Ebola news 10/4

[Buster's Uncle]

CDC fields scores of possible Ebola case inquiries, no new infections
Reuters
31 minutes ago



A general view of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) headquarters in Atlanta, Georgia September 30, 2014. REUTERS/Tami Chappell



DALLAS (Reuters) - U.S. health officials have fielded inquiries about as many as 100 potential cases of Ebola since the first patient with the deadly virus was identified in the United States, but no new infections have been found, a senior health official said on Saturday.

Dr. Thomas Frieden, director of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said news of the Ebola patient in Dallas had alerted hospitals nationwide to check incoming patients for potential risks, particularly those who had recently traveled from the center of the outbreak in West Africa.

The CDC has identified nine people who have had contact with the Dallas patient, Thomas Eric Duncan, and therefore may have been exposed to the virus, and an additional 40 are being monitored as potential contacts. None have shown symptoms, Frieden said.

The first Ebola diagnosis in the United States "has really increased attention to what health workers need to do to be alert and make sure a travel history is taken," Frieden told a news conference.

Frieden added that many of the inquiries involved people who had not traveled from West Africa, but that the agency preferred healthcare workers to cast as wide a net as possible.

Duncan, now being treated at Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital, was sent home after his first visit to the emergency room, despite telling a nurse there that he had just been to Liberia.

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

The World Health Organization on Friday updated its death toll to at least 3,439 out of 7,492 suspected, probable or confirmed cases.

On Friday, officials said the number of people placed under isolation in Dallas after possible exposure to Duncan had grown to at least 10, including four members of a family moved to an undisclosed house for close monitoring.

Initially, 100 people had been feared to have had direct or indirect contact. All those in isolation were cooperating with public health authorities by staying in quarantine voluntarily, according to Dallas city and county officials.

"There's no one under orders. There's no one that we perceive that needs to be under orders," Judge Clay Jenkins, Dallas County's top elected official, told a news conference late on Friday.

Separately, five public school children who had possibly been exposed to the Ebola patient had been kept home from class in recent days while being monitored as a precaution, though none had shown any symptoms, said Mike Miles, superintendent of the Dallas Independent School District.

Authorities did not identify the individuals placed in isolation but said they included the four members of a single family whose apartment Duncan was staying in when he fell ill after traveling to Dallas from Liberia on Sept. 19.

(Reporting by Sharon Begley in Atlanta, Michele Gershberg in New York, and John Herskovitz and Lisa Maria Garza in Dallas. Writing by Steve Gorman; Editing by Kevin Liffey)


http://news.yahoo.com/cdc-fields-scores-possible-ebola-case-inquiries-no-182323268.html

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Mali struggles to filter passengers from Ebola-hit Guinea
Reuters
By Joe Penney  6 hours ago



Cars line up to enter Guinea from Mali at the border in Kouremale, October 2, 2014. REUTERS/Joe Penney



KOUREMALE Mali (Reuters) - At a Mali border post in Kouremale about 130 km (80 miles) south of the capital Bamako, five health workers stand under a thatched roof, directing passengers arriving from Guinea to wash their hands.

Their temperatures are then taken with digital guns to check for fever, one of the early symptoms of the deadly Ebola virus that originated in Guinea and has spread to its southern neighbours Sierra Leone and Liberia.

Mali is the only country that has not closed its border with Guinea. For regional health officials, this has narrowed the risk of potentially infected people slipping through in to Mali.

So far, no case of Ebola has been recorded in Mali.

But the operation at the border post to keep Ebola out poses logistical challenges at this remote point in the West African scrubland. The hand-washing water has to be trucked in from a village 15 km (nine miles) away in steel barrels and there is a lack of chairs in the waiting area.

The main difficulty for Mali to keep the disease out, however, is that is that many travellers simply avoid the official border crossing - the lone paved road connecting the two West African countries - altogether.

"There are many cars that pass by clandestine roads because they are scared of the controls," said Djibril Bassole, a public transport driver plying the route from Conakry to the Malian capital Bamako.

One kilometre north of the Kouremale crossing is a depot for cars coming from the Guinean capital that have sneaked in through a side road and avoided the Ebola control checkpoint.


GOLD MINING HUB

Mali has deployed gendarmes along the border to track people's movements, but the border’s porosity means that it is impossible to trace everyone.

"There are the official borders but of course people live and travel from one side to another," said Xavier Crespin, director of the West African Health Organization who led a delegation checking on Mali’s border preparations.

The region is an artisanal gold mining hub that attracts workers from throughout northern Guinea and southern Mali. Guinean workers often enter Mali in the day and go home to Guinea at night.

"If Ebola comes to Mali it won’t be by the road, it will come through the mining areas," said Kone Diahara Traore, the border region’s health officer.

Mali’s health ministry has relied thus far on effective controls at the official borders and strong community networks elsewhere, telling villagers to stay vigilant and report any suspected Ebola cases immediately.

Besides gendarmes, the local governments have also set up community anti-Ebola brigades, Traore said. "They say that they are more scared than we are because Guineans eat with them every day," she said.

But ensuring the border is Ebola-free remains a major challenge.

"The people who pass without going through the checkpoints are poorly educated. If they were aware that you are fighting this virus, they would go and get checked," said Moussa Keita, a Malian gold miner who walks across the border to Guinea every morning to go to work.

