Ebola news 11/30

[Buster's Uncle]

Surgeon who died of Ebola eulogized at Maryland service
Reuters
By Tom Ramstack  17 hours ago



Martin Salia is pictured in this handout photo taken February 2013 and provided by the United Brethren (UB). REUTERS/Jeff Bleijerveld, director of Global Ministries/UBCentral.org/Handout



LANDOVER HILLS, Md. (Reuters) - Martin Salia, a surgeon from Sierra Leone who died in a Nebraska hospital earlier this month after contracting Ebola in his homeland, was remembered as a humanitarian and a hero at his funeral in Maryland on Saturday.

The 44-year-old doctor was born and raised in Sierra Leone and lived as a permanent resident of the United States with his wife and two sons in New Carrollton, Maryland, outside of Washington, D.C.

He returned to Sierra Leone in August to help treat victims of Ebola, a deadly virus that has killed at least 5,689 people, mainly in West Africa in its latest outbreak.

"By dedicating himself to promoting the health of others, Martin reflected the essential American belief that we have obligations to one another," President Barack Obama said in a statement read by a White House representative during the services at a Roman Catholic church in Landover Hills.

Salia was the second person to die in the United States while being treated for Ebola. Several others have survived after aggressive treatment at hospitals in Nebraska, Atlanta, New York and Maryland.



Isatu Salia, (C), the wife of the Sierra Leone-born physician who died of Ebola, carries the urn with his cremated ashes along with her sons, Maada Martin (R) and Hinwaii Sakatty as they join he funeral procession at Faith Community of St. Mary Church, in Landover Hills, Maryland, November 29, 2014. REUTERS/Mike Theiler


Salia's treatment was delayed when his first two tests for Ebola falsely showed no presence of the virus in his blood. A third test came back positive.

By the time the doctor arrived at Omaha's Nebraska Medical Center on a specially equipped airplane arranged by the U.S. State Department, two weeks had elapsed since he contracted Ebola.

The medical staff reported his kidneys were failing and his breathing labored. The blood transfusions and experimental drugs they gave him were too late to save him. He died Nov. 17 and was cremated.

"The greatest heroes are the people who choose to face danger," Ron Klain, the White House's Ebola Response Coordinator, said as he eulogized Salia. "We need more people like Martin Salia."

Earlier this week, the World Health Organization said Ebola deaths in Sierra Leone were rising even while the disease is being brought under control in neighboring countries of Liberia and Guinea.

Bockari Stevens, Sierra Leone's ambassador to the United States, called for more international aid to help his country control the epidemic.

"We are losing too many people," he said at the funeral.

(Editing by Frank McGurty and Lisa Shumaker)


http://news.yahoo.com/surgeon-died-ebola-eulogized-maryland-222448779.html

[Buster's Uncle]

WHO will miss Ebola targets it set for Dec 1
Associated Press
By MARIA CHENG  57 minutes ago



In this photo taken on Friday, Nov. 28, 2014, health workers wearing Ebola protective gear spray the shrouded body of a man with disinfectant as they suspect he died from the Ebola virus, at a USAID, American aid Ebola treatment center at Tubmanburg on the outskirts of Monrovia, Liberia. Two months ago, the World Health Organization launched an ambitious plan to stop the deadly Ebola outbreak in West Africa, by isolating 70 percent of Ebola sick by December 1, 2014, but on Sunday Nov. 30, 2014, it seems that WHO will miss their own target by a wide margin and without any indication of when they may reach that goal. Head of the U.N.’s Ebola response Anthony Banbury, says “There are still going to be many people who catch the disease and many people who die from it”. (AP Photo/ Abbas Dulleh)



LONDON (AP) — Two months ago, the World Health Organization launched an ambitious plan to stop the deadly Ebola outbreak in West Africa, aiming to isolate 70 percent of the sick and safely Ebola 70 percent of the victims in the three hardest-hit countries — Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone — by December 1.

Only Guinea is on track to meet the December 1 goal, according to an update from WHO.

In Liberia, only 23 percent of cases are isolated and 26 percent of the needed burial teams are in place. In Sierra Leone, about 40 percent of cases are isolated while 27 percent of burial teams are operational.

With the target date looming on Monday, it looks almost certain WHO's goals will be missed, marking another failure in attempts to slow the biggest-ever outbreak of the deadly disease. The Ebola outbreak was first reported in Guinea in March and spiraled out of control after being declared a public health emergency in August.

WHO's Dr. Bruce Aylward acknowledged in October that to reach the December 1 goal would be "really pushing the system hard."

"If we don't do it in 60 days and we take 90 days: No. 1, a lot more people will die that shouldn't; and No. 2, we will need that much more capacity on the ground to be able to manage the caseload," said Aylward, who is directing WHO's Ebola response.



