Ebola news 10/1

[Buster's Uncle]

Liberia says U.S. Ebola case showed no symptoms when he left
Reuters
3 hours ago


DAKAR (Reuters) - The man being treated for Ebola in Texas showed no signs of fever or symptoms of the virus when he left Liberia for the United States via Brussels on Sept. 19, the Liberian government said on Wednesday.

The case is the first to be diagnosed outside West Africa during the current outbreak, raising the prospect that the worst epidemic of the deadly hemorrhagic fever on record could spread to nations beyond the region.

Liberian Information Minister Lewis Brown said the man, who has not been identified and is now in serious condition in an isolation ward, "manifested no signs of fever or symptoms of the virus" when he boarded the plane to Brussels, which means he was not infectious when he left.

Belgium's health ministry said U.S. experts had advised Brussels that the man was indeed not displaying symptoms and so would not have been in a position to pass on the virus.

A spokesman said that Belgium therefore did not need to trace fellow passengers or crew of Brussel Airlines, one of a very few operators still flying to Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone.

Brown said Liberia had put in place "stringent screening measures" that were preventing Ebola from spreading via air travel and the checks are being regularly reviewed.

While Liberia, Guinea and Sierra Leone have failed to contain the virus, Senegal and Nigeria have located and isolated cases relatively quickly. U.S. officials say they are confident they can stop it from spreading further.

"What this incident demonstrates is the clear international dimension of this Ebola crisis. For months, the Liberian government has been stressing that this disease is not simply a Liberian or West African problem," Brown said in a statement.

"We also have every faith that the United States authorities will successfully contain this latest case so it remains an isolated incident."

Nearly 3,100 people have died as the disease has spread across much of Sierra Leone and Liberia since the first cases were confirmed in Guinea's remote southeast in March.

The outbreak has led to border closures and some restrictions in travel to and from the worst affected countries. But experts say such moves do more harm than good by crippling economies and hampering the aid response while having limited impact on the spread of the disease.

(Reporting by David Lewis in Dakar and Philip Blenkinsop in Brussels; Editing by Mark Heinrich)


http://news.yahoo.com/liberia-says-u-ebola-case-showed-no-symptoms-151140587--finance.html

[Buster's Uncle]

DR Congo Ebola outbreak has killed 42 since August
AFP
7 hours ago



A medical staff member wearing a protective suit walks past the crematorium where victims of Ebola are burned, in Monrovia, on September 29, 2014. (AFP Photo/Pascal Guyot)



Kinshasa (AFP) - The Democratic Republic of Congo raised its death toll from the Ebola virus to 42 on Wednesday as it struggled to contain the second outbreak of the disease in Africa this year.

The latest figures include eight health workers, Health Minister Felix Kabange Numbi said in a message sent to AFP.

Some 70 cases of the deadly virus have been confirmed in a remote region near the town of Boende some 800 kilometres (500 miles) northwest of Kinshasa, with a mortality rate of around 60 percent.

According to the World Health Organization and the authorities in Kinshasa, the outbreak is not related to the worst ever epidemic of the virus which has killed more than 3,000 people in west Africa this year.

A month ago, the government said 32 people had been killed in the outbreak, the seventh Ebola outbreak since the disease was first identified in the former Zaire in 1976.

The last case in DR Congo, which has an incubation period of three weeks, was confirmed on 24 September, said the minister. Last month, Congolese authorities had declared the outbreak was "on its way to being controlled".


http://news.yahoo.com/dr-congo-ebola-outbreak-killed-42-since-august-130512101.html

[Buster's Uncle]

Questions mount over failure to spot US Ebola patient
AFP
By Kerry Sheridan  3 hours ago



Traffic moves past Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital in Dallas, Texas where a patient has been diagnosed with the Ebola virus on September 30, 2014 (AFP Photo/Mike Stone)



The first diagnosed case outside Africa has raised alarm about the spread of the deadly virus, which has killed more than 3,000 people and infected more than 6,500 in five countries since the start of the year.

The man, whose identity and nationality have not been released, had recently traveled from Liberia, a nation at the center of West Africa's deadly Ebola outbreak, to Texas in order to visit members of his family.

He left Liberia on September 19, arrived in Texas a day later and did not exhibit symptoms until September 24, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention chief Tom Frieden said Tuesday.

He sought medical care on the 26th, and was sent home. He was returned via ambulance to the Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital Dallas on September 28, and was placed in strict isolation.

Anthony Fauci, the head of the National Institute for Allergy and Infectious Disease, said the man should have been identified as a suspected Ebola case on the 26th.

"If the ER physician had asked for a travel history, (and said), 'Do you have any recent travel outside of the country?' And if the person said, 'Well, I just came back from Liberia,' that would have been an enormous red flag for anybody, given the publicity that we have," Fauci said on CNN.



US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Director Tom Frieden testifies before an Africa, Global Health, Global Human Rights and International Organizations Subcommittee hearing in Washington, DC, on August 7, 2014 (AFP Photo/Jewel Samad)


"So that is really the issue, to make sure physicians are aware that we have a problem, that there is an outbreak in West Africa and people will be coming to the United States who will be without symptoms."

Early Wednesday, the hospital said in a brief statement that the man was "currently listed in serious condition."

Meanwhile, Zachary Thompson, the director of Dallas County Health and Human Services, told local media WFAA "there may be another case that is a close associate with this particular patient."


