Ghana, according to the Ghana Health Service, is currently investigating a suspected case of Ebola.
The
latest suspected case is a Nigerian patient, who sought medical
attention at the Achimota hospital in Accra Sunday after battling fever
for a while.
Ebola virus is currently spreading across West Africa
and is believed to have killed over 2000 people in Guinea, Liberia,
Sierra Leone and Nigeria since the outbreak began in February, according
to the World Health Organisation.
Ghana has so far investigated 37 suspected cases of the deadly virus with all turning out to be negative.
Citifmonline
quotes Dr. Badu Sakordie, Head of Disease Surveillance as saying the
health authorities are closely monitoring the patient.
“We are
just getting it like you are doing so we are yet to follow up so I don't
have too many details to come out. Let's investigate,” he said.
Asked
if blood samples of the patient had been sent to the Noguchi Memorial
institute for further tests, he said: “they take a sample but then this
one we just had the information… they haven't given us a report, these
things we can't preempt, let's do the proper investigation and come
out.”
Ebola Claims The Life Of Another Doctor In Sierra Leone
A fourth doctor, Dr Olivet Buck has died of Ebola in Sierra
Leone after a failed bid to transfer her abroad for treatment. The doctor
passed away last night after the World Health Organization, WHO said it couldn’t
help to move her to Germany.
Sierra Leone had requested funds from the organisation to
transfer her for treatment saying it could not afford to lose another doctor.
However, Chief Medical Officer Dr Brima Kargbo confirmed today
September 14 that the Sierra Leone national had died on Saturday night. WHO
had said it could not meet the request but instead would work to give Dr Buck
'the best care possible' in Sierra Leone, including access to experimental
drugs.
This will come as a huge setback for the impoverished country
that is battling the virulent disease amid a shortage of health care workers.
A total of 301 health workers had become infected with the
disease as of September 7 in Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone, according to
WHO. Of that number, which included suspected and probable cases in
addition to confirmed ones, 144 had died.
Due to the fact that the virus is only transmitted through
contact with the bodily fluids of people showing symptoms or from dead bodies
of Ebola victims, health workers have been especially vulnerable as they
respond to the worst outbreak in history.
The Ebola outbreak in west Africa is already a crisis; it could very easily become a catastrophe.
Dr
Ian Norton, chief of foreign medical teams with the World Health
Organisation (WHO), is a contributor to ABC News coverage of the Ebola
crisis. He says it is a race against time to build a number of massive
field hospitals in Monrovia, Liberia, as the death toll nears 3,000.
We have only a narrow window of opportunity in which to contain this outbreak.
If we ignore it, we will find the disease much more difficult to control and can expect infection rates to escalate.
Not
to put too fine a point on it: we have a closing window of perhaps
weeks now before we will not be able to manage all the cases on the
ground in the way that we normally would.
Already the WHO and the
ministries of health of the three most affected countries are thinking
of other ways to contain and manage the large numbers infected.
This is new for everybody. The only team that
has built a field hospital for Ebola treatment before has been from
Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF), and their standard operations are for
only 40 people.
We are building five 100-bed field hospitals
in Monrovia, in addition to the 200-bed facility which already exists
there and which will soon be expanded to at least 300, perhaps 400,
beds.
Profile: Dr Ian Norton
Currently chief of foreign medical teams with the World Health Organisation in west Africa
Previously Director of Disaster Preparedness and Response at the National Critical Care and Trauma Response Centre in Darwin
Involved in the emergency medical response when 44 asylum seekers were badly burnt in a boat explosion at Ashmore Reef in 2009
Team leader of the Australian civilian medical response to the Pakistan floods in 2010
Has worked in India, Indonesia, Europe and East Timor
We are calling for foreign medical teams across the world to come and assist us.
We
are not looking for huge numbers of foreign doctors and nurses and
logistics staff but at least a core group of 30 to 40 who would help
manage these large centres and then work alongside national medical
staff and nurses.
Tragically, Liberia - which already ranks
fourth-last in the world for numbers of doctors per population - has
lost almost 20 doctors to Ebola. They only produce 10 doctors per year
in a medical class.
