And more.
We begin with a video report that lends credence to suspicions we’ve long harbored. From CCTV America:
Ebola outbreaks associated with deforestation
Program notes:
Experts have been trying to figure out what’s behind the recent rise in Ebola cases. Some have turned to nature, specifically the trees, for a possible answer. Some scientists argue that the shrinking size of forests could put people in closer contact with disease carrying wildlife and that possibility is causing global concerns. For more on the impact of global deforestation, CCTV America interviewed Susanne Breitkopf, the Senior Political Advisor for Greenpeace International.
And next to two notable and sad instances of Ebolaphobia, first from FrontPageAfrica, a Liberian paper doing an exceptional job of covering the crisis:
Georgia U. Cancels FPA Newsroom Chief’s McGill Lectures Over Ebola
The University of Georgia in Athens, Georgia has rescinded the decision of the University’s journalism school Grady College to invite FrontPageAfrica newsroom editor Wade C. L. Williams for its McGill Lecture slated for October 22, 2014.
All was set for the trip as the college had already purchased a round trip plane ticket and made hotel reservations for the journalist’s visit when it was forced to cancel last minute to time because of fear she could get sick while visiting the US thereby exposing students to the deadly Ebola virus.
The McGill Lecture, which is free and open to the public is sponsored by the Grady College of Journalism and Mass Communication and will be held October 22 at 4 p.m. in Room 250 of the Miller Learning Center but with a new speaker Antonio Mora, a prominent Hispanic journalist who is a two-time winner of the Peabody Award.
“I received a call from Georgia just days before my trip. A woman with a pleasant voice delicately told me that parents were panicking and the general public was against my coming to the university,” stated Williams in a blog post published days after the university reached the decision.
And the second incident, via the Star in Nairobi:
Parents in a British school threatens to pull children out over teachers trip to Kenya fearing Ebola
Parents from a British school have threatened to pull their children from school over a planned trip to Kenya by teachers for fear they will contract Ebola.
The Mirror reports that a 60-signature petition has been circulated at Berkeley Primary School in Crewe in Cheshire demanding that the two teachers planning the trip to Kenya for an exchange programme.
They want the teachers isolated for a three-week ebola incubation period.
But the alarm has baffled the school because Kenya is far away from the ebola danger zone of West Africa.
Now on to the gravely serious, first from the Independent:
Ebola outbreak could be ‘definitive humanitarian disaster of our generation’, warns Oxfam
Ebola is poised to become the “definitive humanitarian disaster of our generation”, Oxfam has warned, with more troops, funding and medical aid urgently needed to tackle the outbreak.
In an “extremely rare” move, the charity is calling for military intervention to provide logistical support across West Africa.
It says the world has less than two months to counter the spread of the deadly virus, which means addressing a “crippling shortfall” in military personnel.
Oxfam said troops are now “desperately needed” to build treatment centres, provide flights and offer engineering and logistical support. While Britain was leading the way in Europe’s response to the epidemic, it said countries which have failed to commit troops were “in danger of costing lives”.
Next, analysis from the Associated Press:
Mission Unaccomplished: Containing Ebola in Africa
Looking back, the mistakes are easy to see: Waiting too long, spending too little, relying on the wrong people, thinking small when they needed to think big. Many people, governments and agencies share the blame for failing to contain Ebola when it emerged in West Africa.
Now they share the herculean task of trying to end an epidemic that has sickened more than 9,000, killed more than 4,500, seeded cases in Europe and the United States, and is not even close to being controlled.
Many of the missteps are detailed in a draft of an internal World Health Organization report obtained by The Associated Press. It shows there was not one pivotal blunder that gave Ebola the upper hand, but a series of them that mounted.
Nearly every agency and government stumbled. Heavy criticism falls on the World Health Organization, where there was “a failure to see that conditions for explosive spread were present right at the start.”
WHO — the United Nations’ health agency — had some incompetent staff, let bureaucratic bungles delay people and money to fight the virus, and was hampered by budget cuts and the need to battle other diseases flaring around the world, the report says.
Al Jazeera English covers a reassessment:
WHO promises to review Ebola response
UN agency pledges to review its efforts to contain outbreak after internal document hints at its failings.
The World Health Organisation (WHO) has promised to undertake and publish a full review of its handling of the Ebola crisis after a leaked document appeared to show the UN agency had failed to do enough to contain the epidemic.
The WHO said in a statement on Saturday that it would not comment on an internal draft document obtained and released by the Associated Press news agency, in which the organisation blamed incompetent staff, bureaucracy and a lack of reliable information for its allegedly slow and weak response to the outbreak that has reportedly killed more than 4,500 people since May.
“We cannot divert our limited resources from the urgent response to do a detailed analysis of the past response. That review will come, but only after this outbreak is over,” WHO said.
