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Monday, October 13, 2014

Obama Meets with Senior Advisors on Ebola

Obama Meets with Senior Advisors on Ebola

by Keith Koffler on October 13, 2014, 3:17 pm
Updated 6:37 pm ET
President Obama is meeting this afternoon with both national security and health care advisors to discuss the Ebola situation, the White House said today.
The meeting appears to have been called rather hastily.
In on the gathering are National Security Advisor Susan Rice, HHS Secretary Sylvia Burwell, White House Homeland Security Advisor Lisa Monaco, and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Director Tom Frieden, who is participating by telephone.
The press corps will be invited in to take a picture, but no questions please.
UPDATE: Post-meeting from the White House:
The President was briefed on the status of the investigation into the apparent breach in infection control protocols at the Dallas hospital and remedial actions underway to mitigate similar breaches in the future. Secretary Burwell and Dr. Frieden described the surge in personnel and other resources to Dallas to assist in the investigation as well as other measures to heighten awareness and increase training for healthcare workers throughout the country.
The President reinforced that this investigation should proceed as expeditiously as possible and that lessons learned should be integrated into future response plans and disseminated to hospitals and healthcare workers nationwide. 

Richmond clinic isolates patient to evaluate possible Ebola risk


Ebola Scare Prompts Terrorist Threat Investigation


Buses were sequestered at a yard in downtown Los Angeles after a bus passenger said he had Ebola

Los Angeles County Metro buses are sequestered in a yard near downtown Los Angeles after a passenger said he had Ebola on Monday, Oct. 13, 2014.
Authorities said they'd open a terrorist threat investigation after a passenger on a bus said he had Ebola.
The bus driver was examined by paramedics and taken to a hospital after the incident reported at 1:45 p.m. The man did not have a fever and appeared to be in good health, said Metro spokesman Paul Gonzales.
The man who said he had Ebola got on the bus at Venice Boulevard and Hoover Street.
He was wearing a surgical mask and was with another woman who did not have a surgical mask on.
He told the driver, "You better not mess with me because I have Ebola," according to Gonzales.
All the passengers, including the man who said he had Ebola, got off the bus at one point and the man disappeared, Gonzales said.
The man "sort of just disappeared into the world," Gonzales said.
Authorities would review surveillance video to see if they can identify the passenger.http://www.nbclosangeles.com/news/local/Man-on-Bus-Said-He-Had-Ebola-279072531.html

Thursday, October 9, 2014

#Ebola Scare: 1,332 Nigerian Soldiers Quarantined In Liberia

Ebola Scare: 1,332 Nigerian Soldiers Quarantined In Liberia

The Nigerian Army has revealed that about 1332 of its peace keeping troops in Liberia have been placed under surveillance following their contact with a Sudanese who later died of the Ebola Virus Disease (EVD).
The director of the Nigerian Army Medical Corps, Major-General Obashina Ogunbiyi stated this in Abuja yesterday.
According to the Army medical officer, the incident followed the death of a Sudanese Muslim man who had come to the camp of the soldiers to lead them in prayer during the Eid-el Fitri celebration, but developed Ebola symptoms the following day and later died.
Ogunbuyi noted that the country remained at risk as any of the soldiers could choose to travel home anytime, saying “that is why the military had to be totally involved in the fight against the Ebola virus.”..  http://leadership.ng/news/386602/ebola-scare-1332-nigerian-soldiers-quarantined-liberia

Brazil-The Health Ministry confirmed to the Mail that "suspected virus in the country"

UPA in Cascavel, Paraná, is interdicted after suspected ebola
The Health Ministry confirmed to the Mail that "suspected virus in the country"
Published: 09/10/2014 22:56 Updated: 10/09/2014 23:47

An Emergency Unit (APU) in Cascavel, Paraná, was banned late on Thursday (9/10) after a man being hospitalized with suspected Ebola. The Ministry of Health sent a team to the city, through the Brazilian Air Force (FAB), which coordinate in situ measures of care and to identify possible contacts for guidance and control.

According to the Ministry of Health, it is a man, aged 47, from Guinea (scale in Morocco), country of origin, who arrived in Brazil on September 19. He reported that he had a fever for three days to decide to seek care. Also according to the ministry, until the early evening, the patient had no bleeding, vomiting or other symptoms.



The patient will be transferred as security protocol for the National Institute of Infectious Evandro Chagas in Rio de Janeiro, national reference for cases of Ebola. The transfer will be made by aircraft from the Federal Highway Police.

The MS reported that, by being in the twenty-first day, to the maximum incubation period of the disease, cases were considered suspect, following international protocols for the disease. "Guinea is one of three countries that concentrate the outbreak of the disease in Africa. Ebola is transmitted only through contact with blood, tissues or bodily fluids of sick individuals, or by contact with contaminated objects and surfaces. The virus is only transmitted when symptoms arise, "he explained in a statement.https://translate.google.com/transla...tml&edit-text=

Ministry of Health of Paraná reports on suspected cases of Ebola in the state

9/10/2014 23:35:13
The patient will be transferred to the National Institute of Infectious Evandro Chagas in Rio de Janeiro