They have also lost a large number of nurses, and Ebola
care is all about the nursing care. There are only a couple of thousand
nurses in the country and we know that at least 90 have died from the
infection and another 50 or 60 have survived.
The nurses and
doctors are actually willing to come back to work, with measures in
place to assist them including protecting equipment, training and a
payment scheme which reflects the danger of the work.
Without
medical care, the mortality rate of this Ebola outbreak is about 90 per
cent. While it is a devastating disease, it is not universally fatal,
even with minimal care.
But with better care, and certainly with
the new Ebola treatment centres and with the right number of staff
treating them, we can gradually escalate the level of care and have
better outcomes.
For example, we have seen in Guinea for several
months that with good supportive care we can bring the mortality rate
down to 30 to 50 per cent at most.
So we can see a several-fold
improvement in survival if we can just get the teams in here and get
these Ebola treatment centres up and running.
We have to stop this spreading beyond the point of no return. This interview with Dr Ian Norton first aired on the ABC's PM program.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, warning hospitals
and doctors that “now is the time to prepare,” has issued a six-page
Ebola “checklist” to help healthcare workers quickly determine if
patients are infected.
While the CDC does not believe that there are new cases of Ebola in
the United States, the assumption in the checklist is that it is only a
matter of time before the virus hits home.
For example, one part reads: “Encourage healthcare personnel to use
a ‘buddy system’ when caring for patients.” Another recommends a
process to report cases to top officials:
Plan for regular situational briefs for decision-makers, including:
-- Suspected and confirmed EVD patients who have been identified and reported to public health authorities.
-- Isolation, quarantine and exposure reports.
-- Supplies and logistical challenges.
-- Personnel status, and policy decisions on contingency plans and staffing.
The checklist has been distributed to major hospitals and even little ones, including an urgent center in Leesburg, Va.
“Every hospital should ensure that it can detect a patient with
Ebola, protect healthcare workers so they can safely care for the
patient, and respond in a coordinated fashion,” warns the CDC.
“While we are not aware of any domestic Ebola Virus Disease cases
(other than two American citizens who were medically evacuated to the
United States), now is the time to prepare, as it is possible that
individuals with EVD in West Africa may travel to the United States,
exhibit signs and symptoms of EVD, and present to facilities,” it adds.
Several hospital and medical websites have just begun to post the checklist online.
As
a result of the deadly Ebola virus disease, which a Nigerian diplomat,
Olu-Ibukun Koye took to Port Harcourt from Lagos, expatriates are
leaving the country.
Investigations reveal that foreigners,
especially those from Asia countries, who work in multinational
companies located in Port Harcourt, are leaving the city in droves for
fear of contacting the dreaded virus. Many foreigners, mostly of
India extraction, were seen at the Port Harcourt International Airport
with their families making efforts to board international flight back to
their countries.
Some of the expatriates, who spoke to reporters,
said they were afraid of contacting the dreaded virus and decided to go
back to their countries. One of them who spoke under the condition of
anonymity said, “We are very scared because Ebola has no cure. So we
want to go back to India. We don’t want to take chances; hence the
reason why we want to go back to our country. I am here with my kids and
wife. We want to leave Nigeria for our country.’’ ...... ......
Since the Ebola outbreak in Port Harcourt, the Garden
City has lost its peace. Residents now live in fear. Body contact,
backslapping and the traditional handshake have become a taboo in the
city. Nightlife, which the Rivers State capital is noted for, has become
a nightmare. In churches, the spiritual laying of hands by clergies has
stopped. In various hospitals, mere symptoms of fever and diarrhea have
become a dangerous venture medics don’t want to trade on. Hospitals in
Port Harcourt and its environs now reject patients with symptoms of
malaria and diarrhea. The prices of hand-gloves and sanitisers have increased tremendously. Addressing
traditional rulers and religious leaders in Port Harcourt on the Ebola
disease, Governor Chibuike Amaechi of Rivers State enjoined them to
sensitise the people in their different domains and partner with his
administration in its rescue efforts. The state government is also getting assistance from multinational companies in Port Harcourt in its fight against the virus.
