Ganta had already recorded four deaths and more than five suspected cases.
He disclosed that while a withholding center at the Ganta Hospital already exists to keep suspected persons, authorities are finding it difficult to keep suspected cases in quarantine, as patients are fleeing the center and reintegrating themselves into society, thus putting the entire county at risk of contracting the virus.
He expressed with emphasis that despite heavy news about the increasing number of lives Ebola is claiming in Liberia and other neighboring countries, many people in Ganta and Nimba at large were still denying the existence ofthe disease and accusing local authorities of devising strategies to make money in the name of Ebola.
....
Football games and assembling in video clubs are from henceforth halted, he asserted.
On Monday, it was reported on local community radio in Ganta that three dead bodies related to Ebola were  reported in the LPMC Community, while two were reported in Small Ganta.
According to the information, a lady identified as Roseline died weeks ago but had not been suspected of having contracted Ebola.
As a result, most family members who were close to her are reportedly coming down with an illness.  The herbalist who reportedly catered to her while she was sick has also come down with a severe illness.
Meanwhile, the propagation of the Ebola message in Ganta and other parts of Nimba has created fear, and many activities in the city have been suspended.
Ganta is the commercial capital of Nimba County, where several businesses are located.  The city hosts over 50,000 people.  A quarantined could lead to food shortages and an escalation in the prices of commodities, as goods from Monrovia will not easily reach a quarantined Nimba.  And with the borders with Guinea and Ivory Coast now closed, the scarcity of basic commodities will only increase. http://www.liberianobserver.com/news/%E2%80%98nimba-may-be-quarantined%E2%80%99

Ebola: Epidemic looms in Lagos Mass Transit trains … as Nigerians shun second hand clothes’ markets

HATTIP NAWTYBITS


Concerns have been raised over a possible outbreak of Ebola epidemic aboard the Lagos Mass Transit Trains due to over overcrowding and congestion in the trains. This is even as operators of the second-hand clothes markets scattered nationwide have started lamenting drop in sales due to the fear that the virus is still very active on clothes worn by dead victims.
..The disease, according to research, needs just body contact with an infected person to cause its spread. The Ebola disease transmits through body fluids like sweat from one person to another.

....Inside the trains, employees of the Nigerian Railway Corporation (NRC) who check passenger tickets are made to go through congested human bodies to make sure they check everybody aboard the trains.

All the passengers on-board are seen covered by sweat because of the human congestion and the lack of ventilation inside the trains...[link to www.newsdirectonline.com]

Apart from NRC employees who navigate through congested human bodies to check passenger tickets, hawkers are also seen struggling through passengers’ bodies to ensure they make ends meet.

Sierra Leone News : Thieves Break into Ebola Isolation Ward in Bo City

By Hassan Juana Koroma in Bo Aug 18, 2014, 12:10

While President Dr. Ernest Bai Koroma and his Government are making frantic efforts to end the Ebola epidemic disease in the country, wicked thieves on Monday 12th August 2014 at around 3 am under a heavy down pour of rain broke into the Ebola isolation ward at the Bo Government Hospital and carted away property like tents, tarpaulins, buckets, hospital beds, mobile phones and shoes among other things worth millions of Leones.

Speaking to the Medical Superintendent of the Bo Government Hospital Dr. Gerald Young at his administrative office, he expressed frustration and dismay over the unpatriotic tendencies of some so-called citizens in respect to the Ebola disease in the country. He noted there were 6 patients in Isolation Ward where thieves carted away the said property. Because of such actions by residents in the Bo municipality, the Ebola epidemic has spread like wild fire.

At this moment he disclosed the safety of the patients is questionable because if thieves can enter into the Ebola isolation ward and cart away property worth millions of Leones, it clearly indicates that due to the nature of the epidemic it is very clear that their security is not guaranteed.

The Medical Superintendent further disclosed that since the outbreak of the Ebola disease in the country, denial was prevalent which has led to a good number of patients leaving the Bo Government hospital without being discharged. He described such patients as Ebola carriers in their respective communities.

Dr. Young further admonished all that "Ebola is real" and that they are making all efforts in order to eradicate the Ebola disease through their expertise.

Speaking to the Bo West Police Media Officer, Inspector Abu Bakarr S. Kamara said that they have arrested two suspects who are helping the police with investigations on the disappearance of the Ebola Materials.

