First up, the reality, via Al Jazeera English:
WHO: no control over spread of Ebola
UN health authority says almost half of Ebola patients have died, and warns disease will spread to other countries
The Ebola outbreak shows no signs of abating, has killed 3,879 people and threatens more Western African nations poorly equipped to deal with the disease, the World Health Organisation has said in a grim update.
The UN’s health authority said on Wednesday that a total of 8,033 people had caught the infection up to October 5, and 3,879 of those had died. Liberia and Sierra Leone, the two worst-hit nations, had less than a quarter of the beds needed.
“The situation in Guinea, Liberia, and Sierra Leone continues to deteriorate, with widespread and persistent transmission of Ebola,” it said. “There is no evidence that the EVD epidemic in West Africa is being brought under control.”
It said a reported fall in the number of new cases in Liberia was “unlikely to be genuine” and rather reflected how responders were being overwhelmed by data.
From CNN, a remarkable look at the African frontline reality by way of a forehead-mounted camera:
Ebola battle through nurse’s eyes
Program notes:
CNN’s Nima Elbagir reports on the desperate effort to save Ebola patients from the viewpoint of those taking care of them.
And a parallel alarm from the Guardian:
Ebola outbreak could cost West African economy $32.6bn, World Bank warns
Bank says failure to adequately contain the virus would have potentially catastrophic consequences for the economy
The outbreak of Ebola could cost the West African economy $32.6bn (£20.3bn) by the end of 2015 unless the epidemic is quickly contained,the World Bank has warned.
The Bank said the future path of Ebola was highly uncertain and failure to adequately contain the virus would have potentially catastrophic consequences for the economy.
More than 3,400 people have died after contracting Ebola in the three most greatly affected countries: Guinea, Liberia, and Sierra Leone.
Jim Yong Kim, the president of the World Bank, said the virus posed a global threat and urged the international community to respond decisively.
And the shrieking alarm from [where else?] the London Daily Mail:
‘It’s literally, “Katie bar the door”’: Marine Corps four-star general warns of ‘mass migration into the US’ if Ebola epidemic hits Central America
Gen. John Kelly said Ebola in countries like Guatemala, El Salvador and Honduras would bring a new human flood to the US-Mexico border
‘Katie bar the door’ refers to a frantic effort to stop a threat from reaching its target
Kelly recalled seeing a line of people waiting to cross a Central American border, all of whom said they were from Liberia
Illegal immigrants have poured into the US from those countries this year, including tens of thousands of unaccompanied children
Kelly predicted that the deadly disease can’t be prevented from spreading: ‘There is no way we can keep Ebola in West Africa’
The Marine Corps general who leads America’s Southern Command warned Tuesday that the U.S. could face an unprecedented flood of immigrants from the south if the Ebola virus epidemic hits Central America.
‘If it breaks out, it’s literally, “Katie bar the door”,’ Gen John Kelly told said during a public discussion at the National Defense University. ‘And there will be mass migration into the United States.’
And a situation report, via CCTV Africa:
Ebola: Fresh concerns as the virus outpaces mitigation efforts
Program notes:
Health experts in the United States say the Ebola outbreak is unlikely to be eradicated unless a vaccine or other drug treatment is successfully developed. Up until now, the emphasis has been on halting the spread of Ebola by rapidly scaling up public health care facilities. But, experts now say those efforts are unlikely to keep pace with the disease. Daniel Ryntjes reports.
From the New York Times, in case you hadn’t read it before:
Dallas Ebola Patient, Thomas Eric Duncan, Dies
Thomas Eric Duncan, 42, the patient with the first case of Ebola diagnosed in the United States and the Liberian man at the center of a widening public health scare, died in isolation at a hospital here on Wednesday, hospital authorities said.
Mr. Duncan died at 7:51 a.m. at Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital, more than a week after the virus was detected in him on Sept. 30. His condition had worsened in recent days to critical from serious as medical personnel worked to support his fluid and electrolyte levels, crucial to recovery in a disease that causes bleeding, vomiting and diarrhea. Mr. Duncan was also treated with an experimental antiviral drug, brincidofovir, after the Food and Drug Administration approved its use on an emergency basis.
“The past week has been an enormous test of our health system, but for one family it has been far more personal,” Dr. David Lakey, the commissioner of the Texas Department of State Health Services, said in a statement. “Today they lost a dear member of their family. They have our sincere condolences, and we are keeping them in our thoughts.”
CNBC posits the inevitable:
Could Dallas hospital be liable for Ebola death?
Thomas Eric Duncan, the Ebola patient in Dallas who died Wednesday, may have been sent home while ill with the disease, and the doctors and nurses treating him may have failed to act on his report of coming from West Africa.
