West Africa Ebola Outbreak [11,313 dead]

MickeyD

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Johannesburg - The department of health says early indications are that the chances are slim that the South African undergoing a second round of tests for Ebola at a Johannesburg hospital, has the deadly haemorrhagic disease.

The 37-year-old man, who has not been identified, was working as health and safety officer in a mining operation in Liberia, which has been hardest hit by the Ebola outbreak.

Heath spokesperson Joe Maila said the man arrived in the country on 6 August.

"He was scanned as normal routine in accordance with screening protocols for incoming travellers at the OR Tambo International Airport," he said in a statement.

"He was healthy on arrival and the scanner revealed no problem nor raised temperature."

He said the man had no contact with any patients while in Liberia and he was not involved in patient care.

On 16 August, the man went to his general practitioner due to fever, said Maila.

"Following on the protocols issued to all private and public practitioners and health facilities, the doctor contacted the National Institute for Communicable Diseases [NICD] to discuss the patient.

"Based on results of the initial blood tests the decision was made to continue to monitor the patient at home and to repeat the blood tests today [Sunday]," he said.

"His temperature increased and it was decided that he be admitted at Charlotte Maxeke Johannesburg Academic Hospital for further assessment and investigations."

He said the NICD regarded the patient as low risk for the Ebola virus disease.

"However, as a precautionary measure, given his history of working in Liberia the protocol developed for haemorrhagic fevers needed to be followed."

He said the public would be informed of the results as they become available. The results were likely to be available on Monday.

"The country continues to be on high alert," he said.

On 14 August, Health Minister Aaron Motsoaledi said there were no known Ebola cases in South Africa.

A Guinea woman, suspected to have been infected with the virus, has tested negative for Ebola.

She was admitted at Rahima Moosa Mother and Child Hospital because she was in labour, she had high fever and she was screened for the virus, Motsoaledi said.

He said many people landed from Ebola-hit West Africa without Ebola.
- SAPA
 

Ockie

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Hope this is not @spizz. Health and safety guy.

Pretty sure Spizz will have a nice medical aid to go to a private hospital.

Actually, that makes me wonder. If a person with medical aid gets Ebola, will a private hospital still take him in? I am guessing they may not refuse to admit you? Do they have proper isolation facilities? When my sister had mengingitis, all that they did was clear out a small room for her so that she was the only person in there. Do our private hospitals have Hermetically sealed facilities?
 

Lycanthrope

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Actually, that makes me wonder. If a person with medical aid gets Ebola, will a private hospital still take him in? I am guessing they may not refuse to admit you? Do they have proper isolation facilities? When my sister had mengingitis, all that they did was clear out a small room for her so that she was the only person in there. Do our private hospitals have Hermetically sealed facilities?

I suppose it depends on the hospital. I know that at least a few I've been in have had sealed rooms inside their ICUs.
 

2023

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Spokesperson Joe Maila said the man arrived in the country on 6 August.

Lol, home safe and sound and having a lazy morning after the 20 odd hour delay ridden, connection missing flight from Hell :D

4th of Aug he was home, so this guy who arrived was on the 6th. Doubt they are the same person.
 

R13...

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Pretty sure Spizz will have a nice medical aid to go to a private hospital.

Actually, that makes me wonder. If a person with medical aid gets Ebola, will a private hospital still take him in? I am guessing they may not refuse to admit you? Do they have proper isolation facilities? When my sister had mengingitis, all that they did was clear out a small room for her so that she was the only person in there. Do our private hospitals have Hermetically sealed facilities?
I think only the NICD can test so you may have go to a local equipped public hospital. But Spizz is not from GP so can't be him
 

LazyLion

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SURVIVORS ENLISTED IN SIERRA LEONE'S EBOLA BATTLE

Hawa Idrisa was visiting her father-in-law on an Ebola ward in eastern Sierra Leone when his drip snapped out and his atrophying veins spurted thin, uncoagulated blood into her eyes and mouth.

Hawa had been carrying her infant daughter Helen but luckily she had laid the child down, otherwise the baby would almost certainly be dead by now.

A single droplet of blood smaller than a full stop can carry up to 100 million particles of the deadly Ebola virus, yet one is enough to end a human life.

"The blood got all over me, and people were running away. So I took a bucket of chlorine and poured it over myself," Hawa said.

She returned home to forget her ordeal, but a week later she began experiencing fever and headaches, the early symptoms of the Ebola.

Her 12-month-old mercifully tested negative, but her husband Nallo was infected and he and Hawa checked into the Doctors Without Borders' (MSF) treatment facility in the eastern district of Kailahun.

Hawa spent four weeks drifting between life and death at the centre, in the district capital Kailahan city, a trading post of 30,000 in the Kissi triangle linking to Liberia and Sierra Leone.

"I didn't know what was happening to me. I didn't even know where I was. I don't remember anything from that time," she told AFP of the ordeal she survived.

Ebola kills more than half of the people it infects, putrifying their insides in the worst cases until their vital organs seep from their bodies.