- Symptoms of infection -

The incubation period for Ebola is between two and 21 days. Patients are not contagious until they start to show signs of fever, aches, vomiting and diarrhea.

Three crew members who worked in the ambulance that transported the patient have tested negative for Ebola, but they will be monitored for 21 days, the City Of Dallas said on Twitter.



This undated photo obtained July 30, 2014 courtesy of Samaritan's Purse and taken near Monrovia shows Dr. Kent Brantly, who was infected with the Ebola virus while treating patients in Liberia and recovered after being evacuated to a US hospital (AFP Photo/Joni Byker)


The man is believed to have been infected in West Africa, where the world's largest outbreak of Ebola has taken more than 3,000 lives since the beginning of the year.

Frieden said there was "zero risk" that the man had infected others on the plane, but that a "handful" of people may have been exposed to him while he was sick in Texas.

Those contacts are being tracked and will be monitored for three weeks to see if they begin to exhibit symptoms of Ebola.


- Gaps in preparedness -

In announcing the United States' first diagnosed case of Ebola, Frieden stressed that the nation was prepared and would be able to stop the deadly virus from spreading.

"Most hospitals have been prepared for several weeks now," said Debra Spicehandler, infectious disease expert at Northern Westchester Hospital.

The high-profile cases of three American missionaries who were infected with Ebola while treating patients in Liberia and were evacuated to US hospitals, where they recovered, have helped raised awareness of proper protocols, she said.

However, Jesse Goodman, professor of medicine at Georgetown University Medical Center, said the early steps taken in Texas indicate some gaps in the US medical system's preparedness for Ebola's spillover from West Africa.

"While much of the response so far seems exemplary, we don't know why the disease was not recognized when he first sought care," Goodman said.

"We don't know if a travel history, one of our most basic but important diagnostic tools, was obtained and testing considered then."

While health experts say the public should not panic -- since Ebola is spread not through the air but only through close contact with the bodily fluids of an infected person -- medical personnel should be on the lookout for more cases of Ebola on US soil.

"It is critical for hospitals and health care workers everywhere to be sure they are alert, obtain travel histories," Goodman said.

"If there is any question at all it could be Ebola, contact CDC and, while sorting things out, act to isolate a sick patient returning from an epidemic area."


http://news.yahoo.com/questions-mount-over-failure-spot-us-ebola-patient-172217950.html

[Buster's Uncle]

Families wait in agony for word on Ebola patients
Associated Press
By KRISTA LARSON  September 30, 2014 12:30 PM



In this picture taken Sunday, Sept. 28, 2014, Julius Prout, 32, poses for a photograph in front of the St Paul Bridge community clinic where he works in Monrovia, Liberia. Falling victim to the Ebola virus after treating more than a dozen others infected, following a traditional funeral, Prout was wrongly declared dead, prompting family members to hold two wakes in his memory. A registered nurse, Prout stunned relative when he called them after recovering from the deadly disease. Prout is now back in his neighborhood, immune from Ebola and eager to help other victims. As the death toll from Ebola soars, crowded clinics are turning over beds as quickly as patients are dying. This leaves social workers and psychologists struggling to keep pace and notify families, who must wait outside for fear of contagion. Also, under a government decree, all Ebola victims must be cremated, leaving families in unbearable pain with no chance for goodbye, no body to bury. (AP Photo/Jerome Delay)



MONROVIA, Liberia (AP) — First the ring tone echoed outside the barbed-wire-topped walls of the Ebola clinic. Then came the wails of grief, as news spread that 31-year-old Rose Johnson was dead just days after she was brought here unconscious by relatives.

Soon her mother's sorrow became so unbearable, her body so limp and heavy, that even her two other daughters could no longer help her stand.

There had been no official confirmation of Rose's death from hospital officials, no time for someone to explain her final moments, just word from a family acquaintance inside who said her bed had been cleared that morning to make way for a new patient.

Her grieving husband stood in a daze outside the hospital, scratching air time cards so he could use his mobile phone to notify other family members.

"I've been here every day, every day, every day," says David Johnson, 31, now left with the couple's 18-month-old daughter Divine. "Up till now there has been no information. How can I believe she is dead?"

As the death toll from Ebola soars, crowded clinics are turning over beds as quickly as patients are dying. This leaves social workers and psychologists struggling to keep pace and notify families, who must wait outside for fear of contagion. Also, under a government decree, all Ebola victims must be cremated, leaving families in unbearable pain with no chance for goodbye, no body to bury.



In this photo taken Friday Sept. 26, 2014, Ethel Konneh, left, is consoled by her daughters outside the Island Clinic Ebola isolation and treatment center, after she learned her other daughter Rose Johnson passed away from Ebola in Monrovia, Liberia. There had been no official confirmation of Rose's death from hospital officials, no time for someone to explain her final moments, just word from a family acquaintance inside who said her bed had been cleared that morning to make way for a new patient. As the death toll from Ebola soars, crowded clinics are turning over beds as quickly as patients are dying. This leaves social workers and psychologists struggling to keep pace and notify families, who must wait outside for fear of contagion. Also, under a government decree, all Ebola victims must be cremated, leaving families in unbearable pain with no chance for goodbye, no body to bury. (AP Photo/Jerome Delay)


"People are standing around for weeks. Nobody is coming to them. There should be a system in place for disseminating information but there is nothing," says Kanyean Molton Farley, a 39-year-old community leader in one of Monrovia's hardest-hit neighborhoods.

