akwasi sarpong @akwasisarpong1h
Public asked to be calm as "we wait for the result from
the blood sample taken for test". "...we have everything under control."
Signed:PRO
African Story
Challenge Winner| Radio France International Correspondent |AFP| Dep.
Dir. News Programming,Citi FM| Business News| nanaboakye4@yahoo.co.uk
CONAKRY-Doctors Without Borders (MSF) released the latest statistics from the state of Ebola hemorrhagic proud in Guinea.According
to this organization, to the date of July 3, 2014, Guinea has recorded
292 confirmed cases of Ebola including 194 deaths and 98 healed, learned
Africaguinee.com. As of July 3, 2014, the number of hospitalized cases in different treatment centers are: Gueckédou: 6 confirmed cases including 4 Gueckédou and 2 from Sierra Leone. Conakry: 3 confirmed including 2 from Boffa.The date of the last confirmed case dates back to June 26 in Conakry and 29 June Gueckédou. According to MSF's what makes a total of seven confirmed cases in treatment centers. Five
(5) previously affected prefectures (Télémélé, Kissidougou Dabola
Dinguiraye and Kouroussa) have not notified new cases this week. According
to Marc Poncin National Emergency Coordinator for Ebola doctor without
borders, Gueckédou is the area where the epidemic is still more severe. '' There has been an upsurge of cases, while in May, we saw that the epidemic was decreasing.So, the quote on the epidemic remains serious Gueckédou perspective.Unfortunately we are facing particular difficulties, access to all areas where the epidemic has he said. The
Minister of Health and Public Hygiene, Rémy Lamah, then handed local
authorities to facilitate open access to all areas and villages affected
by the epidemic. http://translate.google.com/translate?hl=en&sl=auto&tl=en&u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.africaguinee.com%2Farticles%2F2014%2F07%2F06%2Febola-en-guinee-les-dernieres-statistiques-de-l-epidemie%23.U7murysr8tM.twitter
Written by Jake Buller and the photos are by Bethany Fankhauser.
Published: 04 July 2014
HOW YOU CAN HELP: Consider partnering with ELWA by making a donation to the ELWA Hospital Ebola Response Fund
The first rumors of Ebola in Liberia began to seep into conversation
in the middle of March. Before the month closed, there were cases being
reported from Lofa, and papers all over the capital city carried
headlines with “Ebola” in the title. As the situation grew more serious,
ELWA Hospital prepared an isolation unit and prayed it would not be
needed.
At first it seemed that the prayers
had been answered. The outbreak experienced a short lull, and for a time
there were no new confirmed cases in Liberia. But on June 11th, ELWA
Hospital received their first suspected case of the Ebola Virus Disease
(EVD), an indication of a resurgence that has lasted weeks and shows
signs of continuing for much longer.
“We have an obligation to take care of
these patients, in order to maximize their chances for survival and
relieve their suffering. There is a need for a place to put them in
order to protect their families and the community at large from
contracting the disease.” Dr. Debbie Eisenhut, SIM surgeon in charge of EVD response for ELWA Jake Buller, Photos by Bethany Fankhauser
Since May 29, at least 33 new cases of
EVD have been confirmed, 12 of which were in Montserrado, either in or
near the capital city of Monrovia. Five of these cases have been treated
at ELWA Hospital in ELWA’s isolation unit. The ward currently has two
patients, and both have been confirmed as having EVD.
Right now
there are three doctors working with the EVD patients, along with nurses
and aides. In addition, these doctors and nurses have support from the
outside through their decontamination team. This team gets supplies,
helps the doctors and nurses dress in their protective gear, and
decontaminates them when they come out as well as mixing the bleach that
is used in the process.
Dr. Debbie Eisenhut, a SIM surgeon in
charge of the EVD response for ELWA, shares that the workers at the
hospital “have an obligation to take care of these patients, in order to
maximize their chances for survival and relieve their suffering. There
is a need for a place to put them in order to protect their families and
the community at large from contracting the disease.”
“The
greatest danger to our hospital staff,” she continues, “is the
possibility of missing a case of Ebola that comes to our ER. The
symptoms of Ebola are very non-specific—fever, gastrointestinal
symptoms, headache, fatigue, etc. So great vigilance is needed to
realize that a patient might be a suspected case so that he/she can be
isolated and not admitted to the regular ward. This takes careful
screening and many questions about the history and contacts. We have a
protocol in place to minimize the probability of inadvertent admission
of an Ebola patient to our regular wards. We also have a security
protocol in place in front of the ER to reduce traffic and to help
screen patients appropriately. All of this takes vigilance and attention
to detail in order to keep our hospital staff safe.”
The current
isolation unit is small, a converted chapel. But ELWA, with the
technical and financial assistance of Samaritan’s Purse, is converting a
building of the new hospital into a larger isolation unit with improved
care facilities. God willing, it should open sometime next week.
Here are some ways you can pray for Liberia, and ELWA Hospital in particular:
Pray for protection for all of the hospital staff members. Pray that
no cases of EVD will be missed in the ER and be inadvertently admitted
to the regular wards.
