Ebola Zaire Virus

It is very scary. Hopefully it will be contained but it's not looking good.

Oh no. That is scary, were heading to South Africa in January. Will watch and plan accordingly. Wow.

Good evening,

The World Health Organization (WHO) has announced that the Ebola Zaire Virus is out of control in West Africa. Awareness is imperative.
Swan

http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/world/2014/06/20/africa-ebola-outbreak/11110943/

CDC (Centers for Disease Control) on Ebola Virus:
http://www.cdc.gov/vhf/ebola/

One interesting theory is that the virus was transmitted via fruit bats dropping guano onto mangoes.

Here is an interesting article: http://www.foodsafetynews.com/2012/07/just-how-bad-could-foodborne-illness-become/#.U6hB_yhsyvI

1:00pm Latest Update:

Doctors Without Borders (MSF) Director of Operations stated:
"We have reached our limits," Janssens said. "We are no longer able to send teams to the new outbreak sites."

http://news.yahoo.com/ebola-control-west-africa-163439458.html;_ylt=A0LEV1snhqhTm3wAHMVXNyoA;_ylu=X3oDMTB0dGM5cmsxBHNlYwNzYwRjb2xvA2JmMQR2dGlkA1ZJUDMxOV8xhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=txnVjwtgewg

'MOTHER AFRICA' by Hans Zimmer.
"The Power of One."
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=txnVjwtgewg

Good evening everyone,

The two articles contain the latest updates on the Ebola Zaire Virus. While many articles contain the same information at times, due to the facts and numbers being reported out from World Health Organization (WHO) and Doctors Without Borders (MSF), it is information in need of repetition, so as to remind everyone of the important factors surrounding the world's deadliest virus. Information is of vital importance.

Dr. Luis Sambo, Regional Director for Africa, WHO stated:

“WHO is gravely concerned by the on-going cross-border transmission into neighboring countries as well as the potential for further international spread,” he said.

"There is an urgent need to intensify response efforts...this is the only way that the outbreak will be effectively addressed."

Additional links are located at the end of the BBC article. Please see 'From Other News Sites.'
Many thanks,
Swan

http://www.bbc.com/news/health-28033027
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/world/ebola-outbreak-calls-for-drastic-action-who-warns/article19347304/

Ebola symptoms are similar to Dengue Fever in my opinion... I had Dengue once, they had me in isolation for two weeks with a 104.6 temp when i came in. Even the nurses they had sit with me at all times stayed far away from me, and the bed next to me was empty. It was not a fun experience.

The DOD did research Dengue as a biological weapon, and I do wonder...

http://www.caribbean360.com/news/chikungunya-cases-in-st-lucia-spiral-out-of-control

The Pan American Health Organisation (PAHO) reported that as of June 20 there are 183,761 suspected cases of Chikungunya in the Caribbean. Unlike Dengue, Chikungunya can be contracted by an individual only once, since it gives lifelong immunity.

http://virginislandsdailynews.com/news/v-i-health-department-issues-advisory-about-mosquito-borne-virus-1.1617786

The most common symptoms, the CDC says, are fever and severe joint pains, often in the hands and feet.

"It causes more pronounced or severe joint pain, which tends to affect multiple joints, typically in the arms, leg and feet," Staples said of Chikungunya compared to dengue.

Most Chikungunya patients feel better within a week or so, according to the CDC.

However, some people with Chikungunya may develop prolonged joint pain that can last for months, according to the CDC. Such prolonged joint pain is not typical for dengue.

Fatalities from Chikungunya virus are rare, and no hemorrhagic cases related to Chikungunya
That advisory asked that residents alert Health to standing pools of water near their homes that cannot be emptied by residents that may benefit from larvaciding. People can contact Health's Environmental Health Division by calling 773-1311, ext. 3109 on St. Croix, or 715-5111 in the St. Thomas-St. John District.

Chikungunya is reportable by law and physicians must report all suspected cases to the Health Department using the V.I. Notifiable Disease Form by fax at 713-1508, the advisory said.

Residents should spray insecticide in dark areas, such as closets, to kill the Aedes Aegypti mosquito, which carries chikungunya.

