Ebola news 10/18

[Buster's Uncle]

Do not succumb to Ebola 'hysteria,' Obama urges
AFP
By Peter Stebbings  29 minutes ago



A passenger arrives wearing a face mask at Los Angeles International Airport as fear of the Ebola virus continues to grow in the US on October 17, 2014 (AFP Photo/Mark Ralston)



Washington (AFP) - US President Barack Obama urged against "hysteria or fear" Saturday in the face of a growing Ebola crisis, as the United Nations spoke of an "encouraging" response to its funding appeal.

The worst-ever outbreak of the deadly virus has so far killed more than 4,500 people, mainly in three West African nations at the epicenter of the outbreak: Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone.

Obama's warning came a day after the World Bank warned the battle against the disease was being lost and as the US president named an "Ebola czar" to coordinate Washington's response.

A UN appeal for nearly $1 billion to fight the spread of the disease has so far fallen short, but a spokesman told AFP more money was coming in daily.

Out of $988 million requested a month ago, the UN said Saturday $385.9 million had already been given by a slew of governments and agencies, with a further $225.8 million promised.

"It has been encouraging to see the amount and the speed with which these amounts have been committed," said Jens Laerke, spokesman for the UN's humanitarian office (OCHA).

"To be honest, I don't recall during my time at OCHA that we have had such a response within a month for a billion-dollar appeal."



Jeff Hulbert from Annapolis, Maryland, calls for a halt of flights from West Africa, as he protests outside the White House in Washington, DC on October 16, 2014 (AFP Photo/Mladen Antonov)


Nevertheless, Laerke said, this wasn't a sign the need for donations had passed.

"Nobody's smiling in this crisis, so I'm not going to go out and clap my hands and say everything is going fine, because it's not," he told AFP.


- Panic growing -

Meanwhile, as panic grows even far from the outbreak's epicenter, Obama counseled patience and perspective.

"This is a serious disease, but we can't give in to hysteria or fear -- because that only makes it harder to get people the accurate information they need. We have to be guided by the science," Obama said in his weekly address to the nation.

Friday saw a number of false alarms in the United States as fears grow, including at the Pentagon, where an entrance was closed after a woman vomited in a parking lot. US authorities later found no evidence that she had contracted Ebola.



US President Barack Obama, seen here at the White House on October 16, 2014, said Ebola is "a serious disease" but warned against "hysteria" (AFP Photo/Brendan Smialowski)


"We have to remember the basic facts," Obama said Saturday.

The United States -- where a Liberian man died from Ebola on October 8 and two American nurses who treated him have tested positive -- was not seeing an "outbreak" or "epidemic," Obama stressed.

More "isolated" cases in the country were possible, he conceded. "But we know how to wage this fight."

The US president played down the idea of a travel ban from West Africa.

"Trying to seal off an entire region of the world -- if that were even possible -- could actually make the situation worse," he said.

Travelers from affected regions would simply change their travel plans to evade screening, he added, making Ebola even harder to track.



Employees of the emergency medical service at Roissy-Charles-de-Gaulle airport in Paris check for signs of Ebola using an electronic thermometer on October 17, 2014 (AFP Photo/Kenzo Tribouillard)


- 'Losing the battle' -

Obama's call for calm was in stark contrast to World Bank chief Jim Yong Kim, who warned Friday: "We are losing the battle."

He blamed a lack of international solidarity in efforts to stem the epidemic.

"Certain countries are only worried about their own borders," he told reporters in Paris, as leaders in Washington and beyond grapple for a coordinated response to the outbreak.

Airports in several countries, including in the United States, have launched enhanced health checks in a bid to stop the spread of Ebola, although health experts -- including in the US -- have expressed doubts about their effectiveness.

France on Saturday started carrying out health checks on Air France passengers arriving from Guinea, where the epidemic began in December, while a union of the airline's flight attendants called for a halt in flights from Conakry altogether.

The United States, Britain and Canada have already launched screenings at airports for passengers from Ebola-ravaged zones. The EU is reviewing the matter.

As of October 14, 4,555 people have died from Ebola out of a total of 9,216 cases registered in seven countries, the World Health Organization says.

Symptoms of Ebola include fever, headache, diarrhea, vomiting and in some cases bleeding.

Even if a person is infected, the virus can only be passed on once symptoms appear and only through direct contact with their bodily fluids, such as mucus, semen, saliva, vomit, stool or blood.

There is no licensed treatment or vaccine for the contagious disease, but several countries are trying to develop an effective vaccine.


http://news.yahoo.com/obama-calls-end-ebola-hysteria-110006011.html

[Buster's Uncle]

Food deliveries in Sierra Leone to fight Ebola
Associated Press
By ANDREW MELDRUM and CLARENCE ROY-MACAULAY  1 hour ago



In this photo taken Wednesday, Oct, 15, 2014 people from a community affected by Ebola virus receive food aid from World Food program in Monrovia, Liberia. The U.N.’s World Food Program is also delivering emergency food rations to 265,000 people in Sierra Leone’s capital to help fight the spread of Ebola. (AP Photo/Abbas Dulleh)



FREETOWN, Sierra Leone (AP) — The U.N.'s World Food Program on Saturday delivered emergency food rations to 265,000 people, many of them quarantined in Sierra Leone, to help fight the spread of Ebola.

Food supplies are being distributed in the Waterloo district on the outskirts of Sierra Leone's capital, Freetown, WFP's Alexis Masciarelli told the Associated Press.