Pray for healing for the patients who have been admitted.
Pray
for rest and stamina for those working double duty—doctors, nurses and
the workers helping outside the unit. For the missionaries, their
regular jobs haven’t stopped. They continue to keep up their regular
work even while staffing the Ebola unit.
Praise for all the help—supplies and personnel—that Samaritan’s Purse is providing.
Pray
that Liberia will become more aware of the situation. Pray that
Liberians will understand what causes EVD and take the proper
precautions to prevent its spread.
By M.B. Jalloh, Press Attaché, Saudi Arabia Senior
Government officials currently in Islam’s holiest city of Mecca have
called on Sierra Leone’s Muslim population to take advantage of the holy
month of Ramadan, to offer prayers and sacrifices for divine mercy to
stop the spread of the Ebola virus in the West African nation. In a joint appeal to the Muslim Community after Friday, 4th July,
2014 congregational prayers at the Grand Mosque of Mecca (Al-Masjid
al-Ḥaram), Sierra Leone’s Minister of Social Welfare who also doubles as
Chairman of the 2014 Sierra Leone Hajj Affairs, Hon. Alhaji Moijue
Kaikai, Sierra Leone’s Ambassador in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, H.E
Alhaji M.S. Kargbo and Special Assistant to H.E The President on
Political and Religious Affairs, Hon. Nuru Deen Sankoh –Yillah asked
Muslims to multiply their prayers, offer sacrifices and read the Holy
Qur’an during this blessed month of Ramadan for the elimination of the
deadly virus in their country.. http://www.salonemonitor.net/minister-ambassador-others-call-for-prayers-against-ebola/
Inspector General of Police, Francis Munu has sanctioned the
Sierra Leone Police as an integral part of the effort to fight the Ebola
Virus. His statements came in support of the affirmation given to the
Police by His Excellency the President in his address to the nation on
Tuesday 1st July 2014. In his address, His Excellency
recognized the role of the Police as an integral part of the fight
against the spread of the Ebola virus in Sierra Leone.
He mentioned specifically that while tracing suspected cases and
taking them to observation and treatment centres are integral to the
fight against the disease, the main way to stop the spread of the virus
is by preventing contact with persons with the virus. In the event, the
Police force together with health personnel is expected to be at the
fore front of combating this scourge in Sierra Leone. President Koroma
went on to stress that he had instructed the police to “ensure that all
vehicles and their passengers entering and leaving Kailahun and Kenema
Districts subject themselves to screening.”
In supporting Government’s efforts to combat the disease, IG Munu has
instructed that adequate and appropriate information be released to all
rank and file police officers and more specifically for chlorine to be
made available at all frontline stations and police posts in the
affected areas. He also stressed the need for vigilance within the force
and for personnel who are apprised of any suspect situation or casualty
to report such cases immediately to local health experts and not to
touch or attempt to move such fatalities without proper protective
apparel. He noted that this directive is necessary because it has been
declared that the virus is at its most vicious stage within a dead body.
Senior members of the Sierra Leone Police also rendered their support
to the IGP in a meeting of the police Executive Board Meeting held to
discuss the outbreak and the police strategic response. AIG Kalia Sesay,
Director of Peacekeeping indicated that the matter of containment
should be given a priority and that the Sierra Leone Police must use
their best endeavors to support health officials in containing the
disease and help in tracing and surrendering of suspected cases for
treatment.
Inspector General Munu informed his senior staff that their mandate
is now guided by the President’s call for national action and that all
stakeholders should not relent in this fight against the deadly disease.
He noted particularly that His Excellency has buttressed police powers
to uphold the law, specifically in relation to the provisions of the
Public Health Order Act of 1960. This law states that anyone who
obstructs or interferes with the performance of the medical team in
relation to an outbreak such as Ebola is guilty of an offence and liable
to punishment.
IG Munu also reiterated the police duty to protect life and their
mandate to uphold the law by drawing senior staff attention to the
President’s ban on all Lumas or trade fairs until the virus has been
effectively contained. This task, he told his senior staff is to be
disseminated to all local police units across the country. The police,
he added are central to this battle against Ebola and he encouraged all
rank and file of the sierra Leone police to adhere to medical and public
health guidelines at all times
Inspector General Munu also confirmed that the Sierra Leone Police is
sending one police support unit to Kenema to increase the number of
police necessary to operationalize the President’s directives. The
Sierra Leone Police will also deploy two additional police vehicles to
Daru and Kailahun to support medical staff and to deal with any
incidence of public disorder that may occur. These measures the
Inspector General of Police added are in addition to putting together an
operational plan for any ensuing public disorder.
Finally, the IG
confirmed that in complementing government’s efforts across the country,
the police is carrying out its own internal sensitization on how to
handle the disease and prevent police personnel from getting infected by
the virus. http://standardtimespress.org/?p=5251
A-55 year old businessman, Sani Mohamed of Mano Junction in
Nongowa Chiefdom in Kenema District was on Wednesday, 2nd July 2014
convicted for behaving in a “disorderly manner” thereby obstructing the
work of a medical personnel working on Ebola.