Other tips include:

- Keep tires in a dry place, and punch holes in them to make sure water drains out.

- Put plants that currently are in water into soil.

- Empty flowerpot bases weekly.

- Cover or turn upside down food containers for animals and buckets that hold water.

- Repair or replace damaged screens; keep windows and doors without screens closed; and place a screen or mesh over the overflow pipe of cisterns.

- Cover infant cribs with mosquito netting.

- Use mosquito repellents containing DEET. Follow instructions carefully and use on arms, legs, ankles and nape of neck. Avoid applying to children younger than 2 years old or to the hands of older children.

There have been three confirmed cases of chikungunya - one acquired locally, and two imported - in the territory and an additional two suspected cases, from which blood samples will be sent to the CDC Dengue Branch laboratory for confirmation, according to Esther Ellis, who will be the territorial epidemiologist for the Health Department.

have you seen the movie contagion that movie scares me

Dengue seems like a walk in the park compared to Ebola which I read has a 70% death rate. That is NO joke. It is scary but perhaps mother natures way of culling humans. Morbid I know.

G'evening everyone:

These are the latest reports on the Ebola Zaire Virus in West Africa: Eleven nations are scheduled to meet this week regarding how to control the virus.

The repetitive factual information given about EVD (Ebola Virus Disease) should be committed to memory. Perhaps we should define the virus in simple, scientific terms: Ebola Zaire is the monster of all monsters. The Fatality Rate is 90%. No cure exists.

It is wise to stay aware. Many thanks,
Swan

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-28096916
http://uk.reuters.com/article/2014/06/30/us-health-ebola-leone-idUKKBN0F520F20140630?feedType=RSS&feedName=healthNews

And I've read somewhere that it is only a plane ride away from being transmitted elsewhere in the world! Very scary.

Viruses have no borders, especially in today's world where travel from one country to another is just a plane ride or a walk away, in some cases with border crossings. The scary thing is that many infected people flee from authorities and continue to infect others along the way, hence contagion continues. Hope they can get a handle on this virus before it spirals out of control.

It's already out of control. Those poor people. There needs to be some cultural intervention and I am sure they are trying to convince village elders and leaders to help the people understand that these doctors and nurses are there to help them but the people are terrified of them. Very sad indeed.

http://www.cbc.ca/news/health/ebola-toll-jumps-to-467-in-deadliest-outbreak-ever-1.2693407

CNN Update: 7/2/14

Dr. Peter Piot, discoverer of the Ebola Virus:

The current outbreak is “already a mega-crisis,” Piot said.
“You need a combination of nearly military type of control measures – isolation, quarantine of those who are the diseased – but also their relatives, to make sure that they’re not spreading the infection.”

http://amanpour.blogs.cnn.com/2014/07/02/scientist-who-discovered-ebola-this-is-unprecedented/

Swan

Ebola Epidemic is Worst in Recorded History

Here's an article from Care 2

http://www.care2.com/causes/ebola-epidemic-is-worst-in-recorded-history.html

Ebola Epidemic is Worst in Recorded History

Here's an article from Care 2

http://www.care2.com/causes/ebola-epidemic-is-worst-in-recorded-history.html

Update: 7/3/14
1500 possible victims.
WHO states: "The virus can be spread through contact with an object contaminated with infected secretions." (In addition to contact with infected individuals.)

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/africaandindianocean/guinea/10942598/Ebola-out-of-control-in-West-Africa-as-health-workers-rush-to-trace-1500-possible-victims.html
Swan

Update- several hours ago:

An American, who visited the Ebola outbreak countries of Sierra Leone and Guinea in the past few weeks, may have contracted and transported the virus to another country, Ghana. He is under quarantine and being tested for the Ebola Virus.

http://www.voanews.com/content/american-being-tested-for-ebola-in-ghana/1952214.html

The American traveler quarantined in Ghana has tested Negative for the Ebola Virus:

http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/07/07/us-health-ebola-ghana-idUSKBN0FC0ZF20140707

The American traveler quarantined in Ghana has tested Negative for the Ebola Virus:

http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/07/07/us-health-ebola-ghana-idUSKBN0FC0ZF20140707

UPDATE: Minutes ago: The American with suspected Ebola Virus has died in Ghana. It is reported that tests were not 'definitive' and that additional tests are being conducted.

