Ebola news 10/3

[Buster's Uncle]

Health officials work to contain Ebola virus in US
Associated Press
By LAURAN NEERGAARD  2 hours ago



This 2011 photo provided by Wilmot Chayee shows Thomas Eric Duncan at a wedding in Ghana. Duncan, who became the first patient diagnosed in the U.S with Ebola, has been kept in isolation at a hospital since Sunday, Sept. 28, 2014. He was listed in serious but stable condition. (AP Photo/Wilmot Chayee)



WASHINGTON (AP) — Texas health officials have confined four people to their home, under guard, after they had close contact with an Ebola patient hospitalized in Dallas, as disease detectives work to make sure the deadly virus doesn't spread in the U.S. Five things to know about containing the virus:

1. WHY ORDER PEOPLE TO STAY HOME

Texas officials say those four ordered to stay put and have no visitors weren't complying with requests to voluntarily stay home for 21 days, Ebola's incubation period. Officials had reached out to as many as 100 people to determine if they had any contact with the patient, Thomas Eric Duncan, or someone close to him, deliberately casting a wide net so as not to miss anyone. But Friday, officials said only 50 may really have been exposed in some way and thus need monitoring, and that 10 of them are considered at higher risk. Some who have been asked to stay home during the incubation period have complied voluntarily.

2. HOW ARE PEOPLE MONITORED

Checking for a fever or other symptoms every day for 21 days Texas officials say a public health worker will visit daily. Symptoms can begin anywhere from two to 21 days after exposure, but eight to 10 days is the usual range.

3. WHAT IS SUPPOSED TO HAPPEN WHEN SOMEONE WITH POSSIBLE EBOLA SYMPTOMS ARRIVES AT THE HOSPITAL

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has given hospitals a checklist to make it easy: Do they have a fever of 101.5 degrees? Do they have other Ebola-like symptoms, such as flu-like body aches, vomiting or diarrhea? If so, they're told to ask whether the person traveled to an Ebola-infected country during the past 21 days. Duncan revealed in a Dallas emergency room last week that he was visiting from Liberia, but the hospital has acknowledged it didn't pass that information to doctors who ultimately diagnosed a low-risk infection and released him. Duncan returned by ambulance on Sunday and was isolated; tests confirmed Ebola on Tuesday. The hospital now says it has altered its patient records computer system so that doctors will automatically have access to a patient's travel history and, specifically, to any Ebola-endemic regions of Africa.

4. WHAT ARE HOSPITALS ELSEWHERE DOING

The CDC is repeating its instructions to health workers, and many hospitals say they're spreading the word to staff again after the Dallas case. Regions Hospital in St. Paul, Minnesota, says it got a practice run a few weeks ago when the emergency room asked someone with possible symptoms about recent travel, learned he'd been to Liberia and immediately isolated him until doctors determined he didn't have Ebola. In rural Coldwater, Ohio, a hospital even posted signs at main entrances telling patients to tell staff members if they had traveled to West Africa recently.

5. DOES SCREENING AIR TRAVELERS HELP

The CDC said the Dallas patient had no fever or other symptoms while traveling and so wasn't contagious at that point. But Liberian authorities have alleged he lied on a form about not having any contact with an infected person, although it's not clear if he knew the person had Ebola.

A spokesman for the U.N. secretary-general said Thursday that air travel to the outbreak zone should continue, because further isolating those countries — where much air travel already has ceased — would worsen their political and economic situations and make it even harder to deliver aid.

According to the CDC, between January and July, there were between 750 and 1,750 travelers to the U.S. per week from Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone, a number believed to have dwindled as the outbreak worsened. That represents less than one-tenth of 1 percent of the 2 million travelers who come into the U.S. weekly.

While screening travelers before they leave is important, people don't always realize if they've been exposed to Ebola, said CDC Director Dr. Tom Frieden.

"We can't make the risk zero until the outbreak is controlled in West Africa," he said.

___

AP Medical Writer Mike Stobbe in New York contributed to this report.


http://news.yahoo.com/health-officials-contain-ebola-virus-us-081129859.html

[Buster's Uncle]

NBC cameraman tests positive for Ebola in Liberia
Associated Press
By DAVID BAUDER  8 hours ago



NEW YORK (AP) — An American cameraman helping to cover the Ebola outbreak in Liberia for NBC News has tested positive for the virus and will be flown back to the United States for treatment.

