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Sierra Leone's Kailahun: from Ebola hotspot to zero infections
Reuters
By Umaru Fofana  1 hour ago



Volunteers carry bodies in a centre run by Medecins Sans Frontieres for Ebola patients in Kailahun July 18, 2014. REUTERS/WHO/Tarik Jasarevic/Handout via Reuters/Files



FREETOWN (Reuters) - Sierra Leone's Kailahun district has gone from Ebola hotspot with up to 80 infections per week in June to a place with zero new cases in the last three weeks, giving hope to those trying to end the deadly outbreak.

Close to Guinea where the West African epidemic began, Sierra Leone's first case appeared in Kailahun in May before spreading from the east, killing more than 2,700 people and leaving more than 9,000 infected.

The overall pace of infection in the worst-hit country continues to quicken but Kailahun, which had no cases at all as of Dec 29 and just passed 21 days clear of new Ebola cases, offers lessons that can be copied in other districts where the disease is still raging.

"We have been embarking on a robust surveillance system to manage all contacts, as well as effective quarantining of homes of confirmed Ebola cases or deaths," said Kailahun District Medical Officer Dr. James Squire.

He said success in curbing the spread in the district could be attributed to multiple factors including the early establishment of response structures, proper coordination, the involvement of local leaders and strict respect for rules.

The last quarantine on a home was lifted on December 30.

Alex Bonapha, the chairman of the Kailahun District, said the council passed by-laws that made it an offence to wash dead bodies or converge in large numbers and the rules were rigidly followed by everyone.

"We took all sick people to holding or treatment centres whether or not they had Ebola," he said. "We deprived ourselves of many of our pleasures so we would be where we are today and hopefully we have Ebola behind us."


HUNTER TO HUNTED

Like the rest of the country and the West Africa region in general, there was denial, ignorance and lack of information around Ebola when the first cases were reported.

People carried on with traditional practices such as washing the dead and taking part in gatherings and funeral rites, contributing to the spread of the disease which is transmitted through contact with bodily fluids of the sick or deceased.

"There was lots of community resistance. Some areas were not allowing response teams in," said Zabulon Yoti, a WHO team leader who arrived in Kailahun in mid-June when the outbreak was still restricted to the district.

With the support of local leaders, the district Ebola Taskforce recruited, trained and equipped 20 volunteers. Some 300 other volunteers were charged with Ebola contact tracing and alerting response teams on any suspect cases or deaths.

By the beginning of August it began to pay off as the number of confirmed cases started to level off.

"What was really important is that we started to know where transmission chains were located and we were able to link cases to one another," says Dr Yoti in a World Health Organization report.

"From being hunted by the virus at the beginning, we started to hunt it down, cutting each transmission chain we found."

Despite the success in containing the disease in Kailahun a district of 465,000 where 228 people have died from the disease out of 645 cases, Ebola continues to spread Sierra Leone, especially in the capital Freetown and surrounding areas.

The WHO said it is latest report on Wednesday that the virus was still spreading in West Africa, especially in Sierra Leone. The number of known cases globally now exceeds 20,000 and the death toll has risen to over 7,900.

The government has announced plans to step up its fight against the disease with a launch of a major operation to contain it, particularly in the areas around the capital, restricting travel and gatherings over the festive season.

In his New Year's Day speech, Sierra Leone President Ernest Bai Koroma lauded efforts made by Kailahun and also neighbouring Kenema where infection rates have also been on the decline.

However, the head of mission for medical charity Medecins Sans Frontiere Adam Childs urged caution even though its Ebola treatment centre in Kailahun has been empty for two weeks.

"We must be careful to call it a success just yet," Childs said. "Certainly the epidemic is not over even though we are relieved at present at the turn of events in Kailahun."


http://news.yahoo.com/sierra-leones-kailahun-ebola-hotspot-zero-infections-144618864--business.html

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Italian Ebola patient released from hospital in Rome
Reuters
By Steve Scherer  4 hours ago



Italian Doctor Fabrizio (C) leaves the Spallanzani hospital in Rome January 2, 2015. Fabrizio, Italy's only Ebola patient is fully recovered and was released from hospital on Friday more than a month after being flown to Rome from Sierra Leone where he worked as a doctor treating others stricken by the disease. REUTERS/Remo Casilli



ROME (Reuters) - Italy's only Ebola patient is fully recovered and was released from hospital on Friday more than a month after being flown to Rome from Sierra Leone where he worked as a doctor treating others stricken by the disease.

The 50-year-old Sicilian man has been identified only by his first name, Fabrizio. He contracted the hemorrhagic virus while working for humanitarian group Emergency during the worst Ebola outbreak on record.

"For the first few days, partly to keep my mind active, I tried to examine every symptom I was experiencing scientifically," Fabrizio told reporters in his first public appearance since contracting the disease.

