Ebola news 10/28

[Buster's Uncle]

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



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 neighbouring Liberia and Sierra Leone. But thousands more have survived, ostracised 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.

The virus is spread by the bodily fluids of victims, who bleed, vomit and suffer diarrhoea 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 counselling to victims in an attampt 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.

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."


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.

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.”


http://news.yahoo.com/rpt-defying-stigma-survivors-join-ebola-fight-west-063523055.html

[Buster's Uncle]

How Ebola spreads and started
Reuters  17 hours ago



(Reuters) - West Africa is struggling with the worst Ebola outbreak on record that has killed more than 4,900 people. Two nurses in the United States and one nurse in Spain have contracted Ebola outside of Africa.

Interactive graphic on Ebola

http://graphics.thomsonreuters.com/14/ebola/index.html

The following are some facts about the outbreak:

- Ebola has killed 4,922 people, or about 50 percent of 10,141 confirmed, probable and suspected cases, mostly in Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea, according to the U.N.'s World Health Organization. It says the true death toll may be three times as much or 15,000 people, while the death rate is thought to be about 70 percent of all cases.

- Ebola emerged in a remote forest region of Guinea in March and has also turned up in Nigeria, Senegal and Mali. Health officials declared Nigeria and Senegal Ebola-free in October.

- There is no vaccine or cure for Ebola, a hemorrhagic fever. In past outbreaks, fatality rates have reached up to 90 percent. Ebola causes fever, flu-like pains, bleeding, vomiting and diarrhea.

- Pharmaceutical companies are working on experimental Ebola vaccines and antiviral drugs, but a significant number of doses will not be available until at least the first quarter of 2015.

- Ebola is not airborne. It is transmitted through blood, vomit, diarrhea and other bodily fluids. Healthcare workers in West Africa have been among the hardest hit by the outbreak.

- Ebola symptoms generally appear between two and 21 days after infection, meaning there is a significant window during which an infected person can escape detection, allowing them to travel. However, they are not considered contagious until they start showing symptoms.

- Recovery from Ebola depends on the patient’s immune response. People who recover from Ebola infection develop antibodies that last for at least 10 years.

- Ebola patients have been treated in the United States, Spain, Germany, France, Norway and the United Kingdom. (Graphic: http://link.reuters.com/dek33w)

- The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has estimated that the number of infections could rise to up to 1.4 million people by early next year without a massive global intervention to contain the virus.

- The United States, Britain, France, China, Cuba and international organizations are pouring funds, supplies and personnel into the affected parts of West Africa.

- Ebola's suspected origin is forest bats. The virus was first identified in 1976 in what is now known as Democratic Republic of the Congo.

SOURCE: World Health Organization and U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

(Compiled by Lisa Shumaker and Tom Brown; Editing by Grant McCool)


http://news.yahoo.com/ebola-spreads-started-201652759.html

[Buster's Uncle]

CDC to release new U.S. guidelines for returning Ebola healthcare workers
Reuters  20 hours ago



WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention will release additional guidelines later on Monday governing protocols for healthcare workers returning to the United States after treating Ebola victims in West Africa, the White House said.

White House spokesman Josh Earnest said U.S. policies needed to be guided by science and to not discourage volunteers from going to help in the countries hardest hit by the Ebola outbreak.

Earnest's comments came after a handful of states instituted quarantines for returning healthcare workers from the region, going beyond federal guidelines.

(Reporting by Jeff Mason and Steve Holland; Editing by Doina Chiacu)


http://news.yahoo.com/cdc-release-u-guidelines-returning-ebola-healthcare-workers-173128513.html

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Ebola-quarantined U.S. nurse to sue in test of states' policies
Reuters
By Joseph Ax  October 27, 2014 4:29 AM



After nurse Kaci Hickox treated Ebola patients in West Africa, she returned to Newark, New Jeresy, to authorities who placed her in mandatory quarantine. She displayed no symptoms and tested negative for the virus. Hickox plans to sue the state for her release



NEW YORK (Reuters) - New Jersey's mandatory quarantine for certain travelers from Ebola-stricken West Africa will likely face its first legal test this week, after a lawyer for a quarantined nurse said she would file a federal lawsuit within days.

