Ebola news 10/12

[Buster's Uncle]

Texas health worker becomes second person diagnosed in U.S. with Ebola
Reuters
By Lisa Maria Garza  34 minutes ago



Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Director Dr. Thomas Frieden speaks at the CDC headquarters in Atlanta, Georgia in this September 30, 2014 file photo. A health worker in Texas at the hospital where the first person diagnosed with Ebola in the United States died last week has tested positive for the deadly virus in a preliminary test, the state's health department said on October 12, 2014. REUTERS/Tami Chappell/Files



DALLAS Texas (Reuters) - A health worker in Texas at the hospital treating the first person diagnosed with Ebola in the United States has tested positive for the deadly virus, raising fresh worries about the spread of the disease beyond West Africa.

The worker at the Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital had been wearing protective gear during treatment of the patient Thomas Eric Duncan, who died last week. The worker reported a low-grade fever on Friday night and was isolated and referred for testing, health officials said on Sunday.

"We knew a second case could be a reality, and we've been preparing for this possibility," said Dr. David Lakey, commissioner of the health service.

The worker is the first person in the United States to test positive for Ebola who has not been to West Africa, where an outbreak has killed more than 4,000 people, mostly in Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea.

"This individual was following full CDC precautions, which are barrier and droplet so gown, glove, mask and shield," Dan Varga, the hospital's chief clinical officer told a news conference in Dallas.

The hospital has been criticized for at first turning away Duncan when he first showed up there on Sept. 25, saying he had been in Liberia and had a fever. About two days after he was discharged, he was taken back by ambulance and put in an isolation unit.

The director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said in an interview with network CBS on Sunday there was likely a lapse in protocol at the hospital that led to the health care worker being infected.

"We're deeply concerned about this new development," Dr. Thomas Frieden said in an interview on CBS' "Face the Nation" on Sunday. "I think the fact that we don't know of a breach in protocol is concerning because clearly there was a breach in protocol."

Duncan died in an isolation ward on Oct. 8, 11 days after being admitted, with more than 50 people attending to his care. The hospital said it was decontaminating its isolation unit while health officials said Duncan's body had been cremated.

None of the 10 people who had close contact with him or 38 people who had contact with that group have shown any symptoms, state health officials said.

Texas officials did not identify the health worker or give any details about the person, but CNN said it was a woman nurse.

The CDC will conduct a test to confirm results of testing in Austin that showed the worker had Ebola, health officials said.

Dr. Anthony Fauci, the head of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said the patient had direct contact with Duncan in providing care. He predicted the CDC would "fortify" the protocols for caring for Ebola patients after reviewing the incident in Dallas.


EBOLA PAMPHLETS

There was a yellow hazardous material drum on the lawn of the red brick apartment where the health worker lived and information pamphlets about the Ebola virus were stuffed in the doors in the surrounding blocks of the apartment.

Neighbor Cliff Lawson, 57, was woken at 6:00 a.m. local time by two Dallas police officers who told him "don't panic."

"I went back to bed after that. There's nothing you can do about it. You can't wrap your house in bubble wrap," Lawson said.

A team is decontaminating the patient's apartment and car, Dallas Mayor Mike Rawlings said.

The patient, who has not been working for two days, was taking their own temperature twice a day. The worker informed the hospital of a fever and was isolated immediately upon their arrival, the hospital said in a statement.

"That health care worker is a heroic person who provided care to Mr Duncan," said Judge Clay Jenkins, chief executive of Dallas County.


SCREENING AT JFK AIRPORT

News of the second patient in Dallas came as U.S. authorities step up efforts to stop the spread of the virus.

New York's John F. Kennedy Airport on Saturday began the screening of travelers from the three hardest hit West African countries.

Liberia is the country worst affected by the virus with 2,316 victims, followed by 930 in Sierra Leone, 778 in Guinea, eight in Nigeria and one in the United States, the World Health Organization said on Friday. Some 4,033 people are known to have died in seven countries from the outbreak, it said.

Ebola is spread through contact with bodily fluids of an affected person or contamination from objects such as needles. People are not contagious before symptoms such as fever develop.

The United Nations said on Friday that its appeal for $1 billion to respond to the West Africa outbreak was only 25 percent funded.

(Reporting by Jim Forsyth in San Antonio, Frank McGurty in New York, David Bailey in Minneapolis and David Morgan in Washington; Writing by Jon Herskovitz, Jason Neely and Brendan O'Brien; Editing by Anna Willard and Stephen Powell)


http://news.yahoo.com/texas-worker-tests-positive-ebola-u-airports-start-122351337.html

[Buster's Uncle]

Health worker 2nd in US to test positive for Ebola
Associated Press
By NOMAAN MERCHANT  55 minutes ago



Police stand guard outside the apartment of a hospital worker and a yellow barrel, left, that holds hazardous materials, Sunday, Oct. 12, 2014, in Dallas. The Texas health care worker, who was in full protective gear when they provided hospital care for Ebola patient Thomas Eric Duncan, who later died, has tested positive for the virus and is in stable condition, health officials said Sunday. (AP Photo/Roger Steinman)



DALLAS (AP) — A Texas health care worker who was in full protective gear while providing hospital care for an Ebola patient who later died has tested positive for the virus and is in stable condition, health officials said Sunday. If the preliminary diagnosis is confirmed, it would be the first known case of the disease being contracted or transmitted in the U.S.

Meanwhile, a top federal health official said the health care worker's Ebola diagnosis shows there was a clear breach of safety protocol and all those who treated Thomas Eric Duncan are now considered to be potentially exposed.

Dr. Daniel Varga, of the Texas Health Resources, said during a news conference Sunday that the worker wore a gown, gloves, mask and shield while they provided care to Duncan during his second visit to Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital. Varga did not identify the worker and says the family of the worker has "requested total privacy."

Varga says the health care worker reported a fever Friday night as part of a self-monitoring regimen required by the Atlanta-based Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. He said another person also remains in isolation, and the hospital has stopped accepting new emergency room patients.

Duncan, the first person diagnosed with Ebola in the U.S., died Wednesday in Dallas.