But will those health-care providers or their hospital be legally liable? Not likely, Texas legal experts say.
Tort reform and other legal changes in Texas since 2003 have made it one of the most difficult states in which to bring a medical malpractice suit, said Charles Silver, a law professor at the University of Texas at Austin.
“I doubt that you could find a plaintiff’s attorney to even take this case unless it was solely for the publicity value,” Silver said. “I can’t see why somebody would take this case for just strictly a contingent fee.
Meanwhile in California, this from the Los Angeles Times:
8th person tested for Ebola in L.A. County, 8th negative result
A man who was admitted to Centinela Hospital Medical Center in Inglewood with Ebola-like symptoms has tested negative for the deadly virus, hospital officials confirmed Wednesday.
The unidentified man, who officials said was admitted to the hospital Tuesday night, is the latest such case in the U.S. amid heightened screening and other measures put in place to prevent the virus from spreading.
Since the Ebola outbreak began in West Africa in December, there have been seven other instances in Los Angeles County in which patients were initially deemed to potentially have Ebola. Patients are quarantined until tests are completed.
Reuters covers belated preparations:
Dallas hospitals set up Ebola wards as city watches for spread
Hospitals in Dallas have set up Ebola isolation wards and revamped procedures to deal with new patients, as the sprawling Texas city waits to see if the deadly virus spreads following the first case diagnosed on U.S. soil.
Some 48 people are being monitored by health officials in Dallas after Thomas Eric Duncan, a Liberian visiting family in Dallas, came down with the disease in late September. He died early on Wednesday, hospital officials said.
Ebola’s incubation period can last as long as three weeks, but victims typically start showing symptoms within 10-14 days, making this week crucial, according to state officials.
From the Guardian, help in vein:
Ebola survivor gives blood for transfusion with Nebraska patient
Journalist Ashoka Mukpo, the most recent patient to arrive in the US for treatment, will receive blood of Dr Kent Brantley
The first American flown back to the US for treatment of Ebola this summer has donated blood to the most recent one to return from west Africa with the disease.
The Nebraska Medical Center said Wednesday that it called Dr Kent Brantly on Tuesday to tell him his blood type matches that of Ashoka Mukpo, a freelance video journalist who arrived at the medical center Monday.
The hospital says Brantly was driving through Kansas City, Missouri, and was able to give blood locally that was flown to Omaha. It says Mukpo will receive the transfusion Wednesday.
The Los Angeles Times watches the airports:
Ebola screening of travelers to U.S. may begin this weekend at 5 airports
Officials hope to begin screening air passengers entering the United States for Ebola as soon as this weekend, the White House confirmed Wednesday.
White House spokesman Josh Earnest confirmed at a press briefing Wednesday that the stepped-up screening is planned for John F. Kennedy International Airport, Newark Liberty, Dulles International, Chicago O’Hare, and Hartsfield International Airport in Atlanta.
Earnest said 94% of air travelers from the three affected West African countries — Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone — pass through those five ports of entry, which he said amounts to about 150 passengers at all five airports daily.
More from the Associated Press:
Obama: New Ebola measures add layer of protection
President Barack Obama describes says new screening measures at key international airports are “just belt-and-suspenders” to add a layer of protection to measures already employed.
He says the new measures will include more screening questions for passengers arriving from the countries worst hit by the outbreak — Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea. He says the procedures will allow United States officials to isolate, evaluate and monitor travelers and collect any information about their contacts.
He says the case of Ebola in the U.S. — a patient who died Wednesday in Dallas — illustrates that “we don’t have a lot of margin for error.” But he said chance of an Ebola outbreak in the U.S. “remains extremely low.
A white Southerner says old school white Southerner, via The Hill:
Vitter: Block Ebola funds until Obama details plan
Sen. David Vitter (R-La.) is urging his colleagues to block any additional funding to combat Ebola until the Obama administration more clearly details its plans to stop the deadly outbreak.
In a letter Wednesday to the leaders of two congressional panels, Vitter questioned the administration’s request to shift $1 billion in funds toward Ebola prevention.
“I strongly support addressing this crisis with the full force of the government to help bring the epidemic under control,” he wrote. “However, I ask you to oppose fully allowing the additional $1 billion in reprogramming requests until previously requested additional information is available for members of Congress to be fully briefed.”
But Vitter said more should be done, suggesting the administration should bar foreign nationals from countries dealing with Ebola from entering the U.S.
“Instead of using powers given to him, the President is requesting $1 billion for a plan that has not been presented to members of Congress, focuses on Africa, and largely ignores our own borders,” he wrote.