Coalition Of Inaction: Outrage On The Ebola Front Line In Liberia
12/09/14
In Monrovia(John Moore/MSF)
by Christophe Châtelot LE MONDE/Worldcrunch
MONROVIA— "Welcome to hell." There is no cynicism and no irony in the voice of the young French volunteer from Médecins sans frontières (Doctors without Borders). The deep rings of fatigue under his eyes tell the same tale. This "hell" is Elwa in Monrovia, the capital of Liberia. Elwa is the largest treatment center ever set up by the French NGO to fight an epidemic,
a camp of big white tents where its staff is trying desperately to
fight Ebola, the terribly contagious virus that causes often fatal hemorrhagic fevers and has already killed more than 2,000 people in west Africa, over half of them in Liberia. Dealing with death is not even the
hardest part for the young volunteer. What haunts him is that for three
days through the chain link and padlocks of Elwa’s high gate he has been
sending infected people to die elsewhere, because the center is too
crowded. "There is nothing worse for us, both humanly and hygienically, because we don’t cut the chain of contamination," says
a discouraged Laurence Sailly, emergency coordinator of Doctors without
Borders Belgium, the branch of the French NGO with the most expertise
in the fight against Ebola. "We are swamped but we have to keep the
center under control for both the people who work there and the
patients. So we refuse people. It’s awful." When it opened on August 18, Elwa had
120 beds. That number was soon increased to 160, then 400. This is a
first for Doctors without Borders, which took over the treatment center
after the departure of the evangelical American NGO Samaritan's Purse
at the beginning of August. Elsewhere in town there are 80 other places
managed by the Liberian Ministry of Health, in this country still
ravaged by the last civil war
that ended in 2003. Local doctors and nurses are paying a heavy cost in
the fight against Ebola: 152 health professionals have been infected in
Liberia, 79 of whom have died, according to the World Health
Organization. But all of this is not enough for
Monrovia and its population of some one million people, many of them
crammed into squalid slums transformed into viral powder kegs. "We
would need 1,000 beds now to fight against this epidemic, the like of
which has never been seen before, and Liberian authorities would have to
call for help from the outside," says Sailly. In Elwa’s muddy alleys indignation is mounting. "Where are the other big NGOs so ready to show up
when there are humanitarian disasters? They’re afraid of the epidemic
and are hiding behind their lack of expertise," says one volunteer,
adding that the larger UN agencies move very slowly. "It’s a coalition of inaction, it’s shocking," says Christopher Stokes, director general of Doctors without Borders Belgium. A family story The situation has become so critical
that Doctors without Borders has called on American military health
services and its logistics. Washington, which sent aircraft carriers,
GIs and helicopters to the rescue in Haiti when it was ravaged by
earthquake in 2010, is looking into the matter. "International organizations and
various countries have promised tens of millions of dollars as well as
equipment to implement the World Health Organization’s emergency plan,
but who’s going to coordinate all this?" Stokes says angrily.
Kitchen staff provide food to Ebola patients in Sierra Leone.(Photo - P.K. Lee, MSF)
Meanwhile, Doctors without Borders has stretched to the point of importing a crematorium that can burn over 100 bodies a day. "Normally that’s not out job," Stokes adds. Still, time is short. On Monday,
under sweltering sun in this muggy rain season the frail silhouette of a
woman delirious with fever is curled up on the cinderblocks in the
shade of the fence surrounding Elwa. Passersby eye her with looks
ranging from disquiet to indifference. Indeed in Monrovia lately, a dead
body or a person in agony are not such a rare sight. From the other
side of the fence the sick woman’s daughter has received a sanitary
protection kit: a little white plastic box that contains chlorine,
gloves, an apron and a mask to limit contamination. The girl is
gathering water bottles discarded by other contaminated people. How many other contaminated people
lie in agony in family compounds, ostracized by their neighbors? How
many Ebola orphans are wandering the streets? Nobody can say with
certitude. "The figures have been underestimated so we can’t make projections," says Pierre Rollin, a specialist in hemorrhagic fevers at the American Center for Disease Control and Prevention. The figures put forth: 10,000 dead, 20,000 by the end of the year? "We’re
not seeing the light at the end of the tunnel," Rollin, an Ebola
specialist admits. "Previous Ebola epidemics were on a human scale. This
is a real natural catastrophe. We cannot explain why there are so many