And the Associated Press covers te case that has Americans on edge:
Ebola lapses persisted for days at Dallas hospital
Just minutes after Thomas Eric Duncan arrived for a second time at the emergency room, the word is on his chart: “Ebola.” But despite all the warnings that the deadly virus could arrive unannounced at an American hospital, for days after the admission, his caregivers are vulnerable.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has pointed to lapses by the hospital in those initial days. And Duncan’s medical records show heightened protective measures as his illness advanced. But either because of a lag in implementing those steps or because they were still insufficient, scores of hospital staffers were put at risk, according to the records.
The hospital’s protective protocol was “insufficient,” said Dr. Joseph McCormick of the University of Texas School of Public Health, who was part of the CDC team that investigated the first recorded Ebola outbreak in 1976. “The gear was inadequate. The procedures in the room were inadequate.”
While Defense One covers a regulatory disaster:
Dallas Hospital Had the Ebola Screening Machine That the Military Is Using in Africa
The military is using an Ebola screening machine that could have diagnosed the Ebola cases in Texas far faster, but government guidelines prevent hospitals from using it to actually screen for Ebola.
It’s a toaster-sized box called FilmArray, produced by a company called BioFire, a subsidiary of bioMérieux and it’s capable of detecting Ebola with a high degree of confidence — in under an hour.
Incredibly, it was present at Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital in Dallas when Ebola patient Thomas Eric Duncan walked through the door, complaining of fever and he had just come from Liberia. Duncan was sent home, but even still, FDA guidelines prohibited the hospital from using the machine to screen for Ebola.
While the Guardian covers desperate ass-covering:
Texas hospital mounts ‘#PresbyProud’ fightback as Ebola criticism mounts
Dallas hospital where nurses were infected engages PR firm
Union chief says: ‘There has been no leadership’
The hospital in Texas where two nurses became the first people to contract Ebola inside the US is mounting an aggressive public relations campaign to rescue its image, as nursing representatives call for its top executives to be held accountable for the crisis.
Texas Health Presbyterian hospital in Dallas hired Burson-Marsteller, a New York-based PR firm, to direct a fightback against sharp criticism it received after Thomas Eric Duncan, a Liberian man who was first sent home by the hospital, died there from Ebola.
It has since published slick video clips of smiling nurses praising their managers and hosted a brief “rally” of medics wielding pro-hospital placards outside the emergency room for television news cameras. Amid fears patients might stay away, the hospital has tried to flood social media with the hashtag “#PresbyProud” and issued rebuttals to allegations about its practices after nurses Nina Pham and Amber Vinson were infected while treating Duncan, who died on 8 October.
From the New York Times, politics as usual, with a desperate edge:
The Partisan Divide on Ebola Preparedness
After a second case of Ebola was discovered among the staff of a Dallas hospital that treated an infected patient, public concerns are likely to increase about whether the United States health care system can properly respond to an outbreak.
Data from surveys suggest, however, that those views — like so many others — are being shaped by people’s partisan affilations as much as by news about the outbreak itself.
According to a new ABC News/Washington Post survey, only 54 percent of Republicans are confident in the federal government’s ability to respond effectively to Ebola — far fewer than the 76 percent of Democrats who expressed confidence. This finding represents a striking reversal from the partisan divide found in a question about a potential avian influenza outbreak in 2006, when a Republican, George W. Bush, was president. An ABC/Post poll taken at the time found that 72 percent of Republicans were confident in an effective federal response compared with only 52 percent of Democrats.
From the Washington Post, Obama urges:
Obama: ‘We can’t give in to hysteria or fear’ of Ebola
President Obama on Saturday sought to tamp down fears of an Ebola outbreak and defend his administration from Republican critics who have called for a more aggressive response to the disease, including sealing off U.S. borders to visitors from countries battling widespread outbreaks.
“We can’t just cut ourselves off from West Africa, where this disease is raging,” Obama said in his weekly radio address. “Trying to seal off an entire region of the world — if that were even possible — could actually make the situation worse.”
Such actions would make it harder for American health-care workers, soldiers and supplies to reach stricken areas, Obama said. It could also cause residents of countries in West Africa where Ebola is still spreading to try to evade screening on their way to the United States or Europe.
The president’s main message was one of calm, coming at a time of growing worry in communities throughout the country. “We can’t give in to hysteria or fear, because that only makes it harder to get people the accurate information they need,” Obama said. “If we’re guided by science — the facts, not fear — then I am absolutely confident we can prevent a serious outbreak here in the United States.”
From the White House, here’s the address:
Weekly Address: What You Need to Know About Ebola
Program notes:
In this week’s address, the President discussed what the United States is doing to respond to Ebola, both here at home and abroad, and the key facts Americans need to know.