At least 1,830 people are believed to have died from the disease here in Liberia, and many fear the actual toll is far higher and rising fast. A recent update from the World Health Organization showed that more than half the cases in Liberia happened in the preceding 21 days.

Doctors Without Borders in Monrovia has three phone lines to answer calls from worried families. The group asks relatives to come in person for updates on their loved ones inside the 160-bed facility, but sometimes they get news from friends or family inside instead, says Athena Viscusi, a clinical social worker.

"We encourage them to come and meet with a counselor," says Viscusi. She notes that Doctors Without Borders hopes eventually to photograph the dead before cremation to help with identification.

Dozens of family members show up each day at the gates of the city's Ebola clinics, anxiously clutching cell phones and desperate for any update on their loved ones inside. They pace back and forth, leaving only to buy more phone credit. All the while, they keep a safe distance from those stricken with Ebola who huddle by the gates in hopes of gaining a coveted bed inside and a chance at life.



In this picture taken Sunday, Sept. 28, 2014, Kumba "survivor" Fayiah, 11, sits with relatives in her St Paul Bridge home in Monrovia, Liberia. Fayah , who lost both parents and her sister, recovered from the Ebola virus and is now living with her extended family. As the death toll from Ebola soars, crowded clinics are turning over beds as quickly as patients are dying. This leaves social workers and psychologists struggling to keep pace and notify families, who must wait outside for fear of contagion. Also, under a government decree, all Ebola victims must be cremated, leaving families in unbearable pain with no chance for goodbye, no body to bury. (AP Photo/Jerome Delay)


Linda Barlea, 32, is desperate to know what has become of her boyfriend of 13 years. One by one his family has been decimated by Ebola: First his brother, then his mother, then a sister, then another brother. Only the 7-year-old niece Miamu has survived, and then was chased from Barlea's home by fearful neighbors.

Barlea's mother called the clinic's official hotline for patient information and was told his name appeared on the list of the dead. Barlea says she needs to hear it for herself. But every time she calls now, she gets a busy signal. So she has shown up here, demanding answers before she will leave.

The lack of official confirmation has led to disastrous misinformation in some cases: Julius Prout's family held two wakes for him after being told by a security guard at the clinic that he was dead. Family members gathered first for several days at his parents' home, then at his uncle's.

Instead, health workers had merely moved him to another section of the hospital and burned his cell phone along with his belongings for fear of contamination.

When the 32-year-old nurse regained his strength almost a week later, the first thing he saw was a Bible given to him by a nurse. He says it is no coincidence that he opened it randomly to John 11, when Jesus raises Lazarus from the dead.



In this picture taken Saturday, Sept. 27, 2014, Miamu Saryon, 7, stands in the hallway of Mawah clinic, in downtown Monrovia, Liberia. At left is Miamu's aunt, Linda Barlea. Miamu lost her mother, grand-mother and two uncles to Ebola. After surviving Ebola herself, Miamu was unable to go home with relatives after neighbors protested, wrongfully fearing she might still be contagious. As the death toll from Ebola soars, crowded clinics are turning over beds as quickly as patients are dying. This leaves social workers and psychologists struggling to keep pace and notify families, who must wait outside for fear of contagion. Also, under a government decree, all Ebola victims must be cremated, leaving families in unbearable pain with no chance for goodbye, no body to bury. (AP Photo/Jerome Delay)


Prout then borrowed a phone to call the family. All he could hear was the deafening sound of loved ones yelling and cheering in the background.

"We rejoiced and were so grateful that he was alive," says his uncle, Alexander Howard, 57.

Rumors only intensify the hellish wait for those like Alieu Kenneh, who took his 24-year-old pregnant wife to four different hospitals before they finally found a place for her at Island Clinic, the capital's latest Ebola treatment center.

Several days after Mandou was admitted, word spread that a pregnant women inside had died. Surely, though, there was more than one. Could it be her?

The last image he has of her, replaying in his mind, is as they slammed the ambulance door shut, telling him there wasn't enough room for him to join her on the ride. Then a disinfection team sprayed the bewildered man left watching it drive away.



In this picture taken Sunday, Sept. 28, 2014, Finda Saah, 28, holds six-week-old Prosper Junior, as 5 year old Alice and 13-year old son Augustin look on, at their St Paul Bridge home in Monrovia, Liberia. Finda lost her husband to the deadly Ebola virus and gave birth three days later. Ebola has killed more than 1800 people in Liberia this year. As the death toll from Ebola soars, crowded clinics are turning over beds as quickly as patients are dying. This leaves social workers and psychologists struggling to keep pace and notify families, who must wait outside for fear of contagion. Also, under a government decree, all Ebola victims must be cremated, leaving families in unbearable pain with no chance for goodbye, no body to bury. (AP Photo/Jerome Delay)


Kenneh held vigil outside her clinic for seven days.. One week after she was admitted, the phone finally rang. The doctor said she had died five days earlier after going into labor. The baby had not made it.

Kenneh, who met his wife when the two were teenagers living in a refugee camp in neighboring Guinea, now can't bear to go back to the apartment they shared. Her photos and clothes are everywhere, along with the blankets they had bought for the baby.

