Ebola news 10/8

[Buster's Uncle]

What it feels like to get Ebola
Vox
Updated by Julia Belluz on October 8, 2014, 7:05 a.m. ET@juliaoftorontojulia.belluz@voxmedia.com



A Ugandan health official inside an isolation center on November 15, 2012.  AFP/Getty Images



Gloria Tumwijuke can't forget the patient who gave her Ebola: she was a young mother, five months pregnant with another child. She arrived at the hospital on a blood-drenched mattress, blood rushing out of her eyes, nose, and ears. Gloria, a midwife, didn't suspect Ebola. She tried to save her patient and instead contracted one of the world's deadliest viruses.

Gloria is among a handful of survivors of a 2012 Ebola outbreak in the Kibaale district of western Uganda. The disease struck 11 people; four died.

From her home in Kibaale, she told me about what Ebola did to her body, how she beat it, and what it was like return to a community where everyone was afraid of her. Here's a transcript of our conversation, edited for clarity.

Julia Belluz: How did you come into contact with the Ebola virus ?

Gloria Tumwijuke: I was seeing a mother who had had a pregnancy for five months, and she came into the hospital bleeding. The mother was bleeding in the mouth, nose, and ears. They carried her into the hospital on a mattress, and the mattress was covered with blood. She couldn't talk. I was getting her history and found out her relatives had passed away, her husband died. All of her children died.

I started cleaning her, putting all the fluids in her, giving her antibiotics. After removing the fetus, she kept severely bleeding. The baby was already dead. I cared for her for six hours but eventually she died. She had Ebola. I ended up getting Ebola.

JB: Were you wearing protective gear — gloves, a gown, a mask — when you cared for this patient?

GT: When she came in, I was putting on gloves. I didn't put on boots. I didn't have a gown. I was trying to remove the placenta from her, and blood gushed on me, on my arms and body. I cleaned myself quickly because I was worried. Then I continued to help her.

I realized I didn't protect myself very well. But the mother entered into the hospital very quickly, and I had to rush quickly to help her. She was going to fall off the bed, and I was trying to support her. I didn't have time to put on my gown. This taught me to protect myself before I do any procedure.



Ugandan health officials prepare an isolation center at Nyimbwa Health Center in Uganda on November 15, 2012. Photo courtesy of AFP/Getty Images.


JB: At that time, did you suspect this woman might have Ebola?

GT: I didn't even know Ebola was in Uganda. At that time, Ebola had not yet been known in my region.

JB: When did you realize you had the virus?

GT: A week after my patient died, I started vomiting. I started having diarrhea and sweating. I started hearing people talk about the virus in the same hospital in which I was working. I read in the newspapers that they were talking about suspecting the virus was here. But after I saw I had all the signs and symptoms of Ebola, I remembered the pregnant lady, and she had all the signs. That's when I suspected I had the virus.

JB: What happened next?

GT: I was taken to the hospital by ambulance. They took a sample of my blood, and told me I had Ebola. They transferred me to an isolation room, and started to care for me. They put fluids in me through an IV, and gave me antibiotics. They were monitoring me frequently. I couldn't move from the bed. I couldn't talk. I couldn't do anything. I lost 25 pounds. I was in the hospital for one month when they discharged me.

JB: What were you thinking when you got the Ebola diagnosis?

GT: In my head I was like, 'I'm going to die.' I just thought I would die. My sister said, "You're not going to die." I couldn't talk. I was worried about the people who touched me before they knew I had the virus. When they told me they were going to keep on treating me, I was worried about my friends dying. I can't believe I am alive.

JB: Did you give anyone the virus?

GT: No, no one I know got the virus. The laborers who were caring for (the pregnant woman), all of them died.

JB: When did your condition start to improve?

GT: I was discharged from the hospital after one month. After two months, I started to improve. But I still had problems. I was forgetting a lot. My hair was falling out. The hair from my head was all over. My skin was peeling off. I weighed 25 pounds less. I had heart palpitations. The hair took months to grow back. My memory was bad for one year.

JB: How did people receive you when you returned to your community?

GT: They ignored me, thinking I still had a sickness because they think Ebola can't (be survived). They hide from me. People would run away from me. They were not willing to be near me. But the hospital discharged me because they were sure I was free from Ebola. I showed people  (my discharge) certificate. They started to believe I was okay. When I showed them the certificate, they started to welcome me.

JB: When your friends were avoiding you, how did you feel?

GT: I didn't feel bad because it is their right: Ebola spreads when you contact other people who have the virus. But I could feel some stigma when they ran away from me.

JB: This virus can kill up to 90 percent of those who get it. Why do you think you survived when so many others die?

GT: I had my sister who is a medical person. She could go and buy all the drugs, fluids, and antibiotics for me. She was by my side. She changed my dirty sheets. She knew how to prevent herself from getting Ebola by using protection. My husband is a nurse. He was also helping my sister to treat me and be careful. He could pray for me. When I survived he was so happy.

JB: Did you ever feel any guilt being one who lived while so many others don't?

GT: When I hear other people die, in my heart I feel like god really loves me. Because many people died and he left me in the hospital. When I'm hearing of other people dying, I feel bad. I feel like maybe I lived because I had a lot of help. I had IV fluids. My heart tells me maybe if those people could have good nurses who can offer their services, maybe those people really can survive.

JB: Have you experienced any long term side-effects from the virus?

GT: Actually I'm good. I don't have any problems. After four months I was back to normal. The thing that persisted for the whole year, it was forgetting. My memory was bad. Also I couldn't resume my period for five months.

JB: In this current outbreak, a lot of health-care workers have died from Ebola, and now there's fear and people are walking off the job. What advice would you give to other health workers in an outbreak?

GT: When you put on protective gear and you're not in direct contact with the person's (bodily fluids) you can treat them and they get better. People need to understand that because, if we didn't have health-care workers who help us, who didn't run away, what would we do?

JB: How are you feeling when you read the news about this outbreak  in West Africa?

GT: I'm praying for those people who are very sick. I'm praying for the health workers too.  I am just praying so they can also survive like me. I'm just imagining they should get enough care, which I needed. Enough care, enough treatment so they can also come up and be a survivor like me.


http://www.vox.com/2014/8/12/5992083/the-story-of-an-ebola-outbreak-survivor

[Buster's Uncle]

Ebola patient Thomas Eric Duncan dies at Dallas hospital
State commissioner: “The past week has been an enormous test of our health system”
Yahoo
By Jason Sickles, 2 hours ago



Ebola patient Thomas Eric Duncan in 2011. (AP Photo/Wilmot Chayee)



DALLAS — The first person to be diagnosed with Ebola in the United States died early Wednesday, officials with Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital announced.

“It is with profound sadness and heartfelt disappointment that we must inform you of the death of Thomas Eric Duncan this morning at 7:51 a.m.,” the hospital said in a written statement. “Mr. Duncan succumbed to an insidious disease, Ebola.”

The Liberian citizen, who recently traveled from West Africa to Dallas to reunite with a long-lost son and the teen's mother, had been in isolation at Texas Health Presbyterian since Sept. 28.