Making a list and checking more than twice, via the Associated Press:
More than 100 monitored for Ebola symptoms in Ohio
Health officials in Ohio are monitoring more than 100 people following the visit by a Dallas nurse who tested positive for Ebola shortly after returning to Texas from the Cleveland area.
Officials said Saturday that none of those being monitored are sick.
State officials previously said 16 people Amber Vinson had contact with were being monitored. Officials say the sharp increase is a result of the identification of airline passengers who flew with Vinson between Dallas and Cleveland and the identification of people who also visited the dress shop where her bridesmaids were trying on dresses.
Vinson’s stepfather is quarantined in his home in the Akron suburb of Tallmadge. That is where Vinson stayed during her visit. The stepfather is the only person in the state under such a restriction.
Golden State preparations from the San Francisco Chronicle:
Gov. Jerry Brown says state is working on Ebola safeguards
Gov. Jerry Brown said Friday that the state is drawing up plans to protect nurses, other health care workers and the public from Ebola, saying California must avoid mistakes made in Texas in dealing with the disease.
The governor said he has met with public health officers and spoken with national nurses representatives to devise guidelines that hospitals must follow should an Ebola patient be diagnosed in California.
“We’ve got work to do,” Brown said in an interview with The Chronicle. “It’s a fast-moving story.”
He said Dr. Ron Chapman, director of the state Department of Public Health, is heading up the effort, and that health officials will meet with Cal/OSHA on Tuesday to discuss “issues of workers’ safety.”
From the Miami Herald, preparations in another state:
CDC responds to Florida’s requests for help with potential Ebola outbreak
The federal Centers for Disease Control agreed Saturday to some — but not all — of Gov. Rick Scott’s Ebola-related requests.
The CDC will hold a conference call with Florida hospitals next week on best practices, Scott said Saturday. The organization has also given Florida the green light to spend about $7 million in federal grant funding on protective suits for health care workers.
“The CDC indicated that we will receive formal approval next week, but based on this preliminary approval, we have already begun using these funds to enhance our Ebola preparedness efforts,” Scott said in a statement.
The governor is still waiting on the CDC to contact passengers on a plane that stopped in Fort Lauderdale after carrying a nurse who was later diagnosed with Ebola.
He also has yet to receive 27 of the 30 Ebola testing kits he requested.
From the Associated Press another oversight failure:
Ebola monitoring inconsistent as virus spread
The inconsistent response by health officials in monitoring and limiting the movement of health workers has been one of the critical blunders in the Ebola outbreak. Friends and family who had contact with Duncan before he was hospitalized were confined to homes under armed guard, but nurses who handled his contagious bodily fluids were allowed to treat other patients, take mass transit and get on airplanes.
“I don’t think the directions provided to people at first were as clear as they needed to be, and there have been changes in the instructions given to people over time,” said Rep. Michael Burgess, R-Texas, a doctor who did his residency in Dallas.
Local health authorities have said repeatedly throughout the response that their guidance and direction can change.
“Please keep in mind the contact list is fluid, meaning people may fall off the list or new people may be added to the list depending on new information that could arise at any time on any given day,” said Dallas County health department spokeswoman Erikka Neroes on Friday when asked how many people are even being monitored.
From The Hill, a case where Republicans and businesses are on the outs:
Businesses quietly push back at Ebola travel ban
Businesses are pushing back against lawmakers’ calls to impose a ban on travelers from the three West Africa nations at the center of the Ebola epidemic.
Public opposition is coming from U.S. airlines, who have seen their stocks hit because of fears the Ebola scare will lead to a drop in travel.
Other business groups are quietly telling the White House to stand firm in opposing a ban.
They echo arguments from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention that a ban would isolate Sierra Leone, Guinea and Liberia, potentially making it tougher to slow the epidemic in those countries.
From the New York Times, the first of two stories of life in limbo:
Life in Quarantine for Ebola Exposure: 21 Days of Fear and Loathing
As the Ebola scare spreads from Texas to Ohio and beyond, the number of people who have locked themselves away — some under government orders, others voluntarily — has grown well beyond those who lived with and cared for Mr. Duncan before his death on Oct. 8. The discovery last week that two nurses at Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital here had caught the virus while treating Mr. Duncan extended concentric circles of fear to new sets of hospital workers and other contacts.
Officials in Texas said Thursday that nearly 100 health care workers would be asked to sign pledges not to use public transportation, go to public places or patronize shops and restaurants for 21 days, the maximum incubation period for Ebola. While not a mandate, the notices warn that violators “may be subject” to a state-ordered quarantine.
When officials revealed that one of the infected nurses had flown from Dallas to Cleveland and back before being hospitalized, nearly 300 fellow passengers and crew members faced decisions about whether to quarantine themselves. The next day, a lab technician who had begun a Caribbean cruise despite possible exposure was confined to a stateroom. Medical workers, missionaries and journalists returning from West Africa — especially from Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone, where Ebola is rampant — are also staying home.