Waterloo has seen some of the highest cases of Ebola infections and the deliveries are to help quarantined families by providing them enough to eat so they do not leave their homes to look for food. The deliveries began Friday and are continuing Saturday, said Masciarelli.

More countries have banned travelers from Sierra Leone, Guinea and Liberia, where the dreaded, fatal disease is believed to have claimed more than 4,500 lives.

Cape Verde, an island nation, on Oct. 9 announced that it would deny entry to non-resident foreigners coming from those three countries or who have been to those countries in the previous 30 days, the International SOS website reported. Mauritius on Oct. 8 banned entry to all travelers who have visited Nigeria, Sierra Leone, Guinea, Liberia, Senegal and Congo in the last two months.

Seychelles on Oct. 8 suspended entry to travelers who have visited Sierra Leone, Liberia, Guinea-Bissau, Guinea, Nigeria or Congo (DRC) 28 days prior to their journey, with the exception of Seychellois citizens, International SOS, a medical and travel security services company, reported.



In this photo taken Wednesday, Oct, 15, 2014 people from a community affected by Ebola virus receive food aid from World Food program in Monrovia, Liberia. The U.N.’s World Food Program is also delivering emergency food rations to 265,000 people in Sierra Leone’s capital to help fight the spread of Ebola. (AP Photo/Abbas Dulleh)


In Sierra Leone, WFP mobilized 700 aid workers to distribute more than 800 metric tons of food — rice and super cereal — to meet families' food needs for 30 days. The distribution is in partnership with Caritas, Community Integrated Development Organization, civil society organizations and young volunteers.

"Our team is out in Waterloo to distribute food," said WFP's Masciarelli. "We started on Friday and are continuing Saturday. It is a huge exercise."

The aim of the distribution is to stabilize quarantined families by giving them enough to eat so that they do not leave their homes to look for food.

The food deliveries in the Waterloo area are going to "all Ebola-affected people - be it in treatment centers or in quarantined households - to prevent this health crisis from becoming a food and nutrition crisis," said Gon Myers, WFP Country Director in Sierra Leone.

"We have to deploy many staff, split people into smaller groups and speed up the distribution process to reduce risks both for the people receiving food and for staff, as Waterloo has seen some of the highest cases of Ebola infections in recent days," Myers said.

A ship containing 7,000 tons of rice is expected to dock at Freetown on Sunday, said Masciarelli. "About two-thirds of the rice will be unloaded in Freetown to be delivered to people in Sierra Leone. The ship will then deliver the remaining rice to Liberia."

A ship carrying British troops is also headed to Sierra Leone to battle the worst-ever outbreak of Ebola in history.

___

Meldrum reported from Johannesburg.


http://news.yahoo.com/food-deliveries-sierra-leone-fight-ebola-112908911.html

[Buster's Uncle]

APNewsBreak: Official being monitored for Ebola
Associated Press
By MARTHA MENDOZA  October 16, 2014 5:28 PM



DALLAS (AP) — Dallas County's top public health epidemiologist confirmed Thursday that she spent time at Ebola patient Thomas Eric Duncan's bedside and that she is among those potentially exposed to the virus.

Dr. Wendy Chung has remained on the front lines of the government's response to the outbreak since Duncan's diagnosis, working alongside federal, state and local health authorities as she undergoes monitoring for any signs of the potentially deadly disease.

"Yes, I have been alongside other physicians and nurses in addressing this patient," said Chung in an email. "I am under the same monitoring protocols which are currently recommended for my clinical colleagues who are in the same exposure category as mine."

Some of the health care workers being monitored are being furloughed, but others have continued to work, depending on the level of their exposure. None are allowed to use public transit.

Until now, public statements have indicated that the only people potentially exposed were Presbyterian hospital workers, nurses and doctors, not public health officials.

Duncan's hospital chart shows she was, at least once, with the victim.

At 10:45 a.m. on Sept. 30, nurse Nina Pham — who has since tested positive for Ebola — noted an infectious disease specialist "and Dr. Chung at bedside." About three hours later, Pham wrote that results have confirmed Duncan tested "positive for Ebola."

Dr. Barry Rosenthal, chairman of Emergency Medicine at Winthrop-University Hospital in Mineola, New York, said that while he cannot speak to the situation in Dallas, it's neither typical nor advised for an epidemiologist to enter an isolation room and interview a contagious patient. Their role in outbreaks, he said, is to track cases to find out who else might have been exposed, research that can be conducted by phone or video monitor to avoid potential contact.

In addition, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention director Tom Frieden has said that too many health workers had contact with Duncan, and he announced steps this week to minimize the number of people in the room with Ebola patients.

Chung was not immediately available for further comment.

Dallas County Judge Clay Jenkins, who is responsible for the county's disaster and emergency preparedness, said he and Chung have been working side-by-side throughout the outbreak. Jenkins said their pace has been so intense at a hospital command center that they've set up a room with cots where Chung and others can rest.

He said he has not heard she was being monitored in any way, "and it would be surprising if I wouldn't know that."

Prior to Chung's bedside visit with the Ebola patient, she was actively consulting on his case, according to Duncan's medical records.

A nurse wrote about 12 hours after Duncan arrived at the emergency room that the county's epidemiologist had been consulted. The nurse wrote that after speaking to Chung, the epidemiologist said Duncan "should be quarantined along with all equipments. Minimize lab studies, and testing."

