Double Blow Again: Two More Deaths in Shu-rina Chain

Published: 23 September 2014

Monrovia – Two more relatives of the late Miss Liberia 2009/2010 Shu-rina Rose Wiah have succumbed to death just a week after she died of circumstances related to the deadly Ebola virus. Shu-rina died just few days after her sister, Sieanyene Toose Yuoh- Katty, lost her life to what family sources say, was complications from an appendix surgery.

The deaths are heightening calls for authorities to do speedy tests of corpses prior to cremating bodies amid growing fears that corpses from several suspected cases of Ebola are being cremated without actual confirmation that they died of the deadly Ebola virus.

The issue is poised for even more complications after Toose’s son, Kelvin Kels Toure, who has been quarantined along with his brother at the ELWA 3 MSF Ebola treatment facility, was reported dead Sunday. Oxford Wiah, a brother of Shu-rina who was quarantined along with Kels and Toose’s second son, also died Monday. Both deaths have not yet been confirmed to be Ebola by authorities and it is unclear whether the corpses would be or have already been cremated.

Toose died on Sunday, August 31, 2014 at about 5:28 PM and her remains deposited at the Samuel A. Stryker Funeral Home in Monrovia. A funeral was held on Thursday, September 11, 2014 at 10:00 am and she was buried at the 1st Baptist Church cemetery, oldest Congo Town Back Road.

Although there have been fears that her death was related to Ebola, that has not been proven as there has not been any incident at the Stryker Funeral Home which processed Toose’s body.

Her Sister, Shurina shockingly died on Tuesday, September 15, 2014. Shurina’s mother Rev. Mother Rosie Dillon-Wiah told FrontPageAfrica Tuesday that her daughter had not died from Ebola as was widely speculated on the social media Facebook and in Monrovia. “She did not die from Ebola.”

‘This is Depressing’

The mother explained that "Shurina had not eaten for a week, that’s why she was weak and she died. When they came for the body, they asked whether she had sore mouth, I said no. She was not vomiting, not bleeding. Then they told us that we had called the wrong rescue team and they took the body away, but there was no sign of Ebola on Shurina, I swear. They collected the body and never tested the body. They said we called the wrong team, the burial team when we should have called the testing team first,” Mother Rosie lamented.


A relative citing one of the nurses, posted on Facebook Monday that Kelvin, whose aunt, is the late Shu-rina, was not responding to treatment at ELWA and kept saying he was getting ready for his mom’s funeral. “This is depressing. RIP Family!”

Some family members have suggested that Kelvin was depressed over his mother’s loss and are ruling out Ebola as a cause of death. Others are not so sure. “They (authorities are not communicating with the families. So they do not know whether they died from Ebola or whether their bodies have been cremated already. We don’t know.”

But even if Kelvin did die of Ebola, family members continue to scramble for answers as to where he may have gotten infected amid uncertainty over how Shu-rina died as no tests were done prior to her cremation and her mother’s insistence that she did not die of the deadly virus.

">Another sister of Shu-rina has since been discharged from JFK treatment facility after showing no signs of Ebola. Rev. Mother Rose Wiah, Shu-rina’s mom and several other family members, including Toose’s second son, are still under quarantined.

Several dignitaries, family and friends who attended Toose’s funeral have been concerned amid fears that family members were quarantined after Shu-rina’s death.

The deaths of a further two family members are triggering more fears. Associate Justice Sieanyene G. Yuoh, Toose’s aunt is still in good spirits and said she is showing no signs of the Ebola virus as is being widely speculated in Monrovia.

Speaking to FrontPageAfrica Friday from Nashville, Tennessee, the United States of America, Associate Justice Yuoh, who was among several dignitaries who attended Toose’s funeral, said she reported herself to the hospital as soon as she learned of Shurina’s death.

"I reported myself when I got here and I have no symptoms for ten days. I’m running no fever, my life is not at risk, and my children’s lives are not at risk. I have been walking every hour by the grace of God, I am fine."

Fresh Graves Point to Undercount of Ebola Toll

By ADAM NOSSITERSEPT. 22, 2014

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James Hamilton said of burying Ebola victims in Sierra Leone, “We will need much more space.” Credit Samuel Aranda for The New York Times

FREETOWN, Sierra Leone — The gravedigger hacked at the cemetery’s dense undergrowth, clearing space for the day’s Ebola victims. A burial team, in protective suits torn with gaping holes, arrived with fresh bodies.

The backs of the battered secondhand vans carrying the dead were closed with twisted, rusting wire. Bodies were dumped in new graves, and a worker in a short-sleeve shirt carried away the stretcher, wearing only plastic bags over his hands as protection. The outlook for the day at King Tom Cemetery was busy.

“We will need much more space,” said James C. O. Hamilton, the chief gravedigger, as a colleague cleared the bush with his machete.

The Ebola epidemic is spreading rapidly in Sierra Leone’s densely packed capital — and it may already be far worse than the authorities acknowledge.

Since the beginning of the outbreak more than six months ago, the Sierra Leone Health Ministry reported only 10 confirmed Ebola deaths here in Freetown, the capital of more than one million people, and its suburbs as of Sunday — a hopeful sign that this city, unlike the capital of neighboring Liberia, had been relatively spared the ravages of the outbreak.

Video

Play Video|4:51

Burial Boys of Ebola

Burial Boys of Ebola

In Sierra Leone, a group of young men take on the dirtiest work of the Ebola outbreak: finding and burying the dead.

Video Credit By Ben C. Solomon on Publish Date August 23, 2014.

