Coalition Of Inaction: Outrage On The Ebola Front Line In Liberia

Coalition Of Inaction: Outrage On The Ebola Front Line In Liberia

12/09/14

In Monrovia(John Moore/MSF)

by Christophe Châtelot
LE MONDE/Worldcrunch

MONROVIA— "Welcome to hell." There is no cynicism and no irony in the voice of the young French volunteer from Médecins sans frontières (Doctors without Borders). The deep rings of fatigue under his eyes tell the same tale.
This "hell" is Elwa in Monrovia, the capital of Liberia. Elwa is the largest treatment center ever set up by the French NGO to fight an epidemic, a camp of big white tents where its staff is trying desperately to fight Ebola, the terribly contagious virus that causes often fatal hemorrhagic fevers and has already killed more than 2,000 people in west Africa, over half of them in Liberia.
Dealing with death is not even the hardest part for the young volunteer. What haunts him is that for three days through the chain link and padlocks of Elwa’s high gate he has been sending infected people to die elsewhere, because the center is too crowded. 
"There is nothing worse for us, both humanly and hygienically, because we don’t cut the chain of contamination," says a discouraged Laurence Sailly, emergency coordinator of Doctors without Borders Belgium, the branch of the French NGO with the most expertise in the fight against Ebola. "We are swamped but we have to keep the center under control for both the people who work there and the patients. So we refuse people. It’s awful."
When it opened on August 18, Elwa had 120 beds. That number was soon increased to 160, then 400. This is a first for Doctors without Borders, which took over the treatment center after the departure of the evangelical American NGO Samaritan's Purse at the beginning of August. Elsewhere in town there are 80 other places managed by the Liberian Ministry of Health, in this country still ravaged by the last civil war that ended in 2003. Local doctors and nurses are paying a heavy cost in the fight against Ebola: 152 health professionals have been infected in Liberia, 79 of whom have died, according to the World Health Organization.
But all of this is not enough for Monrovia and its population of some one million people, many of them crammed into squalid slums transformed into viral powder kegs. "We would need 1,000 beds now to fight against this epidemic, the like of which has never been seen before, and Liberian authorities would have to call for help from the outside," says Sailly.
In Elwa’s muddy alleys indignation is mounting. "Where are the other big NGOs so ready to show up when there are humanitarian disasters? They’re afraid of the epidemic and are hiding behind their lack of expertise," says one volunteer, adding that the larger UN agencies move very slowly.
"It’s a coalition of inaction, it’s shocking," says Christopher Stokes, director general of Doctors without Borders Belgium.
A family story
The situation has become so critical that Doctors without Borders has called on American military health services and its logistics. Washington, which sent aircraft carriers, GIs and helicopters to the rescue in Haiti when it was ravaged by earthquake in 2010, is looking into the matter. 
"International organizations and various countries have promised tens of millions of dollars as well as equipment to implement the World Health Organization’s emergency plan, but who’s going to coordinate all this?" Stokes says angrily.

Kitchen staff provide food to Ebola patients in Sierra Leone.(Photo - P.K. Lee, MSF)

Meanwhile, Doctors without Borders has stretched to the point of importing a crematorium that can burn over 100 bodies a day. "Normally that’s not out job," Stokes adds.
Still, time is short. On Monday, under sweltering sun in this muggy rain season the frail silhouette of a woman delirious with fever is curled up on the cinderblocks in the shade of the fence surrounding Elwa. Passersby eye her with looks ranging from disquiet to indifference. Indeed in Monrovia lately, a dead body or a person in agony are not such a rare sight. From the other side of the fence the sick woman’s daughter has received a sanitary protection kit: a little white plastic box that contains chlorine, gloves, an apron and a mask to limit contamination. The girl is gathering water bottles discarded by other contaminated people.
How many other contaminated people lie in agony in family compounds, ostracized by their neighbors? How many Ebola orphans are wandering the streets? Nobody can say with certitude. 
"The figures have been underestimated so we can’t make projections," says Pierre Rollin, a specialist in hemorrhagic fevers at the American Center for Disease Control and Prevention.
The figures put forth: 10,000 dead, 20,000 by the end of the year? "We’re not seeing the light at the end of the tunnel," Rollin, an Ebola specialist admits. "Previous Ebola epidemics were on a human scale. This is a real natural catastrophe. We cannot explain why there are so many new cases being registered in such a short period of time."
And the meter is running. "On average every case is in contact with ten people and generates 2.4 new cases," Rollin explains. The result is that none of Liberia’s 15 counties — including those bordering on Ivory Coast — has been spared by the epidemic, which probably began in December with one case in neighboring Guinea.
In this region people and hence the virus weave in and out of forested frontiers where the state is nonexistent. Funeral rites are as much a transmitter of the disease as are bodily fluids.
In Monrovia, the authorities have plastered the city with posters that read "Ebola is real." For those who are not illiterate, the message is on every street corner. "Ebola exists," concedes Abdu Aziz Kromah, a student met in one of the muddy alleys of West Point, a slum in Monrovia where a quarantine has just been lifted.
Finda Fallah can bear witness to the reality, which now also includes some hope. On Saturday this young woman of 30 emerged healed from the Elwa center with two of her children, aged three and six, and her young sister of 15. They are now immune to Ebola. But the virus killed her mother, husband, one of her children, a sister, and nephews and nieces, eight people in all with whom they shared a single sordid room in West Point transformed into an Ebola incubator dirtied by blood diarrhea and vomit.
When we saw her the next day, Fallah managed a smile. But she’ll sleep outdoors this night. The roof she used to sleep under is already occupied by others following a visit from the disinfection service. "People don’t come near us, the pharmacist refused to serve me," she says. 
"Cured, you say?" says another local, Abdu Aziz Kromah, keeping a skeptical distance. Fallah responds: "That’s what Doctors without Borders said? Well, maybe. But we don’t believe the government."  http://www.worldcrunch.com/mobile/#a:16989