It was not immediately known what would happen to his body, which could remain contagious for several days. Guidelines from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention call for the remains to be immediately shrouded in plastic and double-bagged in leak-proof bags at the hospital, then promptly cremated or buried in an airtight casket.

Duncan’s death comes four days after his condition was downgraded from serious to critical. Over the weekend, he had begun receiving brincidofovir, an experimental antiviral drug that recently gained emergency approval from the Food and Drug Administration.

“He fought courageously in this battle,” the hospital said in a statement. “Our professionals, the doctors and nurses in the unit, as well as the entire Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital Dallas community, are also grieving his passing. We have offered the family our support and condolences at this difficult time.”

Louise Troh, Duncan's fiancée, and three of her family members have been in quarantine for more than a week because they were living in the same apartment with him. On Tuesday, Duncan's son Karsiah travelled from West Texas to try and see his father for the first time in 16 years.

“My thoughts are with the family and friends of Thomas Eric Duncan at this time, especially his fiancée, Louise, their son, Karsiah, and all those who loved him,” Dallas County Judge Clay Jenkins said in a written statement. “We are also thinking of the dedicated hospital staff who assisted Mr. Duncan daily while he fought this terrible disease.  We offer prayers of comfort and peace to everyone impacted by his passing.”

Duncan, 42, is the first person known to die of Ebola in the United States. The virus, which is spread through direct contact with bodily fluids, has killed more than 3,400 people in West Africa in 2014, the World Health Organization estimates.

Five Americans who were diagnosed with Ebola in Africa have returned to the United States for treatment since late July. Aid workers Kent Brantly, Nancy Writebol and Rick Sacra made full recoveries. WHO said one of its doctors was transported to Emory University Hospital in Atlanta on Sept. 9. No other details have been released. Ashoka Mukpo, a cameraman working for NBC News, arrived at the Nebraska Medical Center in Omaha for treatment on Monday.

Duncan’s illness and treatment sparked controversy. He arrived in Dallas on Sept. 20 from Liberia, one of the areas hit hardest by the outbreak.



Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital in Dallas has come under scrutiny for its handling of the Ebola case. (Joe Raedle/AFP Photo)


His neighbors in Monrovia told reporters that five days before his flight, Duncan helped a pregnant woman get to the hospital in a taxi. She was convulsing and vomiting. The woman died at home hours later, after being turned away from a crowded Ebola treatment ward.

It is unclear if Duncan knew the woman had Ebola, but Liberian government officials said they plan to prosecute him for lying on health forms he completed at the airport on Sept. 19.

Duncan answered “no” to questions about whether he had cared for an Ebola patient or touched the body of someone who had died in an area affected by Ebola.

CDC officials said Duncan didn’t have a fever or symptoms of Ebola when he boarded his flight in Liberia, which made multiple stops. He also had a three-hour layover in Washington, D.C., before arriving in Texas.

Five days after getting to Dallas, Troh drove Duncan to the emergency room at Texas Health Presbyterian. Hospital officials said he showed up in the middle of the night with a fever of 100.1 degrees, abdominal pain for two days, a sharp headache and decreased urination. The hospital said Duncan told them he had not experienced nausea, vomiting or diarrhea — strong indicators of Ebola.

Federal guidelines published in August state that someone in Duncan’s condition and who was known to have been in West Africa should be placed in isolation and tested for Ebola. Instead, Duncan was given a prescription for antibiotics and sent home.

Hospital officials initially blamed a flawed records system for the mix-up but have since retracted that explanation. No other explanation has been given for how the Ebola diagnosis was overlooked.

Duncan’s condition had worsened by the time he was brought back to Texas Health Presbyterian two days after being discharged. He was reportedly vomiting as paramedics put him in the ambulance at the apartment complex where he had been living with family and friends.

Those paramedics are among seven health care workers who are now being monitored for Ebola symptoms. Three family members living in the apartment where Duncan stayed when he arrived in Dallas are being watched closely for signs of the disease.

An additional 38 individuals, including a man who was treated in the same ambulance after it had been used to transport Duncan, are considered low-risk contacts but will be monitored for 21 days, the maximum period it may take for symptoms to appear.

Texas Health Presbyterian immediately isolated Duncan upon his second arrival at the hospital. According to the Dallas Morning News, the hospital may have violated federal guidelines by delaying a blood test for Ebola.

According to the report, other testing and blood work was done first to rule out other causes. The Ebola test wasn’t performed and confirmed until two days after Duncan was placed in isolation.

Dr. Tom Frieden, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, called the mishandling a "teachable moment" and issued a nationwide alert to all hospitals updating them on how to appropriately respond to possible Ebola cases.

On Wednesday, Dr. David Lakey, commissioner of the Texas Department of State Health Services, acknowledged the hospital's efforts to care for Duncan.

“The past week has been an enormous test of our health system, but for one family, it has been far more personal,” Lakey said. “Today, they lost a dear member of their family. They have our sincere condolences, and we are keeping them in our thoughts. The doctors, nurses and staff at Presbyterian provided excellent and compassionate care, but Ebola is a disease that attacks the body in many ways. We’ll continue every effort to contain the spread of the virus and protect people from this threat.”

(Updated at 12:05 p.m. ET.)


http://news.yahoo.com/ebola-patient-thomas-eric-duncan-dies-at-dallas-hospital-201613535.html

---

This is going to prove unfortunate for US racial politics.  They keep curing the white people.

[Buster's Uncle]

Feds issue rules for burying Ebola patients in the U.S.
Liberian native Thomas Eric Duncan dies from Ebola virus in Dallas; health officials face new challenge in handling body that could stay contagious for days
Yahoo
By Jason Sickles, 1 hour ago



DALLAS – The first patient to be diagnosed with Ebola in the United States died from the disease Wednesday and now Dallas health officials are facing a situation they have not before experienced: how to handle a body that could remain highly contagious for several days.

Thomas Eric Duncan, 42, had been in isolation at Texas Health Presbyterian since Sept. 28. His death comes four days after his condition was downgraded from serious to critical.

Duncan had been on a ventilator for several days and was receiving kidney dialysis. Last weekend he started receiving an experimental drug called brincidofovir. It was not immediately clear what would happen to his body.

“It’s been discussed, but there’s been no conclusion,” said Zachary Thompson, director of Dallas County Health and Human Services, told Yahoo News on Monday.

In early August, medical missionary Kent Brantly became the first U.S. patient to be treated for Ebola after he contracted the disease in West Africa and was transported to Emory University Hospital in Atlanta.

Soon after, the CDC published a document titled “Guidance for Safe Handling of Human Remains of Ebola Patients in U.S. Hospitals and Mortuaries,” which states that the “handling of human remains should be kept to a minimum.”



Thomas Eric Duncan passed away Wednesday morning. (AP/Wilmot Chayee)

 
Because Ebola is transmitted by direct contact with bodily fluids, the CDC recommends hospital staff should not attempt to clean the deceased or remove any medical lines or tubes. Instead, “the body should be wrapped in a plastic shroud” and immediately placed in two thick and zippered leakproof bags for transport to the morgue.

