Ebola news 9/16

[Buster's Uncle]

Ban: UN 'taking lead' on global fight of Ebola
Associated Press
By TRENTON DANIEL  6 hours ago



UNITED NATIONS (AP) — The head of the United Nations said Tuesday that the world body is "taking the lead now" on international efforts to fight the Ebola outbreak in West Africa that has killed some 2,400 people and could spread further.

Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said at a press briefing that the U.N. General Assembly next week will follow-up with a high-level meeting — the disease, he said, taking on "a special focus" at an event that will welcome more than 140 heads of state and government. Before that, an emergency meeting will be held Thursday in which Ban and World Health Organization director general Margaret Chan plan to "outline the international action plan to contain this threat."

The U.N.'s response so far has drawn criticism, with the president of France-based humanitarian group Doctors Without Borders on Tuesday calling it "dangerously behind."

Ban also said the disease could "affect political instability" if it isn't "properly contained and properly treated."

"This is not just a health crisis," Ban told reporters. "It has grave humanitarian, economic and social consequences that could spread far beyond the affected countries."

West Africa's Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea have been hardest hit by Ebola, which also has reached Nigeria and Senegal. Ebola is spread through direct contact with the bodily fluids of sick patients, making doctors and nurses especially vulnerable to contracting the virus, which has no vaccine or approved treatment.

In his role as U.N. chief, Ban also said he has discussed the outbreak with President Barack Obama, along with leaders from the U.K., France, Italy, the European Union and Cuba. He added that he has urged leaders in the most affected countries to establish special centers that aim to isolate infected people from non-infected relatives in an effort to stem the spread of Ebola.

Many regional and major airlines in August suspended services to Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea, complicating efforts to bring medical workers and supplies to the region.

In the briefing, Ban reiterated an appealed for international airlines and shipping companies not to suspend services to countries affected by Ebola. Doing so, he said, hampers and prevents the U.N. and international health workers from providing humanitarian and medical assistance.


http://news.yahoo.com/ban-un-taking-lead-global-fight-ebola-181410189.html

[Buster's Uncle]

To save Africans from Ebola, salve their fears
The American military's efforts against the Ebola outbreak and other examples of foreign aid must first bolster the confidence of West Africans, in dealing with fear, distrust, isolation.
Christian Science Monitor
By the Monitor's Editorial Board  3 hours ago


As the epicenter of the Ebola epidemic in West Africa, Liberia is no longer just a country. It is also now a patient, one that is rapidly coming under the care of the world health community.

Liberia’s leaders have been overwhelmed by the Ebola outbreak, compelled to ask other nations to rush to the rescue. American soldiers, for example, will soon be building special treatment centers in Liberia and training as many as 500 health-care workers per week. Malaysia is sending millions of rubber gloves to West Africa.

In all, the United Nations expects nearly $1 billion will be needed to protect some 22 million people in the three countries most affected by Ebola – Liberia, Sierra Leone, and Guinea.

Viewing these countries as patients is really part of the solution. Just as a doctor’s bedside manner can promote healing in a patient, the first step in eradicating Ebola is to deal with public fear, a breakdown of trust, and a sense of isolation and abandonment in each country.

That is especially true in Liberia, which is home to about half of Ebola cases. Many state institutions are not functioning. “Liberia is facing a serious threat to its national existence,” Brownie Samukai, the Liberian defense minister, told the UN Security Council.

While foreign assistance is critical, the main impact of such aid should be to give hope to each country and to build up confidence in local health systems. “Liberians are not going to be saved by internationals coming in,” Bruce Aylward, emergency chief of the World Health Organization, told The New York Times. “They’re going to be saved by Liberians.”

This crisis, Dr. Aylward says, is unparalleled in modern times, in part because of the perceived danger and uncertainties of Ebola. In addition, the world is challenged by the scale of the problem across so many countries.

The humanitarian compassion expressed toward the West African “patients” can act as a preventive. It can inspire local health workers and tamp down panic. It will dispel cold indifference and replace it with a moral elevation, or the tendency to witness a good deed and then help others in distress.

The world’s tangible assistance in treating Ebola, in other words, must be accompanied by intangible kindness. Healing is not only treating physical causes, and caring is not only managing symptoms. A health-care worker must also listen to patients and treat their fears with a loving touch.


http://news.yahoo.com/save-africans-ebola-salve-fears-212713734--politics.html

[Buster's Uncle]

Obama Warns Ebola Outbreak Is 'Spiraling Out of Control'
The Atlantic Wire
By Russell Berman  3 hours ago



The Ebola outbreak now has President Obama's full attention.