Norman Siegel, a civil rights lawyer, said Kaci Hickox's isolation upon her return from West Africa raised "serious constitutional and civil liberties issues," given that she shows no Ebola symptoms and has not tested positive for the disease.

"We're not going to dispute that the government has, under certain circumstances, the right to issue a quarantine," said Siegel, who was on his way to visit Hickox in a New Jersey hospital. "The policy is overly broad when applied to her.”

The lawsuit would be the first to challenge the 21-day mandatory quarantine imposed by New Jersey for anyone arriving with a high risk of having contracted Ebola from Sierra Leone, Liberia and Guinea, where the epidemic has killed nearly 5,000 people.

The case could also affect similar policies announced by other states including New York and Illinois.



This undated image provided by University of Texas at Arlington shows Kaci Hickox. In a Sunday, Oct. 26, 2014 telephone interview with CNN, Hickox, the nurse quarantined at a New Jersey hospital because she had contact with Ebola patients in West Africa, said the process of keeping her isolated is "inhumane." (AP Photo/University of Texas at Arlington)


The lawsuit will argue that Hickox's constitutional right to due process was violated when she was forced into isolation, Siegel said.

State officials implemented a blanket policy without identifying a rational basis for confining asymptomatic individuals like Hickox, he said.

"The case law makes clear that the policy should be driven by medical fact, not fear," he said.

Michelle Mello, professor of law and public health at Harvard University, said courts in such cases seek to balance the level of danger posed by the disease with the likelihood that the individual poses a public threat.

But she said courts have found reason to uphold past quarantines, even when there was no definitive proof the individuals were ill.



Governor of New Jersey Chris Christie speaks during a news conference about New York's first case of Ebola, in New York October 24, 2014. REUTERS/Carlo Allegri


"I don’t think it is clear, but I suspect when all is said and done, it won’t be successful," she said.

Lawrence Gostin, a Georgetown University law professor and health expert, said states' authority to issue quarantine orders is broad, but not unlimited.

"I can’t recall a case in the 20th century where certain states are preparing to quarantine an entire class of people irrespective of their individualized risk," he said. "It just flies in the face of science, ethics and law."

In such cases, courts typically seek the least restrictive alternative, Gostin said, which might include voluntary confinement with monitoring. He said other quarantines, such as for drug-resistant tuberculosis, require a positive test.

Gostin has been in contact with Hickox via email to offer advice and support, he said.

Hickox, the first person isolated under the new orders, arrived on Friday at Newark Liberty International Airport in New Jersey after working with Ebola patients in Sierra Leone.

In an interview with CNN on Sunday, Hickox criticized the policy, saying she is "completely healthy."

But New Jersey Governor Chris Christie told Fox News on Sunday he would not back down. "This is government's job ... to protect the safety and health of our citizens."

The White House, worried that the quarantine orders could impede the fight against Ebola, has voiced its concerns to the governors of New Jersey, New York and other states, a senior administration official said on Sunday.

(Reporting by Joseph Ax; Editing by Kevin Drawbaugh and Paul Simao)


http://news.yahoo.com/ebola-quarantined-u-nurse-sue-test-states-policies-082922333.html

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2nd Dallas Nurse Free of Ebola
LiveScience.com
By Rachael Rettner  3 hours ago



The second Dallas nurse to be infected with Ebola is now free of the virus, and will be released from the hospital today (Oct. 28).

The nurse, Amber Vinson, has recovered and will be discharged from Emory University Hospital in Atlanta, the hospital said.

Vinson is the fourth patient with Ebola to be treated at Emory University. She will make a statement at 1:00 p.m. ET today, according to Emory.

Vinson became infected with Ebola when she cared for Thomas Eric Duncan, the first person to be diagnosed with Ebola in the United States. The day before she developed symptoms of the virus, she flew by plane from Cleveland to Dallas, leading the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to notify all people onboard her flights. The CDC later said that Vinson had been in contact with the agency the day of her flight, and was cleared to fly. (People with Ebola are contagious only after they start showing symptoms).

