West Africa Ebola Outbreak [11,313 dead]

LazyLion

LazyLion

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AMERICAN WOMAN WITH EBOLA IS 'SMILING,' SAYS SON

The American woman who was sickened with the dangerous Ebola virus while working with a Christian aid group in Liberia is getting better and is even smiling, her son said Tuesday.

Nancy Writebol, 60, was evacuated from Monrovia last week and was wheeled on a stretcher into a special isolation unit at Emory University Hospital in Atlanta, Georgia.

"When she came in on Tuesday last week, we were really concerned that she wasn't going to make it," Jeremy Writebol said on NBC's Today Show.

"To see her wheeled out of the ambulance and in, I was on the floor sobbing."

Writebol and American doctor Kent Brantly are among the more than 1,700 people who have been sickened by the latest Ebola virus outbreak, which has killed more than 1,00 people in West Africa since March.

They both received doses of an experimental drug for Ebola. Brantly, 33, was seen stepping out of the ambulance and walking on his own.

Writebol was in poorer condition than Brantly on arrival, but has since improved. Her son said he is able to visit her twice a day.

Due to concerns about contagion, he can only look at her through a hospital window, as doctors and nurses treating her don protective gear from head to toe.

"We've seen her get physically better, her eyes brighten up, smiling, even joking a little bit," he said, adding that doctors have told him they are cautiously optimistic about her recovery.

Writebol's husband, David, returned to the United States from Liberia on Monday. He remains in isolation, checking his own temperature multiple times a day for signs of fever.

Ebola symptoms can emerge two to 21 days after exposure to the virus, causing fever, muscle aches, vomiting, diarrhea, and sometimes internal and external bleeding.

A total of 1,013 people have died and 1,848 people have been infected since March, according to the World Health Organization's latest tally on August 11.

Nearly 55 percent of victims have died in the outbreak, which has spread to Guinea, Liberia, Sierra Leone and Nigeria.


Source : Sapa-AFP /lk
Date : 12 Aug 2014 15:28
 
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2023

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Nigeria death count up to 3

LAGOS - An ECOWAS official has died from Ebola in Nigeria, the West African regional bloc said on Tuesday, taking the total number of deaths in the country from the virus to three.

"The ECOWAS (Economic Community of West African States) Commission announces with deep regret the passing of a staff member of its Lagos Liaison Office, Mr Jatto Asihu Abdulqudir, aged 36," it said in a statement.
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http://www.enca.com/ecowas-official-dies-ebola-virus-nigeria
 
LazyLion

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SECOND SIERRA LEONE DOCTOR DIES FROM EBOLA

A second Sierra Leonean doctor has died after contracting the deadly Ebola virus, health officials said on Wednesday.

Dr Modupeh Cole, a senior physician at the Connaught Hospital in Freetown, was diagnosed with Ebola last Friday and taken to the specialist Kailahun Treatment Centre the following day.

His death was confirmed by the country's chief medical officer, Dr Brima Kargbo.

"We are all very, very saddened," he said. Dr Cole was a "very powerful presence in the country's medical team and has been very instrumental in the fight against the Ebola virus."

Cole's death came about two weeks after Sierra Leone's leading anti-Ebola expert, Dr Umar Khan, also died from the virus.


Source : Sapa-AFP /kd
Date : 13 Aug 2014 15:20
 
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mooks

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Is there any insight yet into how these health care workers, who are supposedly using the correct protective gear and following the right procedures for hygiene and decontamination, are all falling ill?
 
The_Assimilator

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mooks said:
Is there any insight yet into how these health care workers, who are supposedly using the correct protective gear and following the right procedures for hygiene and decontamination, are all falling ill?
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What sort of protective gear and decontamination procedures can you expect to find in a third-world country? Particularly when most of these healthcare workers are volunteers operating on shoestring budgets?
 
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The_Assimilator said:
What sort of protective gear and decontamination procedures can you expect to find in a third-world country? Particularly when most of these healthcare workers are volunteers operating on shoestring budgets?
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Well, you'd expect the ebola specialist to have some kind of extra precautions, yet he was infected too
 
LazyLion

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CANADA SENDS EXPERIMENTAL EBOLA VACCINE TO WEST AFRICA

Canada is sending up to 1,000 doses of an experimental Ebola vaccine to West Africa to help the WHO fight an epidemic, the health minister announced Wednesday.

Minister Rona Ambrose said between 800 to 1,000 doses would be distributed through the World Health Organization where it is needed.

Sierra Leone, Nigeria, Liberia, Guinea have reported cases.

The Canadian government, Ambrose said, "is committed to doing everything we can to support our international partners, including providing staff to assist with the outbreak response, funding and access to our experimental vaccine."

The VSV-EBOV vaccine was developed at Canada's National Microbiology Laboratory in Winnipeg, Manitoba.

It has never been tested in humans, but has shown promise in animal research, according to the government, which licensed BioProtection Systems to further develop the product for use in humans.