NBC News President Deborah Turness said Thursday the rest of the NBC News crew including medical correspondent Dr. Nancy Snyderman will be flown back to the U.S. and placed in quarantine for 21 days "in an abundance of caution."

NBC identified the freelance cameraman on its website as 33-year-old Ashoka Mukpo. He has been working in Liberia for three years for Vice News and other media outlets, and has been covering the Ebola epidemic, according to the network. He began shooting for NBC on Tuesday.

He began feeling tired and achy Wednesday and discovered he had a slight fever. He went to a treatment center Thursday to be tested, and is being kept there, said Snyderman, who was interviewed Thursday night on "The Rachel Maddow Show" on MSNBC.

Snyderman said she believes Mukpo's exposure to the virus happened sometime before he started working with the NBC crew, since it is usually eight to 10 days before the first symptoms are seen.

"The good news is this young man, our colleague, was admitted to the clinic very, very early," she said. "I spoke with him today. He's in good spirits. He's ready to get home — of course, appropriately concerned. But he will be airlifted out soon."

She said that neither she nor the other three NBC employees has shown any symptoms or warning signs of Ebola infection.

"We observe the custom now, which is to not shake hands, to not embrace people, to wash our hands with diluted bleach water before we enter the hotel," she said. "We dip our feet in bleach solution."

She said she and the rest of her crew present little chance of giving it to anyone, unless they get sick.

"We will be taking our temperatures twice a day, checking in with each other, and if any one of us suddenly spikes a fever or gets symptoms, we will report ourselves to the authorities," she said. "We are taking it seriously."


http://news.yahoo.com/nbc-cameraman-tests-positive-ebola-liberia-011546947.html

[Buster's Uncle]

West African community in Dallas rallies around family of Ebola patient
The tight-knit community of Liberian immigrants and refugees in the Dallas area has led an effort to aid the family of the Ebola patient. Those from West Africa are also trying to spread calm and create better awareness.
Christian Science Monitor
By Bryan Kay  7 hours ago



For much of the week since the first case of Ebola detected stateside was revealed amid a series of reported hospital and health authority blunders, there has been a steady stream of fear, alarm, and misinformation.

But behind the scenes, away from the frenetic activity created by a throng of TV trucks and the media's voracious appetite for what went wrong, another story of community compassion and brotherhood has been playing out.

The tight-knit community of Liberian immigrants and refugees in the Dallas area has led the effort to aid the family at the center of the furor.

Members flocked to support the victim, Thomas Eric Duncan, a Liberian national; a woman believed to be his partner; and family members after learning of their identity. At the top of mind are the family's health and potential ostracism they may experience, community members said.

Alben Tarty, a spokesman for the Liberian Community Association of Dallas-Fort Worth, said that his group has been in constant contact with the woman to provide help in whatever capacity possible as they continue to be monitored under quarantine for signs of the virus. Four individuals – including at least one child – are confined to the apartment where Mr. Duncan had been staying in northeast Dallas prior to his admission to the nearby Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital.

"We cannot visit them right now, but we are on the phone to see how we can help and support them," Mr. Tarty says. "That is why we let them know they are in our prayers."

The association plans a vigil – an exact date is yet to be determined – outside the hospital as a show of solidarity with their countryman. Liberia tops the four countries in Africa where Ebola has been reported, with 3,700 cases.

With the affected family now quarantined in their apartment for a period of up to 21 days, the North Texas Food Bank has stepped in, at the behest of the American Red Cross, to supply much-needed food, says Jan Pruitt, president and CEO of the food bank. A parcel with enough food to last three days was dropped off for the family Thursday and contained produce, cereal, milk, tuna, pasta, and rice. She and her staff are ready to provide further supplies in the coming days, Ms. Pruitt adds. It is a bit of needed good news after authorities turned away the company that was going to clean the family's apartment for not having the correct permits, CNN reports.

People from neighboring countries affected by Ebola are also stepping up.

Isiaka Sidibay, president of the Madingo Association of Texas, which brings together members of the Madingo tribe in Liberia, Guinea, and Sierra Leone, is planning to hold a fundraiser for victims in West Africa next month. (It was originally scheduled to be held Sunday, but Mr. Sidibay says organizers decided to postpone the event to placate fears over the further spread of Ebola.)

“The Guineans in Dallas are safe, but calls were still made to find out if they were in the area where this case happened and also to educate people,” Sidibay says. “We have families here in Dallas who have lost people to Ebola in Africa. We want to show solidarity and create as much awareness about Ebola as possible. While this thing is bad, it has created awareness and brought out support in the African community. This is our home.”