"We are aware that the deceased was tested for Ebola but the official cause of death has not yet been confirmed. Test results thus far have been inconclusive," a U.S. State Department official said in an email.

http://af.reuters.com/article/ghanaNews/idAFL6N0PJ3VK20140708

We Are Making Ebola Outbreaks Worse by Cutting Down Forests

In a relentless sweep across Guinea, Liberia, and Sierra Leone, the largest outbreak of Ebola, a virus that causes dramatic internal bleeding and often a hasty death, has now claimed 467 lives, from 759 infections, since February this year, according to the World Health Organization (WHO).

With victims identified across more than 60 different locations, there's now a very real risk the outbreak will spread to even more countries, says Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF), which calls the epidemic out of control.

WHO is now focusing on preparing for the disease's inevitable spread to neighboring countries, not a small ask in poor countries with poor health care systems. "We want other countries in West Africa to be ready—bordering countries, Ivory Coast, Mali, Senegal, Guinea Bissau—to prepare themselves in case people affected with the disease may be also traveling," WHO's Dr. Pierre Formenty told a recent briefing in Geneva.

The Human Side of Ebola

An Ebola outbreak unprecedented in terms of its deadliness and its geographic reach has been sweeping through West Africa, hitting Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone. According to the World Health Organization, over 800 people have so far been infected and more than 500 have died, with the numbers steadily climbing. Initial flu-like symptoms develop quickly into vomiting, diarrhea and sometimes internal and external bleeding. There is no vaccination and the mortality rate can be up to 90 percent.

Two members of our field staff shared their on-the-ground experiences from Sierra Leone.

“I Never Thought I Would Have to Take a Call Like This”

Every Monday since the Ebola virus appeared in Sierra Leone, my weekly routine is to check my email for the latest Ebola case numbers and confer with field staff for updates on the ground. Every Monday, I hope the answer will be the same: no confirmed cases in Bo. So far we have been lucky here. We have managed to stay free of the disease, which has spread rapidly through neighboring districts. But before I could even open my computer this Monday morning, I received a text message. It held the news I hoped I would never get: “Please call asap, I have an Ebola update for you that needs urgent attention.” The message was from our Ebola focal person on the ground in Bo.

Over the weekend, I learned, a child had died from Ebola at a private clinic just outside Bo City, in the Southern Province.

The child’s family had fled to hide with relatives in Bo when two of their children had tested positive for Ebola. They fled for the same reasons many people do: a misunderstanding of the disease and an overwhelming fear that their children would die from it. One child was traced and sent to a treatment facility in nearby Kenema. The other had been hidden by family in a local village. When the symptoms became too difficult to manage, they brought the child to a nearby clinic. The nurse was unaware that the child was suffering from Ebola. She had no capacity to treat the disease. The child died in the clinic.

I’ve been a nurse for over ten years, six of those in Africa, and I never thought I would have to take a call like this. You can never fully prepare yourself for something like Ebola. It’s so intangible, so unreal. But now it’s here. All one can do is brace oneself for the next text or phone call, knowing that we are just at the beginning of this. There is more to come.

– Kristen Cahill is the Senior Program Manager for Innovations for MNCH, an initiative of Concern Worldwide in Sierra Leone.

“Terrifying: The Stuff of Hollywood Movies and Computer Games”

I remember reading the news of the potential Ebola outbreak in Guinea in February, just as I was finishing a two-month stint in Sierra Leone. Ebola is one of those diseases you hear about in public health school that is both fascinating and terrifying, the stuff of Hollywood movies and computer games, but you never expect to come across it in your career. It all felt far away and unreal. While it crossed my mind that the outbreak could enter Sierra Leone, after a month or so it seemed unlikely. Ebola wasn’t going to be a reality for any of “my” friends or “my” beneficiaries.