Duncan visited the emergency room 13 days before his death. He was sent home, misdiagnosed with a sinus infection. He returned in an ambulance two days later.


http://news.yahoo.com/apnewsbreak-official-being-monitored-ebola-210301335.html

[Buster's Uncle]

Ebola scare at Pentagon after woman vomits in parking lot
Reuters
By Phil Stewart  16 hours ago



Officials say a woman who had recently traveled to Africa vomited in a Pentagon parking lot Friday, sparking an Ebola scare for those nearby



WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Pentagon was gripped by an Ebola scare on Friday after a woman vomited in a parking lot, triggering authorities to send in a HazMat team and shut off part of the military complex before concluding she did not have the deadly virus.

The Pentagon initially said in a statement that the woman indicated she had "recently visited Africa."

But her employer told Reuters she had not traveled abroad recently and local county health authorities later acknowledged that her travel history had been uncertain.

"Based on the public health investigation, which included the travel history of a woman who became ill this morning in a Pentagon parking lot ... medical authorities are confident that she does not have Ebola," the local health authorities said in a statement.

The public health investigation also included questioning of the woman by medical staff, they said.



Emergency workers in hazmat suits work in a Pentagon parking lot after a woman who recently traveled to Africa vomited there, in Washington October 17, 2014. The Pentagon confirmed an Ebola scare on Friday in one of its parking lots when the woman vomited after getting off a bus headed to a high-level Marine Corps ceremony. She was taken to Inova Fairfax Hospital at 9:53 a.m. (1353 GMT), 43 minutes after Pentagon police identified her. The general area of the parking lot where she vomited was closed off, as was one of the Pentagon's entrances, "out of an abundance of caution and to allow the investigation to proceed." REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque


There has been mounting alarm in the United States about the risks from Ebola after two nurses who cared for an Ebola patient in Texas contracted the virus. Ebola has killed more than 4,500 people, mostly in West Africa.

The incident outside the Pentagon triggered emergency protocols. The Arlington County Fire Department sent emergency medical aid and a HazMat response team, and the Pentagon closed down part of the parking lot and one of its entrances.

Since the woman had briefly boarded a bus before falling ill, the vehicle and its passengers were stopped for about four hours, one passenger recounted to Reuters. The passengers included uniformed Marines headed to a Marine Corps ceremony attended by top brass and U.S. Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel.

The Pentagon later said the passengers were being screened.

"An investigation of this person and her illness led investigators to believe at the time that they were potentially dealing with a person with an infectious disease," it said.

(Reporting by Phil Stewart; Editing by Mohammad Zargham, Frances Kerry and Ken Wills)


http://news.yahoo.com/ebola-scare-pentagon-woman-vomits-parking-lot-164421636.html

[Buster's Uncle]

Second Ebola nurse, Amber Vinson, 'felt funny' while in Ohio, CDC says
Stores, schools close as Ohio officials monitor 12 people for symptoms
Yahoo News
By Dylan Stableford  23 hours ago



Medical staff in protective gear escort Nina Pham, exiting the ambulance, to a nearby aircraft at Love Field, Thursday, Oct. 16, 2014, in Dallas. Pham, a nurse at Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital Dallas, was diagnosed with the Ebola virus after caring for Thomas Eric Duncan who died of the same virus. (AP Photo/Tony Gutierrez)



A Texas nurse who has Ebola indicated she "felt funny" and spent extra time resting during a visit to Ohio in the days before she was diagnosed in Dallas, a CDC official said Friday.

Amber Joy Vinson, 29, who was diagnosed with Ebola this week, didn't experience typical symptoms of Ebola at the time of her trip to Ohio on Oct. 10, the CDC's Dr. Chris Braden said. But health officials can't rule out the possibility that her illness began last Saturday, or possibly earlier.





Vinson, a nurse at Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital in Dallas, had treated the Liberian man who died of Ebola. The timing of her symptoms is important because people infected with Ebola aren't considered contagious until they have symptoms.

Before returning to Dallas Monday, Vinson's family said she called Texas health officials who relayed her symptoms to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

She was running a slightly elevated temperature — 99.5 degrees — but since it fell below the 100.4 reading for a fever, she was allowed to travel, her family said.

“They called Amber back and told her, ‘The CDC is OK with it. You can travel,” Lawrence Vinson, Amber's uncle, told ABC News.

Officials in Ohio are working to identify anyone who may have come into contact with Vinson during her brief stay in the state.

According to Summit County Public Health officials, 12 people are being monitored in northeast Ohio, including Vinson's family members, but none is experiencing symptoms.

"We have no cases of Ebola virus in Summit County," Dr. Margo Erme declared at a news conference Friday.

Vinson, who is planning her wedding, arrived in Cleveland on a Frontier Airlines flight from Dallas on Oct. 10, and stayed at the home of her mother and stepfather in Tallmadge, Ohio, northeast of Akron.

Coming Attractions, an Akron bridal shop Vinson visited on Saturday, was closed Thursday as health officials sought to identify anyone who was in the store when Vinson was there.

The store's owner, Anna Younker, told WEWS-TV that Vinson had already purchased her wedding gown from the store and was shopping for bridesmaids' dresses.

"I would never have known that she was ill," Younker said. "There was no coughing, sneezing — nothing like that."

She added that none of the store's employees was experiencing signs of illness. Nonetheless, Summit County Health officials are asking anyone who was at the store between noon and 3:30 p.m. Saturday to contact them at (330) 926-3939.

