Ebola news 9/9

[Buster's Uncle]

Ebola spreads exponentially in Liberia, many more cases soon: WHO
Reuters
By Stephanie Nebehay and Umaru Fofana  2 hours ago



Health workers surround an Ebola patient who escaped from quarantine from Monrovia's Elwa hospital, in the centre of Paynesville in this still image taken from a September 1, 2014 video. REUTERS/Reuters TV



GENEVA/FREETOWN (Reuters) - Liberia, the country worst hit by West Africa's Ebola epidemic, should see thousands of new cases in coming weeks as the virus spreads exponentially, the World Health Organisation (WHO) said on Monday.

The epidemic, the worst since the disease was discovered in 1976, has killed some 2,100 people in Guinea, Sierra Leone, Liberia and Nigeria and has also spread to Senegal.

The WHO believes it will take six to nine months to contain and may infect up to 20,000 people. In Liberia, the disease has already killed 1,089 people - more than half of all deaths reported since March in this regional epidemic.

"Transmission of the Ebola virus in Liberia is already intense and the number of new cases is increasing exponentially," the U.N. agency said in a statement. "The number of new cases is moving far faster than the capacity to manage them in Ebola-specific treatment centres."

Fourteen of Liberia's 15 counties have reported confirmed cases. As soon as a new Ebola treatment centre is opened, it immediately overflows with patients.

"In Monrovia, taxis filled with entire families, of whom some members are thought to be infected with the Ebola virus, crisscross the city, searching for a treatment bed. There are none," it said.

In Montserrado County, which includes the capital Monrovia and is home to more than one million people, a WHO investigative team estimated that 1,000 beds are urgently needed for Ebola patients, the statement said.

Motorbike-taxis and regular taxis have become "a hot source" of Ebola transmission.

Liberia's government announced on Monday it was extending a nationwide nighttime curfew imposed last month to curb the spread of the disease.

Sierra Leone last week ordered a four-day countrywide "lockdown" starting Sept. 18 as part of tougher efforts to halt the spread of Ebola.


INTERNATIONAL MOBILISATION

U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon called British Prime Minster David Cameron, France's President François Hollande, Cuban President Raul Castro and Herman Van Rompuy, president of the European Council, to urge more support, his spokesman said.

While governments and organisations across the world are scrambling cash and supplies to the region, the WHO said its aid partners must scale up efforts by three- to fourfold to battle the epidemic.

Conventional control measures were "not having an adequate impact" in Liberia, it said.

Ebola is a haemorrhagic fever spread through the blood, sweat or vomit of those infected, making those working directly with the sick among the most vulnerable to the disease.

In a country with just one doctor for nearly 100,000 inhabitants before the outbreak, some 152 health care workers have been infected and 79 have died in Liberia since the crisis began, the WHO said.

The United States said on Monday will send a 25-bed field hospital to Liberia to help provide medical care for health workers there. Britain earlier said it would send military and humanitarian experts to set up a treatment centre for Ebola victims in Sierra Leone.

Medical charity Medecins Sans Frontieres welcomed the move by the British government but voiced fears the disease was moving "catastrophically" through the population. Resources needed to be deployed on the ground more quickly, it said.

The WHO said on Monday that one of its doctors working in an Ebola treatment centre in Sierra Leone had tested positive for the disease and would be evacuated from Freetown shortly. It was the second WHO-deployed staff member to contract the virus after a Senegalese epidemiologist was infected last month.


ECONOMIES THREATENED

Chief executives of 11 firms in the region joined the call for world leaders to step up the fight against the disease, warning on Monday that it threatened the region's stability.

"Without the support of the international community the situation for these economies, many of whom are only beginning to return to stability after decades of civil war, will be even more catastrophic," they said in a statement.

Signatories of the statement included chief executives from ArcelorMittal, Randgold Resources, London Mining, IAMGOLD, Newmont, Aureus Mining, and Hummingbird Resources.

Exxon Mobil meanwhile donated $150,000 to the Liberian National Red Cross Society.

Meanwhile, an emergency meeting of health ministers and other officials from African Union member states agreed in the Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa on Monday to lift restrictions on travel to and from countries affected by Ebola.

A number of African nations introduced travel bans and border closures in recent months despite WHO warnings that the measures risk creating food and supply shortages.

"It was agreed that countries should lift travel bans and allow people to move between members states and allow trade but to put proper measures for screening," Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma, the African Union's chairperson, said after the meeting.

"We expect them (all member countries of the 54-nation bloc)to implement (the decision) as agreed," she told journalists.


http://news.yahoo.com/ebola-spreads-exponentially-liberia-many-more-cases-soon-061207241.html

[Buster's Uncle]

UN improves operations after staffers get Ebola
Associated Press
By MARIA CHENG  8 minutes ago



Health workers, attend to patients that contracted the Ebola virus, at a clinic in Monrovia, Liberia, Monday, Sept. 8, 2014. Border closures, flight bans and mass quarantines are creating a sense of siege in the West African countries affected by Ebola, officials at an emergency African Union meeting said Monday, as Senegal agreed to allow humanitarian aid pass through its closed borders. (AP Photo/Abbas Dulleh)



LONDON (AP) — World Health Organization staffers battling an Ebola outbreak in Sierra Leone now have better working conditions — including larger, more private quarters — after one of their scientists was infected with the deadly virus.

The news came Tuesday as another American sickened by Ebola landed in Atlanta to get treatment at Emory University Hospital.

The Ebola outbreak sweeping West Africa is thought to have killed more than 2,000 people and has taken a particularly high toll on health workers. After a Senegalese epidemiologist with WHO tested positive for the disease, the agency conducted an investigation into how he became infected. A second WHO health care worker, a doctor, has also been infected in Sierra Leone.

While the agency is not releasing the results of the investigation, spokeswoman Nyka Alexander said Tuesday that staff living and working quarters in Sierra Leone have been expanded to make them less cramped and workers no longer share living space with other agencies.

Changes were also made to working procedures, including more temperature checks for everyone coming into the WHO office and living quarters, Alexander said.

She said the investigation report was "pretty clear" about how the epidemiologist was infected.

"It's not a new or unexpected risk," she said. Epidemiologists do not treat patients but are sometimes involved in tracing those in contact with Ebola patients or working with safe burial teams for Ebola victims.

Alexander said a second investigation has now begun into how the latest WHO doctor was infected. The agency has recommended that the Sierra Leone government stop accepting new patients into the Ebola clinic where the incident occurred.

"If (protective equipment) is worn properly, there is no risk of infection," said Dr. David Heymann, a professor at London's School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. "Unfortunately, in the case of Ebola, a mistake can be fatal."