Bracing for Worse: WHO Scaling up 120-bed Ebola Facility

Bracing for Worse: WHO Scaling up 120-bed Ebola Facility

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

Published: 15 September 2014

Monrovia - The deadly Ebola virus continues to claim more lives in Liberia as health centers become completely overwhelmed to continue receiving new patients daily. On Friday, September 12, 2014, a high powered delegation led by Dr. David Nabarro, Senior United Nations System Coordinator for Ebola and DrKeiji Fukuda, WHO Assistant Director-General, Health Security and Liberian health officials took a tour of the facility.

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The World Health Organization in collaboration with the Liberian government is working to complete the 120-bed facility at the former Island Clinic located on the Bushrod Island in Monrovia to meet the demand for more hospital beds for Ebola patients.

Friday construction works were ongoing as contractors were seen busy putting together what will be the second Ebola Treatment largest facility after the medical humanitarian group, Medecin San Frontier, MSF. Workers at the hospital told FrontPageAfrica that they are already seeing an influx of sick people from the disease and that they have to turn them away because the center was not ready.

“People are coming here every day, thinking the center is ready because of the information that is out there,” said Stephen Chea, Deputy Chief of Security at the hospital now renamed the Oniyama Specialist Hospital. “There are a lot of things that we’ve been doing here. It is just that the government wants to use this place so urgently, but the work that needs to be done here could take another 30 days.”

Men at work said they had been given an ultimatum to finish the center in two days and that they (worker) were under a lot of pressure to deliver. During a tour of the facility, Dr. Fukuda seemed impressed by the level of work that was ongoing and said he hopes the facility will help meet the needs of Ebola patients and break the chain of transmission of the deadly disease.

“This example here, we have had contractors working overnight for ten days, to really achieve a miracle in putting together a wonderful facility,” he said. “It really shows you that the international community, both within Africa and outside have been working with the countries in order to turn around this fight and as Dr. Nabarro said, it is still a difficult fight, but this is really how it is going to turn around.”

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The opening of treatment centers across the country is urgently needed as available Ebola treatment facilities around the country are turning patients away because they have run out of beds. Suspected Ebola patients who turned themselves into various treatment centers last week were seen lying around in front of the gates, many of them too weak to walk.

But the government said late last week that it is working around the clock to provide the needed resources to open treatment centers where patients could go to receive treatment. The government said it has expended close to five million United States Dollars to fight the deadly Ebola Virus.

GoL Funding to health sector

The government said to date, it has mobilized a total of US$5.7 million dollars consisting of US$5.6 million and LD$9.4 million paid into the Ebola Trust Fund at the Central Bank of Liberia as donations from the government, private individuals and organizations for the fight against the deadly Ebola virus.

Speaking Thursday at a news conference, Finance minister Amara Konneh said after one month of implementation, the government through the finance ministry has disbursed approximately US$4.7 Million to the various implementing agencies, leaving an undisbursed balance of approximately US$1.1 million.

“The Ministry of Health has received US$2.8 million, constituting 61.7% of the initial funding, as part of the government’s initial support to the health sector in dealing with the crisis,” he said. “Of this amount, US$1. 4 million disbursed for the payment of per diems for deploying health workers; US$600,000 to procure 12 ambulances.”

Konneh said the government disbursed US$300,000.00 as an advance on the construction of various treatment facilities across the country, including ElWA II Liberian-run Ebola Treatment Unit, Foya Treat Unit, and Gbarnga Treatment Unit; bringing the Island Clinic online and the Congo Town Ebola Treatment Unit online. He said as part of the government’s effort to fight Ebola Virus Disease (EVD), it has prioritized key activities within the Health and Security Sectors through the National Budget for Fiscal Year 2014/2015.

“We have to date disbursed US$6.2 million over the period July to August to the Health Sector, targeting the Ministry of Health, John F. Kennedy Hospital, Jackson F. Doe Hospital, Phebe Hospital, Tellewoyan Hospital, C.H. Renney Hospital and other county health centers and systems across the country through the Ministry of Health and Social Welfare,” he said.

“Separately, we have disbursed through the budget a total of US$1,276,339.00 to the Security Sector for their regular operations based on the one-twelfth provision of the PFM Law in the absence of an approved budget.”

Konneh said the government has disbursed a total of US$556,150.00 to counties to assist county health teams in their effort to fight Ebola: Montserrado US$276,500; Gbarpolu US$127,650; Margibi US$77,000; Bong County US$50,000 and Grand Gedeh US$25,000. WHO, has predicted an increase in the number of Ebola virus infections in Liberia in September. About 60 percent of Liberia's cases and deaths occurred within the last three weeks, WHO data shows.