He said they take extreme caution when interrogating such suspects because if they could go and steal at the Ebola isolation ward it clearly shows that they have already sacrificed their lives for eternity. http://news.sl/drwebsite/publish/article_200525993.shtml

Inspector Kamara further informed that all the security forces have come on board strongly in combating the Ebola epidemic in the country, and admonished all that if any one poisons the minds of people about the Ebola Epidemic or steals Ebola materials they will face the full penalty of the law.

One patient in a 200-bed hospital: how Ebola has devastated Liberia's health system

Patients with other illnesses now dying due to lack of medical care amid Ebola outbreak in Liberia

Last month, five nurses and one doctor at Phebe Hospital became infected, and in the ensuing panic most of the rest of the staff fled en masse Photo: Will Wintercross/The Telegraph

By Colin Freeman, Bong County, Liberia

6:00PM BST 15 Aug 2014

Three-year-old Matu Buema lies wheezing in her hospital bed, a tiny, listless bundle in her mother Fatu's arms. The normally bouncy toddler is suffering from a bout of malaria that could easily kill her - yet right now, she is far and away the luckiest of the patients to have sought help at Phebe Hospital in central Liberia.

Last month, five of the hospital's nurses and one doctor became infected while treating a patient carrying the Ebola virus, and in the ensuing panic, most of the rest of the staff fled en masse.

The hospital has been closed ever since, and for the 330,000 residents of Bong County, a swathe of dense rainforests scattered with remote villages, there are now no emergency hospital facilities at all, be it for Ebola or anything else.

Those who bring sick or dying loved ones to Phebe's gates are stopped by security guards, some of whom carry spiked clubs in case their message that the hospital cannot help does not go down well.

The only case that get past the checkpoint are those where a child's life is in imminent danger, such as young Fatu, or mothers with complications during childbirth. Who gets in and who doesn’t is down to the discretion of the two doctors still working at the hospital, but even then there is a limit to their charity.

With most of the hospital technicians and specialists absent, many operations cannot be carried out all, and when The Telegraph visited Phebe last week, malaria-stricken Matu was the sole patient in a facility with 200 beds.
"At the moment we can look after only the most critical cases because of the lack of staff," said Kerson Saykor, the administrator of Phebe, standing next to a memorial picture of one of the dead nurses posted to a wall.
"We want the nurses to come back, but they are saying they want protective equipment in case any other patients come in with Ebola, and we do have enough of that to give them yet."
The problems at Phebe are repeated across Liberia, with scores of clinics and hospitals now shut because of the Ebola outbreak. Such has been the chaos that no hard figures on the numbers of closures are available, but with around 80 of the country's 6,000 health workers infected with the virus, including some senior physicians, the impact on the health service has been devastating.
Earlier this month, three hospitals in the capital, Monrovia, were shut, including St Joseph's Catholic Hospital, where an elderly Spanish missionary, Miguel Pajares, died from Ebola last week after being flown back to Spain for treatment. The two other hospitals in Monrovia since reopened, but are now so overstretched that people in Bong County know there is little point in making the four-hour long journey to go there.
The result is that any adult who falls acutely ill in Bong County right now can expect to die. In the township next to Phoebe hospital, a collection of shacks and breeze-block homes amid palms and dense bush, locals said that two residents had passed away in the last week alone because of lack of treatment.
One of them, Yanduay Forkpah, 69, was actually being treated in Phebe when the outbreak began, and was simply ordered to leave, according to his sister Younger Franklin, 62, who had buried him the day before The Telegraph visited.
"My brother developed pains in his neck about three weeks ago, and he spent two nights in the hospital," said Ms Franklin, as she walked down a bush trail to the clearing where his grave now lay, a mound of earth adorned with a cross made of two twigs.
"We didn't know what was wrong with him. But just as they were about to give him an X-ray, they told him the hospital was closing because the staff were dying of Ebola. Since so many other hospitals were shutting too, we had no choice but to bring him home, where he died."
Another case was that of Qweta Karba, 45, a mother-of-nine who was diagnosed two years with a chronic stomach ulcer. It suddenly grew worse again in late July, and despite agonising abdominal pain, all her husband Danny M Karba Senior could do was give her paracetamol.
"She died three days ago, by which time the pain was getting really bad for her," said Mr Karba, 62. "I am very sad that nobody was able to treat my wife – they could at least have done an ultrasound for her. The children are terribly sad."
Ironically, Mr Karbah is himself one of the health workers who deserted the hospital: he works at Phebe as a nurse and counsellor treating HIV cases. But while HIV is now a known quantity, Ebola is entirely new to the region, and its horrific symptoms, which include bleeding from the eyes, inspire terror even in health workers.
"I was working there when the outbreak killed some of the nurses, and everyone just ran away," he said. "We cannot go back there until they give us protective gloves to work with people."
Right now, nobody knows quite how many people have died in Bong County and elsewhere as a result of not being able to get emergency medical treatment.
But with the outbreak engulfing not just Liberia but Sierra Leone, Guinea and Nigeria, aid agencies fear it could get worse before it gets better. Even if they can provide health workers with the necessary protective equipment, many may still be scared to come back to work.
In an assessment paper earlier this week, UNICEF warned of an "overwhelming gap in the delivery of critical life-saving interventions" caused by the Ebola break. The report said it also risked driving patients to seek the care of bush midwives and traditional healers, many of whom do not observe proper hygienic practices.
More seriously, the absence of health workers is undermining basic vaccination programmes for the likes of measles and polio collapsing.
Immunisation rates are barely at 50 per cent at best, and the report warned that "with mothers afraid to take their children to health facilities, immunisation is expected to drop significantly by up to half the current coverage rate."
Sheldon Yett, the Liberia representative for UNICEF, told The Telegraph: "We are all now focusing on the Ebola epidemic, but we are facing other impacts just down the road because of the huge impact on the health system. There is potentially a much bigger disaster on our hands." http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/ebola/11037365/One-patient-in-a-200-bed-hospital-how-Ebola-has-devastated-Liberias-health-system.html