Doctors Without Borders, which runs most of the Ebola clinics in West Africa, has never recorded a single infection among its staff. Ebola is spread by contact with bodily fluids such as blood, vomit, urine or diarrhea and in this outbreak has killed roughly half of those known to be infected.

Other experts said the safety of health workers treating Ebola patients must be continually assessed and noted that not all protective equipment was equal.

"A glove is not just a glove," said Michael Osterholm, a professor at the University of Minnesota who advises the U.S. government on infectious diseases. "There are real questions here about what equipment is being used and how well it's protecting health workers."

He said while the infections of two WHO staffers didn't yet constitute a pattern, the cases were worrying.

"If we see more numbers getting infected, we will have to ask serious questions about whether there were any lapses," he said.

Of the more than 3,500 people believed to be infected with Ebola in Guinea, Liberia, Sierra Leone, Nigeria and Senegal, about 250 have been health care workers. The hardest-hit countries already had too few doctors and nurses before the outbreak.

Most of those staffing Ebola treatment centers are locals and experts say several hundred more foreign health care workers are needed.

The African Union promised Monday to send at least 100 doctors, nurses and personnel to Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea for six months, funded by $10 million from the U.S. Agency for International Development and $6.5 million from the European Union. It was not clear when the first teams would arrive.

The United States and Britain also announced Monday they will build new Ebola treatment centers in West Africa. The American one, in Liberia, will be exclusively for treating health care workers. Britain is also sending military engineers and medical staff to run its clinic in Sierra Leone, with a special section for health workers.

___

Associated Press journalists Sarah DiLorenzo in Dakar, Senegal, and Elias Meseret in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, contributed to this report.


http://news.yahoo.com/au-send-medical-support-teams-fight-ebola-093118547.html

[Buster's Uncle]

4th US aid worker with Ebola arrives in Atlanta
Associated Press
By KATE BRUMBACK  16 minutes ago



Emory University Hospital is admitting its third Ebola patient Tuesday, the fourth American to be treated in the country. Two previous patients treated at Emory have recovered from the disease



ATLANTA (AP) — A medical plane transporting the fourth American aid worker sickened with the Ebola virus landed in metro Atlanta on Tuesday morning, with the patient headed to Emory University Hospital, where two others have been successfully treated.

The plane touched down around 9:20 a.m. at Dobbins Air Reserve Base in Marietta, just northwest of Atlanta. Air Force spokesman Lt. Col. James Wilson confirmed the arrival.

The patient will be housed in a special isolation unit, hospital officials said. The patient's identity was not released, and the hospital released no additional details.

But the World Health Organization says a doctor who has been working in an Ebola treatment center in Sierra Leone has tested positive for the disease. It said the doctor was in stable condition Monday in Freetown and was being evacuated.

Last month, two U.S. aid workers who contracted Ebola in Liberia, Dr. Kent Brantly and Nancy Writebol, were treated successfully at Emory.

Another worker, Dr. Rick Sacra, 51, is being treated at the Nebraska Medical Center in Omaha. In Omaha, Sacra's family members said he was able to eat breakfast Monday for the first time since arriving Friday at the Nebraska hospital.



An airplane transporting an American infected with the deadly Ebola virus in West Africa, lands at Dobbins Air Reserve Base Tuesday, Sept. 9, 2014 in Marietta, Ga. A joint emergency isolation unit administered by Emory University Hospital and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention successfully treated two Americans last month in Atlanta. (AP Photo/David Tulis)


The doctor from Worcester, Massachusetts, remains in stable condition. His wife, Debbie, said that Sacra is more alert and that they had a half-hour conversation by video conference Sunday.

"He hasn't been able to eat much since he got here, but he had some toast and applesauce," Debbie Sacra said. "He also tolerated the research drug well — better than he had the previous doses he was given."

Sacra is being treated with an experimental drug that is different than Zmapp, the one given to Brantly and Writebol. Sacra's doctors have refused to name the drug they are using, but they say they've been consulting with experts on Ebola on his treatment. Zmapp also is experimental, and doctors and experts have said it's impossible to know whether the drug helped their recovery.

Sacra went to Omaha instead of Atlanta because federal officials asked the medical center to treat him in order to prepare other isolation units to take more Ebola patients if needed.

The Ebola outbreak sweeping West Africa has killed more than 2,000 people and has taken a particularly high toll on health care workers.


http://news.yahoo.com/4th-us-citizen-ebola-treated-atlanta-070157340.html

[Buster's Uncle]

Senegal tracks route of Guinea student in race to stop Ebola
Reuters
By Emma Farge and Andrew Oberstadt  1 hour ago



A house where 33 people are being quarantined because of the Ebola virus is seen in Dakar September 2, 2014. REUTERS/Emma Farge



DAKAR (Reuters) - In a dusty street of the Senegalese capital Dakar, a hand emerges from behind the door of a run-down house to grab a bundle of baguettes from an aid worker as police officers watch.

Behind the door, 33 people are being kept in quarantine after a 21-year-old student from neighboring Guinea came to stay there at his uncle's house a fortnight ago. With him, he brought the deadly Ebola virus.

The student is now in isolation in a Dakar hospital, his condition improving, according to the health ministry. So far, authorities say no other Ebola cases have been confirmed.

But Dakar, a city of 3 million people, is anxiously awaiting the end of the three-week quarantine, the incubation period of the disease, on around Sept. 20, to see if the young man's arrival has kindled an epidemic in a fifth West African country.

Nearly 2,100 people have already died from Ebola in Guinea, Liberia, Sierra Leone and Nigeria as poorly equipped healthcare systems have struggled to cope with one of the most lethal illnesses known to man.

Containing the outbreak in Senegal, an international transport and aid hub, is critical to halt its spread. Yet the student's case illustrates the difficulty of stopping the disease in a region where community ties reach across borders, and government resources are stretched to breaking point.

The student slipped surveillance in Guinea on Aug. 15 after his brother died of Ebola, which he contracted in Sierra Leone, and then his mother and sister fell sick.

"His uncle told him to wait but he came here from Guinea without uncle's blessing," a frightened girl inside the compound, who asked not to be named, told Reuters by telephone. "God willing, it'll be the end of the isolation period soon and we'll all come out."

Senegal is now trying to track the student's steps since the crossed the border and trace anyone who had contact with him. His family in the crowded Parcelles Assainies suburb of Dakar is among 67 contacts already under surveillance, according to the World Health Organization.

Those quarantined inside the house include a two-month-old baby, the young girl said. People under surveillance are being tested morning and night for fever and none have shown symptoms so far, Senegalese authorities say.