The Verge makes a point familiar for esnl readers:
Ebola panic is getting pretty racist
The real culprit in Ebola’s spread has been cuts to public health budgets
The first time a reporter asked a CDC representative whether Thomas Duncan — the first patient to receive an Ebola diagnosis in the US — was an American citizen, the question seemed pretty tame. One could excuse it as a general inquiry about the Duncan’s nationality during the first press conference announcing his diagnosis. But after the CDC declined to answer, the question kept coming. “Is he a citizen?” reporters repeatedly asked. “Is he one of us?” they meant.
The current Ebola crisis has been tinged with racism and xenophobia. The disease rages in West Africa, and has therefore largely infected people of color. But somehow Americans were among the first to get a dose of Zmapp — the experimental anti-Ebola drug — this summer, despite the fact that Africans have been dying from the current Ebola epidemic since its emergence in Guinea in December. There are a lot of reasons for that, of course. The drug is potentially dangerous and only exists in short supply. It’s also extremely costly. And it originated in Canada, so it’s unsurprising that North America controls its use.
And now that Ebola has “reached” the US, American privilege — white privilege, especially — is floating to the surface, in even less subtle ways.
On a related note, from Public Radio International:
Why doubling down on aid to West Africa will do more to halt Ebola than increased airport screening
Although many treatment centers in Liberia are at capacity, local and international staff at most facilities are soldiering on, according to physician Sheri Fink, who is reporting on the outbreak for the New York Times. Fink is now in Suakoko, Liberia, at an Ebola clinic run by the International Medical Corps.
She says Liberians in that rural outpost fear that [Dalla fatality Tomas] Duncan’s death, along with increased screenings at airports worldwide, might mean fewer international volunteers will step forward to work in Ebola wards.
“They’re really worried that this will have a dampening effect on getting volunteers to come over here, where you really need to fight this disease at its source, and help the people out which is going to contribute to the US protection as well,” Fink says. “The fear is that if volunteers think that they might not be able to get back to their countries of origin, or have difficulty with that, that could be a problem.”
Another shrieker from the London Daily Mail:
BREAKING: Texas sheriff’s deputy rushed to hospital with Ebola symptoms after attending apartment of ‘patient zero’ who died today
Dallas County Sheriff Deputy Michael Monning went to an urgent care clinic in Frisco, Texas with his wife on Wednesday
A witness at the clinic described him as ‘hunched over and flushed’
The deputy was inside the apartment where Ebola patient Thomas Duncan fell ill – the officer wasn’t wearing protective clothing
The CDC said the person is not one of the 48 contacts being monitored
The CareNow clinic was placed in lock-down
Liberian national Mr Duncan, 42, died from Ebola on Wednesday morning
Sgt Monning’s family said today the CDC had told them that their loved one was not at risk and they were just taking precautions
United Press International sounds a softer note:
Officials: Dallas sheriff’s deputy unlikely to have Ebola
The son of Texas Sheriff’s Deputy Michael Monnig said there is “almost no chance” his father is infected with the Ebola virus.
A Dallas sheriff’s deputy who visited the apartment occupied by Ebola patient Thomas Duncan is unlikely to have been infected with the deadly disease, officials said.
Michael Monnig’s son said Wednesday his father decided to visit a clinic because he had stomach pains and felt tired. Monnig had been monitoring his temperature since a visit to Duncan’s apartment last week, but Logan Monnig said his father spent very little time there and did not come into direct contact with Duncan.
“We don’t want to cause a panic,” Logan Monnig told the Dallas Morning News. “There is almost no chance my dad would have Ebola.” Mark Piland, the fire chief in Frisco, where Monnig lives, concurred. He described Monnig’s illness as a “low-risk event.”
Another false alarm, this one in the Big Apple, via the New York Post:
NYC man cleared after being hospitalized for symptoms of Ebola
A Harlem man showing Ebola-like symptoms was taken to Bellevue Hospital on Wednesday, sources told The Post.
The 31-year-old, who had recently visited Nigeria, was later cleared by doctors after a battery of tests, sources said.
The FDNY confirmed that an ambulance responded to a call for a patient who was feeling sick at the Center for Urban Community Services and took the person to the city hospital around 12:42 p.m. His symptoms included fever, vomiting and diarrhea, the sources said.
On to Spain and the latest alarm from El País:
Second nursing assistant admitted to hospital with a fever
The woman formed part of the team that cared for the Spanish missionaries with Ebola
A second nursing assistant was admitted to hospital in Madrid on Tuesday night showing symptoms that could correspond to infection with the Ebola virus. The woman formed part of the medical team that treated two Spanish missionaries with Ebola, who were repatriated from Africa and later died in care. Another nursing assistant from the same team, Teresa Romero, was confirmed to have contracted Ebola on Monday and is being treated in Madrid’s Carlos III hospital, where this second woman has also been admitted.