In this photo taken on Friday, Nov. 28, 2014, health workers wearing Ebola protective gear remove the body of a man they suspect died from the Ebola virus, at a USAID, American aid Ebola treatment center at Tubmanburg on the outskirts of Monrovia, Liberia. Two months ago, the World Health Organization launched an ambitious plan to stop the deadly Ebola outbreak in West Africa, by isolating 70 percent of Ebola sick by December 1, 2014, but on Sunday Nov. 30, 2014, it seems that WHO will miss their own target by a wide margin and without any indication of when they may reach that goal. Head of the U.N.’s Ebola response Anthony Banbury, says “There are still going to be many people who catch the disease and many people who die from it”. (AP Photo/ Abbas Dulleh)


In recent weeks, there have been some successes in curbing Ebola; cases seem to be declining or stabilizing in Liberia and Guinea. But the area around Sierra Leone's capital and a district in the country's north are seeing a severe surge in cases.

The December 1 targets had been met in many places — but not all, which was the goal, said Anthony Banbury, who is heading the U.N.'s Ebola response.

"There are still going to be many people who catch the disease and many people who die from it," Banbury said.

Even if the December 1 targets had been reached, WHO and others had predicted Ebola would continue sickening people in West Africa and possibly elsewhere until sometime next year. As of November 26, WHO said there were nearly 16,000 cases of Ebola and 5,600 deaths, including all confirmed, suspect and probable cases.

Failing to reach the December 1 target now suggests Ebola will spread even further as capacities to respond become even more stretched, according to Oyewale Tomori, of Redeemer's University in Nigeria, who sits on WHO's Emergency Ebola committee.

"We need to redouble our efforts to see what we can do to reduce the spread and catch up with the virus," he said. "Right now, it doesn't look good."

Other experts said the WHO goals were never very significant.

"You want to isolate 100 percent of patients with Ebola and have 100 percent safe burials," said Sebastian Funk, director of the Centre for the Mathematical Modelling of Infectious Diseases at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. "Getting to 70 percent doesn't really mean a lot."

The ultimate goal of WHO's plan is to isolate all Ebola patients and provide safe burials for all by January 1.

"We hope that what we're seeing in Liberia will continue, but unfortunately what can happen with Ebola is that it can go to new countries, as it has already to Mali," warned Dr. David Heymann, an Ebola expert who previously worked for the World Health Organization. "The most dangerous thing would be if people now think Ebola is over and become complacent," he said. Earlier this month, the U.S. announced it was scaling back the size and number of Ebola clinics it had initially promised to build in Liberia, citing a drop in cases.

The U.N.'s Banbury said the critical gap in those locations were new beds and that ending Ebola would be a long, hard fight: "We're by no means out of the woods yet, but we're headed in the right direction."

___

Associated Press Writer Sarah DiLorenzo in Dakar, Senegal contributed to this report.


http://news.yahoo.com/miss-ebola-targets-set-dec-1-141828256.html

[Buster's Uncle]

Doctor who died of Ebola hailed as hero
Associated Press
By BEN NUCKOLS  16 hours ago



In this April 2014, file photo, provided by the United Methodist News Service, Dr. Martin Salia poses for a photo at the United Methodist Church's Kissy Hospital outside Freetown, Sierra Leone. Salia, who died of Ebola after treating patients in his native Sierra Leone, will be remembered in the suburbs of Washington, where his family lives. Forty-four-year-old Salia died earlier this month at the University of Nebraska Medical Center in Omaha. His body was cremated. A funeral Mass will be held Saturday, Nov. 29, at his family’s parish in Landover Hills, Md. Salia is survived by his wife and two sons. (AP Photo/United Methodist News Service, Mike DuBose, File)



LANDOVER HILLS, Md. (AP) — Dr. Martin Salia didn't get into the medical profession to get rich, and even though he was a permanent U.S. resident, he chose to work in his native Sierra Leone because the need for surgeons there was so great.

Although his medical colleagues were worried when he returned there to treat Ebola patients, they said the decision was consistent with his character.

The 44-year-old surgeon was remembered Saturday at his funeral Mass as a tireless, selfless and heroic advocate for medical care for the less fortunate. Salia died of Ebola on Nov. 17 after being flown to a hospital in Omaha, Nebraska, in the advanced stages of the deadly virus. He became the second person to die in the United States after contracting Ebola in West Africa, where it has killed nearly 7,000 people.

Ron Klain, the White House Ebola response coordinator, read a personal note of condolence from President Barack Obama to Salia's family.

"The greatest heroes are people who choose to face danger, who voluntarily put themselves at risk to help others," Klain said. "Martin Salia was such a man."

The 90-minute Mass at the home parish of Salia's family in Maryland drew a crowd that swelled to the hundreds. Relatives, friends, colleagues and dignitaries from both the U.S. and Sierra Leone were in attendance, along with Sierra Leonean immigrants from around the country, some of whom said they didn't know Salia personally.



Isatu Salia, center, carriers the cremated remains of her husband, Dr. Martin Salia, while their sons Maada Martin Salia, 20, right, and Hinwaii Sakatty Salia, 12, walk with her to enter St. Mary's Church in Landover Hills, Md., Saturday, Nov. 29, 2014, during the funeral mass for Dr. Martin Salia. Salia died of Ebola earlier this month at the University of Nebraska Medical Center in Omaha after treating patients in his native Sierra Leone. (AP Photo/Cliff Owen)


Salia's wife, Isatu Salia, wept as she carried a small black box containing her husband's cremated remains into the church, flanked by the couple's sons, 20-year-old Maada and 14-year-old Hinwaii.