"We knew a second case could be a reality, and we've been preparing for this possibility," Dr. David Lakey, commissioner of the Texas Department of State Health Services, said in a statement Sunday. "We are broadening our team in Dallas and working with extreme diligence to prevent further spread."



A sign points to the entrance to the emergency room at Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital Dallas, where U.S. Ebola patient Thomas Eric Duncan was being treated, in this Oct. 8, 2014 file photo, in Dallas. Health officials said Sunday Oct. 12, 2014 a health care worker at Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital who provided care for Eric Duncan has tested positive for Ebola in a preliminary test "confirmatory testing will be conducted by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta." (AP Photo/LM Otero, File)


But Dr. Tom Frieden, head of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, on Sunday raised concerns about a possible breach of safety protocol and told CBS' "Face the Nation" that among the things CDC will investigate is how the workers took off that gear — because removing it incorrectly can lead to a contamination.

"I think the fact that we don't know of a breach in protocol is concerning, because clearly there was a breach in protocol," Frieden said. "We have the ability to prevent the spread of Ebola by caring safely for patients ... We'll conduct a full investigation of what happens before health workers go in, what happens when they're there, and what happens in the taking out, taking off their protective equipment because infections only occur when there's a breach in protocol."

Health officials have interviewed the patient and are identifying any contacts or potential exposures. They said people who had contact with the health care worker after symptoms emerged will be monitored based on the nature of their interactions and the potential they were exposed to the virus.

Officials said they also received information that there may be a pet in the health care worker's apartment, and they have a plan in place to care for the animal. They do not believe the pet has signs of having contracted Ebola.

Judge Clay Jenkins, Dallas County's top administrative official, said the unidentified health care worker is a "heroic" person who "was proud to provide care to Mr. Duncan." He said the health care worker's family has requested privacy because they are "going through a great ordeal."



Police stand guard outside the apartment of a hospital worker and a yellow barrel, left, that holds hazardous materials, Sunday, Oct. 12, 2014, in Dallas. The Texas health care worker, who was in full protective gear when they provided hospital care for Ebola patient Thomas Eric Duncan, who later died, has tested positive for the virus and is in stable condition, health officials said Sunday. (AP Photo/Roger Steinman)


More than 4,000 people have died in the ongoing Ebola epidemic centered in West Africa, according to World Health Organization figures published Friday. Almost all of those deaths have been in the three worst-affected countries, Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea.

Health care workers treating Ebola patients are among the most vulnerable, even if wearing protective gear. A Spanish nurse assistant recently became the first health care worker infected outside west Africa during the ongoing outbreak: she helped care for a missionary priest who was brought to a Madrid hospital. More than 370 health care workers in west Africa have fallen ill or died in west Africa since epidemic began earlier this year.

Ebola spreads through close contact with a symptomatic person's bodily fluids, such as blood, sweat, vomit, feces, urine, saliva or semen. Those fluids must have an entry point, like a cut or scrape or someone touching the nose, mouth or eyes with contaminated hands, or being splashed. The World Health Organization says blood, feces and vomit are the most infectious fluids, while the virus is found in saliva mostly once patients are severely ill and the whole live virus has never been culled from sweat.

Thomas Eric Duncan, the first person diagnosed with Ebola in the U.S., died Wednesday in Dallas. Duncan 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 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.

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 had arrived at a friend's Dallas 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.


http://news.yahoo.com/state-health-officials-2nd-ebola-case-texas-102955708.html

[Buster's Uncle]

Brazil tests man for Ebola; ministry says in 'good shape'
Reuters
By Anthony Boadle and Pedro Fonseca  October 10, 2014 11:51 AM



A man suspected of being infected with Ebola arrives at the Evandor Chagas National Institute of Infectious Diseases in Rio de Janeiro October 10, 2014. REUTERS/Mauro dos Santos



BRASILIA/RIO DE JANEIRO (Reuters) - Doctors in Brazil were testing a West African man for Ebola on Friday, although the health ministry said the patient was "in good shape" and his slight fever has subsided.

Health Minister Arthur Chioro said the 47-year-old man arrived in Brazil on Sept. 19 from Guinea, one of three impoverished countries, along with Liberia and Sierra Leone, at the heart of an outbreak that has killed nearly 4,000 people since March.

Chioro noted that the patient had been in Brazil for the maximum incubation period for the Ebola virus of 21 days. The result of a test for the virus should be available by early Saturday, he said.

"We could not rule out (Ebola), even though it had been 20 days, given the fever and the patient's origin," Chioro told journalists in Brasilia. He said the patient was "in good shape" and did not have any other symptoms.

"No diarrhea, vomiting or other secretions," said Chioro. Ebola causes hemorrhagic fever, with symptoms including vomiting and diarrhea, and spreads through direct contact with body fluids.



Brazil's Health Minister Arthur Chioro reacts during a news conference on a suspected Ebola patient, in Brasilia October 10, 2014. REUTERS/Ueslei Marcelino


No cases have been reported in Latin America. The cases of a Liberian man who died after traveling to the United States and a Spanish nurse infected in Madrid after treating a priest who died, have put authorities on the alert globally for the disease spreading outside of West Africa.

The patient, whose name officials declined to provide, arrived in Brazil after a layover in Morocco. He described himself as a political refugee, Chioro said.

He went to an emergency room in the southern state of Parana on Thursday complaining of a fever, sore throat and a cough.

Although the patient had only a slightly elevated temperature, he was kept in total isolation and transferred to a healthcare facility in Rio de Janeiro early Friday, according to a health ministry statement.

Officials temporarily quarantined about 60 people who were in the same emergency room as the patient in the city of Cascavel in Parana state. After testing, the hospital personnel and patients were considered to be at low risk for infection. They were released Friday and will be monitored for 21 days.

(Additional reporting by Brad Haynes and Caroline Stauffer in Sao Paulo; Editing by Brian Winter and Grant McCool)


http://news.yahoo.com/brazil-tests-man-ebola-ministry-says-hes-good-135935389.html

[Buster's Uncle]

Brazil says man under observation for Ebola tests negative
Reuters
October 11, 2014 8:13 AM



SAO PAULO (Reuters) - Brazil's health ministry said on Saturday a man under observation for a possible case of Ebola has tested negative for the disease.