Another nurse, Nina Pham, also contracted Ebola when caring for Duncan at Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital. She was treated at the National Institutes of Health Clinical Center in Bethesda, Maryland. On Friday (Oct. 24), Pham was declared virus-free, and released from the hospital.

Health care workers are at higher risk for Ebola infection because they often treat patients who have reached the stage of the infection with the most symptoms.


http://news.yahoo.com/2nd-dallas-nurse-free-ebola-145414586.html

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Ebola: Here's Why Travel Bans Could Make Americans Less Safe
LiveScience.com
By Tia Ghose  3 hours ago



Health care workers from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention check the temperature of a man in Conakry, Guinea in West Africa to see whether he has Ebola symptoms.



Ebola is spreading rapidly in West Africa, and the first cases of people in the United States who have the deadly virus have been reported. Now, Americans are getting increasingly jittery about importing the deadly disease, new polls show.

In a recent Washington Post and ABC news poll, 67 percent of those surveyed said they supported a travel ban from the affected countries.

But despite broad popular support for such restrictions, travel bans would actually increase the risk of the disease spreading to other countries, including the United States, experts say.

Here's why: A travel ban would reduce the number of medical workers who enter the countries, which could worsen the outbreak there, said Dr. William Schaffner, a professor of preventive medicine and infectious diseases at Vanderbilt University Medical Center in Nashville, Tennessee. The countries of Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone already had fragile health infrastructures, and many of their doctors and nurses have died from the disease, he said.

Further depriving those nations of U.S. medical workers would thus mean more Ebola cases there. And an increase in the number of cases anywhere in the world means there is an increase in the risk that someone with Ebola could come to the United States, said Dr. Amesh Adalja, an infectious disease specialist and a representative of the Infectious Disease Society of America.

Travel bans would also severely impact a targeted country's economy, leading to food and water shortages and political destabilization, Adalja said.

People may flee the affected countries and cross, undetected, into neighboring nations such as Mali or the Ivory Coast, Adalja said. (On Thursday, Oct. 23, Mali confirmed its first case of Ebola, in a 2-year-old girl who had crossed the border from Guinea.)

"What a travel ban does is it squeezes people to use other modes of transportation," Adalja told Live Science.

And people fleeing from Liberia, Guinea or Sierra Leone who were banned from flying to the United States could instead fly to other countries in Africa, which would mean the United States would then either have to ban travel from even more countries, or cast a much wider net in monitoring than it currently does, he said.

Right now, American airports funnel the approximately 150 passengers a day from Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone through five main ports of entry. Those coming from Ebola-ravaged countries must check in with public health authorities, take their temperatures for 21 days (the incubation period for the virus) and be on the alert for symptoms.

Under this system, public health officials can keep tabs on every person who comes down with the disease, and get them isolated and into a designated care facility before they are highly infectious. But this effort would be difficult to scale up if many more African countries had outbreaks flaring, Adalja said.


An endemic disease?

People in the United States may not want to risk American lives at home simply to help the humanitarian effort in Africa. But if the outbreak in Africa gets large enough, there's a risk that Ebola could become an endemic disease in the region, meaning there will always be cases present in some populations there, said Dr. Howard Markel, a pediatrician and the director of the Center for the History of Medicine at the University of Michigan.

That possibility was also highlighted earlier this month in a news conference held by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

"It could spread to other countries in Africa and be an ongoing risk that we would have to deal with for months or for years," Dr. Thomas Frieden, the director of the CDC, said. "It's really important that we stop the outbreak. And to do that, we need regular travel. We need countries not completely isolated from the world."

The outbreak in West Africa is now the worst Ebola outbreak in history, with nearly 10,000 cases and almost 5,000 reported deaths as of Oct. 22, according to the CDC.


Future use?