But the bodies pouring in to the graveyard tell a different story. In the last eight days alone, 110 Ebola victims have been buried at King Tom Cemetery, according to the supervisor, Abdul Rahman Parker, suggesting an outbreak that is much more deadly than either the government or international health officials have announced.

“I’m working with the burial team, and the first question I ask them is, ‘Are they Ebola-positive?’ ” said Mr. Parker, adding that the figures were based on medical certificates that he had seen himself. The deaths are carefully recorded by name and date in a notebook headed “Ebola Burials.”

A burial team supervisor who drove up with fresh bodies echoed Mr. Parker’s assertion. “Any body we collect is a positive case,” said Sorie Kessebeh. “All the bodies that we are bringing in are positive.”

Beyond the many worrisome trends in the Ebola epidemic seizing parts of West Africa — the overflowing hospitals, the presence of the disease in crowded cities, the deaths of scores of health workers trying to help — another basic problem has stymied attempts to contain the disease: No one seems to know how bad the outbreak really is.

The World Health Organization acknowledged weeks ago that despite its efforts to tally the thousands of cases in the region, the official statistics probably “vastly underestimate the magnitude of the outbreak.”

Photo

The grave of Marion Seisay at King Tom Cemetery in Freetown, Sierra Leone. Area residents say animals dig near the graves, creating dangers for the living. Credit Samuel Aranda for The New York Times

Here in Sierra Leone, the government just finished an aggressive national lockdown to get a handle on the epidemic, ordering the entire country to stay indoors for three days as an army of volunteers went door to door, explaining the dangers of the virus and trying to root out hidden pockets of illness.

Still, the Health Ministry spokesman insisted that the epidemic was not as bad as the flow of bodies at the cemetery suggested.

“It is not possible that all of them are Ebola-related deaths,” said Sidie Yahya Tunis, the Health Ministry spokesman, saying the corpses included people who died of other causes.

But as the cemetery records show, the challenge facing the government might be of a different magnitude than previously thought.

The majority of the recent deaths recorded at the cemetery were young people — young adults, people in early middle age, or children — with very few elderly people on the list. Several of the deaths also occurred in a concentrated area, sometimes in the same house, suggesting that a virulent infection had struck.

King Tom Cemetery

1 Mile

Kolleh Town

Kroo Bay

SIERRA

LEONE

Freetown

Atlantic

Ocean

Freetown

At the house of Marion Seisay — the third name on the list — her son acknowledged she was a secretary at Wilberforce Hospital, had died of Ebola and was buried on Sept. 14. The house was now under quarantine, with some of its eight residents lingering on the cinder-block porch.

“The way my Mummy died was pathetic,” said the son, Michael Foday, clearly frustrated by the quarantine. “How do you expect us to get food?”

Other houses in Wilberforce Barracks, the village-like compound surrounding the hospital, were on the list of the dead and placed under quarantine, marked off from the surrounding jumble of shacks and cinder-block houses by a thin line of red or blue string.

In one of them, the house of Momoh Lomeh, the residents said that a total of five people who lived there had died of Ebola — yet four of them did not even appear on the cemetery list. At another, the house of Andrew Mansoray, a family member said that the disease had been ruthless and unrelenting.

“It wouldn’t stop,” Abdul R. Kallon said of the diarrhea that Mr. Mansoray, his brother-in-law, had endured before dying. “They took him to the hospital, and they wouldn’t let him out.”

Photo

A burial team removed the body of a man in Freetown believed to have died from Ebola. Credit Samuel Aranda for The New York Times

At another six households on the cemetery supervisor’s list of the dead, residents gave similar accounts. One family said the victim had definitely died of Ebola, while five others described Ebola-like symptoms — vomiting, diarrhea, fever — though none had been given an official cause of death.

International health experts here had no explanation for the striking discrepancy between the government’s tally of the dead in the capital and the cemetery crew’s statistics. Several of them noted the general confusion surrounding official statistics here from the beginning, with one leading international health official saying: “We don’t know exactly what is going on.”

But nobody disputed that things appear to be getting worse. The W.H.O. has shown a sharp increase in new cases in Freetown in recent weeks, rising from almost none early in the summer to more than 50 during the week of Sept. 14.

Various models of the growth of the epidemic here “all show an exponential increase,” said Peter H. Kilmarx, the head of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention team in Sierra Leone. “The conditions are amenable to Ebola spread.”

The goal of the government’s national lockdown was to reach every household in the country, and officials claimed success in doing so on Monday, saying that progress had been made in the fight against the disease.

OPEN Graphic

But the exhaustion of the Ebola gravediggers at King Tom Cemetery, who dig as many as 16 graves a day, indicated that the disease was far from being contained.

“It’s a herculean task,” said Mr. Hamilton, the chief gravedigger. “It’s only out of patriotism that we are doing it.”

The Ebola victims were buried in an expanding stretch of fresh muddy graves under a giant cotton tree, and the makeshift arrangements are seen as a looming threat by the residents of the slum next to it. No barrier stops the pigs rooting in the adjoining trash field from digging in the fresh Ebola graves, which residents say they often do.

“We have creatures in the community, and they dig in the graves,” said Henry S. Momoh, who lives in the adjoining slum, which residents call Kolleh Town. “They are burying the Ebola patients in there, but not in the proper manner.”

Five yards from where the new graves begin, a well-used path connects the slum to the main road. Residents all use it, passing close to the freshly dug graves, and are frightened by the intensifying activity in the cemetery.

“Since last month, it’s every day, any minute and hour, and often, they are coming” to bury the Ebola dead, said Desmond Kamara, a police officer.