The Day


Paraná - The Ministry of Health and the Secretary of State of Paraná Health show that the Emergency Unit Brasilia in Cascavel (PR) received on Thursday, a patient classified as a suspected Ebola infection. This is a man, aged 47, from Guinea (scale in Morocco), country of origin, who arrived in Brazil on September 19. He reported that yesterday (8) and this morning (9) had fever. By the early evening, was subfebrile and had no bleeding, vomiting or other symptoms. Is in good general condition and kept in total isolation.
By being on the twentieth day maximum incubation period for the disease, cases were considered suspect, following international protocols for the disease. Guinea is one of three countries that concentrate the outbreak of the disease in Africa. Ebola is transmitted only through contact with blood, tissues or bodily fluids of sick individuals, or by contact with contaminated objects and surfaces. The virus is only transmitted when symptoms arise.
The patient will be transferred as security protocol for the National Institute of Infectious Evandro Chagas in Rio de Janeiro (RJ), national reference for cases of Ebola. The transfer will be made by aircraft from the Federal Highway Police.https://translate.google.com/transla...tml&edit-text=

A possible case of Ebola is recorded in Brazil, the first in Latin America

A possible case of Ebola is recorded in Brazil, the first in Latin America

Posted: October 10, 2014 | 2:14 GMT Last Updated: October 10, 2014


Texto completo en: https://translate.googleusercontent.com/translate_c?depth=1&hl=en&ie=UTF8&prev=_t&rurl=translate.google.com&sl=auto&tl=en&u=http://actualidad.rt.com/actualidad/view/142954-brasil-posible-caso-ebola&usg=ALkJrhgxocENjRAOlfFsxD6BSK2lBHqXqg
 2:14 GMT Last Updated: October 10, 2014
In the Brazilian city of Cascavel Parana is registered in a first possible case of Ebola that, if confirmed, would be the first in Latin America.   According to local authorities, the man who has any symptoms of Ebola was isolated and transferred to Rio de Janeiro, reports O Globo. His identity has not been revealed yet.  Previously transcended in Brazil other possible cases of infection by Ebola, but were not confirmed. The new patient with symptoms is undergoing tests to confirm if you have the disease.  The virus has not been detected so far in Latin America, while in the USA have registered at least 6 cases of infection.   Texto completo en: https://translate.googleusercontent.com/translate_c?depth=1&hl=en&ie=UTF8&prev=_t&rurl=translate.google.com&sl=auto&tl=en&u=http://actualidad.rt.com/actualidad/view/142954-brasil-posible-caso-ebola&usg=ALkJrhgxocENjRAOlfFsxD6BSK2lBHqXqg
In the Brazilian city of Cascavel Parana is registered in a first possible case of Ebola that, if confirmed, would be the first in Latin America.
According to local authorities, the man who has any symptoms of Ebola was isolated and transferred to Rio de Janeiro, reports O Globo. His identity has not been revealed yet.

Previously transcended in Brazil other possible cases of infection by Ebola, but were not confirmed. The new patient with symptoms is undergoing tests to confirm if you have the disease.
The virus has not been detected so far in Latin America, while in the USA have registered at least 6 cases of infection.


Texto completo en: https://translate.googleusercontent.com/translate_c?depth=1&hl=en&ie=UTF8&prev=_t&rurl=translate.google.com&sl=auto&tl=en&u=http://actualidad.rt.com/actualidad/view/142954-brasil-posible-caso-ebola&usg=ALkJrhgxocENjRAOlfFsxD6BSK2lBHqXqg

Ebola fears widen as Spanish nurse worsens


The condition of a Spanish nurse who contracted the virus from a patient has worsened as more of her contacts were quarantined. The US's top public health official claims Ebola poses the greatest challenge since AIDS.
The condition of auxiliary nurse Teresa Romero was said to have worsened on Thursday, with the daily newspaper El Pais reporting on its website that she had suffered a respiratory failure.
Spain quarantined seven more people, including two hairdressers who had contact with the nurse who became infected with the deadly virus at Madrid's Carlos III hospital.
Romero helped treat two Spanish priests who were flown home from West Africa having been diagnosed. She is the first person believed to have contracted the disease outside of Africa and has admitted that she may have touched her face with protective gloves used for cleaning the room of one of the patients.
In addition to the Spanish case, which has generated concern over the alleged lack of training and equipping of staff, the alarm has been raised in two other parts of Europe.
Ebola-Infizierter in Skopje The hotel where the British man stayed in Skopje is now under guard
A British man showing symptoms of the Ebola virus, but not having tested positive for it, died in Macedonia on Thursday. Authorities said they had sealed off a hotel where the man had stayed and that fellow guests were being monitored.
A Prague hospital is also monitoring a 56-year-old Czech man who exhibited symptoms of Ebola. The man, who recently traveled in Liberia, was said to be in isolation at Bulovka hospital.
Health officials from the German state of Saxony confirmed on Thursday that a third Ebola patient, diagnosed while in Liberia where he worked for the UN, had arrived in the country. The man, who originates from Sudan, was being treated at Leipzig's St. Georg Clinic - one of seven health facilities in Germany with the capability to treat highly infectious patients in isolation.

