Ebola news 10/27

[Buster's Uncle]

How Some Exposure to Ebola Could Lead to Immunity
LiveScience.com
By Tanya Lewis  3 hours ago



Epidemics like the current Ebola outbreak in West Africa often get started when people make contact with animals carrying infectious diseases, but, paradoxically, a certain amount of human exposure to a virus at its source can actually also prevent the extensive spread of a disease, new research suggests.

Finding a "sweet spot" – where there is enough human contact for some people to build immunity to a virus, but in a way that does not cause a disease to spread widely, could be a key to preventing deadly diseases from becoming epidemics, researchers say.

"If we're really worried about emerging infectious diseases, we really need to pay attention to the ecological interfaces between animal reservoirs and the human populations that interact with them," said Timothy Reluga, a mathematical epidemiologist at The Pennsylvania State University.

Infectious diseases such as Ebola hide out within animal populations. Scientists call these populations "reservoirs," and contact between humans and these animals is what allows these diseases to hop across species. Some human communities serve as bridges between the animal hosts and the wider human population.

Within these bridge communities, humans are often exposed to animals that carry viruses, including dogs, pigs, bats and birds. When a virus does move form an animal to a human, "Usually what happens is nothing — the virus dies because it is not suited to our bodies," Reluga told Live Science.

"But every once in a while, the virus makes the transition and starts infecting cells in a person," said Reluga, who co-authored the study published Tuesday (Oct. 21) in the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B.

And even if the virus does replicate within the human body, it can't cause an epidemic unless it can also be transmitted from one person to another. In some diseases, such as rabies, infected people seldom if ever transmit the virus to others. But in others, like measles and smallpox, the viruses are much more transmissible among people, Reluga said.


How epidemics start

Public health experts usually try to trace any epidemics back to the single person who was exposed to the virus ("patient zero"), but in reality, within the "bridge" communities (of people living near the animals that host the virus), a population of people has usually been exposed to it, and some have even developed immunity to it.

For example, Ebola virus is present in bats, and infects gorillas and other primates. While it's not clear exactly how the deadly Ebola epidemic in West Africa got started, scientists know that the disease spread by way of a bridge community, Reluga said.

To better understand how a virus can cause an epidemic, Reluga and his colleagues ran a series of mathematical simulations in which they varied the rate of exposure of a bridge community to a hypothetical virus.

The researchers found there was a tradeoff — the more people exposed to the virus, the greater the risk that it could spread. But more exposure also meant that more immunity built up within the bridge community, which acted as a barrier to the wider human population.


Tipping point

There's no single perfect rate of exposure that prevents it from becoming an epidemic, the simulations showed. Rather, "there's a sweet spot that’s the worst possible case," Reluga said. If people are exposed at that particular rate, there's enough contact to spread the disease more widely, but not enough immunity to stop its emergence.

"Past that point, if you get people exposed really rapidly, that’s okay, because they're making a very strong barrier for emergence [of an epidemic]," Reluga said. "Or, if you stop exposure totally, that’s good," because then no one can spread the disease. In other words, "the extremes are good," he said.

The findings suggest that human bridge communities could serve as important sentinels for the emergence of epidemics. If vaccine exists for a virus, health workers could vaccinate only the bridge communities to create a barrier against spreading the disease to the wider population, the researchers said.

"By paying attention to those particular groups, we might be able to get a better handle on how epidemics happened in the past and protect against them in the future."


http://news.yahoo.com/exposure-ebola-could-lead-immunity-152257247.html

[Buster's Uncle]

CDC Issues New Guidelines for Travelers from Ebola-Outbreak Countries
LiveScience.com
By Karen Rowan  45 minutes ago






In new guidelines for people who enter the U.S. from countries in West Africa where the Ebola outbreak is ongoing, officials recommend that some travelers undergo "direct active monitoring" of their health by public health authorities for 21 days, the director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention announced today (Oct. 27).

For example, a public health authority should witness a daily check of some people's temperature, according to the new recommendations. 