The 47-year-old man arrived in Brazil on Sept. 19 from Guinea, one of three African countries at the heart of an epidemic that has killed more than 4,000 people since March.

He went to an emergency room in the southern state of Parana on Thursday complaining of a fever, sore throat and a cough. Although he had only a slightly elevated temperature, the patient was kept in total isolation and transferred to a healthcare facility in Rio de Janeiro early on Friday.

The health ministry said the man remains in quarantine and will only receive a clean bill of health following a second exam scheduled to take place on Sunday.

(Reporting by Asher Levine; Editing by Sonya Hepinstall)


http://news.yahoo.com/brazil-says-man-under-observation-ebola-tests-negative-121313969.html

[Buster's Uncle]

US cites protocol breach after new Texas Ebola case
AFP
By Kerry Sheridan  21 minutes ago



A hazmat team clean the apartment where the confirmed Ebola virus patient was staying, on October 3, 2014 in Dallas, Texas (AFP Photo/Joe Raedle)



Washington (AFP) - Top US health authorities said Sunday a breach of protocol was to blame for the Ebola infection of a Texas health care worker who was said to have worn full protective gear.

The Dallas hospital where the woman worked said she had worn a mask, shield and gloves during her encounters with Thomas Eric Duncan, a Liberian who was diagnosed with Ebola in the United States last month and died on Wednesday.

The woman represents the first case of Ebola infection on US soil, and she is the second person to be diagnosed outside Africa. The disease has killed more than 4,000 people, nearly all of them in West Africa.

Her case has sparked an investigation by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), and a hunt for more health care workers who may have been exposed to the dangerous virus.

"We are deeply concerned by the news that a health care worker in Texas has tested preliminarily positive for infection with Ebola virus," CDC chief Tom Frieden told reporters.

"We don't know what occurred in the care of the index patient, the original patient in Dallas, but at some point there was a breach in protocol and that breach in protocol resulted in this infection."

The woman helped treat Duncan when he was admitted to the hospital on September 28 and had "extensive contact" with him on multiple occasions during his stay at Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital Dallas, Frieden said.



Director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Tom Frieden, addresses the media on October 5, 2014 in Atlanta, Georgia (AFP Photo/Kevin C. Cox)


She developed a fever on Friday. Initial lab tests on Saturday showed she had a low level of Ebola virus in her system, Frieden said.

She has told hospital workers she is unaware of any breach in protocol, officials said.

A nurse in Spain who contracted Ebola, after caring for two elderly missionaries who died of the virus, at first said she did not know how she contracted it, and later said she might have touched her face with an infected glove.

"We are evaluating other potential health care worker exposures," said Frieden. "It is possible that other individuals were exposed."

The female US health worker, whose identity was not revealed, is currently in isolation and in stable condition.

A confirmation of the Ebola test by the CDC was expected later in the day.



A possible Ebola patient is brought to the Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital on October 8, 2014 in Dallas, Texas (AFP Photo/Joe Raedle)


A close contact of the health care worker -- who CNN said was a female nurse, citing an unnamed official -- has also been placed in isolation, officials said at a press conference.


- 'No panic' -

"This is not news that should bring about panic," said Dallas county judge Clay Jenkins.

"We expected that something -- that it was possible that a second person could contract the virus."

The worker's family has requested total privacy, he added.

But Dan Varga, the chief clinical officer for Texas Health Resources, said officials were "very concerned" that the worker had apparently contracted the virus despite following safety protocol.

"This individual was following full CDC precautions," he said, noting that the gear would have included a mask, gown, and gloves.

Duncan was estimated to have come in contact with 48 people before he was admitted to the hospital on September 28.

The healthcare worker was not among those 48 people, all of whom are being monitored and who have shown no symptoms of Ebola.

Anthony Fauci, head of the National Institute for Allergy and Infectious Diseases, echoed Frieden's comments.

"Certainly there has to have been an inadvertent innocent breach of the protocol of taking care of a patient within the personal protective equipment," Fauci said on ABC's This Week.

"That extremely rarely happens. We've been taking care of Ebola patients since 1976. Groups like Doctors without Borders who do that almost never have an infection because of the experience of doing this."

He said the CDC was trying to find out what the breach involved.


http://news.yahoo.com/texas-health-worker-ebola-wore-full-protective-gear-140349381.html

[Buster's Uncle]

Medical evacuation services balk at flying out Ebola patients
Reuters
By Carolyn Cohn  October 11, 2014 7:36 AM



LONDON (Reuters) - Leading companies offering medical evacuation services are balking at flying Ebola patients out of West Africa for treatment abroad as the cost and the complexities of the deadly epidemic grow.

Several airlines have cut flights to the region and there are reports of countries not allowing air ambulances to make refueling stops, further complicating the so-called medevac option many companies provide for staffers in risky regions.

The world's worst Ebola epidemic since the disease was identified in 1976 has killed more than 4,000 people, mainly in West Africa. The virus, spread by contact with bodily fluids, causes fevers and potentially fatal bleeding.

Several foreign health workers have been repatriated for treatment after contracting Ebola in West Africa.

Two leading companies in the field - medical assistance company International SOS and insurance firm Allianz Worldwide Care - both recently said they would not provide medevac services for all patients with Ebola symptoms.

An International SOS spokesman clarified the company's position on Saturday to say that did not mean their services were not available under any circumstances, and pointed to a new statement on its website.

"International evacuation for patients with active clinical symptoms of Ebola is extremely limited and may not be achievable if patients have any uncontrolled body fluids, such as vomiting, diarrhoea or bleeding," the statement read on Saturday.

An earlier statement said that "evacuation should not be considered as feasible" for patients with active clinical symptoms of Ebola.

The medical insurance firm Allianz Worldwide Care ruled out such services in an online statement updated on Wednesday, saying: "Our air ambulance partners are currently not evacuating patients with suspected or confirmed Ebola infection out of affected regions due to the highly complex nature of evacuations when Ebola or other viral haemorrhagic fevers are involved.