Two other Ebola patients have also been flown to Germany in recent weeks. A World Health Organization (WHO) employee had fallen ill with the hemorrhagic fever in Sierre Leone was brought to Hamburg, where doctors were able to stabilize him and eventually release him last week.
Doctors in Frankfurt am Main continue to treat a second patient, a Ugandan doctor and WHO worker, who had also contracted the virus in Sierra Leone.
The threat posed by the most recent outbreak of Ebola was reminiscent of that presented by the AIDS virus, US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Director Tom Frieden said on Thursday.
"I would say that in the 30 years since I have been working in public health, the only thing like this has been AIDS, and we have to work now so that this is not the world's next AIDS," Frieden said.
rc/lw (AP, AFP, Reuters) http://www.dw.de/ebola-fears-widen-as-spanish-nurse-worsens/a-17985598

Ebola suspected in death of Briton in Macedonia: source


SKOPJE Thu Oct 9, 2014 1:38pm EDT

(Reuters) - A British man suspected of contracting the Ebola virus has died in Macedonia, a senior Macedonian government official said on Thursday, a further sign that the disease is spreading in Europe.
The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, told Reuters a second Briton had also shown symptoms of the virus.
He said the two had been staying at a hotel in the capital Skopje and that hotel staff and the ambulance crew that took them in for treatment had been put into isolation.
The virus, which is spread through direct contact with body fluids from an infected person, has killed nearly 4,000 people in West Africa since March, in the largest outbreak on record.
The health of a Spanish nurse, the first person believed to have contracted Ebola outside of Africa, worsened on Thursday in Madrid, where a total of seven people are in isolation. http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/10/09/us-health-ebola-macedonia-idUSKCN0HY1YE20141009

Wednesday, October 8, 2014

General: If #Ebola Reaches Central America, 'There Will Be Mass Migration into the U.S.'


9:23 AM, Oct 8, 2014 • By JERYL BIER
Those looking for good news on the fight against Ebola will not find much encouragement from Marine Corps Gen. John F. Kelly, the commander of the U.S. Southern Command. As Jim Garamone of Department of Defense News reports, Kelly told an audience at the National Defense University in Washington, D.C. on Tuesday that, if the disease reaches Central America, "it’s literally, ‘Katie bar the door,’ and there will be mass migration into the United States." He also said with certainty that "there is no way we can keep Ebola [contained] in West Africa."
“By the end of the year, there’s supposed to be 1.4 million people infected with Ebola and 62 percent of them dying, according to the [Centers for Disease Control and Prevention]..." 
“So, much like West Africa, it will rage for a period of time,” Kelly said. 
This is particularly possible scenario if the disease gets to Haiti or Central America, he said. If the disease gets to countries like Guatemala, Honduras or El Salvador, it will cause a panic and people will flee the region, the general said. 
“If it breaks out, it’s literally, ‘Katie bar the door,’ and there will be mass migration into the United States,” Kelly said. “They will run away from Ebola, or if they suspect they are infected, they will try to get to the United States for treatment.”
Kelly said that human trafficking could be an additional wrinkle in the battle to contain the disease. He related a disturbing anecdote from a recent visit to Central America where some men from Liberia were headed to the United States:
Also, transnational criminal networks smuggle people and those people can be carrying Ebola, the general said. Kelly spoke of visiting the border of Costa Rica and Nicaragua with U.S. embassy personnel. At that time, a group of men “were waiting in line to pass into Nicaragua and then on their way north,” he recalled. 
“The embassy person walked over and asked who they were and they told him they were from Liberia and they had been on the road about a week,” Kelly continued. “They met up with the network in Trinidad and now they were on their way to the United States -- illegally, of course.” 
Those men, he said, “could have made it to New York City and still be within the incubation period for Ebola.”
Earlier this year, General Kelly gave some chilling testimony about the limitations on the United States's ability to protect the southern border:
In spring hearings before the Senate and House Armed Services Committees, Kelly said that budgets cuts are “severely degrading” the military’s ability to defend southern approaches to the U.S border. Last year, he said, his task force was unable to act on nearly 75 percent of illicit trafficking events. “I simply sit and watch it go by,” he said. But the potential threats are even greater. Kelly warned that neglect has created vulnerabilities that can be exploited by terrorist groups, describing a “crime-terror convergence” already seen in Lebanese Hezbollah’s involvement in the region.
While Centers for Disease Control director Tom Frieden recently expressed some optimism in the fight against Ebola in West Africa, he acknowledged that "globally, this is going to be a long, hard fight."  http://www.weeklystandard.com/blogs/general-if-ebola-reaches-central-america-there-will-be-mass-migration-us_810793.html

#Ebola patient in Dallas dies

Ebola patient in Dallas dies

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Thomas Eric Duncan circa 2005
Source: Josephus Weeks
Thomas Eric Duncan circa 2005
Thomas Eric Duncan, the first known person to develop Ebola in the United States, has died in Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital in Dallas, according to Texas Health Resources.
"It is with profound sadness and heartfelt disappointment that we must inform you of the death of Thomas Eric Duncan this morning at 7:51 am. Mr. Duncan succumbed to an insidious disease, Ebola. He fought courageously in this battle. Our professionals, the doctors and nurses in the unit, as well as the entire Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital Dallas community, are also grieving his passing. We have offered the family our support and condolences at this difficult time," the Texas Health Resources statement said.http://www.cnbc.com/id/102070648

Turkish worker employed in Africa rushed to Istanbul hospital on Ebola suspicion

A Turkish worker employed in Nigeria was rushed to an Istanbul hospital Oct. 8 on suspicion of Ebola, after showing signs of a high fever and diarrhea. The incident comes amid concerns regarding the spread of the pandemic in Europe, with a number of new cases detected in Spain.

The 46-year-old man, whose identity has not been disclosed, returned to Turkey 10 days ago from Africa to see his family in the western province of Sakarya during the Feast of the Sacrifice holiday.

Medical sources said he went to a private hospital four days ago in Adapazarı, but his fever did not drop despite medical treatment. Following medical examinations, doctors informed the Health Ministry that he may be showing symptoms of Ebola.