What this means for family is likely no chance to mourn loved ones at a traditional funeral service.

Dallas County Medical Examiner Dr. Jeffrey Barnard did not return calls for this story. His office contracts with the Anatomical Board of the State of Texas to collect and transport corpses. An employee who answered the phone in the board’s Dallas office on Monday declined to say if there was plan should Duncan pass away.

“I can't give any information out,” the woman told Yahoo News. “I have to end the call.”

Dallas County has been the lead agency for the Ebola investigation and containment in Dallas, but Thompson said Monday before news broke of Duncan's death that his local team would defer to other experts if he did not survive.

“The state and the CDC will make a recommendation on how the body will be disposed of,” said Thompson, whose office was criticized for being slow to decontaminate the Dallas apartment where Duncan stayed when he arrived in Texas from Liberia.

The CDC recommends autopsies be avoided, and that no embalming be performed.

It’s been a topic of discussion at the Dallas Institute of Funeral Service, where Wayne Cavender is an instructor and administrator.

“Since they don't have a good handle on controlling the disease itself, they are worried about an epidemic,” Cavender told Yahoo News. “So that's one way to help keep it from going further. Because if we embalm, we are going to come in contact with all the body fluids and everything. With universal precautions we shouldn't, but accidents happen on occasion.”

Instead, the CDC says, the “remains should be cremated or buried promptly in a hermetically sealed casket.” The casket must secure “against the escape of microorganisms” and have valid documentation for being airtight.

“There's really not an airtight casket,” said Cavender, who has been in the funeral business for 28 years.

“The sealer caskets that they sell are not a guaranteed-type of sealing issue. It's not completely airtight because you have to have a way to open them up and so forth. It's not like it's vacuum-sealed,” he said.

But the CDC warns that at no point should the sealed bags or casket be opened for viewing.

Duncan had recently traveled to Dallas from West Africa where the World Health Organization estimates that Ebola has killed more than 3,400 people this year. Health officials say traditional African burials, in which family members wash the body, has caused the epidemic to spread faster.

Cavender said he fully supports the CDC’s stringent standards for this country, but knows it could cost a family a proper goodbye.

“Everybody needs to bury their dead and have a funeral and viewing if that’s what they want,” he said. “That's the government saying you can't do that. It's very unfortunate for the family in that case.”

(This story originally published on Tuesday, Oct. 7, and was updated on Oct. 8.)


http://news.yahoo.com/feds-publish-guidelines-for-burying-us-ebola-patients-170101294.html

[Buster's Uncle]

'You can't overprotect' against Ebola: virus pioneer
AFP
19 hours ago



Peter Piot, the Belgian scientist who co-discovered the Ebola virus in 1976, speaks during an interview at his office in London, England, on July 30, 2014 (AFP Photo/Leon Neal)



Geneva (AFP) - One of the scientists who discovered Ebola said Tuesday he was not surprised a Spanish nurse contracted the deadly virus, stressing it was impossible to be too careful when dealing with the disease.

"This should be a lesson for everybody that you can't overreact. You can't overprotect," Peter Piot said after tests confirmed a 40-year-old nurse at a Madrid hospital had become the first person to contract Ebola outside Africa.

"Dealing with patients with Ebola ... is very risky business, and the slightest mistake can be fatal," said the Belgian scientist who co-discovered the Ebola virus in 1976.

"It's better to be accused of overreacting than to not take all the measures," he told reporters in Geneva.

Piot was in the Swiss city to head a World Health Organization-hosted expert review of the science behind the global response to the ongoing outbreak -- by far the deadliest on record.

Following the teleconference with 15 experts from around the world, he said he was "not surprised" that a nurse had been infected in a European hospital despite the best efforts to avoid transmission.



Health workers put on protective clothing prior to visiting Ebola victims at a World Health Organization health center in the Liberian capital of Monrovia on October 3, 2014 (AFP Photo/Pascal Guyot)


The infected nurse cared for two elderly Spanish missionaries who died from the virus after being flown home from west Africa, sparking questions about how safety procedures were applied.

News of her infection also sparked renewed questions about Madrid's decision to repatriate infected missionaries from Africa. Critics said Spanish hospitals were not equipped to deal with Ebola.

Piot, a professor at the London School of Health and Tropical Medicine, agreed it was risky to "import someone with Ebola" to a place with no experience of the virus or without using the protective equipment.

He noted that even two doctors with the Doctors Without Borders (MSF) charity had been infected, despite "draconian discipline."

"A dangerous moment is when you undress. When you come out of the isolation unit, you take off your protective gear and you're full of sweat, and you may take off your glasses and do like this," he explained, rubbing his eye.


"And that would be the end."

To ensure the safety of people working with Ebola patients, Piot stressed the need for very strict discipline, with basically "police" watching over them as they undress, making sure they make no missteps.

"That discipline is necessary. That's illustrated by the nurse in Madrid," he said.

But while Ebola poses a threat to health care workers around the world, Piot said there was "no risk that I see for outbreaks" in developed countries like the one that has killed 3,439 people in west Africa, according to the latest WHO toll.

He warned that the few cases surfacing in Europe and the United States should not remove the focus from the most affected countries, Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone.

"The only way to prevent the popping up of Ebola patients and maybe even outbreaks (elsewhere in the world) is to bring the epidemic under control in west Africa," he said.


http://news.yahoo.com/cant-overprotect-against-ebola-virus-pioneer-212358125.html

[Buster's Uncle]

Spanish health officials obtain order to kill Ebola nurse's dog
Yahoo News
By Dylan Stableford  22 hours ago



Teresa and Excalibur (Photo courtesy Javier L. R./ Villa Pepa Protective Association)



The husband of the Spanish nurse who was diagnosed with Ebola is denouncing health officials who told him their dog would have to be killed as a precaution.

In a letter posted to posted to Facebook by Villa Pepa Protective Association, an animal rights group, Javier Limon Romero, the husband of the infected nurse, Teresa Romeo, says an official with the Madrid health department told him "that they have to sacrifice my dog."

"I was asked to give them my consent, but I obviously refused," Javier wrote. "He said he was going to ask for a court order to forcibly enter my home and sacrifice Excalibur."

The husband says he left the dog several buckets of water and food before coming to the hospital, where he has been quarantined along with two others who are being observed for symptoms. Twenty-two other people who came into contact with the nurse are being closely monitored, Spanish health officials said Tuesday.

The nurse had helped treat two missionaries who contracted Ebola in West Africa and were repatriated to Spain last month. Both died shortly after arriving in Madrid. The nurse began feeling ill on Sept. 30 and was diagnosed with Ebola on Monday.

According to the Associated Press, "Madrid's regional government obtained a court order to euthanize and incinerate their pet," saying "available scientific knowledge suggests a risk that the mixed-breed dog could transmit the virus to humans." It's unclear whether they carried out the order.

"It seems unfair," Javier wrote of the euthanasia order. "If you are really worried about this problem I think you can find another type of alternative solution, such as putting the dog in quarantine and observation as it has me. Or maybe you will have to sacrifice me just in case. But of course, with a dog it's easier, it doesn't matter as much."

A Change.org petition to save the dog has already collected more than 97,000 signatures.