new cases being registered in such a short period of time." And the meter is running. "On average
every case is in contact with ten people and generates 2.4 new cases,"
Rollin explains. The result is that none of Liberia’s 15 counties —
including those bordering on Ivory Coast — has been spared by the
epidemic, which probably began in December with one case in neighboring
Guinea. In this region people and hence the virus weave in and out of forested frontiers where the state is nonexistent. Funeral rites are as much a transmitter of the disease as are bodily fluids. In Monrovia, the authorities have
plastered the city with posters that read "Ebola is real." For those who
are not illiterate, the message is on every street corner. "Ebola
exists," concedes Abdu Aziz Kromah, a student met in one of the muddy
alleys of West Point, a slum in Monrovia where a quarantine has just
been lifted. Finda Fallah can bear witness to the reality, which now also includes some hope. On Saturday this young woman of 30 emerged healed
from the Elwa center with two of her children, aged three and six, and
her young sister of 15. They are now immune to Ebola. But the virus
killed her mother, husband, one of her children, a sister, and nephews
and nieces, eight people in all with whom they shared a single sordid
room in West Point transformed into an Ebola incubator dirtied by blood
diarrhea and vomit. When we saw her the next day, Fallah
managed a smile. But she’ll sleep outdoors this night. The roof she used
to sleep under is already occupied by others following a visit from the
disinfection service. "People don’t come near us, the pharmacist
refused to serve me," she says. "Cured, you say?" says another local,
Abdu Aziz Kromah, keeping a skeptical distance. Fallah responds:
"That’s what Doctors without Borders said? Well, maybe. But we don’t
believe the government." http://www.worldcrunch.com/mobile/#a:16989
Written by Wade C. L. Williams, wade.williams@frontpageafricaonline.com
Published: 15 September 2014
Monrovia - The
deadly Ebola virus continues to claim more lives in Liberia as health
centers become completely overwhelmed to continue receiving new patients
daily. On Friday, September 12, 2014, a high powered delegation led by
Dr. David Nabarro, Senior United Nations System Coordinator for Ebola
and DrKeiji Fukuda, WHO Assistant Director-General, Health Security and
Liberian health officials took a tour of the facility.
The World Health Organization in
collaboration with the Liberian government is working to complete the
120-bed facility at the former Island Clinic located on the Bushrod
Island in Monrovia to meet the demand for more hospital beds for Ebola
patients.
Friday construction works were ongoing as contractors
were seen busy putting together what will be the second Ebola Treatment
largest facility after the medical humanitarian group, Medecin San
Frontier, MSF. Workers at the hospital told FrontPageAfrica that they
are already seeing an influx of sick people from the disease and that
they have to turn them away because the center was not ready.
“People are coming here every day, thinking the center is ready because of the information that is out there,” said Stephen Chea,
Deputy Chief of Security at the hospital now renamed the Oniyama
Specialist Hospital. “There are a lot of things that we’ve been doing
here. It is just that the government wants to use this place so
urgently, but the work that needs to be done here could take another 30
days.”
Men at work said they had been given an ultimatum to
finish the center in two days and that they (worker) were under a lot of
pressure to deliver. During a tour of the facility, Dr. Fukuda seemed
impressed by the level of work that was ongoing and said he hopes the
facility will help meet the needs of Ebola patients and break the chain
of transmission of the deadly disease.
“This example here, we
have had contractors working overnight for ten days, to really achieve a
miracle in putting together a wonderful facility,” he said. “It really
shows you that the international community, both within Africa and
outside have been working with the countries in order to turn around
this fight and as Dr. Nabarro said, it is still a difficult fight, but
this is really how it is going to turn around.”
The opening of treatment centers across
the country is urgently needed as available Ebola treatment facilities
around the country are turning patients away because they have run out
of beds. Suspected Ebola patients who turned themselves into various
treatment centers last week were seen lying around in front of the
gates, many of them too weak to walk.
But the government said
late last week that it is working around the clock to provide the needed
resources to open treatment centers where patients could go to receive
treatment. The government said it has expended close to five million
United States Dollars to fight the deadly Ebola Virus.
