Ebola news 10/12

[Buster's Uncle]

Ebola Screening Begins at Select U.S. Airports
Takepart.com
By Kristina Bravo | 22 hours ago



New York’s John F. Kennedy International Airport ramped up its effort to prevent the spread of Ebola on Saturday when it began taking the temperatures of travelers arriving from three West African nations.

Department of Homeland Security officials are screening passengers from the hardest-hit countries: Guinea, Liberia, and Sierra Leone, where 4,024 out of 4,033 Ebola deaths hav occurred, according to a report released by the World Health Organization on Friday. After temperatures are taken with no-contact thermometers, travelers with a fever are interviewed to verify whether they’ve been exposed to a person infected with the virus.

“Already 100 percent of the travelers leaving the three infected countries are being screened on exit. Sometimes multiple times temperatures are checked along that process,” said Martin Cetron, director of the Division of Global Migration and Quarantine for the Centers of Disease Control and Prevention, at a briefing in Kennedy.

Chicago’s O’Hare, New Jersey’s Newark Liberty, Atlanta’s Hartsfield-Jackson, and Washington Dulles in Virginia—all have quarantine areas like JFK—will adopt the screening precaution next week.

About 150 people travel every day from or through Guinea, Liberia, or Sierra Leone to the U.S., custom officials told The Associated Press. Almost 95 percent of them arrive at one of these five airports. Though no direct flights from the three countries to the U.S. are scheduled, Homeland Security traces where passengers begin their trips. According to the AP, airlines from Morocco, France, and Belgium still travel to and from West Africa.

Still, Americans shouldn’t be alarmed. According to CDC guidelines, “The risk of spreading Ebola to passengers or crew on an aircraft is low because Ebola spreads by direct contact with infected body fluids. Ebola does NOT spread through the air like flu.”


http://news.yahoo.com/ebola-screening-begins-select-u-airports-211148903.html

[Buster's Uncle]

New Jersey officials order 'symptom-less' NBC News crew into Ebola quarantine
Reuters
21 hours ago


(Reuters) - Members of an NBC News crew who worked with a cameraman who contracted Ebola in Liberia have been quarantined, New Jersey health officials said on Saturday.

Officials said the order was issued late Friday after the crew members violated an agreement to voluntarily confine themselves. They said none of the team has exhibited symptoms of the often fatal disease since returning from Liberia, one of three West African countries at the epicenter of the outbreak.

Meanwhile, the condition of the freelance American cameraman continued to improve. At Nebraska Medical Center, Ashoka Mukpo, 33, has received the experimental drug Brincidofovir and a blood transfusion from Dr. Kent Brantly, who earlier recovered from a bout with Ebola at Emory University Hospital in Atlanta. Brantly also contracted the disease in Liberia.

Mukpo "is eating some solid food now, so we’re still headed in the right direction," said Dr. Phil Smith, director of the biocontainment unit at Nebraska Medical Center.

The death this week of the first person diagnosed with Ebola in the United States has increased fears that the disease could spread outside West Africa, where it has killed more than 4,000 people. U.S. health authorities are stepping up efforts to stop the spread of the deadly virus.

Medical teams at New York's John F. Kennedy Airport, armed with Ebola questionnaires and temperature guns, began screening passengers who traveled from Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea on Saturday.

The NBC News crew had agreed with health officials to stay in their homes after returning to the United States but then failed to do so, Donna Leusner, a spokeswoman for the New Jersey Department of Health, said in a statement.

The mandatory quarantine will ensure the group remains confined until Oct. 22, the end of a 21-day maximum incubation period for Ebola, Leusner said.

"The NBC crew remains symptom-free, so there is no reason for concern of exposure to the community," she said.

NBC News has reported that the crew that worked with Mukpo included its medical correspondent Dr. Nancy Snyderman.

The spokeswoman declined to provide additional details about the crew, its size and the specific reasons behind the mandatory order, citing patient privacy.