Concern's Innovations for MNCH (maternal, newborn, and child health) initiative in Bo district, Sierra Leone, trains traditional birth attendants (TBAs) to become maternal newborn health promoters (MNHPs)
However, as I prepared to return to Sierra Leone at the end of May, several cases of Ebola were identified there. It was as if an alarm bell went off: it’s here, it’s actually happening. My colleagues and I followed the news closely. The scariest part was that the information was confusing and incomplete, making it hard to know whether we were taking the right precautionary steps. Though the outbreak was said to be fairly isolated and not directly affecting our work, we couldn’t stop thinking about it. What would happen if a case were to be identified in the districts where we work? What if…? What if..?

Throughout the month, the scale of the outbreak continued to grow and so did the number of stories rolling in from others in the field. A friend and colleague lost a family member—health professional—to the disease. Hearing this made my heart break. I can only imagine the confusion that people experience when their loved ones fall sick and are whisked off to an isolation unit, never to be seen again. The second feeling I had was anger. Health professionals are rare and precious in Sierra Leone and they are also most at risk of contracting Ebola. Protecting them is not impossible but it often feels that way. Incidents like this highlight the weaknesses of the local health systems and the urgent need for us to keep building and strengthening them.

As I was boarding my flight home from Sierra Leone, I got a text message that there was a confirmed Ebola case in the district where I work. We have suspended our program there for the time being. My greatest fear is that if the situation continues to worsen, not only will it lead to many lost lives and increasing chaos in a country that is still rebuilding, but also that the suspension of development programs like ours will have repercussions for Sierra Leone’s people long after the disease itself has been contained.

– Katie Waller is the Program Officer for Innovations for MNCH, an initiative of Concern in Sierra Leone.

Read more: http://www.care2.com/causes/the-human-side-of-ebola.html#ixzz37Lxi3mMZ

"Nature" seems to be upset with man; man should have respected her.
Swan

While the Ebola epidemic rages on throughout Western Africa, far beyond the borders of Guinea, the country in which it first began, a recent analysis of the disease’s emergence has revealed the geographic origin of the epidemic and the pathogen’s likely source. Research suggests that the Guinean strain of the Zaire Ebolavirus originated from a single group of patients living in the heavily forested town of Guéckédougou in the remote prefecture of Gueckedou. The town is a small governmental subdivision which borders both Liberia and Sierra Leone, two countries which also host significant portions of the forest that surrounds Guekedou.

The Guinean strain of the deadly virus is a member of the Ebolavirus genus, a group of pathogens which cause deadly hemorrhagic fevers in the infected. Research has shown that it is not only part of that genus but it is also an extremely close relative of the Zaire Ebolavirus, which was not only the first species of Ebolavirus identified by humans, but was – and still is – the deadliest strain of the virus, killing around 90 percent of those it infects.

The landscape surrounding Guekedou, more commonly known as the Western Guinean Lowland Forests, is threatened on all sides by illegal logging, improper land use, and ill-advised exploitation by all three of the countries which exist in the shade of its many trees. It is ironic that this threatened landscape, which for years has been suffering a slow death at the hands of West Africans (either directly or through the government’s inability to enforce forestry laws), has been identified as the source of the pathogen that threatens all of Western Africa by infecting and killing more people every single day.

This determination is unlikely to ease the suffering of any West Africans afflicted by Ebola or assist health workers as they attempt to control the spread of the virus. The virus quickly swept through Guinea and on through to Liberia and Sierra Leone in a matter of weeks after the reports of the first cases in Gueckedou reached the ears of health officials. Since then, over 500 people have been slain by the microbe, dwarfing the number of people killed during every other outbreak since the disease was identified in the 1970s.

Many people and organizations have wondered what has allowed these numbers to become so high. The World Health Organization, along with other public-health oriented non-governmental organizations (NGOs) such as Doctors Without Borders or Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF), have cited ignorance of the disease as one of many significant factors contributing to the epidemic. The public health organizations supported this claim by referring to incidents where the infected either fled hospitals, or instances in which hospital workers themselves lacked the necessary training to contain the extremely contagious virus. The main point to be taken is that both the health care system and the people of the region itself were totally unprepared for an Ebola outbreak, leaving many unanswered questions as to how this could have happened.