GoL Funding to health sector
The government said to date, it has mobilized a total of US$5.7 million dollars consisting of US$5.6 million and LD$9.4
million paid into the Ebola Trust Fund at the Central Bank of Liberia
as donations from the government, private individuals and organizations
for the fight against the deadly Ebola virus.
Speaking Thursday
at a news conference, Finance minister Amara Konneh said after one month
of implementation, the government through the finance ministry has
disbursed approximately US$4.7 Million to the various implementing agencies, leaving an undisbursed balance of approximately US$1.1 million.
“The Ministry of Health has received US$2.8
million, constituting 61.7% of the initial funding, as part of the
government’s initial support to the health sector in dealing with the
crisis,” he said. “Of this amount, US$1. 4 million disbursed for the
payment of per diems for deploying health workers; US$600,000 to procure 12 ambulances.”
Konneh said the government disbursed US$300,000.00
as an advance on the construction of various treatment facilities
across the country, including ElWA II Liberian-run Ebola Treatment Unit,
Foya Treat Unit, and Gbarnga Treatment Unit; bringing the Island Clinic
online and the Congo Town Ebola Treatment Unit online. He said as part
of the government’s effort to fight Ebola Virus Disease (EVD), it has
prioritized key activities within the Health and Security Sectors
through the National Budget for Fiscal Year 2014/2015.
“We have to date disbursed US$6.2
million over the period July to August to the Health Sector, targeting
the Ministry of Health, John F. Kennedy Hospital, Jackson F. Doe
Hospital, Phebe Hospital, Tellewoyan Hospital, C.H. Renney Hospital and
other county health centers and systems across the country through the
Ministry of Health and Social Welfare,” he said.
“Separately, we have disbursed through the budget a total of US$1,276,339.00
to the Security Sector for their regular operations based on the
one-twelfth provision of the PFM Law in the absence of an approved
budget.”
Konneh said the government has disbursed a total of US$556,150.00 to counties to assist county health teams in their effort to fight Ebola: Montserrado US$276,500; Gbarpolu US$127,650; Margibi US$77,000; Bong County US$50,000 and Grand Gedeh US$25,000.
WHO, has predicted an increase in the number of Ebola virus infections
in Liberia in September. About 60 percent of Liberia's cases and deaths
occurred within the last three weeks, WHO data shows.
Liberia’s
Infrastructure was devastated by a 14-year civil war, which killed about
250,000 in the conflict that ended in 2003. The country is estimated to
have one doctor to treat nearly 100,000 people before Ebola outbreak,
which began in March this year. There have been 2,046 cases since the
outbreak with 1,224. In a country of 4.4 Million people it is not good
news at all.
It will create EU mechanism to coordinate evacuation Ebola
Brussels, Oct 15 (Prensa Latina) The European Union (EU) today
announced the creation of a mechanism to coordinate the evacuation of
active physicians and workers in West African countries affected by the
epidemic of Ebola . The proposal was made for a high-level meeting devoted to analyzing the EU response to the advance of the disease.
In the same among the European commissioners development and health,
along with representatives of EU states, the World Health Organization
and the United Nations coordinator attention to Ebola.
"We agree on the crucial importance of reliable medical staff in
countries affected systems for medical evacuation and humanitarian
workers, in order to maintain an effective international response on the
ground," said a statement released here.
In the document, Kristalina Georgieva, EU responsible for Humanitarian
Aid and Crisis Response, said that those attending the meeting endorsed a
proposal by France that "could form the basis for further discussions
on this mechanism."
He also reiterated that the risk of Ebola virus circulating in Europe
is low, but warned the need to continue the work of preparation and
coordination of risk management to be ready for any eventuality.
He also stressed that the EU is committed to help African countries not
only in fighting disease but also in its development in the medium and
long term.
"It is very important to strengthen health systems and health in those
countries. Try to also provide transportation to and from the region,"
he said.
For its part, the Italian Minister of Public Health, Beatrice Lorenzin,
noted that the Ebola epidemic is a "great tragedy" that must be stopped
with coordinated international action.
MINNEAPOLIS — THE Ebola epidemic in West Africa has the potential to alter history as much as any plague has ever done.
