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(CNN) -- A nurse in Nigeria. A businessman in Saudi Arabia. A Spanish priest in Liberia.
With the World Health Organization announcing Wednesday that 932 deaths had been reported or confirmed as a result of Ebola hemorrhagic fever, Saudi Arabia joined the list of countries with suspected cases.
"This is the biggest and most complex Ebola outbreak in history," Dr. Tom Frieden, director of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said.
Nearly all of those deaths have been in Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea, where more than 1,700 cases have been reported, according to WHO. The agency said 108 new cases were reported between Saturday and Monday in those countries and Nigeria.
May I add: CDC has issued a LEVEL 1 Alert on the Ebola Virus:
Swan
Posted : August 6, 2014 10:43 pm
CDC Raises Response to Highest Alert Amid Ebola Outbreak (NBC video)
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on Wednesday ramped up its response to the expanding Ebola outbreak, a move that frees up hundreds of employees and signals the agency sees the health emergency as a potentially long and serious one.
The CDC’s “level 1 activation” is reserved for the most serious public health emergencies, and the agency said the move was appropriate considering the outbreak’s “potential to affect many lives.” The CDC took a similar move in 2005 in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, and again in 2009 during the bird-flu threat.
The Ebola outbreak is believed to have killed 932 people in the African nations of Liberia, Sierra Leone, Nigeria and Guinea. Two American aid workers sickened by the disease were flown back to the U.S. for treatment at a medical facility in Atlanta.
The CDC is deploying additional staff to the four affected countries, and said 50 more disease-control experts should arrive there in the next 30 days. It also issued instructions to airlines that may come into contact with passengers from the affected countries designed to minimize the chance of infection.
Posted : August 7, 2014 3:18 pm
Mistrust of western science/scientists/doctors/etc. continues to hamper relief efforts:
Skeptics In Sierra Leone Doubt Ebola Virus Exists (NPR)
Many people in Sierra Leone still don't believe Ebola really exists.
In response, Ebola awareness announcements are now playing repeatedly on the radio and on loudspeakers up and down the streets of Freetown — Sierra Leone's pretty but ramshackle oceanfront capital. The announcements are part of awareness campaigns to try to stop the virus from spreading.
More than 900 people have died of Ebola in West Africa, the World Health Organization said Wednesday. Sierra Leone, alone, has reported nearly 300 deaths. The WHO is holding an emergency, two-day meeting this week to decide on how to handle the crisis.
Frightened Sierra Leoneans are now digesting the nationwide public health emergency and the extraordinary measures announced by President Ernest Bai Koroma last week.
Koroma has been criticized for not waking up to the Ebola crisis and taking action earlier. But now he has ordered troops and police to enforce strict new measures, including the quarantine of homes and zones where the virus is detected or suspected, especially in hard-hit eastern Sierra Leone. He addressed the nation on Monday, declaring a "Stay at Home Day" for national prayer, reflection and education.
When Sule Koroma's sister Saudatu died of Ebola, his house in Freetown was put under a 21-day quarantine. The government sent two policeman to guard the house.
"We are a nation of [people who pray]. Ebola is real. This is a collective fight. The very essence of our nation is at stake," he said. "We must act, we must pray, we must persevere."
In bustling downtown Freetown, Yeanoh Papas says she had been living in constant fear of contracting the Ebola virus, especially when her child took ill.
"We've been told there's no cure for it, and because of all the fright around it, we are even afraid of reporting ourselves to the hospital," she says. "My daughter fell sick recently, and I was so frightened I did not take her to the hospital. I called on one of my sisters, who is a nurse, and she came and treated her at home. And now my daughter is well again. Whatever ailment comes our way now, they say is Ebola. So we're all frightened."
Employees of a petroleum company in Liberia help to curb Ebola's spread via a public health awareness campaign Monday. West Africa is facing its first Ebola outbreak, so questions abound.
But now that Papas understands more about Ebola, she says, she would take her daughter or herself to the hospital if she detected symptoms.
Opinions are mixed, but there's a strong dose of Ebola deniers — those who don't believe the virus exists at all. Zainab Koroma, a street hawker, is adamant it isn't real.
"I do not believe Ebola exists because none of my family members has been affected by it," she says. "When you get sick of cholera, they say it is Ebola. When your body temperature rises, they say it is Ebola. So I honestly don't believe Ebola exists. There could be a lot of other diseases killing people."
That's one of the challenges facing Sierra Leone — trying to convince the nation that "Ebola is real, Ebola is here, and Ebola kills," as one poster reads. Some people do survive, if they receive medical care early, as soon as they fall sick.
The case of 32-year-old Saudata Koroma transfixed the nation late last month. She was brought to a faded blue government hospital in Freetown, feeling unwell, and was admitted.
"Yes, and we were suspicious that she had Ebola, and she was put in isolation," says Amadu Sesay, the doctor in charge of the hospital. "The tests proved she had Ebola. Prior to the arrival of the test results, the relatives of the patient stormed the facility. They stormed this hospital and took the patient away."
When his staff learned Koroma had Ebola, Sesay says, they had to track her down. But it took some time. "She was put in an ambulance, but unfortunately on the way to [an Ebola clinic in] Kailahun, she died," he says.
Sesay says Koroma's case and death show that Sierra Leoneans need more counseling and education about the virus.
"The question is actually denial. When we traced them [Koroma's parents], eventually, where they kept her hidden, they still were not convinced she had Ebola," Sesay says. "They chased us away. They said she doesn't have Ebola. They denied. That sends a very dangerous message out there."