It is highly infectious but not particularly contagious, meaning that once you are exposed, your chances of escaping the fever are extremely low, although it can only be passed on through bodily fluids.

The good news is that when patients are caught early enough, given paracetamol for their fevers, kept rehydrated and nourished, their chances of survival increase dramatically.

Hawa proudly shows off a certificate saying she has recovered fully, and she is preparing to return home.

"I know there is nothing wrong with my daughter, but my mind and heart will be at the centre with my husband," she says.

Already more than 2,100 people have been infected across four west African countries, and 1,145 people have died, dwarfing previous Ebola outbreaks.

The epidemic is perhaps worst of all in Sierra Leone, which has registered 810 cases, more than any other country.

The hardest-hit districts, Kailahun and the diamond trading hub of Kenema next door, have been sealed off to ordinary members of the public.

Around a million people in the two districts are in effective lockdown, and locals say soaring food prices are pushing the region towards a crisis.

Local doctors and nurses are fighting not just the disease, but also the distrust of locals who fear modern medical practices.

Relatives have been known to snatch infected loved-ones from clinics to die in their own villages, exacerbating the spread of the virus.

They have even attacked treatment centres -- as armed men did in neighbouring Liberia at the weekend --- convinced that Ebola is a Western conspiracy against traditional African communities and that foreign healthworkers are in on the secret.

Some 1,500 police and soldiers have been deployed to prevent raids, but they are powerless faced with the suspicion and fear of poorly educated traditional communities.

Many tribespeople at the epicentre of the outbreak either don't know how to prevent and treat Ebola or do not believe it exists at all.

This, says MSF, is where the survivors come in.

Ella Watson-Stryker, 34, a health promoter with the aid agency, is part of a team taking Hawa and other survivors home to their villages.

She will gather their neighbours and family members around, answer their questions about the virus and try to reassure them that Hawa poses no danger.

"This is very exciting for us. It's also really beneficial to the overall response to the outbreak because when survivors go home, they can explain about their stay at the centre.

"They give people hope that it is possible to survive and it really builds trust between the community and MSF," she says.

Watson-Stryker also says that when survivors go back to their communities, people begin to understand that treatment centres are not just "a place where people go to die".

They are surprised to learn that patients are fed, given unlimited soft drinks, access to toilets, showers and medicine, and that their families are encouraged to visit.

"We try to assuage the fears of the community, because there are a lot of rumours out there, that as soon as you come to the treatment centre you will just be left to die."

Back at the MSF centre, Nallo enthuses about his future with Hawa and their baby girl, despite remaining in grave danger in the high risk area.

"At first people thought that when they got here, they were going to have all their blood removed and they would die," he says.

"They have been giving me drugs and I am much better, so when I get back to my community I will tell people that if it ever happens that they get Ebola we advise them to come here."


Source : Sapa-AFP /mr
Date : 18 Aug 2014 04:57
 

akescpt

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4th of Aug he was home, so this guy who arrived was on the 6th. Doubt they are the same person.

I think only the NICD can test so you may have go to a local equipped public hospital. But Spizz is not from GP so can't be him

good. cause that bastard tempted me with his lovely ribs. need to post my next rib feast!
 

LazyLion

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NIGERIAN WOMAN SUSPECTED OF EBOLA DIES IN UAE

A Nigerian woman who arrived on a flight to the United Arab Emirates capital of Abu Dhabi and later died in the city may have been infected with the Ebola virus, said health officials.

The health authority in the emirate said in a statement carried by the Emirati state news agency WAM on Sunday evening that the 35-year-old woman was traveling from Nigeria to India for treatment of advanced metastatic cancer.

Her health deteriorated while in transit at Abu Dhabi International Airport and as medics were trying to resuscitate her, they found signs that suggested a possible Ebola virus infection.

Medical staff treating the woman followed safety and precautionary measures in line with World Health Organization guidelines, the statement added.

The woman's husband, who was the only person sitting next to her on the plane, as well as five medics who treated her are being isolated pending test results on the deceased woman. All are in good health and show no symptoms of the illness, according to health officials.

An Ebola outbreak has killed more than 1,100 people, mostly in the three West African countries of Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone, according to WHO figures. Four people have died after contracting the disease in Nigeria, Africa's most populous country.

The Ebola virus is typically transmitted through direct person-to-person contact or through contact with bodily secretions from an infected person. The WHO considers the risk to passengers traveling on a flight with an infected person to be "very low."

Abu Dhabi is the capital and largest of seven sheikdoms that make up the United Arab Emirates. The country has grown into a major long-haul aviation hub. It is home to Dubai-based Emirates, the Middle East's largest airline, and Abu Dhabi-based Etihad Airways.

Emirates earlier this month became the first carrier to halt flights to Guinea because of concerns about the spread of the Ebola virus there.


Source : Sapa-AP /nsm
Date : 18 Aug 2014 10:55
 

akescpt

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I suspect that air travel will aggravate whatever virus that will try to execute the human race in the coming years. thpse ebola carriers are already here amongst us. almost done incubating. then the clusterfsuck will begin. queue the foreboding music...
 