"I saw someone getting into a fight when someone tried to check (his temperature). Not everyone understands," Keita said.

The Ebola outbreak, the worst on record, has killed 3,439 people and infected some 7,492, with cases reported in Nigeria, Senegal and the United States.

To keep the disease out, several countries have banned travel and flights to and from Ebola-affected countries, while some neighbours have shut their borders.


http://news.yahoo.com/mali-struggles-filter-passengers-ebola-hit-guinea-122652391--business.html

[Buster's Uncle]

UN mission to send helicopters, vehicles to West Africa in Ebola fight
Reuters
10 hours ago



A U.N. convoy of soldiers passes a screen displaying a message on Ebola on a street in Abidjan August 14, 2014. REUTERS/Luc Gnago



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 mobilisation 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.


http://news.yahoo.com/un-mission-send-helicopters-vehicles-west-africa-ebola-090434577--business.html

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Ten at high risk of exposure to Dallas Ebola patient under isolation
Reuters
18 hours ago



DALLAS (Reuters) - Ten people deemed to have been at the highest risk of exposure to an Ebola patient in Dallas are now under isolation while they are being closely monitored, local officials said on Friday.

All 10, a number down sharply from the 100 initially feared to have had direct or indirect contact with the Ebola-infected Liberian man, are cooperating with public health authorities by keeping themselves quarantined without orders, Dallas city and county officials said at a news conference.

The 10 include four relatives of the patient who were just moved to an undisclosed location, the officials said.

(Reporting by Jon Herskovitz; Editing by Sandra Maler; Writing by Steve Gorman)


http://news.yahoo.com/ten-high-risk-exposure-dallas-ebola-patient-under-012813918.html

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Across 3 continents, Ebola makes its way to US
Associated Press
By SHARON COHEN and EMILY SCHMALL  43 minutes ago



A hazardous-materials crew arrived Friday at a Texas apartment where the U.S. Ebola patient stayed to collect bed sheets and towels used by the infected man before he was hospitalized. (Oct. 3)



DALLAS (AP) — His week began thousands of miles away with a frantic bid to save a life.

It was Monday, Sept. 15, and Ebola, a terrifying disease, was ravaging West Africa, filling morgues and hospitals to capacity. In Monrovia, Liberia, the virus was about to claim one more person.

Marthalene Williams, seven months pregnant, had been diagnosed with low blood pressure when she was brought to a clinic, desperately ill.

Soon after coming home, she began convulsing. Thomas Eric Duncan, assisted by her family and others, lifted his neighbor into a taxi that rushed to a hospital maternity ward, where she was turned away. The 19-year-old woman returned to her house, where she died hours later.

That Thursday, Sept. 19, Duncan arrived at Roberts International Airport in the capital of Monrovia.

He was about to embark on a three-leg journey, traveling from Africa, through Europe and into the United States. He would travel more than 8,000 miles before arriving at Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport in the early evening of Sept. 20.

His temperature, taken before he boarded the plane in Monrovia as part of precautionary government measures, had been below normal. But when he walked out into the steamy Texas night, he carried with him one of the deadliest diseases known to medicine.

Ten days later, he'd become the first person diagnosed in America with Ebola.

___

The same day that neighbors say Duncan carried his dying neighbor back into her home, the U.S. was calling for an emergency meeting of the U.N. Security Council to address the growing Ebola crisis.

The worst Ebola outbreak in history has swept through Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea, and has stretched into Nigeria and Senegal. Nearly 7,500 people are believed to have been sickened by the disease and more than 3,400 have died, according to the World Health Organization.

Liberia has been hardest hit, with more than 3,800 cases and slightly more than 2,000 deaths. But even those ghastly numbers likely underestimate the scope of the disaster and the true toll may never be known. The World Health Organization has noted that in the notoriously overcrowded slum of West Point, in the capital, bodies are just tossed into the river.

Liberia is woefully lacking beds in isolation units needed to care for people. Doctors Without Borders has described the heartbreaking act of turning away people who seek treatment at their centers in Monrovia.

The horrifying impact of Ebola can be seen and heard throughout Liberia's capital, from corpses on the street, men pushing the sick in wheelbarrows and the constant wail of ambulances. Even a public service phone message warns "Ebola is real" before a call comes through.



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)


At the airport, nurses wearing white lab coats, face masks and gloves take the temperatures of departing passengers. There are giant dispensers with chlorinated water and buckets for hand-washing.

When Duncan arrived Sept. 19, his temperature was taken and recorded on a passenger screening form. It was 97.3.

Citing the Ebola outbreak, the form notes: "We need your help to prevent the spread of this disease."

Ebola is transmitted through direct contact with saliva, sweat and blood. It is not contagious until the symptoms begin.

The form asks travelers if they have any of 10 listed symptoms — among them, fever, vomiting, diarrhea, stomach pain and fatigue. Duncan answered "no" to all.

He also was asked if he'd taken care of an Ebola patient or touched the body of anyone who'd died in an Ebola-stricken area in the last 21 days — the incubation period. He answered "no" to both questions as well.

It's unclear if Duncan knew he may have been exposed to Ebola when he boarded his plane. While he had close contact days before with the pregnant woman, who neighbors now believe died from Ebola, she was never tested. It was initially suspected she had died of complications from her pregnancy.

This past week, however, Liberian authorities announced plans to prosecute Duncan when he returns, accusing him of lying on the questionnaire.