Sesay and many others say global assistance — such as many more specialists and health workers on the ground — is needed to help Sierra Leone and its neighbors, Liberia and Guinea, control the devastating Ebola outbreak in the region.
Posted : August 7, 2014 5:16 pm
Topic starter
Ebola Experts Warn of an African 'Apocalypse'
At an emergency hearing Thursday, leaders of the fight against Ebola gave updates on the situation in Africa and the future of the deadly disease’s possible spread.
At an emergency hearing in Washington Thursday afternoon, major players in the fight against Ebola in West Africa addressed the outbreak that has stolen the lives of more than 900. Leaders from health agencies and humanitarian efforts addressed the need for increased support as one called the current state of affairs in West Africa “apocalyptic.”
Rep. Christopher Smith, the chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on Africa and Global Health, opened the hearing by urging the speakers to clear the air on a “grave issue” that has “gripped” the mass media for weeks. “We hope to gain a realistic understanding of what we’re up against while avoiding sensationalism,” he told the floor. Here are the takeaways:
The outbreak is getting worse.
Already an unprecedented outbreak, CDC Director Dr. Tom Frieden says the number of infected and killed by Ebola will likely soon outnumber all other Ebola outbreaks in the past 32 years combined. According to the CDC, there have already been more than 1,700 suspected and confirmed cases of Ebola in West Africa, and more than 900 deaths—numbers which Frieden later called “too foggy” to be definitive. Ken Isaacs, the Vice President of Program and Government Relations for Samaritan’s Purse (SIM), painted an even bleaker picture. According to SIM, West Africa has counted 1,711 diagnoses and 932 deaths, already, which could represent only a small fraction of the actual number. “We believe that these numbers represent just 25-50 percent of what is happening,” said Isaacs.
The atmosphere in West Africa is “apocalyptic.”
In a six-hour meeting with the president of Liberia last week, Isaacs said SIM workers watched as the “somber” officials explained the gravity of the situation in their countries, where hundreds lie dead in the streets. “It has an atmosphere of apocalypse,” Isaacs said of the Liberia Ministry of Health’s status updates. “Bodies lying in the street … gangs threatening to burn down hospitals. I believe this disease has the potential to be a national security risk for many nations. Our response has been a failure.” Isaacs says that the epidemic is inciting panic worldwide that, in his opinion, may soon be warranted. “We have to fight it now here or we’re going to have to fight it somewhere else.”
It’s unclear how many “serums” are available in the U.S.
Frieden explained that the government is looking carefully into any possible treatment for the infection, but stressed that because of “rapidly evolving” information, it is unclear how many of the potentially life-saving Ebola “serums” are available. “I can’t tell you definitively how many courses there are,” said Frieden. “I heard there are a handful—fewer than the fingers of one hand. Some manufacturers have reportedly said they can make some, but some companies are saying it could take months. I don’t have definitive information. Frieden further reiterated that Dr. Richard Brantly and Dr. Nancy Writebol are the first two humans to be given the treatment, suggesting that even if additional treatments were available it may not be ethical to use them. “Whatever happens with these individuals…we will still do not know from their experience whether these drugs work. Antibodies are only one part of our response to an illness—in other conditions antibodies can make a disease worse. It’s too soon to know.”
The international response has been disastrous.
Isaacs, head of the humanitarian agency for which Writebol and Brantly worked, vehemently condemned the international community for a response that he considers both delayed and insufficient. “The disease is uncontained and out of control, the international response has been a failure,” he said. With three of the poorest nations in the world currently affected, West Africa is extremely ill-prepared for the disaster—a fact, which Issacs argued, necessitates more response. “The ministries of health in these countries do not have the capacity to handle this. If a mechanism is not found the world will be effectively relegating the containment of this disease to three of the poorest nations in the world,” he said, adding later: “Is the world willing to let the public health of the world be in their hands?”
Dr. Writebol and Dr. Brantly are “getting better.”
When asked to update the current status of the two American SIM workers being treated at Emory after contracting the disease in Liberia, Issacs said they were “getting better every day.” He was not able to confirm whether either can be classified as stable. “I don’t think [their recovery] will be fast,” he said. “I will say that they seem to have gotten better. We appreciate that they are getting good treatment—we pray that they will survive.”
But their introduction back to the U.S. will be painful.
In the days since the two American doctors have returned to America, SIM has heard widespread concern about the two’s reintegration. “People are afraid to get around them—husbands, wives, no one knows if it’s safe,” he said. “We are doing everything we can to give them a safe place to be, but imagine how difficult it is for American citizens—and all citizens—to suffer from this,” he said. Some from the communities where the two doctors came from have reportedly expressed concern for them infecting others in the community. “This is a nasty, bloody disease; I could give you descriptions of people dying that you cannot even believe.”
Doctors in the Ebola-infected countries are in desperate need of supplies.
Dr. Frank Glover, a missionary with SIM who also testified at the hearing, expressed frustration with the lack of personal protective gear (PPG), which he says is increasing the spread of infections significantly. Glover says the doctors and nurses in these areas, particularly Liberia, are “terrified” to enter the hospitals because of lack of proper gloves, goggles, and gowns that are needed to protect them. “The number one cause of infections in Liberia is lack of protective gear. It’s unconscionable that we’re asking them to take care of people without gloves. If we’re putting people on the line, we owe it to them to give them a fighting chance.”
The quarantined towns are in desperate need of other vital support systems.