Foreign aid workers and diplomats speak mostly in positive terms of Senegal's efforts to avert contagion. The government has allocated 300 million CFA francs ($600,000) to a national crisis team and Health Minister Awa Marie Coll Seck, spearheading the effort, is a professor of infectious diseases.

But many in the country of 13 million worry it will prove impossible to trace all the student's contacts between evading authorities in Guinea and appearing in a Dakar hospital nearly two weeks later.

The student, who has not been named, concealed his close contact with his sick brother. Once he started showing symptoms of fever, vomiting and diarrhea, the student took a taxi to a local clinic - since shut down - where unsuspecting workers treated him for malaria.

When this treatment proved ineffective, he went to a hospital in the Fann neighborhood of Dakar, where doctors were also exposed. He was only detected after Guinea informed Senegal on Aug. 27 that an Ebola contact had disappeared after a final conversation with his dying mother.

In Dakar, some fearful residents have stopped their usual warm handshakes in the street, and try to avoid contact on packed public transport. Many now shun inhabitants of Parcelles Assainies.

"They run from us like vampires," said Adama Kabatou, 20, who lives next door to the Guinean family. His aunt, peeling onions on a wooden bench opposite the house, said no-one buys her vegetables: "When I tell people our shop is at the Parcelles crossroads, they don't come. It's a ruined neighborhood."


HARDER THAN NIGERIA

Epidemiologists say it too soon to say if Senegal will suffer an epidemic. Some look to Nigeria, where the arrival of infected Liberian American Patrick Sawyer by airplane from Liberia in July has so far resulted in 19 cases, including seven dead. Hundreds of people have been placed under surveillance.

The Guinean student's journey to Dakar is potentially even more threatening, involving a cross-country journey of more than 1,000 km (600 miles) from Forecariah in southwestern Guinea, near the Sierra Leone border.

Ebola, which has proven fatal in around half the cases in the current outbreak, is spread through the body fluids of the ill. It is not clear if the student was already contagious on the road, in which case there could be many other undiscovered contacts.

"The bad news is that he was here for too many days with a high number of exposures," said Jorge Castilla-Echenique, epidemiologist at the European Commission's Humanitarian Aid and Civil Protection Department in Dakar.

"The good news is that in a survivor the risk (of contagion) tends to be lower than in someone who dies."

It is not clear why the young man, a third-year student at Conakry University on his summer break, traveled to Senegal, a country his housemate said he had never previously visited.

Guinean health ministry sources say that after he left Forecariah, an "active hub" of the disease, he passed through several unaffected districts on his way to the border. In a stroke of bad luck, Senegal closed the frontier on Aug. 21, just a few days after the student crossed it.

"We're trying to trace the student's itinerary. We know that he left Guinea and did one stopover and changed vehicle," Doctor Mamadou Ndiaye, director of prevention in Senegal, told Reuters.

In interviews with officials, the young man was reluctant to give them his exact itinerary and details of people he had met, said one diplomat briefed by authorities. It is not clear why the young man was unwilling to cooperate.

Ndiaye said the student traveled by 'bush taxi', - typically, old Peugeot 504 estate cars transporting seven passengers jammed together for hours, sweating in the heat.

An initial test of the student by Senegalese doctors came out negative, a diplomat said. But a second test, revealed to ministry officials in the early hours of Aug. 29, was positive and health minister Seck announced it that morning.

Yet even the day after the announcement, a Reuters witness at the house said there was no surveillance in place. Neighbors say a young woman slipped away under cover of darkness last week, though a police officer monitoring the site denied this.

Though his health has improved, the student still tested positive for the virus in a check up on Sept. 3 and he remains in isolation.

"People should know that if it were not for this boy's state of health, he would be before the courts," Senegalese President Macky Sall told state television. "You cannot be a carrier of sickness and take it to other countries."

On the streets of Dakar, locals are angry at the student for bringing Ebola to Senegal. Some vent their frustration on the Guinean community, many of them shopkeepers like the student's uncle, running stalls selling items like sugar and soft drinks.

"There was no Ebola in Senegal. It was a Guinean and we should have killed him," said Talla Dieye, who runs a small coffee stand in the Parcelles neighborhood.

(1 US dollar = 499.5100 CFA franc)

(Additional reporting by Saliou Samb and Diadie Ba; Writing by Emma Farge; Editing by Daniel Flynn and Giles Elgood)


http://news.yahoo.com/senegal-tracks-route-guinea-student-race-stop-ebola-125919136.html

[Buster's Uncle]

Fourth Ebola patient arrives in U.S. for care
Reuters
By Colleen Jenkins  31 minutes ago



A general view of Emory University Hospital in Atlanta, Georgia August 1, 2014. REUTERS/Tami Chappell



(Reuters) - A fourth Ebola patient arrived in the United States from West Africa on Tuesday, headed to the same Atlanta hospital where two other people were successfully treated for the disease.

An air ambulance carrying the new patient landed Tuesday morning at Dobbins Air Reserve Base, Atlanta television station WSB-TV footage showed.

Emory University Hospital confirmed it would be treating the patient, who was not identified.

The hospital said in an earlier statement that the patient would be treated in the same isolation unit for serious infectious diseases where U.S. missionaries Nancy Writebol and Dr. Kent Brantly also received care for the lethal virus before being discharged last month.

Another American missionary, Dr. Rick Sacra, was also transported to the United States from West Africa after becoming infected with Ebola in Liberia. He is being treated at the Nebraska Medical Center in Omaha.

Medical workers have been hit hard by the epidemic, the worst since Ebola was discovered in 1976. As of late August, more than 240 healthcare workers had developed the disease and more than 120 had died, the WHO said.

The outbreak has killed some 2,100 people overall in Guinea, Sierra Leone, Liberia and Nigeria, and has also spread to Senegal.

The World Health Organization said on Monday that one of its doctors stationed in an Ebola treatment center in Sierra Leone had tested positive for the disease. That doctor was being evacuated from Freetown, the WHO has said, without disclosing the person's identity or where he or she was headed.

It was not immediately clear if the patient arriving in Atlanta on Tuesday was the WHO's physician or if the patient was an American. The health organization has released no additional information on their doctor, and representatives for the U.S. State Department could not be immediately reached for comment.

(Reporting by Colleen Jenkins; Editing by Susan Heavey)


http://news.yahoo.com/fourth-ebola-patient-arrive-u-care-120245757.html

[Buster's Uncle]

US to send $10 mn to aid fight Ebola
AFP
9 minutes ago



Medical workers at the John Fitzgerald Kennedy hospital of Monrovia put on their protective suit before going to the high-risk area of the hospital, on September 3, 2014 (AFP Photo/Dominique Faget)



Washington (AFP) - The United States will contribute $10 million to pay for medical workers and equipment to fight the deadly Ebola epidemic ravaging West Africa, officials in Washington said on Tuesday.