After drawing criticism for a late and lackluster U.S. response to the disease's spread in Africa, the president on Tuesday used his strongest language to date in warning that the epidemic is "spiraling out of control."

Obama visited the headquarters of the Centers of Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta to announce a major expansion of the U.S. effort, including the deployment of as many as 3,000 military personnel to west Africa to help confront Ebola.

This is an epidemic that is not just a threat to regional security -- it’s a potential threat to global security if these countries break down, if their economies break down, if people panic.

The president said the scenes out of countries like Liberia are "absolutely gut-wrenching" and that the disease had the potential to infect hundreds of thousands of people if it was not contained.

The reality is this epidemic is going to get worse before it gets better, but right now, the world still has an opportunity to save countless lives. Right now the world has an responsibility to act, to step up, to do more.

In an update on Tuesday, the World Health Organization said nearly 2,500 hundred people had died from the current outbreak, and nearly 5,000 cases had been reported.

We have to act fast. we can't dawdle on this one.

Obama's tone about Ebola was markedly different that the one he used as recently as six weeks ago, when he emphasized in response to reporter questions that the outbreak was limited to a few countries that had weak public health systems.

The administration's public alarm has grown steadily since. CDC director Dr. Tom Frieden returned from a trip to the region in late August warning that the outbreak was "worse than I'd feared." Shortly thereafter, Obama filmed a video in which he spoke directly to west Africans, urging them to heed the directions of authorities and take precautions, particularly when burying loved ones who had died from the disease.

"We have to act fast," the president said Tuesday. "We can't dawdle on this one."

Despite the increased response, Obama said Tuesday the chances of an Ebola outbreak in the U.S. remained "extremely low."

But judging by the urgency in his voice, it is significantly higher than it was just a few weeks ago.

This article was originally published at http://www.thewire.com/global/2014/09/obama-warns-ebola-outbreak-is-spiraling-out-of-control/380317/

[Buster's Uncle]

Ebola vaccine trial finds 'no red flags': U.S. Senate testimony
Reuters
5 hours ago



NEW YORK (Reuters) - A key safety trial of an experimental Ebola vaccine manufactured by GlaxoSmithKline has injected 10 healthy volunteers since Sept. 2, Dr. Anthony Fauci of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases told a U.S. Senate panel on Tuesday, and so far "no red flags" indicating serious adverse reactions have been found.

An additional 10 volunteers will receive the vaccine in coming days.

The trial is being conducted at the National Institutes of Health Clinical Center in Bethesda, Maryland. Results are expected by the end of this year.

The vaccine does not contain the actual Ebola virus, but only one of its genes.

Researchers will determine not only whether the vaccine causes adverse reactions but also whether it triggers the production of antibodies against the deadly virus, which has killed more than 2,200 people in West Africa in the worst Ebola epidemic ever recorded.

(Reporting by Sharon Begley; Editing by Diane Craft)


http://news.yahoo.com/ebola-vaccine-trial-finds-no-red-flags-u-195448136--business.html

[Buster's Uncle]

World Bank okays $105 mn for Ebola fight in Africa
AFP
6 hours ago



Washington (AFP) - The World Bank approved a $105 million grant Tuesday to bolster the fight to contain the deadly Ebola virus epidemic raging in west Africa.

The funding is part of a $200-million World Bank pledge approved in early August to help Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea to contain the outbreak, which has killed more than 2,400 people in the region.

"The world needs to do much, much more to respond to the Ebola crisis in these three countries," World Bank President Jim Yong Kim said in a statement.

The grant "will have an immediate, positive impact on their collective Ebola containment campaigns," said Kim, a physician trained in infectious diseases, referring to the recipient countries.

Liberia, the country with the highest number of Ebola infections, will receive $52 million, with Sierra Leone getting $28 million and Guinea $25 million.

The World Bank said the funding was aimed at helping people cope with the economic impact of the crisis, and strengthening public health systems to guard against future disease outbreaks.

The financing will allow governments to provide food and water in the quarantined and worst-affected areas and ferry in health workers, the Bank said.