The accused man was sentenced to one month imprisonment or pay a fine of
Le 10, 000 (one hundred and fifty thousand Leones) at his first and
last appearance before presiding Magistrate, Alhaji S. Koroma in the
Kenema Magistrate Court According to the particulars of offence, the accused on Wednesday 25th
June, 2014 at Mano Junction checkpoint did behave in a disorderly manner
there by obstructing the work of a medical personnel working on Ebola.
He was arrested for his misbehaviour and charged to court on two counts
charges to wit: behaving disorderly contrary to Section 12 of the Public
Order Act No.46 of 1965 as amended by Section 15 of Act No. 2 of 1973,
count two for obstruction contrary to Section 39 (1) of Police Act No. 7
of 1964. He was found guilty of the offence and he pleaded for mercy.
The matter was prosecuted by Assistant Superintendent of Police, Sahr
Didi Lahai of the Legal and Justice Support Department of the Kenema
Police Division.
By Saffa Moriba
Friday July 04, 2014 http://awoko.org/2014/07/04/sierra-leone-news-ebola-wahalaman-jailed-for-obstruction-of-ebola-staff/
Kenya Airways has regular weekly
flights to and from West African countries, which are currently at the
epicentre of the deadly outbreak.
About 759 people have been infected with the virus in Guinea, Liberia and Sierre Leone and 467 of them have since died.
By MIKE MWANIKI
Public health officials and nurses at
the Eldoret, Kisumu, Moi and Jomo Kenyatta international airports are on
high alert following the outbreak of the deadly Ebola that has so far
killed 467 people in West Africa.
Ministry of Health
Directorate of Preventive and Promotive Diseases Head William Maina on
Saturday said the airport health officials were carrying out random
sampling of passengers who were arriving from Guinea, Liberia and Sierra
Leone to guard against what has become the world’s deadliest disease
outbreak.
“They are asking the travellers some
questions and checking if they had any fever. At the same time, we have
acquired the necessary protective gear as a precaution,” Dr Maina said
in a telephone interview.
Currently, Kenya Airways has
regular weekly flights to and from West African countries, which are
currently at the epicentre of the deadly outbreak.
At
the same time, Dr Maina announced that a joint response team comprising
of officials from the World Health Organisation, Centre for Disease
Control, Kenya Medical Research Institute and Ministry of Health was on
stand-by.
The team is led by an Epidemiologist in the Ministry of Health’s disease control unit, Dr Ian Njeru.
On Friday, health ministers from 11 West African countries adopted a common strategy to fight the deadly disease.
At
an emergency meeting in Ghana, the ministers promised to better
collaboration to fight what has become the world’s deadliest outbreak,
killing people in a short time.
About 759 people have been infected with the virus in Guinea, Liberia and Sierre Leone and 467 of them have since died.
Sky News is given exclusive access as medics in West Africa battle to contain the worst ever outbreak of the deadly Ebola virus.
Video: Africa Battles To Stop Ebola Virus
By Alex Crawford, Special Correspondent, In Liberia
The worst Ebola outbreak
ever is spreading and will almost certainly extend across West Africa
unless there is cross-country co-operation and urgent international
assistance.
The porous borders between Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone has meant the disease is not being contained and now risks spreading even further.
Health workers at the epicentre, where the borders of the three
countries meet, have made an urgent appeal through Sky News for
immediate international help to try to control the virus. The latest outbreak has spread to three countries
Philip Azumah, the Foya district health officer, said: "We need help now, or the virus will spread and kill more people."
It is difficult to determine exactly how many people have already died
from the disease given the cross-border contamination and lack of
accounting.
But it is already clear there are many more deaths than any previous outbreak.
Aid organisation Doctors Without Borders has already said it is the
largest outbreak on record, with the highest number of deaths.
Across the three countries, more than 400 have died in this latest outbreak, with no sign of the disease being halted.
And for the first time the disease has spread to highly populated areas including cities such as Guinea's capital, Conakry.
At one of the high-risk infection centres set up in Foya, in Liberia,
the medics insisted we, like them, took extreme precautions.
This included wearing two layers of protective head-to-toe clothing
featuring one waterproof all-in-one outfit, face and head masks, double
gloves, thick plastic aprons, sturdy goggles and rubber boots.
Among the victims was a nurse who contracted Ebola after caring for a person who later died from the virus.
Nurse Elizabeth Smith was lying on a bed next to another nurse who had
contracted Ebola from the same patient they had both treated. Elizabeth Smith was too weak to raise her head
But Ms Smith was significantly weaker than her co-worker. She did not
raise her head as we entered and her bed was soaked in blood.
Neither woman had realised they were treating a patient with Ebola, so
had taken none of the precautions their colleagues were now taking.
Two of them sprayed Ms Smith with disinfectant, down her legs, her
feet, her hands and arms as they stood arms-length away in their
head-to-toe protective clothing and visors. Gingerly, they took her arms
and helped her to her feet, before escorting her down the tent corridor
to the high-risk area.