"In the case of suspected or confirmed Ebola cases, we would liaise closely with our clients and brokers to see whether there is any possibility of military medical evacuation via support from the patient’s local embassy and home government."


MEDEVAC AND EPIDEMICS

An Allianz spokeswoman said no insurers or air ambulances were able to evacuate people with symptoms of Ebola.

Other insurance and assistance firms contacted by Reuters declined to comment, did not respond to requests for comment or said they had not dealt with Ebola cases.

Insurance companies often provide medical evacuation as a routine part of international health insurance policies, but the evacuation option may not apply in the case of an epidemic.

Reductions in the cover provided by insurance or assistance companies may make the job of non-governmental organisations harder, as they battle to fight the virus.

Save the Children will be managing an Ebola treatment centre in Sierra Leone, which will involve employing "scores of people" in the country, a Save the Children spokesman said.

He said the charity's workers were covered by medical insurance. "What we cannot say is that we can absolutely cover evacuation, I do not think anybody possibly can, because of availability of aircraft," he said.

"All options of evacuation would be assessed on a case by case basis," he added.

Insurance specialists estimate medical evacuation from West Africa could cost at least 45-65,000 pounds ($72-104,000) per person.

International SOS provides services such as clinics and emergency assistance for member companies around the world.

Evacuation only makes up 2-3 percent of its work, the spokesman said, including the evacuation of healthy workers who can travel on regular or specially chartered flights.

The cost of medical evacuation, however, would be met by the member companies themselves or by their insurance companies, he added.

Another complication is that Ebola patients may simply not be well enough to be moved. Those symptoms would involve the secretion of bodily fluids, the International SOS spokesman said.

(1 US dollar = 0.6238 British pound)

(Reporting by Carolyn Cohn; Editing by Tom Heneghan and Sonya Hepinstall)


http://news.yahoo.com/medical-evacuation-services-balk-flying-ebola-patients-113613724.html

[Buster's Uncle]

Ebola funds should not be repackaged aid, Africa bank chief says
Reuters
By Lesley Wroughton and Alphonso Toweh  9 hours ago



President of the African Development Bank (AFDB) Donald Kaberuka speaks during the opening of the conference "Value for Money, Sustainability and Accountability in the Health Sector" in Tunis July 4, 2012. REUTERS/Zoubeir Souissi



WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The head of the African Development Bank expressed concern on Saturday that some donors responding to the Ebola crisis were repackaging aid money, funneling it away from other areas in need in the three countries at the center for the epidemic.

In an interview, Donald Kaberuka said moving funds from already allocated development projects in Liberia, Guinea and Sierra Leone was unhelpful in the long term and make their rebuilding harder.

"I have told donors that I hope what they are announcing is additional resources because if it isn't ...once (Ebola) is gone we will have no resources to build health care systems and continue reconstruction," Kaberuka told Reuters on the sidelines of meetings in Washington of the International Monetary Fund and World Bank.

"We need to put new money on the table," he said, adding that he feared that once the crisis eased countries would be left without funding for development projects earmarked before Ebola arrived.

Ebola, a hemorrhagic fever, has killed more than 4,000 people since March in an epidemic centered around the three impoverished countries.

The outbreak has reverberated throughout the three countries' economies, hampering mining, disrupting the farming and service sectors and prompting concerns that it will scare away the huge investment interested that existed before Ebola.

After getting off to a slow start, the international response to the Ebola crisis has gathered steam with donors pledging hundreds of millions of dollars in aid.

Kaberuka has criticized the international response to the Ebola outbreak as too little, too late.

"It was treated as a small, local public health problem in a remote part of Africa with no global significance," said Kaberuka, a former finance minister from Rwanda. It should be treated just as SARS or mad cow disease were and not as a disease of Africans, he said.

Kaberuka said it was vital that the aid money go through budgets of the governments of the three countries to help them better coordinate the response. The bulk of foreign aid was going toward supporting aid agencies, international care and food supplies, he added.

"We need to make sure that the governments of Sierra Leone, Liberia and Guinea have money in their budgets to pay health workers, to ensure they have the ability to coordinate all of this," he said. "In a situation like this there are so many little things happening but somebody has to tie it together and that can only be a government."

The AfDB itself has pledged $210 million to the three countries and is open to putting more on the table if needed, said Kaberuka. The World Health Organization estimated that $1 billion will be need to be spent to limit the spread of Ebola.

The region needed to quickly show it was in control of the situation to maintain investor confidence, said Kaberuka.

But he said businesses also had to step up to help with logistics, including mobile phone companies, soft drink firms, and mining companies.


http://news.yahoo.com/ebola-funds-not-repackaged-aid-africa-bank-chief-072224137--business.html

[Buster's Uncle]

Texas health care worker tests positive for Ebola
Reuters
5 hours ago



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



(Reuters) - A Texas health worker who provided care for the first person diagnosed with Ebola in the United States has tested positive for the deadly virus in a preliminary examination, a state health official said on Sunday.

The health care worker at the Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital reported a low-grade fever Friday night and was isolated and referred for testing, the Texas Department of State Health Services said in a statement.

"We knew a second case could be a reality, and we've been preparing for this possibility," said Dr. David Lakey, commissioner of the health service.

The first person in the United States diagnosed with Ebola, Liberia citizen Thomas Eric Duncan, died in an isolation ward of the Dallas hospital on Oct. 8, 11 days after being admitted.

The U.S. government has since ordered five airports to start screening passengers from West Africa for fever.

The number of people known to have died in the worst Ebola outbreak on record has risen to 4,033 out of 8,399 cases in seven countries, the World Health Organization said on Friday.

Liberia has been the worst affected country with 2,316 victims, followed by 930 in Sierra Leone, 778 in Guinea, eight in Nigeria and one in the United States, WHO said.