Dr. Howard Markel, who teaches the history of medicine at the University of Michigan, said the quarantines recalled the country’s distant epidemics of cholera, typhus and bubonic plague.
“Ebola is jerking us back to the 19th century,” he said. “It’s terrible. It’s isolating. It’s scary. You’re not connecting with other human beings, and you are fearful of a microbiologic time bomb ticking inside you.”
The second, from Bloomberg, covers another woe:
Ebola Fears Stymie Home Quest for Quarantined in Dallas
Louise Troh and the three other people in her household have spent much of their isolation on laptops and mobile phones, playing video games, tossing a football, speaking to relatives and reading the Bible.
The activities have been welcome diversions for Troh, her son and two young men she considers family — “the boys,” as she refers to her housemates. She’s the girlfriend of Thomas Eric Duncan, the first person to die in the U.S. from Ebola.
When they are released from their 21-day, state-ordered quarantine on Oct. 20, they face an uncertain future in Dallas, owing to continued fears about their closeness to the deadly virus. A new-apartment deal busted up after Troh had already made a deposit, and Dallas’s top county official and Troh’s pastor say people are reluctant to rent to someone who was so close to Ebola.
From New York Times, another complication:
Waste From Ebola Poses Challenge to Hospitals
When the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention assured the public this month that most American hospitals could treat cases of Ebola, it was technically correct. Hospitals routinely treat highly contagious diseases, and top-tier ones are extensively equipped to isolate patients who pose special risks.
But the infection over the past week of two Texas hospital workers betrayed what even many of the best hospitals lack: the ability to handle the tide of infectious waste that Ebola generates.
Ebola’s catastrophic course includes diarrhea, vomiting and hemorrhaging of blood, a combination difficult enough to contain in less-communicable illnesses. When they are highly contagious, disposing of the waste and cleaning up what is left behind require expertise and equipment that some specialists said are lacking even in highly regarded medical facilities.
Those shortcomings are compounded, they said, by surprising gaps in scientists’ knowledge about the Ebola virus itself, down to the time it can survive in different environments outside the body.
And from RT, an offer that’s bound to cause heartburn in Foggy Bottom:
Fidel Castro offers cooperation with US in fight against Ebola
Fidel Castro has expressed Cuba’s readiness to cooperate with the US in the global fight against Ebola. Cuba has been on the frontline of international response to the worst outbreak in the disease’s history.
In his article “Time of Duty,” which was published on Saturday, the retired Cuban leader said that medical staff trying to save lives are the best example of human solidarity. Fighting together against the epidemic can protect the people of Cuba, Latin America, and the US from the deadly virus, he added.
“We will gladly cooperate with American [medical] personnel in this task – not for the sake of peace between the two states which have been adversaries for many years, but for the sake of peace in the world,” wrote Castro.
And Sky News covers a plea for help:
Cameron Presses EU Leaders On Ebola Fund
The PM urges the EU to double its funding in the fight against the deadly virus, saying “much more must be done”
David Cameron has called for European Union leaders to double their contribution to help tackle ebola, demanding a combined 1bn euro (£800m) pledge.
The Prime Minister has written to the other 26 leaders and European Council president Herman van Rompuy calling for agreement to an “ambitious package of support” at a Brussels summit next week.
He made clear his frustration that other countries are failing to shoulder their share of the burden of international efforts to deal with the epidemic in West Africa which has killed more than 4,500.
Britain has committed £125m to its contribution – the second highest sum after the US. Downing Street said the total contribution from the EU is 500m euros (£400m).
After the jump, the travel industry enters a potential tailspin, cruise ship woes, French flight attendants demand an end to Paris/Conakry flights as France introduces airport screenings, ship screenings in Sweden, travel warnings in Cairo and confidence {SARS-inspired?] in China and a false alarm, a vaccine production delay, Canadian drugs dispatched, on to Africa and a chilling question, Kenyan doctors dispatched, on to Sierra Leone with food on the way, youth join the fight, a street battle with police over a corpse in the street, and an angry bureaucratic shakeup, on to Liberia an a construction shutdown, WHO offers a prescription, a plea for more aid and a promise from Washington, and a warning that things are worse than the press reports, a suicidal leap and an escape in Guinea as contagion spreads into a gold mining region, and from Nigeria, hope accompanied by a warning. . .
The Los Angeles Times covers a decline:
With Ebola scare, travel industry hits rough patch
Shares of airlines, hotels and cruise ship companies have dropped over the last month — starting about the time that Thomas Eric Duncan traveled to Texas and tested positive for the deadly disease.
Shares of Miami-based Carnival, the world’s largest cruise company, have dropped 12.64% over the last month. Carnival shares closed up 23 cents, less than 1%, at $34.92 on Friday.