Bockari Stevens, the Sierra Leonean ambassador to the United States, called Salia a national hero who abandoned "the luxuries of the United States" to aid his homeland.

"It is a loss not only to your family. It is a loss to our country," Stevens said.

Stevens called for the United States to do more to "ensure that this scourge is blighted" in Sierra Leone, which is now bearing the brunt of the 8-month-old outbreak, and the other West African nations stricken by Ebola. Klain pledged that more aid was on the way.

"The world's response has been too late, but now, help is coming," he said to applause.



Isatu Salia, center, carriers the cremated remains of her husband, Dr. Martin Salia, while their sons Maada Martin Salia, 20, right, and Hinwaii Sakatty Salia, 12, walk with her to enter St. Mary's Church in Landover Hills, Md., Saturday, Nov. 29, 2014, during the funeral mass for Dr. Martin Salia. Salia died of Ebola earlier this month at the University of Nebraska Medical Center in Omaha after treating patients in his native Sierra Leone. (AP Photo/Cliff Owen)


The top United Nations official in the fight against the disease said Saturday in an interview with The Associated Press that Sierra Leone will soon see a dramatic increase in Ebola treatment beds, but it's not clear who will staff them. Only about a quarter of a promised 1,200 treatment beds are up and running. The nation is also dogged by unsafe burials, which may account for up to 50 percent of all new cases, said Anthony Banbury, head of the U.N. Mission for Ebola Emergency Response.

Salia was born and raised in Kenema, Sierra Leone, and received his medical training in Freetown, the country's capital. He later served as a surgical resident in Cameroon and also worked in Kenya and the United States. His dream had been to open his own hospital in Sierra Leone, colleagues said.

Salia did not receive aggressive treatment for Ebola until nearly two weeks after he first started showing symptoms. His formal diagnosis was delayed, and it took several days for him to be flown back to the United States. Those delays, doctors said, probably made it impossible for anyone to save his life.

Dr. Marilee Cole, an international health consultant who ran a Georgetown University training program in Cameroon, remembered Salia as an unusually humble physician. The diminutive, wiry surgeon was always in motion, she said, and despite his work ethic, he managed to organize a soccer league for the hospital staff. After he completed his residency and began training other doctors, they were awed by his multitude of skills, she said.

"You never knew how hard he was working until you talked to your colleagues," Cole said. "Over the course of many years, I came to understand there was something special about him."



Isatu Salia, second from left, carries the cremated remains of her husband, Dr. Martin Salia, while their sons Maada Martin Salia, 20, third from left, and Hinwaii Sakatty Salia, 12, left, walk with her to enter St. Mary's Catholic Church in Landover Hills, Md., Saturday, Nov. 29, 2014, during the funeral mass for Dr. Martin Salia. Salia died of Ebola earlier this month at the University of Nebraska Medical Center in Omaha after treating patients in his native Sierra Leone. (AP Photo/Cliff Owen)


In a brief interview after the Mass, Salia's older son said he was heartened by the esteem in which others held his father.

"I'm really proud that he was able to do so many things for a lot of people," Maada Salia said.

___

Associated Press writer Sarah DiLorenzo in Dakar, Senegal, contributed to this report.

___


http://news.yahoo.com/funeral-md-set-surgeon-died-ebola-080210052.html

[Buster's Uncle]

Death toll from Ebola outbreak nears 7,000 in West Africa -WHO
Reuters  8 hours ago



Ebola health care workers carry the body of a middle aged man that they suspected of dying from the Ebola, on the outskirts of Monrovia, Liberia, Saturday, Nov. 8, 2014. Dr. Robert Fuller didn't hesitate to go to Indonesia to treat survivors of the 2004 tsunami, to Haiti to help after the 2010 earthquake or to the Philippines after a devastating typhoon last year. But he's given up on going to West Africa to care for Ebola patients this winter. (AP Photo/ Abbas Dulleh)



DAKAR (Reuters) - The death toll from the worst Ebola outbreak on record has reached nearly 7,000 in West Africa, the World Health Organization said on Saturday.

The toll of 6,928 dead showed a leap of just over 1,200 since the WHO released its previous report on Wednesday.

The U.N. health agency did not provide any explanation for the abrupt increase, but the figures, published on its website, appeared to include previously unreported deaths.

A WHO spokesperson was not immediately available for comment.

Just over 16,000 people have been diagnosed with Ebola since the outbreak was confirmed in the forests of remote southeastern Guinea in March, according to the WHO data that covered the three hardest-hit countries.

Guinea, Sierra Leone and Liberia have accounted for all but 15 of the deaths in the outbreak, which has touched five other countries, according to the previous WHO figures.


http://news.yahoo.com/death-toll-ebola-outbreak-nears-7-000-west-075741330.html