Once in Dallas, Duncan settled in at the Ivy apartment complex in the northeast part of the city, which is home to thousands of immigrants, many of them poor. This melting pot where dozens of languages are spoken is less than a five-minute drive from some of the toniest sections of Dallas.

Duncan was staying in a second-floor apartment with Louise Troh, her 13-year-old son, Duncan's distant cousin and a family friend.

On Sept. 25, Duncan was feeling sick enough that he went to the emergency room at Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital. He was reported to have a fever, headache and abdominal pain, but no diarrhea or vomiting. The hospital said he told them he'd recently arrived from West Africa, but that he denied having been around anyone sick. He was released.

By Sunday morning, Duncan's condition had worsened.

Youngor Jallah, 35, the daughter of Louise Troh, went to her mother's apartment to check on him. He'd been vomiting and had diarrhea the previous night. When she arrived with crackers, Gatorade and tea, Duncan was too sick to come out for breakfast.

After she found him fully dressed with socks, shivering in bed under a thin polyester blanket, Jallah drove to a Wal-Mart to buy "the warmest blanket I could find." When she returned, she noticed red in his eyes.

Jallah, a nurse's assistant, took his temperature and blood pressure — both of which were unusually high — and called an ambulance. When it arrived, she warned the staff "this man is from a virus country." They returned in protective gear and gloves.

Now Jallah is in self-imposed quarantine with her partner, Aaron Yah, and four children in their modest two-bedroom apartment. She's wracked with regret for not taking precautions.

"I'm having all those bad feelings," she told The Associated Press. "I'm just doubting myself every minute. I'm trying to take my mind off it, but I can't do it." She doesn't kiss or hug her children, ages 2, 4 and 6, or her live-in partner's 11-year-old son or share dishes with them.

She says she and Yah, also a nurse's assistant, often work nights, and had left the children with her mother and Duncan every night of his stay.

Yah says he knows his active, affectionate children probably came in close contact with Duncan, but adds: "I know that with God, everything is possible, so I am just praying that nothing happens to them."

Duncan remains in isolation, where he was listed in critical condition Saturday.

At the end of the week, Texas health officials said they had narrowed to about 50 the group of people they were monitoring who had some exposure to Duncan. All are having their temperatures taken daily. So far, none have shown symptoms of the virus. Nine people who are considered to be at higher risk are being watched more closely.

Duncan has remained in contact by phone with some relatives, including Josephus Weeks, a nephew living in Charlotte, North Carolina. Duncan's mother is staying there.

"It can be scary sometimes and it can be uplifting sometimes," Weeks says of their conversations. "The days when I'm able to get him to smile, to laugh, those days are good. That means that he's feeling good and he's got a little more strength to fight."

___

Sharon Cohen reported from Chicago. Krista Larson in Monrovia, Liberia, Nomaan Merchant in Dallas, Warren Levinson in New York, Sarah DiLorenzo in Dakar, Senegal, and Carley Petesch in Johannesburg contributed to this report.


http://news.yahoo.com/across-3-continents-ebola-makes-way-america-184333999.html

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Cynicism dies hard in Ebola-hit Liberian slum
AFP
By Marc Bastian  4 hours ago



A woman (C) reacts after her husband is suspected of dying from the Ebola virus, in the Liberian capital Monrovia, on October 4, 2014 (AFP Photo/Pascal Guyot)



Monrovia (AFP) - In the narrow, gloomy alleyways of one of west Africa's largest slums, Liberian teenagers explain the dangers of Ebola to their neighbours -- but the message is falling on deaf ears.

West Point, a squalid township of 75,000 jutting from Liberia's capital Monrovia into the Atlantic Ocean, has been awash with cynicism since being quarantined at gunpoint after riots in August.

The population density in the byzantine network of tin-roofed shanties is staggering. People live cheek-by-jowl, touching, jostling -- and presenting the perfect opportunity for proliferation of a virus that many residents even refuse to believe exists.

"It's one of the worst communities in Liberia. There are a lot of bad guys, a lot of violence and criminality," says social worker Prezton Vaye.

A group of young girls in West Point are on the front line of the fight against an epidemic which has killed 2,000 Liberians, with an initiative they call "A-Life", or "Adolescents Leading the Intense Fight against Ebola".

They have received training to deliver information from UNICEF and a local charity called Think on preventing the spread of the tropical pathogen.



A woman stands in Kroo town slum in Freetown on August 13, 2014 (AFP Photo/Carl de Souza)


The girls have a shared history: A-Life is the second iteration of a community support group they formed to combat sexual violence.

They were persuaded Ebola was an even more pressing concern however when an armed mob attacked and looted an isolation centre in the slum, sparking a national panic when a group of infected patients escaped.

The government's response to the incident was swift and brutal. On August 20 the slum's residents were surrounded by a cordon of soldiers and heavily armed police.

A riot ensued, with the inhabitants pelting security forces with stones and provoking return fire. A teenager, Siafa Kamara, was fatally wounded.

The lockdown stayed in place for ten days and, by the time it was lifted, many residents had decided there was no Ebola in West Point at all, heightening their sense of injustice at having been penned in.



Health workers pose for a photograph at the World Health Organization health center in the Liberian capital Monrovia, on October 3, 2014 (AFP Photo/Pascal Guyot)


- 'People don't listen' -

"I want to help my fellow citizens. There are a lot of sick people in West Point, but the people here still don't believe Ebola is real, because they don't see (anyone) die," says Jessica Neufville, 16.