On top of it, Monday was her birthday. She should have turned 25, he says in tears. She was so excited to become a mother, and didn't know the sex of the child she was carrying. A nurse told her husband it was a boy.

"We give them to God and we cannot say anything more than that," he says.

The tiny baby's body was cremated before Kenneh even knew his son had been born.


http://news.yahoo.com/families-wait-agony-word-ebola-patients-103825957.html

[Buster's Uncle]

First US Ebola case in Dallas: why public health threat remains small
The CDC announced the first US case of Ebola Tuesday, but the nature of the disease and US preparedness severely limit the prospects of an outbreak, experts say.
Christian Science Monitor
By Patrik Jonsson  8 hours ago


A man traveling to Dallas from Liberia has become the United States’ first confirmed case of Ebola, and its arrival has set in motion the American government’s public health plans to stanch any US outbreak.

As Ebola has spread through West Africa since late 2013, it has drawn a global response that has struggled to contain the epidemic. But public health authorities and the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have long insisted that even a few cases in the US are not cause for alarm.

Similar diseases have been identified, quarantined, and controlled without outbreak in the US. That includes a 2008 case where a patient with Marburg, an Ebola-like virus, exposed more than 200 people, yet no one else caught the bug.

“If the Ebola virus is exported to the United States, as the Marburg virus was by me, I don’t fear an outbreak here,” Michelle Barnes, the Golden, Colo., woman who brought Marburg to the US, wrote in the Dallas Morning News in August. “Our health care system is prepared. I’m proof of that.”

Tom Frieden, the director of the CDC, is equally confident that America’s Ebola control plan is solid.

“We’re stopping it in its tracks in this country,” Mr. Frieden said at a press conference announcing the Ebola case Tuesday evening. “We can do that because of two things: strong health care … and strong public health that can track contacts and isolate them.”

Medical professionals believe that the disease does not spread through the air but through contact with bodily fluids. Its spread in Africa has been facilitated largely by poor public health systems, lack of sanitary facilities, and folk burial customs that put mourners at risk of infection.

The US has successfully treated American medical personnel who were diagnosed the disease while helping control the outbreak; three of those have fully recovered while a fourth is in stable condition at Emory University Hospital in Atlanta.

Anticipating Ebola’s arrival, the CDC has already enhanced surveillance and lab protocols to detect cases. In the case of the man in Dallas, who has not been identified, hospital authorities didn’t diagnose Ebola until the man’s second visit on Sept. 28. He arrived in the US on Sept. 20 and reportedly felt symptoms on Sept. 24. Hospital officials have put three emergency medical technicians and several nurses who came into contact with the man under observation at their homes, and the CDC is investigating who might have been in contact with the man.

The CDC has also provided new Ebola guidance for flight crews, airport medical services, and Customs and Border Protection.

Medical professionals do not dismiss public concerns, but evidence points to successful containment, they say.

“We will see cases," Alessandro Vespignani, a physics professor at Northeastern University in Boston who studies infection rates and air traffic from the Ebola-affected parts of West Africa, told Discovery Health News. "The good news from our modeling is the size of the outbreak is very limited. Even in the worse case, the size of the outbreak in the United States is just two or three individuals."


http://news.yahoo.com/first-us-ebola-case-dallas-why-public-health-125926510.html

[Buster's Uncle]

First US Ebola case: Why the delayed diagnosis?
Public health officials remain confident that the first case of Ebola in the US, announced Tuesday, will not spread or become an outbreak. But they acknowledge that case was not diagnosed as soon as it could have been.
Christian Science Monitor
By Patrik Jonsson  3 hours ago



Public health officials remain confident that the first case of Ebola in the United States, announced Tuesday, will not spread or become an outbreak. But they acknowledge that case was not diagnosed as soon as it could have been.

The man, whose name is not being released and is now receiving treatment, flew from Liberia to Texas on Sept. 20 and was diagnosed with the disease on Sept. 28. But he made his first visit to the hospital on Sept. 26 and was sent home. CNN is reporting that no one at the hospital asked the man if he had traveled recently, despite his symptoms being consistent with Ebola.

Several people who made contact with the patient, including paramedics and emergency room workers, are now under medical observation in Dallas.

The assertion by Thomas Frieden, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, that “we are stopping this in its tracks” is based on a strong track record. Similar diseases have been introduced in America before and failed to spread, a fact attributed to advanced medical and public health systems. Moreover, the US has already treated four infected US medical professionals, three of them at the Emory University Medical Center in Atlanta. Three of those people are now fine; the fourth remains at the hospital, and his condition has not been updated for several days.

But the apparent oversight in the Texas case is raising questions about whether the US response plan needs to be sharpened further.

Without addressing the Texas case specifically, Dr. Frieden said hospitals need to be alert for Ebola-like symptoms.

"We know that in busy emergency departments all over the country, people may not ask travel histories," he said on CNN's "New Day." "I don't know if that was done here. But we need to make sure that it is done going forward."

But officials are seeking to calm other public concerns, which they say are unfounded.

According to reports, the man was not tested before departing Liberia, but that was because he showed no symptoms and fell outside the CDC’s protocol to check those who have been in direct contact with the disease.