The epidemic, the worst since Ebola was first discovered four decades ago, has killed more than 1,000 people since early this year, according to the World Health Organization.

There is currently no available cure or vaccine for Ebola, which the WHO has declared a global public health emergency.

To combat its spread, the WHO has authorized the use of experimental drugs.

A US company that makes and experimental serum called ZMApp said Tuesday it had sent all its available supply to hard-hit West Africa.

Two US missionary workers with Ebola who were repatriated from Monrovia are being treated with the drug at an isolation unit at Emory University Hospital in Atlanta, Georgia.

A 75-year-old Spanish priest was also treated with ZMapp after contracting Ebola in the Liberian capital Monrovia where he worked with infected patients. He died in a Madrid hospital on Tuesday.


Source : Sapa-AFP /kd
Date : 13 Aug 2014 16:28
 
Compton_effect

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Using a Tactic Unseen in a Century, Countries Cordon Off Ebola-Racked Areas

By DONALD G. McNEIL Jr.AUG. 12, 2014

The Ebola outbreak in West Africa is so out of control that governments there have revived a disease-fighting tactic not used in nearly a century: the “cordon sanitaire,” in which a line is drawn around the infected area and no one is allowed out.

Cordons, common in the medieval era of the Black Death, have not been seen since the border between Poland and Russia was closed in 1918 to stop typhus from spreading west. They have the potential to become brutal and inhumane. Centuries ago, in their most extreme form, everyone within the boundaries was left to die or survive, until the outbreak ended.

Plans for the new cordon were announced on Aug. 1 at an emergency meeting in Conakry, Guinea, of the Mano River Union, a regional association of Guinea, Sierra Leone and Liberia, the three countries hardest hit by Ebola, according to Agence France-Presse. The plan was to isolate a triangular area where the three countries meet, separated only by porous borders, and where 70 percent of the cases known at that time had been found.

Troops began closing internal roads in Liberia and Sierra Leone last week. The epidemic began in southern Guinea in December, but new cases there have slowed to a trickle. In the other two countries, the number of new cases is still rapidly rising. As of Monday, the region had seen 1,848 cases and 1,013 deaths, according to the World Health Organization, although many experts think that the real count is much higher because families in remote villages are avoiding hospitals and hiding victims.

Officials at the health organization and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which have experts advising the countries, say the tactic could help contain the outbreak but want to see it used humanely.

“It might work,” said Dr. Martin S. Cetron, the disease center’s chief quarantine expert. “But it has a lot of potential to go poorly if it’s not done with an ethical approach. Just letting the disease burn out and considering that the price of controlling it — we don’t live in that era anymore. And as soon as cases are under control, one should dial back the restrictions.”

Experts said that any cordon must let food, water and medical care reach those inside, and that the trust of inhabitants must be won through communication with their leaders.

The phrase cordon sanitaire, or sanitary barrier, appears to date from 1821, when France sent 30,000 troops into the Pyrenees to stop a lethal fever raging in Spain from crossing the border.

In Sierra Leone, large sections of the Kailahun and Kenema districts, an area the size of Jamaica, have been cut off by military roadblocks. Soldiers check the credentials and take the temperatures of those trying to go in or out. In Liberia, similar restrictions have been imposed north of the capital, Monrovia.
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M

mooks

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The_Assimilator said:
What sort of protective gear and decontamination procedures can you expect to find in a third-world country? Particularly when most of these healthcare workers are volunteers operating on shoestring budgets?
Click to expand...

I would expect that the foreign aid agencies from 1st world countries who send their staff out to these countries, do so with the appropriate equipment available to them. Also, if you're a specialist in the disease and you are treating highly contagious patients, surely you know how to handle the disease and what precautions to take?
 
Compton_effect

Compton_effect

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mooks said:
I would expect that the foreign aid agencies from 1st world countries who send their staff out to these countries, do so with the appropriate equipment available to them. Also, if you're a specialist in the disease and you are treating highly contagious patients, surely you know how to handle the disease and what precautions to take?
Click to expand...

The one doctor who died - credited with saving 100 people - wore full biohazard gear when treating patients. He had a full length mirror in his office that he used to check suit integrity before going into a ward. He still made one mistake and died from it. This thing only has to be lucky once. The doctors have to be lucky every time.
 
Ockie

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SAA still flying to West Africa

http://www.timeslive.co.za/local/2014/08/13/saa-still-flying-to-west-africa

"Having noted the announcement by the WHO, SAA has stepped up measures aimed at protecting its passengers, crew and ground staff," he said in a statement.

"The measures include ensuring that the airline has in place vigilant staff that will be on the lookout for passengers who bear specific and visible symptoms associated with the Ebola virus."

Tlali said the SAA staff were adequately trained to manage incidents of this nature, should a need to do so arise.

He said cases where a passenger may bear visible symptoms associated with the infection at check-in, such passengers would be isolated with others.
 
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