Twice a week, around 60 teenagers in sky blue T-shirts fan out through West Point's alleys, going from door to door, or opening to opening where no doors have been installed.

"We tell people how they can protect themselves: no shaking hands, avoid body fluid contact. We tell them that if someone in the family is sick, one particular person should take care of the sick, in a specific room," Jessica tells AFP.

The response, she says, is often mistrust, or blank faces at best.



Liberians walk past an Ebola information and sanitation station in Monrovia on September 30, 2014 (AFP Photo/Pascal Guyot)


"People don't want to listen, they say it's not true," she tells AFP.

President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf echoed Jessica's frustration at the launch of an international youth coalition against Ebola in Monrovia on Thursday, speaking out against Liberians failing to accept the reality of the epidemic.

"We can build Ebola treatment units across the country, establish testing centres, bring in all the medication and personal protective equipment, but if the behaviour of Liberians is not changed, the virus will continue to spread," she said.

In a lane about 1.5 metres (five feet) wide, three mothers sit on a small wooden bench, leaning against a wall. The girls surround them, one delivering the well-rehearsed message.

One mother hides her face in her hands, embarrassed or perhaps hostile. The other two never deign to look up or speak, busying themselves instead with plaiting their hair.

The day's canvassing passes without incident or impediment, but things don't always go so smoothly, says Vaye, the social worker.

"People don't want to hear about Ebola. They say the government is lying, it's a way to take our money," he tells AFP.

Among those least open to being educated on Ebola are the most destitute residents of a community where penury was a way of life even before the epidemic destroyed the black market economy.

The A-Life girls collar another mother on their rounds but find that health concerns are not among her priorities.

"I want work. Since Ebola, there's nothing. I want work," she says.


http://news.yahoo.com/cynicism-dies-hard-ebola-hit-liberian-slum-155358108.html

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Texas Ebola patient in critical condition: hospital
AFP
21 minutes ago



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



Dallas (AFP) - The first person diagnosed with the deadly Ebola virus on US soil is faring worse and now in critical condition, health officials said Saturday, having previously described him as seriously ill.

"Mr. Duncan is in critical condition," the Texas hospital treating Thomas Eric Duncan, who traveled from Liberia to Texas in late September, said in a brief statement.

The update came as US authorities said none of the individuals believed to have had exposure to Duncan, including nine deemed to be at high risk, had shown any signs of Ebola infection.

"We are confident that none of those with definite contact had any symptoms related to Ebola, none of them had fever," said Tom Frieden, the director of the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

The nine people deemed at high risk would be monitored closely, Frieden said.

"We will be looking very closely particularly at the nine individuals in the coming days, understanding that the peak period after exposure is about eight to nine days but can be as long as 21 days," he said.

Duncan was initially sent home when he first sought medical care, leaving a four-day span when he was sick and contagious while in contact with others, sparking concern over how many others may have been exposed.

Frieden said the publicity surrounding the Duncan case, and the mistaken decision to send him home from hospital, had heightened awareness amongst health workers.

"As we anticipated, the arrival of the first case diagnosed in the US has really increased attention on what health care workers need to do in this country to be alert and ensure that travel history is taken into account," Frieden said.

The Ebola outbreak is the worst epidemic involving the disease on record and has spread into five west African countries since the start of the year, infecting more than 7,000 people and killing about half of them.

The virus, spread through infected bodily fluids, can only be transmitted when a patient is experiencing the symptoms -- severe fever, vomiting, diarrhoea and, in some cases, massive internal haemorrhaging and external bleeding.


http://news.yahoo.com/texas-ebola-patient-critical-condition-hospital-193314995.html

[Buster's Uncle]

CDC Officials Meet Flight After Passenger Shows Possible Ebola Symptoms
ABC News
By AARON KATERSKY and JOSH MARGOLIN  Oct 4, 2014, 1:40 PM ET



A United Airlines flight from Brussels was met by Centers for Disease Control and Prevention officials today at Newark Liberty International Airport after a passenger on board believed to be from Liberia exhibited possible signs of Ebola.

The passenger was traveling with his daughter on United Flight 998 and both were removed from the plane by CDC crew in full hazmat gear.

The passenger suspected of possibly having Ebola was taken to University Hospital in Newark for further evaluation. Upon his arrival, the emergency room there was not accepting any other patients for four hours.

A senior federal official said the passenger was exhibiting "flu-like symptoms."

According to an official briefed on the situation, preliminary information was that the passenger was vomiting on flight but did not display most of the other symptoms.

"He's now being treated with protocols as if he has it, but no clear indication at this point that he does," the official said.

Other passengers remained on the plane while the sick passenger and his daughter were being removed.

After they were off the plane and it was determined he was not contagious, the rest of the passengers were allowed off, a source with knowledge of the situation told ABC News.

United Airlines released a brief statement after the flight arrived.