Rep. Karen Bass, a standing member on Smith’s subcommittee who spoke with Liberian President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, says the quarantined areas in West Africa are in desperate need of basic supplies like food and water. “Health care is a human right. We must ensure these countries have what they need to fight for it.” Both Isaacs and Glover also expressed concern for the lack of education in West Africa, both the symptoms and proper response that should be taken in the wake of an infection. “A poster on the wall saying ‘Ebola kills’ isn’t going to do it,” said Isaacs. “They need education.” Grover cited the 14-year civil war in Liberia, which left millions illiterate, as one of the main roadblocks in educating the country.
The U.S. may not be prepared to treat American relief workers should they get infected.
According to SIM director Isaacs, the plane that flew Writebol and Brantly to safety in Atlanta is the sole vehicle of that kind in existence. “There is only one airplane in the world with one chamber to carry level 4 pathogenic victim. One—and it’s in the U.S,” said Isaacs. “There is no other aircraft in the world.” Isaacs says that unless the Department of Defense is secretly in possession of another aircraft, than the U.S. will not have the power to evacuate more than one American relief worker at a time, should they get infected. “If the U.S. is going to expect CDC people [in these nations], there has to be assurance that we can care for them when they are sick.”
The disease could spread to other countries.
Isaacs, whose urgings to Congress about the urgency for a better response prompted Thursday’s meeting, is gravely concerned about the future. After first observing the outbreak in April, he’s watched the disease spread furiously across West Africa with little to no effective international support. “I think we are going to see death tolls in numbers that we can’t imagine,” said Isaacs “If we do not fight and contain this disease, we will be fighting this and containing this in multiple countries across the world. The cat is, most likely, already out of the bag.”
Posted : August 8, 2014 12:35 am
Four new Ebola cases in Nigeria (Wash. Post)
According to the WHO, there are now 1,779 cases of Ebola in Guinea, Liberia, Sierra Leone and Nigeria, including 961 deaths.
In other developments:
• The WHO declared the Ebola outbreak in West Africa an international public health emergency Friday, recommending strict monitoring of travelers in the four stricken countries. It said emergency efforts should be put under the direct command of heads of state.
In nations that do not border the affected area, the WHO recommended no general travel ban, but said governments should be prepared to “detect, investigate, and manage Ebola cases,” including “the capacity to manage travelers originating from known Ebola-infected areas who arrive at international airports or major land crossing points with unexplained febrile illness.” It also urged countries to be prepared to evacuate their citizens, mainly health care workers, who have been exposed to the virus.
• Canadian drugmaker Tekmira Pharmaceuticals said Thursday that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration had removed a “clinical hold” it had placed on the company’s experimental Ebola drug, potentially clearing the way for its use in patients battling the lethal virus.
The company has a $140 million contract with the U.S. government to develop its TKM-Ebola drug, which had shown promising results in treating non-human primates. The drug had been progressing through the FDA approval process until last month, when the agency halted a trial of the drug to seek more information about its safety.
Another experimental drug, ZMapp, manufactured by a San Diego company, was given to U.S. missionaries Kent Brantly and Nancy Writebol who contracted the virus while aiding victims in Liberia. It is too early to determine whether the cocktail of antibodies, never tested on humans, may have helped the pair survive. Both have been brought back to Emory University Hospital in Atlanta where they continue to improve slowly, according to reports.
The government and private companies have said they are ramping up efforts to produce more than the handful of doses currently available, but that effort could take months. The WHO is convening a panel of medical ethicists next week to discuss use of untested treatments in the outbreak, the worst ever.
Posted : August 10, 2014 4:09 am
Watch a Science Cop Take on Donald Trump (TIME - video)
TIME's Jeffrey Kluger takes on The Donald for crimes against science
The Ebola outbreak that is causing such fear and suffering in Africa is a very real and very deadly thing. But the fact is that the nature of the Ebola virus is such that it stands a very low chance of ever causing a pandemic like AIDS or H1N1. That hasn’t stopped America’s great foghorn—Donald Trump—and others like him from spreading all kinds of misinformation about the disease, warning people that patients should not be brought to the U.S. and that flights from West Africa should be stopped, otherwise we face an American epidemic.
But Trump and his ilk are committing a science crime—the crime of misinformation. Here’s the truth, from TIME’s Jeffrey Kluger.
Posted : August 10, 2014 7:50 pm
Ebola Update: Spanish Priest Dies; WHO Gives OK To Experimental Drugs (NPR)
Ebola continues to spread in West Africa. The latest figures from the World Health Organization cite 1,848 cases of the disease across the region, and 1,013 deaths. Ebola's victims also include a missionary priest who died in Spain after being evacuated from Liberia last week.
The missionary, Miguel Pajares, 75, died at Madrid's Carlos III Hospital, where he was reportedly being treated with an experimental U.S.-made serum called ZMapp.
In a statement released Tuesday, the World Health Organization says it's ethical to administer untested drugs such as ZMapp to people infected with Ebola, provided the patients give their informed consent.
That's the finding of a group of medical experts the WHO convened to discuss the question. Their decision cites the complexity of the current outbreak and the disease's high fatality rate.
The news comes as Liberia and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration agree on a deal to send a shipment of ZMapp to the African nation.
"West Africa is desperate to save the lives of doctors and health workers who're struggling to contain the outbreak of Ebola," NPR's Ofeibea Quist-Arcton reports. "Liberia says it will use the scarce new drugs for two doctors who've tested positive for the virus."
Ofeibea adds, "ZMAPP was the drug given to an American doctor and a health worker infected with Ebola in Liberia and flown back for care back home. Nigeria, which has reported two Ebola deaths, says it has requested the drugs from the Centers for Disease Control."
According to the WHO's latest figures, 69 new deaths and 52 new cases of Ebola were reported from Aug. 7 to Aug. 9.