According to the World Health Organization, more than 3,400 people have been killed and more than 7,400 infected since the Ebola outbreak began in March.

Animal officials say it's unclear what risk the dog poses.

While no case of Ebola spreading to people from dogs has ever been documented, it's not out of the realm of possibility, Dr. Thomas Frieden, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, told the Associated Press.

While some dogs in West Africa have tested positive for the Ebola virus, they showed no signs of being infected, Michael San Filippo, senior media relations specialist for the American Veterinary Medical Association, told the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette last month.

“There is more concern about fruit bats and nonhuman primates,” San Filippo said.


http://news.yahoo.com/spanish-nurse-ebola-dog-184950600.html

[Buster's Uncle]

Ebola escapes Europe's defenses; pet dog must die
Associated Press
By BARRY HATTON and CIARAN GILES  23 hours ago



Spanish nurses and their union are looking for answers after a nurse became the first person infected with the deadly disease outside of Africa



MADRID (AP) — Health officials scrambled Tuesday to figure out how West Africa's Ebola outbreak got past Europe's defenses, quarantining four people at a Madrid hospital where a Spanish nursing assistant became infected. Determined to contain the spread of the deadly virus, they even announced plans to euthanize the woman's pet dog.

The first case of Ebola transmitted outside Africa, where a months-long outbreak has killed more than 3,400 people, is raising questions about how prepared wealthier countries really are.

For Europeans, a distant problem has arrived on their doorstep, and as Spanish health workers complain about inadequate equipment and poor training, the all-important tourism industry was showing its anxiety.

Medical officials in the United States, meanwhile, are retraining hospital staff and find-tuning infection control procedures after the mishandling of a critically ill Liberian man in Texas, where he could have exposed many others to the virus after being sent away by a hospital.

The nursing assistant in Madrid was part of a special team caring for a Spanish priest who died of Ebola last month after being evacuated from Sierra Leone. The nursing assistant wore a hazmat suit both times she entered his room, officials said, and no records point to any accidental exposure to the virus, which spreads through direct contact with the bodily fluids of a sickened person.

The woman, who had been on vacation in the Madrid area after treating the priest, was diagnosed with Ebola on Monday after coming down with a fever, and was said to be stable Tuesday. Her husband also was hospitalized as a precaution.



An ambulance carrying a Spanish nurse who has contracted Ebola arrives at the Carlos III Hospital in Madrid early October 7, 2014 in this still image taken from video. The Spanish nurse has become the first person to contract Ebola outside of Africa, casting doubt over measures taken in Spain to control the potential spread of the deadly disease. The nurse had helped to treat two priests who contracted Ebola in Africa and were repatriated to Spain. Some 30 other health workers and those who came in contact with her are now being monitored for symptoms. REUTERS/Reuters TV


Madrid's regional government even got a court order to euthanize and incinerate their pet, "Excalibur," against the couple's objections. The government said available scientific knowledge suggests a risk that the mixed-breed dog could transmit the virus to humans, and promised to use "biosecurity" measures to prevent any such transmission.

Spanish authorities also were tracking down all the woman's contacts, and put more than 50 other people under observation, including her relatives and fellow health care workers. "The priority now is to establish that there is no risk to anybody else," emergency coordinator Fernando Simon said.

Even so, the potential repercussions of Ebola's presence in Europe became clear, as shares of Spanish airline and hotel chain companies slumped in Tuesday's trading. Spain is Europe's biggest vacation destination after France, and investors were apparently spooked that the deadly virus could scare away travelers.

The afflicted woman, reportedly in her 40s and childless, was not identified to protect her privacy, but nursing union officials she had 14 years' experience. Spanish officials said she had changed a diaper for the priest and collected material from his room after he died. Dead Ebola victims are highly infectious, and in West Africa their bodies are collected by workers in hazmat outfits.

An official investigation has begun and aims to "identify ... what is vulnerable: the procedures, or their implementation," he said.



An entrance to the Carlos III hospital, where a Spanish nurse who contracted Ebola is being treated, is seen in Madrid October 7, 2014. The Spanish nurse has become the first person to contract Ebola outside of Africa, casting doubt over measures taken in Spain to control the potential spread of the deadly disease. The nurse had helped to treat two priests who contracted Ebola in Africa and were repatriated to Spain. Some 30 other health workers and those who came in contact with her are now being monitored for symptoms. REUTERS/Andrea Comas


Spanish opposition parties demanded an explanation from the government about what went wrong and called for the resignation of Health Minister Ana Mato.

The European Union, whose 28 countries have been jointly preparing since the spring to prevent the possible transmission of Ebola on the continent, also wants answers, spokesman Frederic Vincent said in Brussels ahead of a special meeting of the EU's Health Security Committee on Wednesday to assess the case.

The Madrid infection shows that even in countries with sophisticated medical procedures, frontline health care workers are at risk while caring for Ebola patients. More than 370 health care workers in the hardest-hit countries of Liberia, Guinea and Sierra Leone have died.

Some two dozen health workers protested outside a Madrid hospital Tuesday, where union representative Esther Quinones complained that they lack resources and training.

In the United States, health care providers are implementing many precautions — reviewing triage procedures, creating isolation units, and even sending actors with mock symptoms into New York City's public hospital emergency rooms to test reactions.

"You never know when (an Ebola) patient's going to walk in," said Dr. Debra Spicehandler, an infectious disease expert at Northern Westchester Hospital in Mount Kisco, NY. "Education is key to controlling this — education of the public and of health care workers."

____

Hatton reported from Lisbon, Portugal. Jorge Sainz, Ciaran Giles and Alan Clendenning in Madrid, Raf Casert in Brussels, and David B. Caruso in New York contributed.


http://news.yahoo.com/nurse-spain-gets-ebola-raising-global-concern-062847061--politics.html

[Buster's Uncle]

Ebola contagion in Spain raises fears for Europe
AFP
By Roland Lloyd Parry, Michaela Cancela-Kieffer  14 hours ago



The deadly Ebola virus has reached Europe with the first case contracted outside of Africa confirmed in Spain.



Madrid (AFP) - Doctors in Spain hospitalised four more people and rushed to identify dozens of others at risk on Tuesday after a nurse was infected with the deadly Ebola virus, raising fears of contagion in Europe.

The European Union demanded answers about how the disease spread in a specialised disease unit, while health staff protested over safety failures.

The nurse was identified by Spanish media as Teresa Romero, a woman in her forties who worked at Madrid's La Paz-Carlos III hospital.

She became the first person to contract the disease outside Africa after caring for two elderly Spanish missionaries who died from the virus following their return from West Africa where the disease has killed nearly 3,500 people.

Officials said they were trying to find out who she came into contact with before being isolated on Monday. They were monitoring 52 people -- mostly health staff.

"It would be very naive to think that there is no possibility of contagion," the government's health emergencies coordinator Fernando Simon told Cadena Ser radio.