A cloudy stream drains from the area of the new graves into the slum, further frightening the residents.

“We are at risk, big risk,” said Ousman Kamara, a resident. “We have made many complaints.”

But the bodies, he said, keep coming.

“Even at night,” he said. “You stand here, and you see them coming.”

Correction: September 22, 2014
An earlier version of a picture caption with this article referred incorrectly to a possible victim of Ebola whose body is shown being removed from a house in Freetown, Sierra Leone. The body is that of a man, not a woman.  http://www.nytimes.com/2014/09/23/world/africa/23ebola.html?_r=1

"Ebola now in the Netherlands'

22 September 2014 to 13: 42

"Ebola now in the Netherlands'


A man from Eindhoven was recently hit by Ebola Sierra Leone. A man from Brabant Eindhoven may have the Ebola virus incurred. He volunteered Monday with the symptoms with a doctor in his hometown.

The man, according to the Eindhoven Dagblad been in Sierra Leone recently. That country has often to do with the virus. The doctor found that the symptoms of the man pointed to the infectious disease.

Nijmegen

Monday afternoon the man by ambulance to a hospital in Nijmegen transferred for further investigation.
http://www.powned.tv/nieuws/binnenland/2014/09/brabander_mogelijk_besmet_met.html

Dozens flock to new Liberia Ebola treatment center

September 22, 2014

Associated Press

Save |

MONROVIA, Liberia (AP) — Liberia's largest Ebola treatment center is already handling 112 patients, a day after it opened, though not all of are confirmed to have the dreaded disease.
Health officials said Monday that 46 people admitted to the Island Clinic Treatment Center have tested positive for Ebola. The remaining patients are being held for further observation and are being treated for other diseases, like malaria.
The 150-bed center opened Sunday, and ambulances rushed to its doors immediately. Liberia has been hardest hit by the Ebola outbreak sweeping West Africa.
According to new figures released Monday, the U.N. health agency says Ebola is believed to have sickened more than 5,800 people in Liberia, Sierra Leone, Guinea, Nigeria and Senegal. It is blamed for more than 2,800 deaths.  http://www.miningjournal.net/page/content.detail/id/611359/Dozens-flock-to-new-Liberia-Ebola-treatment-center.html?isap=1&nav=5016

Ebola Doctor Says Border Controls Critical

Here’s Where We Stand With Ebola

Even experienced international disaster responders are shocked at how bad it’s gotten.

By Tara C. Smith

Health workers push an Ebola patient who escaped from quarantine from Monrovia's ELWA Hospital into an ambulance in the center of Paynesville, Liberia, on Sept. 1, 2014. The patient, who wore a tag showing he had tested positive for Ebola, held a stick and tried to get away from doctors when they arrived on the scene attempting to catch him.

Photo by Reuters

It’s nine months into the biggest Ebola outbreak in history, and the situation is only going from bad to worse. The outbreak simmered slowly in West Africa from December 2013, when the first case was retrospectively documented, through March, when it was first recognized by international authorities. It began gaining momentum in June and throughout July. Now, terms like “exponential spread” are being thrown around as the epidemic continues to expand more and more rapidly. Just last week, an increase of 700 new cases was reported, and the case count is now doubling in size approximately every three weeks.

Already, the number of cases (approximately 5,300 as of Sept. 18) and deaths (2,630) has dwarfed the total number of cases and deaths from every reported Ebola outbreak in history—and those are only the cases that we know about. Here’s where we stand with Ebola right now.

The situation on the ground

By all accounts, it’s understandably miserable everywhere Ebola has hit, but even experienced international disaster responders have been shocked at how bad it has gotten. A Doctors Without Borders worker in Monrovia, Liberia, named Jackson Naimah describes the situation in his home country, noting that patients are literally dying at the front door of his treatment center because it lacks patient beds and assistance; the sufferers are left to die a “horrible, undignified death” and potentially infect others as they do so:

One day this week, I sat outside the treatment center eating my lunch. I saw a boy approach the gate. A week ago his father died from Ebola. I could see that his mouth was red with blood. We had no space for him. When he turned away to walk into town, I thought to myself that this boy is going to take a taxi, and he is going to go home to his family, and he will infect them.

When health care workers aren’t available, or when patients are too fearful to take loved ones to a clinic, it falls to those closest to the ill to nurse them. This has wiped out entire families, “prey[ing] on care and love, piggybacking on the deepest, most distinctly human virtues,” turning caregivers into victims as the virus passes among siblings and parents, from one generation to the next.

Health care workers who are treating the sick are dying because they also lack basic protective equipment, or because they have been so overwhelmed by taking care of the ill and dying that they begin to make potentially fatal errors. They have gone on strike in Liberia because they are not being adequately protected or even paid for their risky service. Hearses have been commandeered as ambulances; motorcycles are used to transport patients long distances, putting drivers at risk of becoming the next victim.

Researchers have been able to study the evolution of the virus in a way no previous Ebola epidemic has allowed.

Fear and misinformation are as deadly as the virus itself. Eight Ebola workers were recently murdered in Guinea, in the area where the virus first came to the world’s attention in March. Liberia’s largest newspaper featured a story describing Ebola as a man-made virus being purposely unleashed upon Africans by Western pharmaceutical companies. Reports abound of doctors and other workers being chased away, sometimes violently, by fearful families. A second outbreak was triggered in Nigeria after an infected diplomat broke quarantine and fled from Liberia to Port Harcourt.