Liberia’s Infrastructure was devastated by a 14-year civil war, which killed about 250,000 in the conflict that ended in 2003. The country is estimated to have one doctor to treat nearly 100,000 people before Ebola outbreak, which began in March this year. There have been 2,046 cases since the outbreak with 1,224. In a country of 4.4 Million people it is not good news at all.

EU mechanism to coordinate evacuation Ebola

It will create EU mechanism to coordinate evacuation Ebola

Brussels, Oct 15 (Prensa Latina) The European Union (EU) today announced the creation of a mechanism to coordinate the evacuation of active physicians and workers in West African countries affected by the epidemic of Ebola . The proposal was made for a high-level meeting devoted to analyzing the EU response to the advance of the disease. In the same among the European commissioners development and health, along with representatives of EU states, the World Health Organization and the United Nations coordinator attention to Ebola. "We agree on the crucial importance of reliable medical staff in countries affected systems for medical evacuation and humanitarian workers, in order to maintain an effective international response on the ground," said a statement released here. In the document, Kristalina Georgieva, EU responsible for Humanitarian Aid and Crisis Response, said that those attending the meeting endorsed a proposal by France that "could form the basis for further discussions on this mechanism." He also reiterated that the risk of Ebola virus circulating in Europe is low, but warned the need to continue the work of preparation and coordination of risk management to be ready for any eventuality. He also stressed that the EU is committed to help African countries not only in fighting disease but also in its development in the medium and long term. "It is very important to strengthen health systems and health in those countries. Try to also provide transportation to and from the region," he said. For its part, the Italian Minister of Public Health, Beatrice Lorenzin, noted that the Ebola epidemic is a "great tragedy" that must be stopped with coordinated international action. "This is an emergency that must be addressed throughout Europe with a common and coordinated commitment, both in Africa and here, with new media and new resources, seen so far were insufficient efforts," said Lorenzin.   https://translate.google.com/translate?sl=auto&tl=en&js=y&prev=_t&hl=en&ie=UTF-8&u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.prensa-latina.cu%2Findex.php%3Foption%3Dcom_content%26task%3Dview%26id%3D3081651%26Itemid%3D1&edit-text=

What We’re Afraid to Say About Ebola

By MICHAEL T. OSTERHOLM 

SEPT. 11, 2014

Photo

Credit Jonathon Rosen

MINNEAPOLIS — THE Ebola epidemic in West Africa has the potential to alter history as much as any plague has ever done.

There have been more than 4,300 cases and 2,300 deaths over the past six months. Last week, the World Health Organization warned that, by early October, there may be thousands of new cases per week in Liberia, Sierra Leone, Guinea and Nigeria. What is not getting said publicly, despite briefings and discussions in the inner circles of the world’s public health agencies, is that we are in totally uncharted waters and that Mother Nature is the only force in charge of the crisis at this time.

There are two possible future chapters to this story that should keep us up at night.

The first possibility is that the Ebola virus spreads from West Africa to megacities in other regions of the developing world. This outbreak is very different from the 19 that have occurred in Africa over the past 40 years. It is much easier to control Ebola infections in isolated villages. But there has been a 300 percent increase in Africa’s population over the last four decades, much of it in large city slums. What happens when an infected person yet to become ill travels by plane to Lagos, Nairobi, Kinshasa or Mogadishu — or even Karachi, Jakarta, Mexico City or Dhaka?

The second possibility is one that virologists are loath to discuss openly but are definitely considering in private: that an Ebola virus could mutate to become transmissible through the air. 

 You can now get Ebola only through direct contact with bodily fluids. But viruses like Ebola are notoriously sloppy in replicating, meaning the virus entering one person may be genetically different from the virus entering the next. The current Ebola virus’s hyper-evolution is unprecedented; there has been more human-to-human transmission in the past four months than most likely occurred in the last 500 to 1,000 years. Each new infection represents trillions of throws of the genetic dice.

If certain mutations occurred, it would mean that just breathing would put one at risk of contracting Ebola. Infections could spread quickly to every part of the globe, as the H1N1 influenza virus did in 2009, after its birth in Mexico.

Why are public officials afraid to discuss this? They don’t want to be accused of screaming “Fire!” in a crowded theater — as I’m sure some will accuse me of doing. But the risk is real, and until we consider it, the world will not be prepared to do what is necessary to end the epidemic.

In 2012, a team of Canadian researchers proved that Ebola Zaire, the same virus that is causing the West Africa outbreak, could be transmitted by the respiratory route from pigs to monkeys, both of whose lungs are very similar to those of humans. Richard Preston’s 1994 best seller “The Hot Zone” chronicled a 1989 outbreak of a different strain, Ebola Reston virus, among monkeys at a quarantine station near Washington. The virus was transmitted through breathing, and the outbreak ended only when all the monkeys were euthanized. We must consider that such transmissions could happen between humans, if the virus mutates.

So what must we do that we are not doing?

First, we need someone to take over the position of “command and control.” The United Nations is the only international organization that can direct the immense amount of medical, public health and humanitarian aid that must come from many different countries and nongovernmental groups to smother this epidemic. Thus far it has played at best a collaborating role, and with everyone in charge, no one is in charge.