Medics transfer Roman Catholic missionary Manuel Garcia Viejo, who contracted Ebola, from Madrid's Torrejon air base to the Carlos III hospital on September 22, 2014 (AFP Photo/Spanish Defence Ministry)


Doctors at the hospital said her husband was also at "high risk" and was put in isolation. Another "suspect case" -- a Spanish engineer recently returned from Nigeria -- was also being monitored.

Another two patients were colleagues of the nurse.

One of them was taken in for observation after suffering from diarrhea, the hospital said.

The other is a nurse who was in contact with the infected healthworker, Spanish newspaper El Pais reported, adding that she was hospitalised by precaution as she was running a mild fever.


- Risk of contagion -

The infected nurse treated Spanish priest Miguel Pajares, 75, who contracted Ebola in Liberia and died on August 12, as well as Manuel Garcia Viejo, 69, who was repatriated from Sierra Leone and died on September 25.

She is believed to have caught the virus while caring for Garcia Viejo.

The European Commission has written to the Spanish health ministry demanding an explanation.

"There is obviously a problem somewhere," Commission spokesman Frederic Vincent said, at a time when all EU member states are supposed to have taken measures to prevent an Ebola outbreak.

However Peter Piot, one of the scientists who discovered Ebola, said while the disease posed a threat to healthcare workers around the world, there was "no risk that I see for outbreaks" in developed countries.

Spanish government officials said the nurse began to feel ill on September 30 while on leave after treating the two missionaries, but was not admitted to hospital until five days later.

Health workers' unions said the nurse had called the Carlos III hospital when she felt ill but was first referred back to a local health centre.

The hospital's director, Rafael Perez Santamarina, said she was not admitted at that time because she did not yet have a high fever or other Ebola symptoms.

The nurse's husband, named as Javier Limon by the Spanish press, told El Mundo newspaper she "did everything they told her" when she reported feeling ill.

He also vowed to fight an order by Madrid health authorities to kill their dog Excalibur over health concerns and drew the backing of animal rights groups.

Medical staff protested outside the main site of La Paz hospital in their white coats, yelling for Health Minister Ana Mato to resign.

Health worker unions complained staff had not been adequately trained.

"We do not have the infrastructure to tackle a virus like this," said Elena Moral, leader of the CSIF-AGCM union.


- Western response -

The EU announced it start airlifting 100 tonnes of relief aid on Friday to Sierra Leone, Liberia and Guinea including personal protection equipment like masks, gloves and medicines.



Volunteers train at a Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) replica Ebola treatment centre in Brussels on October 1, 2014, before being sent to help fight the virus in Africa (AFP Photo/Emmanuel Dunand)


Dozens of British troops are due to fly to Sierra Leone next week to help build medical facilities.

British Prime Minister David Cameron will also hold an emergency meeting Wednesday to coordinate his country's response to the outbreak, his office said.

The head of the US military's Africa Command, General David Rodriguez, said American troops deployed to west Africa could stay there for up to a year.

Ebola causes severe fever, vomiting, diarrhoea and sometimes internal and external bleeding. It spreads through contact and bodily fluids.

There is no vaccine and no widely available cure, but one treatment, dubbed ZMapp, has shown promising early results and has been fast-tracked for mass production.

Some 3,439 people have died out of 7,478 cases in the current outbreak across five west African nations -- Liberia, Guinea, Sierra Leone, Nigeria and Senegal -- according to the latest WHO tally.

Patients have been treated for the disease in Europe and the United States, but until now all the cases stemmed from people who caught the virus in west Africa.

Late Tuesday, an American physician who was hospitalised in the United States after being exposed to the virus in Sierra Leone was cleared to return home to continue a 21-day observation period, after his fever abated.

European markets fell on news of the Spanish infection while the International Monetary Fund warned that economic damage from the Ebola outbreak could spread beyond west Africa and become global.


http://news.yahoo.com/eu-demands-explanation-spain-ebola-case-084859314.html

[Buster's Uncle]

Britain sends 750 military personnel to combat Ebola
AFP
16 minutes ago



A picture from the Ministry of Defence shows medics wearing protective equipment during an Ebola training exercise at Strensall near York, on October 7, 2014 (AFP Photo/Graham Harrison)



London (AFP) - Britain is sending 750 military personnel, a medical ship and three helicopters to Sierra Leone to help fight the spread of Ebola, officials said Wednesday.

The ship will be equipped with hospital-style critical care units while the three Merlin helicopters will carry doctors to areas where they are needed.

The personnel will be deployed from next week and will help to build treatment centres, the defence ministry said.

It said 200 military personnel would be deployed to run and staff a training facility for medical workers and 250 would use the helicopters to transport supplies and doctors.

The remaining 300 were already planned to assist Sierra Leone's government.

The announcement came after British Prime Minister David Cameron chaired a meeting of the Cobra emergency committee on the spread of Ebola.



A handout picture from Britain's Ministry of Defence shows a doctor briefing his team before ward rounds during an Ebola treatment training exercise at the Army Medical Services Training Centre, at Strensall near York, on October 7, 2014 (AFP Photo/Graham Harrison)


The government meeting also decided to step up precautions against Ebola in Britain including through a planned "national exercise and wider resilience training".

The government said in a statement that posters would also be put up in British airports to raise awareness.

In Washington, US Secretary of State John Kerry also urged more countries to "step up" in the fight against Ebola following talks with Britain's Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond.

The Ebola epidemic has killed nearly 3,500 people in Liberia, Guinea, Sierra Leone, Nigeria and Senegal this year.

Britain has only treated one case of Ebola on its shores.

William Pooley, a nurse who contracted the virus while working in Sierra Leone, made a full recovery last month after being treated in a London hospital.

But concerns have risen since a Spanish nurse caught Ebola while treating a patient in a Madrid hospital and the World Health Organisation has warned that other isolated infections in Europe were "unavoidable".

Health officials in the US announced Wednesday that a Liberian man diagnosed with Ebola in Texas, Thomas Eric Duncan, had died.

Britain's trade union for doctors, the British Medical Association, urged ministers to make it easier for doctors from west Africa working in Britain to return to the region and treat Ebola victims.

Many are currently concerned that doing so would put their ability to return to Britain at risk due to visa issues, said BMA senior director Vivienne Nathanson.

She also warned that Britain needed to have a "higher level of suspicion" about the risk from Ebola.

"We know there is a risk associated with the numbers of people coming through London because of our air links to west Africa so we need to have a higher level of suspicion and that means we need to inform the public," she told BBC radio.

"The one thing we have learnt from Texas is that we need to have a higher level of suspicion."


http://news.yahoo.com/british-troops-train-ahead-ebola-mission-leone-182147147.html

[Buster's Uncle]

American doctor exposed to Ebola allowed home
AFP
17 hours ago



A member of a specialized Ebola inhumation team cleans a house, on October 6, 2014 in Mananeh, Sierra Leone (AFP Photo/Florian Plaucher)



Washington (AFP) - An American physician who was hospitalized in the United States after being exposed to the Ebola virus in Sierra Leone was allowed home Tuesday, health officials said.

The doctor, whose identity was not released, had been volunteering in a unit for those suffering from the hemorrhagic fever that has already killed nearly 3,500 people in West Africa since the end of last year.

