Ebola news 10/8

[Buster's Uncle]

Four hospitalized in Spain after first Ebola transmission outside Africa
Reuters
By Inmaculada Sanz and Sarah Morris  21 hours ago



Police officers stand guard outside the complex where a Spanish nurse infected with Ebola lives with her husband, in Alcorcon, near Madrid, October 7, 2014. REUTERS/Sergio Perez



MADRID (Reuters) - Four people have been hospitalized in Spain to try to stem the spread of Ebola after a Spanish nurse became the first person in the world known to have contracted the virus outside of Africa, health authorities said on Tuesday.

The nurse, who tested positive for the virus on Monday, her husband, who is showing no symptoms of the disease, and two other people are being closely monitored in hospital, health officials told a news conference in Madrid.

One of those hospitalized is a health worker who has diarrhea but no fever. The other is a Spaniard who traveled from Nigeria, said Rafael Perez-Santamaria, head of the Carlos III Hospital where the infected nurse treated two Spanish missionaries who contracted the disease in Africa.

With concerns growing around the world of the Ebola pandemic spreading beyond West Africa, the Spanish officials sought to reassure the public that they were tackling the threat.

Twenty-two people who came into contact with the nurse are being monitored, Perez-Santamaria said. They have not been isolated but they are having their temperature taken twice a day to check for signs of infection.



Health workers attend a protest outside La Paz Hospital, calling for Spain's Health Minister Ana Mato to resign after a Spanish nurse contracted Ebola, in Madrid October 7, 2014. REUTERS/Andrea Comas


Officials said they were still investigating how the nurse was infected.

She went on holiday after the second of the missionaries she had been caring for died on Sept. 25, although, they stressed, she had not left Madrid.

She began feeling ill on Sept. 30 and was diagnosed with Ebola on Monday.

"This has taken us by surprise," said Perez-Santamaria. "We are revising our protocols, improving them."

A spokesman for the European Commission said the case would be discussed at an EU Health Security Committee meeting on Wednesday.

"The priority remains to find out what actually happened," he said.

Jonathan Ball, a professor of molecular virology at Britain's University of Nottingham, said the nurse should not have contracted the deadly disease if appropriate containment and control measures had been taken.

"It will be crucial to find out what went wrong in this case so necessary measures can be taken to ensure it doesn't happen again," he told Reuters.

The nurse is being treated with antibodies from previous infected patients, Perez-Santamaria said.

(Additional reporting by Kate Kelland in London and Philip Blenkinsop in Brussels; Editing by Julien Toyer and Robin Pomeroy)


http://news.yahoo.com/husband-spanish-nurse-ebola-under-quarantine-091126313.html

[Buster's Uncle]

Why didn't Texas Ebola patient receive experimental drug sooner?
Doctors were concerned about the risks the experimental drug posed to the Ebola patient, Thomas Eric Duncan. But a worsening condition appears to have changed the equation.
Christian Science Monitor
By Patrik Jonsson  23 hours ago


News that Thomas Eric Duncan, the Ebola patient in Dallas, is receiving an experimental antiviral drug is another chapter in a fast-moving geopolitical drama exploring, patient by patient, the frontiers of medicine and ethics.

As the global community scrambles to contain the virus, and as the cases outside Africa grow, questions have been raised about why Mr. Duncan, a Liberian war survivor who came to the United States to marry his son’s mother, hasn’t received the same experimental drug that doctors say may have played a role in the recovery of two American medical workers, Dr. Kent Brantly and aid worker Nancy Writebol.

The medical community, led by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), is scrambling to find a medicine to stave off the disease. Two potential Ebola vaccines are now being tested on humans, but even if they’re deemed successful, it will be months before they’re available.

Recommended: Think you know Africa? Take our geography quiz.

Meanwhile, with Duncan “fighting for his life,” in the words of CDC Director Tom Frieden, a nephew of Duncan’s said: “I don’t understand why he is not getting the ZMapp [the experimental drug administered to Dr. Brantly and Ms. Writebol].” Joe Weeks made the statement to ABC News.

The maker of ZMapp says it doesn’t have any of the drug left. The doses given to the Americans were part of a small batch that took months to develop. It will take the company several months before more of the serum is available, the drugmaker said.

Dr. Frieden has also said that doctors have balked at giving Duncan experimental drugs because side effects may present a mortal threat. The fact that he’s now receiving an experimental drug suggests that his situation has gotten worse to the point where the potential benefits outweigh the potential risks.

Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital said Monday that Duncan is being given brincidofovir, a “broad spectrum” antiviral that has shown promise stopping Ebola, at least in a test tube. The drug is also judged to have fewer side effects than other experimental treatments, which probably played into the doctors’ decision to try this particular drug.

In cases where doctors want to use drugs on humans in ways that haven’t been tested, they apply directly for special permission from the Food and Drug Administration. The agency granted that permission in the Duncan case for compassionate use.

An American Ebola patient in Nebraska is also being treated with brincidofovir. Ashoka Mukpo is a freelance cameraman working for NBC who was diagnosed with the illness while on assignment.

Other Ebola patients have received other drugs. Dr. Richard Sacra, an American who was diagnosed with Ebola in Liberia and came back to the US for treatment, was given TKM-Ebola, which is also experimental.

And a French nurse has received a Japanese anti-flu drug called favipiravir, in hopes it will stave off Ebola.

In addition, Norwegian health authorities just announced that a Norwegian woman being treated for Ebola in Oslo will receive the last remaining dose of ZMapp in the world. Authorities said they were "lucky" that they were able to secure the serum from storage in Canada.


http://news.yahoo.com/why-didnt-texas-ebola-patient-receive-experimental-drug-192029209.html

[Buster's Uncle]

Questions and answers on dogs and Ebola risks
Associated Press
By MARILYNN MARCHIONE  1 hour ago



The husband of a Spanish nurse diagnosed with Ebola appeals for the couple's dog to be spared as authorities say it should be put down



Monkeys, bats and a menagerie of animals can spread Ebola. Now there's worry that dogs — or one dog in particular — might spread it, too. Officials in Madrid got a court order to euthanize the pet of a Spanish nursing assistant who has the deadly virus.

The mixed-breed dog named Excalibur was killed on Wednesday.