The Obama administration hasn't ruled out the possibility of a travel ban if the situation continues to worsen. In September, a CDC report projected that up to 1.4 million people could be stricken by Ebola in Guinea, Sierra Leone and Liberia if relief efforts aren't dramatically scaled up. At that point, a travel ban could be potentially useful, although even then it still may not make sense, Markel said.

So far, Ebola has stricken fewer than about 10,000 individuals in countries with millions of people, and only two of the thousands of passengers who have traveled recently to the United States from West Africa have tested positive for the disease after they arrived here, Markel said.

"Don't use a bazooka when a BB gun will do," Markel said. "A travel ban is a bazooka."

The risk to Americans is ultimately tied to the size of the outbreak in West Africa, all the experts said, so the best way to keep people in the United States safe is to stamp the disease out at the source.

"Until the outbreak is gone, everybody is going to be at risk," Adalja said.


http://news.yahoo.com/ebola-heres-why-travel-bans-could-americans-less-145031636.html

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Sierra Leone says Australia Ebola visa ban wrong, discriminatory
Reuters  1 hour ago



FREETOWN (Reuters) - Sierra Leone on Tuesday branded a visa ban imposed by Australia on Ebola-hit nations in West Africa counterproductive and discriminatory against 24 million people living in Sierra Leone, Guinea and Liberia.

Alpha Kanu, Sierra Leone's information minister, said on Tuesday that Australia's move was "too draconian". He said that measures at Sierra Leone's Freetown airport had successfully prevented anyone flying out of the country with Ebola.

"It is discriminatory in that...it is not (going)after Ebola but rather it is ... against the 24 million citizens of Sierra Leone, Liberia and Guinea. Certainly, it is not the right way to go," Kanu told Reuters. "This measure by the Australian government is absolutely counterproductive."

(Reporting by Umaru Fofana; Writing by David Lewis; Editing by Daniel Flynn and Ralph Boulton)


http://news.yahoo.com/sierra-leone-says-australia-ebola-visa-ban-wrong-162710864--finance.html

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Australia bans travel from Ebola-hit countries; U.S. isolates troops
Reuters
By Michelle Nichols and Umaru Fofana  25 minutes ago



Ed Henry presses White House press secretary



MONROVIA/FREETOWN (Reuters) - Australia became the first developed country on Tuesday to shut its borders to citizens of the countries worst-hit by the West African Ebola outbreak, a move those states said stigmatized healthy people and would make it harder to fight the disease.

Australia's ban on visas for citizens of Sierra Leone, Liberia and Guinea followed decisions by the U.S. military to quarantine soldiers returning from an Ebola response mission and some U.S. states to isolate aid workers. The United Nations said such measures could discourage vital relief work, making it harder to stop the spread of the deadly virus.

"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 in the Ghanaian capital Accra.

Liberia's President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf urged Australia to reconsider its travel ban.

"Anytime there's stigmatization, there's quarantine, there's exclusion of people, many of whom are just normal, then those of us who are fighting this epidemic, when we face that, we get very sad," she told a news conference.



U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations, Samantha Power, (R) visits the Western Area Emergency Response Centre in Freetown, Sierra Leone, October 27, 2014. REUTERS/Michelle Nichols


Neighboring Sierra Leone called the Australian move draconian.

"It is discriminatory in that ... it is not (going) after Ebola but rather it is ... against the 24 million citizens of Sierra Leone, Liberia and Guinea," Information Minister Alpha Kanu told Reuters. "Certainly, it is not the right way to go."

The virus has killed almost 5,000 people since March, mostly in those three countries. Nine U.S. cases have prompted states such as New York and New Jersey to ignore federal advice and quarantine all health workers returning from the region.

A Texas nurse who caught Ebola in the United States while treating an infected Liberian patient left hospital on Tuesday after being declared free of the disease.

"I'm so grateful to be well, a smiling Amber Vinson, 29, told reporters at Emory University Hospital before hugging the doctors and nurses who treated her for two weeks.



U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations, Samantha Power, (C) visits the Western Area Emergency Response Centre in Freetown, Sierra Leone, October 27, 2014. REUTERS/Michelle Nichols


The arrival of the disease in the United States has prompted fierce debate there and in other developed countries about the best measures to prevent its spread.