The latest cash infusion would bring to more than $100 million the funds that the US government has spent trying to combat the outbreak, the US Agency for International Development said.

USAID said the funds will help finance a deployment by the African Union (AU) of doctors, nurses and other medical personnel to Liberia, Guinea, Sierra Leone and Nigeria.

"The US is committed to supporting the African Union's response to the urgent needs across West Africa as a result of this vicious disease," said Rajiv Shah, the head of USAID.

"We can and will stop this epidemic, but it will take a coordinated effort by the entire global community," Shah said.

The funds provided by USAID and the State Department will be used to transport to the affected region a contingent of about 25 doctors and 45 nurses, as well as other medical staff tasked with running Ebola treatment units, where patients are kept in insolation while recovering from the illness.

The current Ebola outbreak is the deadliest the world has ever seen, with Liberia, Guinea and Sierra Leone hardest hit.

The death toll has topped 2,000, out of nearly 4,000 people infected.


http://news.yahoo.com/us-send-10-mn-aid-fight-ebola-144148277.html

[Buster's Uncle]

Ebola patient arrives at US hospital
AFP
32 minutes ago



A third Ebola patient will be treated in an isolation unit at Emory University Hospital in Atlanta, Georgia (AFP Photo/Jessica Mcgowan)



Washington (AFP) - A patient with Ebola virus has arrived for treatment at a US hospital where two Americans were previously treated, Emory University Hospital said on Tuesday.

The identity and condition of the patient were not disclosed by the Atlanta, Georgia hospital.

"A third patient with Ebola virus disease arrived at Emory University Hospital Tuesday morning, Sept. 9, at approximately 10:25 am," the hospital said in a statement.

"The patient was transported by air ambulance from West Africa," it said.

"Emory is bound by patient confidentiality and has no information regarding the status of the patient," the hospital said.

The patient was to be treated in the same isolation unit where Christian missionary healthcare workers Kent Brantly and Nancy Writebol were held.

Those two came down with Ebola while treating people in Liberia. They have recovered from their illnesses and were released last month.

A third US healthcare worker, Rick Sacra, is being treated for Ebola at a Nebraska hospital.

The death toll from the Ebola outbreak, which is spreading across West Africa, has surpassed 2,000, out of nearly 4,000 people who have been infected, according to the World Health Organization.


http://news.yahoo.com/ebola-patient-arrives-us-hospital-152325411.html

[Buster's Uncle]

4th US aid worker with Ebola arrives in Atlanta
Associated Press
By KATE BRUMBACK  34 minutes ago



A person wearing a haz-mat suit steps out of an ambulance as an ebola patient arrives for treatment, Tuesday, Sept. 9, 2014, in Atlanta. The fourth American aid worker sickened with the Ebola virus arrived Tuesday morning for treatment at Emory University Hospital, where two others have been successfully treated. (AP Photo/David Goldman)



ATLANTA (AP) — The fourth American aid worker sickened with the Ebola virus arrived Tuesday morning to a mostly calm scene at an Atlanta area Hospital, where two others have been successfully treated.

An ambulance carrying the patient arrived about 10:25 a.m. (1425 GMT0, with a police escort. Wearing a bulky protective suit similar to those of Emory's first two arrivals, the patient walked from the ambulance to the hospital — though a different entrance was used this time around. Reporters and television cameras — but fewer curious onlookers — lined the street.

About an hour earlier, the specially equipped plane carrying the patient touched down at an air base just northwest of Atlanta.

Hospital officials didn't release the patient's identity or status, but the World Health Organization says a doctor who had been working in an Ebola treatment center in Sierra Leone tested positive for the disease.

At a news conference, Dr. Aneesh Mehta said the patient's ability to walk from the ambulance was a good sign, but not the only one the hospital must consider.

The medical team will evaluate the patient's overall health and consider all treatment options, said Mehta, an infectious disease expert at Emory. He would not elaborate.



A person wearing a haz-mat suit steps out of an ambulance as an ebola patient arrives for treatment, Tuesday, Sept. 9, 2014, in Atlanta. The fourth American aid worker sickened with the Ebola virus arrived Tuesday morning for treatment at Emory University Hospital, where two others have been successfully treated. (AP Photo/David Goldman)


The special isolation unit that will house the patient can hold up to three people, and that capacity could be increased if needed, Mehta said.

The Ebola outbreak sweeping West Africa has killed more than 2,200 people and has taken a particularly high toll on health care workers. Last month, two U.S. workers who contracted Ebola in Liberia, Dr. Kent Brantly and Nancy Writebol, were treated successfully at Emory.

Another worker, Dr. Rick Sacra, 51, of Worcester, Massachusetts, is being treated at the Nebraska Medical Center in Omaha. He is in stable condition. Federal officials say they asked that hospital to treat him instead of Emory to prepare other isolation units for more Ebola patients if needed.

Brantly and Writebol were given the experimental drug ZMapp. Both credited the drug with helping their recovery, but there is no way to know its effects. Sacra is being treated with a different experimental drug. His doctors have refused to name it but say they've been consulting with experts on Ebola.

Details of the latest patient's treatment are not known, but ZMapp could not have been used. Brantly and Writebol were the first to receive it; it had never been tested on humans. The rest of the limited supply was given to five others.

Once a new batch is ready, it still needs basic tests before it can be tried again, officials have said.


http://news.yahoo.com/austrian-police-stop-2-girls-en-route-mideast-154341484.html

[Buster's Uncle]

Ebola evacuations to US greater than previously known
Transports have included patients exposed to virus, air ambulance operator says
Yahoo
By Jason Sickles  2 hours ago



An airplane transporting a doctor infected with the deadly Ebola in West Africa lands near Atlanta on Tuesday. (AP Photo/David Tulis)



An undisclosed number of people who’ve been exposed to the Ebola virus — not just the four patients publicly identified with diagnosed cases — have been evacuated to the U.S. by an air ambulance company contracted by the State Department.

“We moved a lot of other people who had an exposure event,” said Dent Thompson, vice president of Phoenix Air Group. “Many times these people are just fine, they just had an exposure. But you have to treat it as though the disease is present.”

How many exposed patients have been flown from West Africa to the U.S.? Thompson said medical privacy laws and his company’s contract with the State Department prevent him from revealing the figure.

“I’m not avoiding it,” Thompson told Yahoo News. “I’m just not allowed to talk about it.”