No case of Ebola spreading to people from dogs has ever been documented, but "clearly we want to look at all possibilities," said Dr. Thomas Frieden, director of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Questions and answers about the situation:

Q: Can dogs get Ebola?

A: At least one major study suggests they can, without showing symptoms. Researchers tested dogs during the 2001-02 Ebola outbreak in Gabon after seeing some of them eating infected dead animals. Of the 337 dogs from various towns and villages, 9 to 25 percent showed antibodies to Ebola, a sign they were infected or exposed to the virus.



Excalibur, the dog of the Spanish nurse who contracted Ebola, barks from her apartment's balcony in Alcorcon, outside Madrid, October 8, 2014. Madrid regional authorities said they would euthanize the nurse's dog Excalibur to avoid possible contagion, sparking an outcry by animal rights activists to save the dog. Spanish health authorities said on Wednesday that another person being monitored in Madrid for Ebola had tested negative for the disease. The man, a Spaniard who had travelled from Nigeria, was one of several people hospitalised after authorities confirmed on Monday that the Spanish nurse had caught the disease in Madrid. REUTERS/Susana Vera (SPAIN - Tags: HEALTH SOCIETY ANIMALS)


Q: What's the risk to people?

A: No one really knows. Lab experiments on other animals suggest their urine, saliva or stool might contain the virus. That means that in theory, people might catch it through an infected dog licking or biting them, or from grooming.

Q: Why was this dog suspect?

A: The nursing assistant and her husband have been in isolation since she tested positive for Ebola this week. She helped care for a missionary priest who died of Ebola. The Madrid regional government got a court order to euthanize their dog, saying "available scientific information" can't rule out a risk of spreading the virus.



People walk by an advertising calling for financial help to fight Ebola in Africa in Madrid, Spain, Tuesday, Oct. 7, 2014. Three more people were placed under quarantine for Ebola at a Madrid hospital where a Spanish nurse became infected, authorities said Thursday. More than 50 other possible contacts were being monitored. The nurse, who had cared for a Spanish priest who died of Ebola, was the first case of Ebola being transmitted outside of West Africa, where a months-long outbreak has killed at least 3,500 people and infected at least twice as many. (AP Photo/Andres Kudacki)


Q: Does everyone agree that's best?

A: No. The dog's owners didn't want it killed, and an animal rights group wanted it quarantined instead, although it's not clear how effective that would have been since infected dogs don't show symptoms, and it's not known how long the virus can last in them.

Dr. Peter Cowen, a veterinarian at North Carolina State University who has advised global health experts on animal infection disease risks, thinks officials overreacted. "They should really study it instead," he said.

Q: What about other dogs?

A: The risk that dogs might spread Ebola is very small in the U.S. or other places where dogs aren't near corpses or eating infected animals, said Sharon Curtis Granskog, a spokeswoman for the American Veterinary Medical Association.

In Dallas, health officials are monitoring 48 people who may have had contact with Ebola patient Thomas Eric Duncan, but "we are not monitoring any animals at this time," said Texas Health Commissioner David Lakey. Duncan died Wednesday.



A neighbor looks down from a balcony of a housing estate, where it is believed the nursing assistant who was tested positive for Ebola and her husband live in Madrid, Spain,Tuesday, Oct. 7, 2014. Three more people were placed under quarantine for Ebola at a Madrid hospital where a Spanish nursing assistant became infected, authorities said Tuesday. More than 50 other possible contacts were being monitored. The nurse, who had cared for a Spanish priest who died of Ebola, was the first case of Ebola being transmitted outside of West Africa, where a months-long outbreak has killed at least 3,500 people and infected at least twice as many. (AP Photo/Paul White)


___

Online:

Dog study: http://tinyurl.com/mvdoqnf


http://news.yahoo.com/questions-answers-dogs-ebola-risks-070509437--politics.html

[Buster's Uncle]

Sierra Leone: Ebola burial teams go back to work
Associated Press
By CLARENCE ROY-MACAULAY and JONATHAN PAYE-LAYLEH  4 hours ago



Heath workers collect samples from the body of a person suspected to have died from the Ebola virus, as it lies on the street covered in leaves in Freetown, Sierra Leone, Wednesday, Oct. 8, 2014. Burial teams in Sierra Leone abandoned the bodies of Ebola victims in the capital after going on strike this week, though an official claimed Wednesday the situation had been resolved. (AP Photo/Tanya Bindra)



FREETOWN, Sierra Leone (AP) — Sierra Leone burial teams have gone back to work one day after organizing a strike over pay and abandoning the dead bodies of Ebola victims in the capital.

In neighboring Liberia, however, health workers said Wednesday they planned to strike if their demands for more money and safety equipment were not met by the end of the week.

The expressions of frustration by beleaguered West African health workers came as Spanish officials investigated whether a nursing assistant infected with Ebola got the deadly disease by touching her face with tainted protective gloves. The case of Teresa Romero is the first known incident of someone contracting the disease outside the West African outbreak zone.

The Sierra Leone Broadcasting Corporation reported this week that bodies of Ebola victims were being left in homes and on the streets of Freetown because of the strike by burial teams. The dead bodies of Ebola victims are highly contagious.

But in a radio interview Wednesday morning, Sierra Leone's deputy health minister Madina Rahman said the strike had been "resolved." Later in the day, a team could be seen loading bodies outside a government hospital for burial in the west of Freetown. The team's leader declined to be interviewed but said members had been promised hazard pay by the end of the day.

Rahman said the dispute centered on a one-week backlog for hazard pay that had been deposited in the bank but was not given to burial teams on time.



Health workers collect samples from a body suspected to have died from the Ebola virus, as it lies on the street covered in leaves in Freetown, Sierra Leone, Wednesday, Oct. 8, 2014. Burial teams in Sierra Leone abandoned the bodies of Ebola victims in the capital after going on strike this week, though an official claimed Wednesday the situation had been resolved. (AP Photo/Tanya Bindra)


"The health ministry is going to investigate the delay in the health workers not receiving their money," Rahman said.

The burial teams make up a total of 600 workers organized in groups of 12, health ministry spokesman Sidie Yahya Tunis said.

Tunis described the situation as "very embarrassing." The government was already facing criticism this week over a shipping container filled with medical gear and mattresses that has been held up at the port for more than a month.