According to a spokesperson from the La Paz and Carlos III hospitals, the suspected victim is running a fever, and is under observation. No further information was given, and it is not known whether the nursing assistant advised the medical authorities of her temperature, or whether she is one of the 50 or so people being monitored by doctors. Most of these formed part of the team who took care of the missionaries, and the remainder are medical staff who came into contact with Romero on Monday before she was placed in isolation.
The second potential victim was “very frightened” given that she is “a friend” of Romero, said hospital sources. The woman worked the morning shift on the team that cared for missionaries Miguel Pajares and Manuel García Viejo, who both died several days after being brought back to Spain. “They have told us that she is fine, but they have admitted her just in case,” the same sources added.
From the Guardian, the first of a barrage of allegations:
Spanish nurse reported Ebola symptoms many times before being quarantined
Teresa Romero Ramos says when she first told health authorities of her symptoms she was given only paracetamol
Her first contact with health authorities was on 30 September when she complained of a slight fever and fatigue. Romero Ramos called a specialised service dedicated to occupational risk at the Carlos III hospital where she worked and had treated an Ebola patient, said Antonio Alemany from the regional government of Madrid. But as the nurse’s fever had not reached 38.6C, she was advised to visit her local clinic where she was reportedly prescribed paracetamol.
Days later, according to El País newspaper, Romero Ramos called the hospital again to complain about her fever. No action was taken.
On Monday, she called the Carlos III hospital again, this time saying she felt terrible. Rather than transport her to the hospital that had treated the two missionaries who had been repatriated with Ebola, Romero Ramos was instructed to call emergency services and head to the hospital closest to her home. She was transported to the Alcorcón hospital by paramedics who were not wearing protective gear, El País reported.
On arrival at the hospital, Romero Ramos warned staff that she feared she had contracted Ebola. Despite the warning, she remained in a bed in the emergency room while she waited for her test results. She was separated from other patients only by curtains, hospital staff said on Tuesday.
More from the Guardian:
Ebola crisis: Spanish health workers attack poor training for combating virus
Doctor treating Spanish nurse says she might have become accidentally infected with Ebola when taking off her protective equipment
Spanish health professionals have taken aim at the scant amount of training offered to those on the frontline fighting the Ebola virus as the investigation continues into how a Spanish nurse became the first known person to contract the disease outside of west Africa.
On Wednesday, the doctor treating Ebola patient Teresa Romero Ramos said the infection might have been caused by “an accident” when the 44-year-old was taking off her protective equipment.
Germán Ramírez said he had spoken to the nurse three times in an effort to home in how she got infected. Romero Ramos, he said, believes she might have touched her face with her gloves while she was taking off her protective equipment.
In an interview from her hospital bed, Romero Ramos told Spanish broadcaster Cuatro that while she had been given training on how to put on and take off the protective equipment, it was “little training”. She refused to give more details.
Still more from RT:
Spain’s Ebola-infected nurse not immediately isolated, treated in cuts-hit hospital
Healthcare activists report that Madrid’s authorities decided to “dismantle” the infectious diseases center at the Carlos III hospital just months before the Ebola patients were brought there.
The “dismantling” has led to Ebola being “treated in a place that did not meet adequate security conditions,” according to a spokesman for the Public Health Service Defense Federation, Dr Marciano Sánchez Bayle.
“The whole section devoted to infectious illnesses has been closed,” he explained in an interview with Euronews. “The professionals who worked there have been moved to other positions. The laboratory was closed, and so was the intensive care unit. It’s just to say that, one way or another, its capacity to take care of illnesses with these characteristics has been most remarkably reduced.”
Sky News adds insult to injury:
Spanish Nurse Found Out She Had Ebola Online
The 40-year-old says doctors failed to tell her she had the deadly disease and she only realised after reading it on her phone
And some other notable headlines from El País:
Madrid health chief accuses Ebola victim of lying to doctors
Francisco José Rodríguez denies any failures regarding training of medical teams
Health workers demand resignations over Ebola infection
“We did not have the infrastructure to deal with a virus of this importance,” says labor union
Neighbors of woman with Ebola left in dark by authorities
No attempt made on Tuesday to seal off building or apartment of Teresa Romero
From the New York Times, a canine excess:
Spain, Amid Protests, Kills Dog of Ebola-Infected Nurse
A dog named Excalibur who belonged to an Ebola-infected nurse was put down on Wednesday, even as protesters and animal rights activists surrounded the Madrid home of the nurse and her husband. A online petition calling for the dog’s life to be spared had drawn hundreds of thousands of signatures.
The furor came amid questions about whether dogs can get and transmit the disease.
In the United States, a spokesman for the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Thomas Skinner, said Wednesday that studies had shown that dogs can have an immune response to Ebola, meaning that they can become infected. But he said there have been no reports of dogs or cats developing Ebola symptoms or passing the disease to other animals or to people.