According to CBS News, at least one school in the Akron area was closed "amid concerns that some parents or employees had been in in close proximity to Vinson or the plane she flew on."

But on Friday, Erme said school closings were unnecessary.

"There is no need to cancel schools or other events," she said, because Vinson did not visit any schools and Ebola patients are not infectious until they develop symptoms.

Vinson was diagnosed with Ebola on Wednesday and transferred to Emory University hospital in Atlanta, one of four hospitals in the country specially equipped to handle Ebola cases. She is in stable condition.

On Thursday, the CDC said it was broadening its search for contacts on information that Vinson might have been experiencing symptoms before Saturday.

"[We have] started to look at the possibility that she had symptoms going back as far as Saturday," Dr. Chris Braden of the CDC told reporters. "But some more information that’s come through recently, we can’t rule out that she might have had the start of her illness Friday.

On Wednesday, Frontier Airlines asked that anyone on Monday's Flight 143 from Cleveland to Dallas-Fort Worth contact the CDC. On Thursday, the airline said it was contacting passengers on seven flights — including the two Vinson took and five others that used the same planes.

According to the Associated Press, 18 nurses from Cleveland and Canton who were on Vinson's Friday flight were placed on paid leave as a precaution.

At Kent State, Vinson's alma mater, three employees related to to the nurse have been asked to remain off campus for 21 days.

Vinson is one of two nurses at Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital diagnosed with Ebola after treating Thomas Eric Duncan, a Liberian man who later died of the virus. Vinson and 26-year-old Nina Pham, the other nurse who contracted Ebola, were among 77 hospital workers who treated Duncan before his death.


http://news.yahoo.com/amber-vinson-ohio-ebola-scare-160357952.html

[Buster's Uncle]

How Ebola was discovered
Yahoo News
By Dylan Stableford  22 hours ago



With health officials around the world scrambling to stop the Ebola outbreak, it's worth taking a look back at how the deadly virus was first discovered.

In 1976, Peter Piot, then a 27-year-old microbiology student in Belgium, was studying infectious diseases when the lab he was working in received a blood sample from a Belgian nun who had died in Zaire.

"It came with a question mark, 'Yellow fever or not?'" Piot told the Wall Street Journal. "So we isolated the virus and to our big surprise, when we looked at the virus under our electron microscope, it was something completely different than what we had expected."

Piot sent the sample to the Centers for Disease Control in Atlanta, which confirmed it was indeed a new virus.

Piot and his colleagues then traveled to Zaire to study what he called "an epidemic of unknown origin and transmission."

"It was really frightening," Piot said. "You ask, 'Is this transmitted by mosquitoes? By food? By water?' ... you try to see, 'What is the pattern?'"

Those who died from the virus, the team discovered, were mostly pregnant women in their 20s and 30s who had been to the same antenatal clinic.

"It turned out that nearly everybody received an injection," Piot said. "The problem was that there were only five syringes and needles."

Those syringes and needles were reused over and over again, spreading the virus.

Piot, now director and professor of global health at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, says he is shocked at the scale of the current outbreak — and fears that the isolation and contact tracing utilized by health workers won't be able to contain it.

According to the World Health Organization, there have been 9,216 reported cases of Ebola in seven nations since the outbreak began in West Africa, and 4,555 deaths associated with the disease.

“Something that is easy to control got completely out of hand," Piot told London's Guardian newspaper earlier this week. "It may be that we have to wait for a vaccine to stop the epidemic."


http://news.yahoo.com/when-was-ebola-discovered-170121308.html

[Buster's Uncle]

UN now training Ebola survivors to help with care
Associated Press
By CARA ANNA  12 hours ago



UNITED NATIONS (AP) — The United Nations has begun training Ebola survivors to help respond to the soaring number of cases in West Africa, because people who've lived through the experience are now immune to the disease, UNICEF's crisis communications chief told reporters Friday.

Sarah Crowe said the U.N. is training the survivors to work with children in Liberia and Sierra Leone who've had contact with infected people, often family members, and require 21 days of isolation.

"Ebola has hijacked every aspect of life" in these hardest-hit countries, Crowe said, and it has left an estimated 3,700 orphans across the region. With the number of Ebola cases tripling every three weeks, she said, the number of orphans will grow.

Survivors of Ebola can offer the love and attention a small child needs, without the fear that has made life "a very unhuman experience," she said.

Ebola has turned large parts of Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea into a no-touch culture, which has been especially hard on children.

The first of the government-run Interim Care Centers featuring survivors as caregivers opened last week in the outskirts of Liberia's capital, Monrovia. At least one center is expected to open within a month in each of Liberia's five most affected counties. Each center will be equipped to care for 30 children.

So far, 20 Ebola survivors have been trained to work in the centers, with another 30 identified, Crowe said.

"While survivors will still largely follow a 'no-touch' protocol for older children, they will be able to touch and hold infants who need more personal attention and care," Crowe said.

The disease has shattered families, and aid workers have scrambled to find family members who can take over children's care.

More than 4,500 people have been killed in the outbreak, and the World Health Organization has warned that West Africa could soon face up to 10,000 new cases a week.

Crowe stressed that as far as the overall Ebola response goes, "we're in totally unmapped terrain."

Now fears are seeping into the United States.