Travelers will now be placed into four categories, based on their level of risk of developing Ebola, CDC Director Dr. Tom Frieden said today at a news conference. People will be considered to fall into the "high risk" category of developing the deadly disease if they are known to have had direct contact with an Ebola patient, Frieden said. For example, a health care worker who was stuck with a needle while caring for an Ebola patient, or a person who helped to care for a family member with Ebola, would fall into this group.

People at high risk will be recommended to voluntarily quarantine themselves in their homes, and should undergo "direct active monitoring" of their health, Frieden said. This means that, daily, a public health authority should observe the person's temperature check, as well have conversations with the person about how they are feeling. The individual will go through a detailed list of symptoms, and discuss what activities they have planned.

The new guideliness will "increase the protection of the health and safety of Americans," Frieden said. The CDC is "engaging in discussions" with states and local health authorities, which are not obligated to follow CDC recommendations, he said. "If states wish to be more stringent, that's within their authority."

But the new guidelines add "a strong level of protection," for people in the U.S., he said. Rules and procedures that make it difficult for health care workers to return to the U.S. could make it less likely that people will disclose the fact that they are health care workers, he said.



A scanning electron micrograph of the Ebola virus.


The second category consists of people at "some risk" of developing the disease, such as returning health care workers who were caring for Ebola patients, or people who had a member of their household develop Ebola, but who did not have direct contact with the sick person themselves. People in this group are recommended to also undergo direct active monitoring, and local public health authorities should determine, based on the person's individual situation (such as exactly what the person's Ebola exposure may have been, and how quickly they could be isolated if they were to develop symptoms), whether the person should be recommended to avoid public transportation, their workplace, or public gatherings, during their monitoring period.

Frieden noted that in a previous CDC study of 78 people in Africa who lived in a household with an Ebola patient, but did not have direct contact with the sick person, none became ill with Ebola. "Ebola only spreads from people who have symptoms, and only through direct contact," he said. The highest risk is seen in people who are caregivers, and in Africa, those who perform certain burial rituals for people who died of the disease, he said.

The third group includes people at "low, but not zero" risk, such as those who traveled in the affected countries, and health care workers in the U.S. who cared for Ebola patients here. People in this group should undergo active direct monitoring, by telephone, with a local public health authority, Frieden said.

The fourth category includes people at "no identified risk" of developing Ebola, such as those who did not actually travel to the affected countries, and have no symptoms of the disease.

The new recommendations come on top of existing measures being implemented to catch travelers who may develop Ebola early in the course of their illness. On Oct. 11, the CDC began screening all passengers arriving at JFK International Airport in New York from the outbreak region for symptoms, as well as possible exposure to people with Ebola. On Oct. 16, four more airports began this screening as well.

Frieden said that before that screening began, it was estimated that 130 to 150 travelers from the outbreak region were arriving daily to the U.S. However, the actual number has been less than 100 travelers daily, he said.

Of the 807 people who have arrived from the region, and who were screened, it turned out that 46 were health care workers returning from the region, he said.

The CDC is continuing to closely monitor the health of Dr. Craig Spencer, who was diagnosed on Thursday (Oct. 23) with Ebola in New York. As for reports today that a 5-year-old boy in New York, who recently returned from Guinea, is being tested for Ebola, Frieden said: "From what we've seen, the [boy's] illness would be quite unusual as a presentation of Ebola."


http://news.yahoo.com/cdc-issues-guidelines-travelers-ebola-outbreak-countries-220204465.html

[Buster's Uncle]

Defying stigma, survivors join the Ebola fight in West Africa
Reuters
By Michelle Nichols and James Harding Giahyue  5 hours ago



At the Grand Mosque, U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations, Samantha Power, meets with Ebola survivors Fanta Oulen Camara, 24, (L) and Dr Oulare Bakary, 30 (C) in Conakry, Guinea October 26, 2014. REUTERS/Michelle Nichols



CONAKRY/LIBERIA (Reuters) - High school teacher Fanta Oulen Camara spent two weeks in March fighting for her life against the deadly Ebola virus but her darkest days came after she was cured of the disease and returned to her home in Guinea.