A Security Council resolution could give the United Nations total responsibility for controlling the outbreak, while respecting West African nations’ sovereignty as much as possible. The United Nations could, for instance, secure aircraft and landing rights. Many private airlines are refusing to fly into the affected countries, making it very difficult to deploy critical supplies and personnel. The Group of 7 countries’ military air and ground support must be brought in to ensure supply chains for medical and infection-control products, as well as food and water for quarantined areas.

The United Nations should provide whatever number of beds are needed; the World Health Organization has recommended 1,500, but we may need thousands more. It should also coordinate the recruitment and training around the world of medical and nursing staff, in particular by bringing in local residents who have survived Ebola, and are no longer at risk of infection. Many countries are pledging medical resources, but donations will not result in an effective treatment system if no single group is responsible for coordinating them.

Finally, we have to remember that Ebola isn’t West Africa’s only problem. Tens of thousands die there each year from diseases like AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis. Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea have among the highest maternal mortality rates in the world. Because people are now too afraid of contracting Ebola to go to the hospital, very few are getting basic medical care. In addition, many health care workers have been infected with Ebola, and more than 120 have died. Liberia has only 250 doctors left, for a population of four million.

This is about humanitarianism and self-interest. If we wait for vaccines and new drugs to arrive to end the Ebola epidemic, instead of taking major action now, we risk the disease’s reaching from West Africa to our own backyards.

Michael T. Osterholm is the director of the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy at the University of Minnesota.  http://www.nytimes.com/2014/09/12/opinion/what-were-afraid-to-say-about-ebola.html?_r=0

Dying of Ebola at the Hospital Door

BY Ben C. Solomon | Sep. 11, 2014 | 3:47

Monrovia, the Liberian capital, is facing a widespread Ebola epidemic, and as the number of infected grows faster than hospital capacity, some patients wait outside near death. .. http://www.nytimes.com/video/world/africa/100000003107917/dying-of-ebola-at-the-hospital-door.html?playlistId=100000003105684

Fear of Ebola infection Dutch physicians

Two Dutch tropenartsen in Sierra Leone want as quickly as possible back to the Netherlands as possibly the Ebola virus contamination.

The Press reports that a doctor from Reeuwijk and a doctor from Apeldoorn go. They work for Lion Heart Medical Centre by Ebola stricken Sierra Leone.



The doctors have had contact with an Ebola patient confirms the RIVM to RTL News. They were at that time not being adequately protected against disease because they did not know that the patient had acquired Ebola.

no symptoms
The Dutch show no symptoms of the disease. But since three weeks may take longer clear whether someone is infected hit, it's even more not to say that the doctors have acquired Ebola.

The doctors want as quickly as possible back to the Netherlands, said the father-in-law of one of the two to the Press.

The problem is that the two because of the risk of spreading the disease is not a regular flight back to the Netherlands can.

The Lion Heart Foundation, a foundation that Rotterdam hospital in Sierra Leone supports a private flight not pay and insurance would according to the press service, the charges may not be willing to pay at the moment it appears that the physicians actually ill.

Protocols are provided
How and when the Dutch could return at this time so is not clear. The Director of the Lion Heart Foundation performs 'day and night' agreement to return possible. A spokesman said the RIVM also at this time not to know whether and when the two come back.

RIVM said that the Netherlands are well prepared for the arrival of the physicians. "There are protocols that provide complete isolation and safe medical treatment., The roadmaps were first used in 2008, when a patient with Marburg virus came back," a spokesperson let know.  http://www.rtlnieuws.nl/nieuws/binnenland/angst-voor-ebola-besmetting-nederlandse-artsen?utm_source=twitterfeed&utm_medium=twitter

CHRONOLOGY-Worst Ebola outbreak on record tests global response

Thu Sep 11, 2014 5:54pm EDT

(Updates with Thursday developments)
    Sept 11 (Reuters) - International agencies and governments
are struggling to contain the world's worst epidemic of Ebola
since the disease was discovered in 1976. The hemorrhagic virus
has killed at least 2,296 people in West Africa. 

 Here is a timeline of the main developments in the outbreak.
        