Crowe has been back in New York for a week after five weeks in West Africa. She began her briefing by announcing her current body temperature and holding up a bottle of hand sanitizer. When she boarded her regular New York City bus and passengers heard where she had been, she said, some gasped and moved away.


http://news.yahoo.com/un-now-training-ebola-survivors-help-care-171332194.html

[Buster's Uncle]

WHO won't discuss Ebola mistakes document
Associated Press
By MARIA CHENG  38 minutes ago



In this Sept. 29, 2014, file photo a MSF (Medecins Sans Frontieres) nurse gets prepared with Personal Protection Equipment before entering a high risk zone of MSF's Ebola isolation and treatment center in Monrovia, Liberia. (AP Photo/Jerome Delay, File)



LONDON (AP) — The World Health Organization said Saturday that it wouldn't explain details contained in an internal document obtained by The Associated Press in which the U.N. health agency said it fumbled early attempts to contain the Ebola outbreak in West Africa.

In the draft document, which wasn't released publicly, WHO blamed numerous factors for the now explosive Ebola epidemic, including incompetent staff, bureaucracy and a lack of reliable information.

"WHO will not do interviews or explain details on this document until it is completed," the health agency said in a statement Saturday. "WHO believes in transparency and accountability and will release this review when it is fact-checked."

So far, Ebola has been blamed for 4,546 deaths in West Africa out of at least 9,191 cases. WHO estimated that there could be 10,000 cases every week by December unless stronger measures are enacted to fight the outbreak.

WHO said in the draft document that "nearly everyone" involved in the response to Ebola failed to notice factors that turned the outbreak into the biggest-ever on record.

When Doctors Without Borders warned in April that Ebola cases were out of control, a dispute on social media broke out between the charity and a WHO spokesman who insisted the virus was being contained.

According to the internal report, it was only in June that WHO's chief, Dr. Margaret Chan, was alerted to the seriousness of the outbreak — and of the organization's botched efforts in West Africa.

At a meeting of WHO's network of outbreak experts in June, Dr. Bruce Aylward, normally in charge of polio eradication, emailed Chan about the major concerns being raised about WHO's leadership in West Africa, telling her that some of the agency's partners — including national health agencies and charities — believed WHO was "compromising rather than aiding" the response to Ebola.

In its statement on Saturday, WHO said it would conduct "a full review and analysis" of the global response to Ebola once the outbreak is over.


http://news.yahoo.com/wont-discuss-ebola-mistakes-document-143346544.html

[Buster's Uncle]

Hospital Worker Who Handled Ebola Samples Is on Cruise Ship
ABC NEWS via Good Morning America  Oct 17, 2014, 3:15 AM ET



Ebola patient Amber Vinson arrives by ambulance at Emory University Hospital on Oct. 15, 2014 in Atlanta, Ga.  Kevin C. Cox/Getty Images



A Dallas health care worker who handled clinical specimens from an Ebola-infected patient is on a cruise ship in the Caribbean, with the worker self-quarantined and being monitored for signs of infection, the State Department said in a statement.

The unidentified female worker departed on a cruise ship from Galveston, Texas, Oct. 12 and was out of the country before being notified of active monitoring required by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, according to the government statement.

The monitoring was established as two nurses at Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital, Nina Pham and Amber Vinson, tested positive for Ebola.

The hospital worker on the Carnival Magic cruise ship did not have direct contact with patient Thomas Eric Duncan, but may have had contact with his clinical specimens, authorities said. The employee, who has not been publicly identified, has not had a fever or demonstrated any symptoms of illness, authorities said.

“The worker has voluntarily remained in the cabin and the State Department and cruise line are working to bring the worker back to the U.S. out of an abundance of caution,” the Department of State said in the release.

Carnival Cruise Line released a statement today acknowledging the situation, stating that the hospital employee is deemed to be "very low risk" to contract the deadly virus.

"We are in close contact with the CDC and at this time it has been determined that the appropriate course of action is to simply keep the guest in isolation on board," Carnival said in a statement.

Pham arrived in Maryland Thursday to receive treatment at the National Institute of Health’s Clinical Center in Bethesda, Maryland.

Meanwhile, Vinson is at Emory University Hospital in Atlanta, listed in stable condition, her relatives said.

“Amber is a respected professional and has always had a strong passion for nursing,” a statement from her family says. “She followed all of the protocols necessary when treating a patient in Dallas, and right now, she’s trusting in her doctors and nurses as she is now the patient.”



The entrance of Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital in Dallas, Oct. 8, 2014. LM Otero/AP Photo


Federal officials say Vinson may have had Ebola symptoms Oct. 10, the day she flew on a passenger plane from Dallas to Cleveland. As a result, passengers on her Oct. 10 flight will also be monitored, authorities announced.


http://abcnews.go.com/Health/hospital-worker-handled-ebola-samples-caribbean-cruise/story?id=26263642

[Buster's Uncle]

WHO promises analysis of Ebola response, won't comment on reported flaws
Reuters
By Tom Miles  11 minutes ago



GENEVA (Reuters) - The World Health Organization promised on Saturday that it would publish a full review of its handling of the Ebola crisis once the outbreak was under control, in response to a leaked document that appeared to acknowledge it had failed to do enough.

The WHO said in a statement that it would not comment on an internal document cited in an Associated Press story on Friday, saying it was a first draft that had not been fact-checked and was "part of an on-going analysis of our response".

"We cannot divert our limited resources from the urgent response to do a detailed analysis of the past response. That review will come, but only after this outbreak is over," the organisation said.

The WHO has been widely criticised for its slow response to the epidemic and its early reassurances, despite repeated public warnings from the medical charity Medecins Sans Frontieres, which was leading the fight against the virus on the ground.

