Ebola news 8/21

[Buster's Uncle]

Africa tightens Ebola travel curbs as affected countries face food shortages
Reuters
By Clair MacDougall  2 hours ago



MONROVIA (Reuters) - African countries tightened travel curbs on Thursday in an effort to contain the Ebola outbreak, ignoring World Health Organization warnings that such measures could heighten shortages of food and basic supplies in affected areas.

In the West Point slum in Liberia's capital Monrovia, the scene of violent clashes with the army on Wednesday after the area was quarantined to curb the spread of Ebola, hundreds of people jostled their way towards trucks loaded with water and rice.

Police used canes to beat back some locals while aid workers helped others dip their fingers in ink to record their ration.

"I ain't eat since yesterday. I have four young children and none of us eat. I feel bad," said Hawa Saah, a pregnant 23-year-old resident of West Point, speaking in the pidgin English common to this part of West Africa.

The World Food Programme says deliveries of basic supplies to more than 1 million people across Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone are intended to avoid a food crisis in those West African countries, where more than 1,300 people have died from Ebola in the worst outbreak of the disease in history.

The World Health Organisation (WHO), the United Nations' health agency, has repeatedly said that it does not recommend travel or trade restrictions for Liberia, Sierra Leone, Guinea and Nigeria - the countries affected by the epidemic that began in March. Those countries are starting to suffer shortages of fuel, food and basic supplies due to these measures, it warned this week.

Still, Chad's Prime Minister Kalzeubet Payimi Deubet said on Thursday his country would close its border with Nigeria to prevent Ebola entering the country.

"This decision will have an economic impact on the region but it is imperative for public health needs," he said.

Nigeria has reported 15 cases - the lowest number in the four affected countries - and the WHO has expressed "cautious optimism" that the spread can be stopped.

South Africa said on Thursday it was banning all travelers from Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone from entering its territory, barring its own citizens.


GUINEA APPEALS TO AIRLINES

The precautions follow measures from commercial airlines such as Kenya Airways and Gambia Bird which have suspended flights to affected countries, despite new testing procedures at airports. The United States and several European countries have also advised against non-essential travel to the region.

Guinea's President Alpha Conde met with airlines on Wednesday in an attempt to persuade them to resume normal service to the country. "No Guinean has left the country to export Ebola elsewhere. Even the WHO has recognized that Guinea's measures are sufficient," he said.

The WHO said on Thursday it would convene talks early next month on potential treatments and vaccines to contain the outbreak.

Ebola has struck hardest in countries with health care systems ill-equipped to cope with an epidemic.

A ministry of health report in Liberia, the country where infection is rising fastest, showed 60 new suspected, probable and confirmed cases for just one day on Aug. 19. Two of them were health workers.

In an indication of the strain on local populations, security forces in Monrovia fired live rounds and tear gas on Wednesday as crowds sought to break quarantine restrictions.

A 15-year-old-boy receiving treatment for gun shot wounds later died, the medical director of the hospital treating him said on Thursday.

The WHO said on Thursday that an hemorrhagic illness has killed at least 70 people in Democratic Republic of Congo but denied that the illness was Ebola.

Ireland's health service said it was testing the body of a person, who had died after recently returning from Africa, for the Ebola virus.

(Additional reporting by Madjiasra Nako in N'djamena, Saliou Samb in Conakry, Joe Brock in Johannesburg; Writing by Emma Farge; Editing by Susan Fenton)


http://news.yahoo.com/africa-tightens-ebola-travel-curbs-affected-countries-face-203333442.html

[Buster's Uncle]

UK and Wellcome offer $10 million for emergency Ebola research
Reuters
August 20, 2014 7:05 PM



LONDON (Reuters) - An emergency research call has been launched to help fight the world's worst Ebola outbreak in West Africa, with the British government and the Wellcome Trust medical charity pledging a combined 6.5 million pounds ($10.8 million).

Expert teams from around the world are being invited to submit research proposals by Sept. 8 for initiatives that can rapidly investigate new approaches to treating, preventing and containing the disease.

"The gravity of the Ebola epidemic in West Africa demands an urgent response, and we believe rapid research into humanitarian interventions and therapeutics can have an impact on treatment and containment during the present outbreak," Jeremy Farrar, Wellcome's director, said in a statement.

Wellcome, the world's second highest-spending charitable foundation, also announced a long-term investment in African science worth 40 million pounds on Thursday.