So far, other West African countries have been largely spared. Senegal experienced one imported case in late August, but to date other contacts have tested negative for the virus. Ivory Coast is watching closely and working to keep the virus out of the country. Perhaps the most extreme measures are currently being taken in Sierra Leone, where the country has been under a lockdown for three days to track cases of infection and minimize transmission. The country’s 6 million residents were ordered to stay indoors while volunteers went door-to-door to educate citizens, document new cases, and remove bodies.

The response

To date, nongovernmental organizations have largely been leading the fight against Ebola in West Africa. Doctors Without Borders (also known by its French name, Médecins Sans Frontières, or MSF) has led the international battle against Ebola, and where its workers have had success in the past, they have been completely overwhelmed now for months. MSF International President Joanne Liu has made multiple appeals to the United Nations, begging for additional assistance, noting on Sept. 16:

As of today, MSF has sent more than 420 tonnes of supplies to the affected countries. We have 2,000 staff on the ground. We manage more than 530 beds in five different Ebola care centres. Yet we are overwhelmed.  We are honestly at a loss as to how a single, private NGO is providing the bulk of isolation units and beds.

The plea has fallen on sympathetic ears, but the response has been slow and insufficient. The United States has answered the call to some extent, promising 3,000 military personnel and up to $750 million in aid. Even this massive amount is less than what the World Health Organization has called for: a minimum of $1 billion, and even that will only keep infections contained to the “tens of thousands.”

No one has sounded the alarm more clearly or critically than journalist Laurie Garrett, who wrote about Ebola in her 1995 book The Coming Plague. Writing for Foreign Policy, she has denounced the international response and lack of coordination, criticizing individual countries as well as the United Nations, World Health Organization, and the World Bank, noting that the world “just doesn’t get it” when it comes to Ebola.

The virus

If there can be a faint silver lining to this outbreak, it’s that researchers have been able to study the evolution of the virus in a way no previous Ebola epidemic has allowed. With thousands of cases documented to date, investigators have been able to track mutations in the virus’ RNA genome—and they found hundreds of mutations just in viruses examined before the publication of a paper in Science in August. In a tragic footnote, five of the authors of this paper died of Ebola during this outbreak.

While we do know that the virus is mutating, what remains murky is what those mutations are actually doing in patients. Genomic data itself is really only as good as the epidemiologic information that goes along with it, such as patient location, outcome of infection, symptoms exhibited, familial transmission patterns so it can be traced back between family members or members of the same geographic area, etc. Given that the outbreak has been so explosive and understaffed, much of this data may be lost, and it’s estimated that almost half of all those infected probably aren’t even reporting to hospitals—unfortunately limiting the conclusions of some of these genetic studies.

However, we do know that the risk that this outbreak may spawn an airborne Ebola virus is still incredibly tiny. Virologist Vincent Racaniello sums up the history of viruses mutating to a novel route of transmission, noting, “There is no reason to believe that Ebola virus is any different from any of the viruses that infect humans and have not changed the way that they are spread,” and that “the likelihood that Ebola virus will go airborne is so remote that we should not use it to frighten people.”

The big concerns

Even without an airborne form of Zaire Ebolavirus, we still have plenty to be concerned about. Models have suggested that this outbreak could go on for several more months at a minimum. The worst-case situation suggests that half a million cases are possible before the outbreak is finally brought under control. New research proposes that the current outbreak is so different from past Ebola epidemics that modeling is simply not informative, and “as a result, we are not in a position to provide an accurate prediction of the current outbreak.”

Besides the incredible potential number of lives lost, a huge concern is the destabilization of the affected countries—and even of those around them that have not shown any cases of Ebola. WHO Director-General Margaret Chan noted that this outbreak “is a social crisis, a humanitarian crisis, an economic crisis, and a threat to national security well beyond the outbreak zones.” Partly in response to the testimony of Chan and others, the United Nations announced the establishment of an emergency mission to fight Ebola. Countries were also asked to lift travel bans to the affected countries, which have made it more difficult to move supplies in and out of the area.

While 5,300 cases may not be a lot in the grand scheme of things, hospitals and clinics have been crippled, and mortality rates in these countries may be affected beyond just the Ebola virus. Patients who have other ailments, pregnant women looking to enter hospitals and clinics to give birth or to bring in ill children with non-Ebola-related diseases have been turned away. Crops are not being harvested or transported, making hunger an issue equal or greater to Ebola in many areas.

Finally, all of this is only examining the West African Ebola outbreak. Ebola also re-emerged in the Democratic Republic of the Congo in August; to date, there have been at least 60 cases in that country and 35 deaths. With all of the concern about West Africa, much less attention and aid has been given to the DRC, which has a much more extensive history of Ebola epidemics, mainly in rural areas. It is hoped that history and experience will more quickly bring the outbreak there under control.

The coming months

Even with massive international intervention, the situation will still worsen before it improves. The influx of funds and assistance from the United States and other countries is certainly welcome news, but it remains to be seen exactly how that will be allocated, who will be in charge, and how coordination will be established. This will be a long-term effort, and even after this Ebola outbreak has been extinguished, additional doctors and nurses will need to be trained to replace those that have been tragically lost in this epidemic. Some of Ebola’s victims will survive, but they and their families may face harsh stigma in their hometowns. It may take a year, but this fire from the pit of hell will eventually be extinguished. At what cost to human life, we do not know yet.  http://www.slate.com/articles/health_and_science/medical_examiner/2014/09/ebola_outbreak_status_and_predictions_the_virus_the_response_the_biggest.single.html

The former prime minister has conceded defeat in November 2010 after a chaotic election. It is now 2015 and the Presidential never misses an opportunity to denounce the record of his opponent, current President Alpha Conde.