"Liberia has now become the epicenter of the Ebola outbreak, accounting for two-thirds of the new cases and the vast majority of the new deaths," NPR's Jason Beaubien reports from Liberia. "President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf last week declared a national state of emergency over the outbreak. Many of the infections have been among doctors and nurses, which then led to a shutdown of most of the hospitals here in Monrovia."
Posted : August 13, 2014 5:04 pm
Ebola Outbreaks Visualized In 5 Charts (Forbes)
According to the World Health Organization, there have been 25 disease outbreaks in recorded history. The current epidemic in West Africa is the largest to date and has now killed over 1000 people.
Is the 2014 epidemic the deadliest outbreak ever? WHO’s chronology of previous Ebola virus disease outbreaks is a long table and most graphics pack too much information onto a map or graph, so I’ve created some simple charts to share with you.
To compare outbreaks, I took WHO’s table and added numbers for the ongoing epidemic (until 9 August 2014), did some calculations then pushed the figures through an app to vizualize the data. The infographics below have few labels and are designed to speak for themselves, but I’ve also highlighted some key stats and background facts.
1. Virulence Per Outbreak
Ebola has a mean virulence of 61%, killing a total 2603 out of 4235 people since records began. Virulence is the ‘case fatality rate’, the percentage of cases leading to death. On this chart, color represents virulence from yellow (0% fatality) to red (100%).
[...]
Posted : August 13, 2014 5:08 pm
Using a Tactic Unseen in a Century, Countries Cordon Off Ebola-Racked Areas (NY Times)
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.
[...]
Posted : August 13, 2014 5:42 pm
Topic starter
Using a Tactic Unseen in a Century, Countries Cordon Off Ebola-Racked Areas (NY Times)
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.
[...]
"....Quarantine of the affected is the only defense against spread of the virus at this time in history. Quarantine. Quarantine and cremation of those who died, to state it so horribly bluntly - I apologize. Quarantine is the only means of how to stop the spread of Ebola; and the "attempt to quarantine" is failing. It is failing miserably....." by Swan...
This is my quote from a few posts back. The attempt to track down, contact, and quarantine those who might have been exposed to the virus has failed. The reason: it is too late now and this practice should have been implemented when the first case of Ebola Zaire was identified in Guinea at the onset - months ago - when Ebola should have been taken seriously in West Africa and wasn't. West Africa is populated, unlike the small villages where past Ebola outbreaks occurred within central Africa and, consequently, were brought under control through search and quarantine.
Ebola Zaire is presently running amok. So now enters the practice of Cordon Sanitaire: First, the triangular area comprising that portion of Guinea, Sierra Leone, and Liberia will be cordoned off and no one will be permitted to leave; then what is next to cordon off? The cities? Then the Regions? Then the Countries; and then the Continent? Quarantine is the only solution to possibly controlling this pandemic and , therefore, Cordon Sanitaire is their only solution.
The monster is on a mission. Nature would have prevented all of this had she have been given the respect she deserved by man in the first place. But she wasn't.
Swan
Posted : August 13, 2014 8:27 pm
How the International Community Has Failed the Victims of Ebola
The world’s leaders are now in a scramble against time. Ebola patients and suspected cases have begun popping up around the globe. A doctor in Spain died of the virus this week, the suspected case in England put a halt to British Airways flights to the region, a Nigerian man in Hong Kong caused an airport panic and a man who presented viral hemorrhagic fever died in Saudi Arabia after visiting West Africa. These people make up a small sample of travelers the CDC says are ‘inevitable’ in the spread of the virus.
Of course this could have all been avoided. The Ebola outbreak, which some are calling ‘recent news,’ has been going on for months. It went from being isolated in the rural regions of Guinea’s dense forests, to emerging in places like Monrovia and Lagos, chaotic bustling cities teeming with people living in close quarters.
While the international press has chosen to focus on horror stories, some have gone so far as to call Ebola’s spread ‘Darwinism’, ‘nature’s cure’ or ‘natural selection.’ Of course these are the same sort of people who panicked when West Nile emerged in the United States. Because, as we all know, natural selection doesn’t apply to western citizens. As we all know, when earthquakes, hurricanes or disease strikes the USA, it’s a horrific tragedy the entire world ought to be sympathetic to. Yet this sort of mentality rarely applies to Africa.
For those who work in the region, there’s palatable anger. Health officials and civilians alike are tired of the excuses being made on behalf of the developed world.
Ken Isaacs, the Vice President of International Programs and Government Relations at Samaritans Purse, gave a sobering testimony to the House Committee on Foreign Affairs last week.
“The Ebola crisis we are now facing is not a surprise to us at Samaritan’s Purse but it took two Americans getting the disease in order for the international community and the United States to take serious note of the largest outbreak of the disease in history…The Ministries of Health in Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone do not have the capacity to handle these crisis in their countries. If a mechanism is not found to create an acceptable paradigm for the international community to become directly involved, then the world will be relegating the containment of this disease that threatens Africa and other countries to three of the poorest nations in the world.”
The CDC expects more cases of Ebola to spread through air travel in the coming months. Although there are mechanisms in place to deal with the spread, and a large outbreak in the developed world is highly unlikely, there’s still frustration over the lack of care given to the victims in West Africa.
Isaacs goes onto say that despite the WHO and his own organization calling for more of a global response, “Samaritan’s Purse and MSF continued to be the two primary caregivers…that the world would allow two relief agencies shoulder this burden along with the overwhelmed Ministries of Health in these countries testifies to the lack of serious attention the epidemic was given.”