There are no proven treatments or vaccines for Ebola but the World Health Organisation has backed the use of untested products and is hoping for improved supplies of experimental drugs by the end of the year.

British scientists said earlier that up to 30,000 people would have so far needed such treatments or vaccines in the current outbreak, which has killed more than 1,300 people.

(Reporting by Ben Hirschler; Editing by Raissa Kasolowsky)


http://news.yahoo.com/uk-wellcome-offer-10-million-emergency-ebola-research-230550936.html

[Buster's Uncle]

Ireland testing dead person recently in Africa for Ebola
Reuters
5 hours ago



Scientists don't know where to find Ebola in nature, information that would help them find a way to eradicate it.



Ireland is testing a dead person who recently returned from Africa for the Ebola virus, the Health Service Executive (HSE) of Ireland said on Thursday.

Appropriate infection control procedures are being put in place in the community and at the mortuary in the north-west county of Donegal where the person's remains lie, pending the outcome of laboratory tests, the HSE said.

The test results are expected late on Friday and the risk of transmission of any disease is considered to be extremely low, it added in a statement.

"The public health department was made aware earlier today of the remains of an individual, discovered early this morning, who had recently traveled to one of the areas in Africa affected by the current Ebola virus disease outbreak," it said.

"Blood samples have been sent for laboratory testing to confirm whether or not this individual had contracted Ebola virus disease," the statement said.

It did not provide the age, gender or any other details about the dead person.



Dr. Kent Brantly (R) in Liberia before he became sick with Ebola. (Reuters/Samaritan's Purse)


Very close personal contact with the infected individual or their body fluids would be needed for there to be any risk at all of contamination, Dr. Darina O' Flanagan, head of the HSE Health Protection Surveillance Centre, said in the statement.

The World Health Organization said on Wednesday that 2,473 people had been infected and 1,350 had died since the Ebola outbreak was identified in remote southeastern Guinea in March.

It said no cases of the disease had been confirmed so far outside of Guinea, Sierra Leone, Liberia and Nigeria, despite cases having been suspected elsewhere.

A Spanish priest died in hospital in Madrid last week, the first European infected by the virus, after contracting the disease while working for a non-governmental organization in Liberia.

(Reporting by Padraic Halpin; Editing by Gareth Jones)



Confirmed, probable, and suspect cases and deaths from Ebola virus disease in Guinea, Liberia, Nigeria, and Sierra Leone, as of August 19, 2014. (Yahoo News/WHO)


http://news.yahoo.com/ireland-testing-deceased-person-recently-africa-ebola-174715638.html

[Buster's Uncle]

U.S. aid workers pose no public risk after Ebola treatment: doctor
Reuters
8 hours ago



(Reuters) - Two American aid workers discharged from an Atlanta hospital after being treated for Ebola pose no health risk to the public, an Emory University Hospital doctor said on Thursday.

Kent Brantly and Nancy Writebol, who both contracted the deadly virus in Liberia while working for Christian organizations, have tested clear of Ebola and are likely to make a complete recovery, said Dr. Bruce Ribner, medical director of Emory’s Infectious Disease Unit.

"I am forever thankful to God for sparing my life," Brantly said during a news conference that marked his first public appearance since walking into the hospital wearing a bio-hazard suit on Aug. 2.

In a separate statement, Christian mission group SIM USA said Writebol was released from the hospital on Tuesday and was resting in an undisclosed location with her husband.

"As she walked out of her isolation room, all she could say was, 'To God be the glory,'" Brantly, himself a physician who was working for the Christian relief group Samaritan's Purse, told reporters in Atlanta.

The World Health Organization said on Wednesday that 2,473 people have been infected and 1,350 have died since the Ebola outbreak was identified in remote southeastern Guinea in March.

It said that no cases of the disease had been confirmed outside of Guinea, Sierra Leone, Liberia and Nigeria despite cases having been suspected elsewhere.

(Additional reporting by Joe Bavier in Abidjan and Daniel Flynn in Dakar; Writing by Colleen Jenkins; Editing by Louise Ireland, Bill Trott and Susan Heavey)


http://news.yahoo.com/u-aid-worker-left-hospital-ebola-recovery-group-151525330.html

[Buster's Uncle]

WHO says 70 die from illness in Congo, denies Ebola link
Reuters
6 hours ago



KINSHASA/DAKAR (Reuters) - At least 70 people have died in northern Democratic Republic of Congo from an outbreak of hemorrhagic gastroenteritis, the World Health Organization said on Thursday, denying that the illness was Ebola.

