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Conakry/Dakar: Guinea's government said on Wednesday that Ebola had spread to a previously unaffected region of the country, as U.S. experts warned that the worst ever outbreak of the deadly virus was spiralling out of control in West Africa. Guinea, the first country to detect the haemorrhagic fever in March, had said it was containing the outbreak but authorities announced that nine new cases had been found in the southeastern prefecture of Kerouane. The area, some 750 km southeast of the capital Conakry, lies close to where the virus was first detected deep in Guinea's forest region. The epidemic has since spread to four other West African countries and killed more than 1,500 people. "There has been a new outbreak in Kerouane but we have sent in a team to contain it," said Aboubacar Sikidi Diakité, head of Guinea's Ebola task force. He insisted the outbreak was being contained. The nine confirmed cases were in the town of Damaro in the Kerouane region, with a total of 18 people under observation, the health ministry said in a statement... http://www.timesofoman.com/News/39135/Article-Guinea-detects-9-cases-of-Ebola-in-new-region | |||
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Thursday, September 4, 2014
Guinea detects 9 cases of Ebola in new region
This Mathematical Model from 2006 Shows How Ebola Could Wipe Us Out
The current Ebola outbreak in West Africa
is the worst in history, and the death toll just surpassed 1,900.
Previous WHO estimates indicated that the outbreak would end mid-fall,
but the situation is quickly spiraling out of control and into a sea of
unknowns.
The “Ebola epidemic is the largest, and most severe, and most complex we have ever seen in the nearly 40-year history of this disease,” World Health Organization director general Margaret Chan said in a special briefing yesterday. “No one, even outbreak responders, [has] ever seen anything like it.”
Yaneer Bar-Yam, the complex systems analyst whose model accurately predicted the global unrest that led to the Arab Spring, is also worried about the patterns he sees in the disease's advance. Models he designed for the New England Complex Systems Institute back in 2006 show that Ebola could rapidly spread, and, in a worse case scenario, even cause an extinction event, if enough infected people make it through an international airport.
“What happened was that we were modelling the dynamics of the evolution of diseases—of pathogens—and we showed that if you just add a very small amount of long-range transportation, the diseases escape their local context and eventually drive everything to extinction,” Bar-Yam told Motherboard. “They drive their hosts to extinction.”
“I just gave a lecture to the World Health Organization in January and I told them. I said, there’s this transition to extinction and we don’t know when it’s going to happen,” Bar-Yam explained. “But I don’t think that there has been a sufficient response.”
Normally, the spread of a predator—and this is as true for Ebola as it is for invasive animal species—is stymied when it overexploits its prey, effectively drying up its own food source. In rural areas like those where the current Ebola outbreak is centered, diseases tend to contain themselves by wiping out all available hosts in a concentrated area.
The argument has been made that an Ebola outbreak would not be as severe in the West as it is in Africa, because the poor healthcare infrastructure where the disease has struck is the chief vector of its spread. Bar-Yam sees this assumption as a vast overestimation of our handle on the dynamics of disease containment.
Panic is never a wise thing to incite, because it can result in exactly the kinds of unpredictable behavior that Bar-Yam is warning us about. However, a healthy amount of fear is a different matter.
“The question becomes, at what point do we hit the panic button? What does it look like to hit the panic button?” he said.
Bar-Yam’s suggested approach to containing the outbreak is radical, he admits, and flies in the face of the WHO’s nonplussed reaction to Korean Airlines, which stopped running flights into Kenya last week. According to the WHO, halting flights to West Africa makes it difficult for healthcare experts to make it into the region to help. Bar-Yam agrees, but maintains that the danger of the disease coming back with them is too great a risk.. ME TOO
“They’re saying they need a large number of healthcare professionals to go there and deal with this. But that doesn’t mean that people have to leave there,” he said. “One sets up a one-way transportation system where people can go there to deal with the disease.”
It’s a prescription that is likely to bristle healthcare experts who'd to help Africans suffering from Ebola without necessarily signing their own death certificate. However, Bar-Yam said, the possibility of Ebola making it into a metropolitan area is far more grim than any potential containment efforts.
While the outbreak response thus far has been more or less handled on an individual basis, treating cases as they pop up while simultaneously studying the infection, a containment attempt to limit movement in and around the diseased area is a systemic response, and that’s exactly what’s needed.
“If the disease comes to an urban area in the United States, the targeted response of addressing individuals who have the infection is not the same as a systemic response that addresses the ability of the disease to spread,” Bar-Yam said. “We need to have the knowledge and understanding of how to do a systemic response.” http://motherboard.vice.com/read/a-2006-mathematical-model-shows-how-ebola-could-wipe-us-out
The “Ebola epidemic is the largest, and most severe, and most complex we have ever seen in the nearly 40-year history of this disease,” World Health Organization director general Margaret Chan said in a special briefing yesterday. “No one, even outbreak responders, [has] ever seen anything like it.”
Yaneer Bar-Yam, the complex systems analyst whose model accurately predicted the global unrest that led to the Arab Spring, is also worried about the patterns he sees in the disease's advance. Models he designed for the New England Complex Systems Institute back in 2006 show that Ebola could rapidly spread, and, in a worse case scenario, even cause an extinction event, if enough infected people make it through an international airport.
“What happened was that we were modelling the dynamics of the evolution of diseases—of pathogens—and we showed that if you just add a very small amount of long-range transportation, the diseases escape their local context and eventually drive everything to extinction,” Bar-Yam told Motherboard. “They drive their hosts to extinction.”
'A cascade of infection starting in Africa'/NECSI
Bar-Yam says he has informed the WHO and the CDC of his findings, but they haven’t listened, he said.“I just gave a lecture to the World Health Organization in January and I told them. I said, there’s this transition to extinction and we don’t know when it’s going to happen,” Bar-Yam explained. “But I don’t think that there has been a sufficient response.”
Normally, the spread of a predator—and this is as true for Ebola as it is for invasive animal species—is stymied when it overexploits its prey, effectively drying up its own food source. In rural areas like those where the current Ebola outbreak is centered, diseases tend to contain themselves by wiping out all available hosts in a concentrated area.
NECSI
If a particularly aggressive predator happens to make it out of its
local context, say, on an international flight, Bar-Yam’s models show
that it can avoid local extinction through long-range dispersal. At this
point, the linear model of the disease's outbreak makes a statistical
transition into an entirely different dynamic; extinction for all of its
hosts across vast geographic distances, and only afterwards for the
disease.The argument has been made that an Ebola outbreak would not be as severe in the West as it is in Africa, because the poor healthcare infrastructure where the disease has struck is the chief vector of its spread. Bar-Yam sees this assumption as a vast overestimation of our handle on the dynamics of disease containment.
“The behavior of an individual in a major metropolitan area in terms of engaging with the health care system depends on a lot of different factors,” Bar-Yam explained. “A reasonable person might be have in one way, but another person will behave in another. We don’t know what happens if someone with Ebola throws up in a subway before that gets cleaned up and people understand that happened because of Ebola.”The question becomes, at what point do we hit the panic button? What does it look like to hit the panic button?