There have been more than 4,300 cases and 2,300 deaths over the past six months. Last week, the World Health Organization warned that, by early October, there may be thousands of new cases per week in Liberia,
Sierra Leone, Guinea and Nigeria. What is not getting said publicly,
despite briefings and discussions in the inner circles of the world’s
public health agencies, is that we are in totally uncharted waters and
that Mother Nature is the only force in charge of the crisis at this
time.
There are two possible future chapters to this story that should keep us up at night.
The
first possibility is that the Ebola virus spreads from West Africa to
megacities in other regions of the developing world. This outbreak is
very different from the 19 that have occurred in Africa over the past 40
years. It is much easier to control Ebola infections in isolated
villages. But there has been a 300 percent increase in Africa’s
population over the last four decades, much of it in large city slums.
What happens when an infected person yet to become ill travels by plane
to Lagos, Nairobi, Kinshasa or Mogadishu — or even Karachi, Jakarta,
Mexico City or Dhaka?
The
second possibility is one that virologists are loath to discuss openly
but are definitely considering in private: that an Ebola virus could
mutate to become transmissible through the air.
You can now get Ebola
only through direct contact with bodily fluids. But viruses like Ebola
are notoriously sloppy in replicating, meaning the virus entering one
person may be genetically different from the virus entering the next.
The current Ebola virus’s hyper-evolution is unprecedented; there has
been more human-to-human transmission in the past four months than most
likely occurred in the last 500 to 1,000 years. Each new infection
represents trillions of throws of the genetic dice.
If
certain mutations occurred, it would mean that just breathing would put
one at risk of contracting Ebola. Infections could spread quickly to
every part of the globe, as the H1N1 influenza virus did in 2009, after
its birth in Mexico.
Why
are public officials afraid to discuss this? They don’t want to be
accused of screaming “Fire!” in a crowded theater — as I’m sure some
will accuse me of doing. But the risk is real, and until we consider it,
the world will not be prepared to do what is necessary to end the
epidemic.
In
2012, a team of Canadian researchers proved that Ebola Zaire, the same
virus that is causing the West Africa outbreak, could be transmitted by
the respiratory route from pigs to monkeys, both of whose lungs are very
similar to those of humans. Richard Preston’s 1994 best seller “The Hot
Zone” chronicled a 1989 outbreak of a different strain, Ebola Reston
virus, among monkeys at a quarantine station near Washington. The virus
was transmitted through breathing, and the outbreak ended only when all
the monkeys were euthanized. We must consider that such transmissions
could happen between humans, if the virus mutates.
So what must we do that we are not doing?
First, we need someone to take over the position of “command and control.” The United Nations
is the only international organization that can direct the immense
amount of medical, public health and humanitarian aid that must come
from many different countries and nongovernmental groups to smother this
epidemic. Thus far it has played at best a collaborating role, and with
everyone in charge, no one is in charge.
A
Security Council resolution could give the United Nations total
responsibility for controlling the outbreak, while respecting West
African nations’ sovereignty as much as possible. The United Nations
could, for instance, secure aircraft and landing rights. Many private
airlines are refusing to fly into the affected countries, making it very
difficult to deploy critical supplies and personnel. The Group of 7
countries’ military air and ground support must be brought in to ensure
supply chains for medical and infection-control products, as well as
food and water for quarantined areas.
The
United Nations should provide whatever number of beds are needed; the
World Health Organization has recommended 1,500, but we may need
thousands more. It should also coordinate the recruitment and training
around the world of medical and nursing staff, in particular by bringing
in local residents who have survived Ebola, and are no longer at risk
of infection. Many countries are pledging medical resources, but
donations will not result in an effective treatment system if no single
group is responsible for coordinating them.
Finally,
we have to remember that Ebola isn’t West Africa’s only problem. Tens
of thousands die there each year from diseases like AIDS, malaria and
tuberculosis. Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea have among the highest
maternal mortality rates in the world. Because people are now too afraid
of contracting Ebola to go to the hospital, very few are getting basic
medical care. In addition, many health care workers have been infected
with Ebola, and more than 120 have died. Liberia has only 250 doctors
left, for a population of four million.
This
is about humanitarianism and self-interest. If we wait for vaccines and
new drugs to arrive to end the Ebola epidemic, instead of taking major
action now, we risk the disease’s reaching from West Africa to our own
backyards.