Out of the numerous international organizations that could have stepped up, instead it was another African country that made a significant gesture. Late last month, Uganda sent 20 of its health experts to West Africa to help contain the crisis. Uganda has a history of both Ebola outbreaks and successful containment, often keeping the spread of the disease within the districts and towns themselves.
Although $200 billion has been promised by the World Bank, workers are skeptical about simply throwing money at the problem. Cultural influences, community outreach and psychosocial health all need to be tackled and an influx of money, going to governments known for corruption, might not be the solution.
It’s excellent that the international community is now paying attention to what’s happening in West Africa, even if it is only because of a personal vested interest of keeping Ebola off their own shores. Yet this is a crisis that will leave fear, poverty, instability and restricted commerce in its wake for years, perhaps even decades.
It could have been prevented, and it should have been taken seriously. Now Ebola is knocking on the door of the western world, reminding us that .in this day and age, ignoring a health crisis in one part of the world can have devastating ramifications across the globe
Posted : August 14, 2014 12:56 pm
Missionaries Return to US and Ebola Quarantine (ABC)
Although the three were examined upon their arrival in Charlotte and determined to be healthy, they are being held in quarantine at least three weeks dating from the time the missionaries were last exposed to people infected with the virus. That means they won't all be released at once.
For now, their quarters will be five motor homes anchored in the mission's RV park on its wooded 90-acre campus not far from the South Carolina line. Eight others, including six children, are also living on the property voluntarily until they are cleared. The eight are not under quarantine.
Posted : August 16, 2014 6:25 am
Topic starter
Ebola - Smart Virus:
A new study has revealed how Ebola blocks and disables the body's natural immune response, as understanding how the virus disarms immune defenses will be crucial in the development of new treatments for the disease.
Researchers at Washington University School of Medicine along with collaborators from the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai and UT Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas have found how Ebola protein VP24 disrupts the cell's innate immune response, a crucial early step on the virus's path to causing deadly disease. Gaya Amarasinghe said that they have known for a long time that infection with Ebola obstructs an important immune compound called interferon and now they know how Ebola does this, and that can guide the development of new treatments.
According to the researchers, VP24 works by preventing the transcription factor STAT1, which carries interferon's antiviral message, from entering the nucleus and initiating an immune response. As part of a rapid immune response, the cell allows STAT1 an "emergency access lane" to the nucleus. Rather than block all nuclear transfer, however, VP24 focuses on blocking STAT1's "emergency access lane."
Researchers said that normally interferon causes STAT1 to enter the cell nucleus, where it activates the genes for hundreds of proteins involved in antiviral responses, but when VP24 is attached to STAT1, it can't get into the nucleus. The study also found that one of the key reasons that Ebola virus is so deadly is because it disrupts the body's immune response to the infection and figuring out how VP24 promotes this disruption will suggest new ways to defeat the virus.
The study was published in the Cell Press journal Cell Host and Microbe
http://www.dnaindia.com/health/report-how-ebola-virus-disables-immune-response-revealed-2010775
Swan
Posted : August 16, 2014 9:33 pm
Ebola crisis: Confusion as patients vanish in Liberia (BBC)
There are conflicting reports over the fate of 17 Ebola patients who vanished after a quarantine centre in the Liberian capital Monrovia was looted.
An angry mob attacked the centre in the city's densely populated West Point township on Saturday evening.
A senior health official said all of the patients were being moved to another medical facility.
But a reporter told the BBC that 17 had escaped while 10 others were taken away by their families.
[...]
Health experts say that the key to ending the Ebola outbreak is to stop it spreading in Liberia, where ignorance about the virus is high and many people are reluctant to cooperate with medical staff.
[...]
The attackers, mostly young men armed with clubs, shouted insults about President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf and yelled "there's no Ebola", she said, adding that nurses had also fled the centre.
The head of the Health Workers Association of Liberia, George Williams, said the unit had housed 29 patients who "had all tested positive for Ebola" and were receiving preliminary treatment.
Confirming that 17 had escaped, he said that only three had been taken by their relatives, the other nine having died four days earlier.
[...]
On Friday, the death toll rose to 1,145 after the WHO said 76 new deaths had been reported in the two days to 13 August. There have been 2,127 cases reported in total.
Posted : August 18, 2014 3:50 am
Kenya Shuts Borders To Ebola-Hit West African Countries (NPR)
The Kenyan government has taken the step of closing its borders to travelers from West African countries affected by the growing Ebola outbreak.
The suspension applies to Kenyan ports of entry for people traveling from Sierra Leone, Guinea and Liberia, the country's Health Ministry says. It goes into effect Tuesday at midnight.
"This step is in line with the recognition of the extraordinary measures urgently required to contain the Ebola outbreak in West Africa," the Health Ministry said in a statement.
The BBC reports that after announcing the decision, Kenyan Health Minister James Macharia said it was "in the interest of public health" and warned Kenyans and health workers who had returned from the banned countries to undergo strict checks and quarantine if necessary.
The World Health Organization has said that because of Kenya's status as a major transport hub in Africa, the country is at "high risk" from Ebola. Earlier, Kenyan officials feared that four cases of Ebola had entered the country, but tests later proved negative. The U.N. agency said that as of Friday, 1,145 people had died from Ebola of 2,127 total known cases.
After the announcement, national carrier Kenyan Airways said it was halting flights to Liberia and Sierra Leone.
The airline said flights actually help to contain the Ebola outbreak by transporting medical staff, supplies and equipment to West Africa.
But doctors representing the Kenya Medical Association had asked Kenya Airways to suspend flights to the four countries affected by Ebola 'until things stabilize.'