The World Health Organization says overly restrictive quarantines and travel bans will put people off volunteering to go to Africa, where relief workers are needed to help improve a health system to deal with the disease.

"We desperately need international health workers ... They are really the key to this response,” WHO spokesman Tarik Jasarevic said.

World Bank chief Jim Yong Kim said the three worst hit countries needed 5,000 overseas health workers at any one time.

"Those health workers cannot work continuously: there needs to be a rotation. So we will need many thousands of health workers over the next months to a year in order to bring this epidemic under control," he said an African Union meeting in Ethiopia. "Right now, I am very much worried where we will find those health workers."



U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations, Samantha Power, speaks with Group Captain Paul Warwick, chief British military support to the National Ebola Response Centre situation room, in Freetown, Sierra Leone, October 27, 2014. REUTERS/Michelle Nichols


MASS PANIC

Even African countries with no Ebola cases have been angered by policies being implemented in richer countries.

"Western countries are creating mass panic which is unhelpful in containing a contagious disease like Ebola," said Ugandan government spokesman Ofwono Opondo.

"If they create mass panic ... this fear will eventually spread beyond ordinary people to health workers or people who transport the sick and then what will happen? Entire populations will be wiped out."

Eighty-two people who had contact with a toddler who died of Ebola in Mali last week are being monitored, the WHO said, but no new cases have been reported there.



A health worker checks the temperature of a woman leaving Guinea at the border with Mali in Kouremale, October 2, 2014. REUTERS/Joe Penney


Mali became the sixth West African country to report a case of the disease. Senegal and Nigeria both stopped the virus by tracking down people who had had contact with those who brought it into their country and monitoring them for symptoms.

American soldiers returning from West Africa are being isolated, even if they show no symptoms and are not believed to have been exposed to the virus.

Army said Chief of Staff General Raymond Odierno ordered the 21-day monitoring period "to ensure soldiers, family members and their surrounding communities are confident that we are taking all steps necessary to protect their health".


ADOPT AND ADAPT

Dr. Jeff Duchin, chairman of the public health committee of the Infectious Diseases Society of America, said the isolation was not a necessary step. "From a public health perspective, we would not feel that isolation is appropriate," he said.



A mask-wearing man, who refused to give his name, walks past an apartment building where a child was taken the hospital to be tested for Ebola in the Bronx borough of New York October 27, 2014. REUTERS/Carlo Allegri


The decision goes well beyond established military protocols and came as President Barack Obama's administration sought to discourage quarantines being imposed by some U.S. states.

Dr. Thomas Frieden, director of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), called for isolation of people at the highest risk for Ebola infection but said most returning medical workers would require monitoring without isolation.

"At CDC, we base our decisions on science and experience ... And as the science and experience changes, we adopt and adapt our guidelines and recommendations," Frieden said.

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.

Adam Kamradt-Scott, of the University of Sydney's Marie Bashir Institute for Infectious Diseases and Biosecurity, said the travel ban would do nothing to protect the country from Ebola while potentially having a negative public health impact by creating a climate of panic.

Medical professionals say Ebola is difficult to catch. It is spread through direct contact with bodily fluids from an infected person and not transmitted by asymptomatic people.

(Writing by Jeremy Laurence and Robin Pomeroy; Editing by Peter Graff)


http://news.yahoo.com/u-isolates-troops-australia-slaps-visa-ban-ebola-041640921.html

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Ebola nurse on defensive gets call from Obama
Associated Press
By RAY HENRY  1 hour ago



Amber Vinson, a Dallas nurse infected with the deadly Ebola virus, heads home after being treated in Atlanta. Meanwhile, the Pentagon is considering new military-wide Ebola policy. (Oct. 28)



ATLANTA (AP) — A nurse who fueled Ebola fears by flying to Cleveland after being infected by her dying patient was released Tuesday from a hospital isolation unit, where doctors defended her as a courageous front-line caregiver.