He was then transferred to Haseki Hospital in Istanbul using a specially equipped ambulance.

The incident is the second case of a suspected Ebola patient in Turkey, after a Nigerian woman who transited through Istanbul’s Atatürk Airport while traveling from Lagos to Barcelona was rushed to hospital in mid-August.

The woman was later diagnosed with malaria and was allowed to leave Turkey. The outbreak has killed over 3,300 people in West Africa and millions have been taken under quarantine in affected countries such as Liberia, Sierra Leone and Nigeria. The World Health Organization (WHO) has warned that without drastic action, the epidemic might spread and triple the cases in the African continent, increasing the risk of a global pandemic.

October/08/2014

Sierra Leone News: British Nurse heads back to Sierra Leone


William Pooley, and HE Edward TurayA British Ebola survivor says he is on his way to Sierra Leone to continue his mission in the fight against the deadly Ebola virus – a virus which continues to claim lives in the sub-region.
William Pooley, 29, said, “I cannot sit here in the UK and watch the people of Sierra Leone die without doing nothing – I must go back to Sierra Leone to continue my work in helping those people affected by Ebola.”

In an interview at Lancaster House in London, outside the British Foreign and Commonwealth Office’s “Defeat Ebola in Sierra Leone” conference, Pooley said his mission in Sierra Leone would never be complete until Ebola was contained and eradicated.
Inside the conference itself, Pooley was asked to give an account of his experience in Sierra Leone as an Ebola survivor. The British nurse was unable to control his emotions as he burst into tears during his speech.
Visibly upset and consumed by his emotions, Pooley retold the pathetic case of a brother and sister, aged four and two, who he cared for in Sierra Leone.
He said “at all costs” the international community must not allow what happened to them to be repeated one million times.
His emotional plea at the conference came as 34 NGOs joined forces to warn the international community they have just four weeks to stop the Ebola crisis from “spiralling completely out of control”.

“I am coming to your embassy to get my visa next week and by mid this month I should be on my way to Sierra Leone,” Pooley said. He has been widely considered not only as a hero but a saviour for the people of Sierra Leone.

Sierra Leone News: Teenage pregnancy on the increase in Kailahun – KWiGN president


As a result of the Ebola scourge, parents including the President of the Kailahun Women in Governance Network (KWiGN), Madam Lucy Foray Gondor, have expressed concern over the increased number of teenage pregnancy among pupils in Kailahun and beyond.
Kailahun Women in Governance Network (KWiGN) is a Community-based Organisation (CBS) that operates in Kailahun District on governance and other related issues, targeting poor and marginalised women in society, with the aim of ensuring that women play vital roles in leadership and governance matter.
According to the President of KWiGN, Madam Lucy Foray Gondor, with the out-break of the deadly Ebola disease in their District in May this year, women are vulnerable and at a high risk of contracting the disease, while looking after the sick at home and also engaged in domestic activities, which is similar to the suffering they went through during the 11 years civil war, explaining that their numbers have reduced drastically, as many of them have lost their lives including some children.
She disclosed that the lives of their children, especially the girls are at stake, simply because education is presently going down the drain, as most of their girl-child have been impregnated, which has led to the high number of teenage pregnancy in the District and beyond- a situation she described as a major challenge in the post-Ebola period, adding that the children are not doing anything at the moment which exposed them to all funny acts.
The Women leader maintained that education at the part of the country is very poor, especially among the women, as the poorly- educated women in the district are the ones dying with the out-break including female nurses, women leaders who take the Ebola campaign to the interior and women advocators.
She said this is worrisome at the moment in the district, expressing appreciation on the innovation of the Ministry of Education, Science and Technology, together with their partners in introducing the radio educational system that will help build the capacity of their children, who are presently losing a lot in their educational carrier.
Veronica Mansaray, a mother of three, with one who was preparing for the Basic Education Certificate Examination (BECE), disclosed that her child was assisting her in doing some petty trading due to the indefinite closure of schools but is now three months pregnant, a situation that have caused her  to lose focus at the moment, adding that she will make sure her child spends more time listening to the radio education programme, so that she can be on track with her classmate, but expressed doubt, if her child will be in a position to complete the coming BECE exams after the out-break will have been settled, due to her present condition.
By Alhaji M. Kamara
Wednesday October 08, 2014