"Upon arrival at Newark Airport from Brussels, medical professionals instructed that customers and crew of United flight 998 remain on board until they could assist an ill customer," the statement said. "We are working with authorities and will accommodate our customers as quickly as we can."


http://abcnews.go.com/Health/cdc-officials-meet-flight-passenger-shows-ebola-symptoms/story?id=25965383

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Ebola in the US: More quarantines or border closings?
Ebola cases in the United States are raising questions about whether travelers from the stricken West Africa region should be quarantined until it’s clear they’re symptom-free.
Christian Science Monitor
By Patrik Jonsson  5 hours ago



Is America ready for “Ebola tourism?” the conservative Daily Caller wants to know. Sen. Rand Paul says the US should shut down flights from Ebola-stricken nations. Rush Limbaugh proclaims “Ebola is political.”

Understandable concerns about an Ebola epidemic have morphed into a vigorous, if at times less-than-helpful, debate about whether the US, and the Obama administration in particular, is doing enough to protect Americans from the viral fever that is ravaging parts of Africa.

A Liberian traveler, Thomas Eric Duncan, is being treated for the illness at Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital. His immediate family has been put under full quarantine and 10 others with whom he made contact are being closely observed for signs of the illness. A Kentucky family was put under precautionary quarantine on Friday as medical authorities tested a potential Ebola case.

The specter of Ebola in the US is testing the readiness of American public health officials, and at the same time taking on politically loaded meaning around whether the US should quarantine travelers from the stricken West Africa region until it’s clear they’re symptom-free.

As the crisis unfolded this week, a GOP Senate aide called the decision not to limit travel from Africa “a powder keg,” according to Fox News.

To be sure, invoking worst-case scenarios in the midst of a crisis may be less than helpful in containing any sense of panic in the US. But others note such questions are nevertheless important, because they’re at the forefront of many Americans’ consciousness as they follow developments in Dallas.

“I think we should be talking about these things [like travel bans]. It doesn’t mean we have to do them, but taking them off the table is not helpful,” Tevi Troy, a former deputy Health and Human Services secretary, told Politico.

One backdrop to the criticism is the Obama administration’s 2010 decision to scrap stricter quarantine rules first proposed by the George W. Bush administration in 2005, amid avian flu concerns. While it’s not clear those regulations would have been helpful now, they would have given US authorities more power to control potential passengers’ itineraries into the US. In rejecting the standards, the White House and civil libertarians called the proposed rules too onerous.

Moreover, the response in Dallas has been bumpy. Mr. Duncan was not diagnosed on his first visit to the hospital, and it was unclear as to whether his travels from Liberia had been flagged by hospital personnel. What is known is that he was sent home until he returned in an ambulance two days later, after being exposed to the public.

The Dallas apartment where Duncan was staying remained unsanitized for days as officials debated how best to quarantine the family and monitor others who may have had second-hand exposure. After a jittery week where cleaning company employees balked at sanitizing the apartment, the apartment was finally cleaned and the family was moved to a more comfortable four-bedroom home in a Dallas suburb.

Another simmering question is whether Duncan exposed weaknesses in airport screening by lying about not having contact with Ebola, perhaps in order to get to the US for medical care. (He had helped a stricken pregnant woman.) Whether others will try the same kind of “Ebola tourism” for American healthcare plies a poignant human dilemma, writes Dallas Morning News columnist James Ragland: “Do I want to lie and live – or do I want to be an honest dead man?”

For now, the US continues to expand its presence in West Africa, led by Centers for Disease Control airport testing and arriving US troops who will be put to work building much-needed treatment facilities for victims.

Shutting down air traffic from the region would be counterproductive, argued White House homeland security adviser Lisa Monaco, at a press briefing. She said CDC screening has already stopped dozens of potentially infected people from traveling to the US, and a ban would just make it harder to get medical personnel into the region to stop the outbreak at its source.

“I wish we could get to zero risk by sealing off the border, but we can’t,” CDC Director Tom Frieden told Fox News.


http://news.yahoo.com/ebola-us-more-quarantines-border-closings-152003810.html

[Buster's Uncle]

Two health workers in W. Africa cured of Ebola in Europe
AFP
4 hours ago



Health workers put on their protective clothing at a training center for the Ebola virus at a World Health Organization health center in the Liberian capital Monrovia, on October 3, 2014 (AFP Photo/Pascal Guyot)



Paris (AFP) - A French nurse and a Senegalese doctor who contracted Ebola while working with patients in epidemic-hit west Africa have been cured of the virus in European hospitals, health officials said Saturday.

The first French national to be infected with Ebola was airlifted back to France from Liberia on September 19 and received experimental treatment at a military hospital on the outskirts of Paris.

The young nurse, who has not been identified, "is now cured and has left hospital," French Health Minister Marisol Touraine said in a statement.

And in Germany, the university hospital in the northern city of Hamburg announced Saturday that a Senegalese doctor with the World Health Organisation (WHO) has been cured of Ebola contracted in Sierra Leone.

"He is doing well and has not been contagious for a while now," the Hamburg-Eppendorf hospital said in a statement.

"We are truly happy for him that he can now return to his country."

The doctor, an expert in epidemiology who was not identified, had been admitted to the German hospital in late August. There was no mention of whether he had received any experimental drugs.

In France, where the health ministry has authorised using three experimental medicines, the nurse who was a volunteer with Doctors without Borders (MSF) in Liberia, the country worst-hit by the Ebola epidemic.

She, was given the antiviral medicine Agivan or favipiravir, according to the Japanese firm Toyama Chemical, a subsidiary of FujiFilm Holdings, which produces the drug that was approved in Japan in March. French health officials would not confirm its use.