Other countries and individual airlines have taken similar steps in recent days. Major carriers British Airways and Emirates Airlines have suspended flights to Sierra Leone, Guinea and Liberia.
Nigeria became the fourth Ebola-affected country late last month after a Liberian-American man sick with the disease flew to Lagos on an ASKY flight and infected several people before he died.
Officials in Cameroon, which borders Nigeria, announced Friday it would suspend all flights from all four Ebola-affected countries. Korean Air announced on Thursday it would temporarily halt its service to Kenya despite the fact there are no cases of Ebola in the country.
Meanwhile, in Liberia, protesters in the capital, Monrovia, attacked and looted a quarantine center, forcing at least 20 patients to leave the facility, the BBC says.
Officials said blood-stained bedding looted from the centre posed a serious infection risk.
The protesters were unhappy that patients were being brought in from other parts of the capital, the assistant health minister said.
Posted : August 18, 2014 3:56 am
Still getting worse:
Ebola virus disease update - west Africa (World Health organization)
Epidemiology and surveillance
Between 19 and 20 August 2014, a total of 142 new cases of Ebola virus disease (laboratory-confirmed, probable, and suspect cases) as well as 77 deaths were reported from Guinea, Liberia, Nigeria, and Sierra Leone.
Health sector response
Questions have been received in WHO Headquarters about the original proposed budget for the response and the new draft budget, which is being reviewed by partners. The increase in needed resources is based on improved data and understanding of the situation on the ground in the affected countries. The new estimation of costs is derived using a unit-cost model, built for the most intense transmission areas and reflects the average operational costs based on the current situation in the affected countries. The major assumptions for the cost estimates will be announced towards the end of next week.
WHO continues to receive reports of rumoured or suspected cases from countries around the world and systematic verification of these cases is ongoing. Countries are encouraged to continue engaging in active surveillance and preparedness activities. As of today, no new cases have been confirmed outside of Guinea, Liberia, Nigeria, or Sierra Leone.
WHO does not recommend any travel or trade restrictions be applied except in cases where individuals have been confirmed or are suspected of being infected with EVD or where individuals have had contact with cases of EVD. (Contacts do not include properly-protected health-care workers and laboratory staff.) Temporary recommendations from the Emergency Committee with regard to actions to be taken by countries can be found at:
IHR Emergency Committee on Ebola outbreak in west Africa
Disease updateConfirmed, probable, and suspect cases and deaths from Ebola virus disease in Guinea, Liberia, Nigeria, and Sierra Leone, as of 20 August 2014
[see article for table displaying where/how many/etc.]
Posted : August 23, 2014 5:02 am
Oh boy it looks like one of the versions of Ebola, not the same as the one in West Africa, has reared its head in Congo:
DR Congo confirms deaths in Ebola outbreak
Ebola kills two people in DR Congo, but infections are of different strain than in West Africa, health minister says.
Two Ebola deaths have been confirmed in the Democratic Republic of Congo, the health minister of the Central African country said, though local officials believe the cases are unrelated to the outbreak in West Africa that has killed more than 1,400 people..
Felix Kabange Numbi said on Sunday that two of eight samples from the northwest Equateur province came back positive for the deadly disease.
Numbi said Congolese officials believe Ebola had killed 13 people in the region, including five health workers.
He said 11 people were sick and in isolation and that 80 contacts were being traced, the Associated Press reported.
"I declare an Ebola epidemic in the region of Djera, in the territory of Boende in the province of Equateur," Numbi said.
Different strains
However, Numbi said the infections were of a different strain than those in the outbreak in West Africa that has killed more than 1,400 people since March.
One of the two cases that tested positive was for the Sudanese strain of the disease, while the other was a mixture between the Sudanese and the Zaire strain - the most lethal variety, the health official said.
The outbreak in West Africa is the Zaire strain.
Posted : August 25, 2014 7:46 am
Topic starter
Oh boy it looks like one of the versions of Ebola, not the same as the one in West Africa, has reared its head in Congo:
DR Congo confirms deaths in Ebola outbreak
Ebola kills two people in DR Congo, but infections are of different strain than in West Africa, health minister says.Two Ebola deaths have been confirmed in the Democratic Republic of Congo, the health minister of the Central African country said, though local officials believe the cases are unrelated to the outbreak in West Africa that has killed more than 1,400 people..
Felix Kabange Numbi said on Sunday that two of eight samples from the northwest Equateur province came back positive for the deadly disease.
Numbi said Congolese officials believe Ebola had killed 13 people in the region, including five health workers.
He said 11 people were sick and in isolation and that 80 contacts were being traced, the Associated Press reported.
"I declare an Ebola epidemic in the region of Djera, in the territory of Boende in the province of Equateur," Numbi said.
Different strains
However, Numbi said the infections were of a different strain than those in the outbreak in West Africa that has killed more than 1,400 people since March.
One of the two cases that tested positive was for the Sudanese strain of the disease, while the other was a mixture between the Sudanese and the Zaire strain - the most lethal variety, the health official said.
The outbreak in West Africa is the Zaire strain.
Your expression is so 'right on,' noOne. Ebola Sudan has evidently joined the party. While Ebola Zaire kills about 90% (and, if the current numbers of infected vs. deaths were accurately reported, it would total 90%) Ebola Sudan kills about 50%. Their viral genomes vary about 30%, but they act in the same way after entering the body: Each shuts down the immune response, each prevents the blood from clotting, and each engages in the horrific activities for which the ebolaviruses are well famous.
Ebola is on a mission with possibly no end in sight; man must learn to respect nature, because she will win in the end anyway.