Another nurse, held for days in a medical tent in New Jersey after volunteering in West Africa, was in an undisclosed location in Maine, objecting to quarantine rules as overly restrictive.

While world leaders appeal for more doctors and nurses on the front lines of the Ebola epidemic, health care workers in the United States are finding themselves on the defensive.

Lawyers now represent both Amber Vinson, who contracted the virus while caring for a Liberian visitor to Texas, and Kaci Hickox, who is challenging the mandatory quarantines some states are imposing on anyone who came into contact with Ebola victims.

The virus is still spreading faster than the response, killing nearly half of the more than 10,000 people it has infected in West Africa.

World Bank President Jim Yong Kim said Tuesday that at least 5,000 more health workers are urgently needed in Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea. U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, traveling with him in Africa, said mandatory quarantines for health care workers, Ebola-related travel restrictions and border closings are not the answer.



Amber Vinson, a nurse who fueled Ebola fears by flying to Cleveland after being infected by her dying patient in Dallas, is now virus-free, and was celebrated Tuesday by her caregivers as courageous and passionate before leaving the hospital. (Oct. 28)


The Pentagon announced Tuesday that the Joint Chiefs of Staff recommended to Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel that he require all U.S. troops returning from Ebola-fighting missions in West Africa to be kept in supervised isolation for 21 days. Balancing that and similar quarantines announced by several state governors, President Barack Obama said the Ebola response needs to be "based on science."

"We've got to make sure that those workers who are willing and able and dedicated to go over there in a really tough job, that they're applauded, thanked and supported. That should be our priority. And we can make sure that when they come back they are being monitored in a prudent fashion," Obama said after calling Vinson from the White House.

Vinson's trip home to join her bridesmaids for wedding preparations was one of several moves by doctors and nurses that could have exposed others in the United States. In Ohio alone, 163 people were still being monitored Tuesday because of contact or potential contact with Vinson in a bridal shop and on the airplanes she used. Vinson arrived in Dallas on Tuesday evening, after tests showed she is now free of the virus.

New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie said voluntary stay-at-home measures were obviously insufficient, since even doctors and nurses had moved around in public before getting sick. He was among the first to announce mandatory 21-day quarantines for anyone who had contact with possibly infected people.

Vinson, 29, was infected while caring for Thomas Eric Duncan, who died at Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital Dallas on Oct. 8. She inserted catheters, drew blood, and dealt with Duncan's body fluids, all while wearing protective gear.



As the CDC Ebola guidelines evolve and states enact mandatory quarantines in the name of public safety, experts say health care workers may think twice about volunteering to help stop the deadly virus. (Oct. 28)


Dr. Bruce Ribner, an infectious disease expert who oversaw Vinson's recovery at Emory University Hospital, said her doctors in Atlanta don't know how she got infected in Dallas. He released no details about her treatment and wouldn't say whether certain drugs are proving more effective. "The honest answer is we're not exactly sure," he said.

But Emory University Hospital spokeswoman Holly Korschun later confirmed that Vinson received blood plasma from Ebola survivor Kent Brantly, and said Ebola survivor Nancy Writebol also donated her plasma, but it wasn't ultimately needed.

Ebola is only contagious when people who carry the virus get sick, and Vinson didn't show symptoms before flying to Ohio on Oct. 10. She reported her temperature to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, as required, on Oct. 13, and was cleared to fly back to Dallas. The next day, she developed a temperature, and on Oct. 15, she tested positive for Ebola.

Another nurse, Nina Pham, also was infected by Duncan, and was released Oct. 24 from the National Institutes of Health.

Vinson didn't take any questions at Emory. Instead she read a statement thanking God, her relatives and her doctors, appealed for privacy as she returns home to Texas, and asked "that we not lose focus on the thousands of families who labor under the burden of this disease in West Africa."