Panic is never a wise thing to incite, because it can result in exactly the kinds of unpredictable behavior that Bar-Yam is warning us about. However, a healthy amount of fear is a different matter.
“The question becomes, at what point do we hit the panic button? What does it look like to hit the panic button?” he said.
Bar-Yam’s suggested approach to containing the outbreak is radical, he admits, and flies in the face of the WHO’s nonplussed reaction to Korean Airlines, which stopped running flights into Kenya last week. According to the WHO, halting flights to West Africa makes it difficult for healthcare experts to make it into the region to help. Bar-Yam agrees, but maintains that the danger of the disease coming back with them is too great a risk.. ME TOO
“They’re saying they need a large number of healthcare professionals to go there and deal with this. But that doesn’t mean that people have to leave there,” he said. “One sets up a one-way transportation system where people can go there to deal with the disease.”
It’s a prescription that is likely to bristle healthcare experts who'd to help Africans suffering from Ebola without necessarily signing their own death certificate. However, Bar-Yam said, the possibility of Ebola making it into a metropolitan area is far more grim than any potential containment efforts.
While the outbreak response thus far has been more or less handled on an individual basis, treating cases as they pop up while simultaneously studying the infection, a containment attempt to limit movement in and around the diseased area is a systemic response, and that’s exactly what’s needed.
“If the disease comes to an urban area in the United States, the targeted response of addressing individuals who have the infection is not the same as a systemic response that addresses the ability of the disease to spread,” Bar-Yam said. “We need to have the knowledge and understanding of how to do a systemic response.” http://motherboard.vice.com/read/a-2006-mathematical-model-shows-how-ebola-could-wipe-us-out
#Ebola: no vaccine will be available before the end of the year
....Ebola: no vaccine will be available before the end of the year
..
The current outbreak of Ebola virus that continues to spread in West Africa is unprecedented in scale. There is still no approved vaccine against the disease, and no specific treatment.
The international community was accelerating its response Thursday against Ebola, the African Union announced an emergency meeting to strategize across the continent while WHO proposed eight treatments and two experimental vaccines to be developed faster. "None has been clinically proven," according to the paper published Thursday by the WHO for the 200 experts convened in Geneva to take stock of the ways to fight against Ebola.
Also, "when extraordinary measures are now in place to accelerate the pace of clinical trials, new treatments and vaccines will not be available for widespread use before the end of 2014," warned the UN organization. "By then, only small quantities of up to a few doses to / treatments will be available," she said, noting that the development and clinical evaluation of these treatments take "up to 10 years normal circumstances. ".... http://www.congo24.net/Acceuil/index.php/monde/5757-ebola-aucun-vaccin-ne-sera-disponible-avant-la-fin-de-l-annee.html
..
The current outbreak of Ebola virus that continues to spread in West Africa is unprecedented in scale. There is still no approved vaccine against the disease, and no specific treatment.
The international community was accelerating its response Thursday against Ebola, the African Union announced an emergency meeting to strategize across the continent while WHO proposed eight treatments and two experimental vaccines to be developed faster. "None has been clinically proven," according to the paper published Thursday by the WHO for the 200 experts convened in Geneva to take stock of the ways to fight against Ebola.
Also, "when extraordinary measures are now in place to accelerate the pace of clinical trials, new treatments and vaccines will not be available for widespread use before the end of 2014," warned the UN organization. "By then, only small quantities of up to a few doses to / treatments will be available," she said, noting that the development and clinical evaluation of these treatments take "up to 10 years normal circumstances. ".... http://www.congo24.net/Acceuil/index.php/monde/5757-ebola-aucun-vaccin-ne-sera-disponible-avant-la-fin-de-l-annee.html
Ebola Could Reach the U.S. By the End of This Month
David Ludwig
There is an 18 percent chance that a case of
the Ebola virus will reach the United States by the end of September,
according to a study published on Tuesday in PLOS Currents: Outbreaks.
Despite restrictions reducing travel in and out of the infected countries by 80 percent, the study, which analyzes global flight patterns, suggests that a case of Ebola in the U.S. is becoming increasingly harder to avoid. It also lists the chance of the virus reaching the United Kingdom between 25 and 28 percent.
The analysis also warns that if the current West African outbreak is not contained the likelihood of the virus reaching Europe and the U.S. will "increase consistently."
The study lists just a five percent chance of Ebola occurring in the U.S. today, suggesting that the disease is far from contained to countries in West Africa. According to numbers obtained by the World Health Organization, there have been an estimated 3,685 cases and 1,841 deaths from the virus since the outbreak began.
Although two Americans — Dr. Kent Brantley and Nancy Writebol — have been treated for Ebola in the U.S., both of them contracted the disease while working in Liberia. Doctors suggested that better medical care contributed to their eventual recovery.
A third infected American working in Liberia, Dr. Richard A. Sacra, is on his way to the U.S. for treatment. http://www.thewire.com/global/2014/09/ebola-could-reach-the-us-by-the-end-of-this-month/379657/
Despite restrictions reducing travel in and out of the infected countries by 80 percent, the study, which analyzes global flight patterns, suggests that a case of Ebola in the U.S. is becoming increasingly harder to avoid. It also lists the chance of the virus reaching the United Kingdom between 25 and 28 percent.
The analysis also warns that if the current West African outbreak is not contained the likelihood of the virus reaching Europe and the U.S. will "increase consistently."
The study lists just a five percent chance of Ebola occurring in the U.S. today, suggesting that the disease is far from contained to countries in West Africa. According to numbers obtained by the World Health Organization, there have been an estimated 3,685 cases and 1,841 deaths from the virus since the outbreak began.
Although two Americans — Dr. Kent Brantley and Nancy Writebol — have been treated for Ebola in the U.S., both of them contracted the disease while working in Liberia. Doctors suggested that better medical care contributed to their eventual recovery.
A third infected American working in Liberia, Dr. Richard A. Sacra, is on his way to the U.S. for treatment. http://www.thewire.com/global/2014/09/ebola-could-reach-the-us-by-the-end-of-this-month/379657/
ABU student suffers from Dangue fever, not Ebola -Dep Gov
Deputy Governor of Kaduna State, Ambassador Nuhu Audu Bajoga, told newsmen in Kaduna Wednesday that the student was suffering from ‘Dangue Fever’, not Ebola Virus Disease.
Bajoga, who is the Chairman, Kaduna State Ebola Prevention and Control Committee said, “just as I told you about my doubt on the Ebola issue, I am happy to inform you that the result of the sample of the patient’s blood taken to a Lagos laboratory, came back this morning. The young man was negative of the Ebola virus.
“However, the patient was tested positive for Dangue fever. I am told it is a very bad type of fever, but it is no where close to the Ebola virus. May I reassure our people that we ever ready to contain any outbreak of Ebola.
And for now, and I pray forever, There is no single case of Ebola in Kaduna state.
“We are waiting for more brief on the Dangue fever and we shall act in the best interest of the public”, he said. http://news2.onlinenigeria.com/news/375341-abu-student-suffers-from-dangue-fever-not-ebola-dep-gov.html
Who releases alarming #Ebola numbers.