Liberia: Grand Kru Residents Seize Medical Vehicle Over Slow Ebola Response


Sorpoparluken District in the undeveloped Grand Kru County has become the latest area in the Southeast to be hit by the deadly Ebola virus that had already claimed several lives in other parts of the country.
The death toll from the outbreak of the disease in this district experiencing the bad road condition had reached up to 15 persons so far, according to a civil society member who had been in the county for at least two months, now back in Monrovia. Brima Lahai Sowa told FrontPageAfrica Tuesday that the outbreak of the virus in this remote district came about when a woman suspected of the virus came from Monrovia and went to a nearby town of Kanwenkea for a visit but later fell sick and died.
He claimed that during the course of her illness another family member of hers called Comfort Duyan came from the Sorpoparluken District to take care of her, but upon her return, she too contracted the virus and died along with 15 other members of her household.
Sowa claimed that the County Health Team of Grand Kru headed by one Dr. Keita is unable to contain the current outbreak of the disease in the district due to the lack of an isolation center coupled with the lack of good road to connect the health team to the area as all the roads and bridges connecting the towns have been damaged due to the rainy season.
He said at the time of the virus outbreak citizens of the county first denied the existence of the virus and considered it to be that of witchcraft activities making the virus to increase because not many people believe in it. According to Sowa the citizens of the county had told him that they cannot cooperate with local leaders in the fight against this deadly Ebola virus because the government had been very insensitive to the plight of the citizens since the outbreak.
The civil society member stated that in order for the government to fight to eradicate the virus from the country, it had to be serious to enforce the law that will cause the people to abandon some of their traditional practices in the wake of the outbreak of this virus.
"Do you imagine that when one of the traditional leaders of Grand Kru County, died recently the people had to dance for two weeks as a sign of respect shown to their traditional leader while they ate and drink in one cup do you imagine" said Brima.
 When FrontPageAfrica contacted a local journalist of the community radio the Voice of Grand Kru Eric Gbasue, he confirmed exactly what the civil society member Brima Sowa confirmed adding that the situation remains the same and no improvement yet.
Journalist Gbasue stated that because of the alarming rate of the situation the Superintendant of the County Elizabeth Dempster has contacted the UNMIL to transport the affected persons to health centers in the county, but to no avail because the UNMIL officials had told her that they have never flown to the area before to know the terrain therefore cannot take such a risk.
He told FrontPageAfrica that health workers traveling to Kanwekan on Tuesday vehicle was seized by the citizens who claimed that the health workers only go in for dead body and don't care to take away the sick where there is no isolation center in the area.
"As I speak to you now the death toll in the area has reached to 23 persons while health workers traveling to Kanweken vehicle was seized as a protest by the citizens that they are only concerned about dead bodies and not to treat the sick" said Journalist Gbasue.
 http://allafrica.com/stories/201410081180.html

Supt. Buway and staff survive Ebola suspects’ threat

Supt. Buway and staff survive Ebola suspects’ threat

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After being threatened by Ebola suspects, Margibi County Superintendent, John Zubah Buway, has reopened his offices in the county. Superintendent Buway was constrained to close his offices on September 24, 2014 after he and his officials, including county inspector, assistant superintendent for development and other staffers were threatened with Ebola infection by Ebola suspects in Kakata, leading to the escape of the county inspector.
Recently, some Ebola suspects barricaded the offices of Superintendent Buway, demanding to be taken to holding centers in the county and better support for their lives. The suspects said their relatives died showing symptoms of the virus, admitting that they came in contact with them.
The Ebola suspects said they were tired of calling on the Margibi County Health Team to go to their aid in taking them to the treatment center for care. The suspects threatened that any time they were denied access to Superintendent Buway’s offices without being attended to, they (suspects) would rush in and touch anyone found in the premises. The situation had scared the superintendent and his co-workers to abandon office for fear of contracting the disease.
http://www.thenewdawnliberia.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=12915:-supt-buway-and-staff-survive-ebola-suspects-threat&catid=3:general&Itemid=68 

Ebola outbreak: Third Spanish health worker put in hospital

Published: Oct 8, 2014 6:37 a.m. ET

Nurse’s aide under observation

MADRID — A third nurse’s aide who treated an Ebola patient in Madrid checked into a hospital Tuesday night and was under observation, the government said on Wednesday.
A spokesman for Spain’s regional health department said the hospital worker, whose name wasn’t disclosed, had a slight fever, one possible early symptom of Ebola. The aide was part of the medical team that treated Manuel García Viejo, a 69-year-old Spanish missionary who contracted Ebola in Sierra Leone and was evacuated to Madrid. He died in late September.
On Monday, Spain’s government said a 44-year-old nurse’s aide who also treated the missionary, had contracted Ebola and was under quarantine.
By Tuesday, the government also quarantined her husband, a second nurse’s aide and a man who had recently traveled to Spain from Nigeria. On Tuesday evening, the government said the second nurse’s aide had tested negative twice for Ebola, but she remained under hospital supervision.
The first transmission of Ebola outside West Africa is a concern for European governments who have been relying on standardized Ebola protocols to avoid spreading the disease as they care for repatriated patients who contracted it in Africa. European authorities called for an investigation to determine whether any treatment protocols had been breached.
http://www.marketwatch.com/story/ebola-outbreak-third-spanish-health-worker-put-in-hospital-2014-10-08?link=MW_home_latest_news

Liberian prostitute kills eight soldiers via Ebola transmission

08 October, 2014 13:37

Image by: Gallo Images/ Thinkstock

A soldier who slept with a Liberian sex worker apparently contracted the Ebola disease and spread it to seven other soldiers whom he shared the same barracks with.

According to the Liberian Observer, a sex worker visited soldier Floson Louise at his army barracks in Liberia.
“When she slept at the EBK (barracks), it was thereafter the soldiers contracted the disease, and could not survive despite “intensive treatment” at the various Ebola Treatment Units in Monrovia,” a source told the Observer.
The sex worker was suffering from Ebola and passed the deadly disease to the soldier who unknowingly spread it to seven other soldiers. The Observer further reports that the army barracks are being decongested to ease the spread of the disease.  http://www.timeslive.co.za/africa/2014/10/08/liberian-prostitute-kills-eight-soldiers-via-ebola-transmission

Tuesday, October 7, 2014

Defense Department Admits US Troops In Liberia Will "Come In Contact" With Ebola-Infected Individuals

Tyler Durden's picture




 
With boots-on-the-ground heading to Liberia to help 'manage' the anarchic dystopia that a frightened nation has become, General David Rodriguez (Commander, US Africa Command) held a briefing today to explain US troops' role:
  • QUESTION: Will they be in contact with individuals or just specimens?
  •  RODRIGUEZ: They come in contact with the individuals.
Of course this was followed by a stream of qualifiers that all protection possible will be taken (just like the nurses in Madrid?)
Via Bloomberg Transcript,
KIRBY: Afternoon, everybody. I'm proud to welcome into the briefing room General David Rodriguez, commander of Africa Command. He's here to give you an update on U.S. contributions to the effort against Ebola -- U.S. military contributions to the effort against Ebola in West Africa. And with that, sir, I'll turn it over to you.