(Reporting by Jason Neely)


http://news.yahoo.com/texas-health-care-worker-tests-positive-ebola-100052941.html

[Buster's Uncle]

Spanish nurse infected with Ebola makes progress
Associated Press
By HAROLD HECKLE  2 hours ago



A medical practitioner wearing protective clothing stands next to an isolated patient on the sixth floor of the the Carlos III hospital in Madrid, Spain, Saturday, Oct. 11, 2014. A Spanish hospital official says Teresa Romero, the nursing assistant infected with Ebola is "stable," hours after authorities described her condition as critical. She is the first person known to have caught the disease outside the outbreak zone in West Africa. Romero contracted the virus while helping treat a Spanish missionary who became infected in West Africa, and later died. (AP Photo/Daniel Ochoa de Olza)



MADRID (AP) — Spain's Ebola patient showed some marginal signs of recovery Sunday but European infectious diseases experts found shortcomings that need fixing in the Madrid hospital designated to deal with Ebola cases, officials said Sunday.

Assistant nurse Teresa Romero, who was infected with the Ebola in a Madrid hospital after having contact with two Spanish missionaries who later died from the virus, is showing signs of "slight improvement," a government statement said.

But the statement also said that Romero's prognosis remains serious and further complications can't be ruled out.

The statement added that a committee from the European Center for Disease Prevention and Control who visited Madrid's Carlos III hospital concluded that it wasn't suitable to meet emergencies such as an Ebola outbreak.

Fernando Simon, the Health Ministry's coordinator of emergency alerts, said one sign for optimism was that "the virus load" in Romero's bloodstream was decreasing.

Simon told a news conference at Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy's official residence that he had met with the two-man European communicable disease threats committee and been told of its concerns.



A medical practitioner wearing protective clothing stands next to an isolated patient on the sixth floor of the Carlos III hospital in Madrid, Spain, Saturday, Oct. 11, 2014. A Spanish hospital official says Teresa Romero, the nursing assistant infected with Ebola is "stable," hours after authorities described her condition as critical. She is the first person known to have caught the disease outside the outbreak zone in West Africa. Romero contracted the virus while helping treat a Spanish missionary who became infected in West Africa, and later died. (AP Photo/Daniel Ochoa de Olza)


He said the area that needed to be improved was the airlocks leading into and out of the quarantine area at the Carlos III hospital.

"The airlocks were set up to deal with highly infectious situations, but what hadn't been foreseen was a need for bulky outfits to perform certain medical procedures in," Simon said.

He said the airlocks had been deemed too tight for such protective apparel.

Health authorities have said they suspected Romero may have become infected when she accidentally touched her face with a gloved hand while taking off protective gear in a small airlock.

Another Spanish nurse who had also treated a patient infected with the virus in Africa was released from the hospital late Saturday after twice testing negative for Ebola.

The patient, Manuel Garcia Viejo, died of Ebola on Sept. 25. He had been medical director of a Sierra Leone hospital for 12 years.


http://news.yahoo.com/spanish-nurse-infected-ebola-makes-progress-105537579.html

[Buster's Uncle]

Spanish Ebola victim conscious and sitting unaided
Reuters
19 hours ago



Countries across the world scrambled Saturday to stem a deadly Ebola outbreak that is getting worse "every day", as the condition of a Spanish nurse infected with the disease improved. Travelers were screened and safety drills were carried out as a UN official just back from west Africa warned the disease, which has killed more than 4,000 people there, was outpacing efforts to fight it. The head of the United Nations' emergency Ebola mission Anthony Banbury, told UN leaders after a tour of Liberia, Guinea and Sierra Leone, that "the virus is far ahead of us and every day the situation gets worse."



MADRID (Reuters) - The Spanish nurse infected with Ebola was conscious and sitting unaided on Saturday, as three more people joined 12 others hospitalized in Madrid to be monitored for signs of the deadly disease.

Teresa Romero, 44, is the only person known to have caught the virus outside Africa. None of the 15 others still under observation has been diagnosed with Ebola so far, though the Spanish government is under fire for its handling both of Romero's case and the threat of a wider outbreak of the disease.

Reuters images showed Romero alert and sitting upright in her hospital room with an oxygen mask strapped to her face and responding to the hospital staff attending to her. She had taken a turn for the worse two days ago, health authorities said, and is still considered critical.

"Teresa Romero's condition has undergone no significant changes and is still serious, but stable," a government Ebola committee said in a statement on Saturday afternoon.

The latest outbreak of the disease has already killed more than 4,000 people, mostly in West Africa, and Romero's case has raised fears about contagion in Europe and elsewhere.

"The big problem is in West Africa where the doubling rate is every four weeks and it really is going up and up, so it will not be surprising if we have spillover into this country," said Sally Davies, Britain's chief medical officer.



Teresa Romero, the Spanish nurse who contracted Ebola, is seen inside her room at an isolation ward on the sixth floor at Madrid's Carlos III Hospital October 11, 2014. REUTERS/Andrea Comas


"I would expect a handful of cases over the next few months," Davies told BBC TV after an eight-hour nationwide drill to test the country's readiness to deal with an Ebola outbreak.

Britain has said it will start screening passengers for Ebola who enter the country through London's two main airports and by railway from continental Europe. The United States on Saturday began screening travelers from West Africa at New York's John F. Kennedy International airport.

Spain's government tightened Ebola detection protocols on Friday and tasked Deputy Prime Minister Soraya Saenz de Santamaria with responding to the health crisis, five days after the contagion was confirmed.

Romero was diagnosed with Ebola after caring for two priests who had contracted the disease in Africa and were then repatriated to Spain. Both men died, one in August and one in September.

Another nurse who treated one of the priests was released from hospital late on Saturday, after testing negative for Ebola.



Teresa Romero, the Spanish nurse who contracted Ebola, is attended by medical workers inside her room at an isolation ward on the sixth floor at Madrid's Carlos III Hospital October 11, 2014. REUTERS/Andrea Comas


A hairdresser, another nurse and a cleaner, all of whom came into contact with Romero, were admitted to the isolation unit at the Carlos III hospital on Friday evening. The 13 who were already under observation included Romero's husband.