Gambia bird airlines suspends flights to Monrovia,Liberia and Freetown,Sierra Leone

https://twitter.com/atejancole/status/500317962935750656/photo/1

Saudi Health requests from foreign visa ban from Nigeria because of the "Ebola"

Saudi Health requests from foreign visa ban from Nigeria because of the "Ebola"

Friday, August 15th, 2014 - 11:39

The newspaper Okaz Saudi Arabia "The Ministry of Health asked the Foreign Ministry to stop issuing permits for the pilgrimage and various permits other State of Nigeria among all the countries of West Africa, after the discovery of 13 cases of secondary infected with a virus (Ebola) was mixing with the case infected in the state of Liberia," noting that there is a continuous and coordinated daily with Nigeria to follow up on cases aphid and statistics and which is one of the countries most West African Muslims, with 30 thousand pilgrims each year.... https://translate.google.com/translate?sl=auto&tl=en&js=y&prev=_t&hl=en&ie=UTF-8&u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.youm7.com%2Fstory%2F2014%2F8%2F15%2F%25D8%25A7%25D9%2584%25D8%25B5%25D8%25AD%25D8%25A9_%25D8%25A7%25D9%2584%25D8%25B3%25D8%25B9%25D9%2588%25D8%25AF%25D9%258A%25D8%25A9_%25D8%25AA%25D8%25B7%25D9%2584%25D8%25A8_%25D9%2585%25D9%2586_%25D8%25A7%25D9%2584%25D8%25AE%25D8%25A7%25D8%25B1%25D8%25AC%25D9%258A%25D8%25A9_%25D8%25AD%25D8%25B8%25D8%25B1_%25D8%25A7%25D9%2584%25D8%25AA%25D8%25A3%25D8%25B4%25D9%258A%25D8%25B1%25D8%25A7%25D8%25AA_%25D9%2585%25D9%2586_%25D9%2586%25D9%258A%25D8%25AC%25D9%258A%25D8%25B1%25D9%258A%25D8%25A7_%25D8%25A8%25D8%25B3%25D8%25A8%2F1820619&edit-text=

Lagos Ebola patients neglected, critically ill – Relatives, colleagues

August 15, 2014

Relatives and associates of the female medical doctor and other health workers who contracted the Ebola Virus Disease from the late Liberian-American, Patrick Sawyer, share the gloomy experiences of the victims with TEMITAYO FAMUTIMI and AFEEZ HANAFI

Go there yourself and witness firsthand the condition under which they are being taken care of,” Dr. Helen Boyo-Ekwueme charged at one of the journalists inquiring about the welfare of the health workers battling with Ebola, at the Infectious Diseases Hospital, Yaba, Lagos.

The atmosphere was tense. Relatives and professional colleagues of the female medical doctor and other health workers, who contracted the disease from the late Liberian-American, Patrick Sawyer, had gathered to brief journalists at a press conference which held in Ikoyi, Lagos.

Boyo-Ekwueme, a pathologist, and one of the concerned relatives kept on laying emphasis on the fact that the female medical doctor must not be left to die.