"Then there came a moment when I lost consciousness of what was going on around me and I don't remember anything that happened for about two weeks," he said, thanking those who cared for him during his illness.

He said that after he regains his strength he may return to Sierra Leone to continue treating Ebola patients. Ebola survivors are generally believed to be immune to future infection from the strain that made them sick.

His blood, which contains antibodies that fight the virus, will be sent to Sierra Leone to help in treatment, a doctor who treated Fabrizio at the Lazzaro Spallanzani hospital said.

The virus is still spreading in West Africa, especially in Sierra Leone, and the number of known cases globally has exceeded 20,000, with 7,905 dead, the World Health Organization (WHO) said on Wednesday.

After his arrival in Rome on Nov. 25, the patient's condition worsened and he was moved to intensive care on Dec. 5, where he received respiratory assistance.

He was treated with a combination of an experimental drug never used before in Italy, and plasma taken from survivors of the disease.

(Writing by Steve Scherer; Editing by Toby Chopra)


http://news.yahoo.com/italian-ebola-patient-released-hospital-rome-131542343.html

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Ebola battle far from over: UN mission chief
AFP  3 hours ago



Accra (AFP) - West Africa still has a long way to go to beat Ebola, the United Nations' outgoing Ebola mission chief said Friday.

"I think the response has been successful but we have a long way to go," Anthony Banbury, head of the UN Mission for Ebola Emergency Response (UNMEER) said, warning of an "epic battle" still ahead to control the spread of the virus.

At a press conference in Ghana on the eve of his departure for New York, Banbury said he was confident that the number of Ebola cases would start to fall in the early part of 2015.

"But two cases here and three there presents a grave threat to any community or country," he said, urging the world not to turn its attention from the outbreak until it was completely over.

The latest figures from the World Health Organization, which were published Wednesday, put the death toll from Ebola in the three worst-affected countries -- Sierra Leone, Liberia and Guinea -- at 7,890 out of 20,171 cases.

Banbury, who is American, leaves west Africa this weekend to take up a new UN position.

The American will be succeeded by Ismail Ould Cheikh Ahmed, a Mauritanian diplomat who has held various top UN development posts.

UNMEER is leading international efforts to beat back the deadliest Ebola outbreak in history.

It is based in Accra, Ghana.


http://news.yahoo.com/ebola-battle-far-over-un-mission-chief-201230241.html

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FDA allows testing of Aethlon device in Ebola patients
Reuters  11 hours ago



Jan 2 (Reuters) - Aethlon Medical Inc said the U.S. Food and Drug Administration had approved the testing in Ebola patients of its bio-filtration device, which was used against the deadly virus in a critically ill patient in Germany who later recovered.

The device, being developed as a broad-spectrum countermeasure against pandemic threats, filters viruses and toxins from the blood.

It is currently being tested in India for its ability to accelerate viral load depletion when used in combination with hepatitis C standard-of-care drug therapy.

Patients will be treated for six to eight hours daily with the device, called Aethlon's Hemopurifier, until the Ebola viral load drops below 1,000 copies/ml.

Aethlon said on Friday that the FDA's approval allows for an Ebola study to be conducted in up to 20 infected subjects in the United States.

Treatment with the company's device in the acutely-ill patient at Frankfurt University Hospital in Germany reduced the patient's viral load to 1,000 copies/ml from 400,000 following a 6.5 hours of therapy, Aethlon said.

San Diego-based Aethlon's shares closed at about 26 cents in the over-the-counter market on Wednesday.

The largest Ebola outbreak on record has killed at least 7,905 people so far.

(Reporting by Natalie Grover in Bengaluru; Editing by Sriraj Kalluvila and Ted Kerr)


http://news.yahoo.com/fda-allows-testing-aethlon-device-134130665.html

[Buster's Uncle]

Ebola fight remains tough but may be won this year: U.N. mission chief
Reuters  7 hours ago



Volunteers carry bodies in a centre run by Medecins Sans Frontieres for Ebola patients in Kailahun July 18, 2014. REUTERS/WHO/Tarik Jasarevic/Handout via Reuters/Files



ACCRA (Reuters) - The world can stamp out the Ebola outbreak in West Africa by the end of the year but months of tough work remain, the outgoing chief of the United Nations' anti-Ebola mission said on Friday.

The outbreak, first identified in Guinea's remote southeast in early 2014, has struck six West African nations, with Guinea, Sierra Leone and Liberia bearing the brunt of the 20,000 infections and nearly 8,000 dead.

Faced with criticism the world was not doing enough, U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon set up the U.N. Ebola Emergency Response (UNMEER) mission in September to coordinate global efforts.

"We have not come anywhere close to ending the crisis. We’ve done a lot in 90 days in a very successful response but we have a long and difficult way to go," Anthony Banbury told reporters in Accra, where the U.N. mission is based.