The CDC also says it is not going to release the man's flight information because "it's just not necessary," a spokesperson told ABC News. The man did not show symptoms until Sept. 24 – four days after the flight – and Ebola isn't communicable unless the person is showing symptoms, Frieden said on CNN.

Meanwhile, Dallas officials acknowledged that the ambulance used to bring the man to Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital was used for another two days. It is now parked in a city parking lot surrounded by red "biohazard" tape. But city spokeswoman Sana Syed told CNN that the ambulance had been decontaminated, as ambulances are after every transport.

Economic and cultural forces are at play in how the disease spreads in impoverished African regions: Lack of sanitary facilities and counterproductive folk remedies and burial customs have aided the virus’s spread.

More broadly, National Institutes of Health officials raised concerns two weeks ago about the impact of budget cuts on epidemic response around the globe. Sequester-related cuts, which amounted to $1.55 billion in 2013, have "eroded our ability to respond,” said NIH representative Anthony Fauci in congressional testimony Sept. 16.

"If even modest investments had been made to build a public health infrastructure in West Africa previously, the current Ebola epidemic could have been detected earlier, and it could have been identified and contained," added Beth Bell, director of the CDC's National Center for Emerging and Zoonotic Infectious Diseases.


http://news.yahoo.com/first-us-ebola-case-why-delayed-diagnosis-173253582.html

[Buster's Uncle]

Questions and answers about the US Ebola case
Associated Press
By LAURAN NEERGAARD  3 hours ago



An adult who recently traveled from West Africa to Texas has tested positive for Ebola, the first case to be diagnosed in the U.S.



WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. health officials have warned for months that someone infected with Ebola could unknowingly carry the virus to this country, and there is word now that it has happened: A traveler in a Dallas hospital became the first patient diagnosed in the U.S.

Texas health officials said there were no other suspected cases in the state, and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention immediately sought to calm fears that one case would spread widely.

"Ebola can be scary. But there's all the difference in the world between the U.S. and parts of Africa where Ebola is spreading," CDC Director Dr. Tom Frieden said, stressing that U.S. health workers know how to control the virus.

"There is no doubt in my mind that we will stop it here," he told a news conference in Atlanta on Tuesday.

Some questions and answers about the case:

Q: Where did the traveler come from?

A: Liberia, the hardest-hit country in the West African epidemic. The patient left on Sept. 19 and arrived in the U.S. on Sept. 20 to visit family. Frieden wouldn't release the man's nationality or other identifying information, and didn't know how he became infected.

Q: When did the patient get sick?

A: Last Wednesday, and he initially sought care two days later. He was released but returned Sunday when his condition worsened and Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital discovered the West Africa connection, admitting him under strict isolation. Tests confirmed Ebola on Tuesday.



This undated file image made available by the CDC shows the Ebola Virus. U.S. health officials have warned for months that someone infected with Ebola could unknowingly carry the virus to this country, and on Tuesday, Sept. 30, 2014, came word that it had happened: A traveler in a Dallas hospital became the first patient diagnosed in the U.S. (AP Photo/CDC, File)


Q: How does Ebola spread?

A: Only through close contact with the bodily fluids of someone who has symptoms, such as fever, vomiting and diarrhea. People aren't contagious until symptoms begin. And Ebola cannot spread through the air.

Q: How is Ebola diagnosed?

A: Some of the symptoms of Ebola are similar to other ailments, so doctors do a blood test to confirm an infection. Frieden explained that tests done early may miss the virus. "Even in the initial phases of illness, when they've got a fever, the most sensitive tests in the world don't detect it because there's so little virus," he said.

Q: So who's at risk?

A: Texas health officials already have begun tracking down those close contacts, believed to be mostly the relatives the man stayed with. Officials will check them for symptoms every day for 21 days. Frieden said only about a handful of people are believed to have been exposed.

Q: Could Ebola have spread on the airplane?

A: No, Frieden said, because the man wasn't sick then. The CDC said there is no need to monitor anyone else on those flights and didn't reveal flight information.

Q: Will the patient stay in Dallas?

A: Frieden said there's no need to transfer the man to one of those special isolation units that have gotten so much attention for treating four American aid workers who caught Ebola while volunteering in West Africa. Most hospitals can follow the necessary infection control for Ebola, Frieden said, and the Dallas hospital said it was "well prepared" to safely treat this newest case.

As for those other patients, three have recovered; the fourth remains hospitalized in Atlanta.

Q: How will this patient be treated?

A: Good hydration and IV nutrition have proven to be key for those other patients. Frieden said the hospital was discussing experimental treatments. A Tekmira Pharmaceuticals drug called TKM-Ebola and blood transfusions from an Ebola survivor were given to one of the recently infected U.S. aid workers.

Q: Could there be more travelers with Ebola?

A: No one's ruling it out. People boarding planes in the outbreak zone are checked for fever, but that does not guarantee that an infected person won't get through.

Airlines are required to report any deaths on a flight or ill travelers meeting certain criteria to the CDC before arriving in the U.S. If a traveler is infectious or exhibiting symptoms during or after a flight, the CDC will conduct an investigation of exposed travelers and take any necessary public health action.

Q: What if I'm worried about exposure?