"Most of my friends stopped visiting. They didn't speak to me. They avoided me," the 24-year-old said. "I wasn't allowed to teach anymore."

The worst outbreak of Ebola on record has killed 5,000 people in West Africa, mostly in Guinea and neighboring Liberia and Sierra Leone. But thousands more have survived, ostracized by fearful communities ravaged by the disease.

In the face of such stigmatization, Ebola survivors like Camara are joining an association in Guinea that assists the growing number of people who recover and seeks ways for them to help combat the disease.

Survivors are believed to have immunity from Ebola thanks to antibodies in their blood, making them a powerful weapon in a fight against the virus. A shortage of healthcare workers means weak West African governments are losing the battle to contain Ebola, despite pledges of hundreds of millions of dollars in foreign aid.



Marvin Kai, an Ebola survivor, poses for a picture with his wife Odell Kai and their one-year-old son in Monrovia, October 18, 2014. REUTERS/James Giahyue


The virus is spread by the bodily fluids of victims, who bleed, vomit and suffer diarrhea in its final stages. Ordinary medical and sanitary staff must wear heavy Personal Protective Equipment to prevent infection, denying scared patients the chance for human contact -- but survivors do not have to.

Camara, who lost six members of her family to Ebola, works with medical charity Medecins Sans Frontieres at a clinic in Guinea's dilapidated ocean-front capital Conakry.

"We share our own experience with those people, explaining that we were sick but now we have been cured," Camara said. "We give them hope."

In Liberia and Sierra Leone too, survivors are signing up to work in Ebola Treatment Units, to care for children orphaned by the disease, and to provide counseling to victims in an attempt to break the taboo surrounding the outbreak.

There is hope that blood from survivors can also be used as a serum to treat the disease. In Liberia, plans are underway to store survivors' blood and the World Health Organization has said that treatment could start as early as December.



Paciencia Melgar, a Guinean nun who was cleared of Ebola after contracting the disease while on mission in Liberia, arrives for a news conference in Madrid October 20, 2014. REUTERS/Andrea Comas


For Dr Oulare Bakary, who set up the survivors association three months after he beat Ebola, people who recover have an role to play in demystifying a virus that has caused a violent backlash, partly because it has never before struck West Africa.

Bakary was infected while treating patients in March, days before the mysterious virus in the forests of Guinea was confirmed as Ebola.

"Everyone has been facing stigma and rejection," he said. "We needed to send a message to the people about the epidemic and also the possibility to be cured."

He said that Camara's story was all too common: not only had she lost her job, but when her brother went to his office, he was told to never come back as well. "It's not only the survivors of Ebola, it's their friends and families who are the collateral damage."



Survivors of the Ebola virus pose for a picture outside a clinic near Tubmanburg, October 15, 2014. REUTERS/James Giahyue


U.S. DIPLOMAT HAILS SURVIVORS ROLE


The U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations, Samantha Power, who is touring the region to assess the global response, said dealing with the stigma and fear of Ebola was central to fighting it.

This was equally true in the United States, she said, where several states have implemented mandatory 21-day quarantine periods for healthcare workers returning from West Africa after four cases were diagnosed on U.S. soil.

"You’re actually a real asset because you uniquely know the human stakes of what others are going through," Power said, at a meeting with survivors in Conakry's Grand Mosque.

"These people could be integrated into the solution and instead they feel sadly like part of the problem," she said.

In Liberia, where more than half the deaths have been registered, U.N. child agency UNICEF is enlisting survivors to help care for the rising number of children whose parents have either been killed or isolated in treatment units.



U.S. President Barack Obama talks with Dallas nurse Nina Pham at the Oval Office in Washington, October 24, 2014. REUTERS/Larry Downing


UNICEF estimates that 3,700 children have been orphaned by Ebola. Many of those who survive are deeply traumatized and terrified by anyone wearing protective equipment.

Only people who have survived the disease already can bring personal care to these terrified, yet possibly contagious, kids.