Here, every patient is a confirmed Ebola case and the odds are that 90% of them will die.
The frightening deadliness of Ebola, plus the ignorance around it and
the lack of a cure, has thrown the medical staff in this area into a
panic.
Francis Forndia, administrator for Foya-Borma Hospital, where medical
staff have died after treating victims, told us his workers simply fled
after nurses began dying.
"It is hard to get them to return, but we have managed to persuade some
to come back by explaining to them how needed they are," he said.
Mr Azumah is co-ordinating the health battle against Ebola in this
area. He tells me the first recent outbreak in Liberia was in March,
when an infected woman travelled to Foya from Guinea.
She died two days after being admitted to the sole and tiny hospital in
Foya. By the time of her death, she had infected eleven people in
hospital alone.
Two of them were nurses who went on to die. The remaining nine somehow managed to survive. Officials say cultural traditions have helped spread the virus
Then Liberia went a solid three weeks without an incident and believed they were clear - until the end of May.
This time, a woman from Sierra Leone, probably out of fear, gave misleading information about where she had come from.
She told investigators she was local, which was true, but did not
mention she had in fact spent some time in an infected area of Sierra
Leone.
This time the consequences were much more widespread. She had infected a stream of people, six of whom died.
They are still trying to trace all those she may have been in contact with.
There have since been other outbreaks in Voinjamma and the Liberian
capital, Monrovia, while Guinea and Sierra Leone continue to register
deaths, too.
Mr Azumah said: "In our culture, it is the habit to wash the dead body,
look after it for a week in the home, kiss and touch it, even eat meals
with the dead body - and we believe this has led to the virus
spreading.
"Also people are keeping the illnesses and deaths secret if they suspect Ebola."
By alerting the authorities to possible Ebola, people risk being ostracised by their communities.
There is even a fear among these poverty stricken communities that the visiting health workers are spreading the virus.
But what seems significant is that, in Liberia at least, one of the
poorest countries in the world, they are largely coping with this
virulent disease on their own - with very little outside help evident. http://news.sky.com/story/1293312/africa-battles-to-stop-deadly-spread-of-ebola
07.05.2014 9:10 a.m. - 9:10 a.m. Updated on 07/05/2014
Only humanitarian organization operating in hazardous areas in the west of the continent, MSF tries to avoid regional epidemic.
With
the exponential increase in the number of cases of Ebola in West
Africa, the international medical organization Médecins Sans Frontières
(MSF) warns against the risk of a regional epidemic. "The outbreak is out of control," said the BBC Brazil Mariano Lugli, MSF director of operations in Switzerland. The team leads Lugli humanitarian assistance in the region since February.
With nearly 300 professionals in the field, the organization has helped
approximately 500 patients and is at the limit of its operational
capacity.
Ebola outbreak is the largest in history has killed nearly 500 people in three countries in West Africa (Photo: BBC)
In four months, the Ebola outbreak which originated in Guinea has spread to two neighboring countries, Liberia and Sierra Leone .
"There is a constant and intense movement of people across borders in
this region and the cases are rapidly spreading to other provinces and
countries," said Lugli. The disease has spread to more than 60 different locations in West Africaand has not yet reached its peak. "In
general, this should have happened between two and five months, but it
is impossible to predict especially because now there is a variant of
the virus that causes hemorrhagic fever and is very dangerous," said
Lugli... It
is estimated that each infected person keep in touch with at least 20
other individuals, which should also be isolated and monitored for
control of Ebola. Another common situation is complicated by the careless handling of bodies of victims of the disease... http://translate.google.com/translate?hl=en&sl=auto&tl=en&u=http%3A%2F%2Fg1.globo.com%2Fciencia-e-saude%2Fnoticia%2F2014%2F07%2Fsurto-de-ebola-esta-fora-de-controle-em-partes-da-africa-alerta-msf.html
Aid Coordinator Lindis Hurum MSF is concerned that you have no system
to identify who they Ebola sufferers have been in contact with Monrovia
in Liberia. It makes it very difficult to stop the epidemic.
PHOTO: Christian Nestler / MSF
Ebola spread in large cities threatens millions
Ebola infection is confirmed in a million towns of Conakry and Monrovia. - We do not control and I'm very worried, says Lindis Hurum in MSF.
Aid Coordinator Lindis Hurum of Norway visited two days ago a hospital
in Monrovia where three people were isolated because they assume they
are infected with Ebola. Two of them are health professionals who have been infected in their work. Statistically, they have only 10 to 30 percent chance of survival. - They have very tough.
The only contact they have with people with health professionals
wearing full protective clothing, Hurum said by telephone from Liberia's
capital, with a population of 1 million people.
Her colleague, nurse Sissel Overvoll, returned home yesterday to Norway
after his second a month long stay in the three countries. She has provided health care to Ebola sick people, and have found that many of the patients have died. In some cases, entire families. She confirms that many health workers have become ill and died.