    March 22: Guinea confirms that a previously unidentified
hemorrhagic fever, which killed over 50 people in its southeast
Forest Region, is Ebola. One study traces the suspected original
source to a 2-year-old boy in the town of Gueckedou. Cases are
also reported in the capital, Conakry.
    March 30: Liberia reports two Ebola cases; suspected cases
are reported in Sierra Leone.
    April 1: Noting the spread, medical charity Medecins Sans
Frontieres (MSF) warns it is "unprecedented," but a World Health
Organization (WHO) spokesman calls it "relatively small still."
    April 4: A mob attacks an Ebola treatment center in
southeast Guinea. Health care workers in Guinea, Sierra Leone
and Liberia face increasing hostility from fearful and
suspicious local people, many of whom refuse to believe the
disease exists.
    May 26: WHO confirms the first deaths in Sierra Leone.
    June 17: Liberia says Ebola reached its capital, Monrovia.
    June 23: With deaths above 350, making the West African
outbreak the worst Ebola epidemic ever recorded, MSF says the
outbreak is "out of control" and calls for massive resources.
    July 25: Nigeria, Africa's biggest economy, confirms its
first Ebola case, a Liberian-American man who died in the 
commercial hub, Lagos, after traveling from Monrovia.
    July 29: Dr. Sheik Umar Khan, who was leading Sierra Leone's
fight against the epidemic, dies of the virus.
    July 30: Liberia shuts schools and orders the quarantining
of the worst-affected communities, using troops to enforce it.
    July 31: The U.S. Peace Corps withdraws all volunteers from
Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea, citing Ebola risks.
    Aug 2: An American missionary aid worker infected with Ebola
in Liberia, Dr. Kent Brantly, is flown to Atlanta in the United
States for treatment at Emory University Hospital.
    Aug 4: The World Bank announces up to $200 million in
emergency assistance for Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea.
    Aug 5: A second U.S. missionary infected with Ebola, Nancy
Writebol, is flown from Liberia to the Atlanta hospital.
    Aug 8: WHO declares Ebola an "international public health
emergency" but stops short of calling for a ban on international
trade or travel.
    Aug 12: WHO says death toll from outbreak rises above 1,000,
approves use of unproven drugs or vaccines.
    Spanish priest infected with Ebola dies in Madrid hospital.
    Aug 14: WHO says reports of Ebola deaths and cases from the
field "vastly underestimate" the scale of the outbreak.
    Aug 15: MSF compares the Ebola outbreak to "wartime," says
it will take about six months to control.
    Aug 20: Liberian security forces in Monrovia fire live
rounds and tear gas to disperse crowd trying to break out of
Ebola quarantine. One teenager dies of gunshot wounds. 
    Aug 21: The two American missionary aid workers treated in
Atlanta are released from the hospital free of the virus. They
received an experimental therapy called ZMapp.
    Aug 24: Democratic Republic of Congo declares an Ebola
outbreak in its northern Equateur province, apparently separate
from the larger West African outbreak.
    Infected British medical worker is flown home from Sierra
Leone for treatment.
    Aug 28: WHO says death toll is above 1,550, warns outbreak
could infect more than 20,000 people. The U.N. health agency
announces a strategic plan to fight the epidemic, says $490
million will be needed over the next six months.
    Aug 29: Senegal reports its first confirmed Ebola case.
    Aug 30: World Food Program says it needs $70 million to feed
1.3 million people at risk in Ebola-quarantined areas.
    Sept 2: MSF President Joanne Liu tells U.N. members the
world is "losing the battle" to contain the Ebola outbreak and
slams "a global coalition of inaction."
    Sept 3: Pace of epidemic accelerates; deaths top 1,900.
Officials say there were close to 400 deaths in the past week.
    A third U.S. missionary infected with Ebola, Dr. Rick Sacra
of Boston, is flown out of Liberia for treatment at the Nebraska
Medical Center in Omaha.
    Sept. 5: WHO puts Ebola deaths in West Africa at more than
2,100 out of about 4,000 people thought to have been infected.
    Sierra Leone announces a four-day, countrywide "lockdown" to
halt the virus's spread, starting Sept. 18.
     U.N. Secretary-General Ban-ki Moon says the world body
plans a center to coordinate the response to the epidemic.
    European Union pledges 140 million euros (US$180 million)
toward the fight against the outbreak.
    Sept. 6: Scientists publish a map of places most at risk of
an Ebola outbreak, saying regions likely to be home to animals
harboring the virus are more widespread than previously feared,
particularly in West Africa. (To see the map, click on bit.ly/WOtGCc)
    Sept. 7: President Barack Obama says in an interview the
United States needs to do more to help control Ebola to prevent
it from becoming a global crisis that could threaten Americans.
    Sept. 8: WHO says Liberia, the country worst hit by the
epidemic, should see thousands of new cases in coming weeks as
the virus spreads exponentially.
    Britain says it will send military and humanitarian experts
to Sierra Leone to set up an Ebola treatment center, while the
United States says it will send a 25-bed military field hospital
to Liberia to help provide care for health workers.
    A fourth Ebola patient will be flown to the United States
for treatment, says Atlanta's Emory University Hospital.
    Sept. 9: WHO says the death toll jumped by almost 200 in a
single day to at least 2,296 and is already likely to be higher.
The agency says it has recorded 4,293 cases in five West African
countries, but it did not have new figures for Liberia.
    Liberia's defense minister tells U.N. Security Council his
country's national existence is seriously threatened by Ebola.
    Sept. 10: Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation pledges $50
million to support emergency efforts to contain the disease. 
    Sept. 11: International Monetary Fund says economic growth
in Liberia and Sierra Leone could decline by as much as 3.5
percentage points due to Ebola, which has crippled their mining,
agriculture and services sectors.
    Doctors treating Sacra at University of Nebraska Medical
Center say he is showing "remarkable improvement" after
receiving an infusion of plasma from U.S. Ebola survivor Brantly
and an undisclosed experimental drug.
    Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen's charitable foundation says
it will give the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and
Prevention$9 million to establish emergency operations centers
in Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone.