“Survivors can provide that kind of human touch that is so important," said Sheldon Yett, Liberia country director for UNICEF. "They are the key ingredient to providing support to children.”

Kpetermeni Meinu and eight other survivors work with Ebola orphans at the Willing Heart Interim Care Center in Monrovia, supported by UNICEF. They bathe children, wash their clothes and monitor for signs of the virus.

Since he has been working there, five of the 17 children have developed symptoms of the virus and been taken to a treatment unit, he says. One young boy who remains, Anthony Sheriff, is terrified of strangers and medical staff.

"He saw someone spraying his mother before going into the Ebola treatment unit and his mother died. Someone sprayed his father before taken into the ETU and his father also died," said Meinu. "So he now thinks that whenever he sees spray with anyone, they want to kill him.”

(Writing by Michelle Nichols and Daniel Flynn; Editing by Giles Elgood)


http://news.yahoo.com/defying-stigma-survivors-join-ebola-fight-west-africa-192419274.html

[Buster's Uncle]

California Ebola researcher raises $100,000 via crowdfunding
Reuters
By Steve Gorman  1 hour ago



A U.S. Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases (USAMRIID) technician sets up an assay for Ebola within a containment laboratory in this undated handout picture. REUTERS/USAMRIID/Randal Schoepp/Handout via Reuters

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - A California-based immunologist leading an international effort to develop new anti-Ebola drugs has raised more than $100,000 in online donations to hasten the research, achieving her Internet "crowdfunding" goal in just over two weeks.

The proceeds will be used to purchase a piece of equipment enabling Scripps Research Institute scientists in San Diego to more quickly analyze Ebola antibody samples from survivors of the hemorrhagic fever, a spokeswoman there said on Monday.

Twenty-five labs in seven countries are providing specimens to Scripps professor Erica Ollmann Saphire, whose consortium helped formulate the experimental ZMapp serum used to treat a number of Ebola-infected patients.

Scripps posted its first crowdfunding appeal on Oct. 9 on the website www.crowdrise.com/CureEbola seeking donations to pay for a fast-protein-liquid-chromatography machine, according to spokeswoman Madeline McCurry-Schmidt. The device is used to separate antibody proteins and analyze their structure.

As of Monday afternoon, Saphire's group had raised a total of $100,075 from 747 separate gifts, ranging in size from $10 to $25,000, McCurry-Schmidt told Reuters.

"We have officially reached our goal," she said. "We're pretty thrilled about this."

The Scripps-led consortium was established with a $28 million grant from the National Institutes of Health, but the rapidly growing scope of its work was outpacing its resources in the quest to improve on ZMapp and develop drugs, McCurry-Schmidt said.

The current Ebola epidemic, the worst on record, has killed nearly 5,000 people since March, mostly in the West African countries of Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea.

ZMapp is a mix of three antibodies designed to bind to proteins of the Ebola virus, preventing it from replicating and triggering the immune response of infected cells.

The compound was tested in monkeys, but there were no human trials of the serum before it was rushed to Atlanta to treat two U.S. aid workers at Emory University Hospital after they became infected in Liberia in July. The two recovered, but doctors are unsure whether the ZMapp actually helped them. At least one patient given the drug in Spain later died.

ZMapp was co-developed by San Diego-based Mapp Biopharmaceutical Inc. Initial clinical trials of Ebola vaccines from GlaxoSmithKline and NewLink Genetics are already under way, according to the World Health Organization.

(Editing by Mohammad Zargham)


http://news.yahoo.com/california-ebola-researcher-raises-100-000-via-crowdfunding-004543253.html

[Buster's Uncle]

Don't let quarantine hysteria deter Ebola health workers: U.N
Reuters
By Matthew Mpoke Bigg  7 hours ago



ACCRA (Reuters) - Governments must not deter health workers from coming to West Africa to fight Ebola and quarantine decisions should not be based on hysteria, the head of the U.N. mission battling the virus said on Monday.