“Cruise lines and airlines are seen as potentially vulnerable to Ebola because of the … proximity that people must be in on planes and ships,” said Matthew Jacob, a cruise analyst for ITG Investment Research.
Anxiety first hit the travel industry when news spread that a nurse who had treated Duncan flew on Frontier Airlines a day before testing positive for Ebola. The airline is trying to contact more than 1,000 passengers who either flew on the planes with the nurse or on subsequent flights.
Cruise ship woes from the London Telegraph:
‘We’re a floating petri dish’: Panic onboard the ‘Ebola cruise’
When a woman who had worked in an Ebola laboratory was found to be travelling on a Caribbean cruise ship, panic ensued, writes Nick Allen and Rob Crilly
It was supposed to be an escape to the Caribbean sunshine for a week of partying, relaxation, and sipping champagne while watching gorgeous sunsets from the decks of a luxury cruise ship.
But four days after the Carnival Magic set sail from Galveston, Texas rumours began swirling that all was not well on board.
The ship, complete with a swimming pool, an array of water slides, and a giant cinema screen, inexplicably stopped off the coast of Belize and the whispers began.
From TheLocal.fr, French flight attendants demand an end to Paris/Conakry flights:
Air France unions seek to stop flights to Guinea
Air France flight attendant unions on Friday called for a halt to services to the Guinean capital Conakry due to concerns about a “serious risk” of spreading Ebola.
The daily Air France Paris-Conakry flight “carries a serious risk of spreading the epidemic, particularly in our country,” read a statement from the two unions of flight crew and commercial staff.
They called for a closure of the route until the epidemic is under control.
They also slammed what they called totally inappropriate protection from Air France — which provided them with “a simple pair of gloves” — and called for more suitable measures, in a letter to Transport Minister Alain Vidalies.
Screenings commence in France and a suspect case is identified, via the London Telegraph:
France introduces Ebola screening at airport
French authorities start checking the body temperatures of passengers arriving from Guinea as Air France staff demand the suspension of flights to the west African nation hit by the Ebola epidemic
French officials began screening air passengers arriving from Guinea for symptoms of Ebola on Saturday, as concern rose that the epidemic could spread to France.
At Roissy Airport outside Paris, officials used laser thermometers to check the body temperatures of about 200 passengers arriving from Guinea without touching them.
A Belgian woman suspected of having caught the virus was sent to a Paris hospital, officials said. The woman, aged about 40, had a temperature higher than 38 degrees Celsius as she disembarked from the flight from Guinea. Tests are being carried out and she is being kept in isolation.
From TheLocal.se, Swedish screening:
Port steps up checks to combat Ebola threat
Gothenburg harbour is tightening its routines regarding the control of ships from west Africa as a result of the Ebola epidemic.
The harbour on Sweden’s west coast has vowed to increase their existing routines and be more vigilant. An average of one tanker a month docks in Gothenburg port with a delivery of crude oil from Nigeria.
Following the Ebola outbreak, which has claimed almost 5,000 lives, the port is going to have closer contact with national health authorities and have greater interaction with the tankers before they dock.
The harbour master of the port, Jörgen Wallroth, told Sveriges Radio that the prospects of Ebola entering Sweden via the port were “awfully small” as it takes between 17 – 22 days for a tanker to complete the journey from west Africa to Sweden – almost as long as the incubation period for the disease.
Travel warnings in Cairo from AllAfrica:
Egypt: Govt Issues Travel Warnings Amid Ebola Scare
Egypt’s foreign ministry warned citizens Saturday against traveling to seven nations in central and west Africa following the rising number of Ebola-stricken patients in a number of countries in this region.
The travel warning was issued against Guinea, Liberia, Sierra Leone, Angola, Ivory Coast, Togo, and Senegal, state-run MENA quoted Ambassador Hossam Eissa, Deputy Assistant Secretary for Consular Affairs.
Confidence in Beijing from South China Morning Post:
Beijing confident low-key approach will protect China against Ebola
Authorities are confident strict controls mean mainland can contain any outbreak of disease
Beijing has quietly imposed strict border and health controls to prevent the spread of the deadly Ebola virus to China.
Border control and health authorities put a response plan in place in July and the measures were working well, even though the public was not aware of them.
An infectious diseases expert said China had the capacity to contain Ebola if an infected person entered the country.
“Compared with the high-profile quarantine inspections in 2009 when the H1N1 swine flu led to a global scare, the quarantine measures this time are very low-key. We’re employing an ‘intense inside and relaxed outside’ strategy,” an official with Shanghai’s General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine said.
And a false alarm from Xinhua:
South China city clears up Ebola rumors
It’s Boca, not Ebola
Health authorities in the south China metropolis of Shenzhen have clarified rumors that the fatal Ebola virus was in town following a human Boca Virus case that was reportedly found in the city’s airport on Friday.