 (Writing by Pascal Fletcher and Jonathan Oatis; Editing by Toni
Reinhold)   http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/09/11/health-ebola-idUSL1N0RC2NH20140911?rpc=401

Spain again-Entered a minor in Murcia for a possible case of Ebola

Entered a minor in Murcia for a possible case of Ebola

     This is a thirteen year old boy who traveled to Spain from Lagos, Nigeria, on 25 August

     EFE | MURCIA

September 11 201423: 54


A thirteen year old boy who traveled to Spain from Lagos, Nigeria, on 25 August was admitted to the hospital Virgen de la Arrixaca Murcia suspected it could be a case of illness from Ebola virus.

A spokesman for the Ministry of Health has reported that the child has been treated in the emergency department of the town of Sewell and paid to the said hospital, because some of the symptoms had set for these cases, prevention protocol compliance established with suspected Ebola. They have made ​​the necessary analytical determinations and were sent to the national reference center Majadahonda (Madrid), which will take 48 hours to deliver.

According to a statement of Health, the whole operation was developed normally and the patient has been admitted to the specific rooms for infectious diseases at the Hospital Virgen de la Arrixaca.The child says counseling, is controlled by the Department of Internal Medicine and Infectious hospital and you have made the necessary analysis to determine if it is affected by the Ebola virus (EVE).

In the statement, Dr. José Antonio Herrero, practitioner of Internal Medicine and Infectious Diseases, which is coordinating the implementation of the protocol and patient management says they have sent the samples and the reference laboratory and in two days they will reach the results.

Smith stresses that "this protocol is mainly to prevent, and everything worked perfectly.'s Worth remembering that this is a suspect, if only," adding that "the patient is stable right now, with good clinical condition" .

Health works with the Coordinating Center Alerts and Health Emergencies, the Ministry of Health, Social Services and Equality and to this end, a specific protocol is now enabled due to the assistance of a person with suspected was created presenting this pathology. Herrero destaha also stressed that "the risk to citizens living in Spain is considered very low, but our obligation is to be ready for the early detection of potential patients with Ebola and immediately to apply appropriate prevention and care efforts."http://www.elcomercio.es/sociedad/salud/201409/11/ingresado-menor-murcia-posible-20140911235033-rc.html

#Ebola suspect in Spain..again-Balearic Islands

Date and time of issue: 09.11.2014, 23:37
Type of statement: Newsletter
Issuer: Department of Public Health and Consumer Affairs (Ministry of Health)
The Ministry of Health protocol active prevention suspected of a possible case of EVOLIS

This is a 24 year old Nigerian patient who had recently traveled to Lagos

The Ministry of Health has launched today evening the prevention protocol suspecting a possible case of EVOLIS the emergency room of the Hospital Son Lazarus. The patient, a 24 year old Nigerian, has been moved from the center to the University Hospital Sword Sleep with the SAMU ambulance 061 fully prepared for this contingency. The patient remains hospitalized in an isolation room and is in charge of the Internal Medicine Service of Infectious Swords Son.
As of now, Internal Medicine and Microbiology conducted relevant studies will be submitted to the national reference center (Hospital Carlos III, Madrid) to rule out or confirm the existence of the disease and if it is not the case , why study has been deposited. At the same isolation room where the patient remains hospitalized realizarà rush of samples and all tests required.

The Ministry of Health has decided to activate the protocol for a possible suspect in EVOLIS fulfilled the criteria set by the Ministry of Health. The patient had traveled to Lagos (Nigeria) in the past 21 days, one of the four countries on alert (Guinea, Sierra Leone, Liberia and the region of Lagos, Nigeria).http://www.caib.es/pidip/comunicats/com-ficha.do?lang=ca&codi=8711920

Kenya defies AU decision on Ebola-hit countries

Updated Thursday, September 11th 2014 at 23:37 GMT +3

A nurse at Rift Valley General Hospital donned on protective gear before attending a 10 year old Liberian boy who was admitted at the hospital on suspicion of having Ebola virus. (Photo:Kipsang Joseph/Standard)

Kenya is not planning to lift the ban on entry of nationals from West African countries worst hit by the Ebola epidemic.
This comes even after the African Union leaders made a decision to have the ban on some countries lifted.
An emergency meeting of the AU's executive council on Tuesday to address the Ebola crisis, ruled that the ban on cross-border movement of people among member states should be lifted despite the disease raging in West Africa. The meeting was held in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, in which Kenyan officials participated.
"We have agreed that countries allow people to move. Fighting Ebola must be done in a manner that doesn't fuel isolation or lead to the stigmatisation of victims, communities and countries," Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma, chairperson of the AU Commission said after the meeting.
Thursday, Director of Medical Services Nicholas Muraguri said the ban would stay in place until the Health ministry is convinced there is no risk of transmission of the deadly disease to Kenyans.
"We appreciate and respect the decision taken at AU, but individual countries have a leeway to determine their course of action depending on assessment of risks. For now, we still deem the risks to be too high to lift the ban," Dr Muraguri said Thursday.