The U.S. states of New York, New Jersey and Illinois have issued new quarantine rules for people returning from West Africa in response to fears that U.S. federal guidelines do not go far enough to contain an outbreak centered in Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone that has infected 10,000 people.

Some groups have challenged the rules as too extreme and a nurse who was quarantined after returning from Sierra Leone criticized her isolation on Sunday saying she posed no health threat.

"Anything that will dissuade foreign trained personnel from coming here to West Africa and joining us on the frontline to fight the fight would be very, very unfortunate," Anthony Banbury, head of the U.N. Ebola Emergency Response Mission (UNMEER), told Reuters.

He said that health workers returning to their own countries should be treated as heroes.

"Decisions (on quarantine) should be based on science and fact and not hype and hysteria, and decisions should be taken in a way that will promote the most rapid, effective response," Banbury said.

UNMEER was set up in part after complaints by aid groups that the World Health Organization had moved too slowly in its initial response to an outbreak that was identified in March.


FRESH WORKERS NEEDED

The mission has set itself a Dec. 1 deadline to have 70 percent of cases of Ebola under treatment and 70 percent of Ebola victims safely and humanely buried. There is an interim goal of mobilizing necessary resources by Nov. 1.

Speaking in Brussels, the European Union’s new Ebola coordinator urged doctors and nurses to volunteer to go to West Africa and help tackle the crisis.

"What is most needed at this stage is human expertise. The affected countries already have few skilled staff, especially health staff ... They badly need reinforcements," Christos Stylianides told reporters on Monday.

"We also need more beds, from 1,000 at present to 5,000 as soon as possible. Every bed requires eight health and support staff. This means we need to mobilize immediately at least 40,000 staff," he said.

Banbury said a fresh audit of the needs and the international response showed the main requirement was for hundreds of foreign healthcare workers, preferably those who were ready to run Ebola Treatment Units.

"We need them and we need them really bad," he said in an interview at the mission's headquarters in the Ghanaian capital.

The East African Community has offered 600 workers while Ethiopia has offered 200 and UNMEER held talks with the World Bank on Monday on how they could be integrated into the overall effort.

The offers come in the context of criticism of the African Union and other regional bodies for not providing enough practical support to governments facing Ebola.

One of the biggest problems UNMEER faces is obtaining accurate statistics on the needs and the spread of the disease.

As a result, it is also difficult to be certain whether reports of empty beds at Ebola treatment centers in the capital of Liberia are early signs of a turning point in the fight against the disease or due to other factors, he said.

But a case of Ebola detected in Mali last week in a two-year-old girl who has since died must be prevented from becoming a national outbreak, he said.

The United Nations sent 1,000 sets of protective gear to Mali for health workers and is deploying fresh staff, he said.

"We are fighting the Ebola fight on three fronts in the three most affected countries. We cannot afford to fight it on a fourth. So the world, the international community, has to get on top of it really fast in Mali," he said.

(Additional reporting by Adrian Croft in Brussels; Editing by Daniel Flynn, Ruth Pitchford and Crispian Balmer)


http://news.yahoo.com/decisions-quarantine-ebola-health-workers-must-rational-u-144513614.html

[Buster's Uncle]

Australia issues blanket visa ban on Ebola-hit countries
Reuters
By Matt Siegel  2 minutes ago



SYDNEY (Reuters) - Australia has issued a blanket ban on visas from West African nations affected by the Ebola outbreak to prevent the disease reaching the country, Immigration Minister Scott Morrison said, becoming the first rich nation to shut its doors to the region.

Australia has not recorded a case of Ebola despite a number of scares, and conservative Prime Minister Tony Abbott has so far resisted repeated requests to send medical personnel to help battle the outbreak on the ground.

The decision to refuse entry for anyone from Sierra Leone, Guinea and Liberia, while touted by the government as a necessary safety precaution, was criticized by experts and advocates as politically motivated and shortsighted.

"The government has strong controls for the entry of persons to Australia under our immigration program from West Africa," Morrison told parliament on Monday.

"These measures include temporarily suspending our immigration program, including our humanitarian program from Ebola-affected countries, and this means we are not processing any application from these affected countries."