The announcement came as the UN warned that almost $1.0 billion is needed to fight the outbreak, warning that 20,000 people could be infected by the highly fatal virus by year-end.

US President Barack Obama said earlier Tuesday that 3,000 US military personnel will be sent to west Africa to try and curb the epidemic.

The Ebola outbreak, the most severe since the virus was first identified in 1976, has killed more than 2,460 people among the 4,985 cases identified, according to the latest WHO tally.

The 188-nation World Bank said it must mobilize more financing for the countries "since the immediate response is still significantly under-resourced for the purposes of curbing the outbreak."


http://news.yahoo.com/world-bank-okays-105-mn-ebola-fight-africa-192059424.html

[Buster's Uncle]

American Ebola survivor calls the outbreak "a fire straight from the pit of hell"
Vox
Updated by Julia Belluz on September 16, 2014, 7:10 p.m. ET@juliaoftorontojulia.belluz@voxmedia.com



Dr. Kent Brantly  Jessica McGowan



Kent Brantly has a unique perspective on the Ebola epidemic: he has both worked as a doctor to treat the virus in patients and he is a victim of the disease, having contracted Ebola in July while working as a medical missionary in Liberia.

Today, he testified in DC before a senate senate committee on the West African outbreak. Here are highlights from his speech:


On the horror of having Ebola

On July 23, I started to feel ill. Three days later, I learned that I had tested positive for Ebola Virus Disease. I became a patient, and I came to understand firsthand what my own patients had suffered. I was isolated from my family, and I was unsure if I would ever see them again. Even though I knew most of my caretakers, I could see nothing but their eyes through their protective goggles when they came to treat me. I experienced the humiliation of losing control of my bodily functions and faced the horror of vomiting blood-a sign of the internal bleeding that could have eventually led to my death.

How the world woke up to Ebola after he was infected

This unprecedented outbreak began nine months ago but received very little attention from the international community until the events of mid-July when my friend and colleague, Nancy Writebol, and I became infected. Since that time, there has been intense media attention and therefore increased awareness of the situation on the ground in Liberia, Guinea, Sierra Leone and neighboring countries.

The response, however, is still unacceptably out-of-step with the size and scope of the problem now before us.

What it's like to treat Ebola patients

Treating Ebola patients is not like caring for other patients. It is grueling work. The personal protective equipment (PPE) we wore in the Ebola Treatment Unit becomes excruciatingly hot, with temperatures inside the suit reaching up to 115 degrees. It cannot be worn for more than an hour and a half. Because of the elaborate safety protocols involved in treating an Ebola patient, each one takes an average of 30 minutes of time from a team of three to five people. It is easy to see that a significant influx of medical personnel will be needed to adequately care for the thousands of people that epidemiologists now are predicting will fall victim to the disease in the coming weeks.

On using military to respond to the Ebola virus

The use of our military is a legitimate and defensible request because if we do not do something to stop this outbreak now, it quickly could become a matter of U.S. national security-whether that means a regional war that gives terrorist groups like Boko Haram a foothold in West Africa or the spread of the disease into America. Fighting those kinds of threats would require more from the Department of Defense than what I am asking for today.

Why the outbreak got out of control in Liberia

The laboratory we used to confirm Ebola Virus Disease in patients was 45 minutes away and inadequately staffed. A patient would arrive at our center in the afternoon, and their blood specimen would not be collected until the following morning. We would receive results later that night at the earliest. This means that the turn-around time to positively identify Ebola cases was anywhere from 12 to 36 hours after the blood was drawn. If a patient is not infected with the virus, that can be a life-threatening delay...

These laboratory delays can have an even greater-and deadlier- consequence. The longer it takes to confirm a positive result, the longer an Ebola- infected patient is left in the "suspected" side of the isolation unit. Every precaution is taken to protect people in that part of the facility from cross-contamination, but there is always the potential that those without the disease can become infected if they are in close proximity to an Ebola-positive person.

On receiving the experimental treatment ZMapp

I am deeply grateful to the personnel at Mapp Biopharmaceuticals who even before this outbreak had devoted their lives to combatting Ebola.

I hope that the devastating impact of the current epidemic will result in new discoveries for treatments and vaccines in the future, but we cannot wait for a magic bullet to halt the spread of Ebola in West Africa. The current epidemic is beyond anything we have ever seen, and it is time to think outside of the box.