There is one answer to the question that seems fairly obvious: the people and institutions of Western Africa had never actually experienced an outbreak of the disease within their region. Prior to this year, Ebola outbreaks occurred primarily in Central Africa and had been doing so for over 30 years. Thus the threat of Ebola was not at the forefront of health ministers’ minds while directing the development of their nations’ health infrastructure.

Even MSF was more concerned with fighting HIV/AIDS, cholera outbreaks and malaria than Ebola, which did not become a top priority for the organization until March of 2014. Before that date they were just as blissfully ignorant as the rest of the region about the coming sylvan plague. However, practically speaking, they really could not have seen it coming. The idea of a Guinean strain of Zaire Ebolavirus epidemic born of one of Western Africa’s most threatened woodlands would seem absolutely ridiculous to them.

Just about any other medical professional in that region would likely have responded the same way, citing the simple fact that during the more than 30 years between the identification of Ebola, its many outbreaks throughout the rest of the African continent and the current epidemic, the Western Guinean Lowland Forests was just as real as it is today, and yet not a single strain of the Ebola virus infected any Western Africans. Logically then, if the forests (or rather the animals which live inside of the forests) existed alongside the communities which are now being stripped of their friends and families by one of the forest’s microbial inhabitants for over 30 years without any reported Ebola outbreaks, then something must have changed in the relationship between the people and the land upon which they live and rely.

Melissa Leach, who has studied how the citizens as well as the governments of Africa’s many countries use (and misuse) their land, presents a theory as to why the disease has begun appearing in Western Africa after 38 years of complete absence. Basically, all three countries that are currently struggling to contain the pathogen, even the town where the virus first began its killing spree, had begun to significantly alter the landscape. These alterations transformed the local environment in ways that dramatically increased their likelihood of being exposed to the virus. Similar decisions were made in other parts of the now disease infested region prior to the appearance and dissemination of the disease.

In Guéckédougou, the ecological amendments had occurred slowly as the communities nearer to the forests began to expand, while its neighbor’s woodland woes occurred quickly and on a scale never seen before, and cost them dearly even before the virus crossed into their borders. The decision to allow the exploitation and reclamation of the massive forest which all three nations share appeared to be a prudent one, given recent developments within their respective borders. So it was that the regions’ governments, its environmental criminals whose collars were just as often white as they were blue, and even simple farmers all set out to modify the threatened landscape all for their own profit, blissfully unaware of the deadly cost their rapacious actions would incur upon the future.

The epidemic, which has skipped between communities and states, causing nothing but death and suffering, began in the in the village of Gueckedou, which despite its proximity to an important forest landscape, does not exist in the shade of a forest canopy. The locals have made small consistent changes to the local ecosystem over the years, changes that have dramatically altered the whole area. The once forested sections of the town now resemble a patchwork of farmland mixed together with forest “islands,” unaltered sections of the forest which once dominated the area but had been recently converted into farm land. Over the years more and more forest islands could be seen as the farmers encroached upon the forest reserve in search of better soils.

The intentional and sporadic human repurposing of forest ecosystems is not limited to simple farming activities. Reports indicated that as the forest became more accessible, its citizens began conducting more mining and hunting activities in the forested areas. This is where the virus enters the drama. Zaire Ebolavirus is “zoonotic,” meaning that it is carried by animals who act as its source or “reservoirs,” the most likely being bats. However before the locals began to encroach upon the forest in such a destructive manner they had always lived near bats and other creatures found underneath the canopies of the vast woodland landscape.

It was only as the townspeople began moving onto and into land which had traditionally belonged to the forest and its inhabitants that they began to encounter many such “reservoirs,” with much greater frequency than ever before. With each encounter came the probability of an infection and unlike before, such run-ins were more common than ever, meaning that the virus (which had always been inside the forest) finally had enough opportunities to infect nearby humans, that it eventually succeeded.

Unfortunately human encroachment into these forests was not limited to just one small town. Even larger campaigns of deforestation were going on in the town’s neighboring nation-states. According to the official Environmental Policy of the Economic Community of West African States, Western Africa has one of the worst deforestation rates in the world, losing 899,000 hectares of forest every year. The report also points to the “unexpected or irregular transfer” of forested land to “other sectors for other uses.”