A: Call the CDC for more information at 800-CDC-INFO (800-232-4636).


http://news.yahoo.com/questions-answers-us-ebola-case-070636597--politics.html

[Buster's Uncle]

Traveler from Liberia is first Ebola patient diagnosed in U.S.
Reuters
By Julie Steenhuysen and Sharon Begley  14 hours ago



(Reuters) - A man who flew from Liberia to Texas has become the first patient infected with the deadly Ebola virus to be diagnosed in the United States, health officials said on Tuesday, a sign the outbreak ravaging West Africa may spread globally.

The patient sought treatment six days after arriving in Texas on Sept. 20, Dr. Thomas Frieden, director of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), told reporters. He was admitted two days later to an isolation room at Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital in Dallas.

U.S. health officials and lawmakers have been bracing for the eventuality that a patient would arrive on U.S. shores undetected, testing the preparedness of the nation's healthcare system. On Tuesday, Frieden and other health authorities said they were taking every step possible to ensure the virus did not spread widely.

"It is certainly possible someone who had contact with this individual could develop Ebola in the coming weeks," Frieden told a news conference. "I have no doubt we will stop this in its tracks in the United States."

Frieden said a handful of people, mostly family members, may have been exposed to the patient after he fell ill and that health authorities were tracking down anyone who might have had contact with the man. The emergency responders who transported the man to the hospital have been quarantined, according to a statement from Dallas city officials.

He said there was likely no threat to any airline passengers because the patient had no symptoms during his flight. Asked whether the patient was a U.S. citizen, Frieden described the person as a visitor to family in the country.

At least 3,091 people have died from Ebola in the worst outbreak on record that has been ravaging Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea in West Africa. More than 6,500 cases have been diagnosed, and the CDC has warned that the number of infections could rise to as many as 1.4 million people by early next year without a massive global intervention to contain the virus.

U.S. hospitals have treated, and released, three aid workers who were infected in Africa and flown back to the United States under strict medical supervision in a specially outfitted airplane.

A fourth person is being treated at Emory University Hospital in Atlanta, Georgia and a fifth person who may have been exposed to the virus is under observation at the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, Maryland.

President Barack Obama discussed the Dallas case with Frieden on Tuesday, the White House said.


GLOBAL SECURITY ISSUE

The Ebola outbreak has overwhelmed health systems in Africa, one of the world's poorest regions, prompting the U.S. government and other nations to send funds, supplies and personnel to stop its spread.

The Dallas case "underscores that Ebola is a global and national security issue and that we need to double-down on our efforts to help West Africa get this outbreak under control,” Gerald Parker, vice president for Public Health Preparedness and Response at Texas A&M Health Science Center, said in an interview.

Frieden has said U.S. hospitals are well prepared to handle Ebola patients and has assured the public that the virus should not pose the same threat in the United States as it does in Africa.

“Americans need to remain calm and listen to the precautionary measures being suggested by the CDC," said Senator Chris Coons, a Democrat from Delaware who chairs the Senate Foreign Relations Subcommittee on African Affairs.

"It was only a matter of time before an Ebola case would emerge here in the United States, but as we’re seeing in Dallas today, our public health system has the resources, capabilities, and knowledge to address and contain this virus quickly and safely."

Ebola symptoms generally appear between two and 21 days after infection, meaning there is a significant window during which an infected person can escape detection, allowing them to travel. Symptoms include fever, vomiting and diarrhea.

This outbreak has killed about 50 percent of its victims. In past outbreaks, fatality rates have been as high as 90 percent.

Frieden emphasized that Ebola cannot be spread through the air but only through contact with bodily fluids such as blood, diarrhea and tears.

He said that CDC and other health officials were discussing whether to treat the Ebola patient with an experimental drug.

Stocks in Tekmira Pharmaceuticals Corp and other small biotechnology companies working on Ebola therapies or vaccines rose on the news of the U.S. Ebola patient in after-hours trading.


http://news.yahoo.com/traveler-liberia-first-ebola-patient-diagnosed-u-064132704--finance.html

[Buster's Uncle]

Ebola Isolation Procedures: A Close Look
LiveScience.com
By Rachael Rettner, Senior Writer  1 hour ago



The first patient to be diagnosed with Ebola in the United States is receiving treatment while isolated in a Texas hospital, but what does such isolation involve, and how exactly do doctors ensure the deadly virus doesn't spread to others?

Experts say that hospitals routinely isolate patients with infectious diseases, and the type of isolation required for an Ebola patient would be the same as what is already done for hospital patients with the flu or meningitis.

Yesterday, health officials announced that a patient at Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital in Dallas tested positive for the Ebola virus and was in isolation. The man recently flew to the United States from West Africa, a region that is currently experiencing the worst outbreak of Ebola in history. The man has been identified as Thomas Eric Duncan, a resident of Liberia, according to the New York Times.

The first step in isolation involves putting a patient in a private hospital room, or in a room with someone with the same infection, said Dr. Amesh Adalja, an infectious-disease physician at the University of Pittsburgh.

Then, doctors follow different protocols depending on the type of infection the person has — including whether the infection can be spread by physical contact, by droplets of body fluids or through the air, Adalja said.

If the infection can be spread by contact, like methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA), doctors wear gloves and a gown, Adalja said. If the infection is spread by droplets — like those of a cough or sneeze — doctors wear gloves and a gown, along with a surgical mask and eye protection.