The challenges ahead

Historically, Ebola outbreaks have been contained through the identification and isolation of suspected cases, and this has worked extremely well to stop the disease. Today, however, the number of cases and rate of transmission are surpassing the ability of these traditional interventions to bring the situation under control. Intensive medical care is important, but it is given only to patients in isolation units. We know that the virus is being spread primarily by those who are unwilling or unable to go to an Ebola Treatment Unit...

The World Health Organization has laid out a roadmap similar to what I have just described, but they are so bound up by bureaucracy that they have been painfully slow and ineffective in this response. Their recommendations for home care were made August 28, and I am not aware of any significant progress in the implementation of their plan to date. It is imperative that the U.S. take the lead instead of relying on other agencies...

Many have used the analogy of a fire burning out of control to describe this unprecedented Ebola outbreak. Indeed it is a fire-a fire straight from the pit of hell. We cannot fool ourselves into thinking that the vast moat of the Atlantic Ocean will keep the flames away from our shores. Instead, we must mobilize the resources needed to keep entire nations from being reduced to ashes.

http://www.vox.com/2014/9/16/6257051/an-american-ebola-virus-survivors-view-on-the-outbreak-kent-brantly

[Buster's Uncle]

Why Obama is commiting 3,000 troops to fight Ebola
Vox
Updated by Julia Belluz on September 16, 2014, 7:50 p.m. ET@juliaoftorontojulia.belluz@voxmedia.com



Mark Wilson



As the worst-ever Ebola epidemic rages on in Africa, President Barack Obama announced Tuesday that the US will ramp up efforts to combat the the virus as part of "the largest international response in the history of the CDC."

In an address from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention headquarters in Atlanta, Obama said that the US is willing to take the lead on international efforts to combat the virus. Ebola "is a global threat, and it demands a truly global response," Obama said.

"This is an epidemic that is not just a threat to regional security. It's a potential threat to global security, if these countries break down, if their economies break down, if people panic," he said. "That has profound effects on all of us, even if we are not directly contracting the disease." This outbreak is already "spiraling out of control," he added.

The speech came amid increasing criticism that the international community has not responded quickly and boldly enough to what has become the worst Ebola outbreak in history. And Obama's words at the CDC were more alarming and urgent than his previous address on Ebola in the summer, when he emphasized that the disease is one that strikes under-funded health systems.


"The reality is this epidemic is going to get worse before it gets betteR."

So far, more than 2,400 people have died this year from Ebola — more than the combined total of all previous outbreaks since the first recorded in 1976 — and the epidemic has spread to five African nations, including Guinea, Sierra Leone, Liberia, Nigeria, and Senegal.

Experts at a senate hearing on Tuesday said that the actual death toll is much higher, and that without effective actions to stop it, the case load will grow into the hundreds of thousands. More cases, they cautioned, will mean more potential for Ebola spread  beyond Africa.

"The reality is this epidemic is going to get worse before it gets better, but right now," Obama said, "the world still has an opportunity to save countless lives. Right now the world has a responsibility to act, to step up, to do more."


3,000 troops dedicated to fighting Ebola

To turn the outbreak around, the White House has committed more than $175 million to what it's calling a "top national security priority."

The focus of the funds is stopping spread in West Africa. The US will send more than 3,000 troops to the most affected areas, and set up a joint operation in Monrovia, Liberia — the hardest hit of the five regions  — to coordinate relief efforts.

In addition, the plan will boost the number of health workers and health-care centers in the region. The US pledged to build as many as 17 additional Ebola treatment units — with a total of about 1,700 beds — and to help recruit medical personnel to staff them. (Right now, people in Liberia are being turned away from treatment facilities because there is no capacity to care for them.) The Department of Defense also plans to establish a site where up to 500 health care providers can be trained each week.

USAID will also support a program of distributing kits with sanitizers and medical supplies to some 400,000 of the most vulnerable households in Liberia.

The Obama administration has asked Congress for an additional $88 million to combat Ebola, including $30 million to send more relief workers and lab supplies from the CDC and $58 million to invest in the development of the experimental Ebola drug ZMapp and two vaccine candidates.


Chances of Ebola spread in the US "extremely low"

Despite the alarm about the situation in Africa, the White House continues to quell worries about Ebola in America. President Obama said the chances of Ebola spreading in the US are "extremely low."