An experimental treatment, ZMab, is available in Spain for use in her case, a health source said. However, it was not clear whether she was now being given the drug. She was given antibodies from previously infected patients earlier this week.

The ZMab combination drug, made by Canada-based company Defyrus Inc., is one of the agents used to make ZMapp, another treatment, which was developed by MappBiopharmaceutical Inc. ZMapp has been used on some Ebola sufferers, a number of whom survived, but available supplies are exhausted.

Hospital authorities and the government declined to comment.



Demonstrators chant and clap during a protest over the government's handling of Ebola in Madrid, October 11, 2014. REUTERS/Paul Hanna


THROWING GLOVES

Amid disquiet in Spain over how the virus could have spread, some government officials initially deflected blame to the nurse, Romero, seizing on her admission that she may have touched her face with the gloves of her protective suit.

Angry health workers jeered Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy on Friday as he visited the hospital, throwing surgical gloves at his car. Unions and the public have also laid into the government for its sluggish response.

Romero remained undiagnosed for days despite reporting she had a fever, one symptom of Ebola.

"The bad way this crisis was handled by politicians proved fertile ground for panic," El Mundo newspaper said on an editorial on Saturday. It described the case of one school that wanted a nurse to keep her child away, because she worked in another Madrid hospital where Romero was first admitted.

Several hundred protesters calling for government officials to step down gathered in central Madrid on Saturday evening, carrying a banner that read "We are all Teresa". Earlier in the day, animal rights campaigners demonstrated in several cities because the Madrid government had Romero's pet dog, Excalibur, put down this week, fearing it could spread the disease.

Three hairdressers were among those under observation on Saturday, after Romero visited a salon for a beauty treatment before she was diagnosed.

Patients also included five doctors, a hospital porter and four nurses, one of whom had also cared for one of the repatriated priests and tested negative for Ebola in an initial examination.

A man in one of the hospital wards cleared for the patients under observation could be seen at a window on Saturday, smiling and waving a banner which read 36.1 degrees celsius - meaning he has no fever.

(Reporting by Sarah White, additional reporting by Robert Hetz, Andrea Comas and Sonya Dowsett in Madrid, Michael Holden in London and Reuters television; Editing by Stephen Powell, Larry King and David Gregorio)


http://news.yahoo.com/ebola-monitoring-rises-spain-tries-contain-health-crisis-113329659.html

[Buster's Uncle]

Nations step up measures to stem worsening Ebola outbreak
AFP
By Roland Lloyd Parry  9 hours ago



Arriving passengers make their way from Terminal 4 at John F Kennedy (JFK) International Airport on October 11, 2014 (AFP Photo/Jewel Samad)



Madrid (AFP) - New York's JFK airport began strict new health screenings for travelers from Ebola-hit West African nations as countries across the world scrambled Sunday to stem a deadly Ebola outbreak.

Passengers and crew arriving at John F Kennedy International Airport from the three countries at the centre of the outbreak will have their temperatures taken and be screened for signs of illness and answer questions about possible exposure, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said.

"Exit screening might not find every person with Ebola, however, it does not have to be perfect to help reduce the spread of Ebola," the CDC said in a statement.

Four other major US airports are to start similar checks next week.

In Latin America, Peru and Uruguay have announced airport measures and Mexico and Nicaragua planned to tighten controls of migrants heading for US soil as an Ebola precaution.

And in Madrid, the serious condition of a Spanish nurse, who was the first person to become infected with Ebola outside of Africa, showed signs of improving.

More than 4,000 people have died from Ebola in seven countries since the start of the year, according to the UN's World Health Organisation, and the disease appears to be outpacing efforts to fight it.



A protester holds her nurse identification card during a demonstration in support of Spanish nurse Teresa Romero, who is infected with the deadly Ebola virus, in Madrid on October 11, 2014 (AFP Photo/Curto De La Torre)


"The virus is far ahead of us and every day the situation gets worse," the head of the United Nations' emergency Ebola mission Anthony Banbury, told UN leaders after a tour of Liberia, Guinea and Sierra Leone, the nations worst affected by the epidemic.

Amid fears of a global contagion, two countries on Saturday ruled out suspect cases.

The Brazilian health ministry reported a Guinean man tested negative for Ebola.

And in Macedonia, tests showed that a British man who died displaying Ebola-like symptoms did not have the virus, officials said.


- Spanish nurse's condition improves -

IMF chief Christine Lagarde on Saturday pleaded with people to remember that all of Africa has not been hit with the deadly Ebola epidemic, which remains relatively isolated in three countries.



International Monetary Fund (IMF) Managing Director Christine Lagarde points to a badge reading "Isolate Ebola Not Countries" at a press conference during the annual IMF/World Bank meetings in Washington on October 11, 2014 (AFP Photo/Nicholas Kamm)


With those three West African nations -- Sierra Leone, Guinea and Liberia -- already seeing their economies crumble because of the disease, Lagarde emphasised: "We should be very careful not to terrify the planet in respect of the whole of Africa."

In Spain, attention remained focused on 44-year-old nurse Teresa Romero, whose condition "improved in the night. She is conscious and talks from time to time when she is in a good mood," a hospital source told AFP.

Romero's brother confirmed late Saturday that his sister was improving.

"She no longer has a fever, it appears that while remaining seriously ill

she's getting better and moving forward, She' still in a serious but stable condition and this gives us hope," Jose-Ramon Romero told private television channel La Sexta.

Teresa Romero is thought to have contracted the disease in late September in a Madrid hospital while caring for a Spanish missionary infected with Ebola in Africa who later died.



People leave a hotel in Skopje, on October 11, 2014, after a quarantine was lifted (AFP Photo/Robert Atanasovski)


Fifteen other people, mostly hospital staff as well as Romero's husband, are under observation at the Carlos III hospital where Romero is being treated. The hospital said none of them were showing any symptoms.

Officials at the Madrid hospital insisted there was no risk of infection from patients under observation, including Romero's husband, who were photographed leaning out of the windows of their hospital rooms.

The Spanish hospital source added that doctors started treating Romero with the experimental Ebola treatment ZMapp late on Friday.