Posted by Greg Laden on September 4, 2014
I’m just posting the graph and very little info right now. The
per day rate of new cases is currently about 123 cases per day, the
total number of suspected, confirmed, etc. cases is 3,685 with 1841
fatalities. These numbers no longer include Nigeria (and the one case in
Senegal is not included either).
The Abbot Bagaza talking about the campaign "Ebola, we will win!" In Ecuador
| Last Update September 4, 2014 at 10:48 am
The
association of citizens of the province of Ecuador "Grand Ecuador"
launched Wednesday, September 3 in Kinshasa a campaign against the
epidemic of Ebola virus that has plagued the town of Djera.
According to Father Oswald Bagaza, president of the association, the campaign, whose motto is "Ebola, we will win! , "Will consist of two main points: - Revenue mobilization against the disease
- Solidarity with the victims.
He explains the rationale and objectives of the campaign in this interview with Michel Kifinda Ngoy.
rdc-No Ebola in Katanga, the provincial government provides
September 3, 2014, | Last Update September 3, 2014 at 3:46
Katanga recorded no cases of Ebola, assured Tuesday, September 2nd Provincial Minister of Health, Ilunga Ndjoloko.
During a meeting with the heads of health facilities and the media
Lubumbashi, he indicated a suspected case was detected Malemba Nkulu and
samples were sent to the National Institute of Biomedical Research
(INRB) to Kinshasa and Franceville (Gabon). Pending the results, he stressed that only his department is authorized to give information on the epidemic. "Here in Katanga, we are still a virgin province [no epidemic]. Why we take all necessary measures to guard against this disease, "said Ilunga Ndjoloko
The provincial minister also called on all media in the province to handle information about Ebola "without alarming the population."
"Do not make people panic by publications and unofficial news," said he said.
Ilunga Ndjoloko also said that only the provincial Ministry of Health is authorized to give information on the epidemic.
"No other health facility apart from the provincial Ministry of Health has the right to make statements about the epidemic. There are suspected cases which were taken Malemba Nkilu. The samples were sent to Kinshasa then farnce city (Gabon) and we await the results, "said Ilunga Ndjoloko.
For now, the Ebola virus is rampant in Djera Boende territory in the province of Ecuador. The outbreak was declared last Sunday, August 24. Thirty-one people have already died.
Katanga: 2 people die of diarrhea among passengers on a train in Kongolo
Katanga: 2 people die of diarrhea among passengers on a train in Kongolo
Last Update September 4, 2014 at 8:30
 A train from the National Society of Railway (SNCC) |
The medical director called for calm, assuring that strict measures were taken to curb this epidemic.
"We, the area of health, and those responsible for Regideso, we tried to take some steps to supply drinking water to the station. We will also add a point of chlorination. The population is calm, "he was assured.
Meanwhile, about 1,000 passengers of the train are still waiting to see him again. The locomotive is back down to Lubumbashi for repair. https://translate.googleusercontent.com/translate_c?depth=1&hl=en&ie=UTF8&prev=_t&rurl=translate.google.com&sl=auto&tl=en&u=http://radiookapi.net/actualite/2014/09/04/katanga-2-personnes-meurent-de-diarrhee-parmi-les-passagers-dun-train-kongolo/&usg=ALkJrhh6GqTgsJQs29_RcUkK_aqdX-_ang
Sierra Leone News: Amb. Zhao bids farewell to 30 Sierra Leonean Students
Chinese
Ambassador Zhao Yanbo has bade farewell to 30 Sierra Leonean Students
who will be leaving this morning by road to Conakry by bus to board Air
France.This was the only way the Embassy was able to send the students for their studies to China.
Speaking to the students at the Foreign Affairs Hall at Tower Hill, Ambassador Zhao said this period is a challenging time, due to the Ebola that has caused the suspension of flights from Sierra Leone.
He said they did all they could but the only way out for the students was through Conakry.
He urged them to take their studies very seriously and come back to help in the development of the country. “All of you are ambassadors to China and you are lucky to be chosen to go and study in a country where the people are friendly and helpful. Make use of your stay in China. Make many friends and continue to strengthen the Sino-Sierra Leone friendship.”
He said he was happy that China is working with Sierra Leone to develop the country and to fight Ebola.
He said China has sent Ebola materials and personnel and they will continue to do more for Sierra Leone because of the South-South cooperation.
Also advising the students was Minister of Education Dr Minkailu Bah, who told the students that they were very lucky to be part of the Sierra Leone-China history.
He said they should go and take their studies very seriously, so they can come back and join the development train.
He said they should not think of staying away after their studies because they are needed in Sierra Leone.
He told them that during the period they studied in England, many students never returned, which gave cause to the British government to cancel such scholarships.
He said they should not allow this to happen and should remember that they are more needed in Sierra Leone than China.... http://awoko.org/2014/09/03/sierra-leone-news-amb-zhao-bids-farewell-to-30-sierra-leonean-students/
Sierra Leone News: Staff Nurse was abandoned to death-witnesses claim
Close relatives of Hajaratu Serry; a Staff Nurse who was
attached to the Connaught Hospital prior to her death past Saturday, are
still grappling with traumas, especially those relating to
circumstances surrounding the demise of their loved one.
Reports attributed to the death of the nurse are received with mixed-interpretations; while some sections of the public, particularly those who rely on information culled from the social media are pointing at the Ebola virus, closed relatives who witnessed in anguish, the nurse’s journey to eternity, consider her death an “unfortunate” event.
Explaining in tears at her resident situated at H-95 Clay Factory in the east end of Freetown, Adama Bangura, wife of the late nurse’s uncle could still not fathom the seeming neglect Hajaratu allegedly encountered while admitted at the female Annexe attached to the Connaught Hospital.
Sobbing through her explanation while sitting on a reclining bench at the veranda of her resident, Adama said that the late nurse did go to work on the 25th of August, without complaining of any sign of sickness. The following day, she narrated, the nurse complained that she had some sickening experience believed to be malaria. But, as a nurse, she decided to administer some anti-malaria drugs; a regimen she continued until the 29th of August.
However, Adama furthered, during the period of administering those drugs, Hajaratu did not exhibit any severity of her state of illness, as she was able to move in and out of the community. At the same time, the thought of Ebola virus never existed because the established signs and symptoms of the deadly haemorrhagic fever were not perceived during her short illness at home.
Meanwhile, Adama explained that the late nurse was observing her menstruation period, which she herself did confirm. But because of her continuous state of illness within the three days period, her husband, Osman Bangura, who happens to be the late nurse’s uncle, advised that Hajara be taken to the hospital for proper diagnosis.
But it was reported that Hajaratu vehemently refused her uncle’s proposition of taking her to Connaught Hospital; supposedly because, she was a testimony of the sheer neglect patients are being exposed to when they are being taken to the hospital, particularly in the wake of the Ebola outbreak.
However, complacent with her status as a Staff Nurse, she declined her refusal and boarded a Taxi that had been chartered by her uncle.