He says about $1,500 has been raised so far and that he has been working with the president of the Liberian community association to assist its outreach efforts.

Liberia, Sierra Leone, Guinea, and, to a lesser extent, isolated parts of Nigeria are ground zero in the fight against Ebola. More than 7,000 cases have been reported in the region, with more than 3,300 deaths.

In the 5,000-strong Sierra Leone community in the Dallas-Forth Worth area, members there, too, are trying to spread calm. Foday Fofanah, of the charity effort Sankofa, is heading up moves to raise aid and awareness for the Ebola outbreak in his home country, encouraging Americans to get involved. Sierra Leone has the second-highest number of cases, with 2,300.

Former Dallas mayoral candidate Ed Okpa, originally from Nigeria, said he believed a host of mixed messages from authorities had contributed to confusion and chaos, but thinks the problems that beset the Dallas case will prove a salutary lesson for public health going forward.

In light of some of the more alarmist reactions to the case – there were suggestions a travel ban should be imposed on those traveling from West Africa to the United States – he cautioned that people should be more circumspect.

 "We've got to be a little more careful and certain when we throw out some of these things," Mr. Okpa says.

In Dallas, up to 100 people who had direct or indirect contact with the victim are being either interviewed or monitored for symptoms of Ebola. Dave Daigle, spokesman for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said the CDC would separate them into one of three groups: high risk, low risk, and no risk.

Dallas Mayor Mike Rawlings has pleaded for calm, seeking to dampen fears by insisting there is “zero chance” of anyone spreading the virus if they are not exhibiting symptoms.

The Dallas area counts tens of thousands of immigrants from West Africa alone, including an estimated 10,000 from Liberia. In the area where Duncan was staying, there are about 2,000 Liberian immigrants, according to community members. Vickery Meadow, also known colloquially as the Ellis Island of Dallas, is a smorgasbord of ethnic cultures, made up largely of immigrants and refugees.

Despite some of the more extreme reactions by members of the public, Tarty of the Liberian community said he does not sense any overt expressions marginalizing or stigmatizing Africans because of Ebola. He says he has been warmed by the positive reaction he has witnessed from the wider Dallas community, believing the more extreme reactions are confined to those who are uneducated about the virus.

“We in the Liberian community hope that stigmatization does not happen,” says Tarty. “I have not experienced that yet. The wider community has been supportive. My company gave me some extra paid time off to help in my community. They said to me, ‘You have not done anything wrong.’ ”


http://news.yahoo.com/west-african-community-dallas-rallies-around-family-ebola-134832039.html

[Buster's Uncle]

The worst Ebola outbreak on record
Reuters
2 hours ago



(Reuters) - West Africa is struggling with the worst Ebola outbreak since the disease was identified in 1976, and the first case has been diagnosed in the United States.

Below are some facts regarding the outbreak:

- The outbreak has killed 3,431 people, or 46 percent of the 7,470 probable, confirmed and suspected cases as of Oct. 1, predominantly in Liberia, Sierra Leone and Senegal. The disease - which emerged in a remote forest region of Guinea in March - has also turned up in Nigeria and Senegal, but officials say the disease has been contained in those two countries.

- There is no vaccine or cure for Ebola, a hemorrhagic fever. In past outbreaks, fatality rates have reached up to 90 percent. Ebola causes fever, flu-like pains, bleeding, vomiting and diarrhea.

- Pharmaceutical companies are working on experimental Ebola vaccines and antiviral drugs, but a significant number of doses will not be available until at least the first quarter of 2015.

- Ebola is not airborne. It is transmitted through blood, vomit, diarrhea and other bodily fluids. Healthcare workers in West Africa have been among the hardest hit by the outbreak.

- 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. However, they are not considered contagious until they start showing symptoms.

- Recovery from Ebola depends on the patient’s immune response. People who recover from Ebola infection develop antibodies that last for at least 10 years.

- The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has estimated that the number of infections could rise to up to 1.4 million people by early next year without a massive global intervention to contain the virus.

- The United States, Britain, France, China, Cuba and international organizations are pouring funds, supplies and personnel into the affected parts of West Africa.

- Ebola's suspected origin is forest bats. The virus was first identified in 1976 in what is now known as Democratic Republic of the Congo.