Five weeks ago, medical missionary Dr. Kent Brantly became the first Ebola patient to be treated in the U.S. He and fellow missionary Nancy Writebol were nursed back to health in a special isolation unit at Emory University Hospital in Atlanta and later released. Dr. Rick Sacra and an unidentified doctor who arrived on Tuesday are currently being treated in the U.S.



An ambulance carries American missionary Nancy Writebol from the airport to Atlanta's Emory University Hospital last month. (Reuters/Tami Chappell)


The State Department confirmed the four known Ebola patient transports but couldn’t provide details on any exposure evacuations to the United States. Phoenix Air, they said, is under contract because of its expertise.

An unnamed State Department official said “every precaution is taken to move the patient safely and securely, to provide critical care en route, and to maintain strict isolation upon arrival in the United States.”

Thompson said Phoenix Air has flown 10 Ebola-related missions in the past six weeks.

“Not everything we do is [related to] a sick person,” he said, adding that the company has also flown supplies. “We do basically whatever needs to be done.”

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which is operating an around-the-clock Ebola emergency operations center, did not immediately respond to an email seeking information about the exposure patient transports.

On Monday, President Barack Obama, who has called the outbreak a U.S. national security priority, pledged more U.S. assistance to West Africa. The White House recently requested $30 million more from Congress to help the CDC’s efforts with the crisis.

With multiple government and aid organizations trying to tackle the unprecedented epidemic, Thompson predicts his team will be flying more precautionary patients back to the U.S.

“There will be a certain number of people who, through no fault of their own, will have an exposure event, and they are immediately identified and immediately extracted,” he said.

Phoenix Air’s modified Gulfstream III jets are “literally intensive care units with wings,” Thompson said. He said even evacuees without a confirmed Ebola diagnosis are placed in an isolation chamber for the 12- to 14-hour flight from West Africa to the U.S.

“You can never, ever let your safety guards down,” he said.



The tentlike device installed on Phoenix Air's planes when biological containment is required. (CDC/Reuters)

 
The Georgia-based air transport company got involved in the latest Ebola crisis when the Christian humanitarian group Samaritan’s Purse recruited it to evacuate Brantly and Writebol. The State Department was involved in the logistics, but the trips were funded by Samaritan’s Purse.

Since then, Thompson said, Phoenix Air has solely been under contract with the State Department.

“It became evident that we could no longer treat any of these flights as a private or commercial flight,” said Thompson, declining to divulge the specifics of the government contract.

Brantly, Writebol and the latest patient have been treated at Emory University in Atlanta. Last week, Sacra was flown to the Nebraska Medical Center in Omaha. Those hospitals, plus the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, Maryland, and St. Patrick’s Hospital in Missoula, Montana, have specially-equipped biocontainment units built in collaboration with the CDC. However, the CDC has said any U.S. hospital following infection control recommendations and isolating a patient in a private room is capable of safely managing an infected patient.

Thompson declined to say where patients who have just been exposed to Ebola have been flown to in the U.S.

“They all go to a hospital and they monitor them,” he said. “If they do develop it, then they treat them. And, fingers crossed, they’re going to walk out the way Brantly and Nancy Writebol walked out.”


http://news.yahoo.com/us-ebola-evacuations-has-included-more-patients--air-ambulance-operator-says-160126831.html

[Buster's Uncle]

Deadly Disappointment Awaits at Ebola Clinics Due to Lack of Space
Sick Patients Are Turned Away; At Least 1,515 Hospital Beds Needed in Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea
Wall Street Journal
By Drew Hinshaw in Monrovia, Liberia, and Betsy McKay in Atlanta  Sept. 7, 2014 8:55 p.m. ET



A driver brings a sick woman to an Ebola clinic in Monrovia, Liberia. Kieran Kesner for The Wall Street Journal



Milton Mulbon arrived in a taxi at the gates of an Ebola clinic in Liberia's capital, Monrovia, with his 24-year-old daughter, Patience, bleeding in the back seat. Guards turned them away.

"They're telling me no space?" he protested, the taxi parked nearby. "She's lying down in there almost at the point of death!"

Taxis, ambulances, and even men pushing their sick in wheelbarrows are crisscrossing Monrovia, looking for an open bed in West Africa's overbooked Ebola clinics, health-care workers say. Sometimes they get in, through persistence and good timing. Mostly they don't.

Liberia, Sierra Leone, and Guinea—the three nations bearing the brunt of the outbreak—need at least 1,515 hospital beds for the more than 20,000 people who could be infected before the outbreak can be curtailed, according to World Health Organization estimates. At present, there are only a few hundred beds. International support has been slow to come and is just beginning to address this specific problem, with the U.S. promising 1,000 additional beds in a new aid package.

The shortage is so dire that ambulances have picked up people raging with the symptoms of Ebola, driven them around for hours, then dropped them back at home, medical workers say.

The odds of surviving Ebola at home, without intravenous hydration, are slim. Along the way, the sick often infect their families. That is creating ever more Ebola patients arriving at the gates of overcrowded clinics.

Some, like Mr. Mulbon, collect a bag of sanitary products and painkillers. His daughter, the mother of two boys, died within hours of receiving it. "She was helpless," Mr. Mulbon said.

Health workers complain they can't throw down mattresses fast enough. Some organizations, including Doctors Without Borders, are asking Europe and the U.S. to send disaster relief—even military personnel—to help West Africa get ahead of an Ebola epidemic that has been under way since December.

"Many months into an Ebola outbreak, we're in the position of turning away patients who look like they have Ebola," said Henry Grey, a Doctors Without Borders emergency coordinator. "That's an indication of the direct failure of the international community."



Ebola patients at the hospital. Agence France-Presse/Getty Images


A few foreign governments are beginning to respond. On Friday, the European Union said it would pledge €140 million ($181.3 million) to the three hardest-hit countries, €97.5 million of it going directly to their national budgets.

"The situation is going from bad to worse," said Kristalina Georgieva, the EU commissioner for international cooperation, humanitarian aid and crisis response.

On Thursday, the U.S. Agency for International Development said it would build 10 Ebola treatment centers with 100 beds each, part of a nearly $100 million aid package to the three nations. USAID Administrator Raj Shah said the agency is moving to fund and deliver beds and several hundred critical-care personnel "as quickly as possible."

The challenge isn't just delivering beds. It is training staff, said Jeremy Konyndyk, director of USAID's Office of U.S. Foreign Disaster Assistance, which is coordinating the U.S. government's response.

"We could get a bunch of tents and beds in here in no time," said Mr. Konyndyk. "The hard part is who staffs those beds."

It takes between 200 and 250 health workers to treat 80 Ebola patients, according to the World Health Organization. USAID and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention are both looking to recruit and train health workers to take care of Ebola patients. The CDC program will begin in late September.