While admitted at the Annexe female ward, Adama explained that the late nurse was administered a drip by two of her colleagues in a bid to sustain her, as she had apparently lost appetite. Since then, she lamented, she was never given a due medical attention.
A close male friend of the late nurse, Abu Bakarr Dakowa expressed his saddest experience ever in his life, while he painfully watched his loved one travelled to eternity. He said that to the time of his presence in the ward, no thorough medical attention was accorded to his friend. He lamented that while the late nurse was on drip and wanted to use the ladies’, there was no health worker to aid her. Instead, she struggled aiding herself in removing the I.V injection in a bid to attend to nature. On her return from the ladies’, he explained, she nervously attempted to re-administer the drip, and in the process, she bled profusely, as she continuously missed her vein in trying to do so.
He testified that to the time he was asked to leave the hospital at around 11 pm, no health worker was there to give the nurse due attention.
He claimed that he had been told that the late nurse was only going to be given treatment if an Ebola test was conducted. As a result, he asserted, “even the common care that used to be given to patients was denied the nurse.”
The following morning; Saturday 30th August, he said, they watched (parents and loved ones) when the late nurse was helplessly brought out of the ward on a stretcher and dumped in a nearby ambulance that had been well-fumigated in their presence; and then whisked off, with no health worker explaining to them what had happen.
However, what now remains a concern to relatives of the deceased nurse is that if ever the nurse died of Ebola, why have they not been told? Why has the team not quarantined their home or check their status, since the late nurse lived with them, So that plans could have been put in place from the very day of her death, to prevent the spread of the disease?
Instead, “false” rumours in social media have it that the late nurse was one of the nurses working in late Dr. Modupe Cole’s team; and that immediately his death, the late nurse was tested positive of Ebola and was taken to the Kailahun Treatment Centre, where she was battled with till her death.
However, concerned citizens have viewed that the neglect of patients, in most cases, to sicknesses that require immediate attention is discouraging them from going to the hospital. They hold the belief that if they report to the hospital (early or later) for ailments such as: complication or for other sicknesses that share similar symptoms with Ebola, they would be abandoned by health workers to death. “If a Staff Nurse could be abandoned at the very hospital she was serving to death, what about us” a group of young ladies lamented.
By Poindexter Sama
Thursday September 04, 2014
http://awoko.org/2014/09/04/sierra-leone-news-staff-nurse-was-abandoned-to-death-witnesses-claim/
Reports attributed to the death of the nurse are received with mixed-interpretations; while some sections of the public, particularly those who rely on information culled from the social media are pointing at the Ebola virus, closed relatives who witnessed in anguish, the nurse’s journey to eternity, consider her death an “unfortunate” event.
Explaining in tears at her resident situated at H-95 Clay Factory in the east end of Freetown, Adama Bangura, wife of the late nurse’s uncle could still not fathom the seeming neglect Hajaratu allegedly encountered while admitted at the female Annexe attached to the Connaught Hospital.
Sobbing through her explanation while sitting on a reclining bench at the veranda of her resident, Adama said that the late nurse did go to work on the 25th of August, without complaining of any sign of sickness. The following day, she narrated, the nurse complained that she had some sickening experience believed to be malaria. But, as a nurse, she decided to administer some anti-malaria drugs; a regimen she continued until the 29th of August.
However, Adama furthered, during the period of administering those drugs, Hajaratu did not exhibit any severity of her state of illness, as she was able to move in and out of the community. At the same time, the thought of Ebola virus never existed because the established signs and symptoms of the deadly haemorrhagic fever were not perceived during her short illness at home.
Meanwhile, Adama explained that the late nurse was observing her menstruation period, which she herself did confirm. But because of her continuous state of illness within the three days period, her husband, Osman Bangura, who happens to be the late nurse’s uncle, advised that Hajara be taken to the hospital for proper diagnosis.
But it was reported that Hajaratu vehemently refused her uncle’s proposition of taking her to Connaught Hospital; supposedly because, she was a testimony of the sheer neglect patients are being exposed to when they are being taken to the hospital, particularly in the wake of the Ebola outbreak.
However, complacent with her status as a Staff Nurse, she declined her refusal and boarded a Taxi that had been chartered by her uncle.
While admitted at the Annexe female ward, Adama explained that the late nurse was administered a drip by two of her colleagues in a bid to sustain her, as she had apparently lost appetite. Since then, she lamented, she was never given a due medical attention.
A close male friend of the late nurse, Abu Bakarr Dakowa expressed his saddest experience ever in his life, while he painfully watched his loved one travelled to eternity. He said that to the time of his presence in the ward, no thorough medical attention was accorded to his friend. He lamented that while the late nurse was on drip and wanted to use the ladies’, there was no health worker to aid her. Instead, she struggled aiding herself in removing the I.V injection in a bid to attend to nature. On her return from the ladies’, he explained, she nervously attempted to re-administer the drip, and in the process, she bled profusely, as she continuously missed her vein in trying to do so.
He testified that to the time he was asked to leave the hospital at around 11 pm, no health worker was there to give the nurse due attention.
He claimed that he had been told that the late nurse was only going to be given treatment if an Ebola test was conducted. As a result, he asserted, “even the common care that used to be given to patients was denied the nurse.”
The following morning; Saturday 30th August, he said, they watched (parents and loved ones) when the late nurse was helplessly brought out of the ward on a stretcher and dumped in a nearby ambulance that had been well-fumigated in their presence; and then whisked off, with no health worker explaining to them what had happen.
However, what now remains a concern to relatives of the deceased nurse is that if ever the nurse died of Ebola, why have they not been told? Why has the team not quarantined their home or check their status, since the late nurse lived with them, So that plans could have been put in place from the very day of her death, to prevent the spread of the disease?
Instead, “false” rumours in social media have it that the late nurse was one of the nurses working in late Dr. Modupe Cole’s team; and that immediately his death, the late nurse was tested positive of Ebola and was taken to the Kailahun Treatment Centre, where she was battled with till her death.
However, concerned citizens have viewed that the neglect of patients, in most cases, to sicknesses that require immediate attention is discouraging them from going to the hospital. They hold the belief that if they report to the hospital (early or later) for ailments such as: complication or for other sicknesses that share similar symptoms with Ebola, they would be abandoned by health workers to death. “If a Staff Nurse could be abandoned at the very hospital she was serving to death, what about us” a group of young ladies lamented.
By Poindexter Sama
Thursday September 04, 2014
http://awoko.org/2014/09/04/sierra-leone-news-staff-nurse-was-abandoned-to-death-witnesses-claim/
Latest Ebola Update In Nigeria : Health Minister Reveals Cities Under Investigation From The Virus
Nigeria Health
Minster, Prof. Onyebuchi Chukwu today denied rumours of Ebola cases in
Abuja and Calabar and said the case in Kaduna is currently under
investigation.
The minister also
said that another patient has been discharged from the Isolation center
in Lagos after being certified free of the deadly virus.
He addressed a few
other issues in a series of tweets via his Special Assistant on Media
and Communications, Mr Dan Nwomeh. Read tweets below.....