And from the Associated Press, a sobering pronouncement:
WHO: Spain’s Ebola case won’t be last in Europe
“What happened in Spain is unfortunate, but given the size of the outbreak in West Africa, we can expect to see more cases in different countries, including in Europe,” said Dr. Isabelle Nuttall, a director at the World Health Organization tasked with helping countries prepare for Ebola. West Africa is currently battling the biggest-ever outbreak of Ebola, which doubles in size roughly every three weeks.
WHO earlier issued guidelines for all countries on how to prepare for the arrival of suspected and confirmed cases, and the agency doesn’t see any reason to change that advice in the aftermath of the Spanish infection, Nuttall said.
“At the top of the priority list is good training and infection-control practices before any Ebola cases arrive,” Nuttall said. She said the agency’s efforts were focused on helping countries in Africa. “We’re not too worried about preparations in Europe,” she said.
And from News Corp Australia:
Sydney Airport health scare sparks panic
A HEALTH scare has thrown Sydney Airport into chaos with a sick passenger who was vomiting blood causing a flight to be grounded and quarantine officials called to the scene.
The Sydney to Darwin flight JQ 672 was turned around overnight when the man in his 50s fell seriously ill while on board a Jetstar flight. Fears his condition is highly contagious were evident as he was treated by paramedics wearing protective hazmat suits.
A Jetstar spokesman told news.com.au the man had been vomiting and the crew were advised the best course of action was to turn the fight around so the man could be treated in Sydney.
Hospital sources have also confirmed the man was not suffering from a contagious disease, Today has reported.
After the jump, on to the real front lines in Africa, starting with that American military presence and a hands-on retraction, Marines added to the mix, and British troops on the way, an EU-organized airlift, a U.N. medic stricken in Liberia, the heavy price paid by health workers, another tragic consequence for mothers and children, a walkout by burial squads and its rapid end in Sierra Leone, angry Liberians take vehicular retribution, the president takes aim at more civil liberties while another politician fires back, survivors rejected on coming home, tangible good news in Nigeria and an African countries outreach to still-stricken countries, while the country remains on alert in the schools and alarm spreads at airports over possible contagion from passengers arriving from the U.S. and Europe, a computing-for-Ebola computer challenge, and Big Pharma prepares to gamble. . .
From the Washington Post, a general retreats from his position:
General takes back comments on U.S. troops treating Ebola patients
The top U.S. commander overseeing operations in Africa said Tuesday that a small number of U.S. troops would be involved in treating patients with the Ebola virus directly, contradicting previous U.S. officials who said they would have no direct involvement with them. But the general corrected the record a short time afterward, saying they will work only with samples from patients.
The confusion came out of a news conference at the Pentagon, and underscored the sensitivities surrounding the deployment to West Africa of up to 4,000 U.S. service members as part of Washington’s response to the public health crisis. The Obama administration has said repeatedly that no U.S. troops would be involved in treating patients, and would instead focus primarily on constructing treatment centers and providing logistical support to health workers, including transportation.
The Associated Press sends in the Marines:
Pentagon: 100 US Marines heading to Liberia
The Pentagon says 100 Marines will go to Liberia on Thursday with helicopters and other transportation to help the military get to locations around the country and help with the Ebola fight.
The Pentagon press secretary, Navy Rear Adm. John Kirby, says the Marines are part of a special air-ground task force out of Spain.
He says this probably will be a temporary assignment, and the Marines will remain until soldiers from the 101st Airborne Division at Fort Campbell, Kentucky, arrive.
The soldiers will get to Liberia later this month. The Marines will bring four MV-22 Ospreys and two KC-130 refueling aircraft to help get troops and supplies to remote locations.
From the Guardian, Brits on the way:
British troops to be sent to help fight Ebola
Six hundred further military personnel – as well as helicopters and a ship – to head to Sierra Leone to help contain the outbreak
Britain is to deploy 600 extra military personnel to Sierra Leone next week to help combat Ebola. They will join 150 already in place and will be backed up by a ship, planes and helicopters.
The decision was made at a meeting of Cobra, the government’s national emergencies committee, in Downing Street on Wednesday, where David Cameron was reassured by his officials that the risk to public health in the UK remains low.
He was briefed by Dame Sally Davies, the chief medical officer for England, and Dr Paul Cosford, the head of Public Health England, who said training on how to deal with suspected Ebola cases had already been given to ambulance medics, hospitals, NHS 111, GPs and other key public health workers. Information posters for passengers on recognising the signs of Ebola will also be put up in UK airports.