A WHO report dated Thursday and seen by Reuters said that 592 people had contracted the disease, of whom 70 died. Five health care workers, including one doctor, are among the dead.

"This is not Ebola," a WHO spokesman said in an email to Reuters on Thursday.

A local priest who asked not to be named said that the illness had affected several villages and estimated that the death toll was over 100 people.

Kinshasa sent its health minister, Felix Kabange Numbi, and a team of experts on Wednesday to the region after reports of several deaths.

The outbreak began in the remote jungle province of Equateur where the first case of Ebola was reported in 1976, prompting speculation that it was the same illness that has killed more than 1,350 people in an outbreak now raging in West Africa.

Symptoms of the two diseases are similar; they include vomiting, diarrhoea and internal bleeding. But the fatality rate for this outbreak of haemorrhagic gastroenteritis is much lower than the West Africa Ebola outbreak, at around 12 percent versus close to 60 percent.

The WHO, which sent representatives to the area on Wednesday together with the Congolese team of experts, said four samples would be flown from the town of Boende on Friday to the capital Kinshasa for further testing.

Medical charity MSF said it had also sent a team to Equateur province to assess the situation. MSF said it was too early to confirm what the disease was.

(Reporting by Bienvenu Bakumanya and Emma Farge; Editing by Daniel Flynn/Mark Heinrich)


http://news.yahoo.com/least-70-dead-hemorrhagic-illness-northern-congo-171621298.html

[Buster's Uncle]

WHO holding talks next month on Ebola treatments
Reuters
7 hours ago



GENEVA (Reuters) - The World Health Organisation (WHO) said on Thursday it would convene talks early next month on potential treatments and vaccines to contain the deadly Ebola outbreak in West Africa.

The infectious disease has killed 1,350 people among 2,473 cases in four countries - Guinea, Liberia, Nigeria and Sierra Leone - according to the United Nations health agency.

The WHO this month backed the use of untested drugs on people infected with Ebola, but the scarcity of supplies has raised questions about who gets priority access to treatment.

"The consultation has been convened to gather expertise about the most promising experimental therapies and vaccines and their role in containing the Ebola outbreak in West Africa," it said in a statement on the talks set for Sept. 4-5 in Geneva.

More than 100 experts in pharmaceutical research, clinical management, and on ethical, legal and regulatory issues will attend the meeting at WHO headquarters, it said.

"Issues of safety and efficacy will be discussed together with innovative models for expediting clinical trials. Possible ways to ramp up production of the most promising products will also be explored," the WHO said.

ZMapp, a trial drug made by U.S. biotech company Mapp Biopharmaceutical, has been used on six patients to date, but supplies are now exhausted, WHO spokesman Gregory Hartl said.

They include two American aid workers who have recovered, a Spanish priest who died and three Liberian medical workers, he said. Two of the Liberians have shown "marked improvement", while the third, a doctor, remains in serious condition but has improved somewhat, the WHO statement said.

(Reporting by Stephanie Nebehay; editing by Andrew Roche)


http://news.yahoo.com/holding-talks-next-month-ebola-treatments-165744132.html

[Buster's Uncle]

Sierra Leone's 365 Ebola deaths traced back to one healer
AFP
By Frankie Taggart  August 20, 2014 9:23 AM



Residents of Sierra Leone's capital voice their fears as the Ebola virus sweeps through west Africa



Kenema (Sierra Leone) (AFP) - It has laid waste to the tribal chiefdoms of Sierra Leone, leaving hundreds dead, but the Ebola crisis began with just one healer's claims to special powers.

The outbreak need never have spread from Guinea, health officials revealed to AFP, except for a herbalist in the remote eastern border village of Sokoma.

"She was claiming to have powers to heal Ebola. Cases from Guinea were crossing into Sierra Leone for treatment," Mohamed Vandi, the top medical official in the hard-hit district of Kenema, told AFP.

"She got infected and died. During her funeral, women around the other towns got infected."

Ebola has killed more than 1,220 people since it emerged in southern Guinea at the start of the year, spreading first to Liberia and cutting a gruesome and gory swathe through eastern Sierra Leone since May.

The tropical pathogen can turn people into de facto corpses with little higher brain function and negligible motor control days before they die.

