We begin today’s coverage of the plague now stalking Africa with a dire prediction from Deutsche Welle:
Virologist: Fight against Ebola in Sierra Leone and Liberia is lost
The killer virus is spreading like wildfire, Liberia’s defense minister said on Tuesdayas he pleaded for UN assistance. A German Ebola expert tells DW the virus must “burn itself out” in that part of the world.
Jonas Schmidt-Chanasit of the Bernhard Nocht Institute for Tropical Medicine in Hamburg told DW that he and his colleagues are losing hope for Sierra Leone and Liberia, two of the countries worst hit by the recent Ebola epidemic.
“The right time to get this epidemic under control in these countries has been missed,” he said. That time was May and June. “Now it is too late.”
Schmidt-Chanasit expects the virus will “burn itself out” in this part of the world. With other words: It will more or less infect everybody and half of the population – in total about five million people – could die.
Another apocalyptic warning, via Punch Nigeria:
2.1m Nigerians at risk —Report
A new research study by Britain’s University of Oxford has revealed that 2.1 million Nigerians are at risk of contracting the Ebola Virus Disease.
According to the latest study published on Monday, the Ebola virus can spread to at least 15 more countries in West and Central Africa, pushing up overall number of people at risk of infection to 70 million.
The research titled, ‘Mapping the zoonotic niche of Ebola virus disease in Africa,’ compared historic outbreaks to the virus’s possible transmission in bats and chimpanzees to project how the virus could spread through its animal reservoir.
The Associated Press tallies:
35 deaths attributed to Ebola outbreak in Congo
The World Health Organization says that an Ebola outbreak in Congo is thought to have killed 35 people of the more than 60 sickened.
Congo, the site of the world’s first recorded Ebola outbreak, has had several flare-ups of the disease over the years. Officials say the current outbreak is not related to another taking place in West Africa blamed for the deaths of more than 2,200 people.
The U.N. health agency said Thursday that the Congo outbreak is concentrated in one county, and all of the 62 people believed to have contracted Ebola so far have been linked to one initial case. It said isolation units have been set up in each of the four affected villages, in a remote area of the Central African country’s northwest.
From France 24, World Health Organization Ebola specialist Dr. Zabulon Yoti discusses measures needed to contain the outbreak [despite the title, that’s the focus]:
Ebola Epidemic – West African economies overwhelmed
From Punch Nigeria, enlisting support:
Yero meets religious leaders on anti-Ebola plans
Governor Mukhtar Yero of Kaduna State on Thursday held a meeting with Christian and Muslim leaders to sensitise them on the Ebola virus disease.
Yero, who noted that it was part of efforts to curtail the spread of the deadly virus to the state, also told the religious leaders that the government would train 13,000 teachers in both private and public schools in the state before the September 22 resumption date for schools on how to handle the Ebola issue.
Speaking further on the Ebola virus, the governor said since the virus was a “special disease”, government would also place special emphasis on tackling its spread to the state.
Yero cautioned the media against sensationalising the disease in their reportage, noting that rather, the media should be in the vanguard of educating and enlightening residents of the state on the virus.
Liberian Observer conveys a recommendation:
‘Include Ebola Survivors on Task Forces’
WHO Consultant Suggests
A health consultant to the World Health Organization (WHO) assigned in Grand Cape Mount County, Dr. Akpaka Kalu, has called for the inclusion of Ebola survivors on the National Ebola Taskforce to educate citizens about the danger and prevention of the disease.
Dr. Kalu made the recommendation during the county’s Ebola Taskforce coordination meeting held on Wednesday in Sinje Town, Garwula District.
According to him, the inclusion of survivors on the taskforce was important, “because the survivors should be used as psycho-social counselors in the fight against the deadly epidemic.”
“Instead of bringing survivors on the taskforce,” Dr. Kalu lamented that unfortunately, the survivors are being stigmatized by Liberians rather than looking at them as resourced persons to educate others about the danger of the virus.
The Monrovia Inquirer covers an assessment:
Samukai Outlines Effects Of Ebola…Wants Support To Lift Travel Ban
Defense Minisrer, Brownie Samukai has outlined the effects of the deadly Ebola virus in Liberia.
Delivering a special statement at the United Nations Security Council, on Tuesday Minister Samukai said this “health emergency is affecting every sector of the Liberian society.”
Min. Samukai added that the nation’s economy has been very seriously disrupted. He said Local economic activities such as domestic food production, mining, and transport services have been undermined.
“Moreover, the slowdown in domestic food production, particularly in affected areas of the country, has negatively impacted food supply, thus triggering increasing demand for imported commodities, at higher prices, minister Samukai said.