There is no licensed treatment or vaccine for Ebola. Of several prototype treatments in the pipeline, one dubbed ZMapp has been fast-tracked for use, developed by Mapp Biopharmaceutical in California, in conjunction with the US Army.

Ebola has killed more than 3,400 people in five west African countries in the worst-ever outbreak of the disease.

MSF chief Stephane Roquee said the humanitarian group was "greatly relieved" that its volunteer nurse had been cured, but he warned that more health care workers in west Africa were in danger of contracting the disease.

"For the good of all the people in the countries most affected, MSF can only once more call on nations with the means to act immediately to contain this epidemic," he said in a statement.

On Friday Germany reported that another medical official, a Ugandan doctor who was infected with Ebola in Sierra Leone while working for an Italian non-governmental organisation, had been hospitalised in Frankfurt.

More than 373 medical personnel have been infected with Ebola since the outbreak of the epidemic at the start of this year, and some 208 have died, according to MSF.


http://news.yahoo.com/french-nurse-cured-ebola-contracted-liberia-001646108.html

[Buster's Uncle]

U.S. parents confront fear of Ebola in classroom
Reuters
By Jon Herskovitz  17 hours ago



Students leave Tasby Middle School, where a fellow classmate who was in contact with a man diagnosed with the Ebola virus had been removed from school in Dallas, Texas October 1, 2014. REUTERS/Mike Stone



DALLAS (Reuters) - A visibly nervous Qeuna Dawson on Friday walked her two boys to the Jack Lowe Elementary School in Dallas, where a student was removed after coming into contact with the first patient diagnosed with Ebola in the United States.

"I wanted to keep my boys home but they told me the school is safe. But if I hear of one child sneezing, those boys are staying home," said Dawson, who lives a stone's throw from the spot where the infected man was rushed to a hospital.

At ground zero of the U.S. Ebola scare, many parents have faced the question of whether to pull their children out of neighborhood schools, which officials have reassured them are safe.

"This is a deadly disease. It's just crazy," Dawson said.

In U.S. cities with large populations of immigrants from West Africa, where the largest outbreak of Ebola on record has killed more than 3,400 people, school boards are trying to tamp down any panic about Ebola.

At Sam Tasby Middle School, in the same Dallas neighborhood where the Ebola patient stayed briefly, a message was posted on a sign outside the school on Friday: "Children First. Our School is Safe."

But while Dallas has mostly kept its cool over the Ebola case, attendance has dropped at the four schools that were attended by the children who had direct contact with the infected man, Liberian national Thomas Eric Duncan. Those children have been removed from school for monitoring.

Attendance was 10 percent lower from normal levels, early figures from the Dallas Independent School District show.



Students leave Tasby Middle School, where a fellow classmate who was in contact with a man diagnosed with the Ebola virus had been removed from school in Dallas, Texas October 1, 2014. REUTERS/Mike Stone


The school board has equipped maintenance workers with protective gear and had them scrubbing schools, deployed nurses and set up a hotline so parents can call for updates.

It also sent a notice in English, Arabic, Nepali, Burmese and Vietnamese to parents and guardians in the patient's melting pot neighborhood of Vickery Meadow, saying there is no imminent danger to children.

"As more information gets out, people calm down a little bit," said Mike Miles, the Dallas Independent School District superintendent.

In other parts of the country that also have sizable populations of Liberian immigrants, officials and residents have reacted to the Ebola outbreak.

In Rhode Island, state public health officials have been briefing school nurses since the academic year began on how to screen patients for Ebola.

About 200 miles south in New York City, in a neighborhood on Staten Island known as Little Liberia for its large population of immigrants from Liberia other West African nations, many were fearful.

Nicole Martinez, 23, said employees of her daycare center have taken to wearing latex hospital gloves when in contact with children.

"We've taken this precaution because we have children with families in the parts of Africa with Ebola," she said.

At an elementary school in the same New York neighborhood, one parent said his children were told to limit physical contact with other students.

"Don't shake hands, don't wrestle with friends like you used to," said Ibraheem Fallay, 40, a Liberian-American, as he waited on the school's stairs for his eldest daughter, Bintou.

Concerns about Ebola were not limited to primary schools.

At Yale University, in New Haven, Connecticut, two graduate epidemiology students who had traveled to Liberia to advise the Health Ministry on using computers to track the virus will spend 21 days in isolation before returning to classes, Paul Cleary, dean of the Yale School of Public Health, said in a letter to faculty and staff.

Back in Dallas, Larry Lewis said he is not living in fear and has sent his 10-year-old daughter to school to be with her friends and teachers.

"Even if there is an epidemic of Biblical proportions lurking out there, we have to keep on living," he said.

(Additional reporting by Marice Richter and Lisa Maria Garza in Dallas, Sebastien Malo in New York; Richard Weizel in New Haven, Connecticut; and Scott Malone in Boston; Editing by Leslie Adler)


http://news.yahoo.com/u-parents-confront-fear-ebola-classroom-031458567.html

[Buster's Uncle]

U.S. defends Ebola response, about 50 under observation
Reuters
By Jon Herskovitz  12 hours ago



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



DALLAS/WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. officials on Friday broadly defended the response to the country's first case of Ebola, although one acknowledged that while the government was confident of containing the virus, it had been "rocky" in Dallas where the patient is in serious condition.

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 visitor, including 10 at high risk who are being checked twice daily for symptoms.