The trouble is finding doctors and nurses willing to treat a deadly disease—with no vaccine or formally approved treatment. In addition, the training is challenging, because they have to learn to care for patients while wearing cumbersome protective gear and meticulously guarding their safety.

Meanwhile, USAID is giving sick people who can't find a free bed a home treatment kit. It includes bleach and disposable gloves, Mr. Konyndyk said.

An estimated 3,685 people have been sickened by the latest outbreak, WHO says. About half have died.

But those numbers represent a small portion of the true toll, the organization says. Because most Ebola victims are suffering at home, their deaths or recoveries aren't noted in any official tally. Now, as clinics open, some of those who have been fighting the virus at home are beginning to show up.

A WHO clinic opened late last month in what had previously been a dental office. It was meant for 30 patients. But on a recent Tuesday, it was overbooked, with several patients sprawled out on the concrete floor, including children. The hospital's director was reviewing a list of patients in the car on her way to brief Liberia's Health Ministry.

Dr. Anne Deborah Omoruto Atai counted 44 patients. It was an improvement from a week prior when they had more than 70 people in the clinic with patients dying on the ground, she said.



Workers wearing protective gear stand inside the contaminated area at a hospital run by Doctors Without Borders in Monrovia, Liberia, on Sunday. Agence France-Presse/Getty Images


"It's difficult to give them adequate care when they're lying on the floor," she added. "We just leave it to natural selection."

Across town, workers at the Doctors Without Borders clinic were assembling a 400-bed tent hospital in the mud and rain. The field clinic they already have, with 125 beds, uses 350 head-to-toe body suits, 25,000 liters of water and 2,500 gallons of bleach—every day.

Taxis pull up here so frequently that both Doctors Without Borders and the CDC worry the taxis themselves have become conveyors of the virus. The disease spreads through bodily fluids and if a healthy person were to put his hands into the sweat left by previous passenger, it could spread—and in a way that would be impossible to trace.

"We're hearing stories of people taking four taxis across town," said Caitlin Ryan, communications officer for Doctors Without Borders.

Outside the clinic, two taxis pulled up at the same time. Once again, there wasn't any room for the sick. So a shouting match ensued.

"We are all Liberians," screamed a man who had brought a sick girl in his cab.

"They think we don't want to help," said Randy Tomanne, one of the guards. "Their child is ill. There's no other way you'd feel."

Later, a third taxi arrived. The driver said he had been paid $10 to take a family with a 6-year-old girl lying across their laps to a clinic. He had no idea it was an Ebola clinic.

"He just said the hospital," said the driver, Ibrahim Somir, while a man in a head-to-toe plastic suit sprayed down his taxi in bleach.

Before leaving to try his luck elsewhere, the girl's uncle shrugged off the risk he'd put the taxi driver in: "What else should we do?"

—Matina Stevis in Nairobi contributed to this article.


http://online.wsj.com/articles/deadly-disappointment-awaits-at-ebola-clinics-due-to-lack-of-space-1410137713?ru=yahoo?mod=yahoo_itp

[Buster's Uncle]

Profit From 'Pandemic Killers'
StreetAuthority Network
By edjamesb  September 8, 2014 10:00 AM



Last month, we told you about our colleague Andy Obermueller's fascinating research into pandemics. We mentioned that while the most recent Ebola outbreak is no cause for major alarm, investors would be wise to learn more about the companies and government agencies working to develop groundbreaking vaccines and drugs to combat the world's next terrifying, unseen threat.

Since first being discovered in 1976, this recent outbreak of Ebola has been the most deadly. According to the World Health Organization, as of Thursday, it has infected 3,685 people in West Africa and killed an astonishing 1,841. This deadly strain of Ebola has a 60 percent fatality rate.

To put that in perspective, the 1918 flu pandemic had a fatality rate between 10-20 percent... and it still killed over 50 million people.

​As we said back in our original write-up, we don't think this current outbreak will get anywhere near that point. That's partly because the virus is so deadly and the fact that it's actually quite difficult to contract.

But another reason is because there is hope for a successful treatment...More than a decade ago the U.S. Army began research to develop treatments and vaccines against potential bio-warfare agents, like the Ebola virus. And last year they released findings that resulted in some astounding results.

According to the U.S. Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases, the treatment for Ebola -- known as MB-003 -- "protected 100 percent of non-human primates when given one hour after Ebola exposure." Within 48 hours of being infected with Ebola the success rate of MB-003 was 66 percent and after 104-120 of exposure the recovery rate was 43 percent.

Larry Zeitlin, Ph.D. and his team at Mapp Biopharmaceutical continued developing MB-003, now called ZMapp, into a potent concoction that has proven successful in fighting the deadly Ebola virus.

ZMapp is derived from the tobacco plant. In short, when a tobacco plant catches "a cold" it produces antibodies to combat it. These antibodies are a key ingredient in the ZMapp cocktail. In order to rapidly produce these antibodies, tobacco genes are fused with a natural tobacco virus. Once the tobacco plants begin to produce these antibodies to combat the virus, the plant is ground up and the antibody is extracted. The whole process takes a matter of weeks.

One problem has been that ZMapp isn't even scheduled for clinical trials until next year... it's only been tested on animals.

However, The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) can give an emergency application that provides access to unapproved drugs under its Compassionate Aid Clause. (This is something Andy talked about in Game-Changing Stocks back in March.)

And that's exactly what it did for the experimental Ebola cocktail, ZMapp.

So far, the preliminary results have been promising.

An American doctor who contracted Ebola treating victims of the deadly virus in Liberia has recovered and has been discharged Thursday by the Atlanta hospital that treated him with an experimental drug.

Dr. Kent Brantly of Texas was given ZMapp, a drug used on a handful of patients in the West African outbreak and produced by U.S.-based Mapp Biopharmaceutical. Nancy Writebol, who was secretly discharged Tuesday after recovering from Ebola, also received the drug.

Three African doctors, also treated with ZMapp in Liberia, have shown remarkable signs of improvement, Liberian Information Minister Lewis Brown told Reuters on Tuesday.

California-based Mapp Biopharmaceutical, which makes the drug, has said its scarce supplies are now exhausted and producing more will take time. It is currently working with Kentucky BioProcessing and the U.S. government to accelerate scaled-up production.

While Brantly and Writebol improved, it's not clear if ZMapp aided his recovery, or if other treatments or his own immune system fought off the virus. Still, the apparent success of the drug has raised hopes it may be able to help fight and end the outbreak.

If ZMapp does prove to be the cure, it could be a real game-changer in the Ebola fight.