In Liberia, health workers are demanding monthly salaries of $700 as well as personal protective equipment, said George Williams, secretary-general of the National Health Workers Association.

"We give the government up to the weekend to address all these or else we will stop work," Williams said.



People gather around a body, suspected to have died from the Ebola virus, covered in leaves as it lies on the street in Freetown, Sierra Leone, Wednesday, Oct. 8, 2014. Burial teams in Sierra Leone abandoned the bodies of Ebola victims in the capital after going on strike this week, though an official claimed Wednesday the situation had been resolved. (AP Photo/Tanya Bindra)


The average health worker salary is currently below $500 even for the most highly trained staff. Finance Minister Amara Konneh has defended the compensation for health workers, saying last week that it was more than Sierra Leone and Guinea were offering.

Health workers are especially vulnerable to Ebola, which is spread by contact with the bodily fluids of infected people.

Liberia's United Nations peacekeeping mission said Wednesday that an international member of its medical team had contracted Ebola, the second member of the mission to come down with the disease. The first died on Sept. 25.

The mission is identifying and isolating others who may have been exposed and reviewing procedures to mitigate risk, Karin Landgren, special representative of U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, said in a statement.

More than 3,400 people have been killed this year by the Ebola outbreak in West Africa, which has hit hardest in Sierra Leone, Guinea and Liberia.



Health workers dressed in protective gear prepare to load the body of a woman suspected to have died from Ebola virus, in New Kru Town at the outskirt of Monrovia, Liberia, Wednesday, Oct. 8, 2014. Liberia has been among the hardest hit nations at the centre of the long outbreak, which has killed more than 3,000 people, as of Friday, there had been 3,834 confirmed Ebola cases and 2,069 deaths in Liberia, according to the World Health Organization. Forty-four percent of the Ebola cases were reported in the past three weeks, a signal that the infectious disease is spreading.(AP Photo/Abbas Dulleh)


In Spain, the case of nursing assistant Teresa Romero has highlighted the dangers that Ebola poses for health workers and the fact they can contract it even in sophisticated medical centers in Europe.

Dr. German Ramirez of the Carlos III hospital in Madrid said Romero remembers she once touched her face with protection gloves after leaving an Ebola victim's quarantine room.

Health officials say Romero twice entered the room of Spanish missionary Manuel Garcia Viejo, who died of Ebola on Sept. 25 — once to change his diaper and again after he died to retrieve unspecified items. Ramirez said Romero believes she touched her face with the glove after her first entry.

"It appears we have found the origin" of Romero's infection, Ramirez said, but he cautioned the investigation was not complete.

Romero was said to be in stable condition Wednesday. Health authorities in Madrid have faced accusations of not following protocol and poorly preparing health care workers for dealing with Ebola.



Residents watch as health workers, not in picture, take samples from the body of a person suspected of dying from the Ebola virus as it lies on the street covered in leaves in Freetown, Sierra Leone, Wednesday, Oct. 8, 2014. Burial teams in Sierra Leone abandoned the bodies of Ebola victims in the capital after going on strike this week, though an official claimed Wednesday the situation had been resolved. (AP Photo/Tanya Bindra)


In an interview with Spanish newspaper El Pais, Romero said she thought "the mistake was on taking off the suit. I see it as the most critical moment in which it could have happened, but I don't know for sure."

"I haven't got a fever today, I feel somewhat better," she told the newspaper.

In an earlier interview published by Spain's El Mundo newspaper, she said she had followed safety protocols as part of the team treating two priests infected with Ebola.

Her husband Javier Limon told the same newspaper that his wife went on vacation after Garcia Viejo died. She started feeling sick with a low fever Sept. 30 but still took a career advancement exam with other candidates. Health authorities say she did not leave the Madrid area during her vacation.

In another interview Wednesday with Spain's Cuatro television channel, Romero said when she started feeling sick and went to her local health center in Madrid's suburbs she didn't tell doctors she had helped treat an Ebola patient. She did not say why.



Health workers in protective gear carry the body of a woman suspected to have died from Ebola virus, from a house in New Kru Town at the outskirt of Monrovia, Liberia, Wednesday, Oct. 8, 2014. Liberia has been among the hardest hit nations at the centre of the long outbreak, which has killed more than 3,000 people, as of Friday, there had been 3,834 confirmed Ebola cases and 2,069 deaths in Liberia, according to the World Health Organization. Forty-four percent of the Ebola cases were reported in the past three weeks, a signal that the infectious disease is spreading.(AP Photo/Abbas Dulleh)


She said she had received training about how to put on and remove her hazmat suit. She declined to give an opinion about whether the training was adequate.

Yolanda Fuentes, assistant director of the Carlos III hospital, said Limon is in quarantine but has shown no symptoms of having contracted the disease.

She said of the four others taken in for observation, three — a nurse, an assistant nurse and a man who had traveled to Nigeria — had all tested negative. If they test negative again they will be released. Another nurse admitted Wednesday is under observation but has not been tested so far for the virus.

___

Paye-Layleh reported from Monrovia, Liberia. Associated Press writers Ciaran Giles and Alan Clendenning in Madrid contributed to this report.


http://news.yahoo.com/sierra-leone-strike-leaves-ebola-dead-streets-074751064.html

[Buster's Uncle]

Shortage of engineers, sanitation experts may slow fight against Ebola: IMC
Reuters
By Kieran Guilbert  October 7, 2014 11:42 AM



LONDON (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - A shortage of engineers and sanitation experts could undermine efforts to halt the Ebola outbreak in West Africa, a medical aid organization said on Tuesday.

The International Medical Corps has called for experts and volunteers from a wider range of professions to work at Ebola treatment units in Sierra Leone and Liberia.

Nearly 2,000 people have died from Ebola in Liberia out of nearly 4,000 who have been infected. The West African state is at the center of an epidemic that has killed more than 3,400 people there and in neighboring Sierra Leone and Guinea.

Kevin Noone, International Medical Corps UK executive director, said that while there was a major shortage of doctors and nurses, they alone could not "bring this crisis under control" and other types of expertise were also needed.

"The main risk we see undermining our efforts to bring the outbreak under control is a shortage of water and sanitation experts capable of training local staff and volunteers how to maintain clean, sterile conditions, and engineers capable of building the facilities in the first place," Noone said.