Very many health professionals have been killed, says nurse Sissel Overvoll in MSF. She came back Thursday from Africa. She has worked with Ebola victims in both Guinea, Sierra Leone and Liberia.
PHOTO: MSF
- I have no numbers, but I can confirm that many health professionals
have lost their lives in all three countries, says Overvoll. The main reason is that the symptoms of Ebola are similar to the symptoms associated with other diseases, such as malaria. This does not take health professionals the necessary precautions.
Have not control
Ebola infection which first appeared in Liberia's neighboring Guinea in
February, is now threatening the population in both Guinea, Liberia and
Sierra Leone. The outbreak is the worst in history, with 763 cases and 468 dead so far. Hurum said she is very concerned about the situation in Monrovia. - We are definitely not the situation under control. We see new suspected cases every day, she says.
It is very important to get an overview of who the sick have been in
contact with after they were infected, so that you can monitor them, but
in Monrovia, this system is not good enough, according to Hurum.
To see ebola virus out.
- It is brand new that something like this pops up in a capital city. We need help from the WHO and from other organizations and must be mobilized even more the next day.
A spokesperson for the World Health Organization (WHO) claims there is a
system in Monrovia to identify who the sick have been in contact with,
but admits that it's hard to get a good overview. - When people move when it is difficult to follow all contacts, said Fadel Chaib, spokeswoman for WHO.
Crisis Meeting
WHO concluded yesterday a two-day emergency meeting about the Ebola epidemic in Accra, Ghana.
Delegates from 11 countries in the region were invited to put a game
plan on how to assist the sick and infect vulnerable, not to mention
prevent a further spread. WHO points out four reasons why the epidemic has become so serious: 1 infection has occurred in a border area where it is common for people traveling between countries. 2 Health professionals have met resistance in some communities.Thus, they have not been isolated potential disease carriers, and the infection is passed on. 3 The symptoms reminiscent of other diseases.The sick remain at home and are treated by the family, which can be infected by Ebola. 4 Local tradition dictates that grieving relatives and other kisses and hugs the body during funerals.Thus, they can even become infected.
The
World Health Organization (WHO) announced on Friday (July 4) that the
death toll from an outbreak of the Ebola virus in West Africa has
reached 481.
The outbreak of the disease in Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone is
the most widespread and deadliest since the disease first appeared in
1976.
WHO spokesman Dan Epstein made the announcement at a news conference in Geneva.
"There are now a total of 779 cases of Ebola, in the three countries
involved which are Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone. Of which 481 people
have died," said Epstein.
- See more at:
http://www.tvcnews.tv/article/ebola-death-toll-reaches-481-world-health-organization#sthash.yoy6h3Gj.07JPa6yg.dpuf
The World Health Organization (WHO) announced on Friday (July 4) that the death toll from an outbreak of the Ebola virus in West Africa has reached 481. The outbreak of the disease in Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone is the most widespread and deadliest since the disease first appeared in 1976. WHO spokesman Dan Epstein made the announcement at a news conference in Geneva. "There are now a total of 779 cases of Ebola, in the three countries involved which are Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone. Of which 481 people have died," said Epstein. - See more at: http://www.tvcnews.tv/article/ebola-death-toll-reaches-481-world-health-organization
Sierra Leone, one of the poorest countries in the world,
suffers a chronic lack of doctors, diagnostic tools, a
disease-monitoring network and even clothing to protect health workers
Published 8:38 AM, Jul 05, 2014
PARIS, France – Many cases of Ebola in Sierra Leona may be going
undetected, grassroots doctors warned in The Lancet on Saturday, July 5,
as they highlighted the impoverished country's problems in combatting
the virus.
The journal published the letter on the heels of ministerial talks in
Ghana, where a senior UN health official on Thursday, July 3, said the outbreak in West Africa, the worst in the history of Ebola, may persist for several more months.
Sierra Leone, one of the poorest countries in the world, suffers a
chronic lack of doctors, diagnostic tools, a disease-monitoring network
and even clothing to protect health workers, the letter said.
"Many cases meeting the case definition for suspected Ebola might be
going undetected and unreported because ill people and their families
are opting for self-treatment with over-the-counter drugs or traditional
medicine," it said. "At present, there is little incentive for patients to seek
professional diagnosis of suspected Ebola. Laboratory testing can be
expensive (especially when a panel of tests is required for differential
diagnosis), is unlikely to change the course of treatment, and might
stigmatize an infected patient and their family." It added: "Even if a patient wanted to be tested for Ebola, few (if
any) laboratories in the region have the capacity to safely test a
biosafety level 4 pathogen." The warning came from four doctors working at the Mercy Hospital
Research Laboratory in the city of Bo. The letter is headed by an
American-based specialist, Karen Jacobsen at George Mason University in
Fairfax, Virginia.
Bo has fewer than 15 doctors for a population of more than 150,000, a
situation that is common across Sierra Leone as well as in Guinea and
Liberia, the other countries where the epidemic is unfolding, the letter
said.
"There is an urgent need to provide reliable and constant access to
personal protective equipment in health-care centers across the region,"
it added.