He also wondered about the role played by Bernard Kouchner in Conakry: "He speaks in the Guinean media to attack the opposition ..."

Rue89: What is wrong with the Guinean authorities in the management of the Ebola epidemic?

Diallo: When the epidemic broke out in early February in two prefectures of Guinea forest, visiting the King of Morocco was expected in early March. The impact of the disease has been minimized to not see this official visit canceled. The reaction was not at the level of risk to populations.

Then, when the WHO announced 127 cases, the government advanced the figure of 62 ... And when Doctors Without Borders (MSF) gave the alarm in June on an out of control epidemic, Alpha Conde said that the situation was "well controlled "and accused MSF of looking for money on the backs of Guineans!. https://translate.googleusercontent.com/translate_c?depth=1&hl=en&rurl=translate.google.com&sl=auto&tl=en&u=http://www.guineeinformation.fr/index.php/guinee/item/1300-rue89-interview-de-cellou-dalein-diallo-president-de-l-ufdg-pour-cause-d-ebola-le-senegal-a-ferme-sa-frontiere-avec-la-guinee-et-comme-le-ministere-de-l-interieur-du-senegal-est-un-diallo-comme-moi-on-a-encore-crie-au-complot-peul-en-guinee&usg=ALkJrhhMaX6pmfA4ri1y1nXg0uMxAjmapA

Appear more bird flu virus in Vietnam

22/09/2014

More than 3,100 ducks detection of avian influenza virus H5N6 in the province of Quang Nam.
Day 22/9 Xinhua citing domestic or a flock of Tam in America East, Nui Thanh district, last week was tested positive for the bird flu virus.

More than 900 ducks at the farm in the same area was found dead series.
Local officials said was carried out to destroy the infected ducks and spray chemicals in the affected farms to prevent the spread.
All veterinary centers in the province have been ordered to prepare measures to prevent the spread of the virus A / H5N6, especially methods to prevent the virus from poultry to humans.
Officials say the outbreak is located in the secluded should not spread to other areas and advised people not to consume poultry products infected.
Earlier, on 16/9, Quang Ngai Province in 1000 destroyed the infected poultry. This is the case of avian influenza H5N6 virus infection in the province Wednesday.

Newly-detected bird flu in Southeast Asia poses threat to animal health, people’s livelihoods

Photo: IRIN/David Swanson

22 September 2014 – The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) today warned that a recently-emerged strain of avian influenza virus detected in poultry in Southeast Asia presents a new threat to animal health and livelihoods and must be closely monitored.
The virus known as A(H5N6) has so far been detected in poultry in China, the Lao People’s Democratic Republic and Viet Nam, according to a statement released by the Rome-based FAO. The A(H5N6) bird flu is highly contagious in chickens, geese, and other poultry, which hundreds of millions of people rely on for their livelihood.
“Influenza viruses are constantly mixing and recombining to form new threats,” FAO’s Chief Veterinary Officer, Juan Lubroth, said in a statement from the Rome-based agency.
“However, H5N6 is particularly worrisome, since it has been detected in several places so far from one another, and because it is so highly pathogenic, meaning infected poultry quickly become sick and, within 72 hours, death rates are very high.”
Only one case of H5N6 has been reported in humans after contact with infected poultry in China. The person later died. And thus far, there have been no other reported human cases.
“It’s been detected in multiple places in poultry, yet we only have one human infection reported,” said World Health Organization (WHO) epidemiologist Elizabeth Mumford. “This suggests that the virus does not easily jump from animals to humans. Of course, we still need to remain vigilant, because prevalence in poultry and therefore human exposure could increase during the winter.”
Even if the health risks posed by H5N6 currently appear to be low, other pathogens, including subtypes of influenza viruses such as H5N1 and H7N9, still can present cause for concern, warns WHO.
FAO and WHO recommend people follow appropriate hygiene, food preparation and food safety guidelines. These include: washing hands often, cleaning utensils and surfaces used during food preparation, and eating only well-cooked poultry meat products. People should also avoid handling sick birds or those that have died of illness.
Countries in Southeast and East Asia – especially those with links to poultry production and trade – must ramp up efforts to detect and report influenza viruses in poultry and monitor for any human infections. The focus must be on prevention, early detection, immediate reporting and rapid response, said FAO.
An H5N6 outbreak could potentially overwhelm animal health systems in Southeast Asia. An earlier strain of the virus, H5N1, had impacted the livelihoods of millions of people and caused billions of dollars of damage.http://www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsID=48771

Liberia: Family Quarantined in Sinoe From Emmanuel Kwateh

22 September 2014

A family who sought refuge in Sinoe County for fear of contracting the Ebola virus is now being quarantined following the death of a child who is confirmed to have contracted the Ebola virus apparently while in Grand Kru County.According to our correspondent in the county, the lady identified as Prezetta left her Grand Kru residence along with her husband and son and was hosted in the Po-River community.
Our correspondent said it is now confirmed that the Ebola virus has finally surfaced in the county as the lady and husband are also confirmed being carriers and are now quarantined at the J. S. Grant Medical Hospital.
The church of Christ located in the Sarpo Community is also being quarantined because members of the church were in contact with the lady before the death of her son.
This scared the youths of the community who on Friday organized themselves under the banner of the Sinoe Youth Task Force in collaboration with the Voice of Sinoe and launched an Ebola campaign spreading the preventive measures and ways in which one can contract the virus.
Meanwhile, our correspondent said the community task force comprised of the medical team is swift in responding to calls made by community dwellers relating to the Ebola virus.