Posted : August 25, 2014 8:30 pm
Echoes of SARS in market analysts' reports on Ebola
TOKYO -- The outbreak of the deadly Ebola virus in West Africa is emerging as a possible trigger for risk aversion among investors. Brokerages are issuing reports on how the hemorrhagic fever could affect the financial markets. Depending on how the epidemic develops, the yen could once again become a popular safe haven.
The World Health Organization announced Monday that the death toll from Ebola in West Africa had topped 1,000 as of Aug. 9. The number of infected patients, including suspected cases, exceeded 1,800.
With no established treatment for Ebola and few options for prevention, this outbreak is proving extremely difficult to contain. Should the virus spread further, it could hinder corporate activity and eventually hurt the global economy.
Experts point to the effects of the 2003 outbreak of severe acute respiratory syndrome, or SARS, in Asia. Japanese and other airlines took a beating. Now, as a result of the Ebola crisis, Emirates has suspended direct flights to Guinea. British Airways has also temporarily halted flights to Sierra Leone through the end of this month.
Morgan Stanley was among the first financial institutions to issue to guidance to investors on the potential effects of the outbreak. The U.S. brokerage's Hong Kong unit on Monday pointed out how, by altering consumer behavior, SARS led to an economic downturn and stock declines. If Ebola sends global stock prices falling, many investors would grow more wary of risk and likely swap dollars and other currencies for yen. Put another way, another round of yen appreciation could be in store.
Hidenori Suezawa, a financial market and fiscal analyst at SMBC Nikko Securities, urged investors to stay calm in an Aug. 5 report. Given that Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone -- where the deaths and infections are concentrated -- have limited economic ties with developed countries, the outbreak is unlikely to have much of an effect on Japan's economy and markets, Suezawa noted.
Still, Suezawa warned that could change if Ebola spreads in Nigeria, which has had a small number of cases. With a population of about 170 million, Nigeria is one of Africa's largest economies. If the virus impedes exports of resources such as crude oil and natural gas, fuel prices could rise worldwide. A full-fledged outbreak in Nigeria may also increase the risk of the virus spreading to Europe, which has generally close relations with West Africa.
There have been reports of experimental drugs working on the virus. The desperate situation has prompted the WHO to effectively endorse the use of unproven treatments. And if a vaccine is developed, Suezawa said Ebola could cease to be a major risk over the medium and long term.
Yet it is unclear how quickly progress can be made toward mass-producing drugs and vaccines. For now, Ebola's economic effects appear limited, but it is too early to rule out a major impact.
For related stories, see this link:
http://asia.nikkei.com/Politics-Economy/Economy/Echoes-of-SARS-in-market-analysts-reports-on-Ebola
Posted : August 27, 2014 3:17 pm
Topic starter
What does mutation mean in Ebola Viruses?
WASHINGTON (AP) — A single funeral caused many.
Stephen Gire and other health researchers on the ground in Africa had some hope that the Ebola outbreak was coming under control or at least plateauing in late May. Then came the funeral of a healer in Guinea. More than a dozen of the mourners contracted the disease there, probably by washing or touching the body, and took it to Sierra Leone, according to a new genetic mapping of the Ebola virus that scientists hope will help them understand what makes this killer tick.
"You had this huge burst after it looked like the outbreak was starting to die down," Gire said. "It sort of threw a wrench in the response."
Ebola exploded after that funeral and has now killed at least 1,552 people in West Africa. It's probably more than that, with 40 percent of the cases in the last three weeks, according to the World Health Organization. WHO officials said Thursday the outbreak continues to accelerate and could reach more than 20,000 cases eventually.
Gire and more than 50 colleagues — five of whom died from Ebola while fighting the outbreak in Africa — have mapped the genetic code of this strain of Ebola, and in so doing showed how crucial that May funeral was. They hope to use that to track mutations that could become more worrisome the longer the outbreak lasts. This detailed genetic mapping also could eventually make a bit of a difference in the way doctors spot and fight the disease, especially with work in preliminary vaccines.
On Thursday, officials at the National Institutes of Health announced that they were launching safety trials on a preliminary vaccine for Ebola. Researchers have already checked that still-not-tested vaccine against some of the more than 350 mutations in this strain of Ebola to make sure the changes the disease is making won't undercut science's hurried efforts to fight it, said Pardis Sabeti, a scientist at Harvard University and its affiliated Broad Institute.
She and Gire, also at Broad and Harvard, are two of the lead authors of a study, published Thursday in the journal Science, that maps the killer disease strain based on specimens collected from 78 patients.
The virus has mutated more than 300 times from previous strains of Ebola, Gire said. Researchers have also pinpointed about 50 places in the genetic code where the virus has changed since this outbreak started. So far, they don't know what any of those mutations mean, but they hope to find out.
Gire said it is mutating in the faster side of the normal range for viruses of its type. That becomes worrisome because as time goes on and the disease spreads, it gives the strain more opportunity to mutate into something even harder to fight, perhaps making it stronger or easier to spread, Sabeti said. It could also mutate to make it weaker.
By putting the genetic underpinnings of this Ebola strain out in the public in a matter of days instead of the normal months or years, Sabeti hopes to rally researchers worldwide to look at the data, the changes in the disease, and find something that could help.
"We need to crowd source this outbreak response," Sabeti said. "I want high school students analyzing this sequence. You want people in every country working to do something."
Because this "phenomenally elegant study" is in real time, not years later, "it is worth its weight in whatever, gold, diamonds, platinum," said Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases. Fauci wasn't part of the study, but his agency did help fund it.