After suffering a needle-prick injury, he was admitted for observation at the National Institutes of Health Clinical Center in Bethesda, Maryland on September 28.

"The initial hospitalization was characterized by a brief period of fever that was subsequently determined to not be related to infection with Ebola virus," the NIH said in a statement.

"Because he had an exposure and a fever, there was a greater chance he had active infection, thus the reason for isolation."

After the patient's fever abated and he felt well, he was allowed to return home to complete his 21-day observation period.

Ebola is transmitted by close contact with the bodily fluids of an infected person. The virus causes fever, vomiting, diarrhea and sometimes fatal bleeding.

The Ebola epidemic has now infected more than 6,500 people in West Africa and killed nearly half of them, according to the World Health Organization.


http://news.yahoo.com/american-doctor-exposed-ebola-allowed-home-000421716.html

[Buster's Uncle]

Sierra Leone's burial teams for Ebola victims strike over hazard pay
Reuters
11 hours ago



FREETOWN (Reuters) - Teams in charge of burying the bodies of Ebola victims in two districts of Sierra Leone have gone on strike over the non-payment of their weekly risk allowances, leaders of the group said on Tuesday.

Because the Ebola virus is highly infectious and remains active in the corpses of victims, only specialised teams in protective clothing are allowed to remove and dispose of the bodies.

A strike by the burial teams could worsen the outbreak of Ebola in Sierra Leone, which recorded 121 deaths and scores of new infections in one of the single deadliest days last week. The two districts the teams cover include the capital, Freetown.

"We have decided to stop working until they pay us our weekly risk allowance," Tamba Nyandemoh told Reuters. They have not been paid for two weeks, he said.

The teams bury between 17 and 35 bodies daily, Nyandemoh said. Each team has 12 workers and every member of a team earns about $100 a week.

Sierra Leone deputy health minister Madina Rahman said the teams have been paid through the end of September. They are only owed for this week, she said, and the money has been released to the banks and will be paid them later this week. She did not comment on the demand for risk pay.

Abdul Rahman Rarker, a supervisor of a burial team, said the teams had been told of piles of dead bodies in and around Waterloo, in the Western Area Rural district south of the capital, Freetown.

"But we cannot bury them because we are risking our lives and those in charge are depriving us of our money," he said.

"We don't even care if dead bodies litter all over the city," another member of the burial team said, requesting anonymity. "All we want is our money. We have been stigmatised in our communities, so let the government try to pay us our money."

The Ebola outbreak, the worst on record has killed 3,439 out of a total of 7,492 cases through Oct. 1, mostly in West Africa, the World Health Organization said last week.

Since it started in the forest region of Guinea in March, the disease has spread to Sierra Leone and Liberia. Cases have also been recorded in Nigeria, Senegal, the United States and Spain.


http://news.yahoo.com/sierra-leones-burial-teams-ebola-victims-strike-over-070105482--business.html

[Buster's Uncle]

U.S. to toughen Ebola screening at airports
Reuters
By Patricia Zengerle  6 hours ago



A worker in a hazardous material suit rolls out barrels of contents from the apartment unit where a man diagnosed with the Ebola virus was staying in Dallas October 5, 2014. REUTERS/Jim Young



WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. health officials said on Tuesday they would unveil within days new screening procedures for the deadly Ebola virus at the country’s airports to address public concern over the possibility of an outbreak.

    “We’re working very intensively on the screening process both in the places of origin and upon arrival,” Dr. Thomas Frieden, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, told reporters. "We will absolutely look at every step that could tighten that process."

The move would go beyond CDC efforts to augment screening for travelers leaving Ebola-stricken countries such as Liberia, which it has viewed as the best way to address the potential spread of the virus. But the diagnosis of the first Ebola patient on U.S. soil last week has strengthened calls from lawmakers and some health experts to introduce stronger measures in this country.

Screening passengers upon arrival in the United States could detect passengers who may have developed a fever in flight but will also pose new challenges to border control officers and flight crews, industry experts said.

    In August, CDC teams trained airport workers in West Africa to use handheld scanners that check travelers for fever, a possible sign of Ebola, and helped develop an exit questionnaire to determine potential exposure. Since then, some 36,000 people have boarded flights. Screening measures led 77 travelers to be prevented from boarding: 74 had a fever and three had other symptoms. Most turned out to have malaria and none had Ebola.

     Frieden did not give details of what the CDC was considering. The new measures will likely include more thorough pre-screening and more detailed questioning of passengers leaving Sierra Leone, Guinea and Liberia, congressional aides said.

    They may also involve checking such air travelers for fever, said U.S. Senator Charles Schumer.

    The U.S. Coast Guard also announced it would screen individuals coming into the United States via ship from Ebola hot spots.

    The Ebola outbreak, the worst on record, has killed at least 3,439 people out of 7,492 confirmed, probable and suspected cases since it emerged in March.
   

     NEW PRESSURES FOR AIRLINES

     U.S. airlines have only said they are working with government health officials to ensure the safety of travelers. Industry experts said screening could pose a new burden to airline workers and airport officers, already under pressure to keep passengers moving.

“I can imagine (the airlines) asking a lot of questions as to why this is preferable than testing at the origin,” said Robert Mann, an airline industry consultant.

The Association of Flight Attendants, a union representing nearly 60,000 flight attendants at 19 airlines, on Tuesday urged more extensive health screenings of passengers as they leave West Africa.

    The American Civil Liberties Union is keeping an eye on the Obama administration’s response but so far has not seen anything at airports that raises new issues about privacy, said Jay Stanley, an ACLU senior policy analyst.

But he warned against heavy-handed law enforcement tactics such as quarantines that restrict liberty and are less effective.

“The public health profession has learned a lot of lessons, and it’s even more important at a time of fear that we pay close attention to what will be effective,” Stanley said.

     A 2008 ACLU report on responding to pandemics recommended that invasive medical examinations at the border take place only “when there is reasonable suspicion of pandemic disease, and only with the individual’s informed consent.” The report noted the government has wide authority to detain people at the border during a pandemic.

    U.S. Senator Chris Coons, chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee's Africa subcommittee, said more extreme proposals, such as stopping travelers or banning flights could lead to the targeting of any traveler who looked African or barring aid workers trying to come home.

    "It's dangerous that we've got some folks in the heights of an election season stoking fears of Ebola and proposing expensive, unwieldy and unreasonable solutions such as trying to test and quarantine folks at airports," Coons said, referring to congressional elections on Nov. 4.

    "There is no rapid test for Ebola. You can't test someone within an hour," he said in a telephone interview.

    Schumer, a member of the Senate's Democratic leadership, has also urged the Department of Homeland Security to create a database of people flying to and from West Africa, which would be shared with hospitals around the country.

    "The CDC has been doing a very good job thus far in combating the threat, but you can’t be too careful when it comes to stopping a deadly epidemic," Schumer said in a statement.