SOURCE: World Health Organization and U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

(Compiled by Lisa Shumaker)


http://news.yahoo.com/worst-ebola-outbreak-record-190337033.html

[Buster's Uncle]

About 50 under observation after Ebola diagnosis in Texas
Reuters
By Jon Herskovitz  56 minutes ago



Health officials in Dallas, Texas, have ordered four people hosting the Ebola patient, Thomas Eric Duncan, to stay in their home. Police officers are posted outside just to make sure. (October 2)



DALLAS (Reuters) - Health officials in Dallas charged with checking the spread of Ebola have narrowed their focus to about 50 people who had direct or indirect contact with an infected Liberian traveler, including 10 at high risk who are being checked twice daily for symptoms.

A cleanup crew began decontaminating the Dallas apartment where the man, Thomas Eric Duncan, had been staying before he was admitted to the hospital five days ago and where he remained in serious condition on Friday.

Four people close to Duncan who were quarantined in the apartment in a northeastern section of the city "will be moved to another location soon," Dallas County Fire Marshal Robert De Los Santos told reporters. Earlier, the county said it was safe for them to remain there during the cleanup.

The case has put authorities and the public on alert over concerns that the worst epidemic of the deadly virus on record could spread from three impoverished West African countries: Liberia, Guinea and Sierra Leone. The World Health Organization on Friday updated its death toll to at least 3,439 out of 7,492 suspected, probable and confirmed cases.

The handling of the Dallas case in the early stages of Duncan's illness has raised questions about how prepared local and national health officials were to handle that case and whether people were unnecessarily exposed.



A Red Cross worker delivers bedding materials to an apartment unit at The Ivy Apartments, where a man diagnosed with the Ebola virus was staying in Dallas, Texas October 2, 2014. REUTERS/Mike Stone


Dr. David Lakey, commissioner of the Texas Department of State Health Services, said at a news conference that out of 100 people who needed to be reached, "There's now approximately 50 individuals we feel we need to follow on a daily basis."

"Most of those individuals are at low risk. There are about 10 individuals who are at higher risk. We continue to watch those individuals closely."

The observations include fever checks at least twice daily. Ebola, which can cause fever, vomiting and diarrhea, spreads through contact with bodily fluids such as blood or saliva.

Sheets and other items used by the man in the apartment have been sealed in plastic bags, but questions have been raised about the delay in sanitizing it.

Senior Obama administration officials were scheduled to hold a news conference on Ebola on Friday afternoon, while the Pentagon said it could increase the number of military personnel being sent to West Africa to help with the outbreak there.



A Red Cross worker delivers bedding materials to an apartment unit at The Ivy Apartments where a man diagnosed with the Ebola virus was staying in Dallas, Texas October 2, 2014. REUTERS/Mike Stone


A crew from the Cleaning Guys, a hazardous materials cleanup company, arrived at the apartment building around 11:30 a.m. CDT (12.30 p.m. EDT) to start the work, which officials said would take about three hours. Along with the cleanup crew, three fire and rescue vehicles also arrived at the apartment complex.

The cleanup crew, garbed in yellow hazardous material suits and masks, was inside the apartment and packing the soiled sheets, Duncan's luggage and other personal items into blue barrels, the fire marshal said. The mattress was being cut into pieces to fit into the barrels.

Another Dallas County official said the cleaners would take the containers to a secure location.

Duncan was being treated at Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital. Officials said a disposal vendor was in place to remove any potentially contaminated materials from the hospital.

U.S. health officials say they are confident that they can prevent the spread of the Ebola virus in the United States.



A man passes a bag, delivered by the Red Cross and the North Texas Food Bank, in to the apartment unit at The Ivy Apartments complex where a man diagnosed with the Ebola virus was staying in Dallas, Texas October 2, 2014. REUTERS/Mike Stone


BEING CHECKED FOR EBOLA SYMPTOMS

Since Duncan's diagnosis, people have visited hospitals in a few states and were checked for Ebola symptoms. On Friday, Howard University Hospital in Washington said it admitted and isolated a patient with possible symptoms who had recently traveled from Nigeria "in an abundance of caution." The CDC says outbreaks in Nigeria and Senegal appear to have been contained.

As part of the U.S. effort to help contain the spread of Ebola, the Pentagon on Friday said the number of military personnel that could be deployed to West Africa could reach nearly 4,000, more than earlier estimates of about 3,000.

"It may not go that high," said the Pentagon's chief spokesman, Rear Admiral John Kirby.