Ebola Is Spreading Way Faster Than Anyone Predicted

By Alice Robb @AliceLRobb

As if we needed another reason to freak out about Ebola, new research suggests that the speed at which it’s spreading is totally out of proportion to past outbreaks. Thomas House, a mathematician at the UK’s University of Warwick, used historical data from outbreaks reported by the World Health Organization—24 in total—to create a mathematical model for the spread of the virus. By analyzing information on the timing of the outbreaks, the number of cases, and the number of people who died, he was able to develop a model that describes the pattern of all outbreaks—except for one. The current outbreak is off the charts.
“What the results seem to indicate is that it isn’t just an extreme event,” House said when I spoke to him on the phone. It doesn’t fit within the established pattern. “It’s becoming more and more likely that there’s something different this time.”
House isn’t alone in his concern. Other models of Ebola are just as worrying. According to one model reported on by NPR, we should expect to see about 15,000 cases by mid-October. (So far, about 5,000 have been reported.) Researchers led by Jeffrey Shaman, an associate professor at Columbia University’s Mailman School of Public Health, say the virus is spreading at an “exponential” rate. “It's an unprecedented outbreak that requires an enormous response if it is to be controlled,” Shaman said in an email. Alessandro Vespignani, a biological physicist at Northeastern University, told NPR we should be prepared to see as many as 10,000 to 25,000 cases by mid-October. 
House can’t say what exactly it is that’s different about this outbreak. “It could be a mutation,” he said. “It could be that the way that society is structured has changed as West Africa’s developed: People are in contact with more other people. It could be that control efforts or the behavioral response are just different. My model isn’t detailed enough to say exactly which one.” It is detailed enough to raise the panic level, though.  http://www.newrepublic.com/article/119513/ebola-spreading-unprecedented-speed?utm_content=bufferce7ae&utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter.com&utm_campaign=buffer

Advance team of UN mission for Ebola response arrives in West Africa

These children in Kailahun district, Sierra Leone, survived Ebola but lost parents to the deadly virus. Photo: UNICEF/Jo Dunlop

22 September 2014 – Laying the groundwork for the effective and coherent action necessary to stop the Ebola outbreak in West Africa that has sickened more than 5,800 people and killed some 2,800, an advance team of the United Nations Mission for Ebola Emergency Response arrived today in Accra, Ghana to set up the operation’s headquarters.
Another advance team of the Organization’s first ever mission dealing with a public health crisis, to be known as UNMEER, also arrived in Liberia, one of the countries, along with Guinea and Sierra Leone, which has been hardest hit by the unprecedented outbreak.
UN Spokesman Stephane Dujarric also announced today that the world body has established the Ebola Response Multi-Partner Trust Fund to ensure a coherent UN system contribution to the overall response.
The Fund seeks contributions from Member States, regional legislative bodies, inter-governmental or nongovernmental organizations, businesses and individuals. Donors can also choose to channel their contributions directly to UN agencies.
Meanwhile, the UN World Health Organization (WHO), in its lates Ebola update issued Monday afternoon, said 5,843 cases and 2,803 deaths have been reported in the current outbreak by the Ministries of Health of Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone.
“Exposure of health-care workers continues to be an alarming feature of this outbreak,” WHO reported.
Two countries, Nigeria and Senegal, have reported a case or cases imported from a country with widespread and intense transmission. In Nigeria, there have been 20 cases and eight deaths. In Senegal, there has been one case, but as yet there have been no deaths.
In Geneva, an Emergency Committee of the World Health Organization on the 2014 Ebola outbreak in West Africa wrapped up its second meeting and “strongly reiterated” that there should be no general ban on international travel or trade.
“Where extraordinary supplemental measures such as quarantine are considered necessary in States with intense and widespread transmission, States should ensure that they are proportionate and evidence-based, and that accurate information, essential services and commodities, including food and water, are provided to the affected populations,” WHO said in a press release.
Flight cancellations and other travel restrictions continue to isolate affected countries resulting in detrimental economic consequences, and hinder relief and response efforts, according to the Committee.
Nearly 6 months after the first case of Ebola in west Africa was reported to WHO, UN General Assembly and the Security Council endorsed last week the UN Mission for Ebola Emergency Response to contain the ongoing outbreak.
The mission will provide the operational framework and unity of purpose to ensure the rapid, effective and coherent action necessary to stop the outbreak, to treat the infected, to ensure essential services, to preserve stability and to prevent the spread to countries currently unaffected. http://www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsID=48774

‘Ebola Herbalist’ Dies in Nimba, Along with One of His Followers

Sun, 09/21/2014 - 20:44 admin

By: 