He added: "But we are open to lifting the ban at some future date in line with the AU recommendation depending on how the situation evolves. The priority for us now to prevent the disease from reaching Kenya."
Kenya is among African countries that have banned entry of people from West Africa regions worst-hit by Ebola including Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leona.
This came after strong public pressure from Kenyans who feared Ebola might have been brought into the country by people originating from those countries.
Thursday, Muraguri added that despite an Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), they have not decided to ban nationals and travellers from there, but said the situation might change in future if the disease spreads widely within that country.
Next week, Transport, Immigration and Foreign ministers of countries in the East African region are expected to meet in Nairobi to harmonise their plans against the virus. http://www.standardmedia.co.ke/health/article/2000134669/kenya-defies-au-decision-on-ebola-hit-countries

4th Sierra Leonean doctor infected with Ebola;1ST Foreign dr to come to America for teatment

Published September 11, 2014

Health workers wearing protective clothing prepare themselves before to carrying an abandoned dead body presenting with Ebola symptoms at Duwala market in Monrovia August 17, 2014. REUTERS/2Tango

Another doctor from Sierra Leone who has tested positive for Ebola will be evacuated for medical treatment, an official said Thursday, making her the first citizen of a hard-hit country to be treated abroad.
Dr. Olivette Buck is the fourth Sierra Leonean doctor to contract the disease - and the three others all have died. Arrangements are being made to send her to another country for better treatment, said Health Ministry spokesman Sidie Yahya Tunis without specifying further.

So far, only foreign health and aid workers have been evacuated abroad for treatment from Sierra Leone and Liberia. The worst Ebola outbreak in history also has hit Guinea, Nigeria and Senegal, and has been blamed for more than 2,200 deaths across West Africa.
The disease is taking a particularly heavy toll on health care workers, whose jobs put them at high risk because Ebola is only transmitted through contact with the bodily fluids of people showing symptoms or dead bodies. More than 135 health workers have died in the outbreak so far, exacerbating shortages of doctors and nurses in countries that already had too few medical workers to begin with.
Sierra Leone and Liberia have been especially hard hit, and officials have warned that both countries could see a surge in cases soon. Sierra Leone is expecting to uncover potentially hundreds of new cases when volunteers go house to house looking for the sick during a three-day lockdown later this month. The World Health Organization has said Liberia could see many thousands of new cases in the coming weeks.
To keep up with the accelerating infection rate, Liberian Information Minister Lewis Brown told a news conference Thursday that the capital region alone needs 1,000 beds.
That squares with a World Health Organization estimate from earlier this week. The U.N. health agency said the county where Monrovia is located currently has only 240 beds, with 260 more on the way - only half of what's needed.
The tremendous fear surrounding the disease and the extreme measures used to contain it - like the cordoning off of entire towns for days - has led to sharp criticism of Liberia's government and even calls for the president to step down. But Brown urged Liberians to unite, warning that if they didn't, "this virus will consume all of us."
"We are at war with an enemy that we don't see," Finance Minister Amara Konneh told reporters. "And we have to win the war."
But he said Liberia would be dependent on international assistance to do so. The U.N. has said at least $600 million is needed to fight Ebola in West Africa, and already several pledges have come in. The United States has spent $100 million so far, with more promised, and Britain has given $40 million.
On Thursday, Cuba's health minister was meeting with the World Health Organization's director to discuss how it could help. Cuba has a relatively advanced medical education system and for decades has dispatched thousands of doctors to the world's developing countries. There were no details on what help it would be providing, but experts say the outbreak is desperately short of health care workers.
Konneh, the finance minister, also told The Associated Press in an interview that the outbreak has ravaged Liberia's already fragile economy, and the government predicts the crisis will more than halve the growth rate this year. He added that the government also hopes the international community will help rebuild Liberia after the crisis passes.
An unrelated Ebola outbreak in Congo is thought to have killed 35 people of the more than 60 sickened, according to the World Health Organization  http://www.foxnews.com/health/2014/09/11/4th-sierra-leonean-doctor-infected-with-ebola/

1. 11 September 2014 at 9:31pm

Liberia football stadium converted into Ebola centre

A football stadium in the Liberian capital Monrovia will be converted to house two large Ebola treatment units, Fifa has announced.
The football federation said it had teamed up with the World Health Organisation and the United Nations to transform the Antoinette Tubman Stadium for use in the fight against the epidemic.

 

The stadium, which FIFA donated to Liberia's Football Association, would "serve as the site for two urgently needed large-scale Ebola treatment units," it said.
"Today we can use the power of football to combat the Ebola epidemic," Fifa president Sepp Blatter said.

Last updated Thu 11 Sep 2014  http://www.itv.com/news/update/2014-09-11/liberia-football-stadium-converted-into-ebola-unit/

Unknown virus kills 2 in Central Hospital of Maracay???

Thursday, September 11, 2014 00:00



Angel Sarmiento, president of the College of Physicians of Aragua, said eight people had been killed. However, Corposalud is reported that only two people a 13 and an adult of 55
Contrapunto.- President of the College of Physicians of Aragua, Angel Sarmiento, announced that there have been reports of an unknown virus that causes a syndrome with fever and bleeding and had killed 8 people. However, the information was subsequently denied by Corposalud Aragua noting that only two people had been killed.