From the Liberian Observer, some good news:
Firestone Medical Center Discharges 6 Ebola Survivors
The Firestone Medical Center in Duside on September 2 and 9, discharged six survivors from its Ebola Treatment Unit. The first patient, Madam Jenneh Farsue, the wife of a Firestone Liberia employee, contracted the deadly Ebola virus in July/August. She was discharged following several weeks of intensive medical care at the Firestone Hospital and after testing negative of the virus. Five more persons were discharged and reintegrated from Isolation into the communities on the 9th of September.
In addition to the hospital and Ebola Treatment Unit, Firestone Liberia also runs a reintegration program to help those returning to the community following isolation or treatment for Ebola. Speaking at the reintegration program for Mrs. Farsue in Division 28, Cubitts Community, Dr. Lyndon G. Mabande, the Medical Director of the Firestone Health Services, called on residents of the community to interact with Mrs. Farsue as they used to do and accept her back into the community because she is healthy. He described her recovery as “a true success story in the fight against the deadly Ebola virus.”
He called on his fellow teammates, residents and the general public to adhere to the preventive measures stipulated by the Ministry of Health and Social Welfare and the World Health Organization (WHO). Mabande further appealed to Liberians to stop the denial syndrome so people can be treated early, a key in the fight against Ebola. “Come to the hospital soon. If you come soon, with all we can put together, you may come home saved,” Dr. Mabande said. He also commended the medical staff for their work in the fight against this disease. “Let us continue to cooperate. If we work in isolation, we are not going to succeed, and it requires team work,” he told the gathering.
Punch Nigeria covers anger over austerity on the front lines:
Ebola outbreak: Anger in Lagos infectious diseases hospital
Members of staff of the Infectious Disease Hospital, Yaba, Lagos, have expressed anger over the impending removal of the hazard allowance component of their September salary. Sources within the hospital told our correspondent that the Lagos State government has excised the allowance, which has been paid for years in the September payroll.
“We have sighted the payroll for September already and there is no provision for this allowance which has been paid to us for more than four years. This is really terrible. If government wants to remove anybody’s allowance, should it be from us workers at the IDH? What kind of problem is this?” one of the workers of the hospital lamented.
Earlier, volunteers at the isolation ward had protested the non-payment of their daily allowance since August 30.
New Europe lends a hand:
UN allocates $3.8 million to support a UN air service operating in Ebola-struck West Africa
The United Nations humanitarian chief has allocated $3.8 million from an emergency fund to support a U.N. air service operating in the Ebola-struck West African region.
Valerie Amos said Wednesday that a reduction in commercial air flights as a result of the Ebola outbreak has hindered the urgent deployment of health workers and supplies.
She said the $3.8 million from the Central Emergency Response Fund will assist the U.N. Humanitarian Air Service, run by the World Food Program, to move humanitarian personnel, medical supplies and equipment and aid rapidly to remote locations in Guinea, Liberia, Nigeria and Sierra Leone.
After the jump, a call for a military-like response from the North, anxieties over U.S. military “help,” a warning about corruption, Ebola fears Down Under, and another musical response. . .
From the Guardian, a plea:
Scientist who identified Ebola virus calls for ‘quasi-military intervention’
London-based microbiologist Professor Peter Piot urges creation of UN peacekeeping force to fight ‘catastrophe’ in west Africa
The microbiologist who co-discovered the Ebola virus in 1976 has urged David Cameron to support a “quasi-military intervention” to stop the current epidemic, which is spreading unchecked in west Africa.
Professor Peter Piot, the director of the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, said the outbreak was now so bad that a UN peacekeeping force ought to be mobilised in Sierra Leone and Liberia with huge donations of beds, ambulances and trucks as well as an army of clinicians, doctors and nurses.
“At the moment, I’m not so optimistic, I’m pessimistic about how to control it. It’s one thing to isolate patients or put a small village or town in quarantine; it’s another thing when entire countries are affected,” he said. “This requires a state of emergency and a kind of quasi-military intervention and it’s not my style to exaggerate.”
He said the US and UK efforts were good, but not good enough. “It’s all going far too slow; I think there’s still no sense that this is an absolute emergency and catastrophe,” he said.
But Al Jazeera America raises a caution:
Aid groups, analysts give US military wary welcome in fight against Ebola
White House pledged armed forces to provide medical aid and security in bid to stem spread of deadly virus
Aid agencies have cautiously welcomed the United States’ announcement that it would deliver aid to health workers in West African countries hit by an Ebola outbreak that has killed at least 2,296 people.
With the deadly virus still raging in Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone, some see the intervention of the world’s most powerful military as a last resort — and best hope.