Ishmael F. Menkor

A young man who claimed to have received God’s revelation to treat Ebola Virus Disease mysteriously died on 17^th September 2014 at his residence in Ganta after a short period of illness.
Robin Dahn, in early August 2014 visited the Ganta City Office and said he had a vision where the medicine of Ebola was shown him by creatures he claimed to be angels.
He said he had the dream on two separate occasions with the angels, revealing same medicine in his dream.
He visited the city office so that the city authority can grant him permission to carry on the treatment free of charge, but the city authority including the task force couldn’t consent with his request.
With funding from his Church, he prepared his herbs and began treating those suspected of having Ebola in the Small Ganta Community as well as other parts of Nimba where people were quarantined.
He was said to be gaining some popularities across Nimba and other places he used to move treating people suspected to be Ebola patients.
The death of the man brought sadness among many people and a setback in the fight against Ebola.
“We really don’t know what killed Robin, because he was not sick for long,” said his friend Alex Miapue.
“Robin told his wife before dying that “I’m going to die, but when I die people will say it is Ebola, but it is not Ebola,” Alex is recalled to have stated.
He was said to have treated several people in Ganta and other parts of Nimba as well as Monrovia with most of them recovering and going about their normal duties.
“Since the man gave some herbs to those that were quarantined in Beadatuo in Buu – Yao in Nimba County, they have been well and were no longer showing any sign,” said one Allison Dahn who accompanied the herbalist to Beadatuo Town.
An LNP officer assigned at the Ganta Police Detail was very sick believed to be Ebola; she got her healing accordingly from the late Robin.
Many persons around Ganta have been giving praises to him through local radio stations in Nimba, but his mysterious death came as a surprise to many especially those whose relatives were treated by him.
There had been two revelations of allegedly given by God on medication for Ebola in Nimba.
On the 9^th August 2014, a young man from the Nimba County Town called Tunudin closed to Ganta claimed that angels appeared to him while harvesting his palm.
This according to him happened in a broad day and not dream as the late Robin’s was.
For him, he said the angels instructed him to begin his treatment in Monrovia where Ebola will be identified by Medical Doctor before treating them.
When he (Paye Sayegon) and his men went to Monrovia to test the medicine, the government denied them and they returned back to Nimba where, again, he narrated that he was told to do work in certain football field in Ganta.
There was a huge turnout of people who wanted to get treated, and it brought fear among the residents thus making Superintendent Fong Zuagele to put a halt to his work.
For the late Robin Dahn, he started anywhere without restriction, and could give the herbs to people whether they were diagnosed of the Ebola Virus or not.
He died along with one of his followers Wednesday 17 September 2014 in their hometown, leaving a pastor who was also accompanying him ill.
His death was later confirmed by the Ganta City Mayor Dorr Cooper on a local radio’s early news show on Thursday 18 September 2014.
The slowness of health authority in responding to those coming down to the treatment centers and breakdown of the health systems across the country is leading to many finding other solutions to their illness.
The death of the self proclaimed country doctor for Ebola is also sparking up mythological views from some people.
“Sometimes he might have taken money from those he healed. This is why he died, because according to him, he was not to take a dim from anyone for healing them,” said one of the sympathizers.
However, another wave of the outbreak had struck Ganta leaving over 10 dead within 48hr while scores are down with illness.
Three villages along CNC road along the Ganta – Saclepea Highway is said to have been infested with close 50 persons sick after visiting their relative (a pastor) who died in Ganta.

'Return to Liberia (With U.S. Troops) Possible' - Ellen Corkrum

Published: 22 September 2014

“Discussion and plans for my return to Liberia are in the works. My efforts continue to be sought and I remain committed to fighting to help our people through this Ebola crisis, whether on the Liberian soil or in the US.” – Lt. Col. Ellen Corkrum

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Monrovia - In what could be a major twist to the scandal at the Liberia Airport Authority, Ellen Corkrum, the fugitive former head of the airport regulatory agency, could be poised for a dramatic return to Liberia amid reports that the U.S. Air Force Major could be joining the 3000 troops arriving in Liberia to help the Ebola-hit nation wiggle its way out of a crisis which has so far infected more than 5,000 people in Liberia, Guinea, Sierra Leone and Nigeria, FrontPageAfrica has learned.

120-Bed Ebola Treatment Center Opens in Liberia

120-Bed Ebola Treatment Center Opens in Liberia

Written by Wade C. L. Williams, wade.williams@frontpageafricaonline.com

Published: 22 September 2014

Monrovia - Six Ambulances packed with 24 suspected Ebola patients were already on standby as the opening ceremony for a 120-bed Ebola Treatment Facility constructed by the government of Liberia with technical support from the World Health Organization was going on.

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At the side entrance of the building were some patients who managed to walk with the help of their relatives to the center at the Old Island Clinic on the Bushrod Island. Some groaned in pain as others lay on the ground under the hot Sunday afternoon sun, waiting and praying for the formalities to be over so the staff could let them in, to the facility to begin to receive care.

Mr. Sam Bropleh, an Ambulance driver of the First Responders owned by Rep. Saah Joseph said he had been waiting with patients in the vehicle at the facility. Bropleh was frustrated that his patients could not get in as the formalities of an opening ceremony attended by senior government officials were still on. The facility comes as a relief to a health system that has been overwhelmed by the deadly Ebola outbreak since March this year.

Patients dying for lack of space

At many of the available facilities that had been opened before this one, patients were turned away for lack of space. On Saturday, in one of the two Ambulances carrying ten persons, there were three dead bodies of suspected Ebola patients. A mother and her two children died while waiting for help at the John F. Kennedy Ebola Treatment Unit, the former Cholera Unit. Health workers refused to take the patients in on time because they said there was no space at the facility.

Three members of a single family sat upright in the Ambulance but they were dead. The woman believed to be in her late thirties had her ten-year-old son’s head on her lap and the other son thirteen years old was sitting up in the Ambulance near the other two, but they were all dead. It was a pathetic sight and William Ross driver of the First Responders Ambulance was dismayed.

“This morning we left the Redemption Hospital for JFK. We have ten persons that were on the Ambulance because of the delay, almost three hours; out of the ten persons we have three that have died. We have seven more on the Ambulance and we don’t know what will happen to them in the next hour,” he said tears almost rolling down his cheeks.

Ross said he is frustrated that the coordination between the health centers is poor. “What got me confused is that I don’t know the level of coordination between the health workers. Redemption is the holding center and if Redemption sends us to bring patients to a facility, it means there should be some communication between them,” he said.

“This morning the supervisor Mr. Tarplah told us that there was a space here that could contain ten persons, so we came, brought the ten persons but the nurses said no space. It looks bad to see people dying on the Ambulance.”