The city’s health and family planning commission said in a statement that the city’s entry-exit inspection and quarantine bureau hadn’t detected any Ebola cases, and the reported case is a five-year-old boy infected with the Boca Virus.
“There is some misunderstanding and panic among citizens. The Chinese names of the two diseases are a little bit similar, which may cause confusion,” said Peng Chaoqiong, an expert with the city’s disease control and prevention center.
The Diplomat paves the way:
Did SARS Prepare East Asia for Ebola?
The WHO says East Asia is more prepared for Ebola than any other region. Still, it must keep its guard up
The Ebola epidemic in West Africa [is] showing no signs of being effectively contained, and the latest news of health care workers infected with the Ebola virus in the United States, prospects of the deadly disease hitting Asia can no longer be excluded. Anthony Banbury, Head of the United Nations’ emergency Ebola mission has warned that the Ebola virus is “far ahead of us and every day the situation gets worse”. Against this scenario, how can Asia prepare itself?
In 2013, East Asian states working through the ASEAN Plus Three (APT) framework (including China, Japan and South Korea) pledged to use cooperative mechanisms to improve disease surveillance and to boost pandemic preparedness and response in the region. Lessons from the SARs outbreak in 2003 had prompted countries in East Asia to establish this regional framework for combating highly infectious pandemic outbreaks. While the response is more than timely under the threat of Ebola, further commitments and actions, through increased financing, vigilance in disease surveillance and using mobile health infrastructure are critical steps to prevent an Ebola outbreak in the region. Moreover, East Asia’s contribution to boost the supply of qualified health workers in West Africa can go a long way in checking the spread of the Ebola epidemic beyond West Africa.
A vaccine production delay from the McClatchy foreign staff:
In setback for Ebola vaccine, company says work will take longer than hoped
The Ebola crisis took new twists Friday, with another somber update from the World Health Organization on the outbreak in West Africa and a bleak warning from a major drug manufacturer that a safe vaccine likely won’t be ready before the current epidemic has passed.
Dr. Ripley Ballou, head of Ebola research for Great Britain’s GlaxoSmithKline, told the BBC that full data on a vaccine’s safety and efficacy won’t be ready until late 2015, and full-scale production for general use won’t happen until well into 2016.
The World Health Organization had said a month ago that it hoped data from clinical trials on two vaccines would be available by next month, and the vaccines would be available for use by health care workers by January.
GlaxoSmithKline’s Ebola CAd3 vaccine was one of the two vaccines. The other was the VSV vaccine, made by NewLink Genetics Corp., which is headquartered in Ames, Iowa. The GlaxoSmithKline vaccine has been developed in collaboration with the U.S. National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases.
Canadian drugs dispatched from United Press International:
Canada shipping 800 vials of experimental Ebola vaccine
Canada sending two-thirds of its supply of the experimental vaccine to WHO amid ongoing clinical trials.
Canada said Saturday it will begin shipping 800 vials of its experimental Ebola vaccine to the World Health Organization in Geneva on Monday, Oct. 20.
The Public Health Agency of Canada is conducting human clinical trials to refine dosage and safety guidelines in cooperation with the United States at the Walter Reed Army Institute of Research, with trial results expected in December.
“This vaccine, the product of many years of scientific research and innovation, could be an important tool in curbing the outbreak,” said Canada’s Chief Public Health Officer Dr. Gregory Taylor. “We will continue to work closely with the WHO to address some of the ethical and logistical issues around using this experimental vaccine in the fight against Ebola.”
And on to Africa with the Los Angeles Times and a chilling question:
After Ebola ebbs, will the world again leave Africa to die?
The challenges of Africa’s long-term health crisis can only be met with sustained efforts by donor countries and host governments. Regional conflicts invariably make things worse. Indeed, it is presumed that unrest, especially in Sierra Leone and Liberia, strongly contributed to the outbreak of Ebola in that region and hampered efforts to control it. The outbreak is likely to make general health and economic conditions even worse, for health systems have collapsed and civil unrest may well spread.
Cultural practices, poor transport and communications infrastructure, and poverty all contribute to the intractable nature of health problems on the continent. But global indifference has played its part.
It’s conceivable that the Ebola emergency will wake up the outside world to the need for sustained and sustainable health assistance in Africa. But organizations such as Doctors Without Borders have been calling for such assistance for decades. Ebola may be the turning point. Or it may merely produce a torrent of help that will vanish like an afternoon downpour, leaving drought behind.
The Star in Nairobi covers Kenyan doctors dispatched:
15 Kenyan doctors join Ebola fight
Kenya will send 15 doctors to combat the Ebola outbreak in Liberia and Guinea.
The Kenyan contingent is part of the 600 healthworkers, including 41 doctors, that the East Africa Community will contribute to the war against the disease.
The region’s health ministers expressed concern about the rapid increase in the number of cases and deaths from Ebola, the East African Community said.