All non-permanent or temporary visas were being canceled and permanent visa holders who had not yet arrived in Australia will be required to submit to a 21-day quarantine period, he added.

A number of U.S. states, including New York and New Jersey, have also imposed mandatory quarantines on returning doctors and nurses amid fears of the virus spreading outside of West Africa. Federal health officials say their approach is extreme.

The Ebola outbreak that began in March has killed nearly 5,000 people, the vast majority in West Africa.

The disease has an incubation period of about three weeks, and becomes contagious when a victim shows symptoms. Ebola, which can cause fever, vomiting and diarrhoea, spreads through contact with bodily fluids such as blood or saliva.

Australia has contributed A$18 million (US$15.86 million) to help fight the disease but has been criticized by medical groups, opposition lawmakers and rights groups for not sending teams to affected regions.

The risks to Australia were already small due to its geographical isolation, said Dr Adam Kamradt-Scott, a senior lecturer at the University of Sydney's Marie Bashir Institute for Infectious Diseases and Biosecurity.

The visa ban, he said, would do nothing to protect the country from Ebola while potentially having a negative public health impact by unduly raising fears about the disease and creating a general climate of panic.

"This blanket ban actually does very little to reduce the risk of Ebola arriving in Australia. It also sends a very bad message both in terms of our humanitarian assistance program as well as Australia's attitude towards West Africa at the moment," he told Reuters.

"This is purely just a political decision. There is very little scientific evidence or medical rationale why you would choose to do this, and this is the type of politics we find starts to interfere with effective public health measures."

Earlier this month it was revealed that Australia had turned down requests from Britain and the United States to send personnel to Sierra Leone to assist in combating the outbreak there, as well as additional funding.

Australia's "narrow approach" to Ebola makes no sense from a health perspective, given that applicants for humanitarian visas are already screened and monitored for illnesses, said Graham Thom, a spokesman for Amnesty International Australia.

Refusing to send healthcare workers while at the same time refusing entry to those most in need will further damage Australia's reputation, already under fire over its tough asylum seeker policies, he said.

"There are ways and means in which people can be monitored, quarantined to insure that those who come are free from the disease," he told Reuters.

"All it does is insure that already exceedingly vulnerable people are trapped in a crisis area and sends a signal about Australia's commitment to actually dealing with this crisis in a responsible way as a member of the international community."

(Additional reporting by Lincoln Feast in Sydney; Editing by Jeremy Laurence)


http://news.yahoo.com/australia-issues-blanket-visa-ban-ebola-hit-countries-022047232.html

[Buster's Uncle]

U.S. CDC seeks voluntary isolation for those at high risk for Ebola
Reuters  6 hours ago



Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Director, Dr. Thomas Frieden, speaks at the CDC headquarters in Atlanta, Georgia September 30, 2014. REUTERS/Tami Chappell



WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Obama administration on Monday recommended voluntary home quarantine for people at the highest risk for Ebola infection but said most health workers returning from West Africa would simply require daily monitoring without isolation.

Dr. Thomas Frieden, director of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), said high risk individuals would include healthcare workers who suffer a needle stick while caring for an Ebola patient or who tend to a patient without protective gear.

Under new guidelines that spell out four risk categories, most healthcare workers returning from West Africa's Ebola hot zone would be considered to at "some risk" for infection, while healthcare workers tending to Ebola patients at U.S. facilities would be seen as "low but non-zero" risk.

(Reporting by David Morgan; Editing by Sandra Maler)


http://news.yahoo.com/u-cdc-seeks-voluntary-isolation-those-high-risk-202710300.html

[Buster's Uncle]

'Active' monitoring of high-risk Ebola workers urged: CDC
AFP
By Kerry SHERIDAN  3 hours ago



Ebola information sheets are seen outside an apartment in New York on October 27, 2014 (AFP Photo/Don Emmert )



Washington (AFP) - US health authorities on Monday issued new guidelines urging active monitoring of people at risk of Ebola after returning from West Africa but stopped short of recommending a strict quarantine.