In other words, what happened in Gueckedou has been happening in the rest of the region for years. If the deforestation hypothesis is indeed correct and given the immense amount of improper land alterations which contribute to the loss of forest area, then West Africans, whose misadventures in forestry were bringing them ever closer to the origin and cause of the deadly Ebola virus, were lucky that an epidemic did not occur sooner.

Every single country which is now fighting to protects its citizens from a disease once thought to be trapped in the jungles of the Congo has recently failed to properly manage their forest areas, even those sections which constitute portions of the Western Guinean Lowland Forests have not been spared the institutional incompetence and greed of Guinea, Liberia, or Sierra Leone. Unfortunately though, unlike environmental degradation in other parts of the world, which harms mostly future generations, the three nations have damaged their shared environment in such a way that it is the current generation that must suffer and even die in an epidemic created by the mistakes and oversights of their parents and their elders.

For instance, Liberia essentially sold the logging rights (in the form of a poorly designed and regulated Private Use Permit system) of up to over half of its forested areas – 40 percent of which are part of the Guinean Rainforest. Those permits were not intended for logging ventures but for small landholders. However large companies were able to overcome this hurdle by using bribes and other tactics to get those small landholders and even entire villages to sign their forests off for logging.

Once the paper was signed, large enterprises came right in and started tearing the trees right out from the soil. Individuals in search of work also partook in the dubious logging ventures, though they did not profit nearly as much. Other than enriching business entities which were flaunting the laws, the only other effect of the disastrous permitting policies was absolutely massive deforestation throughout the country.

Sierra Leone, meanwhile, was actively trying to manage its forest’s resources but was completely unable to control illegal logging activities with conventional law enforcement and regulatory law. Eventually the government banned timber exports after investigative journalists went public with the gravity of the environmental situation there. However the ban was short-lived and was lifted only a year later. The intense logging continued, as did other activities such as mining. The individuals involved in these ventures care not for the law and regularly dug mines and cut hectares of timber down from within the country’s own national parks

All three of the infected countries had been dealing with severe deforestation prior to the outbreaks, which occurred all over the region in a nonlinear manner. While making a direct, causative argument would be impossible, it is reasonable to assume that the three country’s lax behavior regarding land use and shortsighted decisions relating to the exploitation of their own resources likely aided the spread of the virus by exposing their citizens to the forests and their many inhabitants.

On any other continent, outdoor labor is very unlikely to result in workers contracting highly infectious and very deadly pathogens. However, among those creatures which live in the dark forests of Western Africa, there are many which serve as Ebola reservoirs. These animals had simply lived peacefully in their forest homes, unaware of the deadly pathogens which existed inside them as the humans came closer and closer to their natural habitat. Those microbes were likewise existing harmlessly inside of their reservoirs, but were also ready to jump ship for a host who could provide the proper microbial environment for its reproduction.

After what could have been anywhere from a single encounter to hundreds of near misses, the Guinean strain of Ebola was finally able to enter and subsequently infect a human being, whose internal biochemistry it then used to spread itself far and wide across the region until it became a veritable epidemic that has killed almost 900 people since March. All this because a farming community refused modify its planting methods, opting instead to search for more fertile soil in the wild forests, and also because two governments lacked the institutional strength and regulatory power to stop the reckless plunder of their lands. The origin of this deadly epidemic is therefore not just a scientific pursuit, but also lesson in the dreadful events which can occur when governments fail to control their citizens, whether they be farmers or criminal businessmen. The situation in West Africa is proof positive that institutional failure not only hurts, it can kill.

If these countries do not learn to protect their resources, to value them instead of selling them off en masse, and of course to properly manage them, then West Africa seems likely to end up like the origin of Ebola itself: Central Africa, which has deadly Ebola outbreaks and epidemics far more often than any other part of the continent. West African nations must now look to their forests as protective barriers, or even perhaps cages – the only places inside of which the origins and the cause of Ebola outbreaks can be contained until the development of a viable treatment.

Opinion By Andrew

Read more at http://guardianlv.com/2014/07/ebola-the-origin-of-west-africas-deadly-epidemic/#BmPOHWLLpprwxvFF.99