In Congress, U.S. House Appropriations Committee Chairman Hal Rogers, a Republican, and ranking Democrat Nita Lowey set an Oct. 17 deadline for the Obama administration to provide details of its plan to deal with the outbreak, including how each agency is contributing and monthly costs.



A hand can be seen holding a thermometer at The Ivy Apartments where a man diagnosed with the Ebola virus was staying in Dallas, Texas October 2, 2014. REUTERS/Mike Stone


Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal, a Republican, became the latest public official to call on the U.S. government to shut down flights from Ebola-stricken countries.

The critical issue of how hospitals in the United States should handle and dispose of medical waste from Ebola patients is being addressed, the government said. The U.S. Department of Transportation said it expected to release new guidelines later on Friday that would allow Texas hospitals to dispose safely of Ebola-infected medical wastes.

Most U.S. hospitals are not equipped with incinerators or large sterilizers called autoclaves that could accommodate the large amounts of soiled linens, contaminated syringes and virus-spattered protective gear generated by the care of an Ebola patient, said Dr. Jeffrey Duchin, chair of the Infectious Diseases Society of America's Public Health Committee.

NBC News said on Thursday that one of its freelance cameramen, Ashoka Mukpo, 33, had contracted Ebola in Liberia, the fifth American to be diagnosed after being infected in West Africa. NBC said he had quarantined himself after feeling ill and discovering he had a fever.

The Nebraska Medical Center in Omaha said in a statement that an Ebola patient was scheduled to arrive for treatment on Monday morning. The statement did not identify the patient, who would be the second to be treated there. The first was Dr. Richard Sacra, who was discharged on Sept. 25. He contracted the disease while treating people in West Africa.

NBC has said the entire reporting crew would return to the United States on a private plane and remain under quarantine for 21 days, the maximum incubation period for Ebola.

(Reporting by Susan Heavey and Bill Trott in Washington, Julie Steenhuysen in Chicago, Colleen Jenkins in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, Lisa Maria Garza and Marice Richter in Dallas; Writing by Jim Loney and Grant McCool; Editing by Lisa Von Ahn and Jonathan Oatis)


http://news.yahoo.com/four-close-u-ebola-patient-quarantined-dallas-apartment-021042041.html

[Buster's Uncle]

Battle against Ebola hampered by gaps in data, hidden cases
Reuters
By Tom Miles  8 hours ago



A World Health Organization (WHO) health worker teaches trainee health workers how to put on a protective suit in Freetown September 30, 2014. REUTERS/Umaru Fofana



GENEVA (Reuters) - Ebola's rapid spread through West Africa has been quickened by the difficulty of keeping track of the deadly disease, and filling in the huge gaps in knowledge about the epidemic is key to eventually containing it, health experts say.

U.N. and World Health Organization data show the number of cases across the region had reached 7,423 by Sept 29, including 3,355 deaths. That is widely agreed to be an underestimate.

Many patients are not counted because they never get medical help, perhaps hidden by fearful families or turned away by overwhelmed clinics. Some villages have turned into "shadow zones" where villagers' resistance or the remote location makes investigating numerous deaths impossible.

In Liberia, a surge of previously unknown patients who appear whenever a medical facility opens "suggests the existence of an invisible caseload of patients", the WHO said in August.

Last week the U.S. Centers for Disease Control estimated there would be 8,000 cases reported in Liberia and Sierra Leone by Sept. 30, but said the true figure would likely be 21,000 after correcting for under-reporting.

The WHO says its information is the best there is, but admits its figures are under-reported and says "substantial efforts" are going into cleaning up the data.

Recounts can make a huge difference, as shown by a revision of the number of health workers killed by the virus. Two weeks ago the WHO said 31 health care workers had died in Sierra Leone, but after a recount the figure more than doubled to 81.

Questions are now being asked about Sierra Leone's total death toll, which appears far too low, equivalent to 24 percent of the cases the country has suffered. In Liberia and Guinea the equivalent figures are 54 percent and 61 percent, respectively, closer to the traditionally high fatality rates for the disease.

One reason is that Sierra Leone's case numbers are largely laboratory-confirmed cases counted in health care facilities, WHO epidemiologists Eric Nilles and Stephane Hugonnet said in an emailed reply to a Reuters question.


PAPERWORK RISK

By reporting almost exclusively the cases that can be quickly confirmed by lab tests, Sierra Leone is almost entirely ignoring "suspected" cases in the wider community, which account for a huge portion of cases reported by Liberia and Guinea.