- Experimental drugs, vaccine -

There is still no vaccine or widely available treatment for Ebola, but ZMapp, made in California, is one of several drugs that have been fast-tracked for development.

And Russia's Health Minister Veronika Skvortsova announced Saturday that her country has "created three (Ebola) vaccines... and we think they will be ready in the next six months".

Trials for an Ebola vaccine are under way in Mali, which has no cases of the disease but borders Guinea where the outbreak began.

That vaccine is being developed by the British drug company GlaxoSmithKline and the US National Institutes of Health (NIH).

The WHO reported 4,033 people have died from Ebola as of October 8 out of a total of 8,399 registered cases in seven countries.

The sharp rise in deaths came as the UN said aid pledges to fight the epidemic have fallen well short of the $1 billion (800 million euros) needed.

Britain held a nationwide exercise on Saturday to test its preparedness for an Ebola outbreak.

Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt said afterwards that the country was ready to cope with any outbreak.

The Canadian government advised its citizens to leave the west African countries most affected by Ebola. It took measures at its own borders to screen for potentially exposed travellers.

Ebola concern also spread to the sports world, with hosts Morocco calling for the January-February 2015 Africa Cup of Nations to be postponed, but the African Football Confederation said the schedule would not be changed.


http://news.yahoo.com/yorks-jfk-airport-launches-ebola-screenings-055016919.html

[Buster's Uncle]

2nd Person in US Tests Positive for Ebola
LiveScience.com
By Rachael Rettner  24 minutes ago



A scanning electron micrograph of the Ebola virus.



A second person in Dallas has tested positive for Ebola after coming in contact with a man from Liberia who was infected with the deadly virus, officials said today.

This second patient is a health care worker at Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital, and helped care for Thomas Eric Duncan, the first person to be diagnosed with Ebola in the United States, according to the Texas Department of State Health Services.

The health care worker came down with a fever Friday night, and a preliminary test was positive for Ebola, officials said. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention will perform a second test to confirm the results. This testing is underway and will be completed later today, Dr. Tom Frieden, director of the CDC, said in a news conference today.

The second patient had extensive contact with Duncan during his care, Frieden said. Health officials don't know how the health care worker became infected, but "at some point there was a breach in protocol, and that breach in protecol resulted in this infection," Frieden said. There will now be a complete investigation to understand how this infection might have occured, and prevent it from happening in the future, he said.

"It is certainly very concerning," Frieden said, referring to the possible new case. "It tells us that there is a need to enhance training and protocols to make sure the protocols are followed," he said. Frieden noted that even a single slip can result in infection.

Some high-risk situations for contracting the Ebola virus are when health care workers perform kidney dialysis and respiratory intubation of infected patients, and when health care workers take off personal protective equipment, Frieden said.

The CDC had previously said it was monitoring about 48 people who had contact with Duncan before he was isolated. The second Ebola case was not one of these original 48 people — she was monitoring herself, and sought care when she developed symptoms, Frieden said. Now health officials will formally monitor people who had contact with Duncan during his care, and will identify people who had contact with the second case after she started to show symptoms, Frieden said. So far, it appears that only one person had contact with the second case while she may have been infectious, he said.

"We knew a second case could be a reality, and we've been preparing for this possibility," Dr. David Lakey, commissioner of the Texas Department of State Health Services, said in a statement. "We are broadening our team in Dallas and working with extreme diligence to prevent further spread."

Ebola is spread through contact with the bodily fluids, such as blood or secretions, of an infected individual, or by contact with contaminated objects. People with Ebola are only contagious after they start showing symptoms.


http://news.yahoo.com/2nd-person-us-tests-positive-ebola-180844140.html

[Buster's Uncle]

U.S. military faces new kind of threat with Ebola
Reuters
By Phil Stewart  13 hours ago



A soldier goes through the decontamination process with U.S. Army soldiers from the 101st Airborne Division (Air Assault), who are earmarked for the fight against Ebola, take part in training before their deployment to West Africa, at Fort Campbell, Kentucky October 9, 2014. REUTERS/Harrison McClary



(Reuters) - At Fort Campbell in Kentucky, spouses of U.S. soldiers headed to Liberia seem to be lingering just a bit longer than usual after pre-deployment briefings, hungry for information about Ebola.

For these families, the virus is raising a different kind of anxiety than the one they have weathered during 13 years of ground war in Afghanistan and Iraq. They want to know how the military can keep soldiers safe from the epidemic, a new addition to the Army's long list of threats.

"Ebola is a different problem set that the division hasn't (faced) before," said Major General Gary Volesky, who will soon head to Liberia along with soldiers from the 101st Airborne Division.

There are already more than 350 U.S. troops on the ground in West Africa, mostly in Liberia, including a handful from the 101st. That number is set to grow exponentially in the coming weeks as the military races to expand Liberia's infrastructure so it can battle Ebola.

The military has already stood up a headquarters in Liberia's capital, Monrovia, and hopes to have a 25-bed field hospital up and running by the middle of this month. It also aims to quickly build up to 17 Ebola treatment units.



U.S. Army soldiers from the 101st Airborne Division (Air Assault), who are earmarked for the fight against Ebola, train before their deployment to West Africa, at Fort Campbell, Kentucky October 9, 2014. REUTERS/Harrison McClary


Volesky said he has seen more of what he called "stay behind dialogue" after these pre-deployment briefings, something he encourages.

The message at Fort Campbell and at American military bases elsewhere is that the threat from Ebola is manageable. With the right precautions, the risk is low. U.S. soldiers certainly will not be treating sick Liberians and, if all goes according to plan, they will not interact with them either.

But there is still concern among military families. That is something U.S. forces on the ground say they are wrestling with, even as they report feeling relatively safe from infection.

"I have two kids ... Of course they're worrying about their dad," Lieutenant Colonel Scott Sendmeyer, the chief engineer now in Monrovia, told Reuters by phone.

"At the same time, I've shared the training that I've received with my family ... That's the way I (relieve) them of their fears."