"US health professionals agree it is highly unlikely that we would experience an Ebola outbreak here in the United States, given our robust health care infrastructure and rapid response capabilities," reads a fact sheet from the administration.

"Nevertheless, we have taken extra measures to prevent the unintentional importation of cases into the United States, and if a patient does make it here, our national health system has the capacity and expertise to quickly detect and contain this disease."


Ebola toll could rise to "hundreds of thousands of cases"

At a Tuesday Senate hearing on Ebola in West Africa, health officials who have been working on the front line of this epidemic said that if the world doesn't act now, it's only a matter of time before cases start turning up on shores outside of Africa.

Beth Bell, director of the National Center for Emerging and Zoonotic Infectious Diseases at the CDC, said that the number of Ebola cases could balloon into the "hundreds of thousands" without effective interventions.

Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute for Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said  budget cuts at his agency can be partly to blame for the slow response to the outbreak. The lack of funding "eroded, in insidious ways, our ability to respond in the way I and my colleagues would like to respond to these threats." He also said it's very unlikely that the virus will mutate to become airborne, though he couldn't rule it out given biology's unpredictability.


Too little, too late?

The American Ebola survivor Kent Brantly, who contracted the virus while working as a medical missionary in Liberia, criticized the "painfully slow and ineffective" response to the outbreak, and noted that the international community only seemed to wake up to Ebola in July, after he and his colleague Nancy Writebol got infected.

"Many have used the analogy of a fire burning out of control to describe this unprecedented Ebola outbreak. Indeed it is a fire-a fire straight from the pit of hell," he said, with his wife seated next to him.

"We cannot fool ourselves into thinking that the vast moat of the Atlantic Ocean will keep the flames away from our shores." He called on more investment in Ebola "to keep entire nations from being reduced to ashes."


A worst-case scenario

Dr. Bell painted a picture of a best and worst case scenario for this outbreak. "The best case scenario is that over the coming months we're able to effectively isolate and treat Ebola patients, we're able to effectively trace all their contacts to make sure they're all followed for 21 days, we're able to do something about safe burial practices so we don't have bodies in the streets." Eventually, she said, we'll see the caseload decrease.

"In the worst case scenario, we continue to see an exponential rise in cases that we're currently seeing. And an important corollary to that is exportation to other countries." She noted that the outbreak that originated in Guinea in December has already spread to Liberia, Sierra Leone, Nigeria and Senegal. "You can imagine the outbreak spreading outside the borders as part of a worst-case scenario."


http://www.vox.com/2014/9/16/6219061/white-house-committs-3000-troops-to-fight-ebola

[Buster's Uncle]

Teachers union calls for boycott of Nigeria school restart
AFP
5 hours ago



A boy walks through an empty class room at a school in Monrovia, closed by the Liberian government to protect students from Ebola. The head of Nigeria's main teachers union called for a boycott of next week's re-opening of schools (AFP Photo/)



Lagos (AFP) - The head of Nigeria's main teachers union called on Tuesday for a boycott of next week's re-opening of schools, saying there had not been enough training to protect against the Ebola virus.

Michael Olukoya, president of the Nigerian Union of Teachers (NUT), said members should boycott next Monday's planned re-opening because they have not received training and supplies like hand gloves and sanitisers promised by the government.

"The schools are still the same as before the outbreak," Olukoya said. "Teachers should be trained. They should be provided with the thermometers, gloves and hand sanitisers."

President Goodluck Jonathan responded by saying he would "plead" with the NUT to not go ahead with the industrial action.

"Why do we want to create problems while it is not necessary? It is uncalled for," he told reporters.

The president asserted that "we have managed Ebola very well" in Nigeria and that closing its schools was giving the wrong signal to the world.

Education minister Ibrahim Shekarau said earlier this month that schools would resume on September 22 after their re-opening was delayed due to the outbreak of the Ebola virus in Nigeria.

The re-opening was initially delayed from September 15 to October 13 due to the outbreak, but the date was later moved forward to September 22.

Eight people have died and over 20 have been infected by Ebola in Nigeria. The outbreak started in the commercial capital Lagos in July, after an infected Liberian official flew into the city, and spread to Port Harcourt, the hub of the nation's oil industry.

The current outbreak has killed 2,461 people, mostly in three West African nations of Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone, and the United Nations fears 20,000 people could be infected by the end of the year.


http://news.yahoo.com/teachers-union-calls-boycott-nigeria-school-restart-191504050.html