Between Aug. 31 and Sept. 28, Sierra Leone's count of "suspected" and "probable" cases rose by 119, compared to a rise of 1,474 in Liberia. Over the same period, Sierra Leone only declared two deaths that were not laboratory-confirmed, suggesting a too narrow view of the real toll.

While a quarter of Sierra Leone's recorded cases are known to have died, it would be wrong to assume the rest had survived, WHO spokeswoman Nyka Alexander told a U.N. briefing on Sept. 30, since about 60 percent had "no confirmed outcome".

At a case fatality rate of around 70 percent, as estimated by experts writing in the New England Journal of Medicine, that would suggest at least 700 more deaths among the recorded cases, taking the country's toll from 575 to over 1,300.

The infectiousness of the disease means the mere handling of the paper record of a patient's history, which has followed them around during their treatment, may itself be a contamination risk, said Alexander.

"In some places somebody will read that information from inside the ward to somebody outside the ward and then that piece of paper is destroyed so you never get contamination. So it can be quite labor intensive to get all the information," she said.

The weak chain of data means even some known cases simply drop out of the records, and trying to recover the lost history of the disease is painstaking work that involves hunting down names and case stories in local communities.

"You have to go back into the communities and ask 'do you remember Amadou Diallo?' and 'Do you remember what happened to him?' and 'Is he still alive?' And how do you know for sure if their answer is right? He may have moved to another village. So it's very hard to go back and clean up," Alexander said.

(Editing by Stephanie Nebehay and Alison Williams)


http://news.yahoo.com/battle-against-ebola-hampered-gaps-data-hidden-cases-133442377.html

[Buster's Uncle]

Four people close to U.S. Ebola patient quarantined in Dallas
Reuters
By Lisa Maria Garza  12 hours ago



DALLAS (Reuters) - Four people close to the first person diagnosed with Ebola in the United States were quarantined in a Dallas apartment, where sheets and other items used by the man were sealed in plastic bags, as health officials widened their search for others who had direct or indirect contact with him.

In Liberia, an American freelance television cameraman working for NBC News in Liberia has contracted Ebola, the fifth U.S. citizen known to be infected with the deadly virus that has killed at least 3,300 people in the current outbreak in West Africa.

The 33-year-old man, whose name was not released, will be flown back to the United States for treatment, the network said on Thursday.

Immediately after beginning to feel ill and discovering he was running a slight fever, the cameraman quarantined himself. He then went to a Doctors Without Borders treatment center and 12 hours later learned he tested positive for Ebola.

The entire NBC crew will fly back to the United States on a private charter plane and will place themselves under quarantine for 21 days, the maximum incubation period for Ebola.

U.S. health officials said they were confident they could prevent the spread of Ebola in the United States after the first case was diagnosed this week on U.S. soil.

Up to 100 people had direct or indirect contact with Thomas Eric Duncan, a Liberian citizen, and a handful were being monitored, said Dr. Thomas Frieden, director of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

None of those thought to have had contact with Duncan were showing symptoms of Ebola, Dallas County officials said at a news conference.

Duncan had helped a pregnant woman who later died of Ebola in Liberia, just days before flying to Texas via Brussels and Washington two weeks ago. Duncan had been staying in an apartment in the northeastern part of the city for about a week before going to a Dallas hospital.

In Liberia, the head of the country's airport authority, Binyah Kesselly, said the government could prosecute Duncan for denying he had contact with someone who was eventually diagnosed with Ebola.

The government said Duncan failed to declare that he helped neighbor Marthalene Williams after she fell critically ill on Sept. 15. Williams died.

Kesselly said Duncan was asked in a questionnaire whether he had come in contact with any Ebola victim or was showing any symptoms. "To all of these questions, Mr. Duncan answered 'no,'" Kesselly said.

Ebola can cause fever, bleeding, vomiting and diarrhea and spreads through contact with bodily fluids such as blood or saliva. Duncan's case put U.S. health authorities and the public on alert over concern for the potential of the virus to spread from Liberia and two other impoverished West African countries, Guinea and Sierra Leone.

Three Americans contracted Ebola in West Africa and were flown to the United States for treatment and later released: Dr. Kent Brantly, Nancy Writebol and Dr. Rick Sacra. A fourth unnamed American who contracted Ebola in West Africa is being treated at Emory University Hospital in Atlanta.