But Doctors Without Borders (MSF) and the World Health Organization (WHO) — while applauding the U.S. move — said they don’t want the security detail for health care workers that President Obama pledged on Sunday.
Punch Nigeria conveys another plea:
W’African nations approach Lagos for help
Some West African countries where Ebola Virus Disease is currently spreading have contacted the Lagos State Government for assistance on how to contain the deadly virus.
The Deputy Director, Lagos State Ministry of Health, Mrs. Omowunmi George, who stated this in Lagos, also noted that the survival rate of the detected and quarantined victims in Lagos had been the highest among areas so far afflicted with the virus.
She spoke at an Ebola awareness campaign in Ikorodu. George said out of 15 confirmed cases in Lagos, only five had died and virtually others had been assisted to overcome.
And from the Liberian Observer, a warning about corruption:
Anyone Who Eats Ebola Money Will Go to Jail
Min. Amara Konneh Warns Ebola Fund Handlers, as 12 Ebola Survivors Are Discharged
Acting Finance and Development Planning Minister Amara M. Konneh has warned all of those handling Ebola monies that if any is caught illegally eating Ebola money that person will go to jail.
Acting Minister Konneh said it was too early to accuse people of “eating Ebola Trust Fund money”. He, however, emphasized: “But let me say this to those of you receiving money to fight Ebola, when you eat Ebola money, you will go to jail.”
He disclosed that the Liberian Government would cut “wasteful spending” and redirect such funding to Ebola treatment centers like ELWA-2 and others all across the country. He also told those handling the funds that proper accountability would be demanded off them in order to ensure that Liberians and sick patients get the “best care possible.”
The Liberian Observer again, with more anger:
‘Poor’ Ebola Response Angers Rock Spring Valley Residents
–Police Remove roadblocks, health workers remove dead body
Twenty nine-year-old Frederick Nyanti of Rock Spring Valley, on Capitol By-Pass died on Tuesday, September 10 at 5 p.m., according to a resident who requested his name not to be disclosed.
But it was on Thursday, September 12, he said, after angry residents blocked the Benson and By-Pass junction that brought police and medical officers to the scene.
“When Frederick died on Tuesday evening,” the witness said, “I called the Ebola Response Unit for more than 10 times.” He told the Daily Observer that at each time he called, “an attendant would tell me that response was on its way.”
Meanwhile, the body of the deceased, he said was locked up in one of the rooms in the family house, which sat overlooking the Du River.
From New York Times, another sort of angst:
Stabbing With Syringe in Nigeria Raises Concerns of Ebola as Weapon
Experts say it would be extremely hard for a group to grow large amounts of the virus and turn it into a weapon that could be dispersed over a wide area, infecting and killing many people.
“The bad guys are more likely to kill themselves trying to develop it,” said Dr. Philip K. Russell, a retired major general who was the commander of the Army Medical Research and Development Command.
But it is harder to totally discount the possibility of a smaller attack, perhaps like the one at the airport in Lagos. Another possibility would be suicide infectors, people who deliberately infected themselves and carried the virus out of the epidemic zone to sicken others.
“To truly isolate the virus takes a lot of resources,” said Dr. Ryan C. W. Hall, a Florida psychiatrist who has written about the psychiatric impacts of bioterrorism attacks. “But if you have people who are willing to die and willing to inject themselves with the blood of someone who has been infected, you don’t need a Biosafety Level 4 lab,” he said, referring to the special containment facilities used to work with the most deadly pathogens.
Mashable covers a highly publicized suspected case:
Australian Man Isolated in Hospital After Possible Ebola Exposure
A man has been rushed to a hospital in Queensland due to fears that he may have contracted the Ebola virus.
The 27-year-old man from the Gold Coast has been seriously ill for two days after returning from the Democratic Republic of Congo. He was taken by emergency services at 7:40 a.m. local time on Thursday morning from the Southport watchhouse.
On Wednesday night, the man was arrested for trespassing in Surfers Paradise and told officers he felt sick as he was being bailed on Thursday morning, The Gold Coast Bulletin reported.
And from the Guardian, the inevitable white terror:
Reports of Ebola panic in Queensland before man cleared of contracting virus
State’s top health officer stressed tiny risk as social media suggested people were cancelling trips and taking children out of school
A Gold Coast man suspected of contracting the deadly Ebola virus has been cleared.
Queensland Health confirmed on Thursday evening all blood tests taken from the 27-year-old had returned a negative result.
Earlier the state’s chief health officer, Dr Jeannette Young, had to call for calm following reports that tourists had begun checking out of their accommodation and parents had pulled children out of schools.
And to close, via Radio Africa, another Ebola song, this one from Liberia:
EBOLA DANCE