As of Sunday, 4,493 people had died, out of a total of 8,997 reported cases in the outbreak, according to the World Health Organisation.
On to Sierra Leone with food on the way via the Associated Press:
Food deliveries in Sierra Leone to fight Ebola
The U.N.’s World Food Program on Saturday delivered emergency food rations to 265,000 people, many of them quarantined in Sierra Leone, to help fight the spread of Ebola.
Food supplies are being distributed in the Waterloo district on the outskirts of Sierra Leone’s capital, Freetown, WFP’s Alexis Masciarelli told the Associated Press.
Waterloo, about 20 miles east of Freetown, has seen some of the highest cases of Ebola infections and the deliveries are to help quarantined families by providing them enough to eat so they do not leave their homes to look for food. The deliveries began Friday and are continuing Saturday, said Masciarelli.
Youth join the fight, via StarAfrica:
S/Leone: Youth trained on Ebola sensitization
About 100 youths are being trained on ways to handle suspected Ebola cases, as part of effort to tackle growing number of infections in Sierra Leone.A civil society group called Democracy Sierra Leone is championing the cause.
Its director, Alhaji Warisay, said containing the contagion will require proactive action and that young people are central to this.
Mr Warisay told the opening session of the training on Friday that the youth, if educated on what to do when there is a suspected case, could help them prevent potential infection of other people.
They will be advising communities where they will be deployed to provide these services, he said.
Another tragedy from Reuters:
Sierra Leone residents clash with police over Ebola response
Sierra Leone security forces on Tuesday clashed with angry residents of a densely populated neighbourhood in the capital Freetown who were protesting delays in removing the corpse of a suspected Ebola victim, witnesses said.
Security forces fired tear gas and rounds from AK-47 assault rifles to disperse the crowd that had barricaded the street in the Aberdeen neighbourhood in protest, residents and video footage from Reuters television showed.
Residents in Freetown’s Aberdeen said the body of the young woman who was suspected to have died from Ebola had been left unattended in the street for two days. The government of Sierra Leone was not immediately available to comment.
The Reuters video showed the corpse. It also showed another woman, a suspected Ebola patient, sitting some 100 metres (109 yards) from the body.
It was not immediately clear if there were any casualties from the clash.
From StarAfrica, anger leads to a bureaucratic shakeup:
S/Leone: National Ebola response unit dissolved
Sierra Leone’s President has dissolved the body responsible for managing the country’s fight against Ebola and sacked its coordinator. The Emergency Operations Center has been renamed the National Ebola Response Center (NERC) and it will be headed by a Chief Executive Officer.
The country’s Defence minister, Rtd Alfred Paulo Conte, has been appointed to the position.
According to a statement Saturday announcing the development, President Ernest Bai Koroma has assumed charge of the Defence ministry.
No explanation has been forwarded for the change, but the defunct EOC has been beset by accusations of financial mismanagement and incompetence.
On to Liberia an a construction shutdown from the Liberian Observer:
Road Projects on Hold Due to Ebola
The tendering of international bid for the feasibility studies on the Ganta to Tapita road project has been put on hold due to the Ebola outbreak in Liberia. The government and its international financiers for the project have agreed that there is a risk that they may not get quality companies bidding if they advertised the project due to the Ebola epidemic.
During a meeting in the US aside of the ongoing Annual Meeting of the World Bank Group and International Monetary Fund (IMF), the Liberian delegation led by Finance Minister Amara M. Konneh and development partners announced that the feasibility studies on the Tapita to Fishtown road project has also been delayed due to the Ebola outbreak.
From the World Health Organization, a prescription:
Liberia: working with communities is the key to stopping Ebola
Eight weeks ago, when Dr Peter Clement arrived in Lofa County, Liberia, from WHO’s office in Monrovia, 20-30 patients were coming to the Médecins sans Frontières (MSF) hospital with Ebola-like symptoms every day. People living in the community were afraid, civil unrest was simmering, and ambulance and health workers were being targeted.
Against United Nations security advice, Dr Clement travelled 12 hours over dirt roads to Lofa, near the Guinea border. Once there, he walked into the hostile communities and went straight to the chiefs.
“In many years, you have not fought with these people,” he told them. “Now you attack them. They are not the enemy, Ebola is the enemy. If we don’t chase Ebola, it will kill us. You have to know Ebola to fight Ebola. Mobilize your people. Let’s get to know Ebola.”
Dr Clement said the key to working with a hostile community is listening first. So he patiently listened to the community to understand their fears, then he started to explain about the virus and how people can prevent from getting infected.
Once they knew what Ebola was and how to stop it, they declared together: “No more Ebola in our community from today.”