2 Ebola Virus Patients Admitted At LUTH Hospital In Lagos, 1 Died After Doctors Fled
2 Ebola Virus Patients Admitted At LUTH Hospital In Lagos, 1 Died After Doctors Fled
By |
The
Lagos University Teaching Hospital (LUTH), Idi Araba, was thrown into
panic yesterday, following the admission of two patients suspected to be
infected with the Ebola Virus Disease (EVD) into the hospital.
One of the patients later died after reportedly showing symptoms of the deadly disease.
Confirming the development, a resident doctor at the hospital, who pleaded anonymity, told newsmen that one of the patients was brought in on Monday by an airport ambulance after reportedly being rejected at the Lagos State University Teaching Hospital (LASUTH).
Confirming the development, a resident doctor at the hospital, who pleaded anonymity, told newsmen that one of the patients was brought in on Monday by an airport ambulance after reportedly being rejected at the Lagos State University Teaching Hospital (LASUTH).
According
to the doctor, the suspected case was severely ill and showed symptoms
of the EVD, including high temperature, vomiting blood and stooling.
The patient,
however, reportedly died, due to the severity of his illness and lack of
care, as doctors and nurses reportedly fled for lack of safety
equipment.
The
hospital source also confirmed that a second suspected Ebola case was
brought to the hospital the same day in a critical condition, while the
Lagos State Government had taken away the body of the first suspected
case to perform the necessary tests for confirmation of cause of death.
Ebola audio diary from a doctor on the ground: Part 2
Ebola audio diary from a doctor on the ground: Part 2
To give us a better sense of what it is like to be in the midst of the
Ebola outbreak, we've asked Dr Oliver Johnson, a British doctor treating
patients for Ebola in Sierra Leone, to send us an audio diary. Here is
the second of his reports.
https://audioboo.fm/boos/2449000-ebola-audio-diary-from-a-doctor-on-the-ground-part-2
Ebola: 400 under surveillance in Rivers, says NCDC director
The
Nigeria Centre for Disease Control Project Director, Dr. Abdulsalami
Nasidi, has said that the health ministry is monitoring about 400 people
in Port Harcourt, Rivers State, for signs of Ebola after they came in
contact with a Port Harcourt doctor who died of the disease but hid the
fact that he had been exposed.
Nasidi
said this on Thursday in Geneva, saying that there is a sense of
“hopelessness” due to the lack of proven drugs or vaccines to treat
Ebola that has infected 18 people in the country.
In an
interview with Reuters, he said that more isolation wards were being
opened in the oil industry hub but voiced confidence that there would
not be “many cases” there.
After
having contact with an Ebola patient and before his own death on August
22, the Port Harcourt doctor, named by local authorities as Iyke
Enemuo, carried on treating patients and met scores of friends,
relatives and medics, leaving about 60 of them at high risk of
infection.
The doctor’s wife, who is also a physician, and a patient in the same hospital have been infected with Ebola.
“Everything
about this doctor was in secrecy, he violated our public health laws by
treating a patient with a highly pathogenic agent who revealed to him
that he had contact with Ebola and didn’t want to be treated in Lagos
because he might be put in isolation.
“He
treated him in secrecy outside hospital premises. When he became ill he
did not reveal to his colleagues that he had contact with someone who
contracted Ebola. He was taken to General Hospital, a private hospital
that sees everybody.
“That is the only case that effectively escaped our surveillance network. We are paying now for it,” Nasidi said. NOT
He
spoke on the sidelines of a two-day World Health Organisation experts
meeting aimed at speeding development of Ebola drugs and vaccines.
Indian Missionary Dies, Indirect Casualty of Ebola Outbreak
12:59 pm IST
Sep 4, 2014
Late last year, Indian missionary Augustine Aiyadurai set out for a
remote African town near Liberia’s border with Guinea to help out at a
Lutheran hospital.
He wanted to assist the sick and suffering. He didn’t expect to end up in the middle of one of the deadliest-ever outbreaks of Ebola.
But several months after Mr. Aiyadurai arrived, the deadly virus began to ravage West Africa. He emailed a friend saying he and other foreign staff were struggling to decide whether to leave.
“In the Lord’s prayer we say ‘Give us this day our daily Bread,’” he wrote. “I now pray ‘Give us this day the decision we need to take.’”
As others were evacuated, Mr. Aiyadurai, who worked as an administrator at a hospital in his home state of Tamil Nadu, stayed behind, hoping he could help.
In late July, Mr. Aiyadurai came down with what seemed to be malaria, his family and co-workers said. As his condition worsened, his family said, he was unable to get help at better-equipped city hospitals overwhelmed with Ebola patients. He died on Aug. 2.....
As the Ebola virus and news about the deaths it was causing started spreading, Mr. Aiyadurai’s family pressed him to come home. Mr. Aiyadurai was reluctant.
“If I leave,” his wife, Ms. Augustine, recalled him saying, “the others here will be frightened. I can’t leave them now.”
He eventually started looking for ways to get home but by the time an exit was available, he was too sick to travel, his family said.
After he became sick in July, Mr. Aiyadurai, got tested for both Ebola and malaria. While the tests showed he didn’t have Ebola and was most likely suffering from malaria, he was in such bad shape that he needed to get to a bigger hospital, said his son.
He traveled for hours—a bumpy trip over a mud road—to get better care in Monrovia, but he was turned away by hospitals that could only handle Ebola patients, said his family and friends who spoke to him on the phone while he was trying to get help. His family said he was sent back to Zorzor, where he died a few days later in the hospital where he was working.
His family was unable to have his body returned to India, but they hope to someday be able to afford a visit to his gravesite.
“We know he is buried somewhere close to the hospital, where the other missionaries are buried,” his son, Dr. Augustine said. http://blogs.wsj.com/indiarealtime/2014/09/04/indian-missionary-becomes-indirect-victim-of-ebola/
Sep 4, 2014
- Indian missionary Augustine Aiyadurai.
- Courtesy of Thomas Augustine
He wanted to assist the sick and suffering. He didn’t expect to end up in the middle of one of the deadliest-ever outbreaks of Ebola.
But several months after Mr. Aiyadurai arrived, the deadly virus began to ravage West Africa. He emailed a friend saying he and other foreign staff were struggling to decide whether to leave.
“In the Lord’s prayer we say ‘Give us this day our daily Bread,’” he wrote. “I now pray ‘Give us this day the decision we need to take.’”
As others were evacuated, Mr. Aiyadurai, who worked as an administrator at a hospital in his home state of Tamil Nadu, stayed behind, hoping he could help.
In late July, Mr. Aiyadurai came down with what seemed to be malaria, his family and co-workers said. As his condition worsened, his family said, he was unable to get help at better-equipped city hospitals overwhelmed with Ebola patients. He died on Aug. 2.....
As the Ebola virus and news about the deaths it was causing started spreading, Mr. Aiyadurai’s family pressed him to come home. Mr. Aiyadurai was reluctant.
“If I leave,” his wife, Ms. Augustine, recalled him saying, “the others here will be frightened. I can’t leave them now.”
He eventually started looking for ways to get home but by the time an exit was available, he was too sick to travel, his family said.