QUESTION: Just a clarification on that, please. Will they be in contact with individuals or just specimens?

GENERAL DAVID M. RODRIGUEZ (USA), COMMANDER, U.S. AFRICA COMMAND: They come in contact with the individuals and they do that. And they're -- like I said, it's a -- it's a very, very high standard that these people have operated in all their lives, and this is their primary skill. This is not a -- you know, just medical guys trained to do this. This is what they do for a living.

CDC: Doctors, nurses fleeing Ebola hospitals, virus not contained


CDC: Doctors, nurses fleeing Ebola hospitals, virus not contained

By |
A new and remarkably candid on-the-ground audit from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention of the Ebola crisis in Liberia said that doctors and nurses have fled hospitals in the infection zone and that obstacles to killing the virus remain.
The analysis of four remote Liberian counties conducted by local and CDC officials that were Ebola-free in August revealed that massive amounts of aid are still needed in the areas to fight the spread of the virus, which can be as simple as burying a dead victim.
While the CDC said locals are getting a handle on the crisis, it warned, “obstacles to preventing spread of Ebola remain, and personal protective equipment, sufficient personnel for effective contact tracing and case management, efficient patient transport and regional diagnostic laboratory capabilities are urgently needed.”
RELATED: House panel will hold Ebola hearing in Dallas
The review of the southeastern Liberian counties in August found utter chaos and a full breakdown in the medical system, which has contributed to the spread of Ebola. It also found that locals didn’t know how to identify Ebola, even though the virus was dominating other areas of the country.“No Ebola surveillance systems were in place,” the doctors found in the report issued Tuesday.
And the lack of medical staff seemed to surprise the report authors. “Before the epidemic, six physicians served all four counties. At the time of the evaluation, only three physicians remained; the others had left Liberia because of the epidemic. In two of four hospitals assessed, nursing staff members were not coming to work or had abandoned facilities; in another hospital, health care providers had not been paid for three months but were still providing basic care,” said the analysis.
RELATED: Obama calls for more Ebola screening at airports
Once locals were explained about the symptoms of Ebola, they realized that the virus had already hit.
“After basic training on case definitions and surveillance was provided to local officials, River Gee County health officials reviewed recent deaths and identified a patient with suspected Ebola. On Aug. 3, a pregnant woman (patient 1) died during a spontaneous abortion after leaving Monrovia where she had contact with an infected person at a funeral; she was buried by the community in the week after her death.
RELATED: Superbugs spread across U.S.
“On Aug. 24, 2014, Maryland County authorities identified a man hiding in a rice truck who had signs and symptoms of Ebola (patient 2). The truck had departed from Fish Town, River Gee County, and was destined for Pleebo, Maryland County. The man, who was reported to have participated in the burial of patient 1, was sent back to Fish Town, where he later was reported to have died of laboratory-confirmed Ebola. This was the first evidence of secondary transmission of Ebola in southeast Liberia.”

Staff attended Alcorcón Hospital Auxiliary Ebola infected unprotected



Some Ebola experts worry virus may spread more easily than assumed



Ebola researcher says he would not rule out possibility that the virus spreads through air in tight quarters
'There are too many unknowns here,' a virologist says of how Ebola may spread
Ebola researcher says he thinks there is a chance asymptomatic people could spread the virus
 
U.S. officials leading the fight against history's worst outbreak of Ebola have said they know the ways the virus is spread and how to stop it. They say that unless an air traveler from disease-ravaged West Africa has a fever of at least 101.5 degrees or other symptoms, co-passengers are not at risk.
"At this point there is zero risk of transmission on the flight," Dr. Thomas Frieden, director of the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said after a Liberian man who flew through airports in Brussels and Washington was diagnosed with the disease last week in Dallas.
Other public health officials have voiced similar assurances, saying Ebola is spread only through physical contact with a symptomatic individual or their bodily fluids. "Ebola is not transmitted by the air. It is not an airborne infection," said Dr. Edward Goodman of Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital in Dallas, where the Liberian patient remains in critical condition.
Yet some scientists who have long studied Ebola say such assurances are premature — and they are concerned about what is not known about the strain now on the loose. It is an Ebola outbreak like none seen before, jumping from the bush to urban areas, giving the virus more opportunities to evolve as it passes through multiple human hosts.
Dr. C.J. Peters, who battled a 1989 outbreak of the virus among research monkeys housed in Virginia and who later led the CDC's most far-reaching study of Ebola's transmissibility in humans, said he would not rule out the possibility that it spreads through the air in tight quarters.
"We just don't have the data to exclude it," said Peters, who continues to research viral diseases at the University of Texas in Galveston.
Dr. Philip K. Russell, a virologist who oversaw Ebola research while heading the U.S. Army's Medical Research and Development Command, and who later led the government's massive stockpiling of smallpox vaccine after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, also said much was still to be learned. "Being dogmatic is, I think, ill-advised, because there are too many unknowns here."
If Ebola were to mutate on its path from human to human, said Russell and other scientists, its virulence might wane — or it might spread in ways not observed during past outbreaks, which were stopped after transmission among just two to three people, before the virus had a greater chance to evolve. The present outbreak in West Africa has killed approximately 3,400 people, and there is no medical cure for Ebola.
"I see the reasons to dampen down public fears," Russell said. "But scientifically, we're in the middle of the first experiment of multiple, serial passages of Ebola virus in man.... God knows what this virus is going to look like. I don't."
Tom Skinner, a spokesman for the CDC in Atlanta, said health officials were basing their response to Ebola on what has been learned from battling the virus since its discovery in central Africa in 1976. The CDC remains confident, he said, that Ebola is transmitted principally by direct physical contact with an ill person or their bodily fluids.
Skinner also said the CDC is conducting ongoing lab analyses to assess whether the present strain of Ebola is mutating in ways that would require the government to change its policies on responding to it. The results so far have not provided cause for concern, he said.