Stressed Sarmiento, is a disease which very little is known, which is why they sent evidence to the National Institute of Hygiene (INH) hoping to get a little more information. The doctor also called for calm and for people who do not need to go to Maracay Central Hospital (HCM) refrain from doing so.
Reportedly, the viral condition manifested by red spots on the skin and after the symptom of the general hemorrhage develops.
Members of various medical bodies have called for an epidemiological alert is lifted in the area to foresee any of this supposed contegio disease.
However, in the afternoon, a press conference hosted by Corposalud in HCM where prior information of 8 deceased was denied was performed.
As reported by the agency responsible for health in the state, two people, a young man aged 13 and a 55, they would have lost their lives because of the mysterious disease, which is not already known Ebola or meningococcemia.
Corposalud also reported to have sent evidence of the two dead patients to INH for more information, and also are doing blood cultures.https://translate.google.com/transla...107&edit-text=

Eight people were killed in Kolkata hospital by unknown disease

Eight people were killed in Kolkata hospital by unknown disease
The information was confirmed by the President of the College of Physicians in Aragua State, who explained that the eight victims, four adults and as many children died in the last hours in the Central Hospital of Maracay after presenting fever of 40 degrees, malaise and skin rash which then form blisters.

The method of transmission of the disease (courtesy) is still unknown
Erika GUILLÉN | EL UNIVERSAL
Thursday September 11, 2014 3:07 PM
Maracay.- In alarm the College of Physicians in Aragua state by the death of eight people during the last hours in the Maracay Central Hospital (HCM) caused by a virus or bacteria that have not yet identified pleaded.

The information was confirmed today by the President of the Guild of Health in the state, Angel Sarmiento, who explained that the eight victims, four adults and as many children, have the same symptoms triggering death within 72 hours. He said that is shown with a fever reaching 40 degrees, malaise and skin rash which then form blisters.

Also, sepsis originating multiorgan failure resulting disseminated intravascular coagulation, bleeding from the ear and nose and the subsequent collapse of the body are presented.

Sarmiento said there had been no previous cases with the same symptoms, being mentioned in the medical records of each patient as an acute hemorrhagic fever syndrome.

He ruled that the cause of the disease is treated Ebola or meniccocemia, as was rumored at first through social networks. He also dismissed the possibility that the case of chikungunya or dengue. He said waiting for the results of tests performed on the bodies of the victims to determine whether it is a viral or bacterial disease.

The representative of the Guild of Health in the state said that two of the patients came from the Carabobo state and other municipalities Francisco Linares Alcántara (Morita), Mario Briceño Iragorry (Lemon) and Santos Michelena (The Tejerías) in Aragua. He argued that this is not a case of pollution in HCM.

Method unknown disease transmission.http://www.eluniversal.com/vida/140911/ocho-personas-fallecieron-en-hospital-de-maracay-por-enfermedad-descon

President of the College of Physicians of Aragua Featured new virus alert

Thursday, September 11, 2014 00:00
President of the College of Physicians of Aragua Featured new virus alert
    

The origin of this disease is unknown the origin of this disease is unknown 
Angel Sarmiento said that this is an acute febrile illness that causes bleeding and causing death within a period not exceeding 72 hours

Contrapunto.- President of the College of Physicians of Aragua, Angel Sarmiento, announced that there have been reports of an unknown virus that causes a syndrome with fever and bleeding that caused the death of 8 people, as quoted by The Aragueño.

Sarmiento stressed, it is a disease of which little is known, which is why they sent evidence to the National Institute of Hygiene hoping to get a little more information.

It was determined through testing, that it is not Ebola or a neurological infection (meningococcemia) virus.

Reportedly, the viral condition manifested by red spots on the skin and after the symptom of the general hemorrhage develops.

Members of various medical bodies have called for an epidemiological alert is lifted in the area to foresee any of this supposed contegio disease.

However, the governor of Aragua State, Tarek El-Aissami rejected it some information about this disease. http://www.contrapunto.com/index.php?option=com_k2&view=item&id=5688:presidente-del-colegio-de-medicos-de-aragua-alerta-sobre-nuevo-virus&Itemid=107

8 people killed in 72 hours in unknown disease in Maracay

9/11/2014 1:41:00 p.m.

President of the College of Physicians of Aragua, Angel Sarmientos:
8 people killed in 72 hours in unknown disease in Maracay


Daniela von Schoettler / Report: Rosa Rivero

Ottawa, September 11 2014.- A total of eight people have died in 72 hours in the city of Maracay by a disease that has not yet been diagnosed, according to reporters Notitarde President of the Medical Association of Aragua state, angel Sarmientos.

The doctor indicated that the 8 deaths, 4 were adults and 4 other infants between one and two years old. Sarmientos explained that until Thursday did not know the reason for the deaths, as they expect from Caracas to send the results of the examinations for those affected.

He specified that six of the patients were admitted to the Central Hospital of Maracay and two Social Security from San José with fever, malaise, skin blisters and bleeding generalized (nose and ears) that ended with a general failure of vital organs.

Centralism delayed delivery of results

Sarmientos regretted that one of the main problems is that "everything is centralized" and expect results to perform accurate diagnosis and determine whether it is a viral or bacterial disease.

For his part, denied that they have been contaminated in the Central Hospital. The patients came from distant locations, some of Mariara, Victory and other unrelated between them.

Finally, Sarmientos appealed to the general public not to approach the Central Hospital of Maracay, unless strictly necessary as it is a deadly disease.

In social networks and chains and alarming messages circulating about the possible cause of the disease, however, can not properly diagnose until it delivered the results.http://www.notitarde.com/Regiones/Ma...4/09/11/352554