A plea for more aid from the Liberian Observer:
Amara Konneh Calls for More Resources for Ebola
Liberia’s Finance and Development Planning Minister Amara M. Konneh and delegation have concluded constructive country-level discussions with the officials of the World Bank, International Monetary Fund (IMF) and other development partners, aimed at mobilizing support for the government’s fight against the Ebola epidemic.
In conversations with the World Bank, Konneh requested that the institution and other development partners use their convening powers to assist Liberia in raising additional resources to fight Ebola and also to support the country’s economic recovery plan.
For more than a week, Minister Konneh and his delegation, including Central Bank Executive Governor Dr. J. Mills Jones, the president of the Liberia Bank for Investment and Development (LBDI, John B. S. Davies III, Representative Munah Pelham-Youngblood, amongst others, have been in Washington DC working to make Liberia’s case for more support to be provided expeditiously to stop the killer virus and its destructive impacts on the nation.
The delegation articulated clearly that Liberia was looking for new avenues of support to fight Ebola and deal with probable associated economic and social issues. The Liberian Team requested bilateral and multilateral partners to not re-program existing commitments but rather provide injection of new funds.
A Promise from Washington from FrontPageAfrica:
CDC Will Remain in Liberia ‘Long After Ebola’, U.S. Envoy Says
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control with remain in Liberia long after the end of the deadly Ebola virus runs its course in Liberia, according to the U.S. Ambassador to Liberia, Deborah Malac.
Ambassador Malac, addressing reporters at the Ministry of Information Cultural Affairs and Tourism Friday says the goal is to have a presence in Liberia and work with the Liberian government to respond to serious infectious diseases like Ebola.
The United States military is providing logistical support and supervision to members of the AFL for the construction of the ETU through support from the United States Agency for International Development, which is funding the construction of a total of 17 ETUs in the country.
And a warning that things are worse than the press reports, via the Guardian:
Ebola deaths in Liberia are ‘far higher than reported’ as officials downplay epidemic
Film-maker Sorious Samura, recently returned from Liberia, says Ebola is still not under control, with cultural practices and data problems masking the true extent of the epidemic
The true death toll from the Ebola epidemic is being masked by chaotic data collection and people’s reluctance to admit that their loved ones had the virus, according to one of west Africa’s most celebrated film-makers.
Sorious Samura, who has just returned from making a documentary on the crisis in Liberia, said it is very clear on the ground that the true number of dead is far higher than the official figures being reported by the World Health Organisation.
Liberia accounts for more than half of all the official Ebola deaths, with a total of 2,458. Overall, the number of dead across Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea has exceeded 4,500.
Samura, a television journalist originally from Sierra Leone, said the Liberian authorities appeared to be deliberately downplaying the true number of cases, for fear of increasing alarm in the west African country.
“People are dying in greater numbers than we know, according to MSF [Médecins sans Frontières] and WHO officials. Certain departments are refusing to give them the figures – because the lower it is, the more peace of mind they can give people. The truth is that it is still not under control.”
On to Guinea and a suicidal leap from Xinhua:
Ebola patient in Guinea dies after jumping off ambulance
ONE patient suspected of being infected with Ebola virus died on Friday when he jumped off an ambulance that was taking him to a treatment center in Guinea’s Kankan region, about 800 km from Conakry, health sources have said.
Three suspected Ebola patients from Kankan were being driven by the health services to the Gueckedou treatment center situated about 300 km away.
During the journey, one of the patients jumped off from the ambulance that was in high speed and died on the spot, with a broken neck.
His wife, equally suspected of being infected and carried in the same ambulance, fled into the bush.
And contagion spreads into a gold mining region from Bloomberg:
Guinea Says Ebola Spreads to Regions Near AngloGold Mine
Guinea officials said the Ebola virus has spread to two new regions, including one with an AngloGold Ashanti Ltd. mine, complicating efforts to control the disease.
The village that reported the infections in Siguiri is 30 kilometers (19 miles) from the Johannesburg- based company’s facility, the Ministry of Health and AngloGold said in statements yesterday. No employees have been infected and operations continue, the mining company said.
Finally, from the Daily Independent in Lagos, Nigeria, hope and a warning:
Ebola war not over, says Chukwu
The battle against the deadly Ebola Virus may have been won in the Nigeria but the war is not yet over says former Health Minister, Professor Onyebuchi Chukwu.
Professor Chukwu gave the warning while speaking at the plenary of the just concluded 2014 Summit on Women and Girl-child education held at the National Centre for Women Development (NCWD), Abuja, with the theme “Reinforcing the Agenda for Girl Child Education”.
According to him, while the global accolade Nigeria has garnered for tackling the disease is well deserved, the country cannot afford to let its guard down given the fact that the scourge is still ravaging some West African countries.
“ I have confidence that the war against Ebola Virus Disease (EVD) has been won (in Nigeria) but I must also warn that the preventive measures still in place should be taken seriously as long as the disease is still ravaging some African countries and spreading beyond,” he said.