If the infection can spread long distance through the air, like tuberculosis, doctors would take all the precautions that are needed for an illness spread by droplets, but they would also wear a special respirator mask that filters airborne particles, called an N95 mask, Adalja said. In addition, patients with an airborne infection would be placed in a negative-pressure room, which prevents contaminated air from escaping into a hospital, Adalja said.

When treating an Ebola patient, doctors would take both contact and droplet precautions, just like they would with a patient who had the flu or the recent enterovirus D68, Adalja said. Some hospitals might take airborne precautions, but that would go beyond what's recommended by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, because Ebola is not spread through the air. (Ebola is spread by contact with bodily fluids.)

"It's understandable that a lot of hospitals are nervous about taking care of Ebola patients," and would take airborne precautions, Adalja said. But "that’s not necessary," he said.

The three American Ebola patients who are confirmed to have contracted the disease in West Africa and were flown back to the United States for treatment were isolated in high-level containment rooms, including rooms at Emory University. Only a few hospitals in the country have these high-level containment rooms, Adalja said.

These rooms have negative pressure and contain their own lab facilities, and doctors who treat patients wear full-body, hazmat suits. These facilities were designed to treat patients with airborne diseases like severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS), Adalja said.

This level of protection goes "above and beyond what's required for infection control" of Ebola, Adalja said. In a way, it was unfortunate that the previous Ebola patients were treated this way in the United States, because "it gave a false impression to the public that that's what you needed to take care of an Ebola patient," Adalja said.

The Dallas hospital currently treating the Ebola patient may want to keep the patient in a room that's in a part of the hospital that's less busy, in order to have more control over who goes in and out of the room, Adalja said.

Doctors should also minimize the number of tests they do that require needle pricks, such as blood draws, Adalja said. To test blood, doctors could use a hand-held device that can run tests at the patient's bedside (instead of sending the blood to the hospital lab), to minimize the number of people exposed to the patient's bodily fluids, he said.

Still, there's no need for patients or visitors to the Dallas hospital to be worried about Ebola infection, Adalja said. In a U.S. hospital, "TB is a bigger infection threat than Ebola," because TB is airborne, Adalja said.


http://news.yahoo.com/ebola-isolation-procedures-close-look-204333451.html

[Buster's Uncle]

U.S. airlines in contact with government about Ebola concerns
Reuters
By Jeffrey Dastin  7 hours ago



(Reuters) - Several leading U.S. airlines said on Wednesday they were in close contact with federal health officials about Ebola-related travel concerns after a traveler infected with the deadly virus was diagnosed on U.S. soil.

The patient, now hospitalized in Dallas, had flown from Ebola-ravaged Liberia through Brussels to Texas, the Liberian information ministry said. U.S. health officials said there should be no risk to fellow passengers, as the patient began showing symptoms only after his arrival.

But stocks in major U.S. air carriers fell as much as nearly 4 percent on Wednesday over fears that the spread of the worst known Ebola outbreak beyond West Africa would make more customers fearful of traveling.

"People are nervous about (the first case of Ebola detected in the United States) and what it means," said Michael Derchin, an analyst at CRT Capital Group LLC.

Still, Derchin said that the market had overreacted.

"I would be surprised if there's any impact on travel," he said.

JetBlue Airways and American Airlines said they were closely following guidelines from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

Airlines for America, the industry trade group, is also coordinating with the CDC on any government action related to Ebola concerns, JetBlue spokesman Morgan Johnston said.

"We follow the guidelines (put) in place by the CDC specifically for airlines, and we work with our crews to protect the health of our customers and employees," American Airlines spokesman Josh Freed said.

The CDC is working with U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) to identify potential victims and warn other travelers of the health threat.

"CBP personnel receive training in illness recognition," said agency spokeswoman Jennifer Evanitsky. If they identify someone believed to be infected, they will seek medical evaluation from CDC and local health officials.

Customs officials will wear protective equipment such as gloves and surgical masks to ensure their safety when interacting with ill travelers, she added.

Customs and Border personnel also will hand out flyers in airports encouraging people to watch their health for 21 days and listing steps to follow should they become sick, according to CDC spokesman Tom Skinner.

Airlines will also remind their customers to follow CDC guidelines regarding travel when ill, Johnston said.

JetBlue shares fell 3.4 percent to $10.26, while American Airlines fell about 3.9 percent and Delta Air Lines fell about 3.7 percent in early Wednesday afternoon trading.

(Reporting By Jeffrey Dastin and Sharon Begley; Editing by Michele Gershberg and Jonathan Oatis)


http://news.yahoo.com/u-airlines-contact-government-ebola-concerns-161608469--finance.html

[Buster's Uncle]

UN Ebola mission head wants significant progress in 60 days
Reuters
20 hours ago



Tony Banbury, the then U.N. World Food Programme (WFP) regional director for Asia, speaks at a news conference in Beijing, September 2, 2008. REUTERS/Jason Lee/Files



ACCRA (Reuters) - The U.N. mission for Ebola wants to achieve significant progress in combating the deadly disease within 60 days, including ensuring that 70 percent of cases receive treatment, its new head Tony Banbury said on Tuesday.

At least 3,091 people have died from Ebola since the West African outbreak was first reported in the remote southeast forest region of Guinea in March. The other two most affected countries are Sierra Leone and Liberia.

The outbreak has overwhelmed health systems in one of the world's poorest regions, prompting the United Nations, international organisations and foreign governments to step up support for the affected countries.