Voice of America covers a training:
US Medical Workers Get Crash Course on Treating Ebola on Frontlines
Developed by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention as part of its escalated response to the worst Ebola outbreak on record, the three-day program teaches how to safely treat patients in West Africa with the virus, which causes fever and bleeding and is often fatal.
There is an urgent need for doctors, nurses and health care workers to volunteer in the hardest-hit countries, where public health systems were weak even before the outbreak.
The course, held at an old Army base in Anniston, Alabama, about 90 miles (145 km) from Atlanta, will provide instruction for about 40 people a week through January.
The European Commission announces help on the way:
Ebola Crisis: EU organises airlift operation to West Africa
The European Union is scaling up its response to the Ebola disease in West Africa with an airlift operation to the affected countries. The European Commission’s Emergency Response Coordination Centre (ERCC) will facilitate the transportation of relief items to West Africa. In addition, the EU will fund and coordinate if necessary the evacuation of international staff from Liberia, Guinea and Sierra Leone.
A quarter of the new €4 million funding will be allocated to UNICEF, enabling three Boeing 747 cargo planes to transport vital material to Sierra Leone, Liberia and Guinea. The first plane will take-off on Friday, carrying 100 metric tons of emergency equipment from Amsterdam to Freetown, Sierra Leone. The supplies and equipment include personal protection equipment, including masks and gloves, as well as essential medicines and hygiene supplies.
In addition, the remaining €3 million will help in the setting up of a medical evacuation system, coordinated by the ERCC, that will enable international workers in West Africa diagnosed with the Ebola virus disease (EVD) to be evacuated in less than 48 hours by plane to hospitals within Europe that are equipped to deal with the disease.
From the Sun in Lagos, Nigeria, a U.N. medic stricken in Liberia:
U.N. medic in Liberia tests positive for Ebola
An international medical official with the U.N. Mission in Liberia has tested positive for the Ebola virus and is receiving treatment, the U.N. said on Wednesday.
The official, who was not identified, is the second member of the mission, known as UNMIL, to contract Ebola. The first died on Sept. 25. The staff member reported having symptoms to UNMIL medics on Sunday, a statement said.
“The UNMIL Medical team has conducted immediate and robust contact tracing to ensure all people that came into contact with both staff members while they were symptomatic are assessed and quarantined,” it said.
From the Guardian, a heavy price paid:
Ebola crisis: how health workers on west African frontline are paying with their lives
The epidemic has exposed weak healthcare systems and left nearly 3,500 dead, but far more might have died if not for the courage of local health workers
The day, 21 July, began like any other Monday for Ameyo Adadevoh, a doctor in Africa’s most populous city, Lagos. In a crowded midtown district, the usual jumble of patients awaited at the hospital where Adadevoh was known to sometimes give free drugs to those who could not afford it. Among them was a patient who had been wheeled in the previous evening, feverish and vomiting, diagnosed with severe malaria.
In fact, Liberian-American civil servant Patrick Sawyer had slipped through three layers of security – a quarantine order, and airport checks in Liberia and Nigeria – intended to stem an outbreak in three west African countries. Within 24 hours, he became Nigeria’s Ebola patient zero, the small hospital was forced to become a makeshift Ebola ward, and Adadevoh, an endocrinologist, found herself thrust into the role of stopping the disease’s spread in the continent’s most populous country.
That Nigeria has so far emerged relatively unscathed from its brush with Ebola owes much to the quick-thinking staff at an ordinary family clinic, who put themselves in the firing line for six days before the government was ready to relocate him. And, as elsewhere in this epidemic, those on the frontline paid the highest price: four of the seven fatalities were health workers, including Adadevoh.
IRIN covers another tragic consequence for mothers and children:
Ebola effect reverses gains in maternal, child mortality
Maternal and infant deaths in Liberia and Sierra Leone are set to rise above their current alarming rates as fear of Ebola keeps pregnant women away from hospitals and makes already-scarce health workers reluctant to deliver babies.
“At the beginning of the outbreak, health service staff were the ones getting Ebola – many of them were dying. And they had no facilities to help sufferers. People grew terrified and when news spread, everyone got scared,” said the head of maternal health for the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) in Sierra Leone, Augustin Kabano. “Some centres have just two or three staff so if one dies, the whole system shuts down.”
Liberia and Sierra Leone already have some of the world’s worst maternal and infant death rates though they are better than they were: In 2010 some 890 women in Sierra Leone died per 100,000 live births, down from 2,000 ten years earlier. In Liberia 770 per 100,000 died in 2010, down from 1,100 in 2005, according to UNICEF. The improvements are linked to the introduction of free health care to pregnant, birthing and lactating women in public health facilities. Both countries had also upped the number of births attended by a health professional to 63 percent in Sierra Leone in 2012, and 46 percent in Liberia.