Sean Casey, IMC emergency response team leader in Liberia, said he hoped news that a nurse had become infected while treating an Ebola patient in a specialist unit in Madrid would not deter qualified people from offering assistance.

Spanish health officials said four people had been hospitalized to try to stem any further spread of Ebola there after the nurse became the first person known to have contracted the virus outside Africa.

"With the proper safety protocols in place, Ebola Treatment Units really can be considered among the safest places in Liberia," Casey said.

The International Medical Corps is a global, humanitarian, nonprofit organization that offers healthcare training and relief and development programs to help save lives and relieve suffering.

(Reporting By Kieran Guilbert; editing by Tim Pearce)


http://news.yahoo.com/shortage-engineers-sanitation-experts-may-slow-fight-against-154215873.html

[Buster's Uncle]

Ebola aid held up at port in Sierra Leone
Associated Press
By CLARENCE ROY-MACAULAY  October 7, 2014 2:10 PM



A British Army medic attached to 22 Field Hospital participates in an exercise at the Army Medical Services Training Centre near York, northern England, Tuesday, Oct. 7, 2014. More 100 British Army medics will travel to Sierra Leone to help tackle the Ebola crisis, where they will staff a field hospital set up specifically to treat medical personnel who have caught the disease. (AP Photo/PA, Anna Gowthorpe)



FREETOWN, Sierra Leone (AP) — A shipping container filled with medical gear and mattresses to help in the Ebola outbreak in Sierra Leone has been held up at a port for more than a month, an opposition politician said Tuesday.

Alpha Chernor Bah said the container is one of four worth a total of $500,000 that he has arranged for shipment from the U.S. to Sierra Leone as aid.

"I am trying to help because this is a public health emergency to save lives," he told The Associated Press. "The country is in a crisis period and there should be no red tape in clearing the container from the port."

The Ebola outbreak in West Africa is believed to have killed at least 3,500 people, hitting Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea the hardest. The gap of what has been sent or promised by other countries and private groups and what is needed is still huge. Beds are filling up quickly too in these countries that had too few doctors and nurses to begin with, and a tremendous number of infections in health care workers during the outbreak has only further reduced their numbers.

The 40-foot container arrived at the port on Aug. 9, Bah said. It is full of medical gear, such as gloves, gowns, stretchers, face masks, as well as mattresses.

Special adviser to the president, Oswald Hanciles, said Tuesday that the shipping fees for the container have been paid by the government, clearing the way for the container.

Alpha Sheriff, Procurement Officer for the Ministry of Health and Sanitation said the necessary documents to release the container will be provided Wednesday, and the shipment should then be out of the port.

"Now that the delay at the port has become international news, it has become an embarrassment for the government," Bah said.

Bah was an opposition National Democratic Alliance candidate in the 2012 Parliamentary elections, but lost to a candidate from the Ruling All People's Congress party.

Aid workers in West Africa say they need more than just gloves and supplies. They need more people willing to come here despite the personal risks.


http://news.yahoo.com/ebola-aid-held-port-sierra-leone-180259020.html

[Buster's Uncle]

More cases of Ebola spreading in Europe "unavoidable", WHO says
Reuters
By Kate Kelland, Health and Science Correspondent  October 7, 2014 10:16 AM



Members of the German army, Bundeswehr, prepare volunteers during a barrier nursing course for dealing with infectious diseases at the Bernhard-Nocht-Institute in Hamburg Ocotber 7, 2014. REUTERS/Fabian Bimmer



LONDON, Oct 7 (Reuters) - More cases of the deadly Ebola virus will almost inevitably spread in Europe but the continent is well prepared to control the disease, the World Health Organisation's (WHO) regional director said on Tuesday.

Speaking to Reuters just hours after Europe's first local case of Ebola infection was confirmed in a nurse in Spain, the WHO's European director Zsuzsanna Jakab said further such events were "unavoidable".

Spanish health officials said four people have been hospitalised to try and stem any further spread of Ebola there after the nurse became the first person in the world known to have contracted the virus outside of Africa.

"Such imported cases and similar events as have happened in Spain will happen also in the future, most likely," Jakab told Reuters in a telephone interview from her Copenhagen office.

"It is quite unavoidable ... that such incidents will happen in the future because of the extensive travel both from Europe to the affected countries and the other way around," she said.

Several countries in the WHO's European region, including France, Britain, the Netherlands, Norway and Spain, have treated patients repatriated after contracting the disease in West Africa, where Ebola has spread through Guinea, Sierra Leone and Liberia since March, killing more than 3,400 people in the largest outbreak of the disease in history.

Jakab said European health workers tasked with caring for the patients, as well as their families and close contacts, were most at risk of becoming infected.

"It will happen," she said. "But the most important thing in our view is that Europe is still at low risk and that the western part of the European region particularly is the best prepared in the world to respond to viral haemorrhagic fevers including Ebola."


http://news.yahoo.com/more-cases-ebola-spreading-europe-unavoidable-says-141626101.html

[Buster's Uncle]

U.S. medical workers get crash course on treating Ebola on frontlines
Reuters
By Colleen Jenkins  10 hours ago






ANNISTON Ala. (Reuters) - Dr. Kwan Kew Lai's family and colleagues in Boston fear for the safety of the infectious disease physician when she travels to Liberia later this month to treat Ebola patients.

"I just feel like it's wrong for me to sit at home while I hear the news of people dying," said Lai, 63.

Dressed in a yellow full-body suit, Lai joined 35 other licensed health workers this week for new, hands-on safety training.

Developed by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention as part of its escalated response to the worst Ebola outbreak on record, the three-day program teaches how to safely treat patients in West Africa with the virus, which causes fever and bleeding and is often fatal.

There is an urgent need for doctors, nurses and health care workers to volunteer in the hardest-hit countries, where public health systems were weak even before the outbreak.



Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) instructor Satish Pillai (C) gives guidance to Paul Reed (L), chief medical officer for the U.S. Public Health Service, and Roseda Marshall, chairman of pediatrics at the University of Liberia's A.M. Dogliotti College of Medicine, in preparation for the response to the current Ebola outbreak, during a CDC safety training course in Anniston, Alabama, October 6, 2014. REUTERS/Tami Chappell


The course, held at an old Army base in Anniston, Alabama, about 90 miles (145 km) from Atlanta, will provide instruction for about 40 people a week through January.