(Additional reporting by Doina Chiacu in Washington, Roberta Rampton aboard Air Force One, Sharon Begley, Jeffrey Dastin and David Ingram in New York; Editing by Michele Gershberg and Lisa Shumaker)


http://news.yahoo.com/u-toughen-ebola-screening-airports-000336871.html

[Buster's Uncle]

U.N. medic in Liberia tests positive for Ebola
Reuters
7 hours ago



A health worker wearing protective equipment is disinfected outside the Island Clinic in Monrovia, September 30, 2014, where patients are treated for Ebola. REUTERS/Christopher Black/WHO/Handout via Reuters



ACCRA (Reuters) - An international medical official with the U.N. Mission in Liberia has tested positive for the Ebola virus and is receiving treatment, the U.N. said on Wednesday.

The official, who was not identified, is the second member of the mission, known as UNMIL, to contract Ebola. The first died on Sept. 25.

The world's worst outbreak of Ebola has killed more than 3,400 people, predominantly in Liberia, Guinea and Sierra Leone.

The staff member reported having symptoms to UNMIL medics on Sunday, a statement said.

"The UNMIL Medical team has conducted immediate and robust contact tracing to ensure all people that came into contact with both staff members while they were symptomatic are assessed and quarantined," it said.

All staff members considered at-risk have been isolated and ambulances and other locations have been decontaminated.

Liberia has suffered 2,210 deaths from Ebola as of Oct 4, the government said, adding 212 to the death toll since a previous update published by the World Health Organization, which gave figures as of Sept 28.


http://news.yahoo.com/international-medic-un-liberia-mission-tests-positive-ebola-105523236--business.html

[Buster's Uncle]

Corruption Is Creating More Ebola Victims
Takepart.com
By Juliet S. Sorensen | 20 hours ago



In times of peace and stability, corruption deters foreign aid and investment. In times of national emergency, such as the Ebola outbreak in West Africa, corruption can mean the difference between life and death.

That’s what went through my mind when I read in The New York Times about the travesty of a container of $140,000 worth of medical equipment from the United States held up at the port in Freetown, Sierra Leone since August 9. The rate of spread of the disease in that country is now at five per hour. Yet the container in Freetown, which holds protective gowns, gloves, stretchers, and mattresses, remains at the port until, it seems, a “cash donation” is made to the right government official.

I’ve studied corruption in health care around the world and elsewhere as a law professor, and I’ve prosecuted bribery and fraud in the U.S. as an attorney for the Justice Dept. Each case of corruption in the health sector has direct or indirect effects on the patients seen by corrupt providers—and even more so on the patients whom they won’t see, because not everyone can afford a bribe.

While particularly egregious in the case of Sierra Leone, corruption in the health care industry is a global problem. Transparency International estimates that almost one in five people worldwide have paid a bribe to access medical services. While this is the most common form of petty corruption in health, drug diversion for the black market and counterfeit medicines are just as dangerous to patients, and even more lucrative.

Low wages for government employees, including staff in public health centers, is one cause of corruption. In Mombasa, Kenya, health care workers threatened to strike this year after not receiving paychecks for two months. So it’s not surprising that the need to pay bribes to hospital workers is more prevalent in the developing world, where budgets are smaller and so are civil servant salaries.

But poor countries don’t have a monopoly on the healthcare corruption: The two largest U.S. public health programs, Medicare and Medicaid, estimate that 5-to-10 per cent of their budgets are lost to fraudulent billing. (The U.S. regularly arrests people for this crime.) And a study published last year by the European Commission concludes that procurement fraud and improper marketing by providing cash or sponsoring of trips and leisure activities occur throughout the EU.

But health sector corruption in the developing world arguably has a greater impact, because it discourages foreign investment and assistance where it’s most needed. Who wants to write a check to send tuberculosis medication to Pakistan when you know half the funds will end up sending some official on vacation to the Maldives? Who wants to import medical equipment to sell or distribute to clinics when it’s going to cost another 20 percent to pay the guy at customs in Dar Es Salaam? The help that doesn’t come, or comes too late, as a result of corruption has deadly consequences.

The good news is that awareness of corruption’s effect on health is on the rise. The United Nations Convention against Corruption, an international treaty, has set the tone globally by calling on its 170 signatory countries to criminalize bribery and embezzlement and to maximize public access to information.

Perhaps the most exciting anti-corruption efforts are at the grassroots level. The Internet provides citizens with a way to demand accountability and, because of its public nature, to pressure governments to take heed. For example, Ipaidabribe.com, a website where any Internet user can report a shakedown, began in India and has since been adopted by countries in Eastern Europe.The site includes reports on bribes paid to obtain a polio vaccination certificate and other health records.

In the long term, government transparency and accountability are key to purging corruption from global health.

To start, governments and NGOs need to publish accurate health budgets and document foreign aid intended for the health sector. Health workers also need sufficient compensation. Gainful employment reduces the likelihood that they will seek to supplement their salary with bribes and embezzlement.

Finally, a free press and freedom of expression allow citizens to report and share the latest shakedown, whether at a traffic stop or in the hospital waiting room. Although it purports to aggressively prosecute corruption, the Chinese government shut down China’s I Paid A Bribe in 2011. If corruption in health care goes unreported, it won’t be addressed and our health will suffer.


http://news.yahoo.com/corruption-creating-more-ebola-victims-221926381.html

[Buster's Uncle]

Ebola crisis leaves Dallas a city on edge
Associated Press
By NOMAAN MERCHANT  2 hours ago



DALLAS (AP) — Dallas is a city on edge as public-health officials wait to see if any of the people who may have been exposed to Ebola develop symptoms of the deadly disease.

Several residents of the neighborhood where a Liberian man emerged as the first U.S.-diagnosed Ebola case told city officials they had been sent home from work. Some community volunteers shunned a nearby after-school program. And the hospital at the epicenter of fear acknowledged for the first time that some patients were staying away.

Health officials tried to present a unified front of both preparedness and reassurance, almost two weeks after the Liberian man who brought Ebola into the U.S. first developed symptoms.

"This is a very critical week," said Dr. David Lakey, the Texas health commissioner. "We're at a very sensitive period when a contact could develop symptoms. We're monitoring with extreme vigilance."

Public health officials are watching for any signs of Ebola's spread. Ten of the 48 people being monitored are confirmed to have had close contact with Thomas Eric Duncan, who died Wednesday after being hospitalized for more than a week. The federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says people infected by the virus can begin showing symptoms of Ebola eight to 10 days after exposure. Duncan first sought care at a hospital emergency room on Sept. 25 and was admitted three days later.

Vickery Meadow, a collection of low-income apartment complexes just a short drive from some of Dallas's toniest neighborhoods, appeared calm on Tuesday. Women in traditional Muslim head coverings, mothers carrying children and workers headed to the bus stop walked along the road next to The Ivy apartments, where Duncan had stayed.



A worker in a hazardous material suit steps out of an apartment unit where a man diagnosed with the Ebola virus was staying in Dallas, Texas, October 5, 2014. The first Ebola patient diagnosed in the United States took a turn for the worse on Saturday, slipping from serious to critical condition in a Dallas hospital, as health officials reported tracking scores of possible cases around the country that proved to be false alarms. (REUTERS/Jim Young)


But some tensions have surfaced.