StarAfrica covers a walkout:
Sierra Leone grave diggers strike over pay
Grave diggers in Sierra Leone on Tuesday went on a sit-down strike over pay and poor working conditions.
The protest action left scores of dead bodies abandoned across the country as there was no burial throughout.
The men whose job it has been to bury victims of the deadly Ebola epidemic which continues to worsen in Sierra Leone are unhappy with the government for reneging in its promise of giving them weekly allowance of $100.
They say not only is the payment coming late, but they also lack the necessary protective gear to do their job.
And to compound their woes, they also claim discrimination from the public.
And its end, via the Associated Press:
Sierra Leone: Ebola burial teams go back to work
Sierra Leone burial teams have gone back to work one day after organizing a strike over pay and abandoning the dead bodies of Ebola victims in the capital.
In neighboring Liberia, however, health workers said Wednesday they planned to strike if their demands for more money and safety equipment were not met by the end of the week.
The expressions of frustration by beleaguered West African health workers came as Spanish officials investigated whether a nursing assistant infected with Ebola got the deadly disease by touching her face with tainted protective gloves. The case of Teresa Romero is the first known incident of someone contracting the disease outside the West African outbreak zone.
Angry Liberians take vehicular retribution, via FrontPageAfrica:
Grand Kru Residents Seize Medical Vehicle over Slow Ebola Response
When FrontPageAfrica contacted a local journalist of the community radio the Voice of Grand Kru Eric Gbasue, he confirmed exactly what the civil society member Brima Sowa confirmed adding that the situation remains the same and no improvement yet.
Journalist Gbasue stated that because of the alarming rate of the situation the Superintendant of the County Elizabeth Dempster has contacted the UNMIL to transport the affected persons to health centers in the county, but to no avail because the UNMIL officials had told her that they have never flown to the area before to know the terrain therefore cannot take such a risk.
He told FrontPageAfrica that health workers traveling to Kanwekan on Tuesday vehicle was seized by the citizens who claimed that the health workers only go in for dead body and don’t care to take away the sick where there is no isolation center in the area.
“As I speak to you now the death toll in the area has reached to 23 persons while health workers traveling to Kanweken vehicle was seized as a protest by the citizens that they are only concerned about dead bodies and not to treat the sick” said Journalist Gbasue.
The president takes aim at more civil liberties, via the New Dawn:
Ellen seeks restrictions on certain rights
President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf has written the Liberian Senate seeking permission to invoke restrictions on certain rights under the Liberian Constitution under the state of emergency as the country continues its fight against the Ebola virus disease.
The President’s two-page communication addressed to the Senate, subsequently read in its Plenary Tuesday seeks to among others restricts certain religious practices that have the propensity of further spreading the Ebola virus during this national State of Emergency and a national health crisis.
The request, if granted by the Senate, would lead to the close monitoring of certain religious practices in the country by the government, while legal penalties will be served on violators if they do contravene the norms that will be prescribed by the president.
While another politician fires back, via FrontPageAfrica:
Celebrate Duncan, Don’t Vilify: Freeman Cites Lack of Ambulance
A strong critic of the President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf Administration, Simeon Freeman of the opposition Movement for Progressive Change [MPC] says the man who transported the deadly Ebola virus to the United States of America, Thomas Eric Duncan should be celebrated.
“We strongly believe that the lack of ambulance may have led to Eric Duncan giving a help to his neighbor, when his neighbor’s daughter collapsed, his sacrifice must be celebrated by Liberians all over,” Freeman said.
The Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Liberia Airport Authority, Binyah Kesselly recently said the LAA is in consultation with the Ministry of Justice to seek the possibility of prosecuting Duncan for what he calls false declaration. The state of Texas in the US is also said to be contemplating bringing charges against Duncan.
Survivors rejected on coming home, via FrontPageAfrica
Bong County Ebola Survivors Face Rejections in Communities
Few people, if any, would bravely want to continue work in situations that nearly ended their lives. This is more so if the cause of that near death is the dreaded Ebola Hemorrhagic fever.
But, Comfort Kollie, a midwife at the Phebe hospital in Suakoko, Bong County, who contracted Ebola in the course of her duty and miraculously survived, told FrontPage Africa Tuesday that she will continue with her work, albeit with more caution. “I will continue to love and serve”, she vowed as she was introduced as one of the survivors of Ebola that recently broke out in the Baltimore Boulevard community in Gbarnga.
In a somber mood, with tear flowing freely, Comfort narrated how she unknowingly contracted Ebola while helping a mother in labor. “I came in contact with her blood which is common in my work, but after one week, I fell sick with symptoms of Ebola”, she narrated.
Tangible good news in Nigeria from USA Today:
Nigeria succeeds at containing Ebola
People here are shaking hands again, kissing, hugging, touching. These days, shops are open, people are working, and children are finally going back to school.