"We think people need to be mentally prepared," said Dr. Michael Jhung, a CDC medical officer who created the course. "Avoiding errors is critical."

At least 3,400 people have died and the CDC has warned up to 1.4 million people could be infected with the virus by January.

In addition to the cases in West Africa, two patients, one in the United States and one in Spain, have been diagnosed with the hemorrhagic fever.



Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) instructor Satish Pillai (R) gives instructions to health care workers in preparation for the response to the current Ebola outbreak, during a CDC safety training course in Anniston, Alabama, October 6, 2014. REUTERS/Tami


SPACESUITS AND HAND WASHING

Participants entered a simulated medical ward in pairs, each dressed in the full-body protective garb that has become a familiar sight since the first cases in the current outbreak were reported in March.

CDC instructors led the students through the steps of drawing blood from patients, including those who might be combative or dehydrated.

"The most important thing is...can you operate safely?" said CDC medical officer Satish Pillai, who went to Liberia this summer. "If it can't be done safely, you need to stop."

Participants were told to avoid touching each other, to wash their hands and keep them away from their faces. Students were instructed how to wiggle out of masks, goggles, aprons, suits, gloves and boots without letting any potentially contaminated surfaces touch their skin.

Heather Bedlion, a 38-year-old nurse from Boston set to go to Liberia on Oct. 12 through the group Partners in Health, said she had worried she would feel claustrophobic in the protective suit but was relieved to find it more awkward than stifling.

"It's a little spacesuit feeling," she said. "But this is what you have to do to take good care of patients there."

Jhung, the course's leader, acknowledged that some people might decide after the training that the difficulties that come with Ebola treatment are too much for them.

"I think we want to freak them out a little bit," he said.

(Reporting by Colleen Jenkins; Editing by Lisa Shumaker)


http://news.yahoo.com/u-medical-workers-crash-course-treating-ebola-frontlines-091408162.html

[Buster's Uncle]

Ebola patient dies in Texas; five U.S. airports to screen for fever
Reuters
By Lisa Maria Garza and Richard Valdmanis  1 hour ago



The first Ebola patient diagnosed in the United States died Wednesday morning in a Dallas hospital



DALLAS (Reuters) - The first person diagnosed with Ebola in the United States died on Wednesday, underscoring questions about the quality of care he received, and the government ordered five airports to start screening passengers from West Africa for fever.

Liberian national Thomas Eric Duncan died in an isolation ward of a Dallas hospital, 11 days after being admitted on Sept. 28.

The case has stirred attention and concern that someone with Ebola had been able to fly into the United States from Liberia, raising the specter more passengers could arrive and spread the disease outside of West Africa, where nearly 4,000 people have died in three impoverished countries.

The White House said extra screening for fever will be carried out for arriving passengers from West Africa. The screening will start at New York's John F. Kennedy airport from the weekend, and later be used at Newark Liberty, Washington Dulles, Chicago O'Hare and Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta.

Duncan's death prompted questions about the timeliness of his care. The patient initially sought treatment two days before being admitted, but was sent home with antibiotics.

"I trust a thorough examination will take place regarding all aspects of his care," Duncan's fiancée, Louise Troh, wrote in a statement. Troh, in quarantine, added, "I am now dealing with the sorrow and anger that his son was not able to see him before he died."



A general view of the Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital is seen in Dallas, Texas in this October 4, 2014 file photo. REUTERS/Jim Young/Files


Dr. Craig Smith, medical director for infectious disease at University Hospital in Augusta, Georgia said Ebola, like any disease, was easier to beat the sooner it was treated.

"I'm not surprised he unfortunately passed away," Smith said. "I think two days would have made a big difference."

Duncan had been in critical condition and on a ventilator and kidney dialysis at Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital. He was given an experimental medication to try to keep him alive, starting Saturday, six days after being admitted.

But Ebola experts also asked why Duncan received the experimental drug brincidofovir, made by Chimerix Inc, which has not been tested on humans or animals, rather than Tekmira Pharmaceuticals drug TKM-Ebola, which has been tested on humans. TKM-Ebola was given to another U.S. patient, Dr. Rick Sancra, who contracted Ebola while working in Liberia and was cured.

“We know Dr. Sacra was pretty damn sick when he began treatment,” said virologist Thomas Geisbert of the University of Texas Medical Branch, who has done pioneering work on Ebola treatments. It “potentially saved him."



A worker in a hazardous material suit removes the contents of the apartment unit where a man diagnosed with the Ebola virus was staying in Dallas, Texas, October 6, 2014. REUTERS/Jim Young


NO SYMPTOMS

Duncan was able to fly to the United States from Liberia because he did not have a fever when screened at the airport in the capital, Monrovia, and filled out a questionnaire saying he had not been in contact with anyone infected with Ebola.

Liberian officials have said Duncan lied on the questionnaire and had been in contact with a pregnant woman who later died.

Duncan was not screened on arrival in the United States. Starting this weekend, though, JFK airport will use a non-invasive device to take the temperature of passengers, who also will fill out detailed questionnaires created by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

Canada said on Wednesday it would step up airport screening of people arriving from affected West African countries. Those who are ill or say they have been in contact with a sick person will have their temperature taken by a quarantine officer.

Hospital spokesman Wendell Watson said in an emailed statement that Duncan died at 7:51 a.m. The hospital said he was 45 years old. About 48 people who had direct or indirect contact with Duncan since he arrived on Sept. 20 are being monitored, but none have yet shown any symptoms, according to health officials.

The CDC and other U.S. health officials say the chances of Ebola spreading in the United States are very slim.

Texas Health Presbyterian said a man had been admitted on Wednesday after reporting he had contact with Duncan and was exhibiting symptoms. Other officials said he was a law enforcement officer who had visited the apartment where Duncan had been staying, days after the Liberian went to the hospital.

U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Director Dr. Thomas Frieden described the person as someone who "does not have definite contact with Ebola or definite symptoms of Ebola."

The hospital has not released details on how it will handle Duncan's body but said it will follow protocols from the CDC. Texas State health authorities said Duncan's remains will be cremated. The guidelines recommend careful preparation of the body before movement, including enclosing it in two bags and disinfecting the bags. The body can then be transported without the need for protective gear for a driver or others who are near the body but they are not to handle the remains before cremation.