President Barack Obama called Dallas Mayor Mike Rawlings on Thursday and "pledged federal agencies will remain in close coordination and reiterated his confidence in America's doctors and national health infrastructure to handle this case safely and effectively," White House spokesman Eric Schultz said.

Officials have said the U.S. healthcare system is well prepared to contain the hemorrhagic fever's spread by careful tracking of those who have had contact with Duncan, and employing appropriate care.

Dallas County officials said the problem was very localized. "When I say local, I don’t mean Dallas. I mean a very specific neighborhood in the northeast part of Dallas," Dallas Mayor Rawlings told reporters.


HOSPITAL SENT PATIENT AWAY

Duncan initially sought treatment at Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital on the night of Sept. 25 but was sent back to the apartment, with antibiotics, despite telling a nurse he had just been in Liberia. By Sunday, he needed an ambulance to return to the same hospital after vomiting on the ground outside the apartment complex.

He was in serious condition on Thursday, no change from Wednesday, a hospital spokeswoman said.

Police and armed security guards were keeping people about 100 yards (metres) away from the apartment, with orange cones blocking the entrance and exit. Maintenance workers scrubbed the parking lot with high-pressure water and bleach.

Dr. David Lakey, commissioner of the Texas Department of State Health Services, said the four people under quarantine did not have a fever and were healthy.

Lakey said monitoring included fever checks twice a day. At the apartment, "there is a law enforcement person there in case individuals leave," Lakey told reporters on a conference call.

U.S. officials initially described the number of people potentially exposed as a handful, and on Wednesday said it was up to 18. Then on Thursday, the Texas health department said there were about 100 potential contacts.

CNN reported that a Dallas woman who had a child with Duncan said he had sweated profusely in the bed they shared at her apartment. The woman, whom CNN identified only as "Louisa," is quarantined in the apartment with one of her children, who is 13, and two visiting nephews in their 20s.

They were all in the home when Duncan began showing signs of illness, the report said. The woman said she mentioned twice to hospital staff that he had come from Liberia.

Dr. Amesh Adalja, an infectious disease physician at the University of Pittsburgh, said contact tracing is “bread-and-butter public health" and something health officials do regularly to track tuberculosis, measles and sexually transmitted diseases.

Adalja said the most disturbing part of the U.S. incident is that Duncan was sent home from the hospital with antibiotics.

“This really is something that shouldn’t have happened,” he said. “It just reinforces that taking a travel history has to be an essential part of taking care of patients."


http://news.yahoo.com/four-people-close-u-ebola-patient-quarantined-dallas-085333529.html

[Buster's Uncle]

Ebola Scare Hits Washington, Latest of About 100 Alerts to CDC
ABC News
By GILLIAN MOHNEY  Oct 3, 2014, 4:34 PM ET



Days after a person was diagnosed with Ebola on U.S. soil for the first time, officials are reportedly investigating a possible Ebola infection in Washington, D.C.

At Howard University Hospital, a patient is in stable condition after presenting with symptoms that could be associated with Ebola, according to a statement today from the hospital. The patient had recently traveled to Nigeria, where the Ebola outbreak has killed eight people.

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is working with medical providers to monitor the patient's progress, officials said.

Officials are also monitoring an inmate at Cobb County Jail in Georgia. However, the initial blood test was negative for Ebola, according to the Cobb County Sheriff's Office.

Though the scares have put some on edge, the cases are not unique. After issuing an alert to hospitals and medical providers in July, the CDC has looked into approximately 100 Ebola scares in 33 states, as of Oct. 1, the agency said.

Among those, the CDC has tested the blood of 15 possible Ebola patients and found only one patient who tested positive, according to Dr. Beth Bell, director of the National Center for Emerging and Zoonotic Infectious Diseases. That patient is Thomas Eric Duncan, the Liberian man diagnosed in Dallas.

"We're striving for perfection, but what we continue to do is redouble our efforts and ... use this as learning experience," Bell said.


Ebola Hits Home

Diagnosing the deadly virus can be difficult. The early symptoms of the Ebola virus, including fever chills and abdominal pain, are similar to many other diseases and can be difficult to diagnose correctly.

After a hospital or state lab identifies a possible Ebola case based on both travel history and symptoms, they notify the CDC. CDC officials then talk to someone familiar with the patient's history to determine whether blood testing for the virus is necessary, CDC spokeswoman Kristen Nordlund told ABC News in an earlier interview.