Ebola has killed at least 4,546 people in Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea, the WHO said on Friday. However, with at least half the cases going unreported and a 70 percent fatality rate, by WHO estimates, the true toll is probably more than 12,000.

There is no sign of a slowdown in the outbreak, which was first confirmed in March but not declared to be an international public health emergency by WHO until Aug 8.

WHO Director General Margaret Chan has defended her handling of the epidemic.

But the internal document cited by AP said experts should have realized that traditional containment methods wouldn't work in a region with porous borders and broken health systems.

“Nearly everyone involved in the outbreak response failed to see some fairly plain writing on the wall,” the document said.

It also said WHO bureaucracy was also to blame, with WHO's Africa head, Luis Sambo, appointed by African member countries, not by Chan. Sambo's tenure is ending at the end of this year.

In the earlier stages of the outbreak, messages from Sambo's office were sometimes out of step with the line from Geneva.

The African office declared Ebola to be "pretty much contained" in Senegal and Nigeria on Sept 22, a claim not backed up by Chan's office, which only declared Senegal to be Ebola-free on Friday and has yet to say the same about Nigeria.

The leaked document also said one of Chan's senior officials, Bruce Aylward, had warned her by email that some of the WHO's partners felt it was “compromising rather than aiding” the Ebola response and that “none of the news about WHO's performance is good.”

However, it was only five days later, on receiving an internal letter spelling out the WHO's shortcomings, that Chan was "shocked" by "the first news of this sort to reach her", the leaked document said.

"WHO will not do interviews or explain details on this document until it is completed," said the WHO statement on Saturday.

"WHO believes in transparency and accountability and will release this review when it is fact-checked. For now, WHO's focus is to obtain the resources needed to successfully fight this Ebola outbreak.

"A full review and analysis of global responses to this, the largest-ever Ebola outbreak in history, will be completed and made public once the outbreak is under control. We are a public health organization and our focus right now must be to stop this outbreak and save lives."


http://news.yahoo.com/promises-analysis-ebola-response-wont-reported-flaws-153825736.html

[Buster's Uncle]

Ebola lapses persisted for days at Dallas hospital
Associated Press
By MATT SEDENSKY  14 minutes ago



President Barack Obama has appointed an Ebola coordinator to manage the U.S. response to the outbreak as anxiety over the country's three Ebola cases and the risk they pose to the public intensifies. (Oct. 17)



DALLAS (AP) — Just minutes after Thomas Eric Duncan arrived for a second time at the emergency room, the word is on his chart: "Ebola." But despite all the warnings that the deadly virus could arrive unannounced at an American hospital, for days after the admission, his caregivers are vulnerable.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has pointed to lapses by the hospital in those initial days. And Duncan's medical records show heightened protective measures as his illness advanced. But either because of a lag in implementing those steps or because they were still insufficient, scores of hospital staffers were put at risk, according to the records.

The hospital's protective protocol was "insufficient," said Dr. Joseph McCormick of the University of Texas School of Public Health, who was part of the CDC team that investigated the first recorded Ebola outbreak in 1976. "The gear was inadequate. The procedures in the room were inadequate."

Duncan's medical records, provided by his family to The Associated Press, show Nina Pham, the first Texas nurse to be diagnosed with Ebola, first encountered the patient after he was moved to intensive care at 4:40 p.m. on Sept. 29, more than 30 hours after he came to the ER. Nearly 27 hours later, Amber Joy Vinson, a second nurse who contracted the disease, first appears in Duncan's charts.

Because doctors and nurses are focused on logging the patient's care, they may not always note their own safeguards in the medical records. In Pham's first entry, she makes no mention of protective gear. When she logs again the following morning, she specifically mentions wearing a double gown, face shield and protective footwear, equipment she mentions again in later entries.

In the first apparent mention of Vinson — identified by just her first name in another nurse's notes — she is said to have worn personal protection, including a hazardous-materials suit and face shield.

It's unclear whether those initial interactions with Duncan represent the time at which a breakdown in protection led to the infections, or whether such lapses persisted during the remainder of the patient's 11-day stay. At least 70 workers are named in the records as being involved with Duncan's care in that period.

Dr. Tom Frieden, the CDC director, told lawmakers during a congressional hearing Thursday that he did not know how the nurses got infected, only that "possible causes" had been identified.

In comments a day earlier, he gave a clue: "For the first several days of the patient's stay, before he was diagnosed, we see a lot of variability in the use of personal protective equipment."

Because Ebola has an incubation period of up to 21 days, those who cared for Duncan at the start of his second hospital stay will not be considered safe from infection until Monday. Those with him at the time of his death will not emerge from monitoring until Oct. 30.

Duncan first arrived at Presbyterian on Sept. 25 but was sent home. When he returned by ambulance at 10:07 a.m. on Sept. 28, he was sicker and probably more contagious. Staff noted immediately upon his intake that he had recently arrived from Liberia.



This Friday, Oct. 10, 2014, file photo, shows a copy of Thomas Eric Duncan's medical records from Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital, provided by Duncan’s family to The Associated Press. Duncan's records show that for days after he was admitted for Ebola, his caregivers were vulnerable to the deadly virus. (AP Photo/Kiichiro Sato, File)


Five minutes later, a nurse notes that he is in a room and had "put on airborne precautions." Nine minutes after that, Duncan is seen by a doctor who writes that Ebola is a possibility and notes that he "followed strict CDC protocol" by being "masked, fully gowned and gloved" when treating Duncan.