The current Ebola outbreak, the worst on record, began in March. On Wednesday, the World Health Organization updated its toll of the disease. WHO said Ebola has killed 3,879 people out of 8,033 cases by the end of Oct. 5. WHO says 41 people have been killed in an unrelated outbreak in Democratic Republic of the Congo.

Ebola can take as long as three weeks before its victims show symptoms, at which point the disease becomes contagious. Ebola, which can cause fever, vomiting and diarrhea, spreads through contact with bodily fluids such as blood or saliva.

While several American patients have been flown to the United States from West Africa for treatment, Duncan was the first person to start showing symptoms on U.S. soil. A nurse in Spain who treated a priest who worked in West Africa is also infected.

(Additional reporting by Patricia Zengerle and Roberta Rampton in Washington, Marice Richter in Texas, Sharon Begley and Yasmeen Abutaleb in New York, David Ljunggren in Ottawa; Writing by Richard Valdmanis and Jon Herskovitz; Editing by Peter Henderson and Grant McCool)


http://news.yahoo.com/texas-ebola-patient-dies-hospital-says-152859538.html

[Buster's Uncle]

For Ebola victim, US trip followed years of effort
Associated Press
By EMILY SCHMALL  4 hours ago



This 2011 photo provided by Wilmot Chayee shows Thomas Eric Duncan, the first Ebola patient diagnosed in the U.S., at a wedding in Ghana. Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital Dallas, where Duncan was being treated for the disease, on Wednesday, Oct. 8, 2014 said Duncan has died. (AP Photo/Wilmot Chayee)



DALLAS (AP) — Thomas Eric Duncan, the first Ebola patient diagnosed in the United States, grew up next to a leper colony in Liberia and fled years of war before later returning to his country to find it ravaged by the disease that ultimately took his life.

Duncan, 42, arrived in Dallas in late September, realizing a long-held ambition to join relatives. He came to attend the high-school graduation of his son, who was born in a refugee camp in Ivory Coast and was brought to the U.S. as a toddler when the boy's mother successfully applied for resettlement.

"His son had told his mother, 'I want to see my dad. Can we help my dad to come?' And they fixed his papers to come to this country," said Duncan's brother Wilfred Smallwood, whose son, Oliver Smallwood, is quarantined with the household that hosted Duncan before he was diagnosed.

The trip was the culmination of decades of effort, friends and family members said. But when Duncan arrived in Dallas, though he showed no symptoms, he had already been exposed to Ebola. His neighbors in Liberia believe Duncan become infected when he helped a pregnant neighbor who later died from it. It was unclear if he knew about her diagnosis before traveling.

Duncan's life reflected the hardships of many Liberians who fled or endured the country's 14 years of civil war.

He grew up in a village near the Yila Mission, an American Baptist mission hospital and leper colony, according to a lifelong friend, Thomas Kwenah. Duncan later moved to a middle-class area in Monrovia for high school, according to a friend from that time, Tonia Wordsworth.



Karsiah Duncan son of Ebola patient Thomas Eric Duncan listens during a news conference Tuesday, Oct. 7, 2014, in Dallas. "I'm just praying my dad will make it out safely," Karsiah said at the news conference hosted by a Dallas church. (AP Photo/Tim Sharp)


Wordsworth, who now lives in Calverton, Maryland, called Duncan a "dutiful" young man who was "like a brother."

Duncan was 18 when warlord Charles Taylor invaded Liberia from Ivory Coast, initiating years of conflict. Duncan's half-sister, Mai Wureh, had arrived in the U.S. with her husband in 1989, shortly before Taylor's invasion, and helped her family apply for resettlement — but the application was denied.

"Mai had filed for us to leave the war zone, but after a long time, the U.S. rejected all of us," Smallwood said.

Duncan, Smallwood and other family members fled in the opposite direction from Taylor, to a refugee camp outside the Ivorian border city of Danane. It was there that Duncan met Louise Troh.

"We all lived in Ivory Coast in the refugee camp, and by 1994, they were boyfriend and girlfriend," Kwenah said.

When Troh's resettlement application was approved, she took along the couple's 3-year-old son, Karsiah, but Duncan's visa applications were denied. Along with relatives, Duncan migrated from Danane to Buduburam, a sprawling, city-like refugee camp in Ghana.

A friend who met him there, Wilmot Chayee, said the two spent hours playing basketball or watching professional soccer.

When the camp closed in 2013, Duncan returned to Liberia, to the same area where he'd attended high school — now a slum wracked by poverty and disease — and into a small room in a private home, Wureh said. He took a job with Safeway Cargo, FedEx's shipper in Liberia, as the general manager's chauffeur.

But a year later, he was summoned to the U.S. Duncan had recently confided, Kwenah said, that he "wanted to marry that girl in Dallas."

Duncan arrived at Troh's apartment on Sept. 20 — less than a week after helping his sick neighbor. For the nine days before he was taken to a hospital in an ambulance, Duncan shared the apartment with several people.

"We thought that because he was in America, he was safe, that he would be the one Liberian to survive," Kwenah said.

Duncan's family visited him at the hospital and glimpsed him using a camera system, but said they had declined to do so again because it was too upsetting.

Karsiah Duncan was unable to visit Duncan at the hospital Tuesday evening, Troh said, and so never saw his father again.


http://news.yahoo.com/ebola-victim-us-trip-followed-years-effort-182234144.html

[Buster's Uncle]

Ebola patient dies: Family seeks probe into 'all aspects of his care'
The family of Thomas Eric Duncan, the Liberian man who died Tuesday of Ebola in Dallas, said they are filled with 'sorrow and anger' and want an impartial probe into 'all aspects of his care' after President Obama last week admitted 'missteps' in the US response.
Christian Science Monitor
By Patrik Jonsson  5 hours ago



The family of Thomas Eric Duncan, the Liberian man who died Tuesday of Ebola after arriving in Dallas late last month, said they are filled with “sorrow and anger” and want an impartial probe into “all aspects of his care” after President Obama last week admitted “missteps” in the US response.

Mr. Duncan arrived in the US on Sept. 20 from Liberia, the West African nation first colonized by freed US slaves that is at the center of the current outbreak.