Pfc. Kaiya Capuchino from U.S. Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases (USAMRIID) trains US Army soldiers from the 101st Airborne Division (Air Assault), who are earmarked for the fight against Ebola, before their deployment to West Africa, at Fort Campbell, Kentucky October 9, 2014. REUTERS/Harrison McClary


The hemorrhagic fever, which has no proven cure, has killed more than 4,000 people in West Africa since an outbreak that began in March. More than half the dead have been in Liberia, where the healthcare system is still reeling from a devastating 1989-2003 civil war.


SAFETY TRAINING

The risks of failing to contain Ebola in West Africa have come into sharp focus in the United States after the first patient diagnosed with the disease on U.S. soil, Thomas Eric Duncan, died on Wednesday.

As the Ebola threat evolves, the Pentagon has acknowledged the size and duration of the mission in West Africa could too. Deployments might even top the current projection of nearly 4,000, an increase from an earlier estimate of around 3,000.

To operate safely in Monrovia and beyond, the Army is giving soldiers safety training, including a course for 150 soldiers on Thursday at Fort Campbell.

The group of soldiers carefully listened to instructors from the U.S. Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases, who spelled out the dangerous of Ebola, which kills nearly half of the people it infects.

Captain Alex Willard, who was undergoing the training, said the West Africa mission was far different than the kinds of operations in Iraq and Afghanistan than many in the 101st "probably are more comfortable with."

(Additional reporting by David Lawder, Patricia Zengerle and Gershon Peaks; Editing by David Storey and Tom Brown)


http://news.yahoo.com/u-military-faces-kind-threat-ebola-055717486--finance.html

[Buster's Uncle]

CDC: Protocol breach in treating Ebola patient
Associated Press
By CAROLE FELDMAN  2 hours ago



Ebola outbreak in west Africa, Nigeria and aboard as of Oct. 10, 2014. (World Health Organization/Yahoo News)



WASHINGTON (AP) — Top federal health officials said Sunday that the Ebola diagnosis in a health care worker who treated Thomas Eric Duncan at a Texas hospital clearly indicates a breach in safety protocol.

But the unidentified worker has been unable to pinpoint where that breach might have occurred, according to Dr. Tom Frieden, head of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

"Á single inadvertent slip can result in contamination," he said during a briefing.

He said the CDC has recommended that the hospital where the worker is being treated — and where Duncan died Wednesday — should keep "to an absolute minimum" those who care for Ebola patients and should perform only those procedures that are essential to a patient's treatment.

The agency also called on the hospital to put in place a "full-time individual responsible for oversight of infection control."

"In terms of safe and effective care, we had already begun several days ago to ramp up the education and training of health care workers at this facility," Frieden said.

He cautioned that additional health care workers could develop Ebola even as he expressed confidence that the "chain of Ebola" could be broken.

He said that the CDC, as part of its investigation on how the worker became infected, would look at dialysis and intubation, procedures with the potential for spreading infectious material, as well as the removal of protective gear. Removing it incorrectly can lead to a contamination, he said.

There is a balance in the use of personal safety equipment, Frieden said, and "putting more on isn't always safer. It may make it harder, to provide effective care."

Earlier, on CBS' "Face the Nation," Frieden said the worker was doing self-monitoring. "Immediately when they developed symptoms, they isolated themselves, they were promptly isolated at the hospital so that any further spread from that individual was stopped," he said.

Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said there "certainly had to have been an inadvertent, innocent breach of protocol of taking care of a patient within the personal protective equipment."

"We do know what when you do follow that protocol, it works," he told ABC's "This Week."

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

In Spain, a nursing assistant diagnosed with the virus after caring for an Ebola patient recalled touching her gloved hand to her face while removing equipment and health authorities there are looking at that as a possible cause of infection.

"We know from many years of experience that it's possible to care for patients with Ebola safely without risk to health care workers," Frieden said. "But we also know it's hard."


http://news.yahoo.com/cdc-protocol-breach-treating-ebola-patient-133253723--politics.html

[Buster's Uncle]

Signs of hope for Spanish nurse with Ebola, officials say
Reuters
3 hours ago



MADRID (Reuters) - Spanish health authorities said on Sunday there were signs of hope for a nurse infected with Ebola in Madrid as the levels of the virus in her body were diminishing, though they also said she remained in a serious condition.

Teresa Romero, 44, became the first known person to become infected with Ebola outside Africa during the current outbreak after she cared for two infected priests repatriated to Spain for treatment. The priests later died.

"The patient appears to be in a stable condition ... There are some signs that could give us cause for some hope," Fernando Simon, a high level official at Spain's Health Ministry, told a news conference.

"There are high hopes that the infection is starting to come under control," he said, adding she was not yet out of danger.

"We have to be very cautious," Simon said.

The worst ever Ebola outbreak has killed over 4,000 people, mostly in West Africa, although the disease - which causes hemorrhagic fever and is passed on through direct contact with body fluids from an infected person - has started spreading elsewhere.

A health worker in Texas tested positive for the disease in a preliminary test, the state's health department said on Sunday. The worker had helped care for Thomas Eric Duncan, who was diagnosed with Ebola in the United States after arriving from his native Liberia. He died last week.

Romero has spent the past week in hospital and had taken a turn for the worse a few days ago. On Saturday evening, however, she was conscious and was responding to hospital staff after being given antibodies from previously infected patients.

Spain is still investigating how exactly Romero could have contracted the disease, amid recriminations over the government's handling of the case.

Some Spanish media have said Romero has been treated with ZMab, a combination drug made by Canada-based company Defyrus Inc. ZMab is one of the agents used to make ZMapp, an experimental treatment which has been used on some Ebola sufferers, a number of whom survived.

Spanish authorities have not confirmed the reports. A health source said ZMab was available in Spain but could not confirm whether it had been used in Romero's case.

Fifteen people, including Romero's husband, are being monitored for signs of Ebola in a special isolation unit of Madrid's Carlos III hospital. None have so far shown any symptoms.

(Reporting by Sarah White and Silvio Castellanos; Editing by Gareth Jones)


http://news.yahoo.com/signs-hope-spanish-nurse-ebola-officials-154050545.html