Amber Vinson, 29, the Dallas nurse who was being treated for Ebola, right, embraces Emory University Hospital epidemiologist Dr. Bruce Ribner, as she leaves a press conference after being discharged from the hospital, Tuesday, Oct. 28, 2014, in Atlanta. Vinson worked as a nurse at Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital Dallas and cared for Thomas Eric Duncan, a Liberian man who died of Ebola at the hospital on Oct. 8. Vinson was one of two nurses who became infected while caring for Duncan. (AP Photo/David Goldman)


Hickox, the Doctors Without Borders volunteer, was staying meanwhile in an "undisclosed location," said Steve Hyman, one of her lawyers. Maine health officials announced she will be quarantined at home for 21 days after the last possible exposure to the disease, following the state's health protocols.

But Hyman said he expected her to remain in seclusion for the "next day or so" while he discusses her situation with Maine health officials. Hyman said the state should follow the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention guidelines, which require only monitoring, not quarantine, for health care workers who show no symptoms after treating Ebola patients.

"She's a very good person who did very good work and deserves to be honored, not detained, for it," he said.

___

Contributors include Associated Press writers Elias Meseret in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia; Jeff Martin in Atlanta; Robert F. Bukaty in Fort Kent, Maine; and David Sharp in Portland, Maine.


http://news.yahoo.com/nurse-had-ebola-being-released-hospital-171605050.html

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Patient Zero in Ebola outbreak was Guinean toddler
Associated Press
By MARIA CHENG  3 hours ago



LONDON (AP) — In the Guinean village where the current West African Ebola outbreak began, 14 graves mark the spot where the lethal virus began to spiral out of control.

International aid workers who recently visited Meliandou say nothing is normal anymore and that families have been ripped apart by the devastating toll of the virus.

The first known victim of the current outbreak was 2-year-old Emile Ouamouno, who lived in the picturesque forest village with his parents and three sisters, including 4-year-old Philomene. The boy fell sick last December with a mysterious illness that caused fever, black stools and vomiting. About a week after his death, Philomene got sick and died. She was shortly followed by the children's pregnant mother and grandmother.

It would be months before international health officials identified little Emile as West Africa's "patient zero" in a deadly outbreak that continues to double in size every few weeks. So far, Ebola has been blamed for the deaths of nearly 5,000 people among more than 10,000 cases, the vast majority in West Africa.

"Emile loved to dance and Philomene liked to carry little babies on her back and pretend she was a mom," said Suzanne Beukes of UNICEF, who spoke with their father Etienne during her trip earlier this month to Meliandou, a village without any health facility, more than a two-hour drive from the capital, Conakry.

Etienne burned the clothing and blankets of his two children killed by Ebola, but kept the small red radio that Emile often asked him to switch on so he could dance to the music.

The bodies of Emile, Philomene and their mother are buried next to the two-room house where Etienne lives with his second wife and three daughters.

"When we asked him what Emile was like, his face changed," Beukes said. "It's almost like a mask had been removed and the trauma of what he had been through became very visible."

Beukes said Ebola has killed at least 14 people in the settlement of about 500, though health officials say the actual case count is probably two to four times higher than official numbers.

Visiting Meliandou with colleagues as part of a project to assess Ebola's impact on children and the region, Beukes saw that the village was dotted with graves of Ebola victims. People initially buried the dead next to their homes so they could be close to the spirits of the deceased.

Like other farmers in the village, Beukes said Etienne now struggles to sell his produce since outsiders fear they could be contaminated with Ebola.

Etienne continues to work. Others in the village complain they are poorer now than they were before Ebola struck, Beukes said.

"He said it's the only thing he can do now," Beukes said. "He has to go back into the fields and carry on digging so he can take care of his children."
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Online:
www.unicef.org
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http://news.yahoo.com/patient-zero-ebola-outbreak-guinean-toddler-195302684.html

[Buster's Uncle]

Aid workers see hope as Ebola body count drops in Liberia
AFP
By Zoom Dosso  3 hours ago



A body bag containing a person suspected of dying from the Ebola virus is collected and put on the back of a truck in Monrovia, on October 4, 2014 (AFP Photo/Pascal Guyot)



Monrovia (AFP) - The Red Cross offered hope Tuesday of a turning point in the battle against the deadly west African Ebola outbreak, saying it had seen a dramatic drop in bodies collected in Liberia's capital.