"Seventy percent of infected people need to be under treatment, 70 percent of burials need to be done in a safe way in order to turn this around and we need to do it in 60 days," Banbury said in the capital of Ghana, the headquarters of the new U.N. mission.

"It's an extremely ... ambitious target and the only way it will be achieved is through this international effort," he said.

Banbury described the crisis as "very grave" but said that the political will, resources and action being shown on the ground were tangible signs of progress being made towards tackling it.

Most of the mission's work will take place in the countries most affected by Ebola and Ghana will act as a headquarters focused on logistics, policy and expertise, said Banbury.


http://news.yahoo.com/un-ebola-mission-head-wants-significant-progress-60-063852361--business.html

[Buster's Uncle]

U.S. relief group sending key supplies to Liberia to fight Ebola
Reuters
By Colleen Jenkins  6 hours ago



WHO members and health directors stand outside the Port Loko District Hospital September 27, 2014, where the maternity ward has been converted into an isolation holding centre for people with suspected cases of the Ebola virus. REUTERS/Christopher Black/WHO/Handout via Reuters



CHARLOTTE N.C. (Reuters) - With the number of Ebola cases in West Africa expected to rise by the thousands, a Christian relief organization in North Carolina is gearing up for a new community and home-based care effort aimed at stopping the spread of the deadly virus.

Samaritan's Purse leaders said the 100 tons of equipment and supplies loaded onto a cargo jet due to fly from Charlotte to Liberia on Wednesday was just a fraction of what is needed to combat the disease that has now killed more than 3,000 people.

News of the first patient to be diagnosed with the disease in the United States has underlined the urgent need to slow its spread.

"West Africa needs the attention of the international community," said Franklin Graham, a U.S. evangelist and president of Samaritan's Purse. "Because if we don't stop it there, it's just going to keep coming to this country."

The relief group, which Graham said had sent back to Liberia the American staff it evacuated after one of its doctors, Dr. Kent Brantly, contracted Ebola, will build 15 community care centers in rural areas with high numbers of cases.

The 10-bed facilities will supplement more traditional Ebola treatment units and will provide basic supportive care rather than clinical aid, said Ken Isaacs, vice president of programs and government relations for Samaritan's Purse.

The U.S. government is also committed to building additional treatment centers, but Samaritan's Purse leaders said there still will not be enough beds to meet the need in the worst Ebola epidemic on record.

That is why they plan to disperse supplies to hard-hit communities as part of an interim home-based intervention initiative geared at infected people who may be too frightened to seek medical help or do not have access to it.

The plane in Charlotte was filled Wednesday morning with rain coats, rubber gloves, boots, masks, soap and chlorine, all common items that can provide "robust protection" against the virus, said Dr. Lance Plyler, the relief group's medical director for disaster response.

Samaritan's Purse staff will teach Liberians how to provide hygienic, supportive care using the supplies, including proper disinfecting techniques, Plyler said.

Plyler said the "incredible devastation" he saw while in Liberia this summer requires new strategies.

"Home-based care is already happening," Isaacs said. "We need to give people the equipment and knowledge to care for their loved ones and protect themselves."

(Editing by Scott Malone and Eric Walsh)


http://news.yahoo.com/u-relief-group-sending-key-supplies-liberia-fight-201740491.html

[Buster's Uncle]

Why the CDC Won't Release the Ebola Patient's Flight Itinerary
ABC News
By MEGHAN KENEALLY  Oct 1, 2014, 11:36 AM ET



The flight information for the Ebola patient diagnosed in Texas will not be released by health officials because "It's just not necessary," a spokesperson at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention told ABC News.

The CDC announced that the man has tested positive for the disease, making him the first person to have discovered he had the virus while on U.S. soil, and they made it clear that he traveled from Liberia to America to visit family in Dallas.

"If we need to contact passengers we have a way. We'd call ourselves," the CDC spokesperson said.

Even though the CDC will not release his flight plan from Liberia to the United States, it is clear that he would have had to make at least two transfers -- including one in at least one other country.

Flights from the airport in the Liberian capital of Monrovia fly to only six destinations -- four in West and Central Africa, one flight to Morocco and one flight to Brussels, Belgium. There are no direct flights into the Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport from any of those six destinations, meaning that man had to make at least one more change.

The CDC said Tuesday that the passengers who unknowingly traveled with the man need not be concerned because he was not contagious while he was on the plane.

"The ill person did not exhibit symptoms of Ebola during the flights from West Africa and CDC does not recommend that people on the same commercial airline flights undergo monitoring, as Ebola is only contagious if the person is experiencing active symptoms," the agency said in a statement Tuesday.

The man left Liberia on Sept. 19 and arrived in Texas on Sept. 20, CDC Director Tom Frieden said.

"Ebola doesn't spread before someone gets sick and he didn't get sick until four days after he got off the airplane," Frieden noted during a news conference Tuesday.

On his first visit to the hospital, doctors did not immediately conclude that he had Ebola and they sent him home but he returned with much more drastic symptoms on Sept. 27, according to the CDC. He was put in a special isolation unit the following day.

Part of the problem in diagnosing Ebola comes from the fact that patients, like this man, can take up to 21 days to exhibit symptoms such as fever, muscle pain, vomiting and bleeding.


http://abcnews.go.com/US/cdc-release-ebola-patients-flight-information/story?id=25890108