LazyLion

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EBOLA HEALTH WORKERS BATTLE DEATH, HEAT, RUMORS
By MARIA CHENG

Doctors and nurses fighting Ebola in West Africa are working 14-hour days, seven days a week, wearing head-to-toe gear in the heat of muddy clinics. Agonizing death is the norm. The hellish conditions aren't the only problem: Health workers struggle to convince patients they're trying to help them, not hurt them.

Rumors are rife that Western aid workers are importing Ebola, stealing bodies or even deliberately infecting patients. Winning trust is made harder by a full suit of hood, goggles, mask and gown that hides their faces.

"You want to say so much ... because they're in so much pain," said nurse Monia Sayah, of Doctors Without Borders. "They suffer so much, but they can only see your eyes."

The outbreak has hit three of the world's poorest countries, where health systems there were already woefully understaffed and ill-equipped. In Liberia, there is only one doctor for every 100,000 people, while in Sierra Leone there are two, according to the World Health Organization; there were no statistics available for Guinea. The figure is 245 for the United States.

Emotional distress conspires with exhaustion and dehydration, but doctors say it's hard to stop working. "When the need is so great, you can't justify not being there for a day or going home earlier," said Dr. Robert Fowler, who recently worked in Guinea and Sierra Leone.

The critical care doctor at Sunnybrook Hospital in Toronto, Canada - now on sabbatical with the World Health Organization - said that the barrier of the protective suit is big but not insurmountable.

"There was a young girl, about 6, who came in late in the illness who was bleeding from her bowels, very dehydrated and delirious," he said. Ebola wiped out her immediate family - so she was all alone.

"She was very frightened and very reluctant to engage, and just wanted to push people away," he said. Fowler spent days trying to help her, bringing her things she wanted like Fanta soda. "She eventually developed this sense that this person in the suit who's a bit scary is trying to help me."

One day he brought the girl her favorite dish: cucumbers and lime. "She chowed down," he said - a sign that she was on the mend. Fowler said the girl was close to being discharged by the time he left Guinea.

The girl is the exception rather than the rule. Death is the fate of more than half of the West Africans infected in the Ebola outbreak.

"With the mortality rate being what it is," Fowler said, "you know every day there will be a couple of patients on your ward who didn't make it through the night."

Dr. Kent Brantly - an American who fell sick from Ebola last month treating patients - echoed Fowler in speaking of the moral weight of the struggle.

"I held the hands of countless individuals as this terrible disease took their lives away from them," Brantly said in a statement this month. "I witnessed the horror firsthand and I can still remember every face and name."

Brantly is now being treated in an Atlanta hospital. His condition was improving.

Sayah, the nurse, said that heat makes it impossible to work continuously for more than an hour. It means tasks have to be completed with near-military precision. Her makeshift Ebola tent hospital in Gueckedou, southern Guinea, was converted from an earlier clinic set up by Doctors Without Borders to handle cholera epidemics.

"If you have to do patients' blood work and IVs, you focus only on this, and you know your other team members will get the patients food and drink," she said.

The tough odds don't make it easier to see a patient die.

"There was a very strong, resilient, gentleman, who always made an effort to sit up and open his eyes and tell us how grateful he was that we were here," said Sahah. She said the man appeared to be improving but suddenly deteriorated. She was forced to take a break after getting dehydrated. When he returned about 40 minutes later, he was dead.

"When a patient dies like that, it's very upsetting because we're their last hope."

Cokie van der Velde, a sanitation specialist for Doctors Without Borders in Guinea and Liberia, cleaned Ebola wards - washing floors, emptying buckets and collecting bodies.

One day, she came across a harrowing sight.

"I walked into a room with four bodies and they'd all died in the most grotesque positions, with a lot of blood and feces everywhere," she said. "During the night, one man had crawled to the door and the other people who died, they seemed to have fallen off their beds and were bent backwards."

Normally, the Briton spends her days in Yorkshire, England, tending to her garden and looking after her grandchildren. Van der Velde has worked on two previous Ebola outbreaks and says she does it because she believes in justice and equality.

She said the need for medical care is overwhelming in this outbreak because of the heavy toll Ebola has taken on health workers. Many of those sickened and killed have been doctors and nurses. That has sparked fear among local staffers and led to strikes and resignations.

"I can't blame them," van Der Velde said. "They're scared."


Source : Sapa-AP /nsm
Date : 18 Aug 2014 11:52
 

Compton_effect

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Don't worry too much.
This wasn't just a mining engineer or such. He's a Safety And Health Representative at a mine in a country with Ebola cases. He would have been mindful of any potential contamination hazards. And by nature they are paranoid gits (Guess who works with some of them :erm:)
Plus those miners stay in compounds that are almost self contained. Its much more likely its good ol' Malaria.
 

Spizz

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Hope this is not @spizz. Health and safety guy.

It's not me on both counts, I'm civil engineer and apart from a hangover I'm feeling pretty ok :D

Thanks for the concern though guys.
 
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