(Reporting by Letitia Stein in Tampa, Florida, and Alex Dobuzinskis in Los Angeles; Editing by Frank McGurty and Raissa Kasolowsky)


http://news.yahoo.com/jersey-officials-order-symptom-less-nbc-news-crew-163935231.html

[Buster's Uncle]

Texas health worker tests positive for Ebola
Reuters
By Lisa Maria Garza  4 hours ago



DALLAS Texas (Reuters) - 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 Sunday.

The 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 worker helped care for Thomas Eric Duncan, who was diagnosed soon after arriving from his native Liberia, the hospital said. Duncan died in an isolation ward of the same Dallas hospital on Oct. 8, 11 days after being admitted.

Duncan was the first person to die of the disease in the United States.

Ebola has killed more than 4,000 people in the worst outbreak on record of the disease, affecting mostly the three West African countries of Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea.

The Texas healthcare worker is believed to be the first person in the United States to test positive for Ebola who has not been to West Africa.

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

The worker was wearing full protective gear when in contact with Duncan, Texas Health Resources chief clinical officer Dan Varga told a news conference.

"We are very concerned," Varga said. "We don't have a full analysis of all of the care. We are going through that right now."

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

The worker was self-monitoring and has not worked during the last two days, Varga said.

The worker was taking their own temperature twice a day and, as a result of the monitoring, the worker informed the hospital of a fever and was isolated immediately upon their arrival, the hospital said in a statement.

"This is obviously bad news, it is not news that should bring about panic," Jenkins said.


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 travellers from the three hardest hit West African countries.

The worker in Texas tested positive in a preliminary test at the state public health laboratory in Austin.

"Confirmatory testing will be conducted by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta," the department said. A hazardous materials team is working on decontaminating and police are guarding the health care worker's apartment, Dallas Mayor Mike Rawlings said. The patient's car has also been decontaminated and it has been secured, he added.

Health care officials are monitoring 18 health care workers, Varga said.

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 direct 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 and a surge in trained healthcare personnel was also needed to help tackle the crisis.

(Reporting by Jim Forsyth and Frank McGurty; writing by Jason Neely and Brendan O'Brien; editing by Anna Willard and Frances Kerry)


http://news.yahoo.com/texas-health-worker-tests-positive-ebola-143041166.html

[Buster's Uncle]

Health worker who contracted Ebola wore protective gear: official
Reuters
5 hours ago



(Reuters) - The healthcare worker at a Dallas hospital who has become the first person to contract Ebola in the United States was wearing protective gear when treating the original patient who died of the disease, a Texas hospital official said on Sunday.

Officials did not name the patient or other details of the person, other than to say the healthcare worker is in stable condition.

Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital is still confident that the precautions that are in place will protect workers when interacting with patients at the hospital, said Dr Daniel Varga, chief clinical officer at Texas Presybyterian.

"We are confident that the precautions we have now are protecting healthcare workers," he said at a press conference.

Varga said the infected healthcare worker was wearing protective clothing when attending to the original infected patient, Thomas Eric Duncan.

Duncan, a Liberian who contracted the disease while on a visit to the United States, died in the Texas hospital on Wednesday.

CNN said the healthcare worker is a female nurse.

(Reporting by Frank McGurty; Editing by Frances Kerry)


http://news.yahoo.com/health-worker-contracted-ebola-wore-protective-gear-official-132611310.html

[Buster's Uncle]

U.S. to free up Ebola funds as fears of global spread rise
Reuters
By Grant McCool  October 11, 2014 3:32 AM



Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) instructors give guidance on decontamination to health care workers as personal protection equipment lies on a table in the foreground, 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



(Reuters) - U.S. lawmakers agreed to use $750 million in war funds to fight Ebola in West Africa and seven more people in Spain were admitted to the hospital where an infected nurse lay seriously ill on Friday, as global concern grew about the virus spreading.

Countries from Macedonia to the Czech Republic to Brazil dealt with a rash of unlikely cases while Europe, the United States and the United Nations focused on trying to contain Ebola, which has killed thousands in West Africa.

The death this week of the first person diagnosed with Ebola in the United States and the hospitalization in Spain of a nurse who was the first to contract the virus outside West Africa has changed the perception of Ebola to a global threat from what previously had been seen frequently as a local, African problem.

A top U.N. official said response to a $1 billion funding appeal had been slow and that a surge in trained healthcare personnel was needed to tackle the crisis in Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea.