After he became sick in July, Mr. Aiyadurai, got tested for both Ebola and malaria. While the tests showed he didn’t have Ebola and was most likely suffering from malaria, he was in such bad shape that he needed to get to a bigger hospital, said his son.
He traveled for hours—a bumpy trip over a mud road—to get better care in Monrovia, but he was turned away by hospitals that could only handle Ebola patients, said his family and friends who spoke to him on the phone while he was trying to get help. His family said he was sent back to Zorzor, where he died a few days later in the hospital where he was working.
His family was unable to have his body returned to India, but they hope to someday be able to afford a visit to his gravesite.
“We know he is buried somewhere close to the hospital, where the other missionaries are buried,” his son, Dr. Augustine said. http://blogs.wsj.com/indiarealtime/2014/09/04/indian-missionary-becomes-indirect-victim-of-ebola/
Liberia: No Need for Isolation - Says U.S. Government #ebola
(Monrovia)
4 September 2014
Emmanuel Weedee-ConwayThe Government of
the United States of America (USA) through its Ambassador accredited to
Liberia, Deborah Malac, has said the US government is closely working
with countries that have isolated Liberia and other countries affected
with the Ebola virus to stop their isolation and restriction.Amb. Malac said such isolation and restriction are counterproductive to the fight against the deadly virus.
The US envoy was speaking Tuesday, September 2, 2014 at a launch with some Liberian journalist in Monrovia.
"We are intervening of behalf of Liberia and others so that countries will not close their borders on them or restrict them. There is no need for such restriction or isolation against Liberia and others. There is no need to close borders, and there is no need to prevent travel from these countries. This is not a positive development in the fight of the disease," said Amb. Malac.
"To those countries that have already closed their borders and sanctioned Liberia, we will work to get these lifted. That isolation has to end. This is not the right way to resolve the problem," she said.
Among other things, the US envoy added that her government will bring a mobile testing center, which will be sent to Lofa County. http://allafrica.com/stories/201409041117.html?aa_source=acrdn-f0
Liberia: Nine Bodies Discovered in Ganta
The remains of nine persons have been discovered in various communities in the commercial city of Ganta, Nimba County.
The bodies were discovered by the Ebola Task Force set up to fight the Ebola virus in Nimba County, our correspondent in the northern Liberian county has disclosed.
Our correspondent quoted the Ganta City Mayor, Dorr Cooper as saying that some of the nine bodies discovered met their untimely demise over the weekend having been abandoned by their families. The City Mayor said some of the diseased left Ganta to some unknown destination where they died and that it has not been established by the Nimba County Health Team whether the nine persons died from the Ebola virus.
Since the outbreak of the Ebola virus in the country, report of people killed by the virus continues to swell in Nimba. In an interview, Mayor Cooper appealed to the international community and donors to extend their services in Nimba to help save the life of people affected by the deadly Ebola virus.
He said those quarantined by the Ebola Task Force along with the Nimba County Health Team are in dire need of food and medication as they await their treatment. The death tolls in the commercial city of Ganta continue to rise over the past three days as bodies are said to be almost every parts of the city thus, creating serious fear amongst local residents in the county.
Recently, a man believed to be in his 30s was discovered dead at the Monrovia parking station in Ganta. The man according to report is an employee of the Federation of Road Transport Union in Ganta and that the death of the man has created serious panic amongst workers of the Transport Union as they are attributing it to the Ebola virus. http://allafrica.com/stories/201409041541.html
Liberi-‘Divide Country into 3 Ebola Fighting Zones’
‘Divide Country into 3 Ebola Fighting Zones’
Thu, 09/04/2014 - 06:42
admin
-Senator Jallah Proposes in Legislative Resolution; Wants 2014/2015 Draft Budget Recast
By:
J. Burgess Carter
The
Chairman of Senate Committee on Internal Affairs and Governance, Armah
Zulu Jallah of Gbarpolu County, has proposed several recommendations he
believes will help the fight against the spread of the Ebola epidemic.
He said the recommendations require a Legislative Resolution that the
Government should be encouraged to implement.
In a communication to the Senate plenary at its 56th day sitting, Senator Jallah recommended that the country be divided into three zones of five counties each.
Zone 1, according to the Gbarpolu lawmaker, will comprise of Gbarpolu, Bomi, Grand Cape Mount, Montserrado and Grand Bassa Counties;
Zone 2 includes Margibi, Lofa, Bong, Nimba and Rivercess Counties.
Maryland, Grand Kru, River Gee, Sinoe and Grand Gedeh will fall into Zone 3.
The technical management of the three zones should be undertaken by “our international partners such as World Health Organization (WHO), Center for Disease Control (CDC), Samaritan Purse, or Medicins Sans Frontiers, while the Government of Liberia shall continue to provide security, political and financial resources to those managing each of these zones where necessary.”
......
In order to rebuild confidence in the country’s screening program at the international airports and seaports, “such screening should now be outsourced to organizations such as the CDC for proper control and management. The recommendation, if applied, shall restore confidence in airlines that cancelled flights, thus resuming flights to Liberia.”
Senator Jallah recognized what he described as tremendous efforts being made by the Government of Liberia, local and international partners, communities and their leaders in curtailing further spread of the Ebola virus.
“But the Government of Liberia’s effort seems not to be yielding much result, partly due to cultural, traditional beliefs and system weakness serving as barriers to effective eradication.”
The Senate plenary is expected to discuss Senator Jallah’s communication today.
In a communication to the Senate plenary at its 56th day sitting, Senator Jallah recommended that the country be divided into three zones of five counties each.
Zone 1, according to the Gbarpolu lawmaker, will comprise of Gbarpolu, Bomi, Grand Cape Mount, Montserrado and Grand Bassa Counties;
Zone 2 includes Margibi, Lofa, Bong, Nimba and Rivercess Counties.
Maryland, Grand Kru, River Gee, Sinoe and Grand Gedeh will fall into Zone 3.
The technical management of the three zones should be undertaken by “our international partners such as World Health Organization (WHO), Center for Disease Control (CDC), Samaritan Purse, or Medicins Sans Frontiers, while the Government of Liberia shall continue to provide security, political and financial resources to those managing each of these zones where necessary.”
......
In order to rebuild confidence in the country’s screening program at the international airports and seaports, “such screening should now be outsourced to organizations such as the CDC for proper control and management. The recommendation, if applied, shall restore confidence in airlines that cancelled flights, thus resuming flights to Liberia.”
Senator Jallah recognized what he described as tremendous efforts being made by the Government of Liberia, local and international partners, communities and their leaders in curtailing further spread of the Ebola virus.
“But the Government of Liberia’s effort seems not to be yielding much result, partly due to cultural, traditional beliefs and system weakness serving as barriers to effective eradication.”
The Senate plenary is expected to discuss Senator Jallah’s communication today.
Liberia-Japan donates 30m Ebola equipment
The Government of Japan has joint other country in the fight against
the deadly Ebola Virus by donating an assortment of medical equipment
valued at 30 million yen to the fight against the deadly Ebola virus.