The aid group announced its workers were now picking up little over a third of the late September peak of more than 300 bodies a week in and around Monrovia -- an indication, it said, that the outbreak was retreating.

The announcement appears at odds with the assessment of UN chief Ban Ki-moon, who warned Tuesday at a crisis meeting in Ethiopia that the spread of the virus continued to outpace the response, while the head of the World Bank appealed for thousands more medics.

The Red Cross comments came a week after the World Health Organization (WHO) concluded in an update on the crisis that transmission "remains intense" in the capitals of Liberia and neighbouring Guinea and Sierra Leone.

Fayah Tamba, head of the Liberian Red Cross, said his workers collected 117 bodies last week from Montserrado county, which includes Monrovia, noting a steady decline from the high of 315 from September 15 to 21.

"I am sure you don't need a rocket scientist to tell you that the cases are dropping," he told private radio station Sky FM.

The Ebola outbreak has left almost 5,000 dead, nearly all in west Africa. It has led to cancelled flights, border closures and a firestorm of criticism in the United States over its treatment of returning health workers.



Health workers wearing personal protective equipment stand outside an Ebola treatment center run by the non-governmental international organization Medecins Sans Frontieres in Monrovia, on October 27, 2014 (AFP Photo/Zoom Dosso)


Another country in west Africa, Mali, is scrambling to prevent a full-blown outbreak after a two-year-old girl died from an Ebola infection following a 1,000-kilometre (600-mile) bus ride from Guinea.


- 'Global crisis' -

Liberia has been hit worst, with 4,665 recorded cases of infection and 2,705 deaths, according to the WHO, relying on figures however which are now 10 days out-of-date.

Ban told reporters in Addis Ababa he was planning to visit Liberia and its stricken neighbours at an "opportune" time. He urged the international community to send more medical teams to fight the epidemic.

"Transmission of the virus continues to outpace the response effort of the international community," he said after a meeting of the heads of the UN, African Union and the World Bank in the Ethiopian capital.

Ban, who on Monday had criticised the enforced quarantine in the United States of an American nurse who had returned from Sierra Leone, said the only way to stop the epidemic was "at its source".



UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon speaks during a press conference on the Ebola virus at the African Union in Addis Ababa on October 28, 2014 (AFP Photo/Zacharias Abubeker)


"The longer the epidemic rages, the greater the risk of spread to other countries. Mali is the latest example in this regard," he added.

World Bank chief Jim Yong Kim echoed the warning in an apparent swipe at developed countries which have not sent medical teams to the region, saying Ebola was "not an African crisis... it is a global crisis".

"We'll need a steady state of at least 5,000 health workers from outside the region... those health workers cannot work continuously -- there needs to be a rotation," he told reporters.

Kim said medics should remember their vocation and their professional oath to save lives, and not shy away from going to a problem area.

"Right now, I'm very much worried about where we will find those health workers," he said.

Shortly after Kim's plea, France pledged 20 million euros ($25.4 million) to fight Ebola, including opening several care centres in Guinea.


- American solidarity -

Ebola can fell its victims within days, causing severe fever and muscle pain, weakness, vomiting and diarrhoea. In many cases it shuts down organs and causes unstoppable bleeding.

The tropical virus is spread though close contact with the sweat, vomit, blood or other bodily fluids of an infected person. No widely-available medicine or vaccine exists.

Samantha Power, the US ambassador to the UN, travelled from Sierra Leone to Liberia on Tuesday for the third leg of a tour of the three worst-hit nations aimed at garnering global support for the Ebola response.

"My main message is that we will beat Ebola," Power said after meeting Liberian President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf.

"America will work with Liberia to end the stigma on the country," she said. "We got our forces on the ground, we have our military and experts...to contain the virus."

In America meanwhile, a Texas nurse who was the second US healthcare worker infected with Ebola while caring for a deceased Liberian patient left hospital after being declared cured of the virus.


http://news.yahoo.com/huge-drop-ebola-bodies-across-liberian-capital-red-164633510.html