"It's going to go on for not just weeks but some months more. But I believe we will do it in 2015 and we’re going to do it by working very closely not just with governments of the countries but the communities," he said.

Banbury will be replaced by veteran humanitarian official Ould Cheikh Ahmed of Mauritania on Saturday.

A spike of cases in Sierra Leone meant UNMEER missed its target of ensuring that by early December 70 percent of all Ebola patients were being treated in isolation units and 70 percent of all those who died from Ebola were buried properly.

Banbury said there were now enough functioning treatment centers in the region.

The target of 100 percent safe burials by end of January 2015 was on track now that there were some 254 safe burial teams operating in the affected countries.

Six other countries, including Nigeria, Senegal, Mali, the United States, Spain and Britain, have reported cases imported from the worst affected countries.

Last week, a nurse was diagnosed with the virus in Britain upon her return from Sierra Leone. She is being treated with blood plasma from a survivor of the virus and an experimental antiviral drug, according to the London hospital treating her.

(Reporting by Kwasi Kpodo; Editing by David Lewis and Robin Pomeroy)


http://news.yahoo.com/ebola-fight-remains-tough-may-won-u-n-173216740.html

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Ebola: Nurse Pauline Cafferkey 'as well as hoped for'
BBC News  1 January 2015 Last updated at 05:46 ET



Pauline Cafferkey Pauline Cafferkey is an associate public health nurse at Blantyre Health Centre, South Lanarkshire



A British nurse who contracted Ebola in Sierra Leone is "as well as we can hope for at this stage", the hospital treating her has said.

Pauline Cafferkey is receiving an experimental anti-viral drug and blood from survivors of the disease at the Royal Free Hospital in Hampstead.

A spokeswoman said there had been no significant change in her condition.

Meanwhile, Public Health England said it had spoken to 85 passengers who travelled with Ms Cafferkey.

Attempts to trace those who were on both her flights from Casablanca to Heathrow and Heathrow to Glasgow are continuing.

On Wednesday, the doctor treating Ms Cafferkey - a public health nurse at Blantyre Health Centre in South Lanarkshire - said she was in isolation and was sitting up in bed, talking and reading.

As the disease has no known cure and is unpredictable, Dr Jacobs said they would know more in a week's time.

He said Ms Cafferkey had agreed to all the treatments and her family had been to see her.

"She's a nurse, a fellow professional, so we have been able to discuss things in great detail," he said.

Dr Michael Jacobs, infectious diseases specialist, confirmed Ms Cafferkey was receiving plasma and an unnamed experimental drug

Ms Cafferkey is receiving treatment via a quarantine tent after returning to Glasgow from Sierra Leone on Sunday.

She was working in the West African country as part of a Save the Children team. She travelled home via Casablanca, Morocco, and London's Heathrow Airport.

Ms Cafferkey was screened for the disease at Heathrow and told officials she believed a fever might be developing.

Her temperature was taken seven times in total and was normal each time, so she was allowed to fly home to Scotland.

She was placed in an isolation unit at Gartnavel Hospital in Glasgow after becoming feverish on Monday.

Ms Cafferkey was transferred by RAF Hercules plane to London and on to the Royal Free's specialist treatment centre on Tuesday.





Ms Cafferkey had travelled from Freetown in Sierra Leone via Casablanca
Ebola is transmitted by direct contact with the bodily fluids of an infected person, such as blood, vomit or faeces.

The virus has killed more than 7,800 people, mostly in West Africa, since it broke out a year ago.

The World Health Organization says the number of people infected by the disease in Sierra Leone, Liberia and Guinea has now passed 20,000.


Temperature screening

A normal body temperature is considered 37C
A raised temperature is one sign of Ebola and forms a core part of entry screening
The UK uses a relatively tough 37.5C as the cut off for further testing
Belgium and Australia use a higher threshold of 38C
India uses 38.3C
Spain and the US use 38.6C
Source: The Lancet


Ms Cafferkey is the second UK case of Ebola. Another nurse - William Pooley - recovered from Ebola in September after also being treated at the Royal Free Hospital.

He donated some blood plasma and was treated with the anti-viral drug ZMapp, of which there are no stocks left.

Dr Jacobs said the cases "were quite separate from one another".

"We're starting from the beginning again," he said. "We're treating Pauline absolutely on her own merits."

He said there was "a European pool" of recovered patients' blood plasma and they had identified "the best plasma for her".

It is hoped the antibodies in the plasma will help her immune system fight the disease.


What are the symptoms?



The Ebola virus causes a range of painful and debilitating symptoms
 
The early symptoms are a sudden fever, muscle pain, fatigue, headache and sore throat.

This is followed by vomiting, diarrhoea, a rash and bleeding - both internal and external - which can be seen in the gums, eyes, nose and in the stools.

Patients tend to die from dehydration and multiple organ failure.


http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-30648879