This study is "terrific" and has academic and practical value, said Erica Ollmann Saphire, a Scripps Research Institute professor and co-director of the global virus network. Saphire, who wasn't part of the study, said companies that are trying to find therapies for people already infected, such as those that use antibodies that bind to current strains, need to carefully track how this strain mutates to make sure their treatment works as best it can.
Some have wondered if the virulence of this outbreak is due to some more dangerous strain of Ebola. When scientists pore over the mutations they'll have a better idea of the answer, but so far nothing jumps out that says this version of the disease is genetically worse than others; the spread more likely can be attributed to population, social conditions and other human factors, Gire said.
Saphire noted this strain's death rate seems to be a bit lower than previous outbreaks, but Sabeti said it's not that much different. The research team knows about the death toll first hand: Six of the 59 study authors have died, two in the past week, Sabeti said.
Posted : August 28, 2014 9:34 pm
Liberian Ebola Survivor Praises Experimental Drug (ABC - video)
A Liberian health worker who recovered from Ebola after receiving an experimental drug urged the manufacturer to speed up its production and send it to Africa, while crowds celebrated in the streets Saturday after authorities reopened a slum that had been barricaded for more than a week to try to contain the disease.
Physician's assistant Kyndy Kobbah was expected to be released from hospital Saturday after she survived Ebola, which has been fatal in more than half the cases sweeping West Africa. Kobbah contracted the disease while working at a government-run hospital north of the capital.
[...]
"They need to make more Zmapp and send to us," she said.
Doctors have said there is no way to know whether ZMapp made a difference or if survivors like Kobbah recovered on their own, as about 45 percent of people infected in this outbreak have. The drug had never been tested in humans before it was given to two Americans who were infected with Ebola in Liberia. They survived Ebola and were released from an Atlanta hospital.
However, a study released online Friday by the journal Nature found that ZMapp healed all 18 monkeys infected with the deadly virus.
Posted : August 30, 2014 6:46 pm
Ebola outbreak: Five co-authors of latest study killed by virus before research was published
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Five co-authors of the latest study on Ebola were killed by the virus before their research was published, highlighting the huge risks undertaken by those working to combat its spread.The study, published on Thursday, discovered the virus has mutated many times during the outbreak in West Africa, making establishing a treatment more difficult.
Mbalu Fonnie, Alex Moigboi, Alice Kovoma, Mohamed Fullah and Sheik Umar Khan worked with lead researchers at Harvard University to examine the current outbreak.
Science Mag said all five were experienced members of the Kenema Government Hospital’s (KGH) Lassa fever team. Lassa fever infections have similar symptoms to Ebola.
Their work sequenced the virus genomes from 78 patients and traced the outbreak in Sierra Leone to a funeral of a healer, which a pregnant Kenema Government Hospital Ebola patient and other women who were also infected had attended.
Posted : August 30, 2014 6:48 pm
More Women Than Men Are Dying From Ebola
The current Ebola outbreak may ultimately infect as many as 20,000 people and a disproportionate number of those cases will be women, experts say.
Since this strain of the disease first hit Guinea in May, 1,552 people have succumbed to Ebola, which has been rapidly making its way through four countries in West Africa, the Associated Press reported. More women than men are contracting the disease though, since they traditionally serve as health care workers and are the ones who are expected to look after ill family members, according to UNICEF.
Women account for 55 to 60 percent of victims who have died from Ebola in the current epidemic in Liberia, Guinea and Sierra Leone, according UNICEF.
But figures may actually be even higher.
Health teams in Liberia recently reported that women made up 75 percent of victims who were infected or died from Ebola, The Washington Post reported.
The outbreak is being attributed to the consumption of infected bushmeat -- the meat of wild animals -- which many rely on for their livelihood and as their main source of protein, according to Irin News.
The disease spreads when there is direct contact with the blood, body fluids and tissues of infected animals or people, which is more of a risk for women who are expected to spearhead taking care of ill family members and preparing for funerals, according to UNICEF.
Posted : August 30, 2014 6:51 pm
And now its moved to Senegal:
Senegal Confirms First Case Of Ebola
DAKAR/CONAKRY Aug 29 (Reuters) - The West African state of Senegal became the fifth country to be hit by the world's worst Ebola outbreak on Friday, while riots broke out in neighboring Guinea's remote southeast where infection rates are rising fast.
In the latest sign that the outbreak of the virus, which has already killed at least 1,550 people, is spinning out of control, the World Health Organization (WHO) said that Ebola cases rose last week at the fastest pace since the epidemic began in West Africa in March.
The epidemic has defied efforts by governments to control it, prompting the leading charity fighting the outbreak, Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF), to call for the U.N. Security Council to take charge of efforts to stop it.
Posted : August 30, 2014 6:54 pm
First Human Trials of Ebola Vaccine Start Next Week
The National Institutes of Health will sponsor the first trial of the vaccine, one of several being developed against Ebola. It's fast-tracked the testing because of the outbreak of Ebola that is ravaging three West African countries.
"The early stage trial will begin initial human testing of a vaccine co-developed by NIAID and GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) and will evaluate the experimental vaccine's safety and ability to generate an immune system response in healthy adults," the NIH said in a statement. "Testing will take place at the NIH Clinical Center in Bethesda, Maryland."
Ebola has killed more than 1,500 people out of more than 3,000 infected in Liberia, West Africa and Guinea in the ongoing outbreak, by far the worst outbreak of Ebola ever seen. And the WHO says those numbers almost certainly understate the true numbers of those infected and killed. WHO predicted on Thursday that as many as 20,000 could become infected.
Posted : August 31, 2014 11:54 am