The letter observed that early attempts to impose controls against
the disease, by restrictions of border crossings and of sales of
bushmeat had not worked – and indeed may have backfired.
"What is certain is that these policies (and the ways that they were
communicated) raised anxiety and, in some places, fueled rumors that led
to counter-productive behaviors."
The World Health Organization (WHO) gives a toll of 467 fatalities
from Ebola, a total comprising confirmed or suspected cases. Ninety-nine
have occurred in Sierra Leone. Keiji Fukuda, the UN agency's assistant director-general of health
security, said at the close of the 12-nation conference in Accra on
Thursday it was "impossible to give a clear answer" on how far the
epidemic could spread or when it might begin to retreat.
"I certainly expect that we are going to be dealing with this
outbreak minimum for a few months to several months," he told Agence
France-Presse. "I really hope for us to see a turnaround where we begin
to see a decrease in cases in the next several weeks." – Rappler.com http://www.rappler.com/world/regions/africa/62443-ebola-experts-highlight-problems-sierra-leone
The
latest Ebola outbreak in West Africa is now the largest and deadliest
outbreak ever. And unlike outbreaks of the past, it is affecting both
rural and urban areas. Jeffrey Brown talks to Laurie Garrett of the
Council on Foreign Relations about a recent summit on the outbreak,
distrust building against health workers in infected areas and how
porous borders make this outbreak so hard to contain.
TRANSCRIPT
JEFFREY BROWN: Late
yesterday, I spoke about the situation with Laurie Garrett, author and
senior fellow for global health at the Council on Foreign Relations.
Well,
Laurie, since we last spoke in April, there was some thought that this
was more under control, but instead the situation seems to have
worsened. Give us an overview.LAURIE GARRETT, Council on Foreign Relations: This is the first time we have ever seen an urban as well as rural Ebola outbreak.
It
is the first time we have seen Ebola in the capital cities. It is the
first time we have seen Ebola crossing borders, now in three countries.
And it is the first time we are having an Ebola experience in an area
rife with the tensions and the hostilities born out of two really brutal
civil wars in Sierra Leone and in Liberia, with spillover into
neighboring Guinea.
So these are three small, deeply impoverished
West African countries where, in the best of times, they are
hard-pressed to meet the public health needs of their people and now to
have what is officially designated an out-of-control epidemic on their
hands. JEFFREY BROWN: I am sorry, but remind us now a little bit of what Ebola is and how it is transmitted. LAURIE GARRETT: Ebola is a virus, of course.
And
it first is known to have appeared in 1976 in a country that was then
called Zaire, now Democratic Republic of Congo. It has sporadically
appeared a few times since then. I was in the epidemic in 1995 in Zaire.
And
it’s a virus that attacks the actual lining, so sort of integrity
linings of capillary, blood vessels and so on, punching little
microscopic holes in the blood linings, so that slowly but surely,
molecule by molecule, the blood starts to leak out of the bloodstream.
And
when it does that, you go into hemorrhaging. It may start out as
internal bleeding, but it can eventually be that you are bleeding from
your eyes, your nose, every orifice and in your brain, so that you
become quite deranged.
There is no real treatment, just palliative care, and there is certainly no cure, and there is no vaccine. JEFFREY BROWN: Is
it — you were talking about the spread. Is it correct that authorities
really don’t quite have a handle on how many people are at risk at this
point? LAURIE GARRETT: We have a number of problems with this.
One
is that this is a heavy-duty Ebola — I mean, malaria area. So you
already have lots of people walking around with high fevers and other
kinds of symptoms that could confuse diagnosis of Ebola. And it is also a
region that is known for Lassa fever, another viral, terrible disorder
carried by rats, symptomatically, in the beginning, very similar, and
some Lassa patients will also hemorrhage.
So you have difficulty
in making a proper diagnosis. And we’re now getting reports from all
over Sierra Leone, from all over Liberia, all over Guinea, of people
turned away from hospitals for routine care simply because they have a
fever or simply because they seem dizzy and a little out of it, as, of
course, would be a symptom of malaria.
And as a result, we have
widespread fear and rage building in the population against the health
care systems, because the system is afraid to take the contaminated
patients into the facilities. JEFFREY BROWN: And all of that is clearly making it harder for health care workers to do anything. LAURIE GARRETT: Well, it is making it hard for everybody.
I
mean, even the Red Cross has now abandoned parts of Guinea because
their workers are getting physically attacked. Medecins Sans Frontieres,
or Doctors of the World, have also been brought under violent attack.
And even the health workers from the given countries have been brought
under attack.
Partly, it is a general fearfulness from the
population, widespread crazy rumors, such as the doctors are infecting
people, or the other side, meaning the old wounds of the civil war, your
opponents from those days, the people that came and chopped your
children’s arms off or stabbed your grandmother, these people are
spreading an evil omen through, and you have to stay away because they
are running the hospitals.