One of the first companies that could reap the rewards from this Ebola killer is tobacco company Reynolds American Inc. (NYSE: RAI). Its subsidiary, Kentucky BioProcessing LLC, is the company that manufactures the treatment for ZMapp from tobacco plants.

While this is a promising development, Andy thinks there are much more lucrative profit opportunities for investors to be had from other companies working diligently to develop treatments from the next deadly threat.

There's much more we can share about Andy's research into pandemics, but we simply don't have time to share everything with you in today's issue. We'll be sure to follow up on this fascinating topic at a later time. Meanwhile, you can access Andy's archives and learn more about his research on pandemics by signing up for Game-Changing Stocks by visiting this link.


http://news.yahoo.com/profit-pandemic-killers-140000552.html

[Buster's Uncle]

Liberia braces for worst as Ebola death toll jumps
AFP
By Zoom Dosso  42 minutes ago



People stand at the entrance of Elwa hospital in Monrovia, which is run by the non-governmental French organization Medecins Sans Frontieres on September 7, 2014 (AFP Photo/Dominique Faget)



Monrovia (AFP) - Liberia is bracing for an upsurge in Ebola cases, following a grim World Health Organization assessment on Tuesday that the worst is yet to come in the fight against the killer virus.

After predicting an "exponential increase" in infections across West Africa, the WHO warned that Liberia, which has accounted for half of all fatalities, could initially only hope to slow the contagion, not stop it.

The UN's health arm upped the Ebola death toll Tuesday in Liberia, Sierra Leone, Guinea and Nigeria to 2,296 out of 4,293 cases as of September 6, noting nearly half of all infections had occurred in the past 21 days.

The WHO also evacuated its second infected medical expert, a doctor who had been working at an Ebola treatment centre in Sierra Leone.

An American who had contracted Ebola in west Africa was admitted to Emory University Hospital in Georgia on Tuesday.

But the hospital, which treated two other infected US nationals who then recovered, has declined to confirm the latest case was the WHO employee.

Ebola, transmitted through bodily fluids, leads to haemorrhagic fever and -- in over half of cases -- death. There is no specific treatment regime and no licensed vaccine.

The fresh WHO figures underscore Ebola's asymmetric spread, as it rips through densely populated communities with decrepit health facilities and poor public awareness campaigns.

Speaking Tuesday, WHO's epidemiology chief Sylvie Briand said the goal in Senegal and Nigeria was now "to stop transmission completely". Senegal has announced only one infection, while Nigeria has recorded 19 infections and eight deaths.

The Democratic Republic of Congo is battling a separate outbreak which has killed 32 in a remote northwestern region.

"But in other locations, like Monrovia, where we have really wide community transmission, we are aiming at two-step strategies," Briand said in Geneva, "first, to reduce the transmission as much as possible and, when it becomes controllable, we will also try to stop it completely.



A health worker stands at Elwa hospital in Monrovia, which is run by the non-governmental French organization Medecins Sans Frontieres on September 7, 2014 (AFP Photo/Dominique Faget)


"But at this point in time we need to be pragmatic and try to reduce it in the initial steps."

A day earlier the WHO had warned that aid organisations trying to help Liberia to respond would "need to prepare to scale up their current efforts by three- to four-fold".

Before the current outbreak, it noted, Liberia only had one doctor for every 100,000 patients in a population of 4.4 million.

In Montserrado county, which contains Monrovia, there are no spare beds at the few Ebola treatment sites operating, the WHO said.

It described how infected people were being driven to centres only to be turned away, return home and create "flare-ups" of deadly fever in their village.



Liberians react as their neighbour is transported by Red Cross health workers after dying of the Ebola virus in Banjor on the outskirts of Monrovia on September 4, 2014 (AFP Photo/Dominique Faget)


One thousand beds are needed -- far more than the 240 currently operational and the 260 planned, it said.

"It's a war against this virus... I still have hope we can win this war," the WHO's Briand said.


- Border closure, controls -

Guinea's President Alpha Conde, too, described Ebola as a "war" his nation -- with 555 dead so far -- needed to win.

He slammed neighbouring states including Ivory Coast and Senegal for shutting their borders, and airlines for suspending flights to affected countries.

"They forget that when you close borders, people just go through the bush. It's better to have official passages of transit," he said.

African Union commission chief Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma also called Monday for travel bans to be lifted "to open up economic activities".

In Gambia, customs officials said Tuesday they had closed the borders to Guineans, Liberians, Nigerians and Sierra Leoneans -- though not to neighbouring Senegal.

"We are also advising Gambians intending to travel to these countries to cancel their trips, but any Gambian who fails to heed our advice, we will not allow you in the country if you return from your trip," Ebrima Kurumah, a health officer posted at the border with Senegal, told AFP.

But even countries beyond the region have set limits on the movement of people and goods from West Africa. China, one of the region's main investors, on Tuesday announced it was reinforcing checks on people, goods and vehicles, and even mail, arriving from affected countries.

On Monday the 17,000 residents of Liberia's Dolo Town, 75 kilometres (47 miles) from Monrovia, were released from a lockdown imposed two weeks ago.

The quarantine, including a night-time curfew, had been set up amid a surge in Ebola infections.

Italy announced a first possible case of Ebola -- a woman recently returned from Nigeria.


http://news.yahoo.com/liberia-braces-worst-ebola-death-toll-jumps-180308125.html

[Buster's Uncle]

Ebola kills 2,300, nearly half of deaths in past 21 days: WHO
AFP
4 hours ago



A Doctors Without Borders medical worker feeds a child with the Ebola virus at a facility in Kailahun, eastern Sierra Leone, on August 15, 2014 (AFP Photo/Carl de Souza)



Geneva (AFP) - The Ebola epidemic in west Africa has claimed nearly 2,300 lives, the World Health Organization said Tuesday, stressing that nearly half had died in less than a month.

As of September 6, 2,288 people had died in Guinea, Sierra Leone and Libera out of 4,269 cases, the UN's health agency said.

A full 47 percent of the deaths and 49 percent of the cases had come in the prior 21 days, it said.

The countries bearing the brunt of the epidemic are among the world's poorest, with dilapidated medical infrastructures buckling under the strain.

Liberia has been by far the hardest hit by the epidemic, which since it began in neighbouring Guinea at the beginning of the year has ballooned into the deadliest Ebola outbreak the world has ever seen.

It alone accounts for half of all cases and counts a full 1,224 deaths -- 62 percent of them since mid-August.

WHO warned Monday that Liberia would likely face "many thousands" of new infections in the next three weeks.

Guinea meanwhile counts 555 deaths, while the deadly virus has claimed 509 lives in Sierra Leone, WHO said.