He went to the hospital on Sept. 25, but was sent home on Sept. 26 with a standard antibiotic cure. He returned on Sept. 28 by ambulance after becoming extremely ill. He was the first person to be diagnosed with Ebola outside of Africa.

Duncan, a civil war survivor in his 40s, quickly became the face of Ebola in the US, as anxiety coursed through Dallas and dozens of other people who had direct and indirect contact with Duncan were either quarantined or closely monitored.

Authorities say this is a critical week for the national Ebola response as those people, including his closest friends and family, remain within the 21-day incubation period. None have fallen ill so far.

And while doctors desperately tried to save Duncan’s life, his death stands in stark contrast to the plight of several Americans, including aid workers and doctors, who have survived the illness after being treated in the US. More than 7,000 people have been diagnosed in the largest-ever such outbreak in West Africa, and about half of those victims died.

The past week was “an enormous test of our health system, but for one family it has been far more personal – today they lost a dear member of their family,” said Dr. David Lakey, the commissioner of the Texas Department of State Health Services, in a statement. “We’ll continue every effort to contain the spread of the virus and protect people from this threat.”

An ethical debate has emerged over a decision that some say was too long delayed to try an experimental drug on Duncan, especially as he was given a different serum than the one used on the American victims who survived. The makers of ZMapp, the experimental Ebola antibody serum that may have helped two US aid workers survive the illness, said it had run out of the drug and that it will take months to make more.

Instead, doctors gave Duncan an antiviral drug used for other illnesses, but which had never been tested for Ebola in humans. Medical experts say counterproductive side effects likely kept doctors from giving Duncan the drug earlier, only administering it after it became clear his condition was worsening.

The family’s concerns about Duncan’s care, friends say, mostly center on why Duncan was sent home at first, especially given conflicting reports from the hospital about the extent to which they were aware that Duncan had traveled from the Ebola “hot zone.”

“The family wants to better understand the process of how [Duncan's original release from the hospital] happened,” Jay Pritchard, a church friend who is helping them with public relations, tells the Monitor.

Authorities say Duncan failed to disclose on travel permission forms that he had had contact with an Ebola-stricken pregnant woman in the days before his departure from Liberia to the United States. Meanwhile, Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital, where he was treated, has changed its explanation several times, acknowledging that officials there did know on his first visit that he had come from West Africa. Seeing how sick he was, his family at one point called the Centers for Disease Control before putting Duncan on an ambulance.

Duncan’s case may become important going forward, because of the questions it has raised about rationing and who gets what experimental drug – and the possible negative impact of such "compassionate use" waivers that the FDA has to sign off on.

Indeed, “[Duncan's treatment and death] emphasizes the need to rapidly reconsider the decisions to use untested experimental or investigational agents in patients in an unregulated and seemingly random way,” says Philip Rosoff, a Duke University medical ethicist and author of “Rationing Is Not A Four-Letter Word.” The problem “is that we now don’t know in this case whether the medication Duncan was given was ineffective or too late or he wasn’t given enough, or whether the drug actually contributed to his death.”

“Unless we do thorough clinical trials, as difficult as that may be to accept under the conditions of this seemingly out of control epidemic, we’re not going to find out how to treat the patients of tomorrow, much less the patients of today,” Dr. Rosoff says.

At the same time, limited quantities of experimental drugs and subsequent rationing could become part of a broader pattern in the global Ebola response.

Ethically, Rosoff says, it’s appropriate in a disease outbreak to treat medical workers and other frontline response staff first, given that they’re in the best position to help stop the spread.

But after that first determination on who gets what experimental drug, the ethical situation gets more complicated, especially given that “desperate people are willing to take desperate measures,” as he told Voice of America.

“Some people think that a lottery or coin toss mechanism is the fairest,” he said in a recent interview with the news service. “Other people think first-in-line – first-come, first-served – might be the fairest. The problem with first-come, first-serve is that tends to privilege people who can get there first, and that’s sometimes people who have access to information or transportation.”


http://news.yahoo.com/ebola-patient-dies-family-seeks-probe-aspects-care-190930047.html

[Buster's Uncle]

UN Ebola envoy urges quick action to minimise death toll
AFP
3 hours ago



Guinea health workers wearing protective suits work at an Ebola treatement centre in Conakry, September 25, 2014 (AFP Photo/Cellou Binani)



Conakry (AFP) - The head of the United Nations' emergency Ebola mission said Wednesday he was "convinced" the epidemic would be brought under control but called for urgent action to limit the already heavy death toll.

"We... have a great responsibility to act and to act quickly to end this crisis," Anthony Banbury told reporters in Guinea as he wrapped a tour of the country and its west African neighbours, Sierra Leone and Liberia, the three nations hit hardest by the epidemic.

Asked for an idea of how long it might take for the crisis to end, the chief of the UN Mission on Ebola Emergency Response said: "We do not have an exact time, but I am convinced that we can end this crisis."

"But the question is how many people will die before it reaches its end," he added.

The deadliest Ebola outbreak on record has infected more than 8,000 people since it emerged in Guinea at the start of the year, killing 3,865.


http://news.yahoo.com/un-ebola-envoy-urges-quick-action-minimise-death-204159454.html

[Buster's Uncle]

Canada to step-up airport Ebola screenings
AFP
45 minutes ago



An medical worker feeds an Ebola child victim at an Medecins Sans Frontieres facility in Kailahun, Sierra Leone, on August 15, 2014 (AFP Photo/Carl de Souza)



Ottawa (AFP) - Passengers arriving from west African countries affected by the Ebola epidemic must go through tightened controls at Canadian airports, the health minister Rona Ambrose said Wednesday.

"Canada's preparedness is high," Ambrose said.

"The government will be taking the additional step of doing targeted temperature screens."

Ambrose did not specify when or where the controls would go into effect or which countries would be targeted.

Canada is preparing to take similar measures to the United States, which on Wednesday announced that stricter airport screenings would be implemented at five major airports.

The move follows the death in Texas of an Ebola patient who contracted the disease in Liberia.

The US airports implementing the measures are John F. Kennedy International in New York, Washington Dulles International, Chicago O'Hare International, Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International and Newark Liberty International in New Jersey.