There were patients lined up in front of the facility with the relatives who had accompanied them. Some patients were lying on the floor. A girl about ten years old reclined right before the gate and could only move when a truck full of dead bodies was about to exit the compound. She too was too weak to stand and there was no one to help.

Relief for patients

The opening of the 120-bed facility seems to be a relief to patients who have been languishing before the gates of the various treatment centers like the JFK one with no space to treat them. Already, Bropleh told FrontPageAfrica two hours later that he had made several trips to the facility with about 14 patients and all were inside the facility.

“I’m at Redemption Hospital now,” he said via mobile phone. This is my third trip and all my patients are inside.” Bropleh sounded relieved as though a heavy burden has been lifted off his shoulders.

Tolbert Nyenswah, head of the Ebola Case Management unit at the ministry of health echoed the feelings of the government about the opening of the center. He said the government and the health ministry has been looking forward to the opening of the facility to help in the fight against the deadly Ebola virus.

“Today, we are opening a state of the art Ebola treatment center in Liberia at the Island Clinic. This center is among six that we are opening in Liberia but this is one of the best,” he said.

“It will be among 17 centers that we have in our plan to open and treat Ebola disease patients in our country. Treatment units are not the solution to the problem; it is just about 25 to30 percent of solving the problem.”

The man responsible for Liberia’s finances, Finance Minister Amara Konneh has projected over three hundred Million United States dollars to fight the deadly disease. He said the international community has to swing its promises into actions to buttress the government’s efforts to fight the disease.

“The amount of money needed to fight this disease is too much. As of yesterday, we are projecting about 375 Million Dollars in order for us to fight this disease across Liberia,” he said.

“That money is not in our coffers. The government 100% financed the one that we are about to open today. The government can do more, but it will require a robust international response.I know commitments have been made, we will just like to use every opportunity we get both privately and publicly, to call on our international partners to move with speed from commitment to cash.”

He thanked Liberia’s partners, including the World Bank, the African Development Bank, the United States Agency for International Development, the United Nations for the early response so far; but said the response is not yet adequate and they need to move faster, for Liberia to be able to build the 17 ETUs that have been earmarked to deal with this disease.

The WHO supported government of Liberia initiative has already seen the movement of patients from communities in the center before the sun set on Sunday evening. Health officials are sounding optimistic and hoping for the best in the response in the next few weeks to come.

“We have to use other innovative means, especially with an outbreak that is affecting lots of people in urban areas that make this outbreak unprecedented,” said Nyenswah. “We are increasing our laboratory capacity to have about three functional labs. By the weekend we should be having about six functional labs in the country.”

A sign lists the "10 Commandments of Ebola" in West Point.

LOTS MORE PICS  https://news.vice.com/article/in-photos-fighting-ebola-in-the-slums-of-monrovia

Ebola Hits Moyamba Junction

 - Monday 22 September 2014.

By Reverend Alfred Sam Foray, USA.
The tiny town of Moyamaba Junction (part of which is shown in photo) about 100 miles from Freetown and 60 miles from Bo, where I spent a few months doing business during my recent visit to Sierra Leone is on the verge of total annihilation from the Ebola outbreak in Sierra Leone. We are told by a resident of the town that about two weeks ago a resident physician, one Dr. Blango, who runs a private hospital in the town, recently treated an Ebola patient. Shortly afterwards, Dr. Blango contracted Ebola and died.
And now for the really bad news. In a scene that could have come from an Alfred Hitchcock horror movie, the doctor’s wife unconvinced that her husband had died from Ebola kept the doctor’s corpse in their house for five days. During that time many of the prominent people in town including the Town Chief who is also the District Councilor for the area, visited Mrs. Blango, who refused to remove the body from the house and complained to her relatives abroad about harassment from the authorities.


Eventually, after confirming that Blango had indeed died from Ebola, Mrs. Blango was forced to bury her husband but not before apparently infecting many of the town’s residents. So far 14 people are reported dead and several townspeople are reportedly sick from the Ebola virus emanating from Dr. Blango’s death and his wife’s bizarre decision to keep the corpse. She is now in police custody for her own protection from angry residents of the town.

A bit about Dr. Blango. Many Sierra Leoneans may recall Dr. Blango’s son, Columba Blango, a men’s Decathlon finalist in the famous Sierra Leone contingent at the 1980 Moscow Olympics, which included boxer, Mohamed Bangura, and sprinter, Eugenia Osho-Williams. Columba was also a former Lord Mayor of Southwark, London, and two-time candidate for the British Parliament for the Liberal Democrats. He was also a major force in the People’s Movement for Democratic Change (PMDC) of Charles Francis Margai during the 2007 parliamentary and presidential elections in Sierra Leone before declaring later for the Sierra Leone Peoples Party. The elder Dr. Blango was a very pleasant man. He and I chatted together several times about politics and family during my visit to Moyamba Juntion.

Moyamba Junction is in the Fakunya Chiefdom, Moyamba District and a major crossroads from Freetown to Bo and the mining area of Rutile. It is also a major transition point for vehicles moving north to London Mining and African Minerals and on to Guinea. As such, Moyamba Junction, despite its size, is a major strategic location for commerce and transport in the country. Over the past few days, government has placed a 21-day lockdown on the town. No vehicles are permitted to stop in the usually busy market town famous for its goat soup and cookery shops since the 1980s.
The nearby town of Mile 91, eleven miles away and other nearby towns are also on a 21-day lock down.   http://www.thepatrioticvanguard.com/spip.php?article7924