"Of the $1 billion sought by U.N. agencies...consolidated appeal, only one quarter has been funded," Deputy Secretary-General Jan Eliasson told a U.N. General Assembly briefing on the Ebola outbreak.

European Union health ministers called an extraordinary meeting for Brussels on Oct. 16 and bolstering airport procedures to better screen passengers arriving from countries affected by the disease will be discussed, said a statement from Italy, which holds the rotating EU presidency.

"The goal is to further increase the ability to respond to the ongoing epidemic and further reduce the risk of contagion in Europe," the statement said.

In Washington, Republican U.S. Senator James Inhofe said he has approved a shift of $750 million in Defense Department war funds to fight Ebola in West Africa, lifting the final objections to that amount in Congress.

Inhofe, the top Republican on the Senate Armed Services Committee, said the administration of President Barack Obama had failed to plan in advance for the U.S. response in the region. "It will be difficult for me to support any further last-minute funding requests using military resources. That is why I have insisted another more appropriate funding source be identified for operations beyond six months."


DEATHS RISE ABOVE 4,000

The World Health Organization on Friday updated its death toll for the worst Ebola outbreak on record to 4,033 people out of 8,399 confirmed, probable, and suspected cases in seven countries by the end of Oct. 8. The death toll includes 2,316 in Liberia, 930 in Sierra Leone, 778 in Guinea, eight in Nigeria and 1 in the United States. An unrelated Ebola outbreak in Democratic Republic of the Congo has killed an additional 43 people.

California-based Mapp Biopharmaceutical Inc is making progress in efforts to boost production of the experimental Ebola treatment ZMapp, the company said Friday.

The Spanish nurse, Teresa Romero, was infected in the hospital as she treated two Spanish missionaries who had caught the haemorrhagic fever in West Africa. She remained undiagnosed for days despite reporting her symptoms. Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy, facing recriminations from labor unions over the health system, said it was extremely unlikely that the disease would spread in Spain.

"Our first priority is Teresa Romero - she is the only person that we know has the illness," he told reporters on the steps of the specially-adapted Carlos III hospital, surrounded by medical staff. A hospital spokeswoman said 14 people were now under observation or being treated, including Romero's husband.

The Ebola virus causes hemorrhagic fever and is spread through direct contact with body fluids from an infected person, who would suffer severe bouts of vomiting and diarrhea. About half of people infected have died in the current outbreak, although up to 90 percent of patients have died in previous outbreaks.

Cocoa futures on ICE rallied more than 3 percent on Friday as worries intensified over the potential impact of Ebola on supplies from West Africa.

Meanwhile, growing awareness of the disease and accompanying fears have led to several people being tested as a precaution.

Doctors in Macedonia have "serious indications" that alcohol, not Ebola, may have killed a British man visiting the Balkan country, a senior health official said. Brazil's health minister said doctors were testing a man from Guinea but he was in "in good shape" and his slight fever has subsided. Tests showed a hospitalized Czech man, who had recently traveled to Liberia, does not have Ebola, officials said.


http://news.yahoo.com/u-free-ebola-funds-fears-global-spread-rise-073211735--finance.html

[Buster's Uncle]

Safety protocol breach may have led to new Texas Ebola infection: top health official
Reuters
3 hours 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. REUTERS/Tami Chappell/Files



WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A breach in safety protocols, possibly while removing protective gear after treating an Ebola patient, may have caused a Texas healthcare worker to contract the deadly virus, a top U.S. health official said on Sunday.

All of the Dallas healthcare workers who helped care for Ebola patient Thomas Duncan, who died last week at the Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital, were potentially exposed to the virus, said U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Director Dr. Thomas Frieden on Sunday.

“Another (area) that we’ll be looking at closely in the investigation is the interventions that were done to try desperately to keep (Duncan) alive," he told CBS' "Face the Nation". "This included dialysis and intubation. These are two procedures which can result in the spread of infectious material,” Frieden said.

(Reporting by David Morgan; Editing by Jon Boyle)


http://news.yahoo.com/u-ebola-case-caused-breach-care-protocol-cdc-145527690.html