The Government of Japan disclosed the immediate dispatch of an assortment of medical equipment valued at 30 million Yen to aid Liberia in its fight against the deadly Ebola virus. According to a Foreign Ministry release, the consignment of medical equipment and accessories will arrive in Liberia this Friday, September 5, 2014.
The release named the items to be donated 100 pieces of tents, 500 pieces of sleeping pad, 500 blankets, and 25 generators. Other items expected to arrive include 25 cord reel, 30 pieces of water storage tanks, and 500 pieces of water containers among others.
The Government of Japan disclosed the immediate dispatch of an assortment of medical equipment valued at 30 million Yen to aid Liberia in its fight against the deadly Ebola virus. According to a Foreign Ministry release, the consignment of medical equipment and accessories will arrive in Liberia this Friday, September 5, 2014.
The release named the items to be donated 100 pieces of tents, 500 pieces of sleeping pad, 500 blankets, and 25 generators. Other items expected to arrive include 25 cord reel, 30 pieces of water storage tanks, and 500 pieces of water containers among others.
liberia-UNMIL drawdown delayed #ebola
TRANSLATE
Due to the current Ebola outbreak in West Africa that has threatened
the entire region, United Nations or UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon
has told the Security Council that he wants to delay the gradual
drawdown of the U.N. Mission in Liberia established in 2003 to help
Liberia through a vexing transition from civil war to democracy.According to the UN Radio in Liberia UNMIL Radio, U.N. efforts to ship equipment, personnel and humanitarian and medical supplies into the region have been hampered by flight restrictions imposed by neighboring governments and large international carriers, including British Airways and Air France, which have suspended flights to Liberia and Sierra Leone, the hardest-hit countries.
According to the United Nations, Ebola has rapidly transformed from a major public health emergency to a threat to international peace and security- severely challenging U.N. efforts to support stability in the West African heart of the epidemic.
UNMIL Radio said the U.N. officials told Foreign Policy that several governments with police and troops serving in the U.N. mission were worried about the risk of infection to their nationals, informing U.N. Peacekeeping planners that they were weighing whether to pull out.
The radio also reported that the Philippine Government was withdrawing its peacekeeping forces from both Liberia and the Golan Heights, where anti-Syrian militants abducted 43 peacekeepers.
Documents released to this paper quoted a senior U.N.-based diplomat, who has been discussing the crisis with the U.N.'s top leadership, as saying "A lot of regional countries, in our view unwisely, have interrupted communications and flights, and were not allowing planes to land.".
"You can't get medical staff into the region to tackle the disease."
The document also revealed that the diplomat joined other top U.N. officials in warning that the humanitarian and peacekeeping operations could be disrupted. "There are deep concerns about the impact on the actual peacekeeping missions," said the diplomat.
"The troop-contributing countries are getting nervous;
Other countries participating in the Liberia mission also have signaled their intention to pull out of Liberia because of Ebola,” said a senior U.N. official, noting that the organization was trying to persuade them to stay.
"We have been talking to them; some are sending experts to assess the risks by themselves before taking a final decision," the official said.
According to the document, Ban wrote the Security Council that Liberia, which lost more than 150,000 lives to its civil war from 1989 to 1997 -- has struggled with the U.N.'s help to rebuild itself and establish democratic institutions.
The United Nations, which once had more than 15,000 troops deployed in the country, had hoped to turn over the task of securing the country to the Liberian security forces by the middle of 2016. But those plans are now on hold he wrote.
As Liberia emerged as the epicenter of the deadliest Ebola outbreak in history, Ban made it clear that he was reconsidering plans to downsize the mission here.
In a letter to the U.N. Security Council, the U.N. chief asked to put off the decision for at least three months, expressing concern that the "scale and scope of the epidemic exceeded the capacity of national institutions."
"Ebola is having a devastating impact on Liberia, with the Ministry of Health recording, as of 24 August 2014, a cumulative total of 1,378 cases, resulting in 743 deaths," Ban wrote.
"While the Ebola outbreak began primarily as a medical emergency, it has become more complex, with political, security and humanitarian implications that are significant and dynamic." While Ban highlighted the seriousness of the epidemic, he also sought to assure governments that fears of infection were overblown.
"All United Nations personnel in Liberia have been educated about the appropriate preventive measures that would minimize the risk of contracting Ebola, which is not airborne and requires direct contact with the bodily fluids of a symptomatic infected person or the deceased," he wrote.
"I am therefore confident that United Nations personnel may continue their important work in Liberia." The President of Liberia has imposed extraordinary measures, deploying Liberian soldiers and police to enforce quarantines in areas of the country affected by Ebola. On Aug. 20, she declared a nationwide curfew as an additional effort to contain the virus, leading to clashes with community groups.
In the short term, Ban said that he would temporarily send home a "small number" of U.N. election officials, saying it is unlikely that Senate elections will take place in October. But he said he would increase the number of medical personnel and other U.N. staff to address the Ebola crisis and deliver humanitarian assistance.
Patients will rather die” - ELWA warns
Despite
successfully discharging dozens of Ebola infected persons, including
surviving doctors, the ELWA is warning that “patients would rather die”
where required working materials are unavailable, than to endanger its
staff.Speaking to UNMIL Radio’s Coffe Break on Tuesday morning, September 2, ELWA Acting General Administrator Dr. Jerry Brown said he has encouraged his staff, but they are now becoming discouraged by the day due to the lack of material support.
Dr. Brown said health workers are relying on support from individual Liberians’ goodwill gestures to get protective gear. He said personal protective equipment at the hospital are in limited supplies at the unit.
He told UNMIL radio that due to the commitment of staff at the ELWA, the hospital has succeeded in discharging several persons that were earlier tested Ebola positive, after receiving treatment under local method.
But he warned that “Until I can ensure adequate protection for my nurses, I’m not going to expose them to danger, including myself.”
Excluding a Liberian Physician Assistant Kandy Kobah and a Congolese Doctor Sengo Omeoga that were discharged from the ELWA-1 on Saturday, August 30, Dr. Brown announced here Tuesday that on Monday, 1 September, 12 confirmed Ebola patients were discharged after being treated at the hospital.
He added that two other persons suspected of Ebola were also discharged after medical attention, making the number of patients that walked out of ELWA-1 to 14 on Monday, September 1.
But as at Tuesday, he said a total number of “50 plus” patients were at ELWA, while clarifying to the public that the Ebola unit at ELWA is absolutely separate from the main hospital where regular cases are being treated. “At ELWA, we don’t have Ebola patients in the hospital itself, the Ebola unit is separate from the ELWA,” he said.
It could be recalled that after being discharged on Saturday, August 30, the Liberian PA Madam Kandy Bobah pleaded with President Sirleaf for more support to be given to health workers and increase their supply, after citing the needs of health practitioners in the Ebola fight.
The National Port Authority or NPA has erased the fear of employees dispatched home for them in definite as a result of the deadly Ebola disease, causing many deaths in Liberia and other West African countries.
The NPA said, the mandate was instituted by the President of Liberia, Ellen Johnson Sirleaf for all non-essential public workers take a month’s break to reduce the over-crowdedness of government offices as a way of avoiding the spreading the virus.