In Washington, officials were asked at a news conference why the visitor, Thomas Eric Duncan, was able to get past screening in his journey from Liberia on Sept. 19 and then be sent home after telling a Dallas hospital a few days later about his travel to a country where there had been an Ebola outbreak.

“There were things that did not go the way they should have in Dallas, but there were a lot of things that went right and are going right," Dr. Anthony Fauci, a director at the National Institutes of Health, told reporters at the White House.

“So, although certainly it was rocky" in terms of how people perceived the response, "the reason I said there wouldn’t be an outbreak is because of what is going on right now," Fauci said.

Fauci said although it "may be entirely conceivable" that there would be another Ebola case in the United States, the strength of the healthcare infrastructure "would make it extraordinarily unlikely that we would have an outbreak.”

The case has put authorities and the public on alert over concerns that the worst epidemic of Ebola on record could spread from West Africa, where it began in March. 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.

At Friday's news conference, White House adviser Lisa Monaco was asked whether she would recommend to President Barack Obama that he impose a travel ban on West Africa, as some public officials have called for.

"Right now we believe those types of steps actually impede the response," Monaco said.

U.S. Senator Lamar Alexander, a Republican from Tennessee, urged Obama to order U.S. airports to screen travelers coming from Ebola-hit countries.

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.


DECONTAMINATING APARTMENT

A cleanup crew was decontaminating the Dallas apartment where Duncan had been staying before he was admitted to the hospital five days ago. Four people close to Duncan who were quarantined in the apartment in a northeastern section of the city have been moved to an undisclosed location, said Sana Syed, the public information officer for the City of Dallas.

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.

Out of 100 people who had direct or indirect contact with Duncan, health officials are monitoring 50 on a daily basis and closely watching 10 people at higher risk, said Dr. David Lakey, commissioner of the Texas Department of State Health Services.

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.

A crew from the Cleaning Guys, a hazardous materials cleanup company, garbed in yellow hazardous material suits and masks, went inside the apartment and packed the soiled sheets, Duncan's luggage and other personal items into blue barrels, the county fire marshal said. The mattress was being cut into pieces to fit into the barrels. Another official said the cleaners would take the containers to a secure location.

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.

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.

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 on Friday that would allow Texas hospitals to dispose safely of Ebola-infected medical wastes.

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 has said the entire reporting crew would return to the United States under quarantine for 21 days, the maximum incubation period for Ebola.

The Nebraska Medical Center in Omaha said in a statement that an Ebola patient was scheduled to arrive for treatment on Monday morning. Mukpo's father, Mitchell Levy, told Reuters his son was going to Nebraska for treatment.


http://news.yahoo.com/u-defends-ebola-response-50-under-observation-090832369.html

[Buster's Uncle]

Ebola casts pall over Eid al-Adha in West Africa
Associated Press
By BOUBACAR DIALLO  7 hours ago



Nigeria Muslims offer Eid al-Adha prayers in Lagos, Nigeria, Saturday, Oct. 4, 2014. Muslims around the world will celebrate Eid al-Adha, the Festival of Sacrifice, to mark the end of the hajj pilgrimage by slaughtering sheep, goats, cows and camels to commemorate Prophet Abraham's readiness to sacrifice his son Ismail on God's command. (AP Photo/Sunday Alamba)



CONAKRY, Guinea (AP) — The raging Ebola outbreak that has killed more than 3,400 people in West Africa cast a pall Saturday over celebrations in the region of Eid al-Adha, one of Islam's most important holidays.

In Guinea, the day appeared almost as any other. The usual fields and squares where people gather to pray on the holiday were empty, as people heeded their government's warning to avoid large gatherings. People slaughtered their sheep — the traditional rite of Eid — in small groups at home, rather than at the usual large parties. Merchants complained that few people bought new clothes, as is typical for the holiday, called Tabaski in many parts of West Africa.

"Look at how people are unkempt. Poorly dressed. Have you ever seen Tabaski celebration like this? I never have," said Mamoudou Conde, a 28-year-old who sells car parts in Conakry, Guinea's capital.

In Sierra Leone, the United Council of Imams warned believers not to shake hands or embrace. It was a reminder that even on holidays, the Health Ministry's "ABC" guidelines — Avoid Bodily Contact — must be followed.

Ebola spreads through contact with the bodily fluids of the sick, and with no licensed treatment available, the only way to stop an outbreak is to completely isolate those who are infected. But with more than 7,400 people believed infected, there are far more sick people than beds in isolation units to treat them.

In a bid to stop the spread, the hardest-hit countries of Liberia, Guinea and Sierra Leone have encouraged people to keep their distance and wash their hands frequently. The disease has also touched Nigeria and Senegal, but neither country has had a new infection in weeks. The United States confirmed its first case this week.

"Ebola is undermining the very foundations of our traditions," said Idrissa Sall, a 32-year-old driver in Conakry. "How can I greet my parents, my children when I'm barred from giving kisses?"