The researchers reached in recent days for this article cited grounds to question U.S. officials' assumptions in three categories.
One issue is whether airport screenings of prospective travelers to the U.S. from West Africa can reliably detect those who might have Ebola. Frieden has said the CDC protocols used at West African airports can be relied on to prevent more infected passengers from coming to the U.S.
"One hundred percent of the individuals getting on planes are screened for fever before they get on the plane," Frieden said Sept. 30. "And if they have a fever, they are pulled out of the line, assessed for Ebola, and don't fly unless Ebola is ruled out."
Individuals who have flown recently from one or more of the affected countries suggested that travelers could easily subvert the screening procedures — and might have incentive to do so: Compared with the depleted medical resources in the West African countries of Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea, the prospect of hospital care in the U.S. may offer an Ebola-exposed person the only chance to survive.
A person could pass body temperature checks performed at the airports by taking ibuprofen or any common analgesic. And prospective passengers have much to fear from identifying themselves as sick, said Kim Beer, a resident of Freetown, the capital of Sierra Leone, who is working to get medical supplies into the country to cope with Ebola.
"It is highly unlikely that someone would acknowledge having a fever, or simply feeling unwell," Beer said via email. "Not only will they probably not get on the flight — they may even be taken to/required to go to a 'holding facility' where they would have to stay for days until it is confirmed that it is not caused by Ebola. That is just about the last place one would want to go."
Liberian officials said last week that the patient hospitalized in Dallas, Thomas Eric Duncan, did not report to airport screeners that he had had previous contact with an Ebola-stricken woman. It is not known whether Duncan knew she suffered from Ebola; her family told neighbors it was malaria.
The potential disincentive for passengers to reveal their own symptoms was echoed by Sheka Forna, a dual citizen of Sierra Leone and Britain who manages a communications firm in Freetown. Forna said he considered it "very possible" that people with fever would medicate themselves to appear asymptomatic.
It would be perilous to admit even nonspecific symptoms at the airport, Forna said in a telephone interview. "You'd be confined to wards with people with full-blown disease."
On Monday, the White House announced that a review was underway of existing airport procedures. Frieden and President Obama's assistant for homeland security and counter-terrorism, Lisa Monaco, said Friday that closing the U.S. to passengers from the Ebola-affected countries would risk obstructing relief efforts.
CDC officials also say that asymptomatic patients cannot spread Ebola. This assumption is crucial for assessing how many people are at risk of getting the disease. Yet diagnosing a symptom can depend on subjective understandings of what constitutes a symptom, and some may not be easily recognizable. Is a person mildly fatigued because of short sleep the night before a flight — or because of the early onset of disease?
Moreover, said some public health specialists, there is no proof that a person infected — but who lacks symptoms — could not spread the virus to others.
"It's really unclear," said Michael Osterholm, a public health scientist at the University of Minnesota who recently served on the U.S. government's National Science Advisory Board for Biosecurity. "None of us know."
Russell, who oversaw the Army's research on Ebola, said he found the epidemiological data unconvincing.
"The definition of 'symptomatic' is a little difficult to deal with," he said. "It may be generally true that patients aren't excreting very much virus until they become ill, but to say that we know the course of [the virus' entry into the bloodstream] and the course of when a virus appears in the various secretions, I think, is premature."
The CDC's Skinner said that while officials remained confident that Ebola can be spread only by the overtly sick, the ongoing studies would assess whether mutations that might occur could increase the potential for asymptomatic patients to spread it.
Finally, some also question the official assertion that Ebola cannot be transmitted through the air. In late 1989, virus researcher Charles L. Bailey supervised the government's response to an outbreak of Ebola among several dozen rhesus monkeys housed for research in Reston, Va., a suburb of Washington.
What Bailey learned from the episode informs his suspicion that the current strain of Ebola afflicting humans might be spread through tiny liquid droplets propelled into the air by coughing or sneezing.
"We know for a fact that the virus occurs in sputum and no one has ever done a study [disproving that] coughing or sneezing is a viable means of transmitting," he said. Unqualified assurances that Ebola is not spread through the air, Bailey said, are "misleading."
Peters, whose CDC team studied cases from 27 households that emerged during a 1995 Ebola outbreak in Democratic Republic of Congo, said that while most could be attributed to contact with infected late-stage patients or their bodily fluids, "some" infections may have occurred via "aerosol transmission."
Skinner of the CDC, who cited the Peters-led study as the most extensive of Ebola's transmissibility, said that while the evidence "is really overwhelming" that people are most at risk when they touch either those who are sick or such a person's vomit, blood or diarrhea, "we can never say never" about spread through close-range coughing or sneezing.
"I'm not going to sit here and say that if a person who is highly viremic … were to sneeze or cough right in the face of somebody who wasn't protected, that we wouldn't have a transmission," Skinner said.
Peters, Russell and Bailey, who in 1989 was deputy commander for research of the Army's Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases, in Frederick, Md., said the primates in Reston had appeared to spread Ebola to other monkeys through their breath.
The Ebola strain found in the monkeys did not infect their human handlers. Bailey, who now directs a biocontainment lab at George Mason University in Virginia, said he was seeking to research the genetic differences between the Ebola found in the Reston monkeys and the strain currently circulating in West Africa.
Though he acknowledged that the means of disease transmission among the animals would not guarantee the same result among humans, Bailey said the outcome may hold lessons for the present Ebola epidemic.
"Those monkeys were dying in a pattern that was certainly suggestive of coughing and sneezing — some sort of aerosol movement," Bailey said. "They were dying and spreading it so quickly from cage to cage. We finally came to the conclusion that the best action was to euthanize them all." http://www.latimes.com/nation/la-na-ebola-questions-20141007-story.html#page=1