"Active direct monitoring" means that people in this high-risk category must be checked for fever daily for 21 days, and must restrict their travel and public activities for the duration of the virus's incubation period, the Centers for Disease Control Prevention said in an update of previously issued guidelines.

Those at the highest risk of having contracted the Ebola virus include healthcare workers who experienced a needle stick or had fluids from an infected person splash in their eyes or on broken skin.

The high-risk category also includes those who handled bodily fluids without wearing personal protective equipment, those who touched the corpse of a person who died of Ebola, or family members who cared for an Ebola patient.

The monitoring means that someone accountable to the local or state health department observes the person's temperature being taken, has a conversation with them daily including going over a checklist of potential Ebola symptoms, and reviews plans for their daily activities, said CDC chief Tom Frieden.

"That, we think, is good sound public health policy," Frieden told reporters.

"We know with Ebola that as people get sicker they get much more infectious," he said.

"So those first few hours or days of the beginning of symptoms are far less likely to result in any infections than are the later courses of the disease, when people have much, much larger numbers of virus that they are excreting."

The CDC does not have the power to enforce these rules, and said it would defer to local and state health authorities to decide how to proceed and execute the guidelines.


- Medical exams recommended -

People at some risk of Ebola include anyone who spent "a long time" in the presence of a symptomatic Ebola patient without wearing protective gear, or any healthcare worker who cared for Ebola in patients in West Africa even when wearing protective coverings.

These people should also under active direct monitoring, though travel restrictions can be decided on a case-by-case basis, the CDC said.

People at low risk of Ebola include those who were in a country stricken with the virus but who had no known exposure, or those who were in the same room as an Ebola patient but did not touch them.

All three categories are urged to have a medical examination to rule out the infection.

People at no risk of Ebola include those who came in contact with an Ebola patient before the person was showing symptoms -- which include fever, aches, vomiting and diarrhea -- and those who have gone three weeks since traveling to a country with Ebola.

The CDC guidelines were issued after a US nurse was quarantined in New Jersey Friday after she returned from treating Ebola patients in West Africa.

Kaci Hickox protested her conditions over the weekend and was released Monday, a day after New York eased strict new quarantine orders under pressure from President Barack Obama's administration.


http://news.yahoo.com/active-monitoring-high-risk-ebola-workers-urged-cdc-232557614.html

[Buster's Uncle]

Sierra Leoneans in Britain answer Ebola 'call of duty'
AFP
By Alice Ritchie, Katherine Haddon  16 hours ago



A girls suspected of being infected with the Ebola virus has her temperature checked at the government hospital in Kenema, Sierra Leone, on August 16, 2014 (AFP Photo/Carl de Souza)



London (AFP) - Watching with horror as the Ebola crisis ravages their country, Sierra Leoneans in London are mobilising to help their compatriots fight the deadly virus back home.

Health workers are taking leave from their jobs in the state-run National Health Service (NHS) to volunteer in Sierra Leone, where at least 1,200 people have died so far.

Others are raising funds for medical supplies, protective clothing and even hot meals for those affected -- anything that makes a difference.

"I see it as a call of duty -- I need to go down and help my people," said Ajan Fofanah, a 46-year-old trained paediatric nurse who has applied to spend eight weeks working in Sierra Leone.

He was born in the west African country and moved to Britain aged 27 to further his education. Now he wants to use his skills to help battle the virus that has killed four members of his extended family.

"I'm far away from them and this is what is heart-rending. I need to get closer," he added.



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


Fofanah was one of around 80 Sierra Leonean medics who attended an event in London last week to find out more about how they could help.

All were successful professionals keen to put their careers in Britain on hold and even risk being infected with Ebola to help their country.

Mohamed Koker, a 50-year-old emergency doctor who has worked in Britain for 12 years, hoped his knowledge of languages and traditions would help break down barriers with locals.

"I think the urge within me to perform what I call a national duty overrides my fear," he told AFP.