Noting that the press conference was not called to trade blames with the Federal Government or the Lagos State Government, she painted a picture of utter neglect of the female doctor and her medical colleagues who have been placed in isolation at the IDH.

The pathologist who claimed to have been to the IDH in company with other family members and professional colleagues alleged that the Ebola patients were not been properly looked after.

Arguing that proper basic treatment and immune boosting drugs that can be of help to the patients were generally lacking, she concluded that only “international help” could make them live a little longer.

She lamented, “We are not fighting anybody. We are simply giving voice to the voiceless. Those people in isolation at the IDH cannot voice out these concerns. Let them have basic treatment. It shouldn’t be as if we just stood there and abandon them and watch them die one by one.

“They are human beings. That female doctor is a patriotic Nigerian and she needs to be helped. You people (journalists) should go there and see the surroundings where they are being treated. You would wonder if these are human beings who still have relatives.

“They are just being left on their own. Nobody is counselling them. They are just there as if they have been forgotten. We should remember that they didn’t ask to contract Ebola and it can happen to anybody. We are appealing for international help for these health workers.”

Spokesperson for the group of seven concerned family members and colleagues of the Ebola victims, Dr. Ladi Okuboyejo, buttressed Boyo-Ekwueme’s claims stating that people including medical personnel deployed were now running away from the ailing victims.

Explaining that the Ebola outbreak was beyond the capacity of the scary Nigerian physicians, Okuboyejo insisted that the conditions under which the Ebola victims were being looked after was appalling.

Okuboyejo, a medical practitioner, stated that there was a dearth of requisite drugs and basic medical supplies needed by the victims adding that the poor general sanitary condition of the isolation facility was despicable.

“If a health facility doesn’t have light, doesn’t have water and the sanitary system is not working properly then we have got a problem. Now the patients are critically ill and their condition is getting worse by day. People, including some medical personnel, are now running away from them.

“The reality is that the disease is beyond our capacity to handle in this country. The international community needs to rise up to our aid. The victims are not being properly treated. Forget that the Nigeria Medical Association is on strike, we cannot handle it,” he stated.

But as the concerned associates of the Ebola victims lamented the state of affairs with their loves ones at the press conference, a close family source confided in one of our correspondents that the American doctor had been the one personally footing the bill for the purchase of basic medical supplies for the victims.

The family source who preferred anonymity stated that a long list of medical and general need items presented to the authorities by the foreign physician had yet to be supplied.

“Where is the $12m the Federal Government said it released to fight Ebola. Remember that the matron and the ECOWAS protocol officer are already dead. Do they want all of them to start dying one after the other,” the source added.

As they took turns to address journalists, another immediate family member of one of the patients, Deji Akinyanju, drew the microphones to himself and began his own round of lamentation.

Akinyanju who declined to name her ailing relative, stated that the feedbacks he has got from the isolation centre showed that the Ebola victims’ health was fast deteriorating.

He alleged that the Nigerian physicians working with the American WHO expert were those with little or no experience in managing the highly contagious disease.

With a note of disappointment in his voice, Akinyanju, who said he had been visiting his critically ill relative at the IDH stated, that the WHO expert have also highlighted the need for more experienced hands to help salvage what remains of the health of the isolated health workers.

“There is a need for more medical personnel that will help look after them. Certain immune booster could also have been easily given to them. We are just concerned family members. But from what we have seen we think more can be done to help them,” Akinyanju said.

When contacted, the Lagos State Commissioner for Health, Dr. Jide Idris, was unavailable for comments.

His telephone line rang out when one of our correspondent contacted him. Also, a text message sent to him, was not replied to as at press time on Thursday. http://www.punchng.com/news/lagos-ebola-patients-neglected-critically-ill-relatives-colleagues-2/

Ebola virus disease update - west Africa

Disease outbreak news
15 August 2014

Epidemiology and surveillance

Between 12 and 13 August 2014, a total of 152 new cases of Ebola virus disease (laboratory-confirmed, probable, and suspect cases) as well as 76 deaths were reported from Guinea, Liberia, Nigeria and Sierra Leone.