That’s because Nigeria — Africa’s most populous country — is officially Ebola-free, the health ministry said, even as the deadly virus rages on in neighboring countries, where lockdowns and quarantines are common and death rates are rising.
As the United States and Spain deal with their first diagnosed cases of Ebola and fears that the virus could spread, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is sending researchers to Lagos to study how Nigeria was able to contain the disease. No new cases have been reported there since Aug. 31, the CDC said.
From Punch Nigeria, a victorious Nigeria reaches out to still-stricken countries in West Africa:
Nigeria donates $3.5m to Liberia, others
The Minister of Health, Prof. Onyebuchi Chukwu, on Wednesday said Nigeria had already donated $3.5m as part of its intervention in the affected countries.
Chukwu said the sum was made up of $500,000 to each of the countries and the balance to the common ECOWAS Fund for the disease.
He also said 591 health practitioners had volunteered to join the international force that would go to Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea to help in the containment of the Ebola Virus Disease.
But the Sun reports that the country remains on alert:
Ebola: Lagos distributes sanitary wares to schools
Prior to today’s resumption date of schools in Lagos State, the state government has began the distribution of sanitary wares and education instructional materials such as water tanks, buckets, soap, gloves, posters, handbills, instructional compact discs and handouts on the Ebola virus disease (EVD) to schools in an effort aimed at preventing an outbreak of the disease in schools.
Special Adviser to the Lagos State Governor on Public Health, Dr. Yewande Adeshina, who stated this yesterday while addressing teachers and heads of schools at the Eko FM ground, Agidingbi in Ikeja said the state government postponed the resumption of schools earlier slated for September 22 to October 8 to put some preventive measures in place.
She said some of the preventive and infection control mechanisms being put in place include the training of teachers and focal persons for each schools on EVD prevention, procurement and distribution of thermoscans; a device for checking temperature.
And in a touch of irony, Punch Nigeria reports that the country is now alarmed at the threat of importing the disease from. . .the U.S. and Europe:
Panic in Lagos airport over Ebola cases in Europe, US
The outbreak of Ebola in Spain, Norway and some other parts of Europe is causing fresh panic at the Murtala Muhammed International airport.
Spain and Norway are currently experiencing cases of Ebola. In Spain, there was a protest by medical workers outside a hospital over suspected cases of Ebola.
This development has triggered panic at the MMA as health and immigration officials have been placed on red alert.
Sources close to the aviation ministry and Port Health Authority told our correspondent on Wednesday that officials have been told to intensify screening process of people arriving the country especially from suspected troubled areas.
A computing-for-Ebola computer challenge via Homeland Security News Wire:
Computing for Ebola Challenge
Researchers at the Network Dynamics and Simulation Science Laboratory (NDSSL) have been using a combination of modeling techniques to predict the spread of the Ebola outbreak. As part of those efforts, the team created an adaptable set of global synthetic populations, allowing for rapid response as the situation continues to unfold. The synthetic populations and other informatics resources are now openly available to aid other researchers and citizen scientists. The NDSSL is hosting a Computing for Ebola Challenge from 3 October to 10 October 2014. The goal of the hackathon is to develop an application to combat the Ebola epidemic. All are welcome to join.
Researchers at the Network Dynamics and Simulation Science Laboratory (NDSSL) have been using a combination of modeling techniques to predict the spread of the Ebola outbreak. As part of those efforts, the team created an adaptable set of global synthetic populations, allowing for rapid response as the situation continues to unfold. The synthetic populations and other informatics resources are now openly available to aid other researchers and citizen scientists.
And for our final item, a Big Pharma gamble ahead?, via Science:
Push to gamble big on mass production of Ebola vaccines
The world needed an Ebola vaccine months ago to stop the epidemic that has exploded in West Africa—but none existed. Now, the race is on to develop vaccines in a matter of months, instead of the years it typically takes. But even if one of the current candidates works, many questions remain. How fast can companies make millions of vaccine doses? When should they start production? And who will foot the multimillion-dollar bill?
At the end of a World Health Organization (WHO) meeting held in Geneva, Switzerland, last week to discuss Ebola vaccines, several participants were convinced that mass production of experimental products should begin in parallel with studies that aim to determine whether they actually work. “I’d pull out all the stops,” says Ira Longini, a statistician at the University of Florida at Gainesville who attended the meeting. “I’d try to make 30 to 40 million doses to cover at risk West African populations.”
Jeremy Farrar, an infectious disease researcher and head of the Wellcome Trust in London—which has provided funding for Ebola vaccine testing—agrees. “We may come to regret that we have to throw those vaccines away if they prove not to be effective,” Farrar says, “but I think that is a risk we have to take.”