The virus attacks almost every section of tissue, reducing organs and flesh in the most aggressive infections to a pudding-like mush which leaches or erupts from the body.

The virus is highly infectious through exposure to bodily fluids, and its early rapid spread in west Africa was attributed in part to relatives touching victims during traditional funeral rites.

The herbalist's mourners fanned out across the rolling hills of the Kissi tribal chiefdoms, starting a chain reaction of infections, deaths, funerals and more infections.

A worrying outbreak turned into a major epidemic when the virus finally hit Kenema city on June 17.

An ethnically-diverse, Krio-speaking city of 190,000, Kenema already has the highest incidence of Lassa fever -- another viral haemorrhagic disease -- in the world.

But the brutality and cold efficiency of the Ebola virus -- described in medical literature as a "molecular shark" -- caught the city's shabby, chaotic hospital off-guard.


- 'Deadly and unforgiving' -

Crumpled photographs of dead nurses cover noticeboards on the flaking walls outside the maternity unit and in the administration block.



Dr. Kent Brantly (R) in Liberia before he became sick with Ebola. (Reuters/Samaritan's Purse)


Twelve nurses have been among 277 people to die since the first case showed up in Kenema hospital. A further ten have been infected with Ebola and survived.

"The nurses who lost their lives and those who got infected would never have gone in knowing that they would get infected," Vandi, the district medical officer, told AFP.

"We are fighting a battle that is new. Ebola is new here and we are all learning as we go along."

The first case at the hospital was a woman who had partially miscarried, having probably passed the virus to her unborn child.

The facility boasts the only Lassa fever isolation unit in the world, set apart from the main building, and a makeshift Ebola unit was quickly set up there.

It was then that the nurses began dying.



Confirmed, probable, and suspect cases and deaths from Ebola virus disease in Guinea, Liberia, Nigeria, and Sierra Leone, as of August 19, 2014. (Yahoo News/WHO)


As head sister of the Lassa fever ward for more than 25 years, Mbalu Fonnie was credited with attending to more haemorrhagic fever patients than anyone in the world.

She had survived Lassa fever herself, but was no match for the Ebola virus when it got into her bloodstream from a patient in July.

She was dead within days, along with fellow nurses Alex Moigboi and Iye Gborie, and ambulance driver Sahr Niokor.

The deaths prompted a strike of 100 nurses, who complained of poor management of the Ebola centre.

"Wherever the Ebola virus strikes for the first time, there is a heavy toll on healthcare workers because they don't have experience with it," Vandi told AFP.

"The Ebola virus is deadly and unforgiving. The slightest mistake you make, you will get infected."

Umar Khan, a hugely admired doctor and the country's leading Ebola specialist, died after saving more than 100 lives, and at least nine nurses have died since.


- Inadequate protection -

There are 80 beds in the hospital's Ebola centre, almost double its capacity.

Shifts are voluntary, and many nurses have refused to work in the unit, while those who remain are overworked and exhausted.

Some staff say they have gone weeks without a day off, and 12-hour shifts are par for the course.

Sister Rebecca Lansana was quoted by the Guardian newspaper as saying she was nervous about the high number of staff deaths.

"My family do not want me to come here anymore. They think I will die, they don’t want to be around me in case I give them Ebola," she told the London-based daily.

By the time the article came out on August 9, Lansana had already been dead five days, aged just 42.

Her husband Emmanuel Karimu, 45, told AFP she was moved from maternity to the Ebola unit after a crash course of just one week.

One day after work, she began to feel feverish and feared the worst, checking herself in for tests which came back positive.

"They transferred her to the Ebola ward that day and four days later she died," Karimu said, accusing the hospital of providing inadequate protective clothing.

The hospital told AFP staff training had hugely improved in recent weeks, with the help of global aid agencies and the World Health Organization.

The Ebola outbreak has infected 848 people and claimed 365 lives in Sierra Leone since the herbalist began inviting clients across the border with promises of salvation.

"These figures tell us one thing: Ebola is here with us and its impact on us is real," Maya Kaikai, the government minister for the eastern region, told a news conference in Kenema on Saturday.

"It is a disease that spreads very fast, without regard for academic or economic status, political affiliation, age, ethnic grouping, gender or religion."


http://news.yahoo.com/sierra-leones-365-ebola-deaths-traced-back-one-065404276.html