"Most importantly, I have all the Sierra Leoneans back home who have no medical knowledge and who are sacrificing themselves, who are doing more than I think I am doing here."


- 'Only topic of conversation' -

It is not only doctors and nurses who are desperate to help.

The British government is leading the international aid effort in its former colony, but members of the 23,000-strong Sierra Leonean diaspora here want to go further.

Ebola "is the only topic of conversation" among many, said Ade Daramy, chairman of the Sierra Leone Diaspora Ebola Task Force, which is working to help coordinate the response.

"When you live overseas and you've got family there -- that just breaks you," added Memuna Janneh, a 46-year-old British business consultant who grew up in Sierra Leone.

She started a charity in London to help feed people working on the frontline in Freetown, helped by her husband and relatives who are still living over there.

"LunchBoxGift" provided 2,600 meals to people living rough during the three-day lockdown in September, and now hopes to provide 50,000 more to hospital workers and patients.

"We may not have the cure, we may not have the logistics, we may not have the hospitals, all of those more complicated things that the government is battling to deal with," she told AFP.

"But we can certainly as ordinary people come together to do food. It was really that simple for me."

The British-based Sierra Leone War Trust for Children (SLWT) has also raised money to provide protective clothing and non-contact infrared thermometers for health workers and to deliver handwashing stations to rural areas.

In another innovative project, it sent 1,000 plastic raincoats to provide basic protection from Ebola for drivers of the "okada" motorcycles commonly used for transport.


- Ebola is 'like a ghost' -

For some, the urge to help is fuelled by a desire to save Sierra Leone from another trauma as serious as the country's 1990s civil war.

Mayene Sesay, 32, saw her mother shot dead in 1999 and lost a foot when a house she was in was set on fire.

She now runs an NGO for young disabled people in Sierra Leone.

Although not a medic, she attended the recruitment event in London to find out what she could do to fight Ebola.

"Whatever happens to me, I'm going to stay strong and help my country because I don't want (it) to go through something else again," she said.

"At least I can remember the person who shot my mum but I cannot see Ebola, where it comes from, how it affects my family. It's like a ghost -- you're gone."


http://news.yahoo.com/sierra-leoneans-britain-answer-ebola-call-duty-105733787.html

[Buster's Uncle]

Blackmailers threaten Czechs with Ebola outbreak
AFP  9 hours ago



Blackmailers allegedly claim they have "biological material" from an infected Ebola patient and will bring it to the Czech Republic unless Prague pays them a million euros in Bitcoin (AFP Photo/Michal Cizek)



Prague (AFP) - Blackmailers are threatening to spread Ebola in the Czech Republic unless Prague pays them a million euros' worth of the virtual Bitcoin currency, police said Monday.

An e-mail allegedly from the blackmailers claiming they had "biological material" from an infected patient in Liberia was published by the country's top commercial TV station, TV Nova, on Monday.

"An unknown perpetrator or perpetrators are blackmailing this state, threatening to spread the Ebola virus," the country's deputy police chief Zdenek Laube told reporters.

"From the very beginning these culprits have been seeking to spread panic, which is their primary goal," he added.

The blackmailers demanded one million euros ($1.27 million) in the virtual Bitcoin currency, payable in three installments, reports said.

The interior ministry said in a statement that "the culprit or culprits are using very sophisticated communication methods," without elaborating.

Robert Slachta, head of the UOOZ anti-organised crime squad, said the blackmailers could face up to 12 years in prison if found and convicted.

Chief public health officer Vladimir Valenta said that the deadly virus, which has already killed almost 5,000 people, mainly in west Africa, was unlikely to spread to the Czech Republic.

"Obtaining the virus, its transport, efficiently spreading it in a way other than contact with an ill person or his or her fluids is not too realistic," he told reporters.

Tests have so far ruled out four suspected cases of Ebola in the Czech Republic, an EU member of 10.5 million people.

More than 10,000 people have contracted the deadly virus worldwide, according to the latest World Health Organization figures.


http://news.yahoo.com/blackmailers-threaten-czechs-ebola-outbreak-174554506.html