The outbreak, the largest ever for Ebola, has taken a considerable toll on health workers, sickening 382 of them. On Saturday, officials announced that two health workers who became infected with Ebola have recovered from the disease after treatment abroad: a French nurse, who worked for Doctors Without Borders in Liberia, and a Senegalese epidemiologist with the World Health Organization in Sierra Leone.
___

Associated Press writers Clarence Roy-Macaulay in Freetown, Sierra Leone, and Angela Charlton in Paris contributed to this report.


http://news.yahoo.com/ebola-casts-pall-over-eid-holiday-west-africa-122525303.html

[Buster's Uncle]

United contacting those who flew with Ebola victim
Associated Press
By DAVID KOENIG  October 3, 2014 9:26 AM



DALLAS (AP) — United Airlines said Thursday it is notifying passengers who were on flights with a man later diagnosed with Ebola and telling them how to contact federal health officials.

United said it is also telling passengers that officials at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention believe the man could not have spread the disease during the flights because he was not showing symptoms and was not yet contagious.

On Sept. 19, Thomas Eric Duncan flew from Liberia in the heart of western Africa's Ebola outbreak zone to Belgium on a Brussels Airlines flight, according to Belgian officials.

United said it believes that Duncan flew the next day on United Flight 951 from Brussels to Dulles International Airport near Washington and connected to Flight 822 from Dulles to Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport.

United officials declined to say how many passengers were on the flights. The Brussels-to-Dulles flight was on a Boeing 777 that has 266 seats, and the flight to Dallas used an Airbus A320 with 138 seats.

In a statement, the airline said Thursday that the two planes underwent their routine overnight "thorough cleaning" after the flights, "including cleaning of lavatories and galleys with heavy-duty all-purpose cleaners and wiping tray tables and armrests with disinfectant." It added that "we continue to clean and route the planes throughout our network as usual."



A sign is seen at the border with Guinea in Kouremale, October 2, 2014. The worst Ebola outbreak on record was first confirmed in Guinea in March but it has since spread across most of Liberia and Sierra Leone, killing more than 3,300 people, overwhelming weak health systems and crippling fragile economies. The sign reads, "Halt-Border". (REUTERS/Joe Penney)


Duncan remained in a hospital isolation ward on Thursday. According to health officials, he became sick and went to a Dallas hospital on Sept. 25, but was released, only to return by ambulance three days later and test positive for Ebola.

The airline industry and its labor unions worked Thursday to tamp down travelers' fears about Ebola. The Air Line Pilots Association, which represents pilots at United and other carriers, said airlines have the authority under U.S. law to deny boarding to passengers who appear ill.

The union said it also had "full confidence" in procedures to contain the Ebola outbreak, including checking passengers for fever — a key symptom — at airports in western Africa.

Duncan did not have a fever when he left Liberia. But authorities there said Thursday that they will charge him with lying on a health-screening form he filled out at the airport for not disclosing that he had helped carry a woman who became ill and died of Ebola.

The disease is believed to have sickened more than 7,100 people in West Africa and killed more than 3,300, according to the World Health Organization.


http://news.yahoo.com/united-contacting-those-flew-ebola-victim-132652368.html

[Buster's Uncle]

Hospital: Dallas Ebola patient critical
Associated Press
By JAMIE STENGLE  2 minutes ago



DALLAS (AP) — The condition of the lone Ebola patient to be diagnosed in the U.S. has worsened and is now deemed critical, the Dallas hospital that has been treating him reported Saturday.

Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital Dallas, where Thomas Eric Duncan is being treated, didn't provide any further details about his condition, and a hospital spokeswoman, Candace White, didn't immediately respond to emails and phone calls. The hospital previously said Duncan was being kept in isolation and that his condition was serious but stable.

Duncan traveled from disease-ravaged Liberia to Dallas last month before he began showing symptoms of the disease.

Health officials said Saturday that they are monitoring about 50 people who may have had contact with Duncan for signs of the deadly disease. Among those are nine people who are believed to be at a higher risk. Thus far none have shown symptoms.

Included in the group are those people who later rode in the ambulance that took Duncan to the hospital last Sunday, said Dr. Tom Frieden, the director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

On Friday, a hazardous-materials crew decontaminated the Dallas apartment where Duncan was staying when he got sick during his visit. The materials were sealed in industrial barrels that were to be stored in trucks until they can be hauled away for permanent disposal.

The family who lived there was moved to a private home in a gated community, where they are being carefully monitored. The city had been having trouble finding a place that would take in Louise Troh, originally from Liberia, her 13-year-old son and two nephews.

The first Ebola diagnosis in the U.S. has raised concerns about whether the disease that has killed some 3,400 people in West Africa could spread in the U.S. Federal health officials say they are confident they can keep it in check.

The virus that causes Ebola is not airborne and can only be spread through direct contact with the bodily fluids — blood, sweat, vomit, feces, urine, saliva or semen — of an infected person who is showing symptoms.

Duncan arrived in Dallas on Sept. 20 and fell ill a few days later. After an initial visit to the emergency room at Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital, he was sent home, even though he told a nurse he had been in disease-ravaged West Africa. He returned to the hospital two days later, last Sunday, and has been kept in isolation ever since.

The hospital issued a news release late Friday saying that the doctor who initially treated Duncan did have access to his travel history, after all. It had said Thursday that a flaw in the electronic health records systems led to separate physician and nursing workflows, and that the doctor hadn't had access to Duncan's travel history.

Hospital spokesman Wendell Watson said Saturday he could provide no further details, adding, "We're still looking into the entire chain of events."

___

Associated Press writer Emily Schmall in Dallas also contributed to this report.


http://news.yahoo.com/home-where-ebola-patient-stayed-disinfected-061137265.html