All of this is making the problem absolutely catastrophic. JEFFREY BROWN: And
what about on the medical — from the medical community. What are the
theories on why it has spread to so many different countries and to
urban areas, for example, as opposed to in the past? LAURIE GARRETT: Well,
first of all, in the past, when I was in Kikwit — Kikwit is a big city —
– quote, unquote — “city,” with no infrastructure of any kind, but more
than 400,000 people.
However, incredibly difficult to get to, no
airport, no real highways or anything to get in and out. So there was
never any real risk that it was going to leave the area. And that’s
pretty much been the case with every prior outbreak.
What makes
this very unique is that in this part of West Africa, a rain forest
swathe cuts across all three of these countries. And it is a swathe
inhabited by the bats that normally carry this virus. Something has been
going on in that rain forest. And for some reason, the bats are coming
in proximity with monkeys or whatever the humans have secondarily come
in contact with in order to become infected.
And there may have
been more than one introduction from the bat rain forest normal area for
the virus into the human population. So the first problem, is all three
countries have this rain forest, this habitat.
The second problem
is the borders are very porous between these three countries, and there
are a lot of ethnic groups that really don’t have any respect for the
boundaries. They have frequently flowed, as we saw with the famous civil
war led by Charles Taylor, a bona fide war criminal, because he readily
crossed the borders between Sierra Leone and Liberia, and made his war a
two-country war. JEFFREY BROWN: All right, Laurie Garrett, thanks so much. LAURIE GARRETT: Thank you. http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/resentment-rumor-builds-health-workers-trying-contain-ebola-outbreak/
Fear works against health workers trying to contain Ebola
Researchers working in Sierra Leone today [Saturday 5 July] suggest
priority actions needed to tackle the ongoing Ebola crisis in West
Africa. In a letter to The Lancet, the researchers call for
improvements in access to diagnostic technologies and health-care
resources, as well as improved disease surveillance and health
communication.
At present, there is little incentive for patients to seek
professional diagnosis of suspected Ebola, say the authors, with most
people with febrile (fever-causing) illnesses in Sierra Leone treated at
home, and the true extent of the outbreak therefore very difficult to
determine. Moreover, disease surveillance systems in the region are
inadequate, despite research (conducted by the authors and others)
suggesting that mobile phones and smartphones can be effectively
deployed in routine collection of surveillance data.
The authors also highlight a shortage of medical personnel and
access to healthcare facilities for most people in the region, writing
that, "The relatively few physicians, nurses, and healthcare providers
attending to these underserved populations often have poor access to
basic personal protective equipment, and might therefore be
understandably unwilling to provide direct care for patients suspected
to have Ebola. There is an urgent need to provide reliable and constant
access to personal protective equipment in health-care centres across
the region."
Finally, the authors suggest that early disease control policies
to restrict border crossings and sales of bushmeat have been
ineffective. They write that, "What is certain is that these policies
(and the ways that they were communicated) raised anxiety and, in some
places, fuelled rumours that led to counter-productive behaviours.
Improved communication by health officials with the media, community
leaders, health professionals, and the general public is necessary to
reduce misinformation and improve compliance with prevention and control
measures that have been proven effective." http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2014-07/tl-tls070314.php
I from all indications, the Ebola Virus
Disease or EVD may now be spreading at an alarming rate in Liberia and
the Mano River Union basis. And unless there is TOTAL INVOLVEMENT by all
sectors of the Liberian society, we may be in a long battle with the
EVD at our disadvantage. The urgent need for the concerted efforts of
all societal stakeholders to include political parties, civil society
organizations, academic institutions, Community Leaders, Liberia
Marketing Association, the Media, Transport Unions, banking
institutions, as well as the business community, among others, must be
emphasized.
While we appreciate the efforts of the
Government of Liberia, through the Ministry of Health and Social Welfare
and its international partners in the fight against the Ebola Virus
Disease from the initial stage to present, it is now a matter of urgency
for the total involvement of all stakeholders of the Liberian Society
in these efforts to raid
the nation of this deadly disease. Our concern for these efforts comes
against the backdrop of the alarming increase in the number of people
killed by the virus in West Africa to 467, as reported by the World
Health Organization or WHO.
According to the WHO, Sixty-eight of
the deaths had been recorded since 23 June 2014, while the number of
cases had risen from 635 on 23 June to 759, a 20% increase- the largest
outbreak, in terms of cases, deaths and geographical spread to affect
Guinea, Sierra Leone and Liberia. In Monrovia, the EVD has now struck
several suburban townships and municipalities, including New Kru Town,
Paynesville, as well as Central Monrovia, among a few others, in
addition to the northwestern county of Lofa with a reported death toll
of 30.
More scaring and worrisome, is the latest report of the
death of the Head of Surgeon at the government-run Redemption Hospital
in the Borough of New Kru Town (name withheld) on Tuesday after he had
been quarantined at the John F. Kennedy Medical Center in Sinkor, where
he was being monitored up to his demise. He is reported to have died
after treating a health worker, who died of Ebola at Redemption.
The female health worker on duty died at the Redemption Hospital
recently after she supervised an Ebola patient admitted at the hospital.