The doctor makes no mention of eye protection such as goggles or a face shield, which are considered basic equipment in Ebola guidelines issued by the CDC. There is also no initial mention of foot coverings, which are suggested when such patients have diarrhea or vomiting, as Duncan did, according to the records.

It is also not clear when Duncan was safely isolated, though the records refer to him being in an "isolation room" in the ER on Sept. 29.

Numerous entries in the records of Duncan's stay at the hospital — both in the ER and later in intensive care — make note of precautionary measures. Many other entries are silent on the issue, and the mention of hazardous-material suits does not appear in Duncan's records until after his diagnosis is confirmed on Sept. 30.

Hospital officials say Duncan was immediately put in isolation in a private room and that staff adhered to CDC guidelines on protective gear, even though those guidelines changed during the course of Duncan's stay.

"The CDC guidelines changed frequently, and those changes were frustrating," hospital spokesman Wendell Watson said.

Dr. Victoria Sutton, a member of Texas Gov. Rick Perry's newly appointed infectious-disease task force, said the issue was not protocols, but preparation.

"I think the problem is there wasn't enough time to do training," she said.

The hospital has denied the allegations of several of its nurses who anonymously aired concerns through a statement issued by the National Nurses United union. Among their complaints: that Duncan was kept for hours in an area of the emergency department where seven other patients could have been exposed; that a nurse supervisor faced resistance from higher-ups when she said he should be moved to an isolation unit; and that even after the patient was isolated, hospital workers came and went from his bedside without proper protection, then walked through halls that were not properly cleaned.

"If any of those allegations — let alone more than one — are correct, if they are valid, then obviously his whole hospitalization put health care workers at risk," said Dr. William Schaffner, an infectious-disease specialist at Vanderbilt University Medical Center.



Graphic shows cumulative numbers of cases and deaths in Ebola outbreak and lists key events


A half-dozen doctors and nurses make notes in Duncan's chart during the first 24 hours of his stay in the ER. As his first night at the hospital fades into the following morning, his condition worsens. A doctor notes he is suffering and deteriorating. At one point, he asks for a diaper because he's too exhausted to get up.

The records do not reveal what happened once hospital staffers left Duncan's bedside. Walking through the hallways, interacting with other staff and patients, removing protective gear and any other physical motions — even as seemingly minor as rubbing an eye or scratching an itch — before being properly sanitized could have led to further infections.

___

Associated Press writers Jamie Stengle and Martha Mendoza contributed to this report.


http://news.yahoo.com/ebola-lapses-persisted-days-dallas-hospital-154031941.html

[Buster's Uncle]

Ebola plush toys fly off the shelf for Connecticut company
Reuters
By Barbara Goldberg  18 hours ago



Screenshot from Giantmicrobes.com



(Reuters) - It may be the only time you will find these words in the same sentence: "Ebola" and "Add to Wishlist."

Giantmicrobes Inc., which makes a line of plush toys based on viruses and other microscopic organisms, has sold out its entire Ebola stock, including the small Ebola doll for $9.95, a Gigantic Ebola doll for $29.95 and an Ebola Petri Dish toy for $14.95, according to the company's website.

"Since its discovery in 1976, Ebola has become the T. Rex of microbes," says the Stamford, Connecticut-based maker of the "uniquely contagious toy" on its website, which promotes them as gag gifts that also have educational value.

With the latest Ebola outbreak, which already killed more than 4,500 people, mostly in West Africa, customers have snapped up the toy, which looks like half a pretzel.

"You do not want to get Ebola," warns the website. "A short incubation period of 2 to 21 days presages symptoms which include fever, aches, sore throat, and weakness, followed by diarrhea, stomach pain, vomiting, and both internal and external bleeding. And then, for between 50-90 percent of victims, death."

Giantmicrobes lists the World Health Organization as one of its largest customers, along with pharmaceutical companies and the American Red Cross.

Anyone disappointed by the current shortage of the Ebola toys can click on "Add to Wishlist" and wait for more stock to arrive. Or make a different selection from the company's array of other plush toys, including Anthrax, Botulism, Cholera and Dengue Fever.

It was not clear how many of the toys have been sold and the company could not be reached for comment.

(Reporting by Barbara Goldberg in New York; Editing by Sandra Maler)


http://news.yahoo.com/ebola-plush-toys-fly-off-shelf-connecticut-company-202208936.html

[Buster's Uncle]

Texas health worker isolated on cruise ship over possible Ebola contact
Reuters  October 17, 2014 3:40 AM



(Reuters) - A Texas health worker who may have had contact with specimens from the first patient diagnosed with Ebola in the United States has been isolated on a cruise ship despite showing no symptoms of the disease, the Department of State said on Friday.

The Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital worker, who did not have direct contact with now deceased Liberian patient Thomas Eric Duncan but could have processed his bodily fluids 19 days ago, left on a cruise from Galveston on Sunday, department spokeswoman Jen Psaki said in a statement.

U.S. concerns have intensified after two nurses from the Dallas hospital who cared for Duncan contracted the virus, which has killed nearly 4,500 people, mostly in West Africa. President Barack Obama's administration is facing sharp criticism from lawmakers over its efforts to contain the disease at home.

The employee has been self-monitoring since last Monday and has yet to develop a fever or show any other symptom of Ebola, the statement said. The worker and a companion voluntarily isolated themselves in their cabin, and U.S. officials are arranging for the ship to return to the country.