Another eight people have meanwhile died in Nigeria out of 21 cases, while one case of Ebola has been confirmed in Senegal, WHO said.

On Friday, the UN agency had put the overall death toll from the raging epidemic in the five countries at 2,105 out of 3,967 cases.

The Democratic Republic of Congo is meanwhile facing its own outbreak of a separate strain of Ebola, one of the deadliest viruses known to man.

That country, where the virus was first identified in 1976, said at the weekend that it so far had registered 32 Ebola deaths and 59 likely or confirmed cases.


http://news.yahoo.com/ebola-killed-2-288-nearly-half-past-21-155230568.html

[Buster's Uncle]

Ebola seriously threatens Liberia's national existence: minister
Reuters
By Michelle Nichols  4 hours ago



UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - Liberia's national existence is "seriously threatened" by the deadly Ebola virus that is "spreading like wild fire and devouring everything in its path," the country's national defense minister told the United Nations Security Council on Tuesday.

Liberia is worst hit by West Africa's Ebola epidemic and will likely see thousands of new cases in coming weeks, the World Health Organization (WHO) said on Monday. More than 1,000 people have already died in Liberia.

"Liberia is facing a serious threat to its national existence. The deadly Ebola virus has caused a disruption of the normal functioning of our State," said Liberian Minister of National Defense Brownie Samukai.

"It is now spreading like wild fire, devouring everything in its path. The already weak health infrastructure of the country has been overwhelmed," he told the 15-member council, adding that the initial international response was "less than robust."

U.N. special envoy to Liberia Karin Landgren told the council that at least 160 Liberian health care workers had contracted the disease and half of them had died. She described the spread of Ebola as "merciless" and warned that the reported cases and deaths in Liberia "understate Ebola's true toll."

"The speed and scale of the loss of lives, and the economic, social, political and security reverberations of the crisis are affecting Liberia profoundly," she said. "Liberians are facing their gravest threat since war."

Two wars between 1989 and 2003 killed about 250,000 people and led to a complete collapse of Liberia. It was carved up by warlords who often used child soldiers and fought over control of diamond and timber concessions.

U.N. peacekeepers were deployed to Liberia in 2003 and some 6,000 troops and police are currently there. The mission's mandate is due to be renewed by the Security Council this month and U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has recommended a straightforward extension of three months, instead of one year, while the international community tackles Ebola.

The WHO said on Tuesday that it had recorded 4,293 cases in five West African countries as of Sept. 6. It said it still did not have new figures for Liberia. The outbreak began in Guinea and has spread to Liberia, Sierra Leone, Nigeria and Senegal.

An Ebola outbreak said to be unrelated to the one in West Africa has been reported in Democratic Republic of Congo, where Ebola was first identified in 1976.

Ebola is a hemorrhagic fever spread through body fluids such as the blood, sweat or vomit of those who are infected with the disease. Health care workers are among the most vulnerable to the disease. Liberia's Samukai said nine of Liberia's 15 counties are affected.

"The pandemic has mushroomed into a health emergency exceeding the government's response," he said. "Liberia lacks the infrastructure, logistical capacity, professional expertise and financial resources to effectively address this disease."

The worst epidemic since the disease was discovered has killed at least 2,296 people.

"It is imperative that we as an international community get serious about addressing the public health, humanitarian and security effects of this outbreak," U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations, Samantha Power, said after the briefing. "I don't think anybody can say right now that the international response to the Ebola outbreak is sufficient," said Power, who is president of the council for September. "Every organization and every single member state in the international community needs to be looking at how we up our game." Ban said he plans to hold a meeting on the international response to the Ebola crisis on the sidelines of the U.N. General Assembly later this month.

(Reporting by Michelle Nichols; Editing by Toni Reinhold)


http://news.yahoo.com/ebola-seriously-threatens-liberias-national-existence-minister-180108112--finance.html

[Buster's Uncle]

Liberia president urges more international help fighting Ebola
Reuters
By Richard Valdmanis  58 minutes ago



Liberian President Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf attends the opening ceremony of the 22nd Ordinary Session of the African Union summit in Ethiopia's capital Addis Ababa, January 30, 2014. REUTERS/Tiksa Negeri



BOSTON (Reuters) - Liberian President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf said on Tuesday she expects the Ebola crisis gripping her country to worsen in the coming weeks as health workers struggle with inadequate supplies, a lack of outside support and a population in fear.

"It remains a very grave situation," she told an audience at Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts, via Skype from Liberia's capital Monrovia. "It is taking a long time to respond effectively(...) We expect it to accelerate for at least another two or three weeks, before we can look forward to a decline."

The death toll from the worst Ebola outbreak in history has hit at least 2,296 across West Africa, with more than half of those cases in the impoverished and war-damaged state of Liberia, the World Health Organization said on Tuesday. [ID:nL5N0RA3VL]

Liberia's national defense minister told the United Nations Security Council earlier on Tuesday that Ebola posed a threat to the country's national existence and was "spreading like wild fire and devouring everything in its path."

Sirleaf said Liberia's response to the disease was hobbled by a lack of treatment and testing centers, a dearth of health care workers, and persistent fear and ignorance of the disease among the country's population.

"We have tried to cope with limited support internationally, and with a population that did not give the caution that was required… and this facilitated the spread of the disease," she said, adding some Liberians were not reporting cases and were ignoring suggested precautions to avoid infection.

She said that since the Ebola epidemic began to accelerate in recent weeks she has seen more support from international partners such as the United States, the European Union and African nations, but "it is still far behind the need."

She said the Ebola crisis had also triggered a broader health resources crunch that was proving lethal for people with other diseases. "We need support rebuilding those health systems so that people who do not have Ebola will not lose their lives.”

She added the epidemic was setting back the country's progress rebuilding from successive civil wars between 1989 and 2003, as mining and agricultural companies slow or shutter operations, and cross border trade vanishes.

"This will cost us quite a bit and it will take us some time to get back to the level of progress that we had," she said.

Ebola is a hemorrhagic fever spread through body fluids such as the blood, sweat or vomit of those who are infected with the disease. Health care workers are among the most vulnerable to the disease.

In Guinea and Sierra Leone, the other two countries at the center of the outbreak, only 39 percent of cases and around 29 percent of deaths have occurred in the past three weeks, according to the WHO, suggesting they are doing better at tackling the outbreak.

Sirleaf said she hoped the crisis would rekindle efforts to find a cure for Ebola, which was first identified in Africa in 1976.

(Writing by Richard Valdmanis; Editing by Lisa Shumaker)


http://news.yahoo.com/liberia-president-urges-more-international-help-fighting-ebola-233132335.html