Suspected Ebola case causes panic in Manipur

October 6, 2014 12:05 IST
Panic gripped Manipur when a Japanese woman who had made a stop-over at Imphal was suspected of having infected with Ebola virus. The tourist, identified as Kawakubo Yuko (27), had already visited five countries. She was coming to Nagaland and had checked in at a hotel in Imphal as she was planning to visit some places in the state. She came to Manipur from Myanmar by road.
Doctors said that she had started showing symptoms of a patient suffering from Ebola. She was shifted to a private hospital in Imphal. Local tests for some common ailments proved negative.
Accordingly the doctors here collected her blood samples for testing at the National Institute of Virology, Pune.
Later she was admitted in J.N. Institute of Medical Sciences in Imphal since there are better medical facilities. Hospital sources said that she is kept in an isolation room. If she is found to be Ebola positive many other persons of the hotel, the doctors and paramedics in the government and the private hospitals are susceptible to this deadly disease. Hospital sources said that since there is no proper isolation ward in JNIMS the patient may be shifted to Regional Institute of Medical Sciences, Imphal if she is found to be Ebola positive. Sources also said that all tourists coming by road or flight to Manipur may be screened for this disease.  http://www.thehindu.com/sci-tech/health/policy-and-issues/suspected-ebola-case-causes-panic-in-manipur/article6475140.ece

Epidemiologist: Stop the flights now

Epidemiologist: Stop the flights now

Infected men and women may not be contagious on the plane, but they could wreak havoc when they arrive.

October 6 at 12:24 PM
David Dausey, a Yale-trained epidemiologist who works on controlling pandemics, is dean of the School of Health Professions and Public Health at Mercyhurst University in Erie, Pennsylvania.
The United States got its first scare from Ebola last week when Thomas Eric Duncan, a man sick with the virus, traveled from Liberia to Dallas. This man was feared to have been in contact with up to 100 people after he became contagious, all of whom had to be individually evaluated by public health professionals for their exposure risk. Half of these individuals are currently under observation. Nine of them considered to be at highest risk are being checked twice daily for symptoms.
Bodily fluids including vomit spread Ebola, and Duncan — who presented himself to a Dallas hospital only to be misdiagnosed and sent home — vomited on the sidewalk outside of his home. It took days before a properly trained Hazmat crew was sent to the apartment to clean it. The human errors in this single case highlight why it is urgent that we ban all commercial flights from the impacted countries to all non-affected countries until the outbreak is contained. *
Individuals who suspect they have been exposed to Ebola and have the means to travel to the United States have every reason to get on a plane to the United States as soon as possible. There are no direct flights from the three most-affected nations, but passengers can transfer elsewhere, as Duncan did. If they stay in Africa, the probability that they will survive the illness if they have it is quite low. If they make it to the United States, they can expect to receive the best medical care the world can provide, and they will have a much higher probability of survival. So they are motivated to lie about their exposure status (wouldn’t you, in their shoes?) to airlines and public health officials and travel to the United States. *
The incubation period for Ebola is up to 21 days, so a person could get on a plane the day he or she is exposed and spend three weeks in the United States or elsewhere before exhibiting symptoms. Then he or she could potentially infect any number of people here before the disease is properly diagnosed, and they are isolated or quarantined. *
Top U.S. government health officials have spoken strongly against creating a travel ban (though members of Congress increasingly disagree). They say restricting flights will also restrict aid to affected countries and will increase the amount of ongoing unrest. But commercial airlines are not the only ways for the United States to send aid and aid workers. The United States has the most advanced military in the entire world; we can transport people and supplies without commercial carriers.
The Ebola outbreak in West Africa has been compared to a war zone. The disease is now being viewed as a national security threat on par with nuclear weapons. The United States has committed nearly 4,000 troops to impacted countries. It’s time to take security precautions that align with the gravity of the threat. That means doing whatever it takes to keep infected people from coming here.
Correction: Language was added to the paragraphs marked by an asterisk (*) to clarify that there are no direct flights to the United States, though flights stop in other non-affected nations.  http://www.washingtonpost.com/posteverything/wp/2014/10/06/epidemiologist-stop-the-flights-now/