The Ebola outbreak is the most serious since the disease was identified in 1976 and so far it has killed 3,865 people in 8,033 cases, according to the World Health Organization.


http://news.yahoo.com/canada-step-airport-ebola-screenings-235929155.html

[Buster's Uncle]

Deputy Who Delivered Ebola Quarantine Order in Hospital ER
ABC News
By SHAH RAHMANZADEH and GILLIAN MOHNEY  Oct 8, 2014, 5:51 PM ET



A sheriff's deputy who helped serve a quarantine order on the apartment where Texas Ebola patient Thomas Eric Duncan had been staying is being examined at a Dallas hospital for "possible exposure to the Ebola virus."

Dallas County Deputy Sheriff's Association confirmed Deputy Michael Monnig  was taken to the emergency room of Texas Health Presbyterian Dallas today.

"Right now, there are more questions than answers about this case," the hospital said in a statement.

Monnig  did not have contact with Duncan, who was hospitalized at the time the quarantine order was issued, and is not considered a high risk person, a Dallas County official told ABC News.

"Our professional staff of nurses and doctors is prepared to examine the patient, discuss any findings with appropriate agencies and officials. We are on alert with precautions and systems in place," the hospital said.

Frisco Fire Chief Mark Piland told reporters today Monnig  was initially treated at CareNow, an urgent care facility in Frisco, Texas, around 12:30 p.m. Wednesday.

Staff called for help after realizing the deputy’s symptoms and history matched the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention criteria for possible Ebola infection.

The Frisco fire department took the deputy from the urgent care facility in Frisco to the Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital in Dallas. The medics who transported the deputy are undergoing decontamination.

Piland told reporters the Ebola test results for the deputy will be available in about 48 hours. He also confirmed the deputy had been in contact with family members of Duncan and in the apartment where Duncan became ill, but that the deputy had not had contact with Duncan himself.

Piland also confirmed that Monnig  was not one of the 48 people already being monitored by public health officials for Ebola symptoms.

The deputy reported multiple symptoms associated with Ebola, according to Piland. The early symptoms of Ebola can include fever, headache, nausea and vomiting.

Frisco Mayor Maher Maso reassured residents that the health officials on the scene believe the danger of an Ebola infection was “low-risk.”

“Things sometimes turn out and sometimes do not,” said Piland. “We can’t afford to make mistakes.”

Fourteen other people at the urgent care center, including doctors nurses and patients, were allowed to leave based on the low level risk, according to Piland. The urgent care center has been reopened.

Dr. Tom Frieden, head of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, was asked about the patient.

“There is someone who does not have either definite contact or definite symptoms of Ebola, who is being assessed,” Frieden said.

“We are tracing the other 48 people” who were exposed to Duncan, he said. “None of them as of today have had fever or symptoms of Ebola.”

"We’re at peak incidence period of symptoms, which is 8 to 10 days after exposure," Frieden said. Each person being monitored has had their temperature taken by public health official every day since being identified, according to Frieden.

The Dallas County Sheriff's office said in a statement, “The deputy expressed concern and we directed that deputy to the Dallas County Health & Human Services for care. We now wait for further information as medical staff attends to the deputy."


http://abcnews.go.com/Health/deputy-delivered-ebola-quarantine-order-hospital-er/story?id=26055781

[Buster's Uncle]

Kerry urges all nations to boost Ebola fight
AFP
By Jo Biddle  4 hours ago



Washington (AFP) - US Secretary of State John Kerry issued an "urgent plea" Wednesday to all nations to step up the fight against Ebola, warning there was no time to waste as a Liberian died in a Texas hospital.

"The fact is more countries can and must step up," Kerry told reporters after talks with his British counterpart Philip Hammond, warning there were "still not enough countries to make the difference" as the world confronts the spread of the disease that has killed thousands in West Africa.

He was speaking just as Texas hospital officials confirmed that a Liberian man -- the first person who was diagnosed with Ebola outside West Africa -- had died.

Health officials in Dallas are monitoring dozens of people who may have come in contact with Thomas Duncan, including about 10 considered at high risk of contracting Ebola, after he arrived from Liberia on a family visit last month.

"Ebola is an urgent global crisis that demands an urgent global response," Kerry said, displaying a series of slides showing efforts by individual nations, and highlighting how small countries had in some ways done more per capita than their larger counterparts.

"I'm here this morning to make an urgent plea to countries in the world to step up even further. While we are making progress, we are not where we can say that we need to be," Kerry warned.

"There are additional needs that have to be met, in order for the global community to properly respond to this challenge and to make sure that we protect people in all of our countries."

Hammond agreed, saying the world could beat the Ebola crisis, which has killed some 3,865 people, according to the World Health Organization.

"If we get ahead of it, if we rise to the challenge, we can contain it and beat it. We know how to do this," Hammond said, as Britain unveiled plans to send 750 military personnel as well as a medical ship and three helicopters to Sierra Leone.



A teacher uses a thermometer to test the temperature of students, checking for possible Ebola fever at Adekunle primary school in Lagos, Nigeria, Wednesday, Oct. 8, 2014. Spotting any symptoms early is a key factor in treating any victims and in arresting the spread of this extremely contagious disease, according to health experts. (AP Photo/Sunday Alamba)


- Specific needs -

"We now need... the wider international community to step up to the plate and deliver that additional resource, not just money but trained medical and clinical personnel to lead that effort on the ground... We all have to do more if we are to prevent what is currently a crisis becoming a catastrophe," Hammond insisted.

Kerry said there was a need for Ebola treatment units, health care workers, medical evacuation abilities, as well as non-medical support such as telecommunications, generators and incinerators.

"Now is the time for action, not words, and frankly there is not a moment to waste on this effort," added Kerry.

He also called for airlines to continue to operate in West Africa and for countries to keep their borders open to allow medical experts and equipment free access.



Ebola virus facts  (WHO/Yahoo News)


So far the United States and Britain have together contributed $120 million to the fight against Ebola, with Canada putting up an additional $31.9 million, and a large amount coming from such institutions as the World Bank.

But there is a $306.2 million shortfall from the UN's goal of reaching $998 million to fight the epidemic.

"There are some bigger countries that have contributed less. There are some smaller countries that have contributed more," said State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki.

"A third of what is needed is not being filled... and the fact is, there are countries with tremendous resources that can do more."

She refused to name names, saying "these countries know who they are and that they can do more."


http://news.yahoo.com/kerry-urges-nations-boost-ebola-fight-155846761.html