The sudden death of Esther Kesselee led Health Ministry authorities in
Monrovia to shut down the Redemption Hospital and transferred all
patients to other government hospitals in the capital.
With the
solidarity expressed by President Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf for the staff
and Nurses at the hospital after the death of Madam Kesselee during a
visit to the Redemption Hospital on June 17, 2014, it is incumbent upon
all societal stakeholders to join the aware campaign, in every manner
and form, with more vigour to save our population and nation.
Friday, 04 July 2014 00:00
Ramsey N. Singbeh, Jr. in Kakata
The Margibi County Health Team in collaboration with the Administration of the Charles Rennie Hospital in Kakata
has listed 10 nurses from the C. H. Rennie Hospital and several others
to be closely observed for suspected symptoms of the Ebola Virus Disease
in Margibi. (L-R) C. H. Rennie Medical Director Dr. Adolphus Yeiah & Margibi County Health Officer, Dr. Hawa Kromah The
decision came days after these people were noticed to have come in
contact with a student of the Kakata Rural Teacher Training Institute
(Michael Tengbeh) who died recent from Ebola at the C.H. Rennie Hospital. Speaking to this paper at the C.H. Rennie Hospital in Kakata on July 2, 2014, County Health Officer Dr. Hawa Kromah, said the nurses are currently out of work from the Hospital and are being observed for 21 days.
Dr. Kromah
said there are other people who also came in contact with the late
Michael Tengbeh prior to his death, including trainees from the Kakata
Rural Teacher Training Institute (KRTTI) most especially his roommates
and others from the community.
She further disclosed that while the victim was alive, he visited a health center in Kakata
for treatment before he was subsequently admitted at the C.H. Rennie
Hospital where he died eventually. She indicated that the administration
of the KRTTI has been informed about the issue and the names and
contacts of those fellow roommates (students) are already identified for
close monitoring.
The Margibi County Health Officer said
the students from KRTTI who are listed have all abandoned campus and
they will only return for graduation, which is scheduled this month. For
the rest of the people, she said they have been earmarked and are also
needed for observation to make sure that they are not Ebola positive.
The Medical Director of the C.H. Rennie Hospital, Dr. Adolphus Yeiah, said the hospital has had series of meetings with the Margibi County Administration to contain the situation. Dr. Yeiah
warned that Ebola as a disease is real and people should not overlook
its existence, adding that many people believe that Ebola is not real.
He said there is a need that everyone helps in containing the virus in
Margibi County and Liberia at large in order to save lives.
Body-melting virus killing hundreds virtually unchecked in West Africa
The
scientist who discovered the Ebola virus. Dr. Peter Piot says that the
current outbreak of the body-melting virus in West Africa, in which 467
people have died, is "unprecedented." Piot also said that "because of
the greater awareness, there is hope. But we're running out of time."
The current Ebola outbreak in West Africa outbreak is "already a mega-crisis," Dr. Peter Piot says.
LOS ANGELES, CA (Catholic Online) -- "One, [this is] the first time in
West Africa that we have such an outbreak," Piot told TV journalists.
"Secondly, it is the first time that three countries are involved. And
thirdly it's the first time that we have outbreaks in capitals, in
capital cities."
The non-governmental organization Doctors
Without Borders warns that the outbreak in Guinea, Sierra Leone, and
Liberia is now "out of control." The spread of the virus has grown
exponentially since being discovered in that part of the world at the
beginning of 2014.
"With
this strain of Ebola, you've got like a ninety percent chance of dying.
That's spectacular by any standard - one of the most lethal viruses
that exist."
In describing the onslaught of the disease, Piot
warns of the slow, agonizing death. "Ebola virus infection starts with
something that looks like the flu - headache, fever, maybe diarrhea. But
then you can develop very fast bleeding that's uncontrollable, and
that's how people die."
There is hope - while there is no cure
for Ebola, Piot says that this ordinarily would make the disease easy to
fight. "You need really close contact to become infected. So just being
on the bus with someone with Ebola, that's not a problem."
Simple
hygienic measures like washing with soap and water, not re-using
syringes, and avoiding contact with infected corpses are sufficient to
stop spread of the disease, Piot said.
"This is an epidemic of
dysfunctional health systems . Fear of the virus, and the lack of trust
in government, in the health system, is as bad as the actual virus."
The
dysfunctional health care system in the affected countries are to
blame, Piot says. ". A person is infected, is hospitalized, and infects
other patients and particularly health care workers.
"They're
buried somewhere; around that funeral, people are infected when they
touch the body, and so on. And then they get ill, and then they go
somewhere else, and then they go to relatives in town, maybe because
they hope to have better health care. That's how it spreads."
The current outbreak is "already a mega-crisis," Piot said.
"For me, this is a reason for a state of emergency, you know, in these countries."
"You
need a combination of nearly military type of control measures -
isolation, quarantine of those who are the diseased - but also their
relatives, to make sure that they're not spreading the infection.
akwasi sarpong 
akwasi sarpong 
by Ministry of Health ff 