"We are working with the cruise line to safely bring them back to the United States out of an abundance of caution," Psaki said in the statement.

The person left the country before being notified of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's (CDC) updated requirement for active monitoring, the statement said.

The Government of Belize said in a statement hours earlier that it had denied a request by U.S. officials to use a Belizean airport to transport a cruise ship passenger considered to be a very low risk for Ebola.

"The passenger never set foot in Belize," the statement said. "When even the smallest doubt remains, we will ensure the health and safety of the Belizean people."

The maximum incubation window for the disease is 21 days, according to the CDC.

(Reporting by Curtis Skinner; Editing by Dominic Evans)


http://news.yahoo.com/texas-health-worker-isolated-cruise-ship-over-possible-062926649.html

[Buster's Uncle]

Congo lends a hand to fight Ebola, urges African solidarity
Reuters
By Aaron Ross  10 minutes ago



KINSHASA (Reuters) - Democratic Republic of Congo plans to train more than 1,000 volunteers to help fight an Ebola epidemic raging across West Africa, even as it battles the last traces of an outbreak at home.

Having endured six previous outbreaks of the deadly virus in 40 years, Congolese officials say they are eager to share their expertise with countries suffering from the worst epidemic in history, which has already killed more than 4,500 people.

Congo's Health Minister Felix Kabange said he hoped to inspire "African solidarity" in the Ebola fight and invited other countries to send volunteers to new training centers in the capital Kinshasa.

The World Health Organization has criticized African countries for closing borders to Ebola countries, saying this has worsened their suffering by cutting off supplies.

"We have seen how the international community mobilized by deploying the means to intervene in West Africa. But Congo said, Africa has to mobilize," Kabange told Reuters. "We have made here what we call African solidarity in action," he said.

An initial workshop, run in collaboration with the U.N. children's fund UNICEF, the World Health Organization and Johns Hopkins University, began this week to prepare 56 public health experts to train other volunteers who may ultimately be sent to Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone.

The program aims to teach some 1,057 volunteers -- all of them health professionals -- although some could stay behind to contain Ebola locally.

A recruitment drive has already begun in Kinshasa to assemble an initial pool of 600 volunteers to start training at the end of the month, according to Susie Villeneuve, a senior health specialist for UNICEF.

Three teams of 30 could be ready for deployment to West Africa by as early as mid-November, she said.

"There is a capacity that exists in this country for fighting this illness," said Barbara Bentein, UNICEF representative in Congo.

Congo already sent a five-man medical team to Liberia in August to help support the country's health workers who have been badly hit by the virus.


BUILDING TRUST

Experts say that local suspicions of health workers has expedited the transmission of West Africa's first Ebola outbreak, which began in the forests of Guinea last December and then spread to Liberia and Sierra Leone.

Unlike past outbreaks in Congo, the West Africa epidemic quickly spread to densely populated urban centers, prompting governments to apply controversial emergency measures such as community quarantine in Liberia and a lockdown in Sierra Leone.

Kabange said Congo had succeeded in containing the country's past outbreaks through building trust with affected communities by working closely with local political and traditional leaders.

"We say everyday that as long as the community does not take charge of itself, does not participate itself in the fight against Ebola, Ebola won't be stopped," the minister said.

The deadly hemorrhagic fever was first detected in the dense tropical forests of Congo in 1976. Scientists named the illness after the nearby river Ebola.

The latest outbreak in Congo was thought to have started in August in the remote northern Equateur province after a hunter brought home an infected bush animal carcass. Since then, 49 people have died in the province among 69 cases.

But there has been a two-week lull in new confirmed cases, with the last one reported on Oct. 4. The outbreak could be declared over by the health ministry by mid-November if no additional cases are confirmed.

(Writing by Emma Farge and David Lewis; Editing by Crispian Balmer)


http://news.yahoo.com/congo-lends-hand-fight-ebola-urges-african-solidarity-161646880--finance.html

[Buster's Uncle]

Obama says Ebola travel ban could make things worse
Reuters
By Roberta Rampton  2 hours ago



U.S. President Barack Obama talks to the press after meeting with his team coordinating the government's Ebola response in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington, October 16, 2014. REUTERS/Larry Downing



WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Barack Obama on Saturday urged Americans to avoid hysteria over Ebola, and played down the idea of travel bans from Ebola-ravaged countries in West Africa, explaining that restrictions could make things worse.

Lawmakers this week urged Obama to bar people from Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea from entering the United States. Obama has said he is not philosophically opposed to travel bans, but in his weekly address made it clear that he is not leaning toward them.

"We can't just cut ourselves off from West Africa," Obama said, explaining it would make it harder to move health workers and supplies into the region, and would motivate people trying to get out the region to evade screening, making it harder to track cases.

"Trying to seal off an entire region of the world - if that were even possible - could actually make the situation worse," he said.

Obama said it would take time to fight the disease, warning "before this is over, we may see more isolated cases here in America."

But he sought to put the disease in perspective, reminding Americans that only three cases have been diagnosed in the country, and that it is not easily contracted.

"What we're seeing now is not an 'outbreak' or an 'epidemic' of Ebola in America," he said.

"This is a serious disease, but we can't given in to hysteria or fear."

(Reporting by Roberta Rampton; Editing by Sandra Maler)


http://news.yahoo.com/obama-says-ebola-travel-ban-could-things-worse-100624267.html