Health sector response

On 13-14 August, some airlines and social media and traditional media vehicles expressed concern that air travel to and from affected countries was a high-risk activity for the spread of Ebola. To correct this misunderstanding, WHO called a press conference at the UN Palais des Nations in Geneva on 14 August. Dr Isabelle Nuttall, speaking on behalf of WHO, said, “Air travel, even from Ebola-affected countries, is low-risk for Ebola transmission.”
Dr Nuttall further clarified modes of transmission for Ebola and emphasized that the disease is not an airborne virus, unlike influenza or tuberculosis. The infection is transmitted to others through direct contact with the bodily fluids of a sick person, such as blood, vomit, sweat, and diarrhoea. Even if an individual infected with EVD travels by plane, the likelihood of other passengers and crew coming into contact with the individual’s bodily fluids is very low.
WHO does not recommend any travel or trade restrictions be applied except in cases where individuals have been confirmed or are suspected of being infected with EVD or where individuals have had contact with cases of EVD. (Contacts do not include properly-protected health-care workers and laboratory staff.) Temporary recommendations from the Emergency Committee with regard to actions to be taken by countries can be found at:

• IHR Emergency Committee meeting on Ebola outbreak in west Africa

On 13 August, Heads of Global Information Systems (GIS) for WHO, UN agencies, intergovernmental agencies, and partners met to continue mapping the EVD crisis and create an interagency common operations picture. This will allow WHO and other organizations responding to the crisis in the affected countries to pinpoint where personnel and material should be concentrated for an effective end to the outbreak.

Disease update

Confirmed, probable, and suspect cases and deaths from Ebola virus disease in Guinea, Liberia, Nigeria, and Sierra Leone, as of 13 August 2014

	New (1)	Confirmed	Probable	Suspect	Totals
Guinea
Cases	9	376	133	10	519
Deaths	3	245	133	2	380
Liberia
Cases	116	190	423	173	786
Deaths	58	154	190	69	413
Nigeria
Cases	0	11	0	1	12
Deaths	1	4	0	0	4
Sierra Leone
Cases	27	733	38	39	810
Deaths	14	309	34	5	348
Totals
Cases	152	1310	594	223	2127
Deaths	76	712	357	76	1145
(1) New cases were reported between 1 and 13 August 2014.

The total number of cases is subject to change due to ongoing reclassification, retrospective investigation, and availability of laboratory results. Data reported in the Disease Outbreak News are based on official information reported by Ministries of Health.  http://www.who.int/csr/don/2014_08_15_ebola/en/

WHO Ebola news

15 August 2014

The scale, duration, and lethality of the Ebola outbreak have generated a high level of public fear and anxiety, which extends well beyond west Africa. Such reactions are understandable, given the high fatality rate and the absence of a vaccine or cure.
Recent intense media coverage of experimental medicines and vaccines is creating some unrealistic expectations, especially in an emotional climate of intense fear. The public needs to understand that these medical products are under investigation. They have not yet been tested in humans and are not approved by regulatory authorities, beyond use for compassionate care.
Evidence of their effectiveness is suggestive, but not based on solid scientific data from clinical trials. Safety is also unknown, raising the possibility of adverse side effects when administered to humans. For most, administration is difficult and demanding. Safe administration of some requires facilities for intensive care, which are rare in west Africa.
WHO has advised that the use of experimental medicines and vaccines under the exceptional circumstances of this outbreak is ethically acceptable. However, existing supplies of all experimental medicines are either extremely limited or exhausted.
While many efforts are under way to accelerate production, supplies will not be augmented for several months to come. Even then, supplies will be too small to have a significant impact on the outbreak.
WHO welcomes the decision by the Canadian government to donate several hundred doses of an experimental vaccine to support the outbreak response. A fully tested and licensed vaccine is not expected before 2015.
Another source of public misunderstanding, especially in affected areas, comes from rumours on social media claiming that certain products or practices can prevent or cure Ebola virus disease.
Decades of scientific research have failed to find a curative or preventive agent of proven safety and effectiveness in humans, though a number of promising products are currently under development.
All rumours of any other effective products or practices are false. Their use can be dangerous. In Nigeria, for example, at least two people have died after drinking salt water, rumoured to be protective.
The most effective personal behaviours are avoiding well-known high-risk situations, knowing the symptoms of infection, and reporting early for testing and care. Evidence suggests that early supportive care improves the prospects of survival.
The Ebola virus is highly contagious but only under very specific conditions involving close contact with the bodily fluids of an infected person or corpse. Most infections have been linked to traditional funeral practices or the unprotected care, in homes or health facilities, of an infected person showing symptoms.
Apart from these specific opportunities for exposure to the virus, the general public is not at high risk of infection.  http://www.who.int/mediacentre/news/ebola/15-august-2014/en/

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