CDC officials discuss symptoms and determine whether the patient may have been exposed to the virus. A person can be exposed to the virus if they buried the body of an Ebola patient, lived in the same home as an Ebola patient or was a health care worker.

Dr. William Schaffner, an infectious disease expert from Vanderbilt University Department of Medicine, said it is not surprising that only a small percentage of the patients investigated had a blood test to check for Ebola.

There are diseases that can appear similar to Ebola, but are far more common in the West African countries of Liberia, Guinea and Sierra Leone where the Ebola outbreak started, Schaffner noted. Doctors might end up contacting the CDC before finding out a patient actually has fever due to tuberculosis.

"You have to be mindful this could be malaria or typhoid fever. That's your job to sort all those things out," said Schaffner. "Your threshold for getting a blood specimen is dependent on the answers to those questions. You kind of have a decision algorithm in your head."

Schaffner said he would not be surprised if there are a rash of new calls to the CDC from hospitals or state labs in the next few days and weeks in light of the intense media coverage of the first Ebola patient diagnosed in the U.S.

"Having all those inquiries come into the CDC are very, very indicative of the fact that the medical care community are on the alert and thinking about [Ebola]," Schaffner said. "It keeps all of us on our toes."


http://abcnews.go.com/Health/ebola-patient-tested-washington/story?id=25948325

[Buster's Uncle]

U.S. health officials say 50 people being observed for Ebola
Reuters
5 hours ago



CHICAGO (Reuters) - U.S. health officials said on Friday that after conversations with 100 people who might have been exposed to the Ebola patient in Texas, about 50 are now being observed daily for symptoms of the deadly virus.

Of the 50, about 10 are considered at high risk, while the rest are considered at low risk, Dr David Lakey, commissioner of the Texas Department of State Health Services, said in a news conference.

Dr. Beth Bell, director of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's National Center for Emerging and Zoonotic Infectious Diseases, said putting people in observation does not imply the CDC has a "high level of concern" about most of these people.

(Reporting by Julie Steenhuysen; Editing by Diane Craft)


http://news.yahoo.com/u-health-officials-50-people-being-observed-ebola-175644472.html

[Buster's Uncle]

UN mission to send helicopters, vehicles to West Africa in Ebola fight
Reuters
1 hour ago



Blood samples from patients suspected of having the Ebola virus disease are prepared for transportation to Freetown for testing, at the Port Loko District Hospital September 27, 2014. REUTERS/Christopher Black/WHO/Handout via Reuters



FREETOWN (Reuters) - The United Nations Ebola response mission will bring five helicopters, vehicles and motorcycles to transport patients and reach communities in West Africa in stepped up efforts to combat the epidemic, the head of the mission said on Friday.

The governments of Guinea, Sierra Leone and Liberia are struggling to contain the worst outbreak on record of the deadly haemorrhagic fever.

The outbreak has crippled already poor healthcare systems in countries where Ebola patients are dying on the street and ambulances, medical staff, hospital beds and basic health kits are in short supply.

The World Health Organization on Friday updated its death toll to at least 3,439 out of 7,492 suspected, probable and confirmed cases. The epidemic has hit hardest in impoverished Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea.

"We have to [act] as fast as we can because every day longer that it takes, more people die and that is not acceptable," said Antony Banbury, the 50-year-old American diplomat who heads the United Nations Mission on Ebola Emergency Response (UNMEER).

"Nobody should be under the illusion that it will be easy (to stop)," Banbury told journalists in Freetown, the capital of Sierra Leone, after meeting with the country's authorities. "Thousands have died and more will die tomorrow."

Banbury said UNMEER will focus on logistics. It will bring five helicopters, vehicles and motorcycles next week to give community mobilization workers better transportation to trace potential Ebola contacts to stop the spread.

The WHO has declared the Ebola epidemic an international public health emergency, and governments from the United States to China, Cuba and Britain have sent troops and medics to help contain the disease.

As part of the U.S. effort to help contain the spread of Ebola, the Pentagon said on Friday the number of military personnel that could be deployed to West Africa could reach nearly 4,000, more than earlier estimates of about 3,000.

British charity, Save the Children, said on Thursday that five people in Sierra Leone were contracting Ebola every hour and warned that could double by November if urgent actions were not taken.

(Reporting by Umaru Fofana; Writing by Bate Felix; Editing by Toni Reinhold)


http://news.yahoo.com/un-mission-send-helicopters-vehicles-west-africa-ebola-234243215--business.html