Dallas City Councilwoman Jennifer Staubach Gates said three residents of Vickery Meadow reported that their employers sent them away from work out of fear that they could be carrying the virus. Gates said Tuesday that she had contacted a lawyer to help those men.

The city has also enlisted doctors to explain Ebola to neighborhood residents and assure them that they are safe, Gates said. Vickery Meadow is home to thousands of immigrants from Afghanistan to Mexico, many of whom do not speak English.

Even Dallas County Judge Clay Jenkins had to assure residents that his presence in the apartment where Duncan stayed posed no risk to others, including students at a school attended by his daughter. Jenkins released two letters Tuesday night from state and federal health officials saying he "was not at risk and posed no risk to others through his interactions with the family."

"We can never forget that the enemy here is a virus," said Dr. Tom Frieden, director of the CDC. "The enemy is Ebola, not people, not countries, not communities — a virus."



Ebola virus facts  (WHO/Yahoo News)


Heart House, an after-school program serving the neighborhood, said about 20 volunteers had declined to come in for their shifts due to fear of the virus. Lenita Dunlap, director of Heart House, said the loss of volunteers made it harder to have enough adults to serve the 120 children in the program.

But Heart House remained open, with Dunlap and other staff watching Tuesday as dozens of children ran around a playground.

"We're standing strong," she said. "We believe in this community and we believe in the people here. And we have an incredible opportunity to serve."

Gustavo Villalobos stopped on his way to work at the nearby NorthPark Shopping Center. He said he felt assured by officials that his neighborhood was safe. But he noted that some at the high-end mall seemed nervous.

"People at the mall, if they hear someone coughing, they'll look at them weird" and recoil, he said.

Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital Dallas, which is treating Duncan, acknowledged that a small number of patients had changed or canceled appointments because of Ebola fears. But spokesman Wendell Watson said the number was insignificant and that the hospital was safe.

"They don't need to be terrified of this," Watson said.


http://news.yahoo.com/ebola-crisis-leaves-dallas-city-edge-050911422.html

[Buster's Uncle]

Ebola training focuses on astronaut-like gear
Associated Press
By LINDSEY TANNER  5 hours ago



As the Ebola crisis continues in West Africa, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is training doctors, nurses and other health care workers going to work in Ebola Treatment Units in West Africa. (Oct.



CHICAGO (AP) — The serious-faced physicians practice pulling on bulky white suits and helmets that make them look more like astronauts than doctors preparing to fight a deadly enemy. These training sessions at U.S. hospitals on Ebola alert and for health workers heading to Africa can make the reality sink in: Learning how to safely put on and take off the medical armor is crucial.

"When you're in the real deal, remember to take your time," biosafety expert John Bivona told doctors during a course this week at the University of Chicago's medical center. Suits splashed with patients' vomit or blood must be removed carefully, he explained.

"As much as possible, grab from the inside" to avoid touching contaminated parts of the suits, he said. "Be liberal with disinfectant."

Looking stoic after this week's training, Dr. Mark Nunnally said he's "not overly worried, but I think there's a legitimate concern" that someone with Ebola may arrive at the hospital's door.

An anesthesiologist, he's among about 35 doctors and nurses who've volunteered to treat any Ebola patients who may show up at the Chicago hospital. Nunnally said he volunteered because "somebody has to do it, and I think it's important to give care where there's a need."

The University of Chicago medical staffers get several hours of Ebola training, plus refresher courses and videos in donning and doffing protective gear.

Meanwhile, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention this week started training volunteer health workers heading to Africa to help fight the epidemic.



In this Monday, Oct. 6, 2014, photo Dr. Michael O’Connor , left, and Dr. Mark Nunnally, learn how to use personal protective gear during Ebola preparedness training at the University of Chicago. U.S. hospitals are preparing for possible Ebola patients; the only one diagnosed so far in this country is being treated in Texas, while the outbreak in Africa has killed more than 3,400 people. (AP Photo/Lindsey Tanner)


Dr. David Sugerman, an Emory University emergency room doctor heading soon to Sierra Leone, was among students in a CDC training session Monday in Anniston, Alabama.

Sugerman, who also works for the CDC, said breaches in health workers' protective gear in West Africa have contributed to Ebola's spread.

"You realize going through these exercises how easy that is," he said.

"In Sierra Leone or Liberia or Guinea it's going to be quite hot and humid. And you start sweating. And some of the procedures, like placing an IV, you get pretty nervous with a patient that you know has a high viral load," he said. "Then you get fogged up and you get anxious and you could start pulling at your" equipment, which could be contaminated with virus. "So you have to mentally go through this a number of times and become well-versed. So it becomes a routine."

For U.S. hospitals, the CDC has issued guidance on how to spot suspicious cases and isolate them if necessary, with an emphasis on the importance of asking patients about recent travel to the outbreak region, where more than 3,400 people have died from the disease.

The lone Ebola patient diagnosed in the United States had traveled from Liberia but was treated and released the first time he sought care. At first, the Dallas hospital he went to said it didn't know about his travel; it later said that information was provided and available to the medical staff caring for him.



In this Monday, Oct. 6, 2014, photo Dr. Mark Abe, left, and Dr. Neethi Pinto learn how to perform a medical procedure on a patient mannequin while wearing protective gear during Ebola preparedness training at the University of Chicago. U.S. hospitals are preparing for possible Ebola patients; the only one diagnosed so far in this country is being treated in Texas, while the outbreak in Africa has killed more than 3,400 people. (AP Photo/Lindsey Tanner)


"It's so easy to forget to ask about travel," said Dr. Emily Landon, director of a University of Chicago infection control program. "That's our one vulnerability."

Emergency room staffers are trained to focus on the most critical problem, like providing fast treatment for a heart attack or broken leg, she explained. If the same patient also has a fever and headache — common problems but also Ebola symptoms — "it's hard to break that autopilot and say, 'Oh, by the way, did you travel'" recently, Landon said. "We have to get them to break that autopilot every time."

Across town, at Rush University Medical Center, doctors got a frightening test run this past weekend when a man coughing up blood said he had been in contact with someone from Nigeria, one of the countries in West Africa where Ebola spread.

ER staffers donned protective gear and immediately escorted him to a nearby isolation room, but tests showed he had bronchitis, not Ebola, said Dr. Dino Rumoro, Rush's emergency medicine chief.

Rumoro said he's worked through similar scary disease threats — AIDS, SARS, swine flu and smallpox after 9/11 — that were in some ways more worrisome because many of them can spread invisibly through the air. Ebola is transmitted through direct contact with blood, vomit and other body fluids, or contact with needles, syringes or other objects contaminated by the virus.

"At least with Ebola we have a fighting chance," Rumoro said, "because I know that it is coming from body fluid and I know if I wear my (protective) suit I'm safe and I know if I don't stick myself with a needle or cut myself with a scalpel I'm safe."

"There's always going to be a little bit of fear in your head," Rumoro said. "But that's OK. That's what keeps us safe."
___

AP video journalist Alex Sanz in Anniston, Alabama, contributed to this report.
___

Online:

CDC: http://www.cdc.gov
___


http://news.yahoo.com/mds-ebola-training-focuses-astronaut-gear-090102529--politics.html