Speaking yesterday at the Information Ministry during its regular press briefing, the Deputy Managing Director for Administration, Nyekeh Forkpa, said the management of the port had decided to reduce staff to avoid people coming in contact with the deadly Ebola disease.
About 50% of our administrative staff were dispatched home, not because they are not important, but just to have the entity secure from the spread of the deadly virus; while they are on break, they will continue to get all of their regular salaries. We cannot impose hardship on people; they are not responsible for their stay home,” he noted.
According to the NPA Deputy Managing Director, the NPA has put in place various measures to insure that there is a zero outbreak of the deadly Ebola virus at the port facility.
He said the port facility is yet to record a single case of any symptom of the virus at its facility, emphasizing that the NPA will not allow people in its premises and showing passes to vessel members, except those who will be in emergency cases. Mr. Forkpa explained that the high measures put in place were intended to safeguard every employee of the entity and help the eradication of the dangerous virus.
He pointed out that other measures put in place by the port management, including wearing long sleeve shirts while coming to work, and washing hands with chlorine, bleach hand wash, alcohol, based hand sanitizer upon entering and leaving the compound and the testing of temperature to ensure that every employee of the facility is healthy to save them from coming in contact with the virus.
Liberia-Ebola kills several in Virginia as infected family flees
She had reportedly treated a female Ebola patient brought overnight into the YED Community by her children after being pressurized to report to the Ebola Taskforce.
The late nurse, who was well known in the YED community in Mango Town, Central Virginia, was contacted by children of the infected woman so that she (the nurse) could administer some medication to their sick mother. In first contact, the nurse was told by the children that their mother had suffered from sugar and so they wanted her to be treated, which the nurse is said to have immediately begun.
However, it soon became clear that the medical history provided by the children was far from reality as their Mom had been infected with the Ebola Virus. She died a few days after. Relatives allegedly forged Death certificate for the woman and subsequently took the body away for burial the same day to an unknown location.
Subsequently, one of the deceased’s sons died of the virus followed by a second son, who became the third victim from the same family to have contracted the virus. He escaped the YED community to his former community overnight, but was rejected there since residents of the area already knew the mother’s health history.
However, on Tuesday this week, a convoy led by Montserrado County District 17 Representative William V. Dakel and the Ebola Taskforce entered the community after tip-off through phone calls about a man that had died of the Ebola Virus.
Tracing his family records, the dead man was one of the sons of the woman that died earlier of the virus. As the team reached the home of the dead victims’ the rest of the family members, including tenants fled, leaving the dead man at the front of the house. It was soon discovered that the fleeing family members were taken away by their church pastor to an unknown location.
Denial and refusal of some family members to report themselves after contracting the virus or call the taskforce to take them to the treatment centers are two key stumbling blocks to the ongoing Ebola fight across the country. http://www.thenewdawnliberia.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=12562:ebola-kills-several-in-virginia-as-infected-family-flees&catid=25:politics&Itemid=59
Liberia-Ebola money: Who gets what?
The list shows the security sector and other agencies being allotted chunk of the money, while the communication aspect, which unfortunately is being led by the Ministry of Information leaves much to be desired.
President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf as part of her government's commitment to contain the tropical disease which has left nearly 700 Liberian's dead here and much still infected announced the first US5 million, with the Legislature upping the amount to US$20 million days later.
However, despite repeated pronouncements by various global institutions, including the World Health Organization or WHO and other international partners that one of the best ways to fight this deadly tropical virus which up to present has no known cure is through massive awareness detailing preventive measures seems to have fallen on deaf ears at least as the allotment shows.
Even media institutions that continue to disseminate some of these messages have been left in the cold as their bills remained unpaid, leaving many to wonder how this Ebola money is being spent. Some citizens argued that they are yet to see the impact. The document titled the Government of Liberia National Task Force on Ebola Trust Fund Interim (Weekly) Financial Report, Week End August 22, 2014 shows the following allotments and disbursements up to date:
The Ministry of Internal Affairs with its Minister as the deputy chair of the Ebola Task Force is allotted US$1,114,211.00. (One million, one hundred and fourteen thousand, two hundred and eleven dollars) for the entire 90-day period for which the state of emergency has been imposed. Out of this amount a total of US484, 975.00 has been disbursed as at the period under review representing 43.5%.
The man who controls the ministry's allotment Mr. Varney Sirleaf told this paper Wednesday that the amount had been distributed amount the various counties to help support their Ebola fight initiatives. He has promised to make an available full expenditure to this paper. Second on the list of beneficiary institutions is the Ministry of Gender and Development with a total allotment of US33, 126.04 for the entire 90-days. Out of this amount, not a dime has been disbursed representing 0.0%
The Ministry of National Defense follows with US$1, 057,076.25, with its troops deployed around the country. Out of this amount US$352,358.75 has been disbursed representing 33.3%. Defense Assistant Minister for Public Affairs, David Dan, initially declined to comment on the figure, saying that he needed to consult with his boss, called back later to confirm the allotment and the amount disbursed so far.
Next on the list of beneficiaries is the Program Management (call center, logistics, fuel) with a total allotment of US$300,000.00, a total of US100,000 has been disbursed representing 33.3%. Note here that most of the staff at this call center are volunteers who have all signed waivers.
The Ministry of State follows with the allotment of US$325,000.00. Out of this amount a total of US$160,000.00 has been disbursed representing 49.2%. This paper is yet to obtain documents relating to line items detailing how the Ministry of State uses this fund.
The Ministry of Health, the agency at the center of the outbreak management has a total 90 days budget of US$29,283,572.82. Of this amount 2,288,959.93 representing 9.8%.
Note that health workers from the state run John F. Kennedy Memorial Hospital and the Christian run ELWA Hospital early this week staged a strike action for what they described as the non-payment of endangered benefits.
The Bureau of Immigration and Naturalization (BIN) is next with a total allotment of US$436,195.00 of which US$357,445.00, representing 81% disbursement. The Liberian National Police or LNP follows with US$1, 721,781.00, out of which 346, 320.00 representing 20.1% has been spent. The Ministry of Information, Culture and Tourism or MICAT is the last on the list with a total budget of US$550,000.00; out of this an amount of US$17,500 representing 3.2% has been disbursed so far.
Officials at the Ministry of Information when this paper called initially declined that they had received any payment despite the Ebola weekly financial update showing that they had received the amount as far back as August 22..
However, a few hours later, one of the ministry's officials dropped a payment document at the New Dawn's office showing a document which indicate that MICAT was only notified that the 17,500 has been transferred into its account on Wednesday September 3, 2014.
Critics say the blind eye being play to the massive public awareness campaign about Ebola by the government has actually rear its ugly head as evidence as to the priority given to other sectors than communications.
This also further exposed the government as to how it has valued communication which is an essential tool to its own disadvantage. On Tuesday the US Ambassador here Madam Deborah Malac criticized the use of the army to put down angry protesters who were protesting against their community being quarantined. http://www.thenewdawnliberia.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=12558:-ebola-money-who